Our RV Adventures

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After dropping off a couple of DVD’s at the office, Jan and I had lunch at Snooze once again.

Really good as always.

* * * * *

Getting home about 3pm, Jan and I turned into the SpaceFlightNow Youtube channel to watch the upcoming SpaceX Starship 7 launch. Though the launch window opened at 4pm, the actual launch was at 4:38pm.

And about 6:30 minutes later we got to watch the Super Heavy Booster return to the tower in a perfect catch.

You can watch a video here.

But a couple of minutes later things went off the rails when telemetry was lost with the Starship 2nd stage, leading to this photo as the debris field passed over the Turks And Caicos.

According to Musk –

Preliminary indication is that we had an oxygen/fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall that was large enough to build pressure in excess of the vent capacity.

Apart from obviously double-checking for leaks, we will add fire suppression to that volume and probably increase vent area. Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month.

One thing to remember is that this Starship was pretty much a completely new design. It’s over 6’ taller and much heavier, with new grid fins and new heat tiles.

As Elon said as he watched the reentering debris field, “Success is uncertain, but entertainment is guaranteed!”

* * * * *

A crowded parking lot in 1872 San Antonio

Some things never change.

Thought for the Day:

Sometimes the first step to forgiveness is to finally realize that the other person is just a complete idiot and not worth your time.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 16, 2012

Spicy Chicken and RunPee . . .

Today was a fun day for us.

After a relaxing morning of coffee and conversation, we headed out about noon to our first stop, lunch at King Food. Then after a delicious meal of Hot & Sour Soup and Extra Spicy Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, we drove up I-45 to the AMC Cinema 30 for a 2pm movie, in this case, Twilight – Breaking Dawn, Pt 1. Jan’s a big fan of both the books and the movies, and though I’ve never read any of the books, the movies are pretty good.

Of course we used RunPee to check out good times to make a bathroom run. RunPee also lets us know if there other scenes after the credits, and in this case, there was.

The movie was really good, and we’re both looking forward to Part II.

Leaving the movie a little after 4pm, we stopped off at my client’s office for a few minutes to be sure everything was working with the new equipment I installed last night.

Finding everything OK and everyone happy, we headed down I-45 to Dickinson to have dinner at Monterey’s Little Mexico, before getting back to the rig around 6pm.

It was nice to have a day pretty much to ourselves.

January 16, 2013

Completely Unexpected . . .

We woke up to something completely unexpected this morning, something we haven’t seen in almost two weeks.

A bright sunny morning. Even Mister wanted to go outside.

Still cold, at 39 degrees, but bright and sunny anyway. And it should stay that way for the next 10 days or so.

Of course, the same people that are telling us that, originally told us that it would be cloudy and rainy for the next 3 days,

After a nice morning, Jan and I headed out about 2pm for some errands and dinner. My first stop was at a client’s office to take care of some orders, and then I walked across the street to a friend’s Heating & Air Conditioning office. He only does HVAC now, but used to do appliance repair as well, and I thought he could give me a lead on getting a replacement thermal fuse for our dryer.

My friend sent me to another place that he thought might have it, and those people sent me to a third place that didn’t have it either.

Well, they didn’t have the exact part, but I did find a substitute that I think will work.

The only difference is that it blows at a slightly lower temperature, which should work OK. We’ll see

Our dinner stop was at Jason’s Deli, our favorite soup and sandwich shop. We’ve eaten here for years and always enjoy it. Jan had a 1/4 Turkey Muffuletta and a cup of Broccoli Cheese soup, while I had my usual Southwest Chicken Chili. Always delicious.

Next was a stop at the house to pick up our mail and a couple of packages, and then it was on to Wal-Mart for a few things.

Finally getting home a little before 7, and after we got things put away, I installed the new part in the washer/dryer and put the top back on. I’ll install it tomorrow morning.

I did do something different this time that should help me get the washer out easier next time. I fastened two straps to the washer inside the top, one on each side.

I will pull them down the back and under the washer, and leave them out of sight underneath the front of the washer. Then the next time I have to pull it out of the cabinet, it should be a lot easier. Time will tell.

January 16, 2014

Is Your Refrigerator Spying On You?

I spent most of today completely emptying the back of our Dodge Dakota, sorting stuff, throwing away stuff, saving stuff, and then trying to put it all back in some logical order.

I did find some things I’d been looking for, but what’s really funny is that I not only found things I didn’t know I was missing, but I also found things that I didn’t even know I had.

I guess these were things that I bought either right before or right after we started RV’ing 6 years ago, but in some cases, I don’t even remember buying them.

Oh well, that’s what Spring (early) Cleaning is for.

After commenting yesterday about how our old gate was still going strong, I must have jinxed things. Our fellow gate guard, Orlyn, called this evening to say that our replacements, Jim and Linda Mossman, were released from the gate this afternoon, and Orlyn and his wife will be leaving their railroad crossing gate as soon as new warning signs are made up and installed. Hope they get a new gate soon.

And now for something completely different. Well, maybe a few things.

First off, for all those stars who botch the singing, or forget the words, to the National Anthem, check out 7-year-old Rhema. A couple of the notes she hits are amazing. This should be required watching for all prospective National Anthem singers.

Rhema sings the National Anthem

Next, if you’re of a technical bent, here’s the first detailed explanation of how the Target credit card data theft was done. Turns out the malware was actually installed on the credit card terminals themselves, which explains how they were able to also get the PIN numbers.

And here’s an article that talks about how your cat thinks you’re just another big, lazy cat. This can’t be right. Mister thinks he’s people, just like us.

Well, maybe not just like us. Mister thinks he’s smarter. And in some cases, I think he’s right.

Lastly, your TV, thermostat, or refrigerator may have been infiltrated. Basically, anything that now connects to the Internet is open to hackers. In this case, more than 100,000 devices were under hacker’s control and used to send out malicious emails.

Could your water meter be next?

January 16, 2015

Well, It’s A Start . . .

After my call to American Coach yesterday about my leaky shower, I decided to give Moen a call to double-check about the leak. I had asked American if it was possible that a faulty cartridge could cause the leak. They didn’t think so, but couldn’t be absolutely sure.

