We've been hard at work, people. Gearing up for 2017 and another fantastic year of travel. If it feels like Maude has been continuously undergoing months of Class C RV remodel work, well that's because she has. Between cushion reupholstering and solar setup, there have been projects in pending-mode for quite some time. However, the good news is, by the end of this month, all of our huge, looming projects will be complete. (Sigh of relief) I can't really believe we're saying that, because it has felt like things have been up-in-the-air since we started. We're absolutely looking forward to the day when everything is running smoothly, and our small RV looks like a new woman. In the meantime, however....here are a few photo updates of everything that's been happening in the past few weeks. Stay tuned for some more updates as we wrap up these projects and get back on the road!
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Pretty much every traveler has his or her own bucket list, consisting of endeavors such as bungee jumping or skydiving. While both aforementioned activities may be considered "adventures for daredevils," there are a lot more things out there for travelers to try. Below is a list of some of the more unusual extreme adventures activities that are getting mainstream recognition of late. Swimming with Great White Sharks in South Africa If you want to up the ante in terms of extreme adventure swimming, then consider swimming with great white sharks. Don't worry about your safety because tourists who are brave enough to witness these huge predators first hand will be inside the safety of a dive cage and supervised by professionals. For more experienced divers, the option to venture out of the confines of a cage is a real possibility. Volcano Boarding in Nicaragua Wakeboarding may look challenging but volcano boarding makes the former look like child's play. This extreme adventure activity challenges daredevils to surf a slope at Cerro Negro, which is a live volcano in Nicaragua. Wakeboarders can reach speeds as fast as 90 km/hr, making this the perfect activity for those who have a need for speed. Ice Swimming in Finland Do you remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? This is 10 times the experience. Ice swimming in Finland is a custom that extends to tourists who are bold enough to brave the country's freezing weather. The idea is to find a deep patch of frozen lake, drill a hole in it, and then drop in! Make sure to bring lots of towels and warm clothing to wear after your plunge, as the temperature in Finland is very unforgiving. Watch a video of Finland’s ice swimming below: Extreme adventure activities can go along way to helping us push new boundaries, and find out new things about ourselves. Once we’ve accomplished new heights, the natural reaction is to look for the next challenge to test our mettle. Since the beginning of time, man has strived to break new ground regardless of what the challenge encompasses. You only have to take a look at NASA's latest projects to see what lies ahead in terms of human exploration. Who would've thought that humans could one day live on Mars? After all, it’s a planet that is over 200 million kilometers away from Earth. While Mars is a more extreme example compared to any other pursuit on this list, there are many small challenges in various daily pursuits that we contend with on a regular basis. Global brands see this, and therefore implement them in their products, because lets face it, we all like to accomplish something every now and again. Video games, in particular, have progressed and incorporated extreme adventure titles such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater that gives the skating community challenging game play that they can enjoy while not having to endure the dangers of actual skating. For the more adventurous gamers out there that want that little bit of extra realism in their games, there are now plenty of VR titles like The Climb that allow people to ascend famous mountains peaks. For fans of futuristic games, there is popular titles such as Light Racers which is hosted on the gaming site Spin Genie, that provides car fanatics a space-age twist to the modern day automobile games, while infusing it with a next-gen slot game. Whatever the theme, its obvious that the human race needs to be challenged, as it is a fundamental part of evolution. Whether it's Bill Gates or Tony Hawk at the vanguard of such movements or something as personal as attempting to swim with great white sharks in South Africa, the human race as a whole should never stop moving forward. Do something that makes you step out of your comfort zone. You never know what you can accomplish.
RV refrigerators can be really annoying. Not only are they extremely finicky, they also are insanely expensive to buy, fix, and replace. We had our small RV for only a handful of months before our Norcold refrigerator kicked the bucket. Oh, the dreaded flashing green lights. Turns out, the guts of the thing were beyond repair and a new fridge was necessary. However, we didn't have $1200 lying around to drop on a new fridge.
What did we do? We went without. Let me tell you, there is definitely struggle in not having an RV refrigerator. We came up with a few clever options. One of which included a cooler and constant rotation of ice. How very primal of us. Yet, ice got expensive, and the constant fear of running out and losing all of our goods to the warm elements was exhausting. Also changing out the ice and water and contents was not worth the time or trouble. We ended up ditching the cooler after a while, and just went fridge-stag. It turns out, without a fridge came a lot of wiser food investments. We stopped wasting food by buying more than we needed, and often stuck to beans, lentils, soups, fresh veggies and fresh fruits. If you want to become vegan real quick, take a sledgehammer to your fridge ASAP. (kidding) So, fast forward to a few months ago, we finally came up with the perfect solution for our RV fridge dilemma. No, we still didn't want to spend $1200 on a fridge which just sucks up propane, or needs constant electricity to function. We mulled over a lot of solutions, and eventually came up with one that fit our needs: a small beverage fridge with low amperage and watts that could be run off solar. For the same price as an RV fridge we got an entire solar kit and a glass-door refrigerator—how cool is that?! This is what we bought: Now, we're knee deep in figuring out how to install the RV solar kit (we did get two more panels for it), but we have the fridge all snug. Removing the old fridge was pretty damn easy. The difficulty comes with plugging up your propane lines properly and removing the trim. We ended up with a lot of empty space because our new fridge was so tiny. So, we decided to cut some birch and create a custom built fridge box with extra storage. It came out better than we ever could've imagined. Though we're still undecided on whether to stain it, paint it, or just leave it au naturale, it looks pretty damn cool. Trim options to be assessed shortly. We're going to write more in detail about the process of RV fridge removal and installing this new puppy, as well as our full RV solar setup in the next few weeks. But in the meantime, here are a few pics. STAY TUNED! |
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