Our RV Adventures

It was nice to wake up to another sunny day this morning after all the rain we’ve had lately. Especially today’s the day I’m going to reinstall our Splendide washer/dryer after the dryer fan repair.

By the time 1pm rolled around, I couldn’t put it off any longer.  So I started outside by removing the dryer exhaust vent cover.

My big problem was how to hook up the exhaust hose to the back of the washer. The other hoses, hot and cold water inlets and water drain, and the power cord, were all long enough to be plugged in with the washer still out in the hallway. But the exhaust hose was not long enough to reach.

When I talked to American Coach Tech Service they suggested that I cut a hold in the bottom of the cabinet above the washer and reach down. But this seemed like a lot of work to me so I came up with another plan.

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My plan was to tape together two yardsticks lengthwise and then run it in thru the outside vent. I would then insert the yardstick into the dryer vent outlet to keep things aligned as I pushed the washer into the cabinet.

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Mister decided to help me by supervising from the top of the washer, but his 25 pounds just made it harder to move.

The string taped to the top of the washer is used to hold the drain hose up out of the way so it doesn’t get crimped as I push the washer in.

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After getting the washer into position, Jan was able to help me tilt it up and get it started in the opening.

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If I had it to do over, I would have sprayed lubricant on the base of the cabinet to make it easier to slide the washer into position.

But after a lot of pushing and shoving, I finally got it into place.

Then I went outside and, with the yardstick and a flashlight, I moved the end of the exhaust duct into position where it was seated in the dryer exhaust connector. Certainly a lot easier than cutting a hole in the cabinet above.

As Col. Hannibal Smith says, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

But before I put the doors back on and install the retaining strip, I wanted do a few wash loads to check everything out. And Jan immediately took me up on it and ran two loads through with no problems at all. Great!

I rested on my laurels for a few hours, and then a little before 5 pm, Jan and I headed up to Stomp’s Burger Joint in Bacliff to meet up with Jan and Dave Evans for dinner.

They’ve been reading our blog for a while and when they saw we were in the area, they wanted to get together. Turns out we have a lot in common, not just RV’ing.

Jan worked for the US Post Office for many years, and at one time delivered mail to our subdivision, but not to our street.

And her husband Dave is an instructor at Texas A&M’s Fire School, and probably taught my son sometime along the way when he was a fireman in Texas City, TX.

We really had a fun time getting to know Jan and Dave better, and hopefully we’ll be able to catch up with them again soon.

On a final note, I’m now pretty certain that it was the Garmin GPS FM Traffic Receiver/ Power Cord that ran my battery down Christmas morning since I’ve not had another problem with the battery.

Live and learn.

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Thought for the Day:

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

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I was up about 9am this morning because Jan and I needed to head out about 10. She was meeting up with our granddaughter Piper to the spend the day together, and I had to drop a new laptop off at a clients.

I dropped Jan off at Piper’s about 10:30 and then headed over to my client’s. I had picked their new laptop before Christmas to get it configured with all the software they wanted on it. The problem started when I got there and they had a whole new list of software to install, and it had to be done today since they are flying to California tomorrow morning.

But the real problem was that almost all of this software needed to downloaded, and most of the files were really large. And their connection was really, really slow.

So 5 hours later I finally finished. But since I get paid by the hour, it was all good.

In the meantime Jan and Piper had headed out for their day together. Their first stop was the Texas Tea Room for lunch, our favorite tea room in this area for soup and sandwiches. Hopefully Jan and I will be able to eat there before we leave.

Their next stop was to do some shopping during the after-Christmas sales. Piper is a  sharp shopper and they picked up some great bargains along the way.

Next up was a movie. They’d decided to see the new Matt Damon movie, “We Bought A Zoo”. Based on a true story, although in real life it happened in England,  it tells of a family that bought and rehabilitated a small zoo. They both liked it and said it was ‘touching’.

By the time they were done with the movie I was finished also, so I met them back at Piper’s, and then Jan and I headed home with a stopover for dinner at Kelly’s Country Cookin’ in League City. Jan was hoping they would have Turkey and Dressing (cornbread, of course), but unfortunately they didn’t. They did, however, have the next best thing – Roasted Chicken Breast and Dressing.

She said it was really good, and being from Kelly’s, of course there were leftovers.

On another note, Jan is really enjoying the Christmas present I got her. A new Black & Decker Toaster/Convection Oven.

She had made a comment about how nice the one that Nick and Terry Russell bought recently, and she also likes the one our daughter Brandi has, so I surprised her with this one.

It’s all digital and big enough to cook a 12” pizza or toast 6 slices of bread at one time.

As far as my Christmas present, my new Garmin nuvi 1490LMP GPS, goes, so far I really like it. I want to play with it for a while longer before I give a review.

It looks like tomorrow is when I’m going to try to reinstall the washer back in its cubbyhole. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Thought for the Day:

What ISN’T in the news is often more important than what IS.

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