I replaced the cartridge back in February 2011 when we were in Yuma for a rally, but for a different reason. It didn’t want to turn off completely.

So just to be sure I called Moen who said, yes, it is possible for a defective cartridge to leak out the back without showing any leakage from the front. So I’ve got a reprieve from cutting a hole in the wall, al least until I try a new cartridge.

I’ll pick one up when we’re down in the Clear Lake area tomorrow.

They’re about $40 or so, but if I don’t need it, I’ll keep it for a spare. I did find my cartridge puller in one of the bins outside this afternoon, so I’m all ready to go.

I’ll probably pull the old cartridge out Sunday morning so I’ll have the entire day to work on it.

Later in the afternoon, I got the ladder out of the truck and had another go at the drilling mud on the roof. The white semicircle is from my first vinegar test.

I sprayed the front area down, and was hoping to see the stuff start running off. But it didn’t quite work like that. It still took a lot of scrubbing with a brush, but it did start to come off. One problem was that the sun was out enough to dry up the vinegar before it really had time to soak in. So it was squirt and scrub, squirt and scrub. But I did make some progress.

It’s a start, I guess.

I’m kind of thinking about getting some old towels, soaking them in vinegar, and then laying them on the roof so that the vinegar will have time to do its work. Then I can just spray the towels to keep them wet. So I’ll see how that works.

About 4pm Jan and I headed up to Peter’s BBQ for their Friday Night BBQ Buffet. At $11.50, including drink, it’s a real bargain. Unfortunately, it may be our last visit for a while, since we head back to Conroe this coming Wednesday. And hopefully down to Galveston Bay RV Resort soon after.

Tomorrow afternoon, Jan’s having her annual coworker get-together dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse down in Webster, so we’ll be heading down that way about 3pm.

January 16, 2016

Last Time For A While . . .

Well, our walk this morning was rained out again. 52° and wet is not very conducive to a pleasant walk in the countryside. So I guess we’ll pick it back up at Lake Conroe on Monday. Hopefully in our next two weeks there, we’ll be able to bump our 1.5 miles a day up to 2 miles. But I guess it depends on if the weather holds.

Last night/this morning I got on the phone with Godaddy to move the last of my web hosting accounts from Superb.net over to Godaddy. The means that they will now host all my domain names, websites, and blogs. And it will be nice to have everything in one place.

When I first started doing websites for clients back in 1997, GoDaddy had only gotten off the ground, and I don’t think I had even heard of them at the time. At that time there was only one place to register domain names and that was with Network Solutions. And there weren’t a lot of hosting companies either.

And most of the ones that were, were pretty expensive. But finally I found Superb.net, a company that was formed to support small business users. So I was able to bulk-buy 500 megabytes of host space where I could set up as many websites as I needed.

I started out with one hosting account, and eventually added a second one, where I hosted over 40 websites at the peak. But over the years, as more host companies came online, rates started dropping, and as they dropped I started moving more and more stuff off Superb and over to Godaddy.

But I kept the last two domains on Superb because they hosted a very busy online shopping site and was protected with an SSL certificate to allow safe credit card processing. But recently I bit the bullet and started moving the last of it over.

And last night was the last of the last. All that was left was one domain, which was only being used as an email forwarding address site. So I wanted to get things moved over to Godaddy quickly to be sure no emails were lost. The domain name itself was already hosted at Godaddy so it was just a matter of changing out the DNS addresses to move it over.

Now normally when you do this, it can take from minutes to hours to days for the switch to be actually be made. This can be a problem, because until the switchover is made, I can’t set up the email forwarding addresses, so emails can be lost. But this time Godaddy surprised even me. It literally took seconds.

I made the DNS changes, clicked SAVE, and then opened a new tab, typed in the URL, pressed RETURN, and the changeover was complete. Literally seconds.

Well done, Godaddy!

We were driving back into Katy to once again have dinner at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro. Of course we were just here last night, But it’s good enough to eat at two nights in a row. And it’s not like Jan and I had a problem with that either.

And neither did Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, either. And Lowell’s sister, Sherry joined us too.

After a great meal, and a great time, we said our goodbyes. But before heading home, we made a stop at a nearby Lowe’s to pick up a new drinking water faucet.

We finally got home about 8:45 after a very nice last day here at Colorado River. Tomorrow we leave for Lake Conroe.

January 16, 2017

First Night on the Gate . . .

Well, Jan and I survived our first night shift on the gate, her as Gate Guard out by the highway in the guard shack and me working out of my truck on the pad, 5 miles inside the gate.

The night went fairly fast, with the only downside when it rained for a bit and turned my little corner of the pad into a mudhole.

The route into the pad is very convoluted, with a lot of turns, Y’s, T’s, and deadends. There are maybe 40 pads spread out over miles of roads, none of which are on any map or GPS.

I’m really glad I drove out there on Saturday in the daylight, otherwise, I might have had a problem too. But, although no roads show up on the GPS, it does leave a trail of blue dots on the screen that I can now follow in and out.

One guy left the pad about 7:30pm heading home for the night. Then he showed back up about an hour later, lost and bewildered. I guess I got him back on track because he never showed back up.

Of course, he could just still be driving around out there somewhere.

The whole phone thing continues to confuse me. I was happy to see that we have a good signal and can make calls from the proposed new RV park, so that’s a plus for moving.

But on the strange side, apparently, although I can’t make calls from that area, I can receive them.

And of course, I still have text and data.

Landon’s doing the flag football thing this year.

Looks like he’s having fun.

Since I can’t do the blog from our gate right now, new blogs may be kind of intermittent.  But I’ll get them up when I can.

January 16, 2018

A Three Dog Night?

We don’t have any dogs so it’ll be a 3 heater, one cat night.

Well, last night’s low was 31°, and the high today creeped up to 40° and that was about it. And then tonight we’re looking for either 21° to 23° depending on which weather service you want to believe, Of course neither one is ideal.

With these upcoming temps I had planned to set up my heat lamp in our water bay to keep things warm. But I found my heat lamp bulb hadn’t survived storage in the basement and the lamp wasn’t much better so around 11:30 I drove over to the Santa Fe Tractor Supply to pick up a new set.

