Monthly Archives: May 2011
Landon vs. Kitty . . .
We were rudely awakened this morning by the guy parked right behind us warming up his diesel engine for 45 FREAKING minutes.
I’ve been to a couple of rally’s where Cummins’ engineers have told us that you don’t need to warm up or cool down your engine anything like that.
As far as warm up, Cummins says that my regimen is perfect. If it’s been colder than about 40 degrees, I’ve had my engine block heater plugged in, above 40 I don’t worry about it.
When everything else is ready to go except for disconnecting from shore power. I start the engine, and as soon as the oil pressure is up to normal (about 10 seconds) I put the engine into high idle by pressing the Increase Speed button on the Cruise Control. This brings the engine up to about 1000 rpm. (Your coach may differ)
Next I start the levelers coming up which also starts the airbags inflating. I then go outside, disconnect shore power, and stow the cord.
Finally I do a walk-around to double-check that everything is ready to go. By this time the coach is up on the airbags and off we go.
As far as cool down, Cummins says that if you’ve just spent 5 or 10 minutes putt-putting along getting to the park and getting to your site, that’s all you need. Otherwise don’t idle for more than about 5 minutes or so.
You don’t need 45 FREAKING minutes. So there.
After getting back to sleep, I got up about 10:15 and got the coffee started while Jan heated up the last of Miss Terri’s delicious homemade banana bread. Hint, Hint!
Then Jan brought me up to speed on the morning’s phone calls.
Our daughter Brandi called about 9 to to let us know that Landon had achieved a new milestone.
He ate his first mouthful of dirt! I guess he liked because it didn’t seem to slow him down.
I’ve also posted this video of Landon and Kitty in a standoff over one of Kitty’s toys. And yes, Kitty is a 105 pound Black Lab.
Kitty’s contest-winning move seems to be to cover the toy in dog slobber hoping this will deter Landon. But when this doesn’t work, Kitty just takes it over to the dog bed and lays on it.
A little later our friend Gina Ellis called to check in and she and Jan had a good talk.
A little before 12 Jan fixed us a lunch of Terry’s wonderful Mexican food
Then after a short nap we got together at 2:30 with Nick and Terry and headed down to Wal-Mart for some shopping. Since we had cold stuff we came back to the rig to drop things off, before heading back to to have dinner at a Popeye’s Chicken before getting home about 6 pm.
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Thought for the Day:
BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) has replaced NIMBY.
asdfdsf
Landon and Las Vegas . . .
I was up about 9:15 this morning, early because it was a Landon Skype day.
While we were waiting, I got the coffee started and then we had some of Miss Terry’s great homemade banana bread that Nick brought over about 1:30 this morning.
Then about 9:40 Brandi called and said she had just put Landon down for a nap after lunch (it was 11:40 there) and that they would call us when he was up.
And a little before 11 LandonVision was on the air.
And he was his usual rambunctious self. A big problem now is that he moves around so much that the camera has a hard time keeping him in focus.
Brandi said she’s starting to long for the days when she could put him down, turn her head, and then look back, and he’d still be there.
Now he’s crawling off somewhere.
Jan said “Just wait ‘til he starts getting into your pots and pans.”
Our call lasted almost 20 minutes, and Landon never stopped moving. Brandi and Lowell are going to have their hands full.
So here’s a video of our little crawler.
After the Skype call, I put Mister outside for awhile to catch some rays. He really enjoys just laying in his chair and watch things.
People will go by walking their dogs and he won’t blink an eye.
About 1:15 Nick and Terry, and Jan and I headed to do some ‘stuff’. First we headed over to the bottom of the Strip to Fry’s Electronics. Nick and Terry wanted to check out digital cameras, and Jan and I just like to wander around the store. It was kind of unusual for me that I didn’t need anything from there, but I did get a computer magazine so it wasn’t a waste.
After Fry’s we drove over to the Galleria area to eat lunch/supper at Lucky Star Chinese Buffet. We had eaten there before, but it was a first for Nick and Terry.
After lunch we walked across the parking lot to check out the Panera Bread for Nick’s favorite Asiago Cheese Bagels, but they were out of them for the day. So after a quick stop at the Walgreen’s next door we got home a little before 5pm.
While Jan watched TV I took a great 2 hour nap before we all headed out again about 7:45 to drive the Strip. It’s just nonstop fun in Vegas.
We started at the top of the Strip, up by Fremont St., drove all the way down past Mandalay Bay, and then turned around and came all the way back.
We thought about stopping at Pawn Stars,
but decided to save it for another day.
Before heading home for the night, we stopped off at our favorite DQ in Las Vegas for a cool treat.
So by the time we got home, it was after 10pm, and Jan was asleep in 15 minutes.
Just another exciting day in Las Vegas.
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Thought for the Day:
Honk if you love peace and quiet.
adsfd
