Cleaning Gracie

Gracie has been getting dirtier and dirtier over the past months. We had her washed and waxed in Mexico (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/01/cleaning-day.html), but it seems that everywhere we've been since then has been dusty and grimy. We had asked on Monday morning before we left Yakima Sportsman State Park, and they said it was fine if we washed it there... but we were only able to get the front washed before it was time for us to be heading onwards to Crescent Bar.

Carl happened to ask as we checked in at Crescent Bar if it was okay for us to wash the rig while we were here, and surprisingly, the ranger said it would be fine! We decided we had better take advantage of the permission where it was granted as many campgrounds do not allow washing of rigs or vehicles.

Thursday was supposed to be a less hot day, so we decided to wash the Jeep and at least one side of Gracie.

Jeep already finished, we're working on the passenger side of Gracie...

I would spray the water on the side, Carl would use the brush to soap it down, and then I would rinse and dry as much as I could to try to eliminate water spots.

It is looking better! (is that gleam off of Gracie's shine?)

Carl is so good about taking pictures -- and therefore he doesn't get included in many of them...

... suffice it to say that he was doing the really hard work of scrubbing with the brush. We found that we had to be sure that either the brush or a cloth wiped every surface or the grime just didn't come off.

We had learned when we washed it in Wisconsin last summer that the grooves and bends on the back of the rig were particularly hard to get the grime off of... the brush starts the task, but then a damp cloth is needed to get it finished.

So, on Thursday, we got the Jeep completed, and the passenger side and back of Gracie done. The front had been kind-of done at Yakima on Monday.

On Saturday morning, before it got too hot, we set about to finish Gracie...

We wanted to get the radius at the roof-line cleaned -- that's a part of the rig that really gets sun damage, as well as scratches from trees. Since we had already cleaned the passenger side, we didn't want to have water going down the side, so we cleaned with damp cloths and used a liquid cleaner/wax product to finish up.

Carl also cleaned the solar panels - wow, were they ever dirty!

We didn't really plan to clean the entire roof, but we ended up doing most of it...

... once again, Carl was taking the pictures, **and** doing a ton of work... but I only got this one picture of him working!

On Saturday, we ended up doing the roof including radius and solar panels, and the driver's side.

Whoo! A big job, and one we're glad to have completed!

We'd still like to work on the front some more - we just weren't able to really get all the bugs off when we did it at Yakima on Monday morning. But... Gracie is a LOT cleaner than she has been the last couple of months!