The temp was about 37° so I had no problems with ice on the roads, but it had rained last night and again this morning so as the temp drops it’s going to get messy.

In fact, based on the predicted dangerous road conditions tomorrow morning I’m worried about whether or not we’ll be able to get to the hospital tomorrow morning for Jan’s lithotripsy procedure.

And with all businesses and schools already closed tomorrow, when a call came in from the hospital around 11am, I was expecting a cancellation, but it was just a confirmation call. But I wouldn’t be surprised to get a call tomorrow morning.

They’re saying tonight will be the coldest in Houston in 22 years. Yikes!

I know Jan just wants to get it all over with, but we’ll have to see. Hopefully it will work out.

By the time I went out to set up the heat lamp in the bay, it was 31° and ice was everywhere. I even had trouble unscrewing the hose connections so I could disconnect us from shore water. I also put a remote thermometer in the bay so I can monitor things.

I was happy to see the temp in the bay quickly climb from 30 to 39°, so hopefully that will take care of things.

About 8:30 I went outside to check on the truck for tomorrow morning. Rime ice was already coating things so I unstuck the wiper blades and left them folded out so they won’t be froze to the windshield tomorrow. I also got the truck door unstuck and open. But it did take a bit. I went out for a couple of hours and repeated the process, and I’ll do it again before I go to bed. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get in the truck tomorrow.

Stay warm out there.

January 16, 2019

A Reprieve . . .

This morning started off at the Post Office. We had a package that tracking showed as out for delivery on December 28th at 11:07am.

Then sometime later that day an Alert popped up saying that ‘due to an unforeseen operation issue’ delivery was rescheduled for the next business day. And at that point, it just disappeared. Never to be tracked again.

After letting the Holidays pass, I called the PO on Monday the 7th, gave them the tracking number and left my name and phone number. And then did it again on the 9th when I hadn’t heard anything.

And when I still hadn’t heard anything on Friday, I called again, and then let the phone ring for about 15 minutes with no answer. And then again this past Monday, I made two more unanswered calls for 10-15 minutes each.

So figuring that the Post Office had started the Government Shutdown early, by not answering the phone, I stopped in on the way into work. And, in a ‘new’ twist, they took my name and phone number and said they’d call me.

For some reason, I’m not really hopeful. But that’s probably just me.

And in a related note, I also handled another missing 1st Class package, this one we sent out to a customer in Bogota, Colombia, where as it happens I used to live in the early 60’s.  And in a ‘strange’ coincidence, it also disappeared on the 28th of December. But in Bogota, this time.

And even the tracking was funny. It left Houston on the 13th of December and then took 4 days to get to Chicago. Why Chicago, I don’t know. That’s kind of in the wrong direction.

Then, it sat in Chicago from the 17th to the 28th. Doing what, I don’t know. Finally on the 28th, it left Chicago, went to Atlanta, and then on to Bogota. All on the 28th.

And then it too disappeared. Something strange about the 28th, I guess.

Landon’s just started his 3rd year of Hockey, and he’s ready to go.

We’re going up there on Sunday to see him play, and then have lunch with them at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood. Really looking forward to it.

And even better, Miss Piper may be going up with us.

Finishing up, we did get a little reprieve on Jan’s cataract surgery tomorrow morning. Last time we had to be there at 5:15am. But we get to sleep a couple of hours extra tomorrow since we don’t have to be there until 7:30.

Woo-Hoo!

January 16, 2020

And Now We Wait And See . . .

I was outside and under the rig a little after 1pm to reinstall our rig’s gasket/oil adapter head/filter combination, and hopefully finally fix this long-term pesky oil leak.

The only problem I had was keeping the gasket aligned with the adapter head.

It’s hard to tell from the photo but the gasket and the adapter head are keyed and the bolt holes only line up in one position.

When I installed it the last time the gasket was stuck to the adapter head with the Permatex stuff so I had no problem with it shifting around. But without the sealer I had to just get one bolt started very loosely, and then used a long screwdriver to move the gasket into the right spot and then installed another bolt.

After I had all four installed and snugged down with my standard ratchet, I set my torque wrench to 20# and tighten the bolts until the ‘click’.

Next, after I took a break, I filled my new oil filter with oil and back under the rig, I lifted the filter into the place and got it started after a few tries. The real problem with this is that the filter + oil weighs about 10 pounds, and holding it overhead with one hand is not exactly easy. But finally I did get it started and tightened down by hand.

Then I used my filter strap wrench to do the final 3/4 turn to snug it down tight. And I was done.

A couple of our blog readers suggested that I let things set for 24 hours or so before I crank it up for a leak test. So since I’m not in any real hurry I’ll wait until tomorrow to give a high-idle (1000rpm) test for 30 minutes or so.

I had originally planned to do our 120 test drive this coming Sunday, but now I think will wait until Sunday week, the 28th.

And then we’ll see.

If it all looks well, we plan on heading up to Alabama for a family and friends visit. Really looking forward to it.

January 16, 2021

East Star . . .

Today was pretty slow, with lunch at East Star Chinese Buffet up in Webster. Very busy, probably the busiest we’ve seen it post-CoVid. Diners still have to use the disposable plastic gloves when serving themselves at the buffet.

Then after a stop at the office to pick up something, we drove around the Clear Lake/Kemah area before heading back toward Santa Fe, ending up with a Dollar General stop for a few things, and finally a stop for conversation and Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate at our favorite Cowboy Coffee kiosk.

A very nice day.

January 16, 2022

A Great Time Was Had By All . . .

We had one last get-together for breakfast this morning at Tequila Jalisco in Kingsland. We’ve eaten here several times for lunch and dinner, but this was our first time for breakfast.

Really good.

Last night Chris set up a fire in his firepit, but it didn’t do much to overcome the low temps and the wind.

And it didn’t take long for everyone to give up and come in.

Jan and I got back to the rig about 4:30pm after a great time.

I’ll catch up on all this starting tomorrow.

January 16, 2023

Patient Circumference?

