New running boards and bicycle rack

After several months of stating his case for running boards, Jim received budget approval to have them installed on the truck. Are they not lovely? I have not totally bonded with them. When getting out of the truck, I forget they're there and whack the backs of my shins. Hopefully I won't have to rip my flesh too many times before committing the new evacuation procedure to muscle memory. I will admit that they do add that certain touch of manly bling to the truck.

Saturday was build a bike rack day. The bike rack on the RV which carries the mountain bikes bounces around a lot when we're traveling; so much so that the rubber on the grooves for the top tubes is partially worn off (along with a fair amount of paint on the bikes), and bare metal is exposed. This will not do for the road bikes. So, an in bed solution was required, one that would not require removing the hitch. So, two 2 by 4's, 4 metal straps and two fork mount blocks have been shaped into a bike rack. There is Jim with his battery powered skill saw and drill. Battery powered tools are a beautiful thing. Note the crock pot in the far right of the picture. The crock pot is a beautiful thing. We made pork chops and black beans in it. After 8 hours of low temperature cooking they are fork tender and de-lish.


Now Jim is tying the 5 pieces that make up the rack together with the steel straps. I was the able assistant.


This is also a beautiful thing. You pull the metal tape out and it stays where you left it. No more laborious mashing of the slide to get the thing to quit retracting and scaring you to death, it just stays there until you push the button.


Behold the beauty of the bike rack. Now all we have to do is get up earlier, quit surfing the web in the morning and get our out of shape selves up and out on them.


Today we hiked the trail behind the Marriott, it has much climbing so that is good. This is from the Gerson trail head hike we did last week. I like that trail better, but it doesn't have enough elevation gain.


This week's unpleasantness will be dealing with the local RV dealer again. As you no doubt recall, we had the kitchen grey water holding tank replaced March 27, 2009 because a seam in the tank ruptured. That would be six months after we bought the RV. Well, it's ruptured again, the belly board is bowed under the weight of all the water on it and we are just fit to be tied. One wonders if this will be an every 6 month event for us. Tomorrow we'll be talking to the dealer, it would be nice if we only had to go down there once, but I am certain we'll have to take it in for them to confirm the leak and only then will they order a new tank, whose installation will involve a second trip. We're just barely within warranty. So, we'll have to do a partial repack of the basement, load the wagons and hitch her up. At least Jim is down the curve on backing into these narrow spaces so I don't have to stress about that anymore.
Hope all is well with you all.