Our RV Adventures

and no, a nunnery is not involved. That would be kinky.

I’m just trying to get back to doing a blog every day now that we’re coming off the gate on Saturday.

We got some good news about our Houston home yesterday. No, not the one we still own, but Galveston Bay RV Resort, where we’ve spent the winter the last 5 years.

They’ve finally got their big expansion under way, adding 54 new sites to the 80+ they already have. The 54 will be a mixture of pull-thrus, marina, and waterfront sites, and are greatly needed. Several times over the past years, blog readers have wanted to stay at Galveston Bay on their way through the area, but found the park filled up.

Master Landon is going through this phase where he doesn’t want his picture taken and turns away anytime he sees a camera. Here’s the latest two examples during Turkey Day at his daycare.

That’s him in the very center with the blue bat on his shirt.

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And here he is, second from the right.

School pictures are going to be loads of fun for the photographer, I bet.

Well, the saga of the truck continues. Orlyn, the gate guard down the road, took me into Pleasanton to pick up my truck from the “Complete Auto Repair” place that doesn’t do water pumps, so I could drive it over to another place that does do water pumps.

Luckily it was only about a mile or so away so I didn’t have to worry about overheating. In fact the temperature gauge never got off the stop. I was happy to see that the new place is a NAPA repair shop, so I’ll have some recourse if I have a problem down the road, and somewhere else.

When I talked to the shop yesterday, the guy said he probably wouldn’t be able to get to it until Friday morning, but then this morning he thought he’d be able to get started this afternoon. And about 4:30 I got a call and they said they were working on it, and said they recommended that I have the radiator hoses replaced because both of them were hard and brittle. I told them to go ahead since they were already replacing the drive belt because it had stretched from being soak in the coolant. That’s why it was squealing.

They should have it ready sometime tomorrow morning, they think. They didn’t say, but I figure the repair will run $400-500, or as we say, 3 to 4 gate days.

Well, our flare put on another great show this afternoon. Crude (black gold, Texas tea, etc.) got backed up in the system and started coming out the stack along with the gas. The first thing that happened was the flaming oil came pouring down the sides of the stack like molten lava, starting fires on the ground. Then the sirens started going off.

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You can see in this next photo the reddish glow of the fire on the ground through the trees.

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Next we got fireballs and big ‘booms’ shooting out the top.

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Reminded me a lot of artillery fire.

Just glad there was no ‘incoming’ associated with the show. The only thing that would have made it better was if it had been night time.

Starting to break down our site tomorrow is probably going to be interesting.

And cold.

And wet.

Right now at about 2am, it’s 76°.

At 7am it supposed to be 70, but it’s forecast to be 57 by 8am when the ‘arctic blast’ cold front moves through.

Then about noon we’re looking at 49°, and 45 by 3pm. And then there’s the 70% chance of thunderstorms and heavy rains to add to the fun.

Oh boy!

Thought for the Day:

There’s a difference between a hand-out and a leg up.

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Not sure if the guys coming through the gate are dropping off  “these lovely parting gifts” because they’re sad to see us go, or are encouraging us to leave, but for the 3rd time this week we got another food delivery, this time a couple of BBQ dinners.

I guess what makes this special is that this is not a catering truck coming though, dropping off a couple of extra dinners for us, out of the 50 – 60 they’re doing for the crew. This is the workers going out for lunch or dinner and then bringing back extra just for us. We’ve even got one guy, Bobby, who brings us coffee every morning.

It’s amazing how involved you can get these guy’s lives, people we’ll probably never see again (we’ve not run into any of the people we met gate guarding last year). We know who’s got a baby or a grandbaby on the way. We know who’s ex is letting them have the kids this weekend, and even who’s getting ready to have an ex.

It is nice to be appreciated.

Well, we did our short move this morning and it all went fine. We cranked up “Beauty”, raised the levelers, and then backed up about 30 feet so that our rear wheels are up on the gravel area where we park the truck and we’re now angled so that come Saturday morning when we leave, I’ll be able to just pull straight out onto the road without having to turn my front wheels and possibly getting stuck.

The reason behind this is two-fold. One, there’s a big cold front coming our way, bringing heavy rain with it. Friday morning the high is supposed to be 85°, but the low that night is going to be in the mid-40’s. Then the high on Saturday is only going to be 49°. And when the hard ground under our RV turns to muck like it does when it gets wet, I don’t want to be stuck here when we try to leave.

