Our RV Adventures

Well, despite my blocking it every way I could, all of a sudden, about 11am, my HP desktop rebooted and started downloading and installing Windows 11.

%#&@#$!

But at this point there was no way to stop it without probably screwing up things completely so I just had to let it go. And about 30 minutes later, and after several reboots, I was running Win11.

And all I can say now, is So Far, So Good. Everything seems to be working OK, though I did have to reset a number of things, like the WiFi signal.

The only really obvious difference I’ve seen is the new look of the requestors and an pop-up windows.

Anyway, I’ve got 10 days to easily roll back to Win10. After that I would have to reinstall Win10 from scratch.

I’ll keep you updated.

Lunch today was at Snooze once again, with Jan getting her usual, favorite Bravocado Toast,

while I got the 3 egg omelet, with something I haven’t had in a omelet before, Shrimp.

As well as Ham, Jack Cheese, and Pico de Gallo.

I always get the Fruit instead of Hashbrowns, and a Grilled English Muffin.

Delicious as always.

Then it was on up to Kroger’s to pick up a prescription and down to WalMart for additional stuff. And after P.O. stop for our mail, we were home a little after 4pm.

Nice Day!

Getting back to our Fredericksburg visit last Tuesday, after our delicious Der Lindenbaum German meal, including the fresh-baked German Marble Rye bread,

we drove around the town for a while before checking into our La Quinta Inn a little after 3pm, and were in for the night.

A very nice hotel.

Friday morning we headed out toward Kingsland, with our first stop at the local HEB for gas, according to GasBuddy the cheapest gas in town. And it showed since we had to wait in line for about 10 minutes.

Our next stop was only a few miles down the road, and the other reason, besides Der Lindenbaum, for our visit.

And that was Wildseed Farms.

A large gift shop, plant nursery, clothing store, and snack bar.

One of Jan’s favorite places, and she always finds something she just has to have.

Then we were back on the road for the hour-long trip over to Kingsland and our son Chris’ place, seeing a LOT of Bluebonnets and Paintbrushes along the way.

Getting there a little after 1pm, we spent some time sitting out in Chris’s great backyard.

He and Linda have put a lot of work into it, with something new every time we visit.

I’ll have more about our trip tomorrow.

Thought for the Day:

“Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to somebody else.” ― Will Rogers

March 28, 2009

Well, we’re still upright…

That’s about the best I can say.

Last night was a real experience.  The wind was blowing so hard that I went out about 3am to let the window awnings in. Luckily, it wasn’t raining but boy, was the wind blowing. I also cranked down the roof TV antenna since it was also making noises I had never heard before.

The satellite dish had already blown over earlier in the evening, so it was no longer a problem. I just left it there.

While I was outside I kept hearing the strangest chirping, snapping sound coming across the swamp behind us. At first I thought it was some animal in the swamp. But I finally realized it was the sound the wind made hitting the the still out awnings of the RV’s behind us across the swamp.

And then about 4am I went back out to cut down the windchimes that had been hanging from the awning arms and were now being slammed against the side of the coach.

And then about 6am a burst of thunder that sounded like it was about 5 feet over our heads, made the coach rock on the levelers. Man, that was loud!

And then today, not having got a lot of sleep last night, Jan and I stayed around the coach all day, napped, and ate leftover pizza.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better…

March 28, 2010

Over the Hump to Pahrump…

Today we started out by heading over to the Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant for a very good brunch. They advertise that everything is made from scratch, including the fresh-squeezed orange juice, and is shows.

Then it was off to Fry’s and then next door to the Border’s Book Store.

Then it was “over the hump to Pahrump” as they say here. “The hump” is a long climb up and over a mountain range. And the view on the trip was spectacular.

Pahrump is a town of about 30,000 people located about 50 miles from Las Vegas. Its real claim to fame is that it is home to the closest legal brothels to Las Vegas.

But before we tracked them down, we wanted to check out the Escapees RV Park in Pahrump. And it was nothing to write home about. It had little in the way of shade and was really kind of desolate.

Unlike another RV park right down the road a piece. And it was Terrible. Or, rather it was Terrible’s. Like many casinos, Terrible’s (yes, that’s the name of a chain of casinos) has an RV park attached.

And this one was very nice. A lot of green landscaping, shade trees, and a nice lake.

This is a place we wouldn’t mind staying at.

And then it was off to find the whor…eh, the brothels. And it didn’t take long.

It turns out that they were at the end of the road we were already on.

There are two brothels here in Pahrump, Sheri’s Ranch and The Chicken Ranch. And to make things convenient, they’re right next door to each other.

Based on the signs it’s really kind of hard to tell what kind of place Sheri’s Ranch ( Warning! This link is a little risqué ) is.

But the Chicken Ranch ( Warning! This link is a little risqué, too) is a different story.

They’re pretty up front about it.

Although The Chicken Ranch in Pahrump is named after the famous one in La Grange, TX, as depicted in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, there is no direct connection.

Our curiosity satisfied, we headed back to Las Vegas. And by the time we got back, we decided it was time for supper. Since we enjoyed Blueberry Hill so much for lunch, we decided to try it for supper. And, once again, really good.

March 28, 2011

Thousand Trails in the Mail . . .

After coffee we slowly got the morning started around 9:30.

After Jan talked to Al & Adrienne about getting together tomorrow for lunch, I spent time talking with a client for a while, and then about 11:45 I went up to the RV Office and paid for our site for two more days. They told me that we would have to start using another entrance/exit to the fairgrounds since they are repaving the main entrance before the Pima County Fair starts on April 14th.

Then about 12:30 I called the fairgrounds office and found out my Priority Mail envelope had arrived, so I jumped in the truck and headed over there.

I was waiting for my paperwork from Thousand Trails so I could get it turned back ASAP, so we can head up to the TT park in Camp Verde, AZ within the next few days. We can only stay here for a few more days before we have to leave because of the upcoming fair.

I got the papers filled out and faxed in, and then called them to make my transfer payment over the phone. Hopefully I will have our membership number in the next couple of days so we can head north.

While I was driving around the fairgrounds we got these photos of some of the RCS carnival equipment.

This is one of their large dormitory 5th wheels.

And out on one of the side lots are a bunch of the ride trailers.

About 5:30 Jan and I drove over to Jack’s BBQ for supper. According to the online reviews, Jack’s is the best BBQ place in Tucson, and the reviews were pretty accurate. Jan had a BBQ Beef/Pork sandwich, and I had the Sampler Platter with a little of everything. All very good.

After dinner we drove over there to get a DQ fix.

Then it was home for the evening.

March 28, 2012

Good News, so far . . .

Today started out with breakfast at Denny’s. Much, much better than yesterday’s IHOP fiasco, believe me.

In other news I decided not to win last night’s Mega-Millions drawing, to allow the prize to rise to the largest amount in world history, $500 million.

That’s Half A Billion Dollars!!