I spent most of today at work trying to convert the manual for a new product we’re carrying into something that approximates American English. Made in Poland, the manual they supply is in English.

But even though all the words are in English, when they’re arranged in sentences something seems to be lost in the translation.

For example, tell me what this means.

“automatic control of patient circumference”

I dare you.

But I’ll figure it out eventually.

Here’s a couple of more photos of yesterday’s Falcon Heavy launch,

showing the power of the 27 engines.

And they’re not even at full power yet. That doesn’t happen until after MaxQ.

Tomorrow looks to be Snooze, Aldi’s and WalMart.

January 16, 2024

We Survived . . .

We live through the 21° night, and it made it all the way up to 33 today, so I went out about 12:30 and hooked us back up to shore water for the afternoon/evening.

Then about 1:30 we decided to have lunch over at Yummy Yummy’s Chinese Buffet, but due to the freeze, I guess, they closed. And so was Gator’s, Monterey’s, and Wendy’s. But lucky for us, Los Rameriz Mexican was open.

While I got my usual Beef Fajita Taco Salad,

Jan went in a new direction with their Grande Combo Platter.

A little bit of everything, and both delicious.

I got some more questions about replacing the Pressure Switch on my Shurflo Water Pump. Apparently, this is a popular subject. So here’s a neat video detailing a complete tear-down and rebuild of the pump.

Hopefully this will explain everything, but let me know if you have any more questions.

Tomorrow looks to be a little warmer, with a low of 24° tonight and 48° tomorrow.

Looking forward to a little warming. At least for a while.

February is still ahead.

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Another Day . . .

Another Delay.

Due to weather concerns, SpaceX delayed the upcoming Starship #7 launch until tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, again starting at 4pm.

Here’s Hoping!

* * * * *

I recently had to replace one of our space heaters so I found this one on Amazon.

1500W Space Heater with 59-95°F Digital Thermostat

Thought it’s only about 9” high, it has a full 1500W output, using a ceramic heating element.

So far it’s working well, but I’ll keep you informed.

* * * * *

On the way home this afternoon I stopped off at Popeye’s to pick up a couple of their Ghost Pepper Chicken sandwiches that we had later around 5pm. And though they were good, they weren’t ‘Ghost Pepper’ good.

At least they weren’t all that HOT, not really hotter than their regular ‘Spicy’ chicken sandwich.

* * * * *

Los Angeles Mega-Fire the Tragic Consequence of Protecting Shrubs Before People

In 2019, the LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) began replacing nearly 100-year-old power line poles cutting through Topanga State Park, when the project was halted within days by conservationists outraged that federally endangered Braunton’s milkvetch plants had been trampled during the process.

…But, after an amateur botanist hiking through the park during the work saw the harm done to some of the park’s Braunton’s milkvetch —

— a flowering shrub with only a few thousand specimens remaining in the wild — and complained, the project was completely halted.

Instead of fire-hardening the park, the city — which the state said had undertaken the work without proper permitting — ended up paying $2 million in fines and was ordered by the California Coastal Commission to reverse the whole project and replant the rare herb.

That work saved about 200 Braunton’s milkvetch plants — almost all of which have now likely been torched in the wildfires that consumed Topanga Canyon, along with nearly 24,000 acres (37 square miles) of some of LA’s most sought-after real estate.

And now you know.

Thought For The Day:

Sure, I have a few skeletons in my closet. But really, every single one of them deserved it. Well, most of them, anyway.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 15, 2011

Our Cute Blond Chipmunk . . .

Catching up on some old stuff, someone had asked about Brandi possibly having the flu last week. Turns out it was a false alarm. After having flu-like symptoms on Monday, she felt fine on Tuesday. Dodged a bullet there.

I did get a chance to check out my new Sears Air Compressor yesterday and found it worked as advertised. It was able to inflate a rig tire from 90# to 100# in less than a minute. Probably better than I could do with on-board air compressor. Really worth the money.

On a completely different note, I found this fascinating, and maybe a little scary.

They could actually have a real live Wooly Mammoth born in the next 4-5 years.

Jurassic Park, anyone?

The other day I was going through some paperwork and came across the title for our toad, a 2004 Dodge Dakota Crew Cab pickup. It had about 101,000 miles on it when we bought it in December 2007, just a little over a month before we hit the road.

I noticed the other day when I had the brake work done that the Dakota now had over 163,000 miles on it, which means that in our 3 years of traveling, we’ve put 62,000 miles on it.

What’s amazing about this is that this does not include the 37,000 miles being towed behind Beauty. When the truck is in tow mode, it doesn’t register mileage.

This means that besides that 37,000 miles, we’ve driven the truck almost twice that distance just riding around and seeing the sights after we park the rig.

This morning, after a very late night (early morning??) we left the rig a little before 11am heading to the Texas Tea Room to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for lunch. We’ve really grown to like this place, with their great soups and sandwiches.

Jan was going to Landon-sit this afternoon while Brandi and Lowell take in a movie and run some errands, so she rode home with them while I headed out to do some errands myself.

First stop was Kroger’s to pick up some lottery tickets, then it was on to Chris’ to drop off some magazines for Miss Piper.

Piper had two wisdom teeth pulled out Friday morning and the poor thing was still suffering. Her cheeks were still puffed up and swollen.

I told her she looked like a “cute blonde chipmunk” and wanted to take her picture for the blog. She told me in no uncertain terms “NO”.

Then I stopped by Home Depot looking for my under sink icemaker water filter. But they didn’t have it. Turns out a little later research showed that my model had been discontinued. So I’ll have to try and figure out how to fit another type in its place.

Finally, I headed over to Brandi’s to get the small share of Landon-sitting that Jan allows me. I only somewhat jokingly said that Landon may not walk until he’s two, because between Jan and Brandi, he never gets put down.

Brandi and Lowell got back home about 5 pm and we decided to have dinner at our favorite King Food.  Hmmmm! Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy, and then add jalapenos!

We got home a little after 7, certainly better than last night’s 1:30am.

January 15, 2012

Second Times the Charm . . .

