With the damage in the rear corner, it was clear we needed to remove the entire panel and rebuild it. This was also part of my strategy to lift the trailer box off of the floor. I started to remove the staples last night but it was so hot, and the staple remover I had purchased on Amazon bent within minutes. It had been a long day at work and I figured I would have more energy in the morning.
The next day I found a couple of new tools to try and I worked on pulling out the staples down the sides and along the bottom of the end panels. They came off more easily than expected because the floor was rotten. I hadn’t intended on removing the front panel but realized that what remained of a “wall” in the front of the trailer was full of some sort of fungus and was not going to support the weight of the roof much longer. I treated all four corners of the trailer with the wood hardener once again and this time I left the rear corner clamped with a bunch of clamps to try and remove the warping that had set in from water damage.
We just couldn’t take the heat anymore and decided to take a drive out to the beach. We have had our place in Santa Rosa for two years now and this was the first time we made it out to Bodega Bay. We joined a long line of folks at the Fishetarian Fish Market and enjoyed some takeout and cold drinks by the water.
It was a good reminder of why we decided to buy up here. If we drive an hour or less in any direction we are somewhere we love. Beaches to the west, San Francisco to the south, Napa to the east and Clear Lake to the north. Every weekend when we come up we are always doing projects and working. We need to remember to stop and enjoy the area too. We took the long way home driving up the coastline to Jenner and then returning along the Russian River.
The most challenging part of living in this amazing area is the ever growing wildfire danger. After our wonderful day of making progress on the trailer, and our escape to the cooler Sonoma coast we were rocked awake around 4:30 am by one of the most extreme thunder storms I have experienced. We stood in awe at our sliding glass door watching the hills around us receive lightning strikes. Thankfully this storm actually produced a late summer rainstorm as well. Unfortunately the wind that proceeded it ripped our roof vent clean off. We actually didn’t even realize it was gone until I was standing in the living room and felt rain start to hit my face. We did the best we could to catch the drips with a trash bag until daylight when we could assess the damage. Once the sun rose it was to a very beautiful and moody sky.
We lost power for a while but thankfully our RV has batteries that run the 12v power systems so we still had lights. Once the sun was up we called every RV place around to try and find a replacement vent cover. It was a Sunday though and we just didn’t have an luck as most RV shops seem to be closed on weekends, which is still very strange to me. We found a chunk of vinyl shelf liner and some flex tape at the hardware store and I climbed up on the roof to create a patch. The little trailer didn’t get any more attention today as we needed to pack up and head home for the work week ahead. We are so grateful that none of those lightning strikes caused a fire near us.
