Monthly Archives: August 2018
No Heart Attacks . . .
Well, after hearing back from the Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park in Summerdale,AL we’re all set for our October Florida trip.
Spent most of today at my client’s getting a new AC installed in the Shipping Dept. The old unit was in a through-the-wall mount about 8 feet above the floor, and over a workbench that couldn’t be moved.
But it was simple. We just removed the mounting screws and pushed it out and onto the ground, Easy Peezy!
But the new one was another story. At 12,000 Btu, it was bigger and at 88# it was heavier than the old one. So what you had was two old guys trying to get this unit up over our heads and into the wall opening. But we finally did it, and no heart attacks, either.
Then when we tried to plug it in, we discovered that the original unit was so old that it used the 6-15P 230VAC receptacle and plug.
But the new unit had the newer plug, a 230VAC 5-20P one.
RUT ROH!
By now it was getting to be my time to head home so I stopped off at Home Depot to pick up the parts to build up an adapter since no one seemed to carry one locally. And this is what I came up with. Should work with no problems.
Since that was about it for today, I thought I’d repost our visit to New Hampshire in August 2009 on our way to Canada and Newfoundland.
Climbing Mt. Washington and here a moose, there a moose…
We left Moose River Campground about 11 am and headed up US 2 toward Gorham, NH.
The road wasn’t too bad, a bit curvy, but OK, and we pulled into the Walmart about 12:30 pm and set up house.
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Actually, when we Wally-dock, there’s nothing to set up. We don’t lower the jacks, or put out the slide. The only thing we do is just unhook the truck so we can drive around.
The only reason we were parking here was that I was not able to find a single opening at any RV park in the area. And I started looking over a week beforehand. And the only reason I didn’t start early was that our schedule was a little iffy and we didn’t know when or where we would be.
After checking in with the WM manager, we decided to try a place called Crabby Jack’s Mexican Cafe for lunch, since we were hungry for Mexican.
Big Mistake! The service was bad and food wasn’t any better. NewHamp-Mex just doesn’t make it, and we figured that the reason Jack is Crabby is that he has to eat his own food.
After our so-called lunch, we headed down to Gorham’s Visitor’s Information booth to check out the sign that got Jan all giddy.
It said “Moose Tours”
After signing up for the 6:30 pm tour that evening, I noticed a brochure on Mt. Washington. I knew it was in New Hampshire, but I didn’t know it was close by.
Turns out that it’s right down the road. It’s about 8 miles to the base of the mountain, and then about 8 miles to the summit, all 6288 feet of it.
We decided we had plenty of time to do the mountain before our moose tour, so we headed out.
And it is a heck of a climb. During the 8 miles, you climb over 5000 ft. And it seems like it’s straight up at times.
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But, although it was a little hazy, the view was spectacular.
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The Mt. Washington Auto Road gave birth to the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the US. When it was built in the 1861 (Yes, 1861), it was called the Mt. Washington Carriage Road. And stagecoaches took visitors to the top.
It’s still the same road, and not much improved, it seems.
And then in 1869 they built the Cog Train. It runs on a train track with a cog track in the center that lets the train climb the steep grades like a roller coaster does…clack, clack, clack.
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That little yellow dot is the train coming up the mountain. It takes about an hour to come up and an hour to go back down.
It only takes about 20 min in your car.
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“I think I can, I think I can…”
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This gift shop building dates from 1878. Note that it is chained down!
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And here’s why!
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231 MPH !!!
I think they need more chains.
The new buildings are built to withstand 300 MPH winds.
And, of course, we got our official bumper sticker for our trip up.
I’ve seen these on cars before, and now I know how they got them.
About 6:30 pm we board the tour bus for our “moose tour”.
And we actually saw moose, 4 of them, to be exact. 2 sets of cows and calves. No bulls, unfortunately.
These pictures were taken about 9:30 pm at night, lighted by spotlight.
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These moose were about 30 yards away at the time.
We also saw an osprey, 2 foxes, a deer, and 2 loons.
And some pretty scenery earlier in the evening.
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Tomorrow morning we head out to Bangor, ME for a few days before we trek further north to Canada.
Thought for the Day:
The De’il ye ken is better than the one ye dinna.
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Disappointed . . .
