19-31MAR12 - Sultan, WA (unpacking)

On Monday morning, 19MAR, with the assistance of Cameron we continued unloading the rental Penske truck. Our initial “sorting” of the household goods was all boxes in the garage for eventual unpacking & further sorting; & furniture in the house, hopefully in the room that Corrie would eventually decided it belonged. We then returned the truck Tuesday morning.

The rest of the month was spent off & on unpacking the boxes, along with installing shelving in the pantry/laundry room; then trying to decide where everything was to go! We thought we had significantly “downsized” our possessions five years ago in Houma, LA; but trying to jam what we had leftover into a house that is 1000 square feet smaller than the Houma house has been very challenging! Also, the amount of wrapping paper that came out of each box seemed to defy the laws of physics & exceeded the volume of the box itself? The end result was almost daily runs to the recycling center in the Toad to insure we weren’t overwhelmed by the debris.

During our almost two weeks of unpacking we were treated to snow on Thursday, 22MAR; supposedly the third day of spring. So much for spring in the Pacific northwest. Thankfully we also enjoyed a brief visit from Dan’s cousin Steve, wife Bonnie, & son Kenneth on Sunday, 25MAR. They had been visiting family & friends in the area, & were returning to their homestead in Kittitas, WA, where we have visited many times in the RV.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2011/10/06-15oct11-various-wa-or-ut-nm-tx-la.html

Tuesday, 27MAR, the septic system received its quarterly service; see the below BLOG about why our system needs a $200 service, even though no one has used it for five months. Later that day we had a DISH Satellite system installed. In five years of RV’ing we have not felt the need for satellite TV & the cost involved. Most parks have cable, & many times we could pick up “free” HD TV from the a nearby city(ies). Unfortunately, where our house is located we cannot pick up any broadcast TV stations; which means installing cable & then paying monthly fees even for months we are not here.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2011/09/07-30sep11-sultan-wa-house-construction.html

So we decided to have satellite installed in the RV, & then transfer the satellite box to the house when in town. We had been asking other RV’ers about satellite TV over the years. In general, the consensus was that DIRECT was better than DISH. So when Dan went to the local satellite store, he was focused on DIRECT. But DISH had one feature that DIRECT didn’t. DISH now has a one satellite box that allows two TVs to operate independently of each other!

In other systems you need one box for each TV to watch different channels. Of course each box results in additional leasing fees every month. DISH now has one box that provides full HD TV to the TV you designate as TV #1; then that digital HD signal is converted to an analog SD signal that is sent to TV #2. You also receive two special remotes to ensure that both TVs operate completely independent of each other without having two satellite boxes! Isn’t technology great? Unfortunately we didn’t have enough money to pay for all of the portable satellite dish.

The following picture has nothing to do with our RV adventures, just something Dan has added to his to do list!