After breakfast Jan and I drove over to Rush Truck Center to check up on our RV repair But when we got there Clayton and our RV were both gone. He had taken it on a test drive. Yay!

About 20 minutes later Clayton pulled back into the lot with our RV. And after taking to him, it turns out things were a little different than we thought.

First off, the engine stopping had nothing to do with coolant in the oil, or my thinking I had run out of diesel. The problem was one of those UNKNOWN codes that my Silverleaf couldn’t read. It indicated a fuel sensor problem on one of the engine fuel rails. Replacing this sensor and adding fresh oil got the engine up and running with no other problems. It started with no further priming. And apparently ran just fine, EXCEPT . . .  but back that in a minute.

But now the problem is, where did the coolant come from? They still don’t know. That’s one of the things that the test drive was supposed to look at. But by the time we left, the tech still hadn’t checked the oil for more coolant, but Clayton said he’d call me later this afternoon if they found a problem, and he never did. So I guess they didn’t find more coolant.

Clayton said they’ve occasionally heard of this happening, and apparently never happening again. At this point I don’t think I want to spend big bucks to tear into the engine without having some idea what the problem is.

So unless they found something else today or tomorrow, I’ll probably just start checking the oil every day we travel and keep a close eye on it.

Now for the EXCEPT – Clayton said both exhaust manifold gaskets were leaking. I had already figured out that I had a leak in the exhaust system somewhere since my Pac Brake doesn’t work as well as I thought it should. Plus I’ve never been happy with the engine power when accelerating up hill from a dead stop.

Clayton also said that the pressure test yesterday showed one leaky radiator hose that was only going to get worse, and should be replaced at some point.

I told him to go ahead and replace the gaskets and the hose, and get it out of the way. He said the hose would have to be ordered and would be in tomorrow morning, and said we should be ready to go late tomorrow afternoon.

I figure we’ll just wait and leave for Balmorhea on Friday morning.

After finding out things were looking up, Jan and I headed back to our room for more of the hotel good life, basically doing nothing, but again reading and napping. Jan’s read 4 or 5 books since we got here, and I’ve 4 or 5 really good naps. We’re both happy.

For dinner we wanted to try Chachi’s. Clayton, the manager of the truck repair center working on our RV had recommended it, and online reviews certainly reinforced it. So about 5 pm we drove over there. And unlike a lot of good Mexican places, this wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall place, but a very nice restaurant in a small shopping area.

Not only was the food delicious, but the prices were great too. A 3 item combo plate (in my case, two enchiladas (counts as one item), q Chile relleno, and a tamale, with rice and beans was only $8.50. And according to Larry, our waiter, everything is made inhouse, tortillas, tamales, etc.

It certainly tastes like it. We may even come back tomorrow.

When we got back from supper, we had these email pictures from our daughter-in-law Linda, of our granddaughter Piper’s prom invitation.

Pretty inventive way to ask her and looks like he got a ‘YES’ check on it.

March 28, 2013

A New Favorite . . .

This morning I got back on figuring out why my dashboard gauge lights quit working. After getting some more info from American Coach on how the circuit was wired, I started tracing the wiring back and after wedging myself in between the driver’s seat and the underside of the dashboard (not an easy job, believe me), discovered that the problem is with the headlight switch. Or at least the dash light dimmer part of it.

The switch is one of those that you pull out to turn the parking lights/headlights on and then rotate the knob to dim/brighten the dash lights. I did find out that the switch is a standard truck part so a replacement would be easy to find, but getting it out looks to be a problem

I would try to spray some contact cleaner in it, but it looks to be pretty sealed up so I would probably have to remove it to do that, and then I’m right back where I started.

I’m going to look at it some more, but I’m kind of tempted to just disconnect the dash light wire plug from the switch and then short across the wires so the lights are on full bright all the time, since that’s the way I drive with it anyway.

More tomorrow.

My Priority Mail package finally showed up today that our daughter Brandi sent out on Monday. It should have gotten here yesterday, but according to the USPS tracking, it was “MisSent” (what ever that means) out of the Tucson PO yesterday and got lost.

A little before 4 Jan and I headed out to check out Brushfire BBQ. We read good online reviews about it, and it certainly smelled good when we drove by.

As we were just leaving the coach, Mike and Cheryl Sipes stopped by to say Hi and drop off a menu for the Hot Wok, a place they say is even better than Luckie’s Thai.

This means it must be fantastic, because Luckie’s is really, really good. Hopefully we’ll be able to try it before we leave here on Sunday.

And Brushfire turned out to be really,  really good, too.

If fact I think we have a new favorite BBQ place here in Tucson.

It’s as good as Famous Dave’s, a couple of bucks cheaper, and a lot closer to the fairgrounds.

Jan had the Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs with Grilled Green Beans and a loaded Baked Potato, and I had a combo plate with Sticky Ribs (St. Louis Style) and Beef Brisket, with Grilled Green Beans and Grilled Corn on the Cob.

The meat was moist, tender, and very flavorful. But even as tender as it was, it had some texture to it. I hate it when they parboil the ribs first to make them cook faster when they’re being smoked, and the meat turns out just mushy. Yeah, it does ‘fall off the bone’, but that’s because it’s been boiled to a pulp.

And the Grilled Green Beans were outstanding. As the description says, they’re cooked on the grill and come out crisp, but still tender, and delicious.

My only regret about Brushfire is that we didn’t go sooner. They only have two locations, both here in the Tucson area, so it will probably be next year before we can go back.

BUMMER!

We got home a little after 5 and I got back on the taillight problem. I got the old, ‘extra’ taillight converter out of the system and patched around, and now the rig part of the system is working fine.

But getting that part working revealed another one. I’ve apparently got a bad ground somewhere in the truck’s wiring. If I hook my test box up to the truck, the lights work fine. But if I hook the rig up to the truck, the turn signals work fine, but the left taillight doesn’t work and the right taillight is much brighter than it should be. An obvious grounding problem

I think I know where the problem is, but I finally ran out of daylight, so I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow.

I did have a couple of blog readers drop by to say Hi while I was working on the taillights, but I didn’t get their names. Sorry. But it is always nice to know people enjoy the blog.

March 28, 2015

Good Mexican Food and Zombie Outbreaks . . .

I did manage to get a coat of paint on the center portion of the rig bumper early this afternoon before the sun hit it. I’ll do another coat on everything in the next day or two. After that I’ll sand it with some 2000 grit and see what it looks like after I polish it up.

So far the timer I put on my Powermax converter/charger is working perfectly so far to keep both sets of batteries charged, so I can do away with setting up the separate charger each time. Good so far.

Jan and I recently stumbled into a new TV show we kind of like. It’s on the CW network and it’s called iZombie. Now, although Jan and I like such ‘supernatural’ shows as Grimm and Once Upon A Time, zombie shows and movies have never really been our ‘thing’. But this show came on one night while I was working on the blog, and after a bit I started paying more attention.

