Our RV Adventures

We didn’t walk this morning, knowing we’d get our walking in this afternoon at Wal-Mart. And since it was pretty windy, we didn’t set outside either.

Later in the afternoon, I went back outside to take a look at my truck AC condenser fan problem. I was planning on getting a new 50amp cartridge fuse this afternoon, but I wanted to see if that was going to fix the problem, at least temporarily until I can replace the fan.

So I looked over the over fuses, hoping to find another 50 amp that I could borrow to test things out. And going down the row, I came across a 50 amp for the Power Seats.

Wait, I don’t have Power Seats, so that one was available. So I plugged it into the fan position and try it out. And it did work, although the fan was still grinding walnuts, as before.

So I thought I’d give it a better test when we go out this afternoon. But what I found then was that besides the noise, after a few minutes a very pungent burning smell appeared, making me think it might start smoking and burst into flames at any minute. So the fuse comes out until I can replace the fan.

But the AC will still work anyway. I just have to be careful using it idling or at low speeds, which is when the condenser fan actually comes into play.

Jan and I headed out for dinner and shopping, with dinner being at the Buffalo Wild Wings in Conroe.It’s been a while since we’ve had some good hot wings, which for me means Mango Habanero, their 3rd hottest, because I like the sweetness, and a side of Blazin’, which is their hottest.

While we were there, and after we finished eating, I spent some time updating a bunch of apps on my Galaxy S5. The 4G in that area runs about 50 Mps, a lot quicker than here at the park. Just wish I had taken my Galaxy Tab with me too.

One of our blog readers ask about how I map out our walking paths at the parks. I use Google Maps Satellite View and then the Measure Distance function.

If you right-click on the map where you want your walk to begin, a white dot appears on the map. Then you just left-click following your path on the map, using smaller segments as you work your way around the curves.

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The white box at the bottom of the map keeps a running total of the distance. The route shown above, totals 5,258 ft., but actually is about 1.03 miles according to Runkeeper. Close enough for our walking.

I mentioned last week that I tried to refill one of my Touch Free Soap Dispenser empties because of the high, $8 – $15, cost of the store-bought refills.

I popped the lid of the empty off and poured in the liquid soap, happy that the Softsoap refill only cost $1.98. But I was kind of disappointed when, rather than coming out as a foam as before, it came out more as a thick liquid with a few marble-size bubbles. But hey, it worked.

Then blog reader Joe Green suggested I try diluting the Softsoap. so I poured half of it back into the original container, and then topped off the refill with hot water and shook it.

And that did the trick. Now when we use the dispenser, we get a perfect handful of foaming soap.

So now I’m even happier since a refill will only cost me $0.98 rather than $1.98.

Tomorrow afternoon Jan and I are driving over to the Escapees park in Livingston to have dinner with Dennis Hill and his wife, Carol. He said he’s smoking a butt.

I certainly hope that has more to do with pork, rather than cigarettes. But knowing Dennis, you can never be sure.

Thought for the Day:

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him. – Groucho Marx

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We again did our 1 mile (actually 1.12 miles) walk this morning and then sat outside holding Karma while we drank our coffee. She seems to like it better being held rather than on the ground and on her leash.

At least until a couple walking their dog passed by about 25 yards away. The small white dog wasn’t much bigger than Karma and never paid any attention to her, but Karma freaked and started scratching to get down and away.

Luckily I was able to keep ahold of her as she tried to claw her way to freedom, and I was able to get her back in the rig. Of course five minutes later she was at screen door meowing to get back out.

I’m not falling for that again.

When we were back inside, I gathered up the garbage and walked it back over to the dumpster. I also took my camera along to get some photos of a really neat 5th wheel we saw on our walk.

It’s painted up as a computer motherboard, complete with case cooling fan.

And a really neat circuit pattern on the front.

On this slide they’ve started painting computer components like capacitors, transistors, and other parts.

Even better, the white circuit traces are covered with glow-in-the-dark strips, so the whole thing lights up at night.

The rig is owned by Oran and Angie, who travel with their two kids, selling TV Boxes and providing remote desktop and website support to clients. You can find him here at TechEvolution.info.

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Later in the afternoon I crawled back under the rig to check the contents of my recently-installed slobber can.

When we traveled from Lake Conroe to Colorado River about three weeks ago I found our truck with a good cover of engine oil when we arrived. I had seen this to a much lesser extent when we used the PacBrake a lot in the mountains out west. But this was a good bit more oil.

While we were there I researched possible causes of this problem and came up with idea that the oil spray was coming from the ‘slobber tube’, also known as a breather tube.

So before we left Colorado River I hung an extension tube and a soup can from the slobber tube to see what was happening.

But although I confirmed the can was still there when we got here, Ididn’t get under the rig until today.

And I found an almost empty can with just a little bit of sludge at the bottom.

So was this just a one-time problem, or what?

I’ll leave the can on for now, and if I don’t get any oil collected on our trip to Colorado River next Sunday, then I’ll remove it and see what happens on the next trip.

Last Tuesday coming back from our our daughter Brandi’s in Katy, we decided to try out the newly-opened Grand Parkway Tollway section between I-10 in Katy and I-45 north near The Woodlands. Our friends Jim and Peri Dean had tried it and like it, so now it was our turn. And after giving it a try, we found we both liked it and didn’t like it.

We liked it because we were coming home during the afternoon rush, and it was 75mph the entire way, only slowing down to a crawl once we were back on I-45 N.

But for what it’s worth, it’s 5 miles longer than taking Beltway 8 like we usually do, and it’s more expensive – $7.62 vs. $3.00 for the Beltway.

I also mentioned at the time the weird pricing at the six toll spots along the way, and today I finally logged into my EZ Tag account to double check the amounts. And they are weird.

1. $1.98
2. $1.03
3. $1.35
4. $0.95
5. $1.20
6. $1.11

What kind of toll is $1.03?

So we’ll probably just reserve this route for rush hour travel.

Thought for the Day:

“Finding things to tax is becoming quite a problem. You see when taxes first started, (who started ’em anyhow?) Noah must have taken into the ark two taxes, one male and one female, and did they multiply bountifully! Next to guinea pigs, taxes must have been the most prolific of animals.” – Will Rogers, May 13, 1934.

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