Our RV Adventures

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We did walk this morning, heading out about 11:30, but ended up only doing the first mile because it was so windy.

All the flags around the park were streaming straight out, and the Weather Channel said we were getting gusts to 20 – 25 mph. Even our chairs on the patio had blown over, so we didn’t have breakfast outside either.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon enjoying the RV lifestyle, you know, reading, snacking, watching TV, napping, play on the Internet, etc.

Yeah, that lifestyle.

For dinner tonight, it was really simple – chips and dip, hot dogs, and leftover potato skins from Schobel’s yesterday. Simple, but good.

This past Thursday, the National Archives released another 3000+ pages of previous secret papers concerning the Kennedy assassination. And unless the next President decides otherwise, all the rest will be released by October 2017.

Of course, everyone has their own favorite conspiracy theories, i.e. Castro’s revenge, LBJ, CIA, the grassy knoll, the storm sewer, the Soviet Union, etc.

Take your pick.

Bu for a whole new prospective, check out The Bookmaker, a fictional history of the Kennedy clan, tying together all the many family deaths , from Joe, Jr. in WWII 1944 to John John’s plane crash in 1999. The mastermind behind this recounts his vendetta against Joseph Kennedy, Sr., beginning in England on the eve of WWII when Joe Sr. was the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain.

The author, Chris Fraser, weaves a very plausible tale, interspersing the real and fictional characters and events into a seamless plotline of murder, intrigue, and secrecy, leaving you to wonder, ”What if this is really true?”

A great read!   Check it out.

Tomorrow morning it’s a early wake-up call so we can meet Vance and Bonnie Clegg, our next door neighbors, at 8am for the breakfast buffet down at Schobel’s in Columbus. Then tomorrow evening we’re probably driving into Katy to have dinner with Brand, Lowell, and Landon.

Really looking forward to both.

Thought for the Day:

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children”s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan

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Chris and his wife Linda showed up about 10am to pick up his invalid bike.

On his way back from Burnet yesterday, he’d discovered the rear tire on his bike was coming apart so he left it here to come back today and pick it up. He rented a U-Haul motorcycle trailer to take it back with them, which made really easy to get it loaded and tied down.

Once it was all ready, Jan and I followed them into town to have breakfast at Schobel’s Restaurant in Columbus before they headed home. But by then it was so close to lunch, that I was the only one who had breakfast, with everyone else having lunch instead. But we had a good time talking, anyway.

After seeing Chris and Linda off, and coming back from our breakfast/lunch, we made a detour out on US90E to Schneider Welding to see if I could drop off my screen door hinge. He said he could do it, but not today. I said that was just fine as long as I get it back by next Friday, before we leave for Lake Conroe on Sunday.

Getting back home, it was time to tackle my clogged up toilet problem. As I mentioned yesterday, after thinking it over, I was 90% certain that a clogged roof vent pipe was causing my problem.

Well . . . No.

It turned out to be the other 10%. I eliminated the vent pipe situation last night by turning off the shore water, opening the black valve, and then inside, just barely opening the toilet bowl ball. The level dropped an inch or so, but then stopped, even after I opened the toilet valve all the way.

So this morning I was going to use a long fiberglass rod to try and clear the clog. With the water still off, I stepped on the floor pedal to open the toilet ball and started poking down into the toilet.

And on about the 2nd poke I hit something hard that clinked. But the level did drop a little more. So I poked some more and suddenly it all broke free and every thing drained.

But what was the ‘clink’? Grabbing a flashlight I could see the problem.

The pipe drops about 18” into the tank (further than I thought) and it was clear. But above it was a section of white PVC-looking pipe that made up the base of the toilet pedestal itself. This was inserted in the black pipe leading to the tank. And a section of this white pipe had cracked and was sticking out into the center of the pipe.

Due to the discoloration, it looks like it’s been there for a good while, maybe since the coach was new. Tapping it with the rod, it was hard and not flexible at all. The only thing I can figure is that over time stuff had been building up on that piece until it finally clogged completely. And if I try to break it off or remove it, I would take a chance of having it fall into the tank. Not a good thing.

So I’ll just leave it alone for now and check it with a flashlight every now and then. Like I said yesterday, we’ve never had a clog before in the 8+ years we’ve owned the coach, so maybe it will go another 8 years. We’ll see.

About 4:45 we picked up our friend Randy Lazarine and all headed into Columbus to have dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Grill

Readers of our blog from December 2014 may remember my adventures with Randy’s new-to-him Monaco Diplomat. He had bought it from PPL here in Houston a few days earlier, and ended up parked right next to us here at the Colorado River Thousand Trails. He saw me outside working on my rig, and asked for some help with his rig’s electrical system.

After he’d been parked here several days,  both his coach and engine batteries had run down. You can follow the story of what I found wrong with his coach, and how I fixed it. How it ever got off the dealer lot that way is a mystery.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/charge-2/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/batteries-and-balls/

https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/wiring-and-re-wiring/

Check out the story above.

As far as the latest Karma the Kat update, she’s apparently decided she’s definitely a ‘rig’ cat now. We had started out worrying that she might try to escape since she was so used to being outside. But we’ve since noticed that if she’s anywhere up front in the rig and we open the door, she heads for the bedroom as fast as she can go.

She’s not taking any chances.

Wrapping up, I want to congratulate my uncle Tom Calvin on his Lifetime Achievement Award as the winningest high school football coach in Alabama history.

Tom Calvin: Honoring a lifetime of achievement

After playing for the University of Alabama for three years in the late 40’s, he played fullback for the Pittsburgh Steelers for 4 years before being injured. He then coached high school football for the next 33 years, amassing a record of 201-130-11.

And his wife Lenette holds her own in the sports department as well, She’s an Olympic-level gymnastic coach, even working with famed Olympic coach Béla Károlyi at several Olympics, and at his facility in Houston.

Congratulations to both.

Thought for the Day:

Old age is not as bad as I thought. It’s a good feeling when you just don’t give a damn anymore and you feel lucky just to wake up in the morning.

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