The heroine, Liv Moore is a medical student, who after being scratched during a party that became a zombie outbreak, becomes a zombie herself. Finding herself now craving brains, she decides to go to work in the city morgue, easing access to her needed nourishment. She’s aided in this by the Chief Medical Examiner who knows her secret and is studying her condition, hoping to find a cure.

But there’s a catch. After a brain burrito, or some brain sushi, she sometimes takes on the memories, feelings, and talents of the brain’s donor. And after partaking of a murder victim’s brain, she sees ‘visions’ of their death, which she then uses to help the police solve crimes. Of course the police detective she works with doesn’t know she’s a zombie. He just thinks she’s psychic. I don’t know which would be harder to believe.

The thing that makes this show really good is the humor woven into the plots, as well as Liv’s comments to the audience as she goes about her secret life.

The first two episodes have already run on the CW on Tuesday nights, but if you want to give a try, TNT is rerunning the show from the first episode, starting this Monday, the 30th. Check it out.

About 4:30pm we headed over to Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans) for dinner. Even getting there at 4:30 they were already on a wait, and it didn’t get any less busy as the evening went on. But then it is Saturday.

Everyone enjoyed what they had, and I have a new favorite dish there: the Carne Asada.

The meat was extremely tender and perfectly grilled. And it comes with a Cheese Enchilada, as well as rice and beans. Really good.

Tomorrow I’ll get back on my magnetic shade project and continuing sewing the magnets in place.

March 28, 2016

No Cooling, No Cooling . . .

or Up On The Roof!

I was actually up a little early this morning, but was feeling a little ‘blah’ so we didn’t walk or sit outside. Just had our coffee and cereal in the rig.

Sometime during the night, our Direct TV DVR glitched and reset itself to no channels. I first tried powering the receiver off and on a couple of times, which has helped before, but not this time.

So I called and ask them to reset it from their end and they said they would. It seems like we have to do this every couple of years or so, Apparently the receiver gets a garbage code command from the satellite and goes into ‘dork’ mode (yes, that’s a technical  term). But after a few minutes, still nothing. But I thought I’d wait a while before I called them back.

I checked in with Barbara about 11 to see if there had been any change in her refrigerator problem. She said ‘No’, but that her tech guy had finally called her back, and agreed with me about it probably being a blockage (great minds think alike), but didn’t think much of the idea of turning the unit upside down for awhile. I don’t either, because by the time you get it out, you might as well put a new residential unit in.

Around 2pm, feeling better after coffee, I drove over to Barbara’s to try another way to possibly clear the blockage. I had a foot long piece of dowel and a small hammer, and my idea was to use the dowel rod and the hammer to gently tap along the 8 ammonia tubes visible at the top of the access panel. There are 4 tubes in front, and then 4 more behind those and offset upwards. I figured there might be a chance that this would break the crystals loose and free things up.

But when I got there, Barbara said the unit had died completely sometime that morning, with no lights working at all, not even the one inside the unit. All this indicates a loss of 12vdc to the fridge so after checking the fuses on the control board, I tracked down and checked the fuse sending 12v to the unit from the rig, but it was good too.

Before I could go any further, Barbara said she was researching residential types to replace it. I did go ahead and use the rod and the hammer to lightly tap along all the visible ammonia tubing, in case I do get a chance to look at it further.

The unit Barbara is trying to replace is a Dometic Royale RM3862, which is no longer made. But nothing on the residential side of things is showing up either.

The problem is the size. It’s 60” high, 24” wide, and 24” deep. Looking at the cabinet, she might be able to gain an inch or so on height and width, but unlike many installations where there is a drawer underneath, in her rig that’s where her heater lives.

I posted the question on RV.net and a couple of other forums asking for info, but haven’t heard anything back yet.

Finishing up at Barbara’s I drove down to the office to pay my 50 amp add-on fees, and get my car tag and gate codes.

Getting back to the rig I found I had a couple of problems of my own. One, Direct TV still wasn’t working, so I put in another call, and found out THEY have a problem. For some reason they cannot uplink any codes to a certain swath of receiver addresses.

Every receiver has its own individual address. That’s how they can send a pay per view movie to only your receiver, and not everyone else’s. It’s like your computer’s IP address, where your computer is the only one in the world with that particular address.

So now we wait.

But Two is the big problem. My almost new (6 months old) Coleman Mach 15 AC that I installed (with help from son Chris and son-in-law Lowell) back last August, is not cooling. It  runs, but it just doesn’t cool.

My first thought was that it was maybe frozen up, so I ran just the fan for a while. I didn’t really think this was the problem, since the humidity is real low, and the fan is blowing strong air, but with sunset coming it was about all I could do.

So tomorrow it’s Up On The Roof to see what’s wrong with the compressor. Maybe just a bad capacitor. Well, I can hope, can’t it.

I’m assuming it’s still in warranty. I’ll check tomorrow.

March 28, 2017

Weather Watch . . .

The weather the last few days has been really nice, with highs in the mid-70’s and low’s in 40’s/50’s.

In fact at noon, it was still only 69° here. Just about perfect. And even better, on Friday the high is supposed to 68° and sunny.

I’m still waiting to hear back from the RV Glass people, and really hope we can get this taken care of before we leave for Las Vegas on April 8th

I also put in a call to Arizona RV Awnings down in Wellton, AZ to get some info on replacing our rig’s Carefree window awnings. Before that Jan and I went outside and measured our present ones to see what we needed.

Based on their website we should be able to get heavy duty Sunpro replacement fabric for all four for around $430, which includes free shipping. But our thought is to pick them up ourselves on a day trip down to Gila Bend and Yuma. So maybe we can get a discount since they won’t have to pay for the ‘free shipping’.

I’m still waiting to hear back from ‘Eric’ who’s supposed to answer my questions and take my order.

Later I stuck my phone  camera underneath the rig’s Kwikee step so I could get the part numbers for the step (It’s a Series 28) and the motor I need to replace.

Blog reader Steve Mesz clued me in on the fact that many of these step motors are Ford power window motors, so I’m going to follow up on that.

For an early dinner we finished off our leftover Famous Dave’s BBQ from yesterday, along with some Bush’s Brown Sugar and Bourbon Grilling Beans. Then tomorrow Jan’s doing a big slow cooker batch of her world famous chili. Really looking forward to it.

Tomorrow we’ll run some errands and take care of a few other chores, and hopefully I’ll hear back from my windshield glass and awning people.

March 28, 2018

Switches and Shastas . . .

Well, our truck is finally back home after the latest repair. Hopefully the last one for a good while.

As I had hoped, (and maybe prayed a little) it did turn out that the problem was not a faulty oil pump, but instead, just a clogged oil pickup tube and pickup screen in the oil pan. That’s what 277,000+ miles worth of gunk will do. But it’s all cleared out now, and hopefully good for another 277,000 miles.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been gradually automating a number of things around the rig. The first one was our power converter, which needs to be power-cycled twice a day so it will keep the engine batteries charged. Others, like lights, the TV, etc., are just for convenience, or for fun.

