Our RV Adventures

I was up about 6:30 this morning, for two reasons. One, it was a travel day and I wanted to start packing things away, and two, I wanted to call Winegard about the problem with my Carryout Satellite Antenna. Their hours started at 7:30 CST so they would be open now.

So after starting the coffee, I got on the phone with a young lady at Winegard who gave me a couple of more things to check on and then call her back after we get to Gila Bend this afternoon.

We pulled out of the Pima County Fairgrounds a little before 9:30 heading for Gila Bend about 135 miles away. We’re going to spend two days there before heading over to Yuma to meet up with Nick and Terry Russell to start getting ready for the upcoming Gypsy Journal Rally starting March 4th.

We pulled into Holt’s Shell RV Park a little before noon, found an empty site, and got parked. Then I walked over to the office and paid for two nights. We got here this early in the day because this time last year we had to wait for RV’s to pull out before we could get a site, but this we had plenty of sites to choose from.

After getting hooked up, I took the dome off the satellite antenna and started checking for 12 volts on the circuit board. And came up with zip . . . no 12v. So I started working my way back up the circuit, finally getting back to the power cable itself.

So I checked it again. And this time found no voltage on the cable.

Huh?  I had voltage on it last night. What happen?

Well, as it turned out, I apparently managed to hold the cable in the one position where it worked. A little experimentation showed that the problem was in the plug itself.

This was good since I would be able to replace this myself. But in the meantime I called Winegard to see about getting a replacement cable.

I was told I would have to fax them my sales receipt and they would send me a new cable, no charge. Since I didn’t want to wait that long, I drove into town and bought a new plug at the NAPA Auto Parts store.

Getting back to the park, I had the plug replaced and the antenna up and working in about 20 minutes.

It’s alive!! 

Great! Now I’ll get to watch “Fringe” tonight.

Later, about 5:30 Jan and I headed into town to have dinner at Sofia’s Mexican Food.

A little hole-in-the-wall place, it has some of the best Mexican food around. We always eat here, and in fact, we’ll eat here again tomorrow night.

Jan loves their Shrimp Burrito. It’s jam-packed with large, tasty shrimp, and is a meal all by itself, although Jan usually gets an order of guacamole with it.

Back in Houston, it’s Go Texan Day, and everyone dresses up Western, even Landon.

I think he looks like Woody, the cowboy in the Toy Story movies.

Brandi said when she put the hat on him, he didn’t like it, until he saw himself in the mirror with it on. Then he didn’t want to take it off.

——————————————————————————————————————–

Thought for the Day:

Mater tua caligas gerit  –  A closed mouth gathers no feet.

sdfgfdg

We pulled out of our site at the Coachlight RV Park about 9:15 this morning, heading for Tucson, about 250 miles away. But our first stop was a Valero station about a mile and a half up the road.

I had done some checking on GasBuddy and found diesel just got more expensive the further west we went, so I took on a little over 100 gallons at 3.839 a gallon. The only problem was how slow the pump was, but we were back on the road by a little before 10, and on our way.

As we got to the top of the hill (Las Cruces sits in a valley several hundred feet below the Interstate) we started getting hit by a lot of wind. Not enough to cause the dust storms all the signs were warning us about, but it did make things interesting for a while.

Two hours later, coming into Lordsburg, we stopped for lunch at Kranberry’s Restaurant, where we’ve eaten several times before. The food is good, but even better they have a large parking lot that can handle RV’s with no problem.

After soup and sandwiches, we walked across the street to the Valero station and got us cappuccinos for the road. They had a new flavor, Mocha Cinnamon that was really good.

As far as the soup goes, I’m always amused at what some places called Chicken Tortilla Soup. Although what I had was good, it wasn’t Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Besides chicken, it had corn, carrots, celery and green beans. It also had some tortilla strips sprinkled on top, kind of as an afterthought. I figure tomorrow they’ll just leave off the tortilla strips and it will be on the menu as Chicken Vegetable Soup.

We got into the Pima County Fairgrounds a little before 4 pm, and found the place pretty full of RV’s. Don’t know what’s going on, but we ended up in the same site we were last year.

After getting set up and goofing off for a while, we headed over to Poco & Mom’s to meet our friends Al and Adrienne for dinner. They introduced us to this place a couple of years ago and we always eat here at least once when we’re in Tucson.

They really work some magic with the Hatch Green Chilies, very hot and spicy, and they make a great Chile Relleno too.

We’ve known Al and Adrienne since we met in Fairbanks, AK in 2008, and we try to get together whenever we can. We visited them this past summer when they were workamping in Cody, WY, and before that, in Westport, WA in 2010.

We headed home about 7:30 after saying our goodbyes. We’ll get to see them again next week at Nick Russell’s Gypsy Journal Rally in Yuma.

Now for the Bummer! part.

I think my Winegard Carryout Satellite Antenna may have died.

It’s been working flawlessly since I bought it last July, but the last couple of days it seemed to be taking longer and longer to find the satellite.

Then this afternoon it wouldn’t find it at all. In fact it’s not even trying to find it. Normally after you plug it in, you can hear the motor inside running as it lines up on the satellite. But now, nothing.

I check the power cord and it’s got 12.8 volts coming out so it’s OK. I guess I’ll call Winegard tomorrow and see what they say.

As I said, Bummer!

——————————————————————————————————————–

Thought for the Day:

BUMMER!

asdf