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Post by jbone on Sept 13, 2019 22:39:36 GMT -5
I grew up in NY state and it was a heat wave if it hit 90 in the summer. In '74 I thumbed across the country. May in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona. 90's but truly a dry heat. I got my worst sunburn that time. Sitting with my feet in the creek for a few hours, the sun reflected up onto my back of my thighs and inside of my arms, and even neck and chin. Ears even. Nose was baked to hell. I settled in Dallas in '79. Huge heat wave in '80, over 100 every day for 2 or 3 months. I was riding a 10 speed bike to and from work that year. I found the best route for shade and a drink stop halfway home. Plenty of heat- and cold- in the 18 years after that. Arkansas in '01 and it was a very hot year. And more after that.
This travel trailer is not a 4 season model meaning no extra insulation. We'll burn some propane to keep warm and then use the A/C in warm weather. 2 months after we bought this one the A/C died so our gig $$ on the Florida Panhandle went to a new unit. It's going on 6 years old.
I got pretty much all the painting finished up at least for now. Got a contractor in to do a quote on the counter top and a couple of other things. Paneling next week and wall treatment after that. Next year I'm going to epoxy paint the floors.
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Post by whitefang on Sept 14, 2019 10:15:41 GMT -5
Next year I'm going to epoxy paint the floors. I was considering doing that to the garage floor at one house I used to live, and the basement floor here. But the $$$ involved kept it from happening. You must either have a good "connection" with some supplier, or are doing much better than we're led to believe. When they built the new Northstar engine assembly wing at the GM powertrain plant at which I worked, they covered the assembly floors with that. Not only did it look good, it STILL looked good after several years of the abuse a factory floor goes through. Whitefang
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Post by jbone on Sept 14, 2019 19:24:08 GMT -5
I have not looked at cost yet. I do want one and done. Doing linoleum or tile is either maddening or costly too.
We bought some accessories for the living space today and put it together some more. It's coming along!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2019 19:37:24 GMT -5
I have not looked at cost yet. I do want one and done. Doing linoleum or tile is either maddening or costly too. We bought some accessories for the living space today and put it together some more. It's coming along! I have done a bunch of epoxy work when I worked at The Anheuser Busch plant in Jacksonville Florida, I can't recommend it for a wood floor in an RV, epoxy paints work better on a concrete floor. I can say that there are some very good vinyl plank flooring options just peel and stick in some cases, in others you use a mastic but it is relatively easy to do, and relatively cost effective. I have it on my shed floor and it takes a lot of abuse, and holds up well.
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Post by jbone on Sept 15, 2019 5:54:36 GMT -5
I have time. May not do anything until next year. I've made a few $$ here but no paycheck in Texas for the winter, so the floor is a wait and see deal.
The contractor we had in to look at doing the counter top and a couple of other things told us epoxy would work well since it flexes some, as does a travel trailer.
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Post by jbone on Sept 18, 2019 21:31:20 GMT -5
Update, I may have found a gig with a small paycheck in S. Texas. Plus a site. Big RV park, lots of activities I'll help with.
Getting a few things finished up inside here, picking up some items from 2 vendors in the next few days. I also ordered new tires for the trailer, the ones on here are 5 years old and it's time to replace/upgrade. Paid for out of mostly gig $$ we've made here.
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Post by jbone on Sept 27, 2019 17:30:47 GMT -5
The pay gig I turned down but have one where I work some hours for a site. In Pharr, near Mission and McAllen. We head that way in late October, stop in Little Rock for a couple days, and then on south and west, arrive by month's end.
Got the tires mounted, balanced, and torqued on. Bearings need grease.
Interior is really shaping up. Paint all but done and counter top built. Had a guy come in and lay a laminate on the counter top today and he'll finish Monday. Wall treatment next. When it's done this will one sharp rolling house!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2019 21:15:15 GMT -5
Pictures of the RV amigo pictures. And good luck with rolling to Texas. I have been through McAllen several times although I never stayed there. We lived in Austin Tx for several years, and wandered around south east Texas a few times.
