Trip prep for Saskatchewan (posted from home)
(This post covers 22-29 July)
Saturday, 29 July-
I washed and gassed up Mocha Joe this morning and then loaded up our gear and luggage for tomorrow’s departure. We each get a backpack-style soft suitcase and a small carry-on for our clothing. That doesn’t seem like much for a two-month trip but of course we can use Laundromats along the way as we need to. We’re taking the bikes but not taking the sea kayaks this trip; the extra storage will be nice though we will probably miss having the kayaks somewhere along the way. We are a bit concerned about the record-setting temperatures lately given that Mocha Joe doesn’t have air conditioning but we’ll be fine. The Fantastic Fan in the roof vent will help and I have a portable 12-volt Fantastic Fan if we need to move air across us while we sleep. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Wal-mart parking lots will be too hot to stay there early in this trip.
I've stopped Netflix for the duration of our trip so we watched 'Enemy of the State' on TV tonight.
Tomorrow is departure day!
Friday, 28 July-
We have today and tomorrow yet to prepare for our trip. Labashi took care of moving her 20-or-so plants to their new home for the duration of our trip. She has found that they do best in our guest room. They apparently get plenty of light from the patio doors and they prefer this room’s more moderate temperature swings through the day. She also managed to get all her packing done.
I made a quick run to Eastern Market for supplies and then mowed the lawn for about two and a half hours in the 90-degree afternoon heat. Fortunately, the wind kicked up a bit and that helped a lot.
That evening we watched ‘The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada’, the film-direction debut of Tommy Lee Jones. Our opinions split on this one. Labashi liked it, I didn’t. Ebert and Roper gave it two thumbs but the only reason I can think of for that is Mr. Jones’ respectful treatment of the Mexican characters in the film—a refreshing change indeed. But I thought the plot too unbelievable.
Thursday, 27 July-
With the van nearly ready to go, we took time off from trip prep to go buy the overhead cabinets we will need to finish the laundry/mud-room when we return. We had a discount certificate to help ease the financial pain a little but the main thing we wanted was to avoid any problems in the future with the vendor running out of stock or changing suppliers or designs.
In the afternoon I did the end-to-end jog at Rocky Ridge. I thought I might suffer a little on this one since the temperature was over ninety before I left the house. But I got lucky— shortly after I started jogging, clouds moved in and cooled things off a bit. My watch said I took an hour and 30 minutes for this one.
Wednesday, 26 July-
Today we spent most of the day removing nearly everything from Mocha Joe, cleaning the interior and then re-stowing. This process not only gives us a fresh start, it also gives us a chance to verify that we have adequate supplies and also to notice things that have been broken or removed. This time, for instance, I noticed that my bike helmet was missing—oh, yeah— I used that for a mountain bike ride and didn’t return it. And we’re short on butane for the cookstove.
Tuesday, 25 July-
Today I spent most of the morning cleaning the fiberglass top and windows on Mocha Joe and doing routine pre-trip maintenance checks. Mocha Joe now has 75K on the odometer and I’m a little concerned about the automatic transmission; it has had two or three instances of not going into gear as quickly as it should. Later in the day we went into town for Labashi to buy a polarizer for her film camera. She’s hoping to use it to good advantage in the big-sky country we’ll be visiting. We also found a nice little lightweight tripod that will fit in our day-pack and should prove useful for lower-light shots (and we couldn’t resist the $20 price tag).
That evening we watched ‘The Squid and the Whale’. I’m not a fan.
