Our RV Adventures

With the beautiful weather this morning, it was perfect to walk, and also perfect to try out my new toy, an armband holder for my Galaxy S5 phone, that I got right before we left Colorado River on Sunday,

Armband for OtterBox Galaxy S6, Galaxy S5, Note 3 and others

Since I use the Runkeeper app to track our walks, I normally hold it in my hand, but that gets old after a while. So I got one of these.

One thing to be aware of, besides getting one that fits your phone, is to get one that will fit your phone if you use a case, like the Otterbox that I have. Otherwise, you’ll have to remove it from the case every time you want to use the armband.

I did have to map us a new route here at Conroe, since we’re walking further now, but using Google Maps Satellite View, it was no problem. Like in Colorado River, I found a split route that would allow us to take a break and have our coffee and breakfast bread partway through.

Our first part was the complete outside loop of the park, which covered 1.01 miles, leaving us back at the rig for a 20 minute or so break for breakfast, before heading back out again. This time we walked a new route for us here, a loop down to the marina area and back. Then once there, we sat at the waterside for a few minutes, enjoying the view out over the lake.

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This photo looks back over the new Reserve area, where they’re selling modular homes, starting from $70,000.

Finishing our walk, we did 1.65 miles, up from our previous 1.52 miles. And even better we dropped our minutes per mile down to 25:45, a new best.

Getting back to the rig, we sat outside for a while, just enjoying the sun. But once inside it was back to work, with my first task to remove the cracked hinge from the rig screen door that I removed yesterday. Turned out to be a pretty quick job, just loosening six bolts with my socket set, and it was done.

Once I got it off and turned it over, it was easy to see the whole problem. The hinge is cracked in two places.

But on the plus side, both cracks are on welded edges, which hopefully means that it can be re-welded if necessary.

So my next thing was to call Colaw RV Salvage in Missouri to see if they have any replacement hinges. And after I finally got through to the right person, I was told that they didn’t sell the hinges separately, but only attached to the door.

Well, if it wasn’t too expensive, I guess I could use a new screen door too. But I quickly found out that he wasn’t talking about just the screen door, but the entire RV door assembly, i.e. the outside main door, the screen door, and the complete door jam and frame.

Rut Roh!

Knowing this wasn’t gonna happen, out of curiosity I asked what the cost of an entire door assembly was.

$350 and up!  Yikes!

As I said, not gonna happen.

So now it was on to Plan B, getting the hinge bent back into shape and re-welded. Now to find a welder here in the Conroe area.

And finding one out on west side of Conroe, I decided to combine a visit with dinner at Vernon’s Kuntry Katfish, a favorite local place of ours. We had planned on stopping by the welding place on the way, but it turned out that this welding place was a commercial dealer, specializing in welding pipelines and oilfield equipment. Well, one out of two . . .

So it was on down the road a little bit to Vernon’s. We both ordered the 3 piece Katfish Dinner (FWIW we got 4 pieces each) and sides. Jan got hers with a side salad, and a loaded baked potato, and I got mine with the standard fries, pinto beans and cole slaw.

While you’re waiting on your meal, they bring out a plate of hushpuppies and really good pickled tomatoes as an appetizer.

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And when your meal comes out, it’s just as good. The catfish is tender and flakey, with crunchy, flavorful crust.

Really good, and we’ll go back. Soon, I hope.

One other thing that came in with my phone armband was my new Square reader. You’ve probably seen the Square credit card reader used in many small business, connected to a smartphone or tablet.

I use mine when I’m working with computer clients who wish to pay by credit card. So I always have on in my truck just in case. But this new one is an upgrade.

It allows me to accept the new, soon-to-be-mandatory ‘Chip’ cards, as well the even newer wireless pay methods, like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and several others.

So now I guess I’m ready until they come out with something new.

“My fiancée and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”

“When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.”

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Jan felt kind of ‘blah’ this morning so we didn’t walk. But she did fix us great breakfast sandwiches, using the biscuits and the leftover omelet from yesterday’s breakfast at Schobels in Columbus.

Toasted up in the oven, it’s made for a very tasty breakfast.

After a lot of computer stuff, I took a look at my screen door problem. I had planned to remove the door and store it in the back of the truck, but that didn’t work out. Due to the fact that the door is almost 7 feet tall. It sure didn’t look that tall, but a measuring tape told the tale. It wouldn’t fit.

But I still wanted to take it off to look at the hinges, even if temporarily.

I sprayed the 4 screws with WD-40 and let it penetrate for a while. After about 30 minutes I used my large #3 Phillips head bit and long extension to get the screws loose.

Using a small hammer, I tapped the driver bit a few times in each screw. This did two things, it helps break the screws loose, and it sets the bit into the softer screw metal, making it grab better and not wallow out. And it worked. When I used my ratchet with the extension and driver bit, the screws broke loose with a snap and came right off.

About this time our friend Rudy Legett called and said he was in the area, and wanted to come by and say ‘Hi’. We last saw Rudy and his wife Carolyn last July up in Fort Smith, AR while we were heading back to North Alabama after our two month sojourn in Prescott, AZ for our blow-out repair. Rudy and his wife were heading north for the summer and our paths crossed for a couple of days.

We were staying at the Springhill COE park, and they ended up parked right across from us. We first met Rudy and his wife several years ago when we were staying down in the Dickinson area, and went out to lunch with them and Nick and Terry Russell.  So it was good to get back together for dinner here too.

Rudy is an Aqua-Hot technician, and services their hydronic systems that act as both a water heater and heater for your coach. A really nice system.

After Rudy left, I took a quick look at another door problem that I’ve had. When the rig is up on the levelers, the door is torqued slightly, and it’s sometime difficult to get the door to lock correctly.

What I found is that the latch just barely clears the bottom of the hole, keeping the bar from engaging and locking the door. So I thought for a few minutes and decided the quickest way to fix the problem is just to ‘brute force’ it.

So breaking out my recip saw, and chucking a metal blade, I cut a couple of notches in the bottom and ended up with this.

Now the door locks just fine, with no binding. I’ll dig out a file tomorrow and even out the cuts, to neaten it up. But for now the problem is fixed.

Tomorrow it’s back the screen door.

About 4pm Jan and I drove into Conroe to have dinner at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, a chain that we first encountered in the Bryan/College Station area in 2014 when we were gate guarding about 20 miles east of there.

We’ve also eaten at several of  them on the road, and this one in Conroe. It’s a simple menu, with only chicken fingers, fries, cole slaw, and Texas toast.

But simple is good, especially when you do it right. And they do.

Really good.

Coming home, Jan wanted something sweet, so we stopped at a nearby Panera Bread where Jan picked out a Chocolate-filled Croissant and I got a Cranberry Orange Muffin. Both really good several hours for a late night snack.

The weather should be nice tomorrow morning so maybe we’ll be able to get a walk in. I’ve mapped out a new route for here at Lake Conroe since we’re walking further now since we were here two weeks ago.

But we’ll see how it goes.

Thought for the Day:

Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.

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