Location: Our RV Lot at Deer Creek RV Golf and Country Club

Dates: May 6 to June 7, 2018

Has it been a month already? Sorry about that. Let’s see what we’ve been doing for the past month. Before that, though, we’ll go ahead and say that as of today (June 7), we are traveling west to visit the grandchildren (and other family members) out in Washington state. We’ll drop a few posts here or there along the way so you can follow along.

Hmm, let’s see. Well, our son David came down to visit for a couple weeks. He arrived on Saturday, May 12 and stayed through Sunday, May 27. He brought his cat, Maui, along. The two of them stayed out in our guest house (though we brought Maui in the trailer during the day or when we would all go out).

Maui

On Sunday, May 13th, we celebrated Mothers’ Day and David’s 30th birthday by heading over to Medieval Times. We had fun watching the show and dinner was good as well. While we had been to Medieval Times before, David had never been, so it was a treat for him.

Cheering on the Black and White Knight

The Parade of Knights

David picked up a military ticket for Disney and we went there on three different occasions. We went to Magic Kingdom one day, Epcot another and Hollywood Studios on a third day. The weather through most of May was dreary and rainy a lot of days, but we managed to go to parks on mostly dry days.

Goofy and David

Malcolm, Minnie Mouse and David

Birthday Guy at Epcot

Trying to keep David from floating away

Malcolm and David also headed over to the Andretti Go Kart racing place. It’s fairly new in town. Before David came down, we bought gift cards at Costco at 1/3 off ($33 for $50 in gift cards), so that helped bring the cost down. They both had fun. There are three different indoor tracks (electric carts). David and Malcolm raced on two of them (the third is for children).

David also helped Malcolm put new coroplast underneath the trailer. The factory covering was sagging and starting to break down due to the hydraulic fluid that had soaked into it from our former hydraulic leak. We actually picked up the new material last summer coming back from out west. Malcolm wanted to get it installed before we left this year on our western journey.

The underside exposed

Malcolm tidied up some loose wiring after removing and discarding the old cover material. David jumped in (or, actually, crawled under) to help install the new material. It was definitely a two person job.

New material laying out to rest

Once all the new material was installed, Malcolm bought some angle steel from Lowe’s and made a few cross braces to keep the new material from sagging too much.

Finished installation

On May 31, we sadly said our goodbyes to our travel cat, Callie. A couple days earlier, she apparently had a stroke or some other type of neurological event. She was continuously wandering around the trailer and bumping into things like she couldn’t see. She also made no response when you would talk to her or call to her.

Malcolm took Callie to the animal hospital. They looked at her and gave her low hopes for any kind of life. We both felt that we would rather have her go peacefully than to be subjected to traveling with us out west. Malcolm held her as she passed from this world. We had her remains cremated. We will miss her, but traveling was taking its toll on her the last year or so.

Rest now, sweet Callie

After David left and Callie passed on, we spent the last few days preparing for our trip out west. We purchased items we would need, took care of doctor follow-up visits, packed things for travel, stored items we weren’t taking and generally got everything ready for departure today, June 7th. We will be on the road for 12 travel days, arriving in Washington on Monday the 18th.

Location: Our RV Lot at Deer Creek RV Golf and Country Club

Dates: Feb. 28 – Mar. 7, 2018

With our company gone and the inside of the guest shed pretty much complete, we turned our attention to the outside. Malcolm pressure-washed the shed and applied primer and paint to the outside. We painted it a light brown (similar to the previous color) with dark brown around the eaves and off-white trim around the windows and door. The door was painted a deep blue.

Paint in progress

Nice, smooth paint (we used an airless sprayer)

Pretty much done

Ready to enjoy

We also painted the inside of the door a dark teal color (looks bluer in this photo).

Inside of door painted

We plan on painting the other shed the same color scheme (except the doors will be the same medium brown as the body of the shed).

Location: Bay Lake Tower, Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida

Dates: Mar. 7 – 9, 2018

We reserved a room at Bay Lake Tower at Disney World for our 32nd wedding anniversary. We left the trailer and drove over to Animal Kingdom park for the day while we awaited check-in time.