I started out using these TP-Link Switches,

but they’re expensive, $22 each, and they’re big. Big enough that they cover up the other outlet on the wall plate. But they allow me to control them from anywhere using an Android app, and locally from our Alexa.

So next I tried out these PECHAM WiFi Switch units.

At  $11 each they’re half the price and half the size. The only real downside is that it will only handle 10 Amps vs.15 Amps for the bigger ones. But nothing I’m controlling uses anywhere near that current, so cheaper is better.

Another nice thing about these is how quickly these can be set up. Once you’ve installed the app, just plug in the unit to an AC outlet, hit Search on the app, and in a few seconds you’re done. Then you can give it a name and it’s ready to go.

Our son-in-law Lowell recently alerted to the fact that one of our favorite diners has come to town. Black Bear Diner, a staple out west, has a new location out in the Katy area, with more to come around here.

We’ve also enjoyed the very first ‘Black Bear’ Diner located in Weed, CA., home of Mt. Shasta.

I put the name in quotes because it’s actually called the Hi-Lo Diner. Hi-Lo was the first, then there was a divorce. So one side went down the road a piece to the city of Mount Shasta, and utilizing the same newspaper-like menus and décor, they named it the Black Bear diner, and a chain was born.

We’re looking forward to checking it out soon.

Tomorrow I’ve got a 1:30 appointment with my GP again to rerun some tests. She’s unhappy about my calcium levels. And after I did a little research I think I know what the problem is. I’m not getting enough calcium.

Doh!, right?

I figured that I was getting enough calcium from my vitamins, but looking at the bottle it only gives me 20% of my daily needs. And since I don’t eat a lot of milk, dairy, cheese, etc., that wasn’t enough. So I’ve started taking Viactiv chews to make up the difference.

But we’ll see what the doc says, I guess.

March 28, 2019

Red Green . . .

No, not this guy, who can build pretty much anything with duct tape.

It’s more like Red v. Green. As in Antifreeze.

Jan had her very last doctor’s appointment today, a wrap-up with her oncologist. But since it was at 12:30 we decided to have lunch first, this time at East Star Chinese Buffet, where we haven’t been for a  while.

We knew we were getting there early, about 10:45, and figured we’d just wait until they opened at 11. But we found they were already open, so we went in and got started. However they were still putting food out, but somehow we did find enough to eat. Really delicious, and of course, VERY fresh under the circumstances.

Afterwards, we had enough time for me to pick up a couple of things at WalMart before heading over to the doctor’s office.

Since Jan had already had gotten a good report from her mammogram so this was just a final checkup. One thing that Jan was hoping would happen, and did, was that since it’s been 5 years since her cancer, her doctor took her off her cancer preventative, Anastrozole, that she’s been taking.

She started out on Tamoxifen, but had a very bad reaction to it, saying it made her feel like she was crawling out of her skin. So after a few months, the doctor switched her over to Anastrozole. And she’s had no problems since. But she was glad to be off it anyway.

And after another stop we were on our way home for the day.

I talked to Cummins again yesterday, but not about my oil filter, or my Onan Genset. This time is was about antifreeze, and the whole Red v. Green thing.

Our RV has the Green diesel antifreeze in it, and though I don’t use a lot, the green version is getting harder and harder to find. In fact, truck stops like Flying J and Pilot no longer carry it, at leas the ones I’ve checked. And the last time I bought some I had to order a case of 4 from NAPA. And the price has doubled since then.

So I’m probably going to change over to the Red version sometime in the future. But I’ve heard a lot of stories about whether or not they can be mixed, with people who should know on both sides of the issue.

Plus now, there’s all the in-between colors, like pink, orange, and yellow. Mixtures that some say can be used to transition between the other colors.

But what I was really wanted to know was what I needed to do to change over from Green to Red, since I’ve heard various stories about that too. But what I got pretty much confirmed what I already thought. So according to the Cummins Tech –

Drain the Green antifreeze, fill the engine with distilled water, and then run the engine for about 15 minutes. Then ideally, drain the water and do t this again.

Finally change out the coolant filter and fill the engine with the Red stuff, and I should be good to go.

But first there’s my engine oil leak problem,and of course, my long-neglected Onan Genset problem.

It’s always something.

March 28, 2020

Fixing . . .

After a quiet, isolated morning, I spent the afternoon on the rig’s roof working on our Coleman Mach XV AC unit.

I mentioned the other day that our front AC wasn’t draining, but was leaking down into the rig. So grabbing my tools Jan steadied the ladder while I got up on the roof.

It takes a bit of time to get the unit apart, because of all the screws that seal up the evaporator side of the unit. You don’t want any outside air leaking in.

But I also had to take the sides off so I could get to the drain holes. I had brought an old coat hanger up with me just for that purpose, so I was able to poke it down in there to open up the hole.

I know they keep the hole small as part of keeping the unit sealed as much as possible, but next time I have to do this I’m bringing up a drill bit to ‘waller’ it out a little bit more.

After the built-up water had drained away, I dumped some water/bleach solution down in the drain pan to kill any more fungus/mold to help prevent the problem from reoccurring for a while.

I had originally planned to clean the ‘gunked-up’ evaporator coil, but when I looked at things, I decided to just do it while I was up there. I had Jan passed me up the can of coil cleaner I got the other day, and a towel to cover up the opening down into the coach.

After getting the coil nice and clean, I buttoned the AC back up and came down.

Jan doesn’t want me up on the roof until she’s sitting outside watching me. A while back I asked her if she was going to try and break my fall if I fell off the roof. She said, “No, but I will call 911.”

It’s the little things in a marriage that keep things interesting.

For dinner tonight I did another batch of Chicken Tenders in our Ninja Foodie Digital Air Fryer. As before I dipped the tenders in egg whites and then rolled them in crushed BBQ Pork Rinds.

Though you can buy Pork Rind Panko, I crush my own using a Ziploc bag and a heavy jar. This is because the pre-crushed Panko is about 6 times the cost per ounce as ones in the bag.

And 25 minutes later at 400°, this was the result.

The egg white batter gives them a crispy crust, and the pork rinds get them a delicious crunch.

Don’t know why, but the distinctive BBQ of the Pork Rinds seems to disappear with the taste of the chicken.

Tomorrow if the weather holds we’ll try and get started on assembling our storage shed.

March 28, 2021

Well, 90% Anyway . . .

Jan and I headed up to Webster about 12:30 to have lunch at Snooze once again, but first I went by the office to start up a cloning job to an SSD drive, so it would be finished, or almost finished, by the time we got done with lunch,

Even getting to Snooze a little before 2pm, we still had a 20 minute wait for a table. But as usual, it was worth the wait.