This morning started out a little after 10am with the breakfast buffet at La Brisa right up TX 146. One nice thing about their buffet, unlike a lot of others, is that all drinks are included in the $10.50 price, including coffee, milk, and OJ.

And on top of that, the food is really good too.

Getting home I finally decided to do something about my leaky tire. It’s the driver’s inside rear dual, and it’s been leaking on and off for a while. It will go for several months with no problems, and then it gets where I have to add air every few days. I had pulled off the Tire Pressure Sensor and the valve extension to be sure they weren’t the problem, but it didn’t help.

It was fine when we got here almost two months ago, but in the last week or so it’s been dropping overnight so it’s time to do something about it. So after we got back from breakfast, I put in a call to Coach-Net to send someone out.

But it took two tries to get it done. I told Coach-Net that I needed someone with an air jack that could lift at least 10,000 pounds, and the gear to handle a 22.5 inch tire.

The first guy came out in a pickup truck with a 2000 pound floor jack and no way to remove the large lug nuts on the wheel. So after sending him on his way, I called Coach-Net back and told them the problem. They said the guy had told them he could handle the rig. He lied.

But the next guy had what it takes – a big dually truck with a large gas-driven air compressor, a 20,000 pound air jack, and a big impact wrench to get the lugs off.

And this guy knew what he was doing. He had the inside tire off in about 15 minutes, and found a slight leak with the valve core. But the big leak was caused by a loose nut on the valve stem itself. He replaced the valve core, and then after putting a little Loc-Tite on the valve stem threads, tightened up the nut.

After airing up the tire to 110 pounds (I normally run 100 pounds in the rear), he dabbed bubble soap all around and found no leaks. Then, before remounting the tire, he carefully checked for any nails or leaks on the tire itself.

He quickly had everything back together and ready to roll in a total of only 45 minutes. A real professional.

Coach-Net covered the service call, and all I had to pay was $65 for the labor. Not bad at all.

Later, after doing some other chores around the rig, I headed up to my client’s office to install the new computers and router. Kept finding other things to do, so I didn’t get back to the rig until after 9pm, but I did get a lot done.

January 15, 2013

And so it begins . . .

and where does it stop? As I expected the other day, the bans have started.

New York State has now banned “Assault Weapons” with only ONE cosmetic feature, not two like before. So now 100’s of thousands of New York gun owners who owned legal guns yesterday are now criminals. So having a folding or adjustable stock on your rifle, even a standard deer hunting rifle, makes you a criminal. Even if it’s only used so your wife or son can shoot the rifle more comfortably.

They have also redefined a “High Capacity” magazine to be one that holds no more than 7 rounds, down from the previous 10.

You can keep your old 10-round magazine, but if you ever put more than 7 rounds in it, you’re a criminal, even if you never put it in a gun.

And of course, you can forget that 13 – 17 round mag that came with your pistol. It’s now a felony to possess one.

Maybe the government ought to take a look at the first 9 ‘Killers’ on this list before they worry about guns.

Under the heading of “Make your own Assault Weapon at home”, it’s almost here.

You may or may not have heard about 3D Printing. A 3D printer is a device that allows you to take something designed by a computer and print it out in plastic, or in some cases, metal. Think of a Star Trek Replicator.

If you’re a car company, you get a multi-million dollar model to literally print out the parts of a new prototype car, rather than making them by hand.

And if you’re Jay Leno you can use one to make new parts for your large collection of antique cars.

Ever owned an HP LaserJet or InkJet printer? Now you can own an HP DesignJet 3D printer. This one is about $15,000.

You don’t even have to own one. You can design your part at home and then send it off to have it produced.

You can print everything from simple things

to very intricate ones.

Even better you can get one for home use as a kit for between $500 and $1000.

And even more better, you can use this one to print the parts for a new one. Kind of self-replicating. So where does this all lead?

Like I said, make your own AR-15 “Assault Weapon” at home.

Most people may not realize that the important part to an AR-15 is the lower receiver.

This is the part that has the serial number, and is regulated and tracked by the government. The barrel, stock, etc. are all readily available. But now, you can print one at home.

Of course it’s a work in progress, playing off the type of plastic used, the design, and the durability of the piece.

The first lasted for one round, the second one lasted for six, the third for 40 rounds, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, who knows.

But even better, and what works now, is a print-it-yourself magazine.

They’ve printed magazines that will work with no problems, and will hold up to 100 rounds.

Now that’s a High Capacity Magazine!

So now, let’s ban 3D printers, right?

Also apparently now finger guns are illegal.

Next up: The Splendide Repairman

I had two problems with our Splendide washer/dryer. The first was a flaky door switch that sometimes would not allow the door to be opened after use, sometimes until the next day.

But while I was waiting for the new switch to come in from Westland Sales, another problem appeared. The dryer stopped drying. Everything worked except for the heating-up part.

At first I was hoping it might have a connection with the defective switch so I could fix both problems with one repair. But a close look at the schematic in the service manual proved that wrong.

I could have replaced the switch from the outside, but I now couldn’t avoid pulling the washer out of the cabinet, a real pain in the rear.

So today was the day.

After I removed the retaining strip at the bottom of the opening, I next removed the cabinet doors, and other parts like this latch.

Then I started inching the washer out.

Since there is plenty of room inside the cabinet you think they could have left a little more room in the opening.

You can’t even get a screwdriver in between the washer and the wall.

But finally I had it out far enough to tilt it onto the floor dolly. The dolly makes all the difference in getting it out of the hallway.

Now I could get to the water hoses, after turning off the water, of course.

The string is left over from my fan motor replacement last year. It lets me push the washer back in and hold the drain hose out of the way so it doesn’t get crimped as I do.

Now I was able to push the washer aside so I could get inside the cabinet, unplug the power cord, and turn off the water at the valves, This let me turn the coach water back on.

The gob of sticky Plumber’s Putty holds the drain hose in the drain pipe so it doesn’t come loose while bouncing down the road, and then flood your RV once you get to the RV park.

Now with the lid off I was able to start checking components. And my first test proved to be the last one. Because it found the culprit.

And this is it. It’s a thermal fuse. And it’s your last-ditch protection against the dryer catching fire.