At Animal Kingdom

Later in the afternoon, we drove over to Bay Lake Tower to check in. It is adjacent to the Contemporary resort. All of the restaurants and gift shops are in the Contemporary. Bay Lake Tower is pretty much just rooms and suites.

Bay Lake Tower overlooking Bay Lake

Since we got the cheapest room available and at a fairly short notice (we booked in late January), the view wasn’t superb, but it was fine. It was too cool to sit outside on our porch anyway.

Our view if you look to the right from our porch

Still, we had a great time. Dinner on Wednesday evening was at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian resort. We rode the monorail over from the Contemporary and enjoyed a grand buffet. We also got to meet Cinderella, Prince Charming, Lady Tremaine (Cinderella’s stepmother) and Cinderella’s two step-sisters – Anastasia and Drizella.

Artsy evening shot of the Grand Floridian Resort

On Thursday, our anniversary day, we went to Epcot and enjoyed walking around. We had a fast pass for the Frozen ride, but it was not running when our fast pass came around. So, we used it to ride Spaceship Earth on the way back to the hotel. Once back to the room, we changed clothes and rode the monorail over to the Polynesian Resort for our dinner luau. But first, a picture.

We’ve been to the Spirit of Aloha show before and thought it would be a fun way to spend our anniversary evening. Even though it was fairly cool, we were comfortable and the show was great.

We got up on Friday morning, packed our stuff, checked out and dropped our luggage in the car. We walked over to Magic Kingdom for a few hours before heading on home. It was a fun anniversary getaway.

Location: Our RV Lot at Deer Creek RV Golf and Country Club

Dates: Mar. 9 – 10, 2018

Back home, we’re now doing laundry and getting ready for another trip out this coming week to visit our daughter, Elizabeth, and the granddaughters. Our son-in-law is going on a two-week business trip to India and asked if we would consider coming out and keeping the girls company while he was away. How could we say no? We’ll be flying out Thursday morning.

Location: Our RV Lot at Deer Creek RV Golf and Country Club

Dates: Feb. 8 – 27, 2018

When we last left you, we had just poured the concrete leveler in the front section of our outdoor shed. After it had 72 hours to cure, we started in on the finishing touches for the living portion of the building. Malcolm mounted the TV on the wall and finished up the wiring behind it (cable and power). He did this while the floor was ready to walk on, but before it was ready to cover.

TV Mounted and Hooked Up

Once the floor was cured, Malcolm installed the laminate flooring in the main living area. He put down the radiant cushion stuff, then laid down the flooring on top. The entire process took just part of a day.

Radiant floor cushion

Laminate floor complete

With the flooring complete, it was time to install the trim then move everything back into the room. It also meant it was time to head to Ikea to get the fold-out couch/bed we had already decided on as well as a bookshelf.

Couch set up

All decorated up and moved in

As a reminder of how the shed looked about a year ago, here’s the same view back then.

The Starting Point

We also finished decorating up the back portion of the shed. Here is the bathroom side.

Bathroom complete.

With the guest shed complete, Malcolm was able to organize the other shed to provide more area to work on things. We found a nice fold-up workbench at Lowe’s. When folded up, our golf cart will fit in the shed. When the golf cart isn’t stored, the workbench folds down and Malcolm has a place to work on things.

New Workbench

Organized and ready for that next project

Aside from construction work, we also had time to go out for a Valentine’s Day dinner at Ohana Cafe in the Polynesian Resort over at Disney World. Malcolm got a fancy drink in a pineapple and we work our island clothing.

We also gave the new guest quarters a test. Our son, David, and four of his Air Force buddies came down to visit for a long weekend. They arrived Friday afternoon (the 16th) and left on Monday around lunch time. On Saturday, they all drove up the road about an hour to take part in a mock battle using Airsoft guns (shoot plastic pellets).

Enjoying our company

David and one of his friends slept in the trailer (on the recliners) and the other three camped out in the new guest house – one on the couch (not folded out), one on a cot and one on an air mattress.

On Sunday, the guys all piled into a couple vehicles and drove an hour down the road to go to Busch Gardens. It was a nice day and the park was fairly crowded but they had a great time.

