Our RV Adventures

Well, as forecast for today, the weather was pretty much non-stop heavy rain, interspersed with bouts of even heavier rain. And it looks to be the same for the next couple of days.

We didn’t try to leave the park today, but if we had it might have even been worse than back in December when the bridge coming into this park looked like this.

Some places in Texas have reported rainfalls of over 10” so I guess we’re pretty lucky so far.

With all the rain, I didn’t get chance to try out my slobber tube collection can idea for our rig’s oil spraying problem, but this is what I came up with.

I plan on punching a couple of holes in the top of the can and use a piece of coat hanger to hold it in place and away from the oil pan and the engine.

Then I’ll slip a length of the heavy vinyl tubing up over the slobber tube shown below and let it rest in the bottom of the can.

I’ll have more photos when I finish it up.

For dinner tonight we had Baked Spaghetti from Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde, AZ, just south of the Verde Valley Thousand Trails. No, it wasn’t long distance delivery or take-out, but just a vacuum-sealed bag from the freezer.

Before we left Verde Valley last July, we picked up several of their Baked Spaghetti Dinners to vacuum-seal and freeze for later. ‘

We had them a couple of them while we were on the gate last year, and this is the last one.

And heated up, along with some cheese and grilled bread, it was a great meal, and a nice reminder of our time at Verde Valley.

I got an email from Passport America this evening, announcing a new program. Join now through April 30, 2016 and get 4 extra FREE months on your membership.

Just click on the ad above and follow the directions on how to enter my PPA membership number on your signup form. Don’t miss out on this great deal.

Jan and I have been member of Passport America since we first started RV’ing in 2008, and have probably saved over a thousand dollars in those 8 years, using it at RV parks from Alaska to Quebec and Nova Scotia, and down to the Keys, and over California.

And when we stayed in the Keys in 2009, we were saving $45 a day at a $90 a day park, so just one day’s savings paid for our membership. Check it out.

I came across this article the other day on recent advances on the rocket belt/jetpack front from a new company, Jetpack Aviation. Unlike most previous models, this one, the JB-9, uses small jet turbines.

But the big advance is in the duration of the flight. The best of the original versions, the RB 2000, could fly for only 30 seconds, but even the test flight shown in the video below flew for over a minute.

Even better, this new version is supposed to have a flight duration of 10 minutes, a top speed of over 120 mph, and an altitude ceiling of 10,000 feet.

And most importantly, a built-in parachute in case things go horribly wrong. Especially important if you’re a mile or so up. I want one!

gsdfgfdg

ghdghdg
OK, so now where’s my flying car?

Thought for the Day:

“The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.” – Robert Conquest, in his third law of politics

asdfasdf

Our weather today alternated between bright, sunny skies and heavy rain with a lot of wind filling the gaps in-between. And it looks like it’s going to be the same over the next few days.

But based on state weather reports, we came off pretty easy, all things considered. I saw articles about bad storms hitting RV parks around the state, with some damage shown.

Brandi send over a couple of Landon’s school photos this afternoon, and although it’s only been a couple of weeks since we last saw, it looks like he’s grown even more.

Now that we’ve got our pantry in order and know more about what we have, I decided to do some baking, so Jan picked out a package of Bruce’s Sweet Potato Biscuit Mix.

Although there is no use-by date on the package, I pretty sure we bought them in 2008 in either Montana or Alaska, so there was some question about their viability. But we won’t know until we tear the package open, right?

So opening the bag, I gave it the smell test. And so far, so good, it smelled like sweet potatoes and cinnamon.

So I dumped it a large bowl, added the called-for amount of milk (strangely enough, it called for 2%, which is what we had) and mixed it up. I did end up adding some more milk to thin it out a bit, and then dropped the clumps on a greased cookie sheet.

I laid out eight biscuits before I noticed in the small print that the package was supposed to make 5, so I guess they’re a little smaller than what they’re supposed to be.

And after 15 minutes in the convection oven, and a brush with melted butter, this is what I ended up with. They look more like scones than biscuits, but they do smell good.

For dinner tonight I fleshed out my leftover Chicken Tortilla Soup with cans of black beans and Ro-Tel Habanero Tomatoes, and then made up a batch of Fideo noodles to put the now-thickened soup over.

With melted cheese on top, and some tortilla chips for crunch, it was maybe better than the first iteration two nights ago. And then for dessert a little later, we had a couple of the biscuits(scones?) each, heated up and buttered. Really, really good, especially for 8 year old biscuits.

When I opened the black beans tonight I saved the empty to try and use for a slobber tube collector on my rig engine. If the weather isn’t too bad tomorrow, I’ll give it a try.

Thought for the Day:

Our kids didn’t seem to be too impressed when I sent this to them.

Our daughter Brandi said she would pray for us, though.

And our son Chris said some laws are just meant to be broken.

I thinkJan and I are on our own.

dhghdg