The Coach gets out for Summer

If you don’t  remember last fall the sad sad sight of the beautiful coach getting put in the shed as the winter approached you can review here.  As it always happens the winter ends (eventually) the summer begins and the coach gets to come back out of the shed.
We took off work early morning on a Friday to pick up the coach and when we arrived a little after 8:00 at Hilmerson RV we could see the coach waiting patiently for us deep in the shed. (I had called ahead.)

The people from Hilmerson were going to drive it out of the shed, but when they tried to start it the batteries were low so they had to put the charger on it for 10 minutes or so.  You know how men and machines are so it took 3 or 4 people standing around to get the battery charged.

With all that manly brain power working on the battery problem it was only a few minutes and the coach fired right up. The Hilmerson guy then drove it over to the propane filling station where we topped of the propane tanks for the summer
Then it was time to hook up the Jeep to the Blue OX tow bar for the trip north to Brainerd where we had an appointment to have new tires put on the coach 

Before getting on Hwy 371 North we stopped to fill the diesel tank on the coach. It was a bit of a tight squeeze and Margaret was on the edge of her seat as we slipped between the pumps , but there was a foot or so to spare and soon the wallet was much lighter and the fuel tank was filled.




Lets see $3.09 a gallon for diesel and100 gallon tank………. 
The ride to Brainerd was a little less than an hour, and the coach cruised along at 60 MPH easily in the stream of  opening fishing weekend traffic towards the lakes of Northern Minnesota. The tire place was just off  Business 371 and after unhooking the jeep in the street next door we pulled the coach into the parking lot in front of one of the bays to get the tires changed.

After a bit of difficulty getting the fancy stainless hub caps off the tires were soon on the floor in the shop getting new Michelin 275/70R/22.5 XR2 “energy efficient tires” on.

Now you would think that in this day and age there would be big fancy shiny machines with gages and pressure settings and shinny fittings  to change these big ass tires, but no meet the machine Fred.

I took about 2 hours to change the tires then it was time to settle up for the tires and the price of the diesel looks like a bargain now.  Lets see $485  a tire plus installation. How many tires are on a diesel pusher again? Well at least you only have to put tires on the coach once ever 6 or seven years or so.
Finally it was time to get the jeep hooked up again for the final journey to the lake.  (I sure am getting good at this hooking up the jeep thing)

The weather was beautiful and the sun was shinning brightly when we pulled into the Lake Lot with the coach. Everything looked great after the winter. No animals had chewed the shrubs, no trees had died over the winter. Things were looking good.  Jockying the coach into its parking spot only took a couple of minutes, then we hooked up the electricity and water. Whoops! Water is squirting out of the pump house everywhere! Houston we have  a problem! The winter wasn’t quite so kind as we had hoped. Apparently there was a little water leftover in the pipes and of course when they froze the copper burst.



So the wallet gets hits for another $60 worth of plumbing parts during a trip to Walker Ace hardware. 3 hours of work later around 7:00PM that night we sat down for happy hour.
The Coach is out for the summer!

Moving is fun, really it is?

Have you ever moved? I mean the place you live. Moving it from one place to another. How many times have you moved? I sat down the other day and figured out how many times we have moved.
Since Margaret and I have been married we have moved 16 times in 33 years, but who’s counting.
The blow by blow details:

We started out at 706 south 8th Street in St James after we married.
(1)


From there we moved to 521 Webster Ave in North Mankato and my first real job, where we spent several years.

(2)
 











We sold the house and moved to an apartment on
Lee Blvd on the hill in North Mankato while we built an earth shelter home.
 
(3)


Even before it was complete we moved into 916 Belvista Drive on the hill side in North Mankato where we spent a few years.

(4)



We then sold and moved to an apartment on Teton Blvd in Mankato for a few months (this didn’t work so well)


(5)


So we then moved back to the same apartment on Lee Blvd for another stay of a year.