Monday, 24 July-
This week we need to start preparing in earnest for our upcoming trip to Canada but we have time to also mix in some household chores. While Labashi worked in her beloved compost-production facility, I probed our underground rain-gutter drains with a long plumber’s snake to ensure there are no blockages; that completes (hopefully!) the gutter work for this year. We also did some organization work in the laundry/mud-room and made some decisions on what else we need to do there when we get back. In the afternoon I took the Concours to Rocky Ridge Park and did another end-to-end jog. That evening I heard Labashi shout for me from the shower. She had found a wood tick dug in near her hip—apparently from her work in the compost area. We tried the new tick-removal technique we had recently read about. This one recommends covering the tick with a blob of liquid soap held in place with a paper towel. This reportedly blocks off air to the tick and once he lets go, you just throw the paper towel away. Well, maybe….but it didn’t seem to work for us. I had some difficulty keeping a good blob of liquid soap on the tick because we were trying it with Labashi standing up. But after several failed attempts with that, I retrieved a wooden match from the kitchen, lit it, blew it out, and touched the hot matchstick to the tick’s rear end (as Labashi watched intently!). The tick let go immediately. I put it on the sink where it played dead for a few minutes, then started wiggling its legs to try to get off its back. What a tough little guy!
Once the tick excitement subsided we watched the Special Features on the ‘The 400 Blows’ DVD. That turned out to be a very, very good thing. The feature about the making of the film was very good at explaining the context and history of the film and we loved the interviews with Truffaut. Highly recommended.
Sunday, 23 July-
This morning I replaced the Korky valve and I was surprised it went so easily. The whole process, including getting all the water out of the tank, disconnecting and removing the old valve and putting in the new one took only 20 minutes. Not many of my plumbing projects go so quickly (or work on the first try).
Later that morning we drove to Chambersburg to visit my Mom. We went out for lunch and then took Mom to visit her parent’s graves.
That evening we watched ‘The 400 Blows’, the classic 1959 French film by Francois Truffaut. At the end of the film we felt we needed to see the Special Features for more info about the film but it was too late to go on tonight.
Saturday, 22 July-
This morning Labashi assembled the five Black and Decker standing utility cabinets for the south wall of the laundry/mud-room. We then cleared away everything along that wall and put the cabinets in place. That afternoon I took the KLR to the motorcycle shop for a walk-inspection then spent the rest of the afternoon blogging. That evening we noticed the toilet tank valve wasn’t working so I zipped in to Lowe’s on the bike to buy a new ‘Korky’ valve.
(This post covers 22-29 July)
Saturday, 29 July-
I washed and gassed up Mocha Joe this morning and then loaded up our gear and luggage for tomorrow’s departure. We each get a backpack-style soft suitcase and a small carry-on for our clothing. That doesn’t seem like much for a two-month trip but of course we can use Laundromats along the way as we need to. We’re taking the bikes but not taking the sea kayaks this trip; the extra storage will be nice though we will probably miss having the kayaks somewhere along the way. We are a bit concerned about the record-setting temperatures lately given that Mocha Joe doesn’t have air conditioning but we’ll be fine. The Fantastic Fan in the roof vent will help and I have a portable 12-volt Fantastic Fan if we need to move air across us while we sleep. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Wal-mart parking lots will be too hot to stay there early in this trip.
I've stopped Netflix for the duration of our trip so we watched 'Enemy of the State' on TV tonight.
Tomorrow is departure day!
Friday, 28 July-
We have today and tomorrow yet to prepare for our trip. Labashi took care of moving her 20-or-so plants to their new home for the duration of our trip. She has found that they do best in our guest room. They apparently get plenty of light from the patio doors and they prefer this room’s more moderate temperature swings through the day. She also managed to get all her packing done.
I made a quick run to Eastern Market for supplies and then mowed the lawn for about two and a half hours in the 90-degree afternoon heat. Fortunately, the wind kicked up a bit and that helped a lot.
That evening we watched ‘The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada’, the film-direction debut of Tommy Lee Jones. Our opinions split on this one. Labashi liked it, I didn’t. Ebert and Roper gave it two thumbs but the only reason I can think of for that is Mr. Jones’ respectful treatment of the Mexican characters in the film—a refreshing change indeed. But I thought the plot too unbelievable.
Thursday, 27 July-
With the van nearly ready to go, we took time off from trip prep to go buy the overhead cabinets we will need to finish the laundry/mud-room when we return. We had a discount certificate to help ease the financial pain a little but the main thing we wanted was to avoid any problems in the future with the vendor running out of stock or changing suppliers or designs.
