
Shortly after finishing the last of the move trips, Pat and Fred headed out for home. We welcomed Butch and Cheri the next day along with their many talents, for several weeks of stay at Faith. And we worked to finish up tasks that we could before heading out on a month-long train trip.

Church Work
We had one more room to clear out at the church, which involved 3 pick-ups and 1 trip with the church’s trailer to the Salvation Army. But the room did finally get emptied a few days before we were to leave. Over the last couple of months, almost 200 boxes of clothes, household items, toys, etc. had been donated, along with 3 loads of furniture. And, to finish the outdoor cleanup, we also made one last trip to metal recycling,
We had one more room to clear out at the church, which involved 3 pick-ups and 1 trip with the church’s trailer to the Salvation Army. But the room did finally get emptied a few days before we were to leave. Over the last couple of months, almost 200 boxes of clothes, household items, toys, etc. had been donated, along with 3 loads of furniture. And, to finish the outdoor cleanup, we also made one last trip to metal recycling,
We were involved in lots of office support tasks, from setting up new VoiP phones, to learning about Church Windows reporting, to setting up calendars for room and campsite usage. . We had been aware of a problem in the internet feeds that was reducing the speeds, and finally had time to locate the bad switch and replace it. And on Maundy Thursday, we helped with a slideshow for a funeral held that day, and were tapped to run the livestream for that night’s service. (Since we struggled with the audio portion of the livestream, we probably won’t be asked to do that again any time soon. ) |

Butch and Cheri were busy as well. Butch replaced all the remaining galvanized pipe on campus and Cheri power-washed sidewalks and cleaned out the painting supplies. Looking ahead to our eventual departure with the trailer, we took a morning to raise the trees in the parking lot just outside the campground by several feet, so we can avoid them safely on our way out.

And Other Stuff
With the pace of the work slowing down, we finally turned our attention to planning and booking a cross-country trip on Amtrak using a USA Rail pass for most of the segments. With a firm date set, we were now on the clock in getting ready to go. Some of that work was mundane, like filing our taxes, and some was not. Like getting our colonoscopies done. Unfortunately, we each had a 2nd chance to “cleaned out”, when we came down with a nasty GI bug that repeated the colonoscopy prep in a less pleasant way. Cathy was 2 days behind Dave, but both were back on their feet to get ready to board our first train.
We decluttered a bit more, when Dave finally made the connection to sell the 2nd of our 2 rail kits for the fifth wheel hitch. The Ford model was one that we bought, but never used, since we never found the Ford truck we wanted. To our delight, someone wanted just that model, and we made the sale a couple of days before we were due to leave.
While the RV was in pretty good shape, we had a couple of changes to make ensure we wouldn’t return to any surprises. Dave bought a 2nd Inkbird temperature monitor. While the original would continue to monitor the refrigeration, the 2nd would be a redundant temperature gauge for the RV itself,. This would help if our connection to our In-Command system failed. And, speaking of In-Command, the wifi connection just happened to stop working a few days before we left. When our usual methods to restore it were not working, we contacted In-Command support and applied the latest update. It worked, but putting a software change in on the day we were leaving felt a little risky. Time will tell. And Cathy took the time while Dave was out of commission with the “bug” to remove all the silicone around the galley sink and replace it. The old silicone was failing, and water was going to be weeping into the surrounding countertop before too long if it wasn’t replaced.
So, by Monday, April 8th, we had done what we could to ready ourselves, the RV, and the church for our lengthy vacation. We boarded the train headed north looking ahead to this new adventure.
With the pace of the work slowing down, we finally turned our attention to planning and booking a cross-country trip on Amtrak using a USA Rail pass for most of the segments. With a firm date set, we were now on the clock in getting ready to go. Some of that work was mundane, like filing our taxes, and some was not. Like getting our colonoscopies done. Unfortunately, we each had a 2nd chance to “cleaned out”, when we came down with a nasty GI bug that repeated the colonoscopy prep in a less pleasant way. Cathy was 2 days behind Dave, but both were back on their feet to get ready to board our first train.
We decluttered a bit more, when Dave finally made the connection to sell the 2nd of our 2 rail kits for the fifth wheel hitch. The Ford model was one that we bought, but never used, since we never found the Ford truck we wanted. To our delight, someone wanted just that model, and we made the sale a couple of days before we were due to leave.
While the RV was in pretty good shape, we had a couple of changes to make ensure we wouldn’t return to any surprises. Dave bought a 2nd Inkbird temperature monitor. While the original would continue to monitor the refrigeration, the 2nd would be a redundant temperature gauge for the RV itself,. This would help if our connection to our In-Command system failed. And, speaking of In-Command, the wifi connection just happened to stop working a few days before we left. When our usual methods to restore it were not working, we contacted In-Command support and applied the latest update. It worked, but putting a software change in on the day we were leaving felt a little risky. Time will tell. And Cathy took the time while Dave was out of commission with the “bug” to remove all the silicone around the galley sink and replace it. The old silicone was failing, and water was going to be weeping into the surrounding countertop before too long if it wasn’t replaced.
So, by Monday, April 8th, we had done what we could to ready ourselves, the RV, and the church for our lengthy vacation. We boarded the train headed north looking ahead to this new adventure.

Parting Shot
This hawk was jealously guarding its lunch just outside our RV one afternoon, so he tolerated my picture-taking.
This hawk was jealously guarding its lunch just outside our RV one afternoon, so he tolerated my picture-taking.