Stormy Night

Anyone who says that it doesn't rain in the desert was not in the truck with us yesterday trying to get back to Quartzsite from Phoenix. It began to rain really hard about 6pm and driving on the freeways was a bit scary. Not many people wanted to slow down and must have never heard of hydroplaning. We were worried that the low spots in the road near our camp site would be unpassable but it appears to not have rained so hard or so fast here in Quartzsite. You can't tell today that we have nasty weather coming again tonight and tomorrow but El Niño is at work again. http://www.weather.com/newscenter/stormwatch/ Of course, even though I hurt a bit from the rain I would much rather have rain than snow and cold!

Pro Shade stopped by this morning to measure the awning that had ripped in the high winds in Coffeyville. They will be able to install the new blue canopy on Friday for us as it is something Bill is not quite sure he would get right the first time. We are also in the middle of laying down peel and stick tile in the rig. The carpet was not my favorite color of green and cleaning up the pet hair was next to impossible! The Dirt Devil handheld we bought that said it was good on pet hair - wasn't. The removable hose is great for getting litter out of the tub so it doesn't clog up the drain but the brushes do not roll at all on the main part. I called customer service to complain and the rep got snotty with me as I said the product was horrible. She said I would have to take it in or mail it in to be repaired. We actually found the best way to get the hair out of the carpet was for Bill to slide the soles of his hiking shoes and drag it all up into big piles. It is a pain to take up the old carpet and vinyl as Winnebago builds the rigs where they put down the flooring before the walls and furniture are in. So the vinyl goes first, the carpet on top of that and everything underneath the slide, the cabinets, the sofa etc. When we finally got some of it up I said I would rather have had plain plywood than the carpet and white vinyl...it looked much better! Here is the before...note the ugly green carpet and even uglier white vinyl.

And here is our "in progress"....we are buying the tiles here and there at hardware shops so it will probably take a bit to get enough to finish the entire coach.

We are going to paint the ugly white confetti squiggled walls with a khaki color. By taking the carpet out the bear area rug will go under the slide perfectly now instead of being an exercise in contortionism trying to make sure it doesn't roll up under the sofa.