Florida for the winter

Virginia house part 1

Hiking on the Mountain to Sea Trail-  Part 1

Virginia House Part 2

Since the upstairs was finished last year the base got worked on this year.  The floor was in need of a lot of help.  It wasn't finished correctly when it was installed and was now crumbly.  Whenever you would sweep you would get lots of dust.  If you swept again you got more dust. The first repair was to resurface the concrete.  That was done last year so this year the floor got a new epoxy coating.
The next problem to be addressed was 2 cracks in the basement wall.  I bought 2 repair kits made specifically for making these repairs. The object is to completely fill the crack from the inside to the outside and from floor to ceiling.  To accomplish this the inside and outside needed to be sealed and nipples applied to the wall for injection of the foam. The foam was then slowly injected starting at the bottom then moving up until reaching the top.

After the foam dries, the sealer and nipples are scraped off and the crack is permanently sealed.

Visitors

In June our friends John and Jane Canfield from Texas came to stay for a few days. They came by motorhome towing their rock climbing Jeep.  This has been John's hobby or should I say almost full time job for the last few years.  Between going to rallies and modifying the Jeep, it keeps him rather busy and a whole lot poorer!!

We had quite the busy campground with all our vehicles.  The driveway was not big enough.

During one of our evening porch sessions John mentioned that he was having problems with the refrigerator in the motorhome.  It was getting old and tired and just couldn't keep up anymore.  Sound familiar??

We decided it would be a good project to remove it and replace it with a household unit that would work better and be a lot cheaper.  So off we go to Lowes to buy something.  The next few days was spent doing the installation.  If you would like more details John has a nice description on his webpage HERE.
On one of our trips to town Sassy got a new swimming pool.  

Return to Florida

We decided to leave for Florida in late October and to stop along the way to finish the last portion of hiking in eastern North Carolina.  We were heading across Interstate 40 in the middle of  5 lanes when the left front tire blew.

Luckily I was able to immediately get to the shoulder without too much trouble and into a really narrow breakdown lane.  When road service got there a couple of hours later we had to drive on the flat about a half mile to an exit ramp where was room for him to work.

We finally arrived at Falls Lake State Park near Durham, NC late in the afternoon.  Judy had a few days of hiking to finish the trail in this area so I scheduled to have the remainder of the tires replaced after we were on the way to Florida.  They were approx. 6 years old so it was time. 

I watch them change the tires but missed something.  The old tires had balancing beads that have the consistency of talcum powder. When he removed the old tire he didn't clean the bead sealing area.  One rear tire began leaking immediately requiring them to remount it.  I should have made them remount the rest but I was in a hurry to get going.

Needless to say it came back to bite me in the butt.  The next morning in South Carolina another tire was flat.  A few hours and $130 later (road service doesn't pay for remounting)  we were back on the road.  I contacted the manager of the tire store and he agreed to reimburse me but guess what??  Months later I still haven't seen the money!!   We finally made it back to the Florida house without further trouble.

A couple of weeks later another one went flat while in storage.  This one cost me only $100 since I could add enough air to drive it to a repair shop.