Happy Thanksgiving!

We've had a lot happen this year in our family, so our personal Thanksgiving will be very small, in fact just the two of us.  The smallest gathering in quite a few years, but we are still very thankful for a great year.  We had the honor of being invited to a wonderful Mini-Thanksgiving feast by Brett and Sandra which was very enjoyable and delicious to boot.  

Jan and I with Brett and Sandra  🦃

We were able to see our daughter Kelly as we came East, and our son Jason came to visit this last weekend.  

I want to say how thankful I am for my wife and companion, Jan who helps so much with the execution and enjoyment of our lifestyle on the road especially when she puts on her "Diesel Mechanic" hat.  Not only is she the love of my life, but she jumps right in whenever anything needs repair to help me and in many cases just fixes things herself.  I thought I would relive some of the bigger items she has helped me with or done herself.  

Some of the highlights:

We have replaced 4 AC's on the coach ourselves, yes we only have 3, but have replaced one twice.
Our huge project of repairing and replacing our rotted out floor.
Replaced our stovetop.
Replaced our transfer switch.
Replaced our Aquahot unit.
Recovered a slide nut that had fallen off, disappeared, and reinstalled it.
Temporary fix for our broken tile.
Wiring for our toad brake indicator.
Engine coolant tank removal, repair, and reinstall.
Remove and relocate our auxiliary air compressor for our leveling system.
Repair of our front ride height valve.
Replace washer/dryer.
Remounted motorhome wiper system.
Replace microwave/convection oven.
Removal of leaking hydraulic cooler and replacement.
Replacement of a slide motor solenoid.

Ha, there is even more, but I don't want to discourage anyone from this lifestyle if I can help it:-)  And just so you know, this represents quite a few years...

Without her jumping in, crawling under, fitting into tiny spots, fastening this, replacing that, wiring this or that, or anything else that needed to be done I would probably be on the side of the road somewhere, still working on many of these items.

Here she is, installing a wire along the bottom of the coach
for our toad brake indicator

And still smiling!

Under the bed helping to reinstall a gear that had shifted causing our slide to not move

About to remove our poorly situated aux air compressor

To its new location

Installed!

Our rear slide mechanism with the elusive nut that I couldn't get to

The bottom nut reinstalled

Our front ride height valve that I couldn't get to way under the collapsed coach

Jan's hand under the coach about to replace the slide pump solenoid

The solenoid

Replaced and wired

Representative of our AC replacements
The ramp we built to slide the 100# AC unit up and the bad one down.
Me on the top and Jan pushing from below

Success!

New one installed and old one in the box to go back down

Our shattered tile in our new floor

Bad tile removed

Getting the last few pieces out

Temporary plywood floor installed

Microwave ready to come out

Reaching way in for the mounting bolts

Jan is using the force here, as she can't see:)

Our leaking cooler

Jan cleaning ATF and grime off the louvers

Making a final adjustment on her end

And one more project comes to a successful completion

So have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Hope you have as much to be thankful for as I do.  It is so wonderful to have family and friends and a lifestyle that you enjoy and to be able to share it with someone who truly is my better half.