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Post by jbone on Sept 27, 2019 23:05:54 GMT -5
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Post by whitefang on Sept 28, 2019 9:22:59 GMT -5
So.. was that counter made in that design, or is it some kind of contact covering? Looks good overall. Whitefang
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Post by jbone on Sept 28, 2019 11:41:59 GMT -5
It's a laminate that glued onto the existing counter. Went over the black formica and the raw wood both. Smelled like hell yesterday! He pulled the stove top and sink out and did it right.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2019 13:14:28 GMT -5
That's the counter top etc. I guess I'll be doing a whole album when it's more done. Nice looking counter job.
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Post by jbone on Sept 28, 2019 13:55:40 GMT -5
Hired a guy to do the laminate. It's looking great! The end from the sink to the TV I built up the counter out of lumber after I reshaped the furnace box. Once that was done Jo's mind got to ticking over possibilities and the result is coming together.
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Post by jbone on Oct 14, 2019 21:33:58 GMT -5
So we're a few days from getting on the road south. Not sure where yet but Little Rock for a few days, then I'll know where I'm working for the winter.
My Laredo story: In the 80's I was working for a garment company rebuilding sewing equipment in their central shop. The guy who was teaching me, his family was working a deal with the governor of Leone Province in Mexico, to open a shirt and skirt factory. Jim and I got to go buy equipment in east Texas and have it shipped south of Laredo into Mexico, to a plant being put together there, and later we drove to Laredo and were picked up and taken to the plant to set up and get things running. Once on the way back, when we'd gotten to the car for the drive to Dallas from Laredo, we decided to find a bar and have a beer. Or 20. Found a joint with pool tables and a juke box and settled in. Pretty much ruled the pool tables for about 3 hours. We just could not lose, and since we were playing for beers we had a table full of Lone Star long necks to wade through. At last call some guys asked us if we wanted to go to a party just outside town. Sure, why not! All the bad kids were there, from about 16 to 66. Lots of beer and booze and several other substances. I mean bowls full of powders, pills, and leafy greens. It was a very animated party. At one point a guy invited me to go see his birthday present his wife had got him and we went out to his car. He popped the trunk and there lay a nickel or chrome plated Thompson machine gun, with the round drum magazine. By the trunk light he showed me Polaroids of what was left of a cow he'd tried the thing out on. All just as calm and cool as if he'd gotten a guitar or a new car for his birthday. Back inside Jim was wrestling a gal, and I mean wrestling! and she won. It got time to head out since we were far from home and it was a long drive. We got out of town and the first rest stop we saw we parked and pretty much passed out for a few hours. I woke up in the back seat with a tractor trailer idling beside us. Stenciled on the side was So and So's Demolition Co., Caution Explosives! At which point I put out my smoke, and woke Jim, and we got rolling up the road. A few hours later we were in the edge of the Hill country and hung over to beat the band. We stopped at a place Jim told me had the best hangover cure he'd ever found. It was a park on the Comal River in New Braunfels, with a spring fed mill race that had been turned into a tourist spot. The idea was to jump in the river above the chute on one side of the dam and ride it down to the pool below. And then frantically make your way to land and out of the freezing water! It did make a difference in my hangover status. Life threatening crisis can do that. What started out as a side job work trip turned into a pretty serious near Hunter S. Thompson-esque odyssey. At age 26 the whole thing was a real eye opener about Texas and border towns and crazies. Nice folks but crazy and all git out. Our trips after that we stayed out of the bars in Laredo. And by the way, it was still like 85 at midnight there in about May or June.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2019 10:04:04 GMT -5
My Laredo story. On our way to Miguel Aliman (Just across the border from Roma Texas), we stopped in Laredo for a meal on the way down, and we had these puffy Taco's. Then we crossed the border to do a weed deal on the Mexican side, anyways while we were waiting for the guy to do the work with us we were in this little house with the Mexicans drinking, It was a little 2 room concrete block house with a concrete floor and concrete ceiling/roof. So the Mexican dudes were shooting glass bottles in the house with a 22 pistol and the bullets were ricocheting all over the room, because there was no soft material to stop them. Well we excused ourselves and went back across the border, and when we did that I actually bent down and kissed the ground. That is the first time I actually did that, but I was so glad to be back in the good old USA that I did that deed without thinking about the folks who witnessed it. Anyways this guy Chuy, did the deal for us in his home in Roma. I have only been in Mexico one other time in Los Algadones just west of Yuma to see why all the snowbirds went over there for dental work and prescription meds. It took me an hour to get back into the US. Never had another desire to go back below the border.
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