Sunday, October 25, 2015

Rhonda Baby!

**Disclaimer - we had a pretty eventful 2nd day on the road that we will share as well.  But let's wind it back to Day 1, written before things got too crazy...... 

Bonjour!! Comment ça va? In our second post, we are stoked to introduce you to our RHONDA! But first…. Where we are blogging from :) 

Sunrise from our 'bedroom' window
Ouff. Parked and level in deep in French-land, Québec! On our first night in Rhonda. Its COLD! We are staying at Claude’s property, at cool little Organic farm in Nicolet that we found on “Boondocker's Welcome”, a cool website that provides a network of people who are looking for a place to “Boondock”,(dry camping, basically, staying anywhere, not a regulated campsite) with people who have land or space for campers or RV’s, and want to meet new people and help others out who are traveling. Claude is really nice, has a great spot here. We have met a few of his kittens. He’s doesn't speak much English, so Steph (my Bi-Lingual Beauty) is doing much of the talking. Gonna hang here for the night, then on to New Brunswick tomorrow for Moncton.

So Rhonda… we made a little video today kinda giving a once-over of the old-bird. She's a beauty. Loves it. She's an 84 model and we got her in pretty good condition. She's dry, which is great as I have excelled at drilling holes in her, from the roof, to the walls and floor. Done quite a bit of work to her: We have installed solar panels (video to come), 2 100Watt panels connected to a 12 volt 3 battery bank, to power the DC system and also a 2000watt inverter for our AC stuff. i.e. computer/iphone/camera chargers, toaster etc. Also had to re-caulk all our windows and doors. New freshwater tank connectors with lock. Plumbing, uff, what a nightmare, we waited for about 4 days for a simple T connector from an RV shop, so we could connect the hot water tank, only to get it from another shop and find out after it was all connected that we had a hole in the hot water heater. What a fuckaround. Had to rip out the whole tank and propane system for it. Lost a bit of weight which was nice but no hot water, which is gonna suck on these cold days in New England and Canada. Oh well… gonna have to tough it out, puts hair on your chest right? Propane fridge seems to be woking fine, fingers crossed. Furnace works, again fingers crossed (as I am writing all this, the furnace went out, cute). We have a Carbon Monoxide/Smoke Detector combo, which will be comforting when going to bed with this 30something year old furnace kicking-in throughout the night. 

Fashion is cyclical right? We have done away with the 90’s cushion covers and brought back the OG, 80’s, plaid, rust-orange & brown covers. Lots of scrubbing and washing. Steph made a few new curtains with some thrift store fabric, using a sewing machine older than us all. SO Yea all in all its came together, with our long wait from the Visa people.

So tonight is gonna be a real test to see how long the DC system works for, throughout the night. The furnace can’t draw that much power from it, to run the little fan, but we will see…. nothing like a little body heat to keep us warm, right!?

Ok well we dont have any WiFi tonight so not sure when this will go up, hopefully soon! Thanks for tuning in and hope we can get some of these vids edited and posted as well!!


J

We almost had to take this lil one along


4 comments:

Mom said...

Love the video introducing us to Rhonda - clever and fun!! Rhonda is very organized and seemed to have some room to spare - yet I wonder if Steph did not fit a 'few' more things into the closet before you rolled out of Ottawa?! It is only fitting you are surrounded by 80's decor! Great plates/cups, although they be from the sewing machine's era! - seems every job/event has Steph working on an old sewing machine somewhere - nice curtains!!
Looking forward to the updates on all the mechanicals and how they are working - hope the heater kept on chugging the past few nights and interested to hear how the solar panels are working!! Great job, Jason - your innate ability to fix and build - and your willingness to persevere will help keep Rhonda rolling!! Thankful to know you have CM/smoke detector!! Hot water - our first cottage did not have hot water or a shower, so maybe a cool shower is better than none?? Hmmm, not sure!! Tea kettle/sink/sponge bath close to the heater seems a good option!
Did you have time to see much of Claude's farm before leaving? I thought for sure one of those kittens would be a stowaway - such willpower.
Looking forward to all your updates and lots more vids and pics - but most of all enjoy the journey!! Hope Moncton was inspiring and included some lobster - and here is to a smooth border crossing!!
Love you both!!

Anonymous said...

I love it, congrats to you both! We moved from Toronto and are now camped out in Denver (not literally, we have cozy little apartment). Please try and make it out this way, the Rockies are beautiful and we'd love to put you up (including a hot shower)! And hang in there with visa process, we went through it as well, not fun (but worth it). Here's to the open road :) - Justin & Jimena

Unknown said...

Justin & Jimena :) Thanks for the comment & following our blog! I've never been to Denver (except the airport), so maybe in the spring when we are on our way back to Canada we can route up your way! Great to hear from other with traveling hearts and there really is a kinship with anyone else who has been through the visa process, isn't there?!!

Unknown said...

Sweet! I think the REM is fitting for Rhonda. She's a beaut, and you can shower WHILE you poo! Can't beat that. Like a reverse bidet. Fun to catch up on your adventure - congratulations and love. Justy