Taking a shower in our condo on wheels can, on some days, be spectacular and today was one of those days.  Centered directly over our shower is a large, rectangular skylight.  Today, for the first time in awhile, we had a bright blue sky and the 80' plus tall oaks flanking either side of where we are parked have just put on a brand new canopy of leaves.  Looking out the skylight this morning with puffy white clouds drifting by the panorama of blue and green was stunning.  What a great start to great day.  Happy Mother's day to all you moms.

I may have retired last week but I sure have not stopped working.  If any of you folks reading this have been considering buying an RV and a salesman has been telling you that their rig is built in such a way that it is practically maintenance free, RUN!!  If you care about your equipment and want it to look good and last, then there is plenty of maintenance to do no matter how it is built.

A good part of this week was exterior maintenance.  In this case, simply cleaning.  Yeah, its simple but it is not easy.  Like the washing of any vehicle, you start from the top and work your way down.  But when your vehicle is nearly 14' tall the logistics of doing this get a little more involved and include using a ladder - a lot.  The way our lot is sloped, I had to use a ladder just to reach the ladder on the back of the rig.

But in addition to getting a ladder set up, there was more to prep before climbing on the roof.  I had to get out the long-handle brush, wash bucket, car wash soap, expandable water hose and rope.  The rope was for tying onto the bucket so I could lift it and the other stuff after getting on the roof.  No way do I want to try to climb that ladder with my hands full.

At Christmas I had bought myself a present, one of those light-weight, expandable water hoses.  After five months I was now going to see if I got my money's worth.  They were not kidding when they labeled it light-weight.  I think the plastic fittings on each end weighed more than the fifty feet of hose in-between.  And the whole thing coiled up in the bottom quarter of my two-gallon bucket.  Dragging it up to the roof was easy and the cloth outer covering did not mark up the paint.  This hose is not exactly a high flow hose but it proved to be just fine for the work I had to do.

My first 5th wheel had an EPDM (rubber) roof on it.  It had a very pleasant sound when it rained, a soft, mellow drum.  It also provided a good seal within its lifetime.  But it caused wicked black streaks from morning dew run-off and a lifetime that was short by my standards.  And let me tell you, the cost of replacing that rubber roof was painful.  It also took a lot of maintenance, cleaning with special cleaners, and treatment with "rejuvenators".  Quite a few dollars and several times a year.  So this time around I thought I would try out a different technology, fiberglass.  It should be longer life, no black streaks, no special cleaning solutions and no rejuvenators.  I'll need several years before I know if I made a good choice on the durability and easier maintenance but I can tell you right now that there is no soft drum when it rains.  This roof is loud, there is not a volume setting high enough on the TV to be heard over the din of a good rain.

But cleaning was straight-forward enough, just some water, soap and a brush.  The roof was really grungy after sitting under trees and suburban air that warrants official health warnings more often than I care to think about.  8' wide and 37' long, it was a long morning on the roof.

This was about half-way down, it took a double pass to get it all.

While the roof was definitely in need of the attention, the slides were off the charts.  The slide's roofs still have to use EPDM as their covering and they seem to attract even more grunge and cling to the junk falling off the trees.

But it is done, the roof is clean.  Instead of it being black and taking on heat, we are back to shiny, reflective white.  Ready to take on summer sun in Texas and Kansas.

T -13 days from departing Georgia.