Unfortunately

 I had to do what I really didn't want to do and that is asking for money. Martha is in such bad shape the price tag to get the materials to get her liveable again is higher than I expected. Now, yes, I could go buy another RV and move on, problem is, Martha is an RV I have now and it's not saleable in her current state. If you find it in yourself to help us get her back on the road then all I can say at the moment is thank you. But I can say I do have a lot more posts coming I am just super busy getting homework done and helping serve our country. So, Thank you to all of you. Thank you for keeping a light at the end of this dark tunnel.

GoFundMe Martha

The Backstory

 This post will be my longest post but will also give a little bit of hindsight to this blog. So here we go....

Our Gem is a 1999 Monaco Diplomat 38A  VIN: 1RF120514X2005581, Serial #: 990119713873009, and Coach #: 104468. I bought her in 2014 after losing my car in an accident due to a red-light runner. I had to get a new car which was more than what I could afford living on-post so we got an RV and Full-timed to cover the difference. Ok back to the backstory, We started F/T in Dec. of 2014, and on our first night we had a leak from the kitchen faucet drain, which I fixed promptly with flex seal, I planned on properly fixing it. Well, we lived in her for about 9 months with an occasional poop flood due to clean out, this happened 4 times. We promptly cleaned up, even used Microban to ensure the rv was sanitized and we didn't have residual poop in the hard to reach places. During this time I hate the front overhead since it was built for an older tube TV, so I began ripping it out to redesign a new one in its place made for an LED tv. I got orders to South Korea so we packed up and lived in Korea for two years while Martha, the RV, was in storage in El Paso, TX. By the way, it is a great place to store an RV. We had no mice, snakes, or well anything to deal with while it was stored. We came back about six months in and did a thorough cleaning since when we left, it was a literal mess we left behind. 

Well, a year and a half later and we come back to a clean and oxidized RV. We took her out and began the process of getting her ready for her longest voyage with us as of yet, a nearly 950-mile trek to Fort Riley, KS. I replaced the oil, coolant, generator oil, and fuel filter, and every other filter I could find.  Surprise, the slide-out motor decided to say, "I hate you", and died on us. ~$100 later and a week for the part to come in, the slideout was still broken. We bought a trailer and hauled our left behind belongings from El Paso, TX to Junction City, KS. By the way, she pulled that 7,000-8,500 lb trailer with no problems. Surprisingly enough we were getting about 8-9 MPG all the way, even with running the generator at night for charging the batteries and running our fridge. We get to Fort Riley and we have no issues with driving her to and from post each and every day. I didn't have a vehicle due to it being shipped back from Korea. We found a quiet and nice RV park in Abilene, KS, and drove the 45 min trek back and forth each day, with staying on-post till I was done for the day. Ran the generator for the family to keep A/Cs on and to allow for the kiddos to watch TV and the wife to handle the daily tasks she needed to get done, i.e. read a book, and not wanna kill the kids. That was a joke by the way. Remember, my slide-out is still broken, I have been getting parts made from a local machining company, which by the way they are a godsend, I was able to get the new motor, new connectors, and new modified rods in to successfully get the slide out to open and close on its own. Well, we were good till one night, while the wife was in the shower..., she smelled a very distinct smell. FIRE!!! Oh the dread, our 1990s model Kariba washer had finally given up, after washing hundreds of loads of clothes, and caught on fire, which was put out before it could harm Martha. It was a small fire but a fire nonetheless, which in every RVers mind is the worst thing that could happen. Well, I put it out and officially decommissioned the combo washer-dryer, that I had got back to working condition just 3 years earlier. 

Deployment, great gotta leave, and haven't even assessed if the wife can handle herself in the RV after we just had a fire. We have no ability to wash clothes in the RV which means we gotta use one of the two washers and dryers in the provided laundry room. So, we decided, for now, to move on-post and park Martha in storage at the same place we were full-timing at, Four Seasons RV in Abilene, KS. The storage area was just part of a farmer's field which means field mice.

