Our RV Adventures

2 Days and Counting . . .

First off, Brandi sent over these photos of Landon and his new best friend, Kitty. And yes, Brandi and Lowell have a 105 lb. Black Lab/ Shepard mix named Kitty who just dotes on Landon.

I sure hope Kitty is just licking and not tasting here.

We left the rig this morning about 10am for a morning of errands, with a little breakfast thrown in for good measure.

Our first stop was Fry’s Electronics where I was looking for a XM Radio antenna for a client. With no luck on the antenna, we headed over to the Egg and I for a little breakfast with some of their great Hazelnut coffee.

Next it was off to Best Buy to for another try for an XM antenna, and once again, no luck. They did suggest that I just buy a complete XM Radio for $70 just to get the $8 antenna.

Ain’t gonna happen. I pulled out my Blackberry, went online to Amazon, and had a new antenna on the way in about 3 minutes. Done deal.

Then since I was right there, I ran next door to Lowe’s to get a 3/4” deep well socket to make it easier to pull the coach chairs up to finish removing the last of the carpet.

Then it was time for my semi-annual haircut, which as Jan said “wouldn’t take too long.” I think her snicker was the worst part.

After a quick stop at the bank, we made our last stop at a client’s for a few minutes, and then we headed back home to the rig.

Getting home Jan started packing up for our “test drive.” We’ve been parked here for 5 months, and I didn’t want to be trying to leave on Saturday morning and find something isn’t working. You know, things liket the leveler jacks won’t come up, the slide won’t come in, little things like that.

I had plugged in the engine heater last night just to be sure the oil was somewhat thinner than Vasoline, so with fingers crossed, I started the engine, and let out a big sigh as our ‘ole faithful’ roared to life.

After a few seconds I had good oil pressure, so I started raising the leveler jacks. And once again, no problems. Now it was time for the slide to come in, and again, no problems. Well, maybe a little more groaning than normal, but hey, it’s been 5 months.

Three for three so far.

Then while I went out and unplugged and stowed the power cable, Jan was out with her broom, ready to sweep the concrete pad to clean off the gravel I had earlier washed out of the leveler jack feet. While I was outside I did notice the coach was slow to come up on the front airbags, and I could hear a lot of escaping air. When this first happened to me several years ago I thought I had a leak, but was informed that this was the air system automagically venting water from the tanks. Then after a few minutes the hissing stopped and the rig came up on the front bags.

Finally, back in the coach, I put it in reverse and slowly backed out of the site. Again no problems.

So while Jan was sweeping, I made the short loop around the bayou/marina area, just to check things out in general.

The first (and only) problem showed up when we tried to put the slide back out. And it was dead.

Not a sound or anything going in or out. After checking the fuses, I did what I always do when I have a coach problem. I called American Coach for help. (Well, I certainly wasn’t going to call Nick.  Miss Terry, maybe, but not Nick. I mean it involves tools and stuff.) And as usual, Deb at American came thru.

After first asking if the keylock was On, she suggested I check the Air Brake knob. And she was right. I knew the Air Brakes were set because I heard them when I pulled out the knob.

But I apparently hadn’t pulled the knob out quite far enough. As soon as I touched it, it jumped a little bit and clicked. Trying the slide again showed that fixed the problem. Apparently I had pulled the knob out far enough to set the brakes, but not far enough to trigger the interlock switch. I guess it makes sense to interlock the Air Brakes and the slide, I just never thought about it before.

After getting us hooked back up again, I gave my new Sears Air Compressor a workout by topping off all the rig and toad tires. It took the rig tires up to 105 lb on the front and 100 lb on the rear with no problems. I love this thing. So much easier than using the onboard air compressor.

One funny thing came out of all this. Our two cats, Mister and Emma, normally ride in the front seat with Jan, and as soon as I started the engine they both raced to her seat to get ready to travel. But since I had some stuff on the seat, there was only enough room for one of them. So they were kind of sitting on top of each other, almost like playing musical chairs. Wish I’d had the camera.

About 4:30 we headed up to Webster for one last dinner at King Food with our friends Bob and Maria. We had such a great time we ended up talking for almost 3 hours before we split up.

Leaving King Food, we stopped off at Sam’s Club for a few things before heading over to Brandi’s for a last goodbye. It’s hard to think that the next time we see Landon he’ll be a year old.

Finally it was time to head home again after a very busy, but productive day. And tomorrow will be even busier as we wrap things up before heading out on Saturday.

More tomorrow . . .

And here’s the next episode of our visit to Newfoundland in 2009.

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Thought for the Day:

"Happiness Is A Belt-Fed Weapon"

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Posted on September 8, 2009

This is our last full day in Newfoundland.

After breakfast at Jungle Jim’s we left the hotel in Corner Brook on our way to Port Aux Basques (Pronounced ‘Port Ah Baas’), 132 miles away, where we will catch the ferry back to Nova Scotia tomorrow at 11:30 am.