When we got back to the office the clone job was finished, so I shut down the computer, opened the case, and moved the SSD driver over in place of the regular HD. As I was doing this I did notice that there was two HD’s in the case, not jus the one I had expected. And this quickly turned out to be an unexpected problem.

So when I connect the SSD drive in place of the two HD’s and rebooted, I got a Boot Error saying it couldn’t find the Boot Block on the SSD. So I hooked the two HD’s back up and booted up into the BIOS area. And there I saw my problem.

The two HD’s weren’t configured as two separate drives, but a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) array. And I’m assuming it was a RAID 1 array, which means that the two drives are mirrors of each other, so that if one fails, the other one takes over.

Well, as it turns out you can’t clone a RAID correctly, so I’ll have to break the array and try again. But that’s for another day.

While I had the case open I installed the new TP-Link WiFi 6 high-speed network card, and then booted up and found it worked fine. Then I went in and reconfigured that network settings . . . again.

For some reason, often when we get a Win10 update from MS, it goes through and configures al the network settings back to the default, I.e. no network. So then I have to go in and set it all up again.

Have I mentioned I hate ‘updates’?

Close to finishing up, I installed the final WiFi card in the Point of Sale computer and got it working. So sometime this week I’ll get all 3 machines moved over to the new, much faster network. So I guess I got 90% done of what I wanted to, so not bad.

And; sometime in here I need to break the RAID array apart so I can re-clone that drive, and also clone the POS computer too.

Busy, busy, busy.

Coming coming back toward home, we made a quick HEB stop for a few HEB-specific things that Jan likes, finally getting back to the rig a little before 6pm, a long, but interesting day.

OK, I screwed up yesterday.

The Retro-Blogs I posted yesterday were actually for today. So that means today’s Retro-Blogs are for yesterday.

So, read today’s and then go back and reread yesterday’s.

That way they’ll make more sense.

Our recent sojourn to the Texas Hill Country started with our 8am departure Thursday morning with our first stop at the Buc-ee’s up in Katy for a pit/coffee stop.

Our Jeep is still in the shop, and we really didn’t want to take Old Faithful, not because I don’t think it would make it, but we wanted something a little more comfortable and a little less smoky.

So I picked up a 2022 Toyota Corolla like this one.

I had asked for a Chevy Malibu, but it didn’t get returned in time.

Turned out to be a lot better than I expected.

But I still wonder it if can really do 160mph.

It had a lot of pep, especially for a 4 banger, though it sounded like an angry sewing machine when you punched it.

But Jan told me I wasn’t allowed to check it out.

Bummer!

Our second stop was another 90 minutes along was at the Luling Buc-ee’s, again for a pitstop/coffee break, with us finally getting into Fredericksburg about 1:45. Perfect timing since Der Lindenbaum, our favorite German restaurant opened at 1:30. And It was already half full when we got inside.

It’s that good.

And it was, but more about that tomorrow.

Thought For The Day:

I’m not stubborn. My way is just better.

March 26, 2009

Rain, wind, and storms…

We’re in our 2nd day of rain, wind, and storms so there’s not much going on. There was a tornado about 10 miles up the road in Lillian, but we were OK here.

We had the breakfast buffet again at Hazel’s down the road.  Always a good meal.

A little before 2pm, a park guy came by saying they thought we were leaving yesterday and we hadn’t paid for anymore.

After Jan woke me up from my nap (I’m retired, remember) I headed down to the campground office to figure out what happened. I had gone down on Monday (the day before we supposed to leave) and extended for another week.  So what happened?

Well, what happened was that I had extended and paid for a week, but in the computer they only had me down for extending a DAY.  Oh, well.

I did find some more info on the surf flags.

Right now, we have a red flag and a purple flag. The purple flag normally means jellyfish or Portuguese man-of-war.

Gulf Shores shuts down swimming on their public beach at one red flag, but the state beaches do it at two red flags.

Although the surf was rougher than the other day, we would have still been swimming/surfing in it.

Surf’s Up!

Hopefully better weather tomorrow, but not likely.

We’ll see.

March 26, 2010

My Vegas Gun Moll…

Today Jan got to check off another item on her Bucket List.

About 10:30am we headed over to The Gun Store so Jan could try her hand at firing a fully-automatic weapon. In this case, a Thompson SubMachine Gun.

They had pretty much everything available, from Uzi’s to AK47’s to MAC 10’s. But I thought she might appreciate firing a good ole Prohibition Era “Tommy Gun”

Although used by the US military until the early 70’s, it gained its fame as the weapon of choice of people like Bonnie and Clyde, and Machine Gun Kelly during the 1930’s.

Here she is getting instructions on how the gun works.

Then it’s “rock and roll” time.

She had her choice of targets, so she picked Osama bin Laden.

And here she is posing with her ‘Kill”.  Although it’s hard to see here, after she got use to the way the Thompson climbs as it’s fired, she put a lot of rounds dead center.

This is going to be a short post tonight.

We’ve got to get up early tomorrow. We’re driving about 50 miles south of here to Searchlight, NV to attend a Tea Party Rally.

Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Victoria Jackson, Joe the Plumber, and many others are supposed to be there.

Searchlight only has about 700 residents, but they’re expecting between 5000-10000 people, so it may be a real mess.

We’ll see.

March 26, 2012

Stuck in Las Cruces – Still

To recap: Yesterday as we turned off on Exit 135 into Las Cruces, NM, my engine sputtered a few times and then quit. We were just cresting the top of a hill that precedes a long sweeping curve down into Las Cruces. Although it was fun steering the coach without power steering, we were able to coast a little over 3 miles before being stopped by a red light. At that point I was able to pull off onto a side street that had a wide shoulder that kept us out of traffic.

Thinking that I might be out of diesel, I unhooked the toad, grabbed my 5 gallon can from the bay, and drove right down road to a Fina station, and by making two trips, got 10 gallons of diesel into the tank.

I then spent the next 30 minutes running through the re-prime procedure, but with no luck. So it was on the phone to CoachNet. They made some calls, and then told me they’d  have a wrecker out in about 45 minutes who would tow us to the repair lot. Though being Sunday, no one would be there until Monday morning. And after telling me it would be 45 minutes, the wrecker showed up in only 30 minutes. Great service from CoachNet.

Well, after a somewhat fitful night sleeping in the lot outside Rush Truck Center here in Las Cruces, I checked in with the shop when they opened at 8am. I was still under the assumption that I might be out of diesel, despite the fact that my Silverleaf computer dashboard said I still had 35 gallons in my tank, plus the 10 gallons I had added.

After getting my data, a tech showed up about an hour later and tried to get the engine started. By pre-filling the Lift Pump Filter, and using a small amount of ether, the engine started up after about 10 seconds of cranking.

YEAH!

The engine ran about 3 minutes and then quit.

BOO!

Rinse, Lather, Repeat.

A second attempt did exactly the same thing.

BOO! HISS!

