Tomorrow we head back to Texas. We finally had a reasonably warm day today. The sun was out all day and it was nearly clear! We could see accross the strait to Vancouver and for a short time we could see both Mt. Baker and also Mt. Rainer! This was our first view of Rainer since we came nearly two weeks ago. One parting thought, before we had back south tomorrow.
On Sunday we saw our oldest grandson receive his Eagle Scout award from BSA and with his dad as the 
presiding Scoutmaster. Since all three of our sons are Eagles, this now gives us four of them in our family. What a reward this is for the 18 years that Pam & I put into Boy Scout leadership. The award was actually completed some months ago but they held off on the ceremony so that we could come to be part of it. Making it even more special was the fact that Justin asked me to give his "charge to the Eagle" which is a function performed by someone that the boy feels was influential in has success with the program and someone who he looks up to. That made the day even more special.
On Monday we made a trip up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, just a few miles from us here but when we got to the top we found that it was very foggy and so we were unable to see much but we did check out the snow there and a deer chose to come by to have lunch with us! The deer actually came up to within a dozen or so feet of us. With the poor weather there were few people there and we enjoyed the time even though we couldn't see much.
We do hope to get some sunshine while we are here as it would be much more enjoyable. So far it has been drizzley and cloudy nearly all of the time with high temperatures only in the mid 50's. It makes Texas seem much more attractive, even with some hot weather there!
What a long day! We left home on Thursday and spent the night with our kids(grandkids) in Sachse to be a bit closer to the airport in Dallas, since we had a 6am departure. But with all of the fun that it is to fly now the suggestion is that you need to be at the airport 2 hours early to be sure that you can make it if things are backed up. So that meant that we were up at 3am on Friday in order to make the 45min. drive and still have that long. I had checked us in and paid for the checked bag ($25) online so expected things to go smoothly. Well....... Not exactly what happened. Who would think that an airport would have long lines at 4am? But Delta was amazingly busy with long lines and no clear indication of what those who had checked in, paid for luggage and had boarding passes were supposed to do with that baggage? We discovered that the turn-in for prepaid luggage was overrun with people trying to get boarding passes and all sorts of things and there were no definitive lines such as you would find for normal check-in. After a time we just elbowed our way up to the window and got the bag turned in. Next......... TSA!
Actually the security check was far less hassle than Delta, but we still had a fairly short wait in line, then remove the shoes, everything from pockets, computers from the cases and even the belt buckle, but it went OK. Next I won the lucky number and was the customer selected randomly to have my 'stuff' examined in depth so that took yet another 10 minutes while all of what had just been X-rayed was gone through by hand and wiped down with an explosives detecting pad. After only an hour we were on the concourse to await our flight, thanks to our online check-in! I am sure it would have been close to another hour if we had been required to wait through the check-in line.
I have been busy of late doing some work with the maintenance crew here in our community,
but have also made progress with the new RV. First of all, we completed the modification and installation of the TV mounting and the associated wood work. Next I installed some wood inside of the cabinets under Pam's kitchen drawers to enable use of that space for small item storage.
Of course, all of this also means setting up of new sewer hoses, fresh water fittings and filters, as well as sorting and moving all of the many things from the previous RV to our new, much smaller one. Just like always, we have had to purchase more things than anticipated and we find that we failed to remove a few items from the old motorhome that we had intended to keep! But that is just part of 
RV living so we move ahead.
My latest project completed was modifying the large cabinet under the kitchen sink, for better use of the space. This involved installing something to prevent things from storing up against the side of the water heater and plumbing, adding a partial shelf to make better use of the tall space and devising some kind of protection for the propane line to the stove top.
We are still moving forward with our preparation of the new RV, but Pam's visit to the hospital did set us back a week or so. In addition we find that having spent somewhat more than planned for the new RV, rather than a used one has slowed progress from budget limitations. Even so, we have made some 
progress on this and so I need to get busy and update folks.
One of the recent projects completed was the installing of a new Prodigy brake control. By getting it from Amazon I was able to find one for $116 and it is now in and ready to travel!
The most difficult part of this was locating the connecting plug in the Kia wire-harness, as it was hidden behind one of the trip panels and taped to other wires. Once that was done it was just a matter of routing the wire and choosing a good location.
In addition we have found that the task of sorting all of the things from the motorhome into a size that fits into the new RV is a major undertaking. The choosing of just what repair materials and tools are vital with even shorter trips by RV has taken a great deal of thought and time.
I also installed a pair of hooks in the main storage bay to hole the awning hook, right above the opening on the entry side of the trailer. That should keep it readily available and with storage at a premium, maximizing it's use is critical.
Storage inside also needs some work as many of the cabinets have things inside that need separation from the various things one may wish to carry. The first cabinet altered has 
been under the stove, where the plumbing from the sink and water heater were completely open to anything that might be placed there. I made some containment walls for this purpose, and this will be an ongoing project, to be continued.
We finally are approaching having things ready to tow and try out the new RV! On Friday, April 27, we took the Kia back to Athens RV where we bought the trailer to get the hitch installed. The Borrego came with the framework and receiver already installed, but we needed to get a ball mount assembyl and also have the mount added for the sway control. As our dealer had included that in the price of the trailer, we were off to Athens.
That process took less than an hour and so we decided to run on into Athens, since we had not been there in 15 years or so and it was only a couple of miles away. Pam has been on medication for bronchitis for 10 days so we were not surprised by her cough, but she suddenly developed chest pains so severe that we made a trip to the hospital, in fear that she might be having a heart attack! As it turns out, it was actually spasms that were caused by the bronchitis, but that event was painful for her and frightening for me and the result was two days spent in Athens hospital. Despite it all, on Sat. I did complete the assembly of the hitch. Barring any more excitement, I plan to wire up the new Prodigy brake control today and our Borrego should be ready to travel!