Our RV Adventures

I came across this website that has almost 200 photos taken between 1887 and 1892, mostly in the Black Hills of South Dakota that I thought you might like to see.

Ever wonder what Sturgis looked like before motorcycles clogged the streets? Well, back then it was teams of oxen, the 1880’s equivalent of today’s semi’s, moving freight across the plains.

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This is not a wagon train of settlers, but a line of ‘freighter’s’ moving between Sturgis and Deadwood. It turns out that there were long lines of these teams moving goods back and forth across the country.

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And here’s the Devil’s Tower taken in 1888. Note the bulge on the left side of the base.

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And here’s our photo taken 120 years later in 2008. I took this from the RV park where we spent the night before visiting the Tower the next day. Looks like we were kind of close to the same position.

You can view all these photos here. South Dakota 1888

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On another note, some of you might be interested in checking out this book.

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch

It’s a survivor’s guidebook, not covering actual survival skills, but it’s a discussion on ‘how to orchestrate the rebuilding of a technologically advanced civilization’ after a world-wide catastrophe, i.e., asteroid impact, global plague, nuclear war, etc. I just started it today, but I like it so far. Very interesting.

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I don’t know where our niece Christina keeps digging up these old photos, but they bring back a lot of memories.

These are our kids, Chris and Brandi, in the back, and Jan’s sister Debbie’s kids, Tana and Christina sitting on their laps, and Jason in the foreground. Jan thinks this was taken here in Houston when they visited us in July 1983. We think.
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I came across this article talking about a 2 year technical school education being worth a lot more money than a 4 year liberal arts college degree, especially in the old fields.

A company working in the Ohio Marcellus Shale area has 60 pipeline welders making over $150,000 a year, and 2 making over $200,000. And they don’t have enough welders to cover all the work they have. And that’s just one company.

I’ve always thought it was a mistake for high schools to drop the many technical classes they used to give. Most people have no idea how much money a good mechanic, plumber, electrician, or an HVAC guy can make. And in many cases, if you show an aptitude, the company will train you.

Tomorrow Jan and I are going to do a daytrip up through the Brenham-Hempstead area to check out the bluebonnets, and of course, the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory.
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Thought for the Day:

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; moderation in principle is always a vice.” – Thomas Paine

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See What Happens When You Tease A Frog!

A week or so ago I installed a new lift motor and lift mechanism in our bathroom Fantastic Vent fan. The original one lasted for ten years, the replacement I installed in 2009 lasted for five years, and the latest one lasted for 11 days. Based on that timeline, I expect the next one to last for about a minute, 45 seconds.

But we’ll see.

The problem is that the motor doesn’t seem to be connected to the driveshaft anymore. When you try to open or close the lid, the motor runs but it doesn’t move the lid. The manual knob turns while this is happening but it’s obviously not turning the lift mechanism shaft. At this point I can turn the knob manually while the motor is still running, and lift the lid that way. But once the lid is all the way open or closed, the motor never stops. It just keeps running. I think this tells me the clutch inside the lift motor is broken. The manual knob is connected directly to the shaft on the lift mechanism. But motor has to be connected through some sort of clutch so that when the lid is all the way open or closed, the motor stalls down and then shuts off under the load.

I talked to Fantastic Vent (Attwood) this morning and they’re sending me a new one. Hopefully it’ll get here before we leave Friday week. Otherwise Brandi will have to track us down and send it on.

They didn’t say anything about having to send the old one back, so maybe I’ll be able to take it apart and see how it works, maybe even repair it for later use.

About 3:30 Jan and I made the 30 mile trip up to La Grange to have dinner at Sealand Seafood again. This is our 4th or 5th visit during our 6 weeks on and off here at Colorado River Thousand Trails, and hopefully we’ll get in at least one more visit.

One thing Jan and I noticed on our drive north was that the farther we went the more bluebonnets we started seeing again. I wouldn’t have thought that that small a distance would have made that much difference. So maybe that bodes well for our trip up to the Brenham area on Friday.

Jan and I ordered our usual 2, 6, and 6. That’s 2 pieces of catfish, 6 shrimp, and 6 oysters, and of course battered French Fries.

On the face of it, $19.99 for this platter plus a salad, might seem a little expensive. But we both find that we can only eat about 1/2 of it. Plus we always get more seafood than indicated on the menu. In my case, I got 3 pieces of fish, 8 shrimp, and 9 oysters. That’s what I like, under promise and over deliver.

So we both have plenty for another meal at home. As I told Jan, since we had eaten until we were full, and had plenty left over, we got All You Can Eat Seafood for $10. Not bad at all.

Coming home we stopped off at Wal-Mart for supplies and HEB for gas before getting back to the rig a little after 6pm.

Tomorrow I’ll make another attempt to install the new shear pin in the slide mechanism.

Or maybe not.
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Thought for the Day:

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” – Albert Einstein

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