If the High Temp thermostat shorts out, the dryer would just run hotter and hotter, possibly starting a fire. A clogged exhaust vent can also cause this to happen.

But these fuses sometimes just die and open up, which is what happened here.

The markings on the fuse does not tell me the temperature rating, nor does the schematic. So I’ve got a call into the Westland Sales to see if this is a part I can find locally, or one I will have to order from them. Hopefully I’ll be able to talk with them tomorrow.

Coming Up Soon: The Blind Repairman, or How to repair/restring your RV Day/Night Shades.

January 15, 2014

TSC and PPL . . .

Another nice day. Another nice walk. And nice hot coffee afterward.

Jan and I  headed out about 1:30 PM for an afternoon of errands and then ending up with dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.

Our first stop was the Tractor Supply Company in Alvin for a magazine Jan likes and a few other things. Then it was on to PPL Motorhomes at the junction of Beltway 8 and US59. We were stopping there to pick up the Linkage Repair Kit for my Kwikee step.

Now something on my ‘do before we leave’ list.

We also picked up a new step stool since our other one finally wore out.

After a stroll through their RV Parts Store we headed on out to Brandi’s, getting there about 3:45. Lowell was already home and Brandi showed up about 30 minutes later after picking up Landon at his daycare, which is conveniently located right down the street from their house.

After talking for a while we all drove a little down the road to Fulshear to have dinner at Dekker’s Mesquite Grill.

Lowell and I had their great Chicken Fried Steak with smashed potatoes, and really, really good green beans. They were cooked until just crispy and very well seasoned.

Jan had the Shrimp Scampi with Fried Asparagus. Also very good.

Brandi had the Rotisserie Chicken which she said was some of the best chicken she’s ever had.

It was lucky we got there early because by the time we left about 6:15 the place was pretty full. Really good. We’ll go back.

Out of 6 tries in taking Landon’s picture, this is the only one that came out.

Heading home after saying our goodbyes and getting Landon hugs, we luckily missed most of the ‘going home’ traffic. Getting back to the Clear Lake area, we stopped off at the Sam’s Club to see if they had a K-Cup storage drawer like the one that Lowell and Brandi had gotten there. But we didn’t find them.

Since we were so close, we next stopped off at Chris’ to pick up our mail, and then started home again. But remembering the Sam’s Club down in La Marque, only about 5 miles further down I-45 from our normal Dickinson turnoff, we drove on down there.

But that Sam’s said they hadn’t had any since around Christmas, so then it was finally home about 8:30 PM.

Later I found one on Amazon and it will be here Friday.

K-cup Storage Drawer

Orlyn, one of our fellow gate guards who was down the road from us last year, called about my blog concerning changing the batteries in his Tire Pressure Sensor like I did, and wanted know how I did it. Turns out he has a Pressure Pro system, and like the previous Doran system I had, the batteries are not replaceable. You have to send the sensors back to the company and they will sell you new ones. That’s one of the reasons we changed to the TireTraker. Orlyn also said our gate is still going strong, and our replacements, Jim and Linda Mossman, are still there. Glad to hear they’re doing OK.

On another note, one of our readers, Jerry Criswell, alerted me to the universally bad reviews on Amazon for the One Touch Can Opener that I mentioned the other day.

I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe they made them better 10 years ago or so when we bought ours, but ours has worked perfectly every time.

As they say, Caveat Emptor.

January 15, 2015

Scary Cherries . . .

When I got up this morning I saw something I haven’t seen in a while, bright sunshine, finally nice enough for some outside work. But first I had some client web stuff to work on, updating some things and working on a couple of other problems.

A little later I called the client who’s computer I delivered yesterday to see if she was having any problems. She said that she was having a problem with YouTube videos being scrambled. Audio was OK, just a video problem.

After a quick Google, I told her to left-click on the YouTube screen, select Settings, and turn off Hardware Acceleration. She said that fixed the problem. Good!

Then I was on the phone to American Coach to ask about a leaky shower. For a while now I have had water leaking from the shower under the wall into the bedroom and wetting the carpet.

It only happens when the shower is running, and by looking into the access port in the shower base and I can see the water dripping down from the back of the shower enclosure. Which is where the Moen single-handle faucet is on our shower as you can see here.

It was obvious that I would have to cut an access hole through from the bedroom to the rear of the faucet since there was no access panel, but first I wanted to double-check with American Coach.

And as it turns out, I’m supposed to have an access panel there. Apparently there is normally a mirror on that wall and the access panel cover is behind it. We don’t have a mirror just a blank wall, with no panel.

So it looks like I will be cutting through the wall. In anticipation of this, when I was at Harbor Freight Tools the other day,, I found a Multipurpose Oscillating Tool on sale so I picked one up with a set of blades.

It should cut right through the thin wall with no trouble, and then I should be able to see what the problem is. If I’m lucky it will be something easy like a loose connection.

As far as outside, I did a few easy chores that were at the top of my list.

First up, I repaired the Charge Wire connection on the truck. I noticed it had come loose a few weeks ago, and wanted to get it fixed before we head out west this year and encounter a lot of hills.

The Charge Wire is part of the electrical hookup between the RV and Truck that syncs the truck taillights with the rigs. On flat terrain, it’s not really needed, but when we’re going through a lot of hills, the truck’s auxiliary braking system gets a workout. And since the Brake Buddy runs off the truck’s battery, you can sometimes arrive at your destination after a long day of hill climbing and descending and find your battery dead

The Charge Wire takes care of this by connecting the truck battery to the RV battery so that the truck battery is kept charged as we travel.

Next I dumped a batch of Biocide into the fuel tank to take care of any algae growth caused by the high humidity and cold weather we’ve had. I got caught by this in 2009 up in Massachusetts and ended up with a clogged fuel filter. Been using a biocide every since and have not had another problem with it.

Finally, I did my monthly check of the water levels in the house batteries. Not needed for the engine batteries since they’re sealed and maintenance free. I was happy to see that the water levels were fine, especially since I recently installed the new power converter.

For dinner Jan fixed up our steak leftovers from last night, really good, and then for dessert, I made Scary Cherry Sundaes.