But before we left town we stopped at Walmart for some ‘stuff’ and then to take some last pics of the place.

Most readers of our blog know that Jan is MOOSE crazy. She had really hoped to see some moose over here. In fact, everyone we have talked to that have been here have seen moose, a lot of moose. But Jan has seen ZIP, ZERO, NADA while we are here.

I mean, there’s 110,000 moose here and it’s really not that large a place. We did our best. We slowed down whenever we saw someone pulled over, in case they were seeing a moose. We checked out every pond, lake, and stream along the highway. No luck.

About 20 miles outside Port Aux Basques we came thru the ‘Wrecknation’ area. This is an area known for its extremely high winds, I mean, really, really high. Like over 125 mph!

And this is not from a storm. These are just high winds off the ocean being channeled thru the valley below.

But today there was no wind whatsoever. Lucky us.

We got into Port Aux Basques about 2:30 pm and got checked in.

After a quick lunch, we drove around the area and checked to be sure we knew where to go for the ferry tomorrow

Coming back to the hotel, it seemed like a nap was in order, and then about 7 pm, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant.

Tomorrow we have a 5 hour ferry ride back to the mainland.

Anchors away!

adsf

Still another early morning.

And still more coffee.

But hopefully this is the last early one for a while as I should be able to finish up my computer job today.

I left the rig about 9:45 heading up to my client’s office in Pasadena, driving in the pouring rain. Boy, am I glad I got all the outside work done yesterday.

It took about 4 hours to finished up checking out all the lines, mounting all the wall boxes, hooked up the last two VOIP phones, and neaten up all the cable runs. Then, after a walk-though with the client, I got my check and headed out . . .

to another client’s. But this one only took about an hour to finish up. Then it was by the house to pick up my forgotten camera, but with a bonus.

Brandi was home early due to the bad weather coming in, and Lendell and Sonja, Lowell’s parents, down from Oklahoma, were there, and of course, Landon too.

Speaking of Landon, here’s the obligatory Landon photos from King Food the other night

He looks like he was not too happy to be waked up. But he did cheer up pretty quick.

Leaving Brandi’s, I stopped off at the dry cleaners to pick up our winter bedspread and then dropped it off at the storeroom for use when we return next winter, and while I was there I paid the rent on the storeroom. Normally I do this by automatic bill pay thru my bank, but since this is a change due to getting rid of our 2nd storeroom, I wanted to be sure the payment got done for the correct amount.

Finally it was time to head back to the rig. The rain had disappeared, but the front had come through and it had gotten COLD. When I got back to the rig about 5:30 it was already 32 and falling. It’s supposed to be about 26 tonight, so I’ll disconnect the water just to be safe.

Getting back to the rig I found Jan still under the weather. She’s had a sinus headache for several days now. She finally got rid of the cough, but the stuffy head just hangs on.

When I left she was planning to walk up to the clubhouse about 11 to check out the Tastefully Simple party our friend Jeannie Sparks was having, but the fact it was pouring down rain, in combination with the sinus headache, put the kibosh on that.

Jan didn’t feel like going out for dinner, so I just had my left-over Armadillo Eggs from T-Bone Tom’s the other night. Still great.

Jan eventually fixed herself a microwave dinner, and that was about it for the evening.

And here’s the next installment of our trip to Newfoundland in 2009.

More tomorrow. . .

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Thought for the Day:

If ignorance is bliss why are so many Americans on anti-depressants?

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They called the wind Moriah…Mt. Moriah, that is…

Originally posted on September 7, 2009

After breakfast at our hotel, we left Twillingate about 10 am heading for Corner Brook, about 255 miles away. We had a really nice room overlooking the ocean. Here’s our morning view…

Around lunch we stopped in Windsor to eat at Mary Brown’s Chicken and Taters again. After lunch we placed a call to Miss Piper, our granddaughter, on her 16th birthday. We didn’t get her, but left a message on her voicemail.

About halfway to Corner Brook, around the Mt. Moriah area, we started running into a lot of wind…I mean a LOT!

In fact, even the birds were walking. While we were pulled over a while, we saw a raven trying to fly in the wind and being blown away.

After sitting on a guardrail post in front of our truck for a while, he finally jumped down and WALKED off.

While we were stopped at a Visitor’s Information Center, Piper called us back. She had been in Arkansas, kayaking with her boyfriend and his family. It was good to talk with her.

Fighting the high wind gusts, 40 – 50 mph, we finally arrived in Corner Brook and got checked into our Comfort Inn hotel.

After looking at a map, we decided to drive the 30 miles out to the Lark Harbour area at the end of the peninsular that looks out over the Gulf of St. Lawrence. And once more we were treated to spectacular scenery.

Coming back to the hotel, we decided to eat at Jungle Jim’s, the hotel restaurant. It’s a chain up here, kind of like a Chili”s or TGI Friday’s.

We both had Stir Fry’s, and then split a Spiced Apple Burrito for dessert.

More tomorrow…

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