In the afternoon I did the end-to-end jog at Rocky Ridge. I thought I might suffer a little on this one since the temperature was over ninety before I left the house. But I got lucky— shortly after I started jogging, clouds moved in and cooled things off a bit. My watch said I took an hour and 30 minutes for this one.
Wednesday, 26 July-
Today we spent most of the day removing nearly everything from Mocha Joe, cleaning the interior and then re-stowing. This process not only gives us a fresh start, it also gives us a chance to verify that we have adequate supplies and also to notice things that have been broken or removed. This time, for instance, I noticed that my bike helmet was missing—oh, yeah— I used that for a mountain bike ride and didn’t return it. And we’re short on butane for the cookstove.
Tuesday, 25 July-
Today I spent most of the morning cleaning the fiberglass top and windows on Mocha Joe and doing routine pre-trip maintenance checks. Mocha Joe now has 75K on the odometer and I’m a little concerned about the automatic transmission; it has had two or three instances of not going into gear as quickly as it should. Later in the day we went into town for Labashi to buy a polarizer for her film camera. She’s hoping to use it to good advantage in the big-sky country we’ll be visiting. We also found a nice little lightweight tripod that will fit in our day-pack and should prove useful for lower-light shots (and we couldn’t resist the $20 price tag).
That evening we watched ‘The Squid and the Whale’. I’m not a fan.
Monday, 24 July-
This week we need to start preparing in earnest for our upcoming trip to Canada but we have time to also mix in some household chores. While Labashi worked in her beloved compost-production facility, I probed our underground rain-gutter drains with a long plumber’s snake to ensure there are no blockages; that completes (hopefully!) the gutter work for this year. We also did some organization work in the laundry/mud-room and made some decisions on what else we need to do there when we get back. In the afternoon I took the Concours to Rocky Ridge Park and did another end-to-end jog. That evening I heard Labashi shout for me from the shower. She had found a wood tick dug in near her hip—apparently from her work in the compost area. We tried the new tick-removal technique we had recently read about. This one recommends covering the tick with a blob of liquid soap held in place with a paper towel. This reportedly blocks off air to the tick and once he lets go, you just throw the paper towel away. Well, maybe….but it didn’t seem to work for us. I had some difficulty keeping a good blob of liquid soap on the tick because we were trying it with Labashi standing up. But after several failed attempts with that, I retrieved a wooden match from the kitchen, lit it, blew it out, and touched the hot matchstick to the tick’s rear end (as Labashi watched intently!). The tick let go immediately. I put it on the sink where it played dead for a few minutes, then started wiggling its legs to try to get off its back. What a tough little guy!
Once the tick excitement subsided we watched the Special Features on the ‘The 400 Blows’ DVD. That turned out to be a very, very good thing. The feature about the making of the film was very good at explaining the context and history of the film and we loved the interviews with Truffaut. Highly recommended.
Sunday, 23 July-
This morning I replaced the Korky valve and I was surprised it went so easily. The whole process, including getting all the water out of the tank, disconnecting and removing the old valve and putting in the new one took only 20 minutes. Not many of my plumbing projects go so quickly (or work on the first try).
Later that morning we drove to Chambersburg to visit my Mom. We went out for lunch and then took Mom to visit her parent’s graves.
That evening we watched ‘The 400 Blows’, the classic 1959 French film by Francois Truffaut. At the end of the film we felt we needed to see the Special Features for more info about the film but it was too late to go on tonight.
Saturday, 22 July-
This morning Labashi assembled the five Black and Decker standing utility cabinets for the south wall of the laundry/mud-room. We then cleared away everything along that wall and put the cabinets in place. That afternoon I took the KLR to the motorcycle shop for a walk-inspection then spent the rest of the afternoon blogging. That evening we noticed the toilet tank valve wasn’t working so I zipped in to Lowe’s on the bike to buy a new ‘Korky’ valve.
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 20:39
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