Did you miss us Ruth? (3/5-3/11/22)

Our long drive to Albuquerque behind us...

Actual tumbleweed stuck in our grill

The temperature in ABQ on our first morning was cold, really cold.  So cold we thought maybe we made a mistake in arriving in early March.  But we were here and it was time to awake our sleeping beauty from her slumber in the relative warmth of her home for the last 5 months.  

Mike's sister and brother-in-law were kind enough to check-in on Ruth from time to time during our absence.  They performed some monthly maintenance tasks to help keep the generator and other systems functional and ready to roll.  

A preliminary check of the engine systems revealed no concerns, however, after further examination we had clearly hosted some unwanted guests inside. 🐭 We were super careful to remove all food items and most paper items from the RV when we put her in storage.   They did however, eat a couple of plastic items and gnawed on one of our wood cornices from the inside. 

AUUUUGGGHHHH!  Not knowing exactly where they had or had not been, necessitated the cleaning of every drawer, dish, utensil, towel, bedding, etc. to totally eradicate their presence.  We had put mouse repellent packets in the RV before our departure, but apparently that was not effective. 

Now it was an all out assault to ensure no mice would be traveling with us.  We set traps, baited them and checked everyday.  No mice were killed or maimed during this time. The good news is the mice likely found no sustainable food items that encouraged them to set up a long term living situation.  Still very gross though. 

Project: Mouse Eradication

Mike had ordered some replacement parts for our two large front slides at the end of our last trip.  He noticed that the plastic slide guides had broken and we found a half of one in the basement storage bay.  Not good to find just half of something.  Per usual, Mike researched the issue via on-line forums and had a plan to replace them before we headed out. 

Four slide guides to replace, a couple of hours each, no problem.  With the slide 2/3's of the way extended, using a floor jack and a 4 x 4 to jack up the slide, you contort your body in the shape of a pretzel, remove two bolts that are barely visible, remove the individual shims, remove the steel plate over a 1/2 curved steel lip and replace the slide glides.  Easy right?  

While Mike was cool as a cucumber I was having angina about jacking up the slide and all the cracking and creaking that was part of it each time he jacked it up higher.  The first two took a total of 5 hours.  The third one, even though we had two under our belts took 6 hours.  Mike spent hours digging, scraping, hammering the steel plate surrounded and cemented in by this foam insulation overspray that the videos did not represent accurately.  There was some not so cool cursing at some point.  

They were all way more difficult than we had initially thought. The fourth provided impossible to access due to a metal plate that was affixed over the access area.  We have a plan for that slide glide if it fails completely on our trip, but at this point we left it alone. Mike's determination to troubleshoot, research and fix things like this is part of the whole RV lifestyle.  He actually enjoys it. 

We took Ruth on a little test drive in 20 mph winds, it was a short drive, but all systems looked Go.

I actually took the opportunity to drive Ruth a couple of laps around the business park before we parked her.  Mike has always done all of the driving, but in case of an emergency, I could probably not run over too many pedestrians or cars on the road if I had to.

After a few fun but cold, and even snowy few days at Mike's sister's house, we loaded Ruth up and got her ready for the travel day to Elephant Butte Lake RV Resort, our first stop.  

Yes, it's a snowball