 (6)



From the apartment we bought a house on Ivanhoe Court. We remodeled this house totally.

 (7)


 (8)

While we lived at Ivanhoe we undertook the building of a Lake House on Lake Jefferson which we
moved part of our life to.





Then we sold Ivanhoe, and moved our city life to the same apartments again on Lee Blvd in North Mankato for the third time.

(9)



Then our city life moved to a beautiful townhouse we purchased on Pleasantview Drive.


(10)



Then just to make a mess of everything we sold it all and moved internationally to Weegbree 11 Best, Netherlands for a 3 year overseas stay in Holland.

(11)



Returning to the USA we moved to an apartment called the Ridge on Rockrimmin Blvd in Colorado Springs for a few months.

(12)


Then we bought a beautiful patio home on Twinberry Point with a view of Pikes Peak for 13 months. we should have stayed there!)

(13)



We then moved back to Minneapolis and the Durham Apartments in Edina on the 13th floor for 8 months or so.

(14)
)
Until we bought a condo on 7400 Edinborough Way where we lived for almost 7 years (unbelievable! what happened).

(15)


With the Great real-estate crash of 2007 we sold our beautiful condo just in time to avoid the big losses and moved to a rented condo near 50th and France in Edina for a year and a half.

(16)



Then on to the most recent move of 3121 West 69th street just north of the Durham and not far from our old condo and our current home today. Much better than the last place!

(17)


But moving rates right up there
with taxes and death!

But eventually it gets downs to a few things:

Then it’s all done and you lock up for the last time and head out.

Many trips with the jeep and a U-haul rental trailer for a day eventually gets us a view from the fourth floor, and a brand new never lived in 1 bedroom apartment with an outside deck.

Of course then you have to assemble everything back the way it was.

Then its all back together and you can relax……..

All decorated and ready to celebrate!













Ready to live our life again...


Until the next move!

There really is a Fairy God Mother!

Haven’t you wished when you had a nasty project to do that you could go to bed at night and when you woke up in the morning your Fairy God Mother had  magically appeared in the night while you slept and finished the nasty project?  Come on now we have all wished that!

Well guess what. There really is a Fairy God Mothers and I have proof! There was this nasty project that had to be completed featuring the re-plastering, painting, and trimming the shed door. (see photo)

I heard this loud noise late in the evening and I snuck down to the shed and managed to catch the Fairy God Mother in action with my camera! The Fairy God Mother is not much to look at and she sure looks surprised, but look at that magic at work!

After the God Mother disappeared in a puff of smoke and a string of profanities there was nothing left of the nasty project!

OH! The Fairy God Mother did leave a note:

Business in New York

Recently I find myself working with a group of companies that I spent loads of time with 20 years ago. The focus of this new endeavor is about the future of technology, such as mobile devices and communications platforms that people are so swiftly adopting.

This group of companies does business primarily with the Fortune 500 set of companies. Many of the Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in New York city and so I find myself back in the “Big Apple” again.

We (my new Boss and I) flew into the Newark airport late one evening, and after only a few wrong turns arrived at a suburban motel near the east coast factory just south of the big city.

(OH.. before I forget: these photos are all taken with a new mobile device I recently picked up as part of a research project for this new job. It actually takes reasonable photos for a phone)

The next morning I dressed up with a tie. (I haven't worn a tie in years!) and headed out to the train station to catch the morning commuter train to the heart of the city. We were going to visit HBO, and McGraw Hill to present some new technology ideas.

The train ride was an hour and we  arrived at Penn Station and walked out onto the city streets.

 

It was a beautiful day in the city almost 60 degrees with the sun shining brightly. Well… as much as the sun can shine in the concrete canyons between the huge buildings.

We walked about a mile or so in the city between the two stops, passing through Times Square along the way.

 

While the business purpose of our visit was presenting new ideas to folks that only marginally understood them the day was interesting, and as my new boss says:

“You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince!”