At "Home" in Ohio...

Up until a week ago, we had been "home" in Ohio with Todd's parents since arriving there in mid-November.  In addition to spending the holidays at home, we also wanted to spend some extended time with Todd's parents to finish a few more projects around the house (installing more railings and grab bars, sealing and painting the basement floor, cleaning out closets, installing a new water heater, fixing anything that was not working, shoveling snow, cleaning the flower beds for spring, and so on...).  Over the course of our five month stay, we managed to take a few quick trips to visit friends in Chicago, Shonah's family in Illinois, and Todd's relatives in Washington, D.C. and New York.  We are now on the road again heading in a round-about loop South through Nashville to Texas, through Phoenix and then on to Montana, before heading back to Ohio after a few months.

Ohio is also now officially our "home".  This decision came about for the same primary reason for the residency change from South Dakota to Texas... health care options.  In late 2015 we learned that our great low-cost multi-state plan that we had in Texas was being discontinued by Blue Cross Blue Shield.  The new plans only offered in-network coverage within the state of Texas and since we do not spend much time in Texas, we knew we needed to seek other options.  We decided that since we spend more time in Ohio, it made sense for us to search for options there. 

One of the benefits of the residency change is that we finally have STEV back....



Our EarthRoamer donning the moniker STEV (an acronym for Shonah and Todd's Expedition Vehicle) once again. 



One of the goals during this trip back home was to acquire an auxiliary vehicle for us to use while home and to possibly take with us for use during extended trips.  Say hello to STEV's little brother...STEV II (the 2nd), a 2006 Land Rover LR3.

Since we had an auxiliary vehicle at our disposal, we took advantage of that freedom and explored more of what Ohio has to offer and were able to stay more active during our travelling downtime.  We explored a farmer's market, went hiking, went snowshoeing, explored a couple of communities during their annual ice festivals (basically ice carving festivals), saw a musical production, and joined a new gym, to name just a few of our leisure activities.



Chip and Todd enjoying our first snowshoe adventure in part of the network of the MetroParks system near Cleveland, Ohio.



Chip and Shonah taking a photo break

Chip and Todd during our second day of showshoeing.  Since the snow wasn't that deep, we decided to just hike instead.



Shonah and Chip posing for a photo underneath a tree during a fresh snowfall....courtesy of a trekking pole.  Chip didn't enjoy the snow shower as much as Shonah did.

Sean, Shonah and Jeff enjoying dinner during a visit to Chicago.  A visit to Chicago wouldn't be complete without a visit with Jeff and Sean.

In addition to the projects around Todd's parents house, there's always a few projects on our list for our home on wheels.  Thankfully, most of the projects in this go-round were for livability and convenience and only a few technical maintenance items like resealing the front windows and top hatches, adding heavier gauge front battery cables and replacing the two engine serpentine belts (where Todd would like to shoot the Ford engineer who designed in a second belt for our auxiliary alternator that is supposed to require radiator removal to replace.  Luckily, Todd found a shortcut that worked which involved bending and trying not to break a few plastic parts.  Even countless Google searches didn't have this idea).



While sitting in Ohio, we noticed water leaking in our front windows.  After further inspection, it became obvious that the sealant around the windows needed to be replaced and since we were doing those, why not do the top hatches - right?  In the picture above, Todd is scraping off the old silicone to make way for the new.



Our entrance stairs have never been the same since being hit by the paperboy's car during a visit to New York.  At least now, the rust and peeling reflectors have been removed and a fresh coat of paint, new reflectors and new carpet make them look somewhat like new.

Truth be told, Shonah does most of the interior cleaning and has been due for a vacuum upgrade for some time.  Finally haggling a sale price that we couldn't pass up (and Todd's real-life experience using a Dyson at Sean's house), Shonah got his Dyson complete with a custom charging station and home in the wardrobe.



One of the early projects on our vehicle was to remove the two rear cab seats and add storage racks for totes on one side and files and tools on the other.  This time our project was to add a false floor that continued the living space floor into the cab area.  Also in the picture is a new custom center console we built as a new seat for Chip (our dog) and storage for us.



The new false floor creates storage compartments for our coffee pods, soda and wine.  It also keeps this area from becoming our catch-all storage area that we constantly found ourselves having to crawl over and avoid stepping on.



Since Chip outgrew his old seat, we removed the stock center console and added a custom console with a four-bar mechanism that raises Chip's seat up and back so he can see where we're going and we can see our side mirrors while driving.  The console also gives us additional storage for our coffee mugs, water bottles, computer and miscellaneous items we like to have handy up front.

Just before heading back out on the road, we took some time to wash, wax and polish our home on wheels.  We think everyone will admit that STEV looks pretty good for being 10 years old...