Yum,yum, a bike, and dodged a bullet(hopefully)

Chilling with her new iPad

First off, we knew we HAD to go back to Bobcat Bite for the best green chili cheeseburger, no not the best in Santa Fe, not the best in New Mexico, the best period! And it was so, so good!

It's a tiny, not fancy joint outside of town, only seats about 20 people.  We went for an early lunch to beat the crowds, yeah people line up to get in.  And we got the famous yummy green chili cheeseburger.

Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

A happy camper! Here comes the burgers!

As you know I've been looking on and off for a bike as we have meandered our way to Santa Fe.  I should have bought it in Florida, but......  I wanted to get the same brand and model as Jan's as she's been very pleased with hers, and I tried hers out a couple times and felt if I got one in my size I would be happy with it as well.  Must be a popular bike as we tried in the panhandle of Florida, Alabama, Texas, even Dallas, New Mexico, including Albuquerque and even Las Cruces, even down to El Paso.  No joy.  It's nothing fancy, it's a Giant Cypress comfort bike.  Has a big padded saddle for my fat butt, upright seating as I can't seem to get comfortable lying down anymore, a flexible seat post, and a suspended front fork.  After lunch we decided to stop into a small bike shop in Santa Fe.  Talked with a really nice guy there that owned the shop.  He had the bike I was looking for but in the next size up.  I wanted a medium frame and he had a large.  Turns out for my size I am actually between a medium and a large, and most importantly, I can straddle the bar without talking in soprano!  I took it for a ride, and several other bikes for comparison.  I told him it was comfortable for me although just a bit big, so he suggested I get on the internet and call all the bike shops in the various cities we would be near on our travels, and if nothing else, to check out the huge Giant store in Denver.  So I did just that.  Called and called, nobody including the huge Denver store had it in medium.  The bike was red, just like Jan's, I might add, and I noticed on the website that a red bike meant it was a 2011, not a 2012.  I called the bike shop in Santa Fe back, said I had no luck, and since I was on the website I noticed the bike I rode was a 2011, not a 2012.  He said yes, and that's why it was aggressively priced, mind you the tag on the bike was full retail.  I asked what the price was, and he replied $xxx, $120 less than it was marked!  That made up my mind, so I now have a bike.  The pathetic part of all this is, it is exactly the same color and model as Jan's, so we get to look like the Bobbsey twins!

Now onto the bullet dodging.  I mentioned a few entries ago we were working on an unexpected project, really a repair.  We have tile inserts in our Corian shower.  I had noticed that a couple of the tiles, on the wall that is also an exterior wall of the motorhome seemed to be poking out and the grout was cracked.  When I pushed on them, they would give a bit, looked like water was getting behind the tiles, not a good thing!  It's always best before starting a project to get as much info as possible before you start ripping and tearing.  So we called Monaco, our coach manufacturer to find out how the shower was constructed, and most importantly to try to find out what mastic and grout was used so we could get a perfect match.  They were helpful, gave us the grout and mastic manufacturers and colors, said they had it in stock and could, get this, ship us 50 pound bags of it!  At least a bazillion dollars.  Then it got bad, we asked about the construction of the shower wall.  He said early coaches had the inserts cut completely out of the Corian, and the tile was attached to the plywood wall behind the Corian!, and newer coaches just had the Corian routed out a bit, and the tile put in the routed out area.  I asked what they did with our coach.  He said he wasn't sure as we were on the cusp.  I asked what needed to be done if water had gotten behind the Corian wall, and he told me to do a proper repair we needed to remove the Corain wall, rip out the rotted plywood, replace it with new and reconstruct the shower!  To say it would be a huge job is an understatement, and probably not one I would do myself, as the entire shower would have to be dismantled, torn out, wall repaired and then reconstructed.  After I finished throwing up, I told Jan the wonderful news, so with enormous trepidation we went into the shower and I pried out a few of the loosening tiles off the wall, scraped off some of the old mastic, and lo and behold, FOUND CORIAN!!!! Thank God!  So it is a very doable project and feels so good knowing water did not get into the wall!

The inserts, on all 3 walls

The insert in question

It's covered with plastic until we can do the repair.  After much searching on line and many phone calls, we found the mastic, actually a mastic we think is superior to the one that failed, and the exact grout in Albuquerque.  We are planning to spend at least 3 weeks in Pagosa Springs, CO later and plan to fix it while we're there.