The tech then started checking some things, and pulling the engine oil dipstick, discovered coolant in the oil.

RUH-ROH!

Not Good.

Next step was for them to tow the rig into their shop lot using a forklift. The facility manager Clayton said it could be something as simple as a water pump or cooler gasket, (BUCKS) but it could also be blown head gasket or a warped head. (BIG BUCKS).

But it could also be a cracked block. (REALLY, REALLY BIG BUCKS)

OUCH!

Clayton said he wanted to let the Cummins rep look at it first, hopefully later in the afternoon. Since we couldn’t stay in the rig, Jan and I packed us and our two cats off to a nearby La Quinta (They take pets).

After lunch and a nice nap in the room, we drove over to the shop about 4:30 to check in. Unfortunately the Cummins guy still hadn’t shown up, so we’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow to find out what’s what.

Stay tuned.

March 26, 2013

Old Friends and Goodbyes . . .

A little after 10am, Chris and Charles Yust headed out this morning, on their way to Waco, TX for another rally. Through their C & C Marketing and Insurance, they sell GMAC Insurance for RV’s and autos, as well as Good Sam products, such as Extended Service Plans, Roadside Assistance, and their new product TravelAssist.

We buy our insurance from them. You should too. (How’s that, Chris?)

About 10:30 Jan and I drove over to Poco & Mom’s to meet our friend’s Al & Adrienne for brunch.

A small family restaurant, it only has 12 tables and if you don’t get there early, you will have a wait. But it’s worth it because they can perform culinary magic with Hatch Green Chilies.

After a delicious meal and a lot of conversation Jan and I drove over to a nearby Bookman’s used bookstore. If you’re familiar with Half-Price Books in Texas, this is the Arizona clone. Then it was on down the road to a Chase Bank to get a replacement check book cover, and since we didn’t have coffee this morning, we stopped off at Starbuck’s for our Cinnamon Dolce Latte fix. Then home for the day.

Several blog readers have asked about the Taillight Test Box that I’ve mentioned lately.

It looks like this.

It’s built in a 98 cent Wal-Mart 3×5 file box, and that box, and one of the 3 switches are all I had to buy. That was because I wanted a center-off SPDT switch so I could switch the turn signals off.

The black and red cables are connected to the vehicle battery. The other cable connects to the vehicle lights.

The left switch turns the unit on and off. The center switch turns the taillights on and off, and the right switch turns the left or right turn signals on and off.

Besides the interconnecting wiring, the only parts inside the box are a 5amp inline fuse and  a 2 prong turn signal flasher.

And because I never throw anything away, I think my total cost was about $4. If you have any questions, leave me a comment.

March 26, 2014

A Asian Two’fer, for real this time . . .

Jan and I left the rig this morning about 9:45, heading down south to the Clear Lake area. Jan had one last doctor appointment to take care of, and I had some shopping to do.

But first it was lunch at King Food. We had intended to eat there last week, but at the last minute, Jan changed her mind and we ended up at Twin Peaks. But today there was no last minute change. And it was as delicious as usual. We’re really going to miss this place when we leave the area.

I dropped Jan off at the doctor’s and then headed down the road to spend some time perusing the aisles of the newly-opened Harbor Freight Tools, one of the places, that along with Fry’s Electronics, I can spend a lot of time just wandering up and down the rows.

And of course I found a few things I just had to have.

Next up, I stopped off to get the truck washed. And of course, within 15 minutes of that, it started to rain.

Then I drove over to Wal-Mart for a few things, then I stopped by an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for a couple of light bulbs.

By now it was time to pick up Jan and head back up to the Katy area. We were hoping to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, but Brandi was still under the weather coming off her flu, so we just got together with Lowell and Landon. We all met right down the road from their house at our new favorite Vietnamese place, Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro. And as usual it was really, really good.

Little V’s is a family-owned place that really goes all out. Everything’s just a little different, and much better. They even make all their own sauces from scratch. And even their Spring Rolls are different. Rather than using the thicker, sticky, translucent wrapper, they use one that’s thinner and not as chewy. And they’re made fresh to order.

Even more, they’re so dedicated to their food, that a different family member sleeps in the restaurant every night so that at 2am they can start making the stock used in their Pho dishes.

After getting our Landon and Lowell hugs, and after a quick stop for a going-home cappuccino, we got back to the rig a little after 7pm.

We’ve go more bad weather on the way so we’ll see how things go tomorrow.

March 26, 2015

First Coat . . .

I did get the first coat on the rig done early this afternoon, and it looks really good. In fact Chris did such a good that so far I haven’t found any places that really needs to be sanded or smoothed.

Since this is enamel I can only do about 1 coat a day, but in a good light it’s already pretty glossy.

Tomorrow I’ll take off the license plate and do the center section. It wasn’t damaged or repaired, but it should match.

I was a little disappointed in the resulting color, which is called Smoke Gray, and looks a lot lighter on the can. Of course it may get lighter as it dries, but right now it looks more like Battleship Gray. Hopefully I’ll be able to do another coat tomorrow.

About 4pm we headed out for dinner and some shopping. Our dinner destination was a place we discovered yesterday on our way to Wal-Mart / Sam’s Club near SanTan Village.

We passed a place called Joe’s Farm Grill that looked interesting, and was very busy to boot. Then this morning, I checked them out online. Turns out that Joe’s Farm Grill is a Triple-D winner, I.e. a Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives place, and their menu looked delicious.

From things like Grill Salmon, Ahi Tuna, and Fresh Beet Salad, to pizza, hot dogs, and burgers, Joe’s pretty much has it all. Their logo is “Common Food Done Uncommonly Well”, and that certainly describes their food.

Jan and I have both been jonsing for hot dogs recently and Joes’ seemed like the place to fill that void.

Jan had the regular hot dog basket, with an all-beef dog, onions, and farm-made relish, along with Garlic Fries.

I had Mix-n-Match, with a Carolina Dog, with Pulled Pork BBQ, coleslaw, and BBQ sauce, and a Sonoran Dog, wrapped in bacon and topped with farm beans, two cheeses, sour cream, and jalapenos, as well as an order of their Triple-D rated Onion Rings.

We also got an order of their Fried Green Beans for everyone to share.

It was easy to tell we loved this place, Everyone got really quiet, with a lot of lip-smacking, but very little talking going on.

Joe’s is part of a real family farm that provides much of the stuff they serve, with the rest local-sourced as much as possible. The restaurant, built around the old-family home, looks like an indoor fast-food place,

but the food certainly doesn’t taste that way. This is a great place to eat, so check it out. You can see their menu here. Joe’s Menu

Our next stop was the nearby Sam’s Club. We were there to pick up a prescription that wasn’t ready yesterday because they were out.

Then it was on to Fry’s Electronics. I wanted a new HD for a computer I’m building up.  I got a 3TB HD on sale for cheaper than what the 2TB from the same company costs. Nice.