We spent this morning firming up our upcoming trip.
No, not the big one to Europe next year. This one is our Florida trip coming up in October. We’ve got long-time friends down in West Palm Beach, long-time friends in Rockledge, and of course, long-time Nick and Terry Russell in Edgewater. And it turns out, the place Nick recommended for us to stay in the area, Seasons in the Sun RV Park in Mims, is kind of in the center of all that, so I made a 10 day reservation there today. They’re having a $129 per week special right now so it worked out great.
I also got going and coming back reservations at our favorite Poche’s Fish N Camp in Breaux Bridge, LA, where we always stay going east.
I had asked for Tallahassee area park recommendations on the blog last night and got several good ones. But as before, Nick came through, recommending Beaver Lake Campground in Quincy, FL, about 20 miles east of Tallahassee.
He said he and Terry stayed there when they evacuated from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 and said it was nice. Plus, even better, it’s Passport America at $18.50 per night. The only problem is that they don’t take reservations for PPA. But when I called today they said they should have plenty of room so we’re good there.
I’m still waiting to hear back from the Escapees RV Park in Summerdale, AL, where we plan on spending 4 nights before we head further east, arriving in Mims on October 9th for our 10 day stay.
So as it stands now we’ll leave here on Wednesday, October 3rd and get back on Monday, October 22nd.
Of course that’s assuming I get the rig oil leak fixed. LOL
We headed out about 12:30 to check in with our friend Julie at the Monterey’s Little Mexico up in Pasadena.
We’ve known Julie for years when she worked at the Monterey’s down here in Dickinson, but since it’s never reopened after Hurricane Harvey, we try to get up there every month or so.
Coming back down to the Clear Lake area we made a Harbor Freight stop to pick up Security Bit Kit.
A lot of the machines that come in for me to work on have some of these ‘secure’ screws to keep unauthorized fingers out, or fingers who are trying to repair a machine instead of sending it back to the factory. So this should take care of that.
Then it was on our way to my client’s office to pick up some Amazon packages that had come in, when a problem showed up.
As I was turning onto Bay Area Blvd, I suddenly had no power steering. My first thought was that the power steering pump had cratered. But also immediately the engine temperature started climbing. So now I’m thinking broken fan belt.
Getting to my client’s, I took a look and was surprised to find, not a broken serpentine belt, but a whole one that had jumped off the pulleys. This usually means that something froze, the AC compressor, water pump, power steering pump, or the alternator. All expensive $$$
But we lucked up this time since it turned out to the be cheapest, the idler tensioning pulley. It was locked up solid. But since I had no tools with me, I decided to take it right down the block to the Firestone Tire shop, which is about as far as I could get without it running hot again.
And 3 hours later, (they were busy) and $197.65 poorer, we were on our way back down to Santa Fe.
As another example of why I try to do all my own work, when we got home I priced a new pulley from O’Reilly’s and found it was $19.99, not the $65 that Firestone charged me. Plus they charged me another $65 for a new belt. A belt that I didn’t think needed replacing. It looked fine to me, with no cracks or tears. In fact I grabbed the old one to keep as a spare. And then there’s the $50 labor charge.
What can I say? I work cheap.
But while we were waiting we walked right next door to the new Aldi’s to check it out and pick up a few things to eliminate an HEB stop on the way home. Jan found what she was looking for, and I found something for me too.
Readers know my propensity for hot stuff, and this was first chance to try the Carolina Reaper peppers. The Carolina Reaper may or may not currently be the world’s hottest pepper. Both the Dragon’s Breath and Pepper X supposedly are hotter, but there is some controversy as to whether or not they’ve been correctly rated.
Regardless, after the big buildup, and even bigger expectations, I was pretty disappointed. I tried it a small glob of it while we were still at the Firestone store, and wasn’t impressed.
It just wasn’t that hot. The label says the first ingredient is Carolina Reaper chilies, but it doesn’t give a percentage. So my guess is that it’s not very much. But I will say that it tastes really good with a nice bold flavor. Just not very hot.
Getting back to Santa Fe, I dropped off our Priority Mail passport renewals at the Post Office before finally getting home about 7pm.
A nice, but expensive day.
Thought for the Day:
Never Try To Catch A Falling Knife. Or A Gun.
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