The second reason is that after 3 months of sitting here, it’s always nice to be sure everything’s going to work when we go to leave on Saturday, i.e. the engine starts, the levelers come up, the airbags inflate, etc. Unlike other RV’ers I’ve talked to, I don’t regularly crank my engine up when we’re parked for long periods of time. The reason being that Cummins says not to, and Spartan (our chassis manufacturer) says not to. Two different Cummins reps at national rallys told us that unless you plan to run your engine for at least 45 minutes, just let it set. My engine manual says this also.

And Spartan says that to regularly start the engine and not bring the transmission up to running is bad for it too. So I don’t do it.

Twice we’ve been parked for 5 months without cranking up, and every winter we go 3 months while we’re back in Houston. Never had a problem. I do also throw some Biocide in the fuel tank to prevent algae growth, but that’s it.

If you’re going to break down, it’s always nice to do it in a repair shop’s parking lot. It does helpt to be the right repair shop, however.

Yesterday, I followed Orlyn, the gate guard down the road, into Pleasanton to drop off his truck for repair, and then I brought him back here. Coming home, I noticed my engine belt squealing some when I accelerated from a stop and thought I’d check it out when we get back to Houston.

Then this morning I took Orlyn’s wife, Gail, back in to pick up the truck and it happened again. In fact when I went to turn into the repair shop parking lot, the belt was really making noise and the power steering wasn’t working very well. So while Gail was paying for her repair I thought I check und the hood, and then maybe pick up a spare belt at the AutoZone down the street.

But raising the hood, I discovered the belt wasn’t the problem. It was the coolant squirting on the belt that was making it slip. It looked like it was coming out in front of the engine around the fan, which normally means water pump problems.

So when Gail came out, I told her I was going to ride back with her, and left my key and info with the lady inside, telling her I thought I had a leaking water pump and to check it out and let me know. And a couple of hours later they called and said Yep, you were right, Your water pump’s leaking.

They also told me they don’t fix water pumps. Huh?

This is a nice 4 bay shop, advertising “Complete Auto Repair”. Well, complete I guess, except for water pumps. Heck, my son and I have changed out water pumps in shopping center parking lots, and they can’t do one in their shop? They could have at least told me that before I left my truck there, telling them I thought I had a water pump problem.

So now I have to get another ride into town tomorrow to take the truck to another place. I did call them first to be sure THEY fix water pumps. Just in case.

The guy said he won’t be able to get to it until Friday, but that it shouldn’t be a problem to get it fixed before we leave.

My fall-back position (I ALWAYS have a fall-back position.) if they can’t get it fixed for some reason is to stop off on our way home to Houston on Sunday, and just tow it back as is. As usual, we’ll see how it goes.

Lately it seems like I’m getting a lot of annoying sales calls on my cell phone, even though I’m on the National Do No Call list. But I’ve come up with a pretty good fix, especially for repeat numbers.

Most people know that you can assign your own ring tones to specific phone numbers. But did you know you can have a ring tone that doesn’t make a sound?

My solution is to use an app like Hi-Q MP3 Rec (Free) to record 10 seconds of no sound. I then assign this MP3 file (called No Sound) as the ring tone for a contact called Annoying Sales Call. Then when I get one of these calls I just add the number to the contact Annoying Sales Call. My phone never rings again from that number. And it only takes a few seconds to add.

For me it’s easy to identify an Annoying Sales Call. First off I never answer my phone for a number I don’t recognize or expect. If they want me they can leave a message. And Annoying Sales Calls never leave a message. You can also type the number into Google (it’s important to use the format  ###-###-####) and usually get some idea of who it is.

Wrapping up on this phone theme, ever long for the days of only 3 TV channels that sign off with the National Anthem right after Johnny Carson? For the days of no TV remote so one of the kids has to get up and change the channel?  For the reassuring clicking of a rotary dial phone?

Well one of those you can still have today. Well, two if you let the batteries go dead in the remote, or lose it in the sofa cushions. Or a ferret runs off with it and hides it. (true story, He also liked to chew on the little rubber buttons on it).

Or you can get this Rotary Dialer Free program for your smartphone.

You get your choice of modern,

or not so modern dials.

Or if you really want to rock it old school, how about this jazzy number, quite possibly actually from the Jazz Age.

And it evens makes that ratcheting clicking sound when you dial.

Check it out.

Thought for the Day:

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