Our RV Adventures

Jan and I were once again up at 7am (this is getting to be a very bad habit), and after a quick stop at the office to get the new gate code, we were on the road by about 8:45.

Despite having no AC, due to the cloud cover, the trip was nice with no real traffic along the way. And there was no problem with the engine cooling either, so we arrived at Brandi’s right on time at 10.

Then it was off to the Houston Zoo with Landon, and Lendell and Sonja, his other grandparents. But as we had already been warned might happen, we couldn’t really get anywhere near the Zoo. There was a 3 mile line of cars trying to enter at the Zoo entrance, so we went on past to check out the remote parking site a couple of miles away.

And found it no better. There was a long line of cars waiting to get into the lot, and an even longer line of people standing out in the hot sun waiting for the tram back to the Zoo. So it was a No-Go for the Zoo, and even Landon wasn’t too upset.

So since we had planned to have lunch at the Zoo, we decided instead to have lunch at the nearby Cleburne’s Cafeteria, a place where we’ve eaten many times over the years. And it’s pretty special. Owned and operated by the same Greek family since 1941, it’s well known for its great food and delicious desserts. And we had some to take home.

Landon said he wanted to go to the Mall and play in the castle so we were off to Memorial City Mall and Frolic’s Castle, a dedicated fairy play land for the kids.

Landon played with all the other kids for an hour or so, before he was ready to move on.

 
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Later Landon decided to try on my glasses. They don’t look bad on him.

Next up on Landon’s agenda was a ride on the Mall’s beautiful double-decker carousel. It’s a real work of heart, and fun for the kids.

Due to Landon’s height (less than 36”) Jan had to ride with him, and unfortunately  for her, he wanted to ride on the upper deck. Up the stairs on the upper deck.

After that, it was on to the electric Dinosaur Ride, one of Landon’s favorites. And he was quickly all saddled up and ready to ride when a problem developed.

Unlike the same ride at Katy Mills Mall, where he always rides by himself, here they said he had to have a co-rider.

And guess who got to do it. At least there were no stairs involved, right Jan?

Kinda looks like she’s having more fun than he is.

With Landon finally getting a little worn down, we all headed back to Brandi’s. We had originally planned to have dinner at Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro when Brandi got home from work, but we were all still too full from Cleburne’s. And everyone including Landon, seemed to think a nap was in order, anyway.

Then about 5pm Jan and I headed back to Conroe for the night. And for the trip we thought we’d take a new way home, the recently-opened SR99 Grand Parkway Toll Road, that runs from I-10 in Katy to The Woodlands and I-45.

And it made for a very fast trip, especially for this time of day, albeit somewhat more expensive. It was pretty much 70-75 mph the entire way, amazing for this time of day. A lot of the route is out in the countryside with very little around to cause slowdowns.

But at ~$6.50+, it’s more than twice as expensive as taking the Beltway Toll Road at $3.00. I say approximately (that’s what the ~ means) because of the weird pricing at the toll scanners. And by weird, I mean one toll was $1.03, the next one was $0.95, and then next one was $1.11. What’s up with that?

And FWIW, it’s about 5 miles further.

So for our Sunday back and forth’s between Colorado River and Lake Conroe, there’s no gain. It’s further and it costs more. And there would have been no gain if we’d used it this morning, either, since there wasn’t much traffic then.

But anytime during rush hour, it’s a good deal.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about trying to find a more level site, and right after we got home this afternoon, Debi and Ed Hurlburt came by to offer us theirs, since they’re leaving tomorrow morning.

But we had to turn down their offer, since Jan and I are leaving out for the Clear Lake area about 8am tomorrow for the last our of yearly medical stuff, and then lunch with the kids. Too bad too, since they have a nice site in the newly-upgraded ‘G’ area.

Thought for the Day:

Epic Cake Decorating Fails!

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We didn’t walk this morning, but just sat around and enjoyed our coffee. We’ll get our walk in later at Wal-Mart. I did some computer stuff for clients and then sent off some emails and answered some comments from the blog.

About 2pm I headed out to drive around the park and try to find a more level spot than  what we have now. I was hoping some campers had left this morning, but no luck. The park is still pretty full. I did find a couple, but they were only 30 amp. And the empty 50 amp sites were even more off-kilter than mine. And right now my rig’s right front tire is about six inches off the ground and we’re still not level. So I’ll keep looking over the next few days.

While I was driving around, I found that my radiator fan noise was back. A week or so ago I noticed that my radiator fan was making a kind of clacking noise, like it was rubbing against something. And in fact when I reached down and pressed in on the grille part of the shroud, the noise disappeared.

So last week before we left Colorado River I used tie-wraps to tie down any movement of the grille, and that seemed to have fixed the problem, at least until this morning.

So when I started driving around, I found that the clattering noise was back. And definitely associated with the fan speed, since the noise didn’t change with engine speed. Also as before, there was a slight burning plastic smell, which at the time I attributed to the fact that the plastic fan blades were rubbing against the plastic grille.

Getting back to the rig, I tried to look at the problem, but it was just too hot under the hood. So I left it up to come back out later to take a look. But when I did come back out, I once again couldn’t find anything loose or wiggling. So I cranked up the engine, and as before, the noise was gone.

Around 4pm Jan and I  headed out for dinner and Wal-Mart. And the noise was still gone, but a coup;le of more problems had appeared.

The AC was no longer working and I now had a Check Engine light.  So using my phone, I started up the Torque app and check for the code. The app said the code was P0480, and then clicking on that code, was told that the problem was with the Cooling Fan Relay 1 Control Circuit..

The Torque app connects through the Bluetooth on my phone and the Bluetooth on a module that plugs into my truck’s diagnostic port.

Bluetooth Scan Tool

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The free Torque app not only lets you read and reset fault codes from your phone or tablet, it also let’s you configure a personalized virtual dashboard with your own choice of instruments.

Check it out.

Filing this away for later use, we drove into Conroe with our first stop at the local Culver’s. We both love their Butterburgers. While we were there I spent some time online searching the P0480 problem. I found a lot of stuff online about the problem, and a bunch of things to check later.

Then it was on to the nearby Wal-Mart and our walk today. As before I started up the Runkeeper app on my phone as we left the car, and then turn it off when we got back. And this is what we got.

So we did 1.66 miles doing our shopping there. Apparently we did nothing in a straight line either. And at 299 calories, I doubt we walked off our Butterburgers.

Finishing up, we drove down the Interstate about 12 miles and then back to check out the cooling on the truck. Tomorrow morning we’re heading down to our daughter Brandi’s house. to meet up with Landon’s other grandparents so we can all take him to the Houston Zoo. And then Wednesday we driving down to the Clear Lake area for our final doctor get-together.

So I wanted to be sure that we wouldn’t have any overheating problems on the way. But the engine stayed cool the whole test run so hopefully we’ll be OK. Especially since the thunderstorms scheduled for Thursday and Friday, it might be Saturday until I can get back to the problem.

And after a stop for gas, we were back home a little after 7pm.

Thought for the Day:

“The trouble with life is that you’re half way through it before you realize it’s a do-it-yourself job.”

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