Our RV Adventures

Well, we tried to leave, but Gina just wouldn’t let us.

About 30 minutes before we were going to pull out, she called about 10 am saying that her ceiling fan/deck lighting system had started popping the GFI.

It had worked fine last night and again this morning, but It had started having problems a little later.

I told her we would be over in a few minutes. Stopping by the office on the way out, I re-upped us for another day, since I doubted I would be finished before checkout time.

Getting over to Gina’s I quickly found the problem. The extension cord connector that I had carefully tucked out of the way under the edge of the deck, was soaking wet.

This had me really scratching my head. The deck was covered so rain couldn’t get to it from the top, and it was shielded from the sides. What the heck?

Well, it turns out that it wasn’t shielded from Gina emptying the large raccoon water bowls out on the deck and refilling them with fresh water. She was dumping about a gallon on the deck right above the connector underneath. Huh!

Well, I would fix that!  I used compressed air to get all the moisture out of the connector and retested the GFI.

Voila! It now worked. I then got a large Ziplock bag, put the connector down in it, wrapped it up, and duck-taped it up tight, I then used a nearby hose to directly spray the bagged connector.

And it still worked fine. Problem solved.

By now it was time for lunch, so we headed over to Wimberley and the Wimberley Cafe.

The quickest way to get to Wimberley is to take the back way across the Little Blanco river.  But you have to be sure you CAN get across the river. It’s a water crossing, and right now the water is 2-3 inches deep on the road. It can be 2-3 FEET or higher.

When we came thru here 3 weeks ago, it was dry, but with all the recent rains, it’s certainly not now. And you have to be careful not to accelerate too fast going over. The bridge has a lot of moss on it, and if your tires start to slip, you will just slide sideways off into the river. Our first time across several years ago, we encountered an SUV half off the road into the water.

A little way down the road pass the crossing, we came across these young llamas. At least I’m pretty sure they’re llamas, and not alpacas.

A little googling told me that the main difference between them is size and ears. Llamas are bred as pack animals, and are larger, normally 200-250 pounds. Alpacas are bred for their wool, and are usually smaller, 175 to 200 pounds.

The big difference is the ears. Llamas have longer, sometimes banana-shaped ears. Alpacas have short stubby ears, almost like small horns.

Based on that, and this photo of an Alpaca I found on the Internet, I think the ones here are young llamas.

But I wouldn’t swear to it.

The Wimberley Cafe was very good, with excellent soup and sandwiches.

After lunch we headed back to Gina’s. Jan curled in the recliner with Gina’s two dogs,

Becky Sue, and

Bucky.

Bucky doesn’t seem to like me very much. Maybe it’s because we have regular growling contests.

After helping Gina set up Google’s Picasa photo management program, we headed back to the rig.

I’d been wanting to get a good shot of Canyon Lake, so I found a hill in a nearby subdivision for a good shot.

This is really a beautiful area, and we always enjoy staying here.

Getting back the rig we found the deer waiting for us. Unfortunately Jan had used up all her corn thinking we were leaving today. This young budding 7 point buck seems particularly put out. He stood about 10 feet away, just staring at me.

We’ll try to get to Waco again tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Quote of the day:
Honesty may be the best policy, but it’s important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy. – George Carlin

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Today’s our last full day here in the Texas Hill Country, and, although we’ve had a great time during our 10 days here with our friend Gina, we’ve both got hitch itch so bad that I think I’ve actually got a rash.

At least I hope it’s from the hitch itch!

This morning we picked up Gina about 10:30 am and headed into San Marcos to have lunch at Red Lobster. Jan loves their Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

After lunch we drove over to the feed store in Sattler and picked up 160# of raccoon (dog) food. Apparently Purina doesn’t make Raccoon Chow, so dog food it is.

Getting back to Gina’s I cleaned up my tools and stuff, and took some photos of my deck project.

Here’s the ceiling fan I installed on the deck.

Here’s one of the flood lights. One points out into the yard, and the other lights the front of the deck.

Here’s the other light. One light illuminates the parking area to the right, and the other one lights the deck from the other side.

This is the waterproof switch box that controls the lights. The orange extension cord is not part of the switch box.

This is the connector box that hooks everything into the power.

And here’s where Gina moved the hummingbird feeder, away from the new ceiling fan, hoping to forgo that messy ‘hummingbird cuisinart” effect.

About 4:30 pm we headed over to the Lucky Sailor Restaurant on Canyon Lake for dinner. Jan had the Hot Wings, Gina had Fried Shrimp & Oysters, and I had a Grilled Chicken Breast. All good.

Dropping Gina off at her place, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the rig. Jan fed the last of the corn to the deer and we were in for the night.

Tomorrow we’ll head north on I-35 to a little past Waco for the night. I thought about going all the way to Dallas, but didn’t find any RV parks along our route that I was happy with.

More tomorrow…

Quote of the day:
It’s not that I’m afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens. – Woody Allen

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