ODO: 309,272
We headed into Reno to do some chores. This past week had been our first sustained length of time in weather bad enough that we couldn’t (wouldn’t?) cook outside. This was a big discovery for us. We’ve spent many nights camping in bad weather, and have managed fine. It turns out we can handle the rain, or we can handle the cold, turns out we can’t manage both at the same time. Knowing we could potentially be spending an entire season in this weather at some point meant we needed an upgrade. Our first stop in Reno was to pick up a new smaller stove that we could use inside the camper. We also bought a lot of propane fittings, so we can plumb propane inside as well, but that’s a project for a few weeks from now. We managed to find a cool spot to sleep (in the snow) above Reno where we had a 360 view of the city, which was lovely at night.
The next morning we decided to head over the mountains. What we thought was going to be a couple hour trip ended up taking us the entire day. We picked a road that hadn’t been plowed and was icy, so it was pretty slow going for the majority. Along the way we came upon a guy who was stuck in the snow bank. You know where this is going, we always stop to help! He had been stuck for an hour and was attempting to dig himself free with his long windshield scraper in an area with no service. He was very excited to see us pull over. We broke out our handy winch and rope, and got him back on the road.
Once we made it down the hill, we drove to our friend’s house, where we would be staying for the next week to complete our last round or maintenance and repairs. We started with the small stuff, a propane tank swap and trimming the handles of our new pans so they fit in the pan drawer. Next it was time for some fun before the real work started. We hopped a plane to southern Oregon to visit some family and do some snowmobiling for the weekend. We both learned how to lean a snowmobile over and do the big turns, which was pretty cool, and had some solid quality family time.
Back in The Bay, we landed in time to catch the second half of a solid Superbowl game. Nice work Chiefs! An evening of relaxing was just the thing before we brought our house to The Shop. “The Shop” being the one and only Shaffer’s Offroad and Performance. The plan is to spend the next couple days rebuilding a shock, swapping out the steering rack, replacing brake lines, rebuilding the front suspension, new shackles, and some other small maintenance things.
Monday: The front end is taken apart. Turns out when you take the tires, suspension and front diff off our house it is too heavy in the back to stay balanced on a mechanics lift. Luckily there was a jack near by and they were able to support the back and keep our house in one piece. Since Shaffer’s is the shop Berne races with, we helped with some of the to do list to speed things up. We got to work on the uniballs and A-arm bushings while one of our shocks was rebuilt. Off to a solid start, let’s get ‘er done!!
Also, can you believe it’s already been 100 days?!? We’re still happy, and enjoying each other’s company!
