BACK IN SACRAMENTO MAKING BIG PLANS AND PASTA SAUCE

After almost a year, we are back at Cal Expo RV Park (click here to read our review from a past visit) in our ex-hometown, Sacramento, California.  Visiting family and friends tops our agenda, with medical appointments, mechanical repairs, and catching up on deferred projects filling out our time here.

It’s been over seven years since we left Sacramento, yet we still know our way around this town better than any other, and we stay put longer here than anywhere else (a month at a time!).  Because of that, there are things we need, or need to do, that we put off until we arrive back here – mostly time-consuming stuff.  Researching big purchases.  Car repairs that we’ve deferred.  Reorganizing and purging our “stuff”.  I renew my cold weather wardrobe here, revisiting favorite small clothing stores (the stores are small, not my clothing – unfortunately).  There is always plenty to keep us busy!

This month, we have another big project to plan: renovations to our motorhome.  Although the engine and chassis of a diesel motorhome may well last as long as we want to travel, the interior furnishing don’t!  Our carpeting is dingy with the effects of 8 years of constant wear, and our window shades are tired and faded.  The loud CLUNK our washing machine makes at the end of each cycle would wake the dead.  Our huge windshield bulges a bit on the upper left corner; in the worst parking situations, we slap a piece of duct tape on the corner in case it rains.  And we’d really like to replace the big, old, heavy, analog TV that hangs over the dashboard with a new, lightweight, flat screen digital model.

For a (short) while, we toyed with the idea of upgrading to a newer (not NEW, just newer), larger motorhome; four slides look mighty appealing.  We’ve been very comfortable in Scoopy, though, and don’t want to take on the kind of debt a newer rig would require, so we’ve settled on renovating.  Now we’re trying to put a budget together, and have a couple questions for our readers:

If you have switched from carpet to hard flooring in your motorhome (ours is 38 feet), what type of flooring did you choose, and why?  Are you happy with it?  What did it cost you to make the switch (we’re looking for a ballpark number to plug into the budget)?

If you have changed from the original shades (we have the two-part day/night shades made of accordion-folded fabric), what did you get?  Are you happy?  We are considering blinds (possibly wood slats).  We’ve heard good things about MCD shades (with a solar daylight shade screen and a light-blocking night shade), but they seem quite costly.  Any good/bad experiences with either, or suggestions for other alternatives?

If you have any advice for us, we’d love to get your comments, or you can email us directly at LBandOK (at) gmail.com (in standard format).

As I write, Odel is cooking his special pasta sauce, filling Scoopy with the most enticing smell!  He agreed to share his recipe with you, so I’ve added it to the recipe archive. 

This is the best red pasta sauce I’ve every tasted.  When I first met Odel, he made it with beef and mushrooms.  Since I don’t like mushrooms, he switched to olives (much better), then experimented with Italian sausage instead of beef (even BETTER).  This is the perfected recipe that he has made for the last several years.  We like it best on short, sturdy pasta (shells, tubes or bowties) that can easily be forked up with sausage and olives.  The recipe makes eight servings; we eat two servings the day he makes the sauce, then divide the rest into 3 zip lock baggies and pop them in the freezer for an easy dinner later.  Enjoy!