Built a PVC Bike Rack and Enjoying the Sunshine…

NOTE: I am having issues with a ERROR 400 “Bad Request Error” when uploading my blog with pictures. As soon as I solve this I will add pictures to the blog

Our routine has been delightful as we settle into our daily activities here in Imperial Bonita Estates RV Park. We have been here about 1 1/2 months which leaves us another 1 1/2 months to go and yes. I admit it, I am starting to get a little bit of hitch itch. Nonetheless we continue to enjoy our stay this winter.

One day I was enjoying a late happy hour with a nearby Canadian neighbor named Bob. I noticed Bob had a nifty bike rack made out of PVC pipe on the side of his RV. I looked it over and decided I wanted one too. I looked online and found several examples of larger bike racks but none with plans for a 2 Bike Rack. Finally I basically took the plans Home Depot had online for a three bike rack and converted it into what I wanted.

Twenty seven dollars and change later I had a new bike rack!.I bought two 10 foot pieces of 3/4 inch PVC and rode them home on bicycle. I also purchased the necessary T’s and Elbow joints to complete the project. I measured all the pieces and cut them by setting up a little jig and clamp system to hold down the pieces as I cut them with a hack saw. Yes, there are better ways to do this but it is what I had so I dealt with it.

After I cut all the pieces I used some sand paper to sand the burs off the inside of each piece of PVC pipe. I also used my electric drill with a grinder bit to round the edges of the cut pieces of PVC pipe.With all the pieces prepped it was easy to fit them all together to quickly make this bike stand. Well, it was almost that easy… I measured one side a bit too long and had to had to re-cut those pieces, grind and the re-sand them so they could be used to properly assemble the bike rack.

Pretty cool, we now have that nifty bike rack I wanted which also doubles as a way to block the path of those who felt compelled to cut through our site. Don;t get me started… Anyhow for those of us who have bikes without kickstands this is a great solution for parking bikes upright and not having to lean them on a tree or the picnic table.

Other than little projects we have also made some time to visit the beach and walk miles along its seashore while looking at the seashells, dolphins and birds along the way. We even explored a new brewery in town although it wasn’t all that great. So even though I have hitch itch we are still managing to be productive and find some fun things to do…

NOTE: We are now at our winter site for the season in Bonita Springs, Florida…

How to Better Organize Your RV–Part 1…

In keeping with the theme of helping those who may want to start the full time RV lifestyle or those who have just begun their adventure I want to offer some suggestions as to how we have over time become better organized. These are some things that we use and/or that work for us. We feel making the best use of space means giving the RV the feeling like it’s less cluttered and homier.

Not everything is about saving space as sometimes a simple solution is needed for noise problems. We originally thought we would have to buy Melmac or Corelle dishes when we first hit the road but since we already owned dishes we opted to bring them along and if they broke, well, they broke and we could always buy new ones. To protect our dishes as well as keeping them from rattling and breaking we first lined our drawers and shelves with nonslip shelf liners. We also used this same product to put between plates and bowls keeping them quiet and protected when driving down the road.

In addition we use Koozies to help protect our favorite glassware from rattling/breaking. We also have bamboo paper plate holders that double as spacers for our Pyrex cookware and for our glass serving platters.  These are all very inexpensive solutions that allowed us to keep our glass plates, bowls and glassware. As a result, in our nearly five years of travels we have had no glassware break. We have however dropped an occasional wine glass and broken it…

Another organizational product we use in various places are Sterilite storage boxes.  Not only do they help prevent items from shifting and rolling around, they also make it easy to find items stored in them because we can see what's inside since they are clear. We use these stackable container bins, in our pantry, in our closet, in our overhead bins and in our bathroom.  At first we kept a list of items in each storage container but now we know where most things are. Some folks actually tape a list of contents to the top of the lid.

We have lots of other suggestions but will break this blog into two parts so as not to overwhelm anyone. Look for How to Better Organize Your RV–Part 2 in our next blog.