Between the trains and the traffic, it wasn't exactly a quiet night. The air conditioner and Linda's little bedroom fan helped drown out some of the noise, but at 5:30 this morning workers started to arrive and the electrical breaker tripped.
With our white noise gone, sleep was elusive. We got up and turned the inverter on to do our morning routines.
At 8:00 a.m., we walked over to the office and met with Livia, and then the owner of Mike's Custom Painting, Mike Weldy, joined us. We walked around our rig and discussed the paint job.
Our decals are peeling and cracking, and though the exterior still looks good from a distance, it's definitely starting to show some age.
We chose paint colors and they are very close to the colors in these renderings.
The basecoat is a little lighter and will match our truck's Arizona Beige color. We flipped through some samples and selected a rich red. While Livia was writing everything up, I flipped over the red paint sample and it's called "Cambridge Red Pearl" - it was meant to be. :)
Ordinarily, they paint the awning hardware to match the rig, but since we just added the new awning and they will tie in with the black in our paint job, they won't need to paint the awnings.
They will paint the air conditioner shroud and the vents, and they will paint the edges of the Flex Armor (RVRoof.com) spray-on roof the same as the basecoat. The roof itself will remain white to reflect heat, but from the ground it will look like the roof is painted.
They are also going to paint the sides of the slideouts so that the design flows whether the slides are in or out. And we have added the optional "chip guard" protection - an extra coating to protect the front of the fifth wheel from rock chips.
For those interested in the main paint process, there is a six-minute video on the Mike's Custom Painting home page. Mike now has six locations in the area and they do manufacturer full body paint as well as "after market" jobs like ours.
Once we were satisfied with everything, we started the process of getting the rig and ourselves ready. Livia said the process is pretty consistent and takes four weeks, but on occasion it may go a few days longer depending on what they find in the prep stage.
We went into downtown Bremen and visited a storage facility. They didn't have any units available, but the recommended an insurance company that had a few units. Perfect.
Since we'll be living out of our Jeep for the next month or so, we had to store some of the business stuff we haul around. And we decided to store the bikes and bike rack as well. Once it was unloaded and we locked up the storage unit, we vacuumed and washed the Jeep.
Back home, we started the process of packing and organizing. We could have departed in the afternoon, but we decided to spend the night and get an early start in the morning.
We packed up our recreational toys - our Sea Eagle boat, my golf clubs, and my tennis racquet, and some fishing tackle - and we loaded a couple of small suitcases. The first week of our trip, we will be staying at hotels, so I packed everything for easy access.
As the afternoon went on, I did some trip planning and we downloaded several books to our Kindles. This past week, we got an email from Amazon announcing their "Kindle Unlimited" service. For $9.99 per month, you can choose from over 600,000 books you can read for free. And since there is a 30-day free trial, it was perfect timing for us to download a bunch of books for no cost at all. :)
By the time the evening rolled around, we were pretty much packed and ready to go. Linda did the final chore of defrosting the fridge and freezer, and she wrote a checklist of everything we needed to do in the morning before we leave.
We will be on our way by 8:00 a.m. leaving the fifth wheel ready to be towed to the pre-painting prepping shop.
Well, that's about it. We're excited about the paint job and look forward to the final result. We'll be showing it off at the Fall Rally and Mike might even join us for a short presentation. We'll talk more about that when we get back.
Our next entry will be from somewhere in Ontario. See you then and have a great day. :)
Looking forward to seeing how that red looks! Safe travels over the border.
Posted by: Bill and Jodee | Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 08:49 AM
Hope you get the chance to check out Tobermory, Ontario. I took my kids there on our first RV adventure, and they loved it. Some of the best eating around, beautiful rocks, and just a nice relaxing place.
Posted by: Michael Hollinger | Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 11:15 AM
I grew up in that area, lots to see and do. Too bad you missed shadfly season up Sudbury way(mid May to early June). It is something to behold if you are into freaks of nature. If you are returning southward to the Toronto area via Hwy 10, recommend you stop for brunch at Flap Jacks... world famous french toast and pancakes, mmmmm. Safe, fun travels.
Posted by: Brian Biggar | Wednesday, July 23, 2014 at 12:56 PM
PS: Shadflies, there's youtube video, usually late this year, still swarming as of July 12.
Posted by: Brian Biggar | Wednesday, July 23, 2014 at 01:00 PM
Best wishes with Mike's Custom Painting. They made it through the worst recession ever! Mike's painted our Gulf Stream Tour Master coach when new, no longer making them due to the recession. I've always been impressed with the "fire" of the paint. At eight years old now we are having some clear coat peeling on the rear cap of the coach. In a few more years it will be time for a new paint job. I think we will select a lighter color scheme then. Our dark coach can get very hot in the summer if not properly shaded. Happy trails to you two in Canada.
Posted by: Kevin and Kim | Saturday, July 26, 2014 at 08:38 PM