March 26, 2016

OPA !

We didn’t walk today, our last day here at Lake Conroe for the next two weeks, since we’ll be doing another Wal-Mart walkabout this afternoon, and that’s always good for at least a mile, or even more.

So after coffee and breakfast, I went outside to do my normal Saturday prep to travel tomorrow morning. Normally I would have closed our gray valve a couple of days ago, but with all our recent coming and going, I forgot.

So today I just closed the valves and put away the water and sewer hoses without dumping the tanks. Back inside I squirted a large dose of Dawn into the toilet, along with a cup of Calgon Water Softener and a cup of powdered laundry detergent. The black tank is about 90% full, so all this will get to slosh around in the tank until we get to Colorado River, for just a general cleaning.

This is not really to clean the tank level sensors since we don’t use them. We can go 14 days on our black tank with no problem, so I normally just dump it right before we move. And we can go longer – our record is actually 19 days, but the tank was filled to the tippy-top by then. Not a good thing.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be up about 6:30, and then finish up everything else outside, except for power, I.e., satellite, awnings, folding step, etc. Then around 8 Jan and I will head down to the Cracker Barrel for our traditional Sunday Travel Day Breakfast.

Back at the rig, I’ll crank up the diesel, raise the levelers and stow the pads, bring in the slide, and disconnect shore power. By this time the coach will be up on the airbags, and we’ll be ready to roll. And it looks to be cool enough so we can be comfortable with just the fans.

This afternoon, about 3pm, we drove into Conroe to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. We saw the first one years ago, and really liked it, and this one was just as good or better. All of the original cast are back, including some you probably thought were dead since the original film in 2002.

Both this movie and the original one were produced by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and Rita and John Stamos have cameo roles in this one.

And a couple of things I was surprised to learn, is that the original movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is listed as the highest grossing romantic comedy of all time. And based on percentage of return – it cost $6 million and made $369 million, it is the second most profitable movie of all time, bettered only by Paranormal Activity.

Who Knew!

March 26, 2017

Shrimp Boats A Coming . . .

Today was a stay-at-home, catch-up on some repairs kind of  day. And part of it was just goofing off. Very nice.

One thing I did was to replace the wire on the back of a picture that a friend painted of one of my family’s shrimp boats, one of seven we had at one time back in the early 60’s.

Then I replaced the rig door’s gas spring and mounting bracket.

A while back the bracket broke off and took the gas spring mounting end with it. I was able to quickly get at new spring, but it took a while to track down a new bracket. American Coach couldn’t help because in their parts list, the bracket was part of the door and they didn’t stock parks for it.

But while I was looking for something else on Amazon, I stumbled across a replacement bracket. And of course, as usual, I ordered two.

Again on the Amazon front, I had an order that was supposed to be delivered by the Post Office today, but a little after noon I received a text message saying that the package could not be delivered due a faulty address.

Now I had had two packages delivered here on Friday and Saturday so I knew Amazon had the correct address. So I assumed the PO had screwed up somehow. But this time it turned out to be Amazon’s fault.

After talking to both Amazon and the PO, I found out that the address on the package was incomplete. Instead of

Greg White
c/o Santa Fe RV Park
1800 N. Ironwood Dr.
Apache Junction, AZ  85120-1912

All it had was

c/o Santa Fe RV Park
1800 N. Ironwood Dr.
Apache Junction, AZ  85120-1912
Apparently the PO couldn’t just go ahead and just deliver it to the RV park and let us sort it out. So I’ve got to call tomorrow and see if I can pick it up at the PO.

David, a blog reader, had this question about our use of Passport America as we travel around the country. Here’s what he said.

You seem to use PA frequently when you guys are moving around.
I have found that many parks place “harsh” limits on the usage of PA.  along with some pretty run down parks.  What’s you take on this.

Here was my reply.

David,

We use PA all the time, and have since we started RV’ing in 2007.

If we’re going to an area/park that we haven’t used before, I first check the park out on RVParkReviews.com. This lets me weed out any questionable parks.

It’s worked well so far.

All the parks have different PA rules. Some parks only let you stay a day or two, or three. Some a week, or some will let you stay an unlimited time.

This park, Santa Fe RV Park, a very nice park, lets you stay 14 days, saving us $280 for the two weeks.

PA is $45/year.

So three nights at $15 instead of $30 a night pays for a year’s membership in PA.

Normally this only takes us a couple of weeks each year.

Hope this helps.

We consider PA one of our best values, and it saves us hundreds of dollars or more every year.

March 26, 2018

A Big Step Closer . . .

My day started with an early call from Brock’s Car Care, telling me that as soon as they started up my truck, the oil pressure came right up normally.

BUT . . . they said they could hear a little rod knock and lifter noise for a few seconds before it smoothed right out, indicating that the engine had run for a short while without oil pressure. So they were able to see the problem. and they’re sure that no lasting damage was done to the engine during this episode.

Because it’s seemingly intermittent, they first suspected that with the high mileage on the truck (277,000+), some carbon/crud buildup in the oil pan had broken loose (maybe when the driveshaft  broke off) and is occasionally clogging the oil pickup tube in the pan. Which explains why it didn’t show up during the previous repair, then did for me, and then didn’t this morning.

So they’re first going to drop the oil pan and see what’s going on. Hopefully cleaning all the gunk out will correct the problem. If not, the only thing really left is to go in and replace the oil pump.

More $$$$

But still cheaper than a new truck.

One last thing to note is that this looks to have nothing to do with my ‘oil pressure’ problem a couple of months ago. Then the engine never actually lost oil pressure, since I could drive for an hour or more with no problems. And replacing the oil filter fixed the sensor problem.

Hopefully I’ll have the truck back tomorrow or Wednesday.

On the upside I did make a big jump forward at work today. I finally found where the previous IT guy hid the SQL databases used by the websites, and have control of them. I can now can copy them/back them up . . . and when I’m ready, move them online to Godaddy.

And going through a desk drawer, I also found where the previous IT guy hid his marijuana bong and Zig Zag rolling papers. Which probably explains why the webserver he set up is so squirrely.

Getting home about 4:15, we headed back out to have dinner at the nearby Pho 20. As on previous visits, we went to our favorites. Jan got her House Crunch Salad with their delicious Miso Dressing, as well as an order of Shrimp Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce.

I got the big bowl of the While Meat Chicken Pho with Mixed Veggies. And the Mixed Veggies pretty much covered the gambit, with Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Mushrooms, Spinach, Snow Peas, Onions, and Cucumbers.

This, along with the usual Pho garnish plate with Bean Spouts, Thai Basil, Cilantro, and Jalapeno’s, makes for a full bowl of Pho.

One thing that Sherry, the Pho 20 owner, is known for is giving us samples of new dishes and other gifts. And tonight’s was a bowl of her new Hot & Sour Soup that’s going on the menu.

Just as delicious as everything else.

March 26, 2019

It’s Weird . . .