Scary Cherries were one the ‘hot’ gifts that our son-in-law Lowell gave me for Christmas

Scary Cherries are Maraschino cherries soaked in hot pepper solution, in this case, Carolina Reaper peppers, the hottest in the world. They also have two weaker heat levels, one with Ghost Chiles, and one with Scorpion Chilies. But why mess around with the kiddie stuff?

To make the sundaes, I started with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, and then dusted them with three chopped-up cherries each. Then I chopped up some Hershey’s Cherry Cordial Kisses and sprinkled these on. Last up was a heaping pile of whipped cream, topped off with a whole cherry for me, and a chopped-up one for Jan.

She was kind of worried about eating a whole cherry by itself, so that’s why hers was chopped up.

As it turned out we both really liked the heat from these cherries. Glad I’ve got more ice cream and more cherries.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be even warmer than today, maybe more conducive to spraying water and vinegar on the roof to remove the drilling mud, but we’ll see.

January 15, 2016

If it’s good once, it’s good twice . . .

After a quiet morning/afternoon, about 4:15 we headed into the Katy area to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at one of our all-time favorite places, Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro.

Landon decided we were laughing and talking so much that we were making too much noise, interrupting his gameplay. So he stayed underneath the table using the seat as a rest for his tablet.

After a great dinner, we all headed back to Brandi’s for a bit so I could pick up some mail, then it was on back to Colorado River.

And then tomorrow, believe it or not, we’re going to do it all again.

Yeah, like we have a problem with that. Back when our kids were small, we once ate at the same restaurant every night for a week So two nights in a row is no problem.

If it’s good once, it’s good twice, right? Or even seven times.

We saw online about a big frack site fire up in Oklahoma, near Chickasha. So far it seems that truck off to the side caught fire and then it quickly spread, finally consuming the entire site.

The site, owned by Continental Oil, and being fracked by FTS has been rated as a total loss, with 22 trucks, valued at over $1 million a piece, burned to a crisp.

Luckily, probably because it started as a fire and not as an explosion, everybody got out safely with no injuries.

Even though we’ve never been extremely close to our frack sites, glad this didn’t happen at one of our gates.

The story about one of the PowerBall winners that was going around the Net yesterday, about the California winner being given the 1/3 winning PowerBall by her boss, turned out to be a prank, one that apparently got out of hand. The boss did give all of his 9000 employees a PowerBall ticket. That part was true. But the winner part of it came about when a son called his mother at work, and as a prank, told her she had won.

But things quickly got out of hand, the press was called, and the announcement went out nationwide, with TV and news reporters crowding into her workplace. I suspect that her son is now very sorry he did this.

If he’s still around.

January 15, 2018

I Give Up . . .

Back at work this morning, I gave up.

For the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to move my client’s website and online store off the in-house Linux server and up onto Godaddy. But so far everything I’ve tried has been a dud

To do that I need to set up a new version of Zen Cart on Godaddy and then copy the Zen Cart MySQL data from the Linux server and then just install it on GoDaddy’s version.

Yeah, right!

Well it would be that easy except that access to the MySQL file is password-protected. And the password is not any of the ones from my list of the previous guy’s passwords.

But I kind of figured out a workaround only to find that the data file itself is encrypted. Why the hell, I don’t know. There’s no reason for it.

And even worse, it’s encrypted with AES-256 encryption, the same standard used for online banking. So good luck breaking that. So now it’s down to grunt work.

We presently have about 1680 products in the database, so my fall-back is to just start copying the individual products over one at a time. It’s likely to take several months, but as I told Jan if I’d done this to start with, I’d be done by now.

At least it’ll keep me off the streets and out of trouble. Well, one of them, at least.

We had originally planned to have our left-over El Pollo Loco for dinner tonight, and then eat out tomorrow, but the incoming weather intervened. With tomorrow, we’re expecting temps in the low 20’s with freezing rain, sleet, black ice, and snow flurries/snow. Sounds like a good day to stay home.

So as soon as I got home we turned back around and headed back up FM646 to have dinner at our local favorite, Pho20.

We both started out with their delicious House Crunch Salad, with Miso Dressing and Tempura Crunches.

Then while Jan again went with the Hibachi Chicken,

I once again got the White Chicken Pho with Vegetables.

Really good and enough to bring home more than I ate to start with.

Before heading home we made a detour by the nearby HEB for a few things.

Tomorrow I’ll double-check that our fresh water tank is full and then disconnect us from the Shore Water for the next couple of days, since we’re looking at 23° tomorrow night and 26° on Wednesday.

Since we’re looking at possible icy road conditions Wednesday morning, we may find that Jan’s lithotripsy gets rescheduled. We’ll have to see.

January 15, 2019

No. 5 Is Alive . . .

I had several outside projects on tap for today, but the weather wasn’t very cooperative. It just barely got into the 50’s here, and the sun never even sent a beam in our direction.

So, catching up on 2019 so far . . .

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon came down from Katy on New Year’s Day to meet us at King Food for lunch. Landon brought along his latest creation, a Lego robot.

Brandi said a few hours before this was a bunch of small parts in a box. When Landon was done, he had a robot that he can program and control from his iPad. Can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Brandi says she’s thinking about signing him up for a kid’s coding class called Code Ninjas. Sounds like it would be right up his alley.

On the 3rd of January Jan and I met the Conroe Bunch up in Spring at the Potatoe Patch restaurant there. Good food and great friends. Couldn’t get much better.

Left: Debi Hurlburt, Sandy Mills, Judy Mott, Mike Mills and David Evans. Right: Janice Evans, Jan White, Logan Unterzuber, Ed Hurlburt, and Greg White.

A motley group if I ever saw one.

Dinner today was breakfast at Denny’s, followed by a WalMart excursion.

While we were doing the WalMart thing, I set Runkeeper to track our distance to compare the mileage accuracy with Jan’s new Fitbit. Runkeeper, an Android phone app, uses GPS to very accurately track your mileage.

When we got back to the truck, I showed a distance of .43 miles, while Jan’s Fitbit showed 0.47 miles, a difference of 0.04 of a mile. Not bad at all.

