Today was the 70th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy; D-Day. The youngest soldiers in that invasion, if they are still alive like my father, are now in their late 80’s. The event is quickly slipping into history; in another decade, more or less, there will not be anyone left with a firsthand knowledge of the events of that day, or indeed of the whole of WW II.
As we do most Saturdays when we are home we went to our ham radio club breakfast in South Lyon. We meet at a local Coney Island restaurant and we go for the company and conversation, not the food. The service is excellent, however, as we have the same server every week and she knows everyone’s usual order and keeps the coffee flowing. Linda’s standard breakfast is coffee and toasted rye bread with orange marmalade, although occasionally she has oatmeal. My standard breakfast is coffee and a toasted English muffin with strawberry jam, but today I had a toasted bagel. Sometimes you just have break with tradition. On rare occasion I have the oatmeal, but it’s not really cooked the way I like. When I want to splurge I have hash browned potatoes, cooked until a bit crispy, which I smother in ketchup laced with Tabasco sauce. That dish is as much about the spicy ketchup as it is about the potatoes.
When we got back to the house Linda headed off to the grocery store while I put a load of laundry in the washing machine and got busy prepping the bus for travel. The temperature had risen into the 70’s but all of the bus tires were in the shade, a good situation for checking and adjusting the tire pressures. I removed the Pressure Pro sensors from all of the bus and car tires, checked and adjusted the cold pressures, and put the sensors back on, re-establishing the baseline settings for alarm purposes.
We had quite a bit of rain on our last outing and the bays were a bit musty so I opened all of them to let them air out. I also opened all of my tool boxes for the same reason. The inverter bay door has screened openings with shields on the inside that are open on the bottom. The large shield by the GenSet radiator is secured with three screws across the top, none of which were holding. I looked around in the garage for some suitable drywall anchors to put in the holes but I did not have (or could not find) any the right size. A quick trip to Lowe’s, with stops at Walmart and Meijer’s for grocery items, and I had some viable options. I had to fuss with it for a while, but I got it secured. It was a small project to be sure but one that had been bugging me for quite some time and it felt good to put it in the done column.
Linda spent the early afternoon working on the accounting records for our GLCC chapter and then turned her attention to cooking meals for the upcoming week. For rally situations, where we are away from our coach much more than we are there, it is easier for her to prepare dishes in advance that can be quickly and easily re-heated rather than cook from scratch. I called Elkhart Campground and made a reservation for Sunday and Monday evenings. Over the course of the afternoon and evening we selected clothes for the week, gathered up various items that travel with us, and loaded everything on board. I positioned the Honda Element behind the motorcoach and connected them together for towing. We will have a few last minute things to put on board in the morning but the final loading should be quick and easy. It was a relaxed loading process and as we sat on the rear deck enjoying a glass of wine we reflected on how glad we were to have found this house and decided to move. We had some of the vegetable chili for dinner and then watched Season 2, Episode 2 of Doc Martin before turning in for the evening.