A Fantastic Weekend

Mia picked me up at work right on schedule and we drove up to Gold Bar taking the scenic route because it was pouring buckets of rain and the traffic on I90 and I405 was at a standstill.  We headed east on I90 to the Preston exit and dropped down the hill into Fall City.  From there we take a nice meander thru rural farm land and pass through Carnation, Duvall and into Monroe where we hook up with Highway 2 that takes us east to Gold Bar.  It may be a little further to go but driving along the country roads beats sitting in rush hour traffic.

We got to the trailer and unpacked the truck.  The rain was coming down hard and Honey wanted nothing to do with staying outside to go do her business.  So I decided to put up the awning to try and give her a place to go that wasn't wet.  Rookie mistake number one.  The rain was coming down and I was in shirt sleeves hurrying to get it set up.  Of course when I pulled it out I got a slight show in addition to the many droplets that were hitting me from every angle.  In my rush to finish I didn't put one end down lower than the other and the results are seen below.

Awning badly bowed

I could have taken a bath 

Another view

That is a heck of a lot of water. Consider that it poured all night long until early morning. I mean poured. So rookie mistake number two, you ask. I tried to lower one side slightly instead of grabbing a broom or similar device and pushing some of the water up and off the awning. Can you guess what happen? Yep, I couldn't hold it and it fell to the stop and the water just gushed off the awning. Luckily the awning still works and I'll have to chalk it up to experience even though I did know better.

Saturday consisted of visiting our friends and helped him get a new stove into his trailer so he could install it.  Then we did some yard work around the trailer in between showers.  I had hoped to wash the trailer but the weather and temperature just weren't cooperating and my shoulder was giving me fits.  We took Honey for walks and since it was so wet had to use the outside shower to clean her underbelly when we got back to the trailer.  We cut down a tree that was leaning into our shed.  I used a small chain saw.  I used to have to drink a six pack of beer before I would start to saw anything.  I put that caption on a picture I posted on Facebook and my daughter came back with a comment that, "You would have missed the shed, too".  She's right.  I only hit something once.  Mia is cleaning up the aftermath of my chainsaw work.

We watched a couple of old mystery movies from our collection and hit the sack.

I awoke to a cooler morning and got up to turn on the furnace.  Honey sounded impatient so I got dressed, made a pot of coffee and while it perked we headed out to see what kind of day we might expect.  When she was done we returned to the trailer to find Mia still in bed so I put some food in a bowl for her and sat down to read.  I think she was having anxiety attacks because Mia hadn't gotten up and she didn't quite understand what to do.  She didn't eat until Mia got up and told her it was okay.  I fixed breakfast and we went out for another hike around the park.  It seems we always find something different each time.  Witness another burned building and the trailer on the lot is gone.

Looks like a deck piled up on the left lower part of the lower picture.  The glass exploded in the building and there are several garbage cans full of stuff.  I can't find any record in the news about this one but I suspect it is another older trailer that might and caught fire and lit this building and the deck in the process.  
Again I say it.  Make certain you check your propane lines every single year, one in the fall and once in the spring.  There are too many pilot-lites that can lead to disaster.

We went to visit our friends for a few minutes and went back home to try and get some work done.  This morning was perfectly beautiful in the park.  The sun was shining and it was cool but bearable.   When we got home I went up on the roof of the trailer and was surprised to find it in decent shape.  There is the green stuff growing but with the aid of my leaf blower I got the majority of the pine needles off the roof and cleaned the edge along the awning.  Then I got out the hose and some cleaner and cleaned along the edge of the awning and roof.  The section you see after it rolls up was getting pretty green.  A little cleaner and some scrubbing produced a nice white section.  I hosed off the remainder of the roof but I still need to clean the accessories and actually clean the roof.

I got down off the trailer and right or wrong decided to give the whole thing a bath.  My shoulder had be ripping me a good one all night but I tend to do what needs to be done and damn the consequences.  Such is the case today.  I did wash the entire trailer and I think it looks pretty damned good in the afternoon sun.
My shoulder, on the other hand, no so much.

Last week we found out that we actually had water front property.  I took some pictures to give you an idea of the large drainage problem the park has, right behind our shed.

We are told there are plans afoot to do something about it in the fall.  I can hardly wait to see what they have in store.

I am off to Dallas at the middle of the week, returning late Friday night.  Mia has plans with her friends.
So it is unlikely we will get back up to the trailer until the weekend before Memorial Day.  We are going to let our daughter and her family use the trailer that weekend.  I just don't feel like fighting the crowds.

Hope everyone has a great week.  See you on the flip side.