The crowd waiting to park at Busch Gardens

This Monday, the 26th, Malcolm joined several other residents of our neighborhood to work on sealing half of our street. They did a great job and were all done by 2:00 PM.

Getting Ready to Start

In Progress

Complete and drying

Someone on Facebook had asked Malcolm why the development didn’t take care of sealing the streets. The reason is that our neighborhood is one of several in the entire resort. We pay monthly fees to our neighborhood and to the resort as a whole. To keep our neighborhood fees down, our residents decided to take care of this item by having the neighborhood purchase the materials and having our residents offer their time to apply it.

Location: Our RV Lot at Deer Creek RV Golf and Country Club

Dates: Jan. 28 – Feb. 7, 2018

More work at home, primarily on the brown shed. As of this writing, the entire back end of the shed is done. Here’s how some of it went. Drywall covered by paneling went in fine. Looks like a lot of gaps and uneven joints in the following picture but, as  you’ll see, things straightened up with various pieces of trim installed.

More paneling and drywall

Once all the paneling was up, Malcolm installed the vinyl plank flooring. We’re very pleased with the combination. The following picture has a pinkish tint to it. The picture above is more in line with the actual colors of the paneling.

Walls and floor, ready for trim.

With walls and lower trim in place, it was time to set the toilet in place. Note that the sewer drop in the floor was already provided – we just put a new flange on it.

Toilet being assembled

The washer and dryer were moved into place once we had the upper trim in place along and on the ceiling. Also note in this picture that the air conditioner is already in place and trimmed out as well as the window being trimmed out.

Considering we bought the washer and dryer used several months ago, we were crossing our fingers that both units worked. We were pleased to find out that they both work fine. Val has already used both to wash and dry one of our quilts. Buying the units used saved us more than $1,000 and closer to $2,000 (we paid $800 for both units and the bases).

Washer and Dryer in place and hooked up

The vanity was the last and most difficult piece of the puzzle. The main reason is that we decided to put the 6 gallon hot water heater inside the cabinet. It made for some creative plumbing challenges. The water heater sits in a drain pan and is fully drained outside through the shed floor (both the drain pan and the safety valve).

Because the water heater sits below the sink drain, we ended up ordering a drain pipe intended for handicapped sinks because it makes an immediate 90 degree bend just under the sink off to the side to go on to a normal p-trap and on out to the drain pipe.

The mirror came with the vanity. The faucet was purchased separately as was the light fixture. Peel and stick vinyl tiles complete the look, serving as a backsplash behind the sink.

Vanity in place and all hooked up.

With the back room all squared away, it was time to move to the front room and finish it. We liked how the self-leveling cement worked in the back of the shed and decided to do the same to the front room. There were a few flexy pieces of flooring up front and we were afraid our vinyl planks might pop apart.

The floor in the back just seems so much more solid and mixing and pouring the cement is pretty easy, so it was more or less a no-brainer. The following picture was taken just after we poured the cement on Tuesday afternoon (yesterday). It is recommended not to put any flooring on it for “2 to 3 days”, so Malcolm will be laying the flooring in there on Saturday. Once it is down, we just need to nail on the floor trim and the front room is essentially complete.

Self-leveling cement in place.

Other than working on the shed, Malcolm has been working for his employer, as well. Of course, we’ve made a couple random trips to Disney properties over the past couple weeks, including a late evening visit to Magic Kingdom and a recent visit to Epcot. Our timing was not the best as it rained on both trips. We still had fun. Here are some pictures.

Fireworks at Magic Kingdom (Belle’s castle in the background)

Herbie the Love Bug as a photo prop

The Magic Kingdom Carousel is the best

Aside from construction, work and Disney visits, we’ve also been enjoying the company of several fellow RV owners that we know. Some live here in our community and others have been coming and going as part of their winter in Florida. We had lunch with several of them today and a pot-luck get-together the other evening with several of them.

We’ve also been enjoying some warm weather as of late. The temperature has moderated to the 78-82 degree range during the day and high 60’s at night. More like spring weather here.

Enjoying our “porch” and firepit