New adventures

When Grandpa Joe passed away, One of the things he left behind, was a motor home. With a fair amount of persuasion, Melanie was able to convince the family that we would give the RV a really good home. I have owned an RV in the past, and agreed that we would put it to good use. We happen to live in area that is surrounded by many beautiful places to camp, within minutes of our home. We have been dieing to go camping for several months now, but we are in the middle of an active El Nino year. What the hell does that mean? It means that the ground is wet and it is often raining. For you die hard outdoorsman types, I know you don't see what the big deal is with a little rain and some mud. Well, add a 2 year old and a couple of teens that can't remember to remove their muddy shoes before they enter a tent or a car,

 and maybe you will start to understand.

A couple weekends ago, I traveled to Central Oregon and picked up the RV. We spent the next few days after I got back, evicting the mice that had taken up residence there. I am relatively certain we found the spot where the all mice huddled together, scared out of their minds and crapped themselves as I made the 9 hour drive back to Santa Rosa. It was pretty nasty. They had set up camp in all the compartments behind the appliances. We found 3 nests where they raised their young, made from insulation and bits of styrofoam, stolen from various places through out the RV. There was absolutely no food in the RV, so the only thing they found to munch on in the motor home, was a bar of soap that grandpa had left in the sink; it was uniformly marked all the way around with mouse teeth scrapes. We never saw any mice, though. We set traps that were never tripped, set out poison that was never touched, but we are still very confident that they have all left the building. Next, we did some intense cleaning, disinfecting, sterilizing, bleaching, and then repeated the process.(For Melanie's mom; please see the hanta virus disclaimer at the end of the blog)  I know that half way through this, Mel and I both started to question if this was worth it. In the mean time, I began to do diagnostics on all the equipment and checking all the electrical to make sure the mice had not damaged any of it. First off, let me just say, that for being an 18 year old RV, there was only 12,600 original miles on it. It runs like a new vehicle. RV's are quirky though, so there is always little things that can, and do, go wrong with them. Fortunately, I have had experience with RV's before, and I am pretty good at finding the problems and fixing them. That coupled with my new found experience of tearing them apart and putting them back together, I am almost an expert.I  found a few items that were broken and some things that were not working, probably from age more than from use. With all systems go, we awoke early sunday morning, memorial day weekend and headed out for an over night trip.  I am not sure who was more excited about the RV; Mel or Apollo. We had a great time and the best part was, when we got home, all we had to do was vacuum and a quick, light cleaning; No tents to dry off and air out, no sleeping bags to wash, no repacking and stowing away in the garage. Thank you Grandpa!!

Okay mom; we went to the CDC website and learned all about Hanta Virus. To sum it up, it only lives 2 to 3 days outside the host, and you can kill it with bleach. Melanie mixed the correct ratio the first time through, and then doubled it the second time...just to be safe! :)