Our RV Adventures

The weather has been just about perfect since we got here on Saturday. So much so that we haven’t even missed the fact that we don’t have 50 amps.

In fact we just had the doors and windows open and the fans going the last two days. And that should hold us for awhile.  Even better, there’s no rain scheduled for our stay here, but  that can change, of course.

Our daughter Brandi called a little before 3pm to inquire if we had hit anything today. I told her “No, but then we hadn’t left the rig yet, and the afternoon was still young.”

But so far, so good.

But not only have we not left the rig today, but we haven’t left since we got here Saturday afternoon. But Jan’s feeling a lot better today, pretty much back to normal, so we’ll be going out to eat this afternoon. Jan says El Pollo Loco, so that’s where we’re going.

Staying home Saturday and Sunday, we got to finish up our leftover Oregano’s pizza and pasta, still delicious, and it lasted us for 3 meals. Really appreciate Dick and Phyllis Schell for tuning us on to the place. Thanks, guys.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was having problems with my Cradlepoint CTR-350 Wi-Fi router. It gradually had more and more problems connecting to the Internet, until it finally died. I was lucky enough to find a used one on Amazon for $20. And when it came in, the new one worked.

For a while. Than it started acting up, with exactly the same symptoms.

If I put power to the router, it came up and put out a Wi-Fi signal that I could connect to. But when I plugged in the Verizon Aircard so I could actually get to the Internet, the router died. The W-Fi signal went away and the lights on the router flashed on and off.

Since the only thing different was the fact that the router’s power supply was now having to also power the aircard. So my next thought was the power supply.

Perhaps the power supply was dying and the extra load of the aircard was messing up the voltage output. But when I measured the voltage both open and under load, the voltage stayed right at 5 volts. So, not the problem.

Or at least that’s what I thought.

So now I had two routers, both with the same problem. And the only common failure point was the power supply.

Since I didn’t have a scope (at least with me) my next idea was to just replace the power supply with another one. And I keep a big bag of old supplies just for that purpose.

Whenever I throw away an old device I always save the power supply, just for something like this. So I started digging through the bag looking for a 5v supply. And about halfway down I found one. Since the connectors can vary a lot I figured I’d have to splice the old connector onto the new supply wire.

But when I looked at the new one it looked a lot like the old one. So, leaving the supply unplugged from power, I plugged it into the router and it seemed to fit perfectly. So after checking that the voltage and the polarity were correct I plugged it into the router and into the wall. And it came up normally. So now to plug in the aircard.

And the lights locked on and we had Wi-Fi. So the problem was the power supply all along. But it’s fixed now. Hopefully.

About 4;30 we headed right down the road for our dinner at the El Pollo Loco nearby. We both got Grilled Chicken Combos with salads and sides.

We first discovered El Pollo Loco in 2008 during our first time RV’ing in California and try to eat there whenever we can.

El Pollo Loco citrus-marinates their chicken for 24 hours and then they cycle it around the grill until the skin is crispy-delicious and the inside is moist and flavorful. Just perfect. Jan says we’ll be back.

Coming home Jan said while we’re here she wants to drive through some of the nicer neighborhoods to sightsee. When I ask what was wrong with where we were, she said she was thinking about someplace with a better class of hookers on the streets.

Those of you who’ve stayed at the Las Vegas TT know exactly what I’m talking about.

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx

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Jan and I have both been kind of under the weather for the last few days, Jan more so than me.

Not serious, but more like just ‘blah’. Plus I’ve one of those ‘tickle’ coughs for the last week or so. I never cough anything up, and I’m not congested or stopped up. Nor is my nose running. And strangely, even the cough seems kind of psychosomatic.

I’ll be doing something and suddenly think,”I haven’t coughed in awhile”, and within a few seconds, I’ve got to cough. I took an allergy pill a couple of times, but it seeming had no effect.

And it’s not helping that Las Vegas has even less humidity than Tucson or Apache Junction, and because I tend to sleep with my mouth open, I wake up several times a night with my mouth so dry it cracks when I try close it. So I have to keep a bottle of water by the bed.

Since we didn’t go out anywhere today, my one job was to shimmy under the rig to hook up the sewer connection. The reason?

This is a really strange site.

Note how we’re parked, at a different angle than the RV to our left. That’s because the site is not quite long enough for us. But it was all they had left when we got here. In addition, the power/water pedestal for our site and the one to our left is directly behind us. But if we parked that way the site would be too short for us to fit without sticking out in the street a bit.

Plus we were told to park our truck right across from our site.

Well I see a problem with that.

So my solution was to park to the right of the pedestal. But if I went right just enough to miss the pedestal, my wheels would be sitting ON the sewer connection. Not very helpful.

So I moved even further right which meant the connection was between the rear wheels. Hence, the ‘shimmy’ thing.

The TV show ‘Elementary’ is one of Jan and my favorite science-fiction shows. It’s about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in modern New York City. But this time Dr. Watson is a woman, Joan, not John, as in the Doyle books.

Well, last night we got to watch the pilot episode, one we’d never seen before, and it was interesting to what actors didn’t make the cut when it finally went to series.

In another of our favorite shows, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, the original pilot was never aired, and then the show was completely revamped. You can check out some of it here.

https://ourrvadventures.com/unaired-big-bang-theory-pilot/

Sheldon and Leonard are played by the same actors, but Penny was a completely different actress. And Sheldon’s character was nothing like what it is now.

A good thing they revamped it.

Oh, you don’t think ‘Elementary’ is a science-fiction show? Then explain how you’ve got a British ‘Consulting Detective’ working with the police who has a companion named Dr. Watson. In additional, he plays the violin, and has been on drugs. All this, and not once in any episode in 5 years, has anyone ever mentioned how this is exactly like the Sherlock Holmes books.

This can only mean that the TV show takes place in an alternate universe, one where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never wrote the Sherlock Holmes books.

And if an alternate universe doesn’t make a science-fiction show, I don’t know what does.

Our friend, Nick Russell’s latest book, the second one in his new John Lee Quarles series, The Gecko In The Corner, is now live and online.

Check It Out!

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