Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Rain is Keeping us Home

Candler, North Carolina (high 70, low 56)

We’ve been homebound the past few days.  There is a massive weather front slowly moving through the area, so it has kept us homebound for the most part.

Sunday we stayed home,  thinking it was going to rain in the afternoon.  We were both pretty tired, but somehow ended up working around the house most of the day. 

We had been really needing to clean the roof of the motor home, which is fiberglass.  We thought a fiberglass roof would be pretty much maintenance free, but it turns out, it gets chalky just like the rubber roof on the old motor home did.  When it starts getting chalky, this yucky white stuff runs down the sides of the dark colored motor home, making a real mess.  We use The Solution on the rest of the motor home.  It works great, and is very easy to keep it clean and shiny…..as long as the roof is clean. 

So on Sunday,  Al got up there with a mop, and cleaned it off.  The next step was to put two coats of Mop n Glow on it to seal it.   If any of you have any better products, we’re open to suggestions.  Mop n Glow only lasts a while in the Florida sun, but it kept it chalk free for quite a while.  We figured we’ll try to do it in the spring and fall.

While Al was on the roof, I ran the vacuum inside, cleaning most of the nooks and crannies of a ton of cat hair.  The cat hair sure builds up fast in such a small space.

Last night we finally got around to watching  The Last of the Mohicans,  which was filmed at Chimney Rock, where we were at a few days ago.  We thought we’d see the big Chimney Rock in the film, but we never did.

Chimney Rock, North Carolina

 

Many of you know I have a phobia about storms and bad weather, so the past few days I have been getting “ready” for the storms that were to come. 

I’ve been trying to quit worrying so much, but as soon as I hear about any kind of weather coming,  I start to get nervous.  I decided to try “wine therapy” and see if I could sleep last night.  I don’t know if the wine worked, or it was just not too bad weather-wise, but I did sleep most of the night.  Howard of Rv-Dreams wrote a good post about the subject a while back.  It seems Linda is very much like me.  She is trying to learn how to “let it go” and not to worry so much about things she can’t control.  I tried that as well.  Fortunately we only had flood warnings and no tornado watches or warnings. 

Anyway, we woke up and found the mountain was still behind us and we had not washed  or blown away.  We didn’t get much heavy rain last night, but east of us got hammered.   I’m thinking today and tonight that stuff will move this way and we’re going to get pretty heavy rain.  calm down Karen….let it be!

This rain is bringing in a cold front and we’re expecting overnight temperatures down to 49 the next few nights.   brrrr…sure wish we’d have brought our electric blankets!

We did have find a nice place to visit the other day and I never did a post on it.  We drove west towards Maggie Valley.  In Maggie Valley there is a road they call The Tail of the Dragon.  It’s a very popular road to ride a motorcycle due the the number of curves.    

There were so many motorcycles and way too much traffic in this area, so it wasn’t our favorite place to visit.  We did head up a mountain to find a 6000 foot elevation and a very difficult trail up the mountain.

It started off pretty easy, but quickly got harder.

Smokey Mountains half mail up the mountain trail from hell

I pooped out about half way up, but Al persisted and made it to the top, which was only about half a mile.  Smile  It sure seemed longer going up!

Al got this picture of the parking lot from the top.

IMG_4848

This next picture was taken from about where I stopped and waited for Al with a few other women waiting for their husbands.

Smokey Mountains

The fall colors are just starting.

fall color

9 comments:

  1. Eldy is the worrier about storms..pretty hard to "let go" when the coach is a rockin' and a reelin' or the toppers are making a terrible racket! He's got some bungee cords and rope that he will tie down the bedroom topper when he knows a bad storm is coming and that helps. I've always had the mantra in mind, "Let go, and let God take care of things" but that's easier said than done when you are a worrier!

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  2. I just saw on the news the bad weather that is hitting you guys. And Karen, I can so relate. I think weather makes me worry more than anything else and since I worry about everything that is really something. I keep telling myself to let it go and I try really hard, but I still get myself all worked up. So I'm looking for solutions also. Not a wine drinker so that one won't work for me.

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  3. You guys must really be getting your exercise hiking UP in those mountains. I'll be interested in what sort of suggestions you get on the fiberglass roof cleaning chore. Cleaning is a good thing to do to take your mind of the weather. Burns up the worry energy I think and gets the place looking spiffy.

    How's Chatty??

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  4. I don't worry about the weather too much until it hits me. Not that I'd willingly head into bad weather though.

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  5. I am a worrier about weather travel etc..its a wonder I am rving...I try to let it go-thankfully some days are better than others..

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  6. If I think I'm going to fret myself awake during the night, I take Benadryl.

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  7. Karen, I also have a fiberglass roof and have finally found a product that I swear by.
    I found it at Lowes, Red Max Pro #3. Comes in a red gallon container, located in the floor cleaning isle.
    I have heard that they are going to stop handling the product, but Home Depot is going to start handling it under a different name, but from the same company. You may have to do a Google search on Red Max Pro #3.
    Also, make sure you use the #3, not the others. It will take 4 coats but you won't believe the high shine you will get and it lasts a full year.

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    1. It costs around $20 per gallon, but it goes on like water. You just put on very light coats, and don't create any drips or runs on the sides of the MH. This stuff dries very hard and if there is a run or drip you cannot get it off. It can be used on the rubber around windows and I also put it on the casing around the mirrors.
      PS: I believe the product in Home Depot comes in a Blue gallon container, not red.

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  8. We drove thru that storm as it came thru Pennsylvania, we had to stop for while as the wind got crazy.
    We stayed the night on the edge of New York and just a tip of red on the radar came across us there. But lots of rain. had a small river flowing in front of our Land Yacht's door.

    Isn;t RV preventive tasks lots of fun.

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