Today was originally going to be our visit to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, along with lunch at Katz’s Deli and a stop off at the iBurn store for the latest in HOT stuff. But, like this past Sunday’s rig test drive, it all got pushed back a week, to next Tuesday.

We spent the morning going over things we want to get for the trip. One thing especially I’m looking at are SIM cards for our phones while we’re over there, for voice, text, and data.

There are a lot of choices, but one common theme is that all the ones I’ve found so far require the phone to be unlocked. And apparently some Verizon phones and plans are unlocked, or can be unlocked, and some can’t. So I’ll have to check with the Verizon store and see.

We also checked out the websites for the hotels we’ll be staying at in Paris and London. Both seem to be pretty central to the the city centers.

Here’s our room at the Hotel Eden Opera in Paris.

And here’s our room at the Lancaster Gate Hotel in London.

Both seem really nice.

Of course our real rooms could be in the back of the building, down a long, dark hallway, overlooking the stinky dumpster in the alley below. You never can tell.

Jan and I headed out about 1pm, first for lunch/breakfast at SnoozeAM, and then some WalMart/Sam’s Club shopping. Jan did get her pneumonia shot while we were at WM, which means that now I don’t have to worry about catching from her.

As I’ve said before, except for my recent Shingles shot, I don’t get vaccinations. The last time I got one, a flu shot in 1966, it put me in a coma for 4 days, and in the hospital for 2 weeks. And the doctor said I might not survive another one.

The one the year before just made me sick as a dog for 4 or 5 days

Now, yeah, I know vaccines have changed since then, and that was the flu one, and this is for pneumonia, but why take the chance?

So I just depend on the kindness of strangers. If everyone else gets all their shots like they’re supposed to, then there will be no one for me to catch anything from.

At least that’s my theory, and I’m sticking with it.

Several readers have asked about my diet plan that I’ve used to lose 70 pounds in the last year or so, so I’m putting together a blog post about. However I’m not sure it will be much help to anyone, since according to Jan, it’s “weird”.

Hey, it may be weird, but it works. For me.

March 26, 2020

A Good Report!

and We Scored!

Jan had her yearly mammogram this morning and everything came back fine. So of course we’re really happy about that. Jan really likes this place because she always knows the result before she leaves.

Then while Jan was getting that done, I headed over the WalMart, getting there about 7:30. I was surprised to find them handing out toilet paper, with your choice of two brands, and of course, one to a customer. In addition, they also had plenty of fresh eggs.

I was also looking for Paper Towels, but no luck on those, but they did have the Kleenex Jan wanted. So all in all, a successful trip.

Picking up Jan, and getting her great news, we decided to make a stop at the nearby Costco for a couple of other things Jan was looking for. Driving in, I noticed that their gas had dropped to $1.49/gal.

Good for us, bad for the oil ‘bidness’

We got there about 9am, and seeing people wheeling out carts with toilet paper and paper towels, we figured we were on the right path. So we were able to score a package of Paper Towels. Even better, we got a 6 tube pack of Lysol wipes. So our stop here was a successful, too.

And as we were checking out, they announced that they were now out of TP and PT, so we really lucked out, I guess.

However the problem was that when you buy Paper Towels from Costco, you get a 12 pack that takes up the entire backseat of the truck.

Somebody at Costco has a real sense of humor, as seen in this photo I found online.

And it looks like those of you who have squirreled away years of toilet paper, sanitizer, etc. (none of our readers, I’m sure) might be getting their comeuppance, since I saw this sign at Costco today.

Since we left the rig about 6:45 this morning, it was too early for coffee, but I set it up before we left, and then used my Switchbot phone app to start it brewing as we headed home.

Jan had one last doctor’s appointment this afternoon, with her oncologist pretty much to just go over her mammogram results, really just a formality since the news was so good this morning.

And in fact, it was apparently so much a ‘formality’ for the office, that they called and wanted to do the appointment online, using a phone app called VSee Clinic. And the call consisted pretty consisted of the doctor saying the mammogram showed no problems, which of course Jan already knew. And it did save us a trip back up to Webster this afternoon.

But we did head back out anyway a little after 4pm, first for a stop at our storage room to drop off our 2 year supply of Paper Towels and Lysol Wipes. Then we phoned in a food order to Los Ramirez Mexican to pick up on our way home. I also had  them add 4 $25 gift cards to our order, to help them out as much as possible. We want them to stay around.

Day 4 in Homeschooling at the Morrison household seems to be a bit rocky.

First thing this morning:

If quarantine doesn’t end soon he’s getting shipped off to boarding school.

Then later.

Lowell bought some mini Twix bars yesterday and Landon kept sneaking them, so today I hid them and Lowell ratted me out and Landon says to me “bruh…just keep the food where it is”.

He’s now contemplating his sarcasm in time out.

Then our son Chris suggested.

Military School!

March 26, 2021

A Non-Stop Friday . . .

At least at work.

Today was one of those days at work when I walked in the door  at 10:30 and I was already way behind. But I actually like it like that.

It seems like you just sit down, and then you look up and it’s time to go home.

I was able to get our new CubiCubi Dresser Storage Tower put together pretty quickly last night. The instructions were pretty decent for a change, but they really weren’t needed anyway.

And even though we had measured where it would fit, it somehow seems smaller that in the online photos. Of course, doesn’t everything. LOL

Now to decide what to stow away in it.

March 26, 2022

We Have A Date . . .

First up, I want to thank everyone for their concern about my BPPV attack. It faded as the day went on, and was gone by this morning, just as it the past.

I went out early this morning to try and remove my shore water inlet check valve. It turned out to be both harder and easier than I had expected, mainly because my fingers don’t quite have the strength that they did back in 2013 when I last replaced this.

I got the old one out and the new one in, but I couldn’t get it tightened down without a Crescent wrench. However it was about time for us to head out for lunch/errands so I’ll finish it up this afternoon.

Lunch today was the Pho Barr up in Webster once again. And now we have a date.

The new Pho Barr down in our area is supposed to open next Saturday, April 2nd.  So I guess we’ll see next weekend.

After finishing up our shopping errands and we were back home I used a Crescent wrench to tighten down the fittings on the new inlet/check valve. And now it looks like that problem is fixed. There are no leaks, shore water now goes in, and no water comes out when there’s nothing hooked up to it. So the check valve part is working. I’ll finish mounting it tomorrow.

I said ‘that problem’ was fixed because I have another one that I found when I was working on this one.

This is the ball valve that diverts shore water into our 100 gallon fresh water tank to fill it up. When the handle is straight up, like in the photo, shore water works as usual. But when the valve is turned down to the left, water is sent to the tank. However now when the valve is in the tank fill position, a stream of water, kind of like what comes out of a squirt gun, comes out the back of the valve.

The exact replacement, is now only sold in Europe, but I found one on Amazon (of course) that should work, and will be here on Monday.

It’s always something.