After Jan’s initial panic last month after her left eye cataract removal, her vision settled down just as the Dr. said it would, so Jan scheduled her right eye operation for this coming Thursday morning, with a quick checkup Friday morning.

For my part, after using the steroid drops on my left eye for the last month, I’m going back to get my problem checked out to see if I have Fuch’s Dystrophy or not.

I guess we’ll see.

January 15, 2020

Scrubbing Bubbles . . .

Sometimes you not only can’t see the forest for the trees, you can’t even see the trees.

At least that’s how I felt yesterday when I was complaining about how much trouble I was having trying to get the old gasket and gasket sealer off my oil adapter.

And then in one of those ‘Doh’ moments for me, my beautiful (and smart wife) asked me a question.

“Have you checked to see if anyone makes something to remove old gaskets?”

Again, ‘DOH’.

And as it turns out, Permatex makes a Gasket Remover just for this purpose.

So on the way home this afternoon I stopped off at our local O’Reilly’s and picked up a package of it.

Getting home, and starting with this,

I took everything outside, and following the directions (for a change) I used the built-in brush to cover the gasket area with the foam.

The directions said to let it soak for about 30 minutes and then use a plastic scraper to remove as much of the gasket/sealer as possible.

And ended up with this.

A big difference!

Then a final scraping and cleaning gave this final result.

Just like brand new. Yay, Scrubbing Bubbles.

So it looks like I’m good to go to get back under the rig and reinstall the gasket/adapter/filter combo. Then I’ll do a 30 or so minutes high-idle run to check for any obvious leaks.

This coming Sunday, or maybe next weekend, we’ll do a 120 mile round-trip test drive up to the Buc-ee’s in Katy and back. And we’ll be towing this time, since this seems to be the trigger to the leaking.

If this does finally fix the problem, then something around the second week in February Jan and I plan on taking the rig up to Alabama for a friends and family visit.

But we’ll have to see how it goes.

January 15, 2021

Drink More Coffee . . .

I mentioned the other day that according to the IRS website, GET MY PAYMENT, our two $600 Stimulus Checks were mailed out on January 6th, and then yesterday I got an email from DakotaPost saying that our checks, and well as a DMV refund from our Jeep tags, were sent via Priority Mail yesterday, the 14th. So it should be here in the next couple of days.

Is there anything it can’t do?

A new study was just released showing that drinking coffee helps reduce your chances of prostate cancer. And the more you drink, the less your risk.

The highest level of coffee consumption ranged from two to nine or more cups per day, while the lowest level ranged from none to fewer than two cups per day, they said.

Good to hear since I average about 10 cups a day.

And for those of you of the non-prostate persuasion, you’re not left out either. Past research has linked coffee consumption to a reduced risk for liver, bowel and breast cancers.

So Drink Up!

January 15, 2022

Long Fun Day with Family . . .

So probably won’t catch until Monday.

But it was really windy today with the cold front coming through.

These waves are on the lake, not the ocean.

January 15, 2023

27 Engines . . .

As I prognosticated yesterday, lunch today was at Denny’s for our favorite Ultimate Omelets and then a stop nearby for our weekly HEB stuff.

But before that, we took down the last of our outside Christmas decorations, specifically the Snowflakes. For Christmas they looked like this.

It’s a little involved to pack them away, so they don’t get tangled up. The large snowflakes have to be bundled up and rubberbanded together, as do the small ones. But it still only took about 20 minutes and we were done.

I’ve mentioned before that Rob, our park owner, is adding some more sites right across the entrance road from us. After clearing out all the junk over there, Rob started bringing in truckloads of fill dirt.

This is because according to the new rules, all new construction must be elevated about 2’ above the surrounding ground to combat flooding. Which is why his recently built garage/workshop is elevated above the ground level. This, even though there was no flooding here even during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, just a couple of months before we moved down here.

Today they brought in a dozer and started leveling the dirt piles.

Now I assume at some point they’ll have to build some kind of retaining wall to separate the two levels.

This evening, a little before 5pm, Jan and I got to watch the launch and landing of my favorite SpaceX vehicle, the Falcon Heavy.

it’s amazing to watch the launch with all 27 engines running, giving over 5 million pounds of thrust.

In this case, since they were launching a secret military payload into geosynchronous orbit, only the two external boosters were recovered. The center core later dropped into the Atlantic. And both of these side boosters had already been used twice before.

But I think my favorite part is to watch the two boosters come back down side by side and touch down at the Cape. Ready to be refurbished and launched again.

January 15, 2024

More Pump Info . . .

A number of our blog readers asked for more info about the pressure switch problem with our Shurflo water pump.

The pressure switch is what causes the water pump to start pumping when you open the faucet. But it won’t do that until the shore water is disconnected and the water pump is turned on. That’s why when you’re on internal water and you turn the faucet off, you hear the pump run for a few seconds and then stop.

This builds pressure in the line until the pressure switch turns off the pump. Then when you open the faucet, this releases the built-up pressure in the switch which starts the pump. And when you close the faucet, the pressure builds back up.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

This is also why you occasionally hear your pump running for a few seconds and then shut off. Most water systems are not completely air-tight, so over a few hours or so, the pressure drops enough for the pressure switch turns on the pump for a few seconds to build the pressure back up.

Again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

So what I did yesterday was to bypass the pressure switch completely, so if the pump is turned on at the inside power switch, and the faucet is on, the water will flow. And if you let the pump keep running without the faucet open, that may cause the pump to overheat and damage it.

So right now, we just have to manually turn the pump on and off when we need it.

Last night’s low temp and today’s high were the same, 33°. Which only lasted until about 10 when it dropped down to about 28-29° and stayed there all day and into the evening.

During the afternoon I set up my water bay heater system which consists of one of those clamp-on reflectors and a heating element, rather than a light bulb.

They’re basically a heating coil encased in a hard ceramic coating, so they give off only heat, with no light. They’re really made for reptile enclosures and they give off 150 W of just heat.

And today while the outside temp was 28°, the water bay temp was 42. Nice.

We’re supposedly looking at 22° tonight so we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully we don’t lose power for 4 days like in February 2021.