3 days till we take off

Well it is now just 3 days till we take off. Lots done and of course still lots to do. Lets see if I can put what we have done in just a short list, lol.
1 - Replaced just one air bellows ($100)
2 - Replaced backup camara and monitor (about $220)
3 - Added a brake controler (about $130)
4 - Got a 20ft Big Tex trailer to tow the 4Runner, bike and smaller trailer (yes used but still alot of money but since it has double brakes and lots of features you really should have if you are doing cross country towing it was worth it)
5 - Packing up the apartment and unpacking and putting things away in the MH
Doing the camara, monitor and the brake controler wiring took about 7 hours total. The longest was figuring out where to run the wires from the front to the back. You don't want them just hanging down under the MH and then you also don't want them too near the hottest part of the engine so better to spend a few hrs figuring that out BEFORE you start running the wires. Thom had to go under the MH several times to get it right. No we did not take pictures as we were running around trying to get it done, and done as right as possible, before the rain came in the next morning.
Last week when we were doing some little stuff and started the MH. The drivers side air bellows decided to really let us know it was leaking - ALOT. So ..... it was either deal with the leak and alarm which is not good to do or replace. Luckily we found not only a direct replacement for it but it was on sale and no shipping cost. Some of the air bellows things are anywhere from $30 to you name it so you need to make sure you get the correct one for your MH. That job took Thom about 1 1/2 hrs and part of that was to make sure that things were tightened and reattached correctly. We are taking off on a long trip and want to make sure we don't have to refix what should have been done right the first time.
Now there are those that are asking where we are going on the trip and while family does have an idea I will let you know that we are going from California to Michigan by way of Florida in about 3 weeks. We are stopping off at a few places to see family and friends along the way and as soon as we figure out the timing of things we will let the next set know when we will be there :)
Lots of packing still left to do but it will get done since we will be leaving here either Friday night or Saturday morning. It depends all on how long they keep Thom at work on Friday. There will be more posts coming up when we start on the trip in a few days. I will also be posting more pictures and videos of where and what we do on this venture. Thom will also work on doing more of the lights and we will do a video of it and I will post that. We do have a few more to do so that will taken care of in the next few weeks. We will also keep track of the money things for various reasons in case someone else can use the info.

3 weeks till we leave here and getting ready

Well it is now just 3 weeks till we leave here. We will be taking a massive 4500 mile trip to get back home. We will be picking up his mom and dad and getting them back home at the same time. We will also see lots of family and friends on the way. I will post more when we are on the way since while we know we are leaving in about 3 weeks we still don't have a definative date for leaving and our route yet.Thom's dad is now out of the nursing home and has a home health care nurse that comes every so often. It seems the drug interaction that happened right after the surgery causing him to see things is going away. The doc says he still can't travel for a few more weeks so we will pick them up and his dad will travel with Thom in the MH while his mom and I drive their truck back.
We were going to do lots of little things on the MH Saturday but he got called into work and by the time he got done with that we only had about 2 hrs to work on it. Thom did get the stove top working thou!! We had already replaced the propane regulator and a few other things. If you don't know anything about working with electricity and/or propane then you would NOT want to do what he did. He took apart the stove top and replaced some little things and cleaned and blew out the other things on the inside of the stove top. It is original to the MH so it is 18 yrs old and no longer under warenty so it was either spend some time on it or just replace it. We did not relish spending several hundred on something if it could be fixed.
We also had one piece of trim come off the bedroom door so we sanded it to get the old glue off and to make it a little rough so the wood glue would put it back together. We are currently in the desert so it is very dry and not a surprise that it came off, lol.
We do have the heater fixed and now we just need to get it back installed but since we are headed into spring and summer it is not a priority right now. More of a priority is getting a new back-up camara and monitor. Thom could fix the one that is there but the amount of parts it needs would be about the same amount money as a new one so a new one it is.

Thom went looking for something online and stumbled on an online game - Wizard101. He played for a few hours and then I started an account and started playing. Then told Justin and Joshua (ages 24 & 26) about it. They both started accounts. We have always played games in the house (ie computer, dice, board, card). Joshua's wife, Erin, has never really been a gamer but has been trying to find at least one game that she could play with Joshua. Since she's never really gamed most of them have too many keys to push. But Wizard101 we have come to realize that even thou it set up for kids with parental controls and stuff we could all 5 play together. There is a free part to the game that does take 4 to 6 hrs to get thru before you would have to pay to go any further. We all have now ended up getting a membership so that we have access to pretty much everything, lol.

Wanted to list a song that I really like and I am surprised it's not played more often - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gTV1iDukhs