Well now, we are finally caught up to the most current status of Martha. While Martha was in storage, we would occasionally go and check on her from time to time. My first time after my deployment, that I actually looked at Martha and checked the inside out, I was horrified. I had mold right behind the Driver's seat. The slide-out that I spent weeks fixing had pulled in the ever so annoying slide out awning in with it and allowed for the rain, snowmelt, and every other water source to come in and run havoc all down and around the front portion of the slide. Well, that's a project for another day, when I have the time when I have the money, or well pretty much never since I had neither of those. She spent two more years, for a total of around 3 years in the storage facility until I was able to have a place where I could actually park her at my house. Yes, I bought a house and then went and drove Martha to said house. Oh, how joyous a day that was. It wasn't, not only was I combating a mold problem, but mice had decided that they liked Martha so much that they made little homes in any crevice they could find. Well, when you have mice you have SNAKES! I absolutely hate snakes and so when I saw a small one on my countertop in the kitchen, I freaked. He was dead but still. So on this day in June that we decided to go save Martha from her hellish parking spot, I had a couple problems to start with, dead, fresh battery and brakes locked up. Well, I finally got her to run but now she wouldn't move due to the brakes not releasing. The mice had gotten to the airlines and decided they liked them more somewhere else. Whelp, run to Napa and get some press connections. Now to get this girl home. I made it back in one piece, at least that I know of. 

Now we are caught up. We have begun the job of cleaning up and getting rid of the mold. Yea this is a bad idea by the way. So I begin by vacuuming as much poop and whatever else is on the floor, the snake on the counter, and the random bits on bobs the mice decided to bring in with them. Once that was complete, we began removing any and all items of our we left in there out to help with the cleaning process. Wiped down the walls, the countertops, the tables, and the floors. Now, we are on the mold removal and getting rid of the ever so wonderful carpet that was installed. Come to find out, it was not the original carpet. This coach had a pinkish, rosy carpet that someone decided they didn't like and had it replaced. I removed and tossed the mold-filled jackknife flowery couch and the mold-filled carpet. After removing that, I found that the mold and water damage had gotten into the subfloor of the RV and the subfloor of the slide-out. Not only was that need replacing, but the walls of the slide-out, near the front of it, needed to be cleaned out and repaired, or so we thought. There was residual water in the wall past the styrofoam and into the batting and the wood backing of the fiberglass outside. We have begun clearing the walls, in that area, of all styrofoam, batting, and paneling. The Captain and Co-Captain chairs have been removed and so has the Co-Captain drink holder and storage area has been removed. The Captain area has had the side control panel removed and the center drawers with the assembly removed. The dash portion that houses the instrument cluster has been removed. While removing most of the dash area, I had to vacuum again as there were two more nests in that area. The vinyl flooring has been removed from the front, which showed that the water from the slide-out had been running along the area by the captain's chair and is soaked in water. More than likely, the walls next to the driver will need replacing, the front area behind the 'firewall' will need to be replaced possibly. Well, that's what I have been up to for the last few days now. Oh and pretty any and all wiring in the front has been eaten plum through. So please wish me good luck on figuring out where each and every wire goes. 

So, what is our goal for Martha? Well, that is not a simple question and it doesn't have a simple answer. I do not know. The overall plan hopefully, if finances allow, we would like to repair all damage and do an entire update with Ikea on the interior. We want her to be inviting and with 3 kids now, we need the ability to sleep, everyone. I would love to take her out of the '90s with new LEDs and a more modern paint job as she is really faded now. We hope to have her around for many more years and enjoy her even if not as full-timers then as seasonal and whenever and wherever the military takes us.  Oh, by the way, did I let you all know, I have 4 months to get Martha up, running, and liveable before we leave for Fort Drum, New York?

Sorry for the Loooooooong post. Future updates will be shorter I promise. The pictures posted are of Martha in El Paso a few months after we had bought her.  If you have any recommendations on cost savings or where to get random parts, please let me know, honestly, anything and everything helps. I will be posting in the other areas when needed. We love RVing and really love our RV we just want to do what's right for Martha and for the long journey ahead.