Being parked for a while gives us an opportunity to concentrate on maintenance items. I know some readers are interested in what it takes to keep our ship afloat, so here's what we've been doing lately on the trailer.

A few days ago Eleanor disassembled the bathroom sink drain plumbing, to resolve a slow drain. Having two females with long hair means this has to be done every few months. But Eleanor has gotten pretty quick with this job. She was half done with it before I even noticed she was in there.

The wallpaper border in our bathroom has never been to our liking, and lately it has started peeling, so Eleanor removed it. Months ago she bought a replacement border, which is a little more colorful. But before installing it, she needed to re-caulk the edge of the bathroom vanity today. She also took the opportunity to get under the vanity and tighten some screws which hold the vanity to the wall. Tomorrow, when the caulk is fully set, she'll glue up the new wallpaper border.

I've been planning a preventative maintenance stop in Texas in early January. I want to get the entire propane system checked, re-pack the wheel bearings, and basically give every system of the trailer a good safety check. We plan to visit David Tidmore at Roger Williams Airstream to get this service done, but I'll participate so I can learn more about how things work on our rolling home.

I also want to get a powered fan installed in the refrigerator's vent, so our fridge will work better in high ambient temperatures. Several times last summer (Weatherford TX, Death Valley and Salem, Oregon) we encountered temperatures over 100 degrees and the refrigerator compartment hit 60 inside, causing some food to spoil.

Sign of the week!