Monthly Archives: September 2018
Dry As A Bone . . .
With our upcoming test drive this morning, Jan and I were up a little after 7am, and pulling out of our site about 9:30.
Since we still don’t have our generator working, I had switched the fridge over to propane, and was happy to see that the gas level was still showing full, so we hadn’t leaked any since we filled it up back in June.
Heading east on FM 646, we got on I-45S and then got back off 3 miles south on Exit 17 for our diesel top-off at the La Marque Buc-ee’s.
We got about 93 gallons at $2.799. We did about 805 miles since our last fill-up, for an average 8.6 MPG. Not bad.
I did learn something about using a credit card to get a large amount of diesel. Like many places, Buc-ee’s pumps shut off at $100. But unlike some places, Buc-ee’s doesn’t let you go inside and have them turn the pumps on. They have no control over them.
The problem is that when you’re doing this, you can normally only run a credit card through twice, before it’s refused. Normally I just use another card for the 3rd (or 4th) time. But this time I tried something different just to see if it would work, and it did.
The first two times I ran it through, I did it as a debit card. Then the next time, when it ask if this was a debit or credit card, I selected credit, and it went through. Nice to know.
Finishing up at Buc-ee’s, we drove right next door to the Tanger Outlets so Jan could check out the Vera Bradley factory store looking for a shoulder bag she had her eye.on. Turns out they didn’t stock that one, but she found another one she liked even better.
Actually, she found 3 bags and two lanyards. Yikes!
But it turned out to be not as I bad as I feared. Every thing in the store was 50% off, with most things another 20% off. Very Nice!
So the 3 bags and 2 lanyards totaled more than $10 LESS than the retail price of the one bag.
I can live with that. And even better, it made Jan happy.
When we came out of the Outlet Mall, I checked under the rig for any sign of my recent engine oil leak. And it was dry as a bone. Not a drop.
We completed our test drive by continuing on down I-45 and then coming back up on Hwy 6, and back to the park.
Everything else also worked fine on the test drive, so we’re good to go on our upcoming Florida trip in a couple of weeks.
Thought for the Day:
If a man has enough horse sense to treat his wife like a thoroughbred, she will never turn into an old nag. ~ Author Unknown
fgsf
Back On The Road For A Bit . . .
Looks like our rig test drive is on for tomorrow morning since the rain chance is down to 20%, and that’s for the afternoon.
After I got home from work this afternoon, first thing was to check the rig’s tire pressures, and found them all still at 100#. These tires just don’t leak, and I last checked them back in June before our Illinois/Alabama trip.
Really like these Hercules Ironman tires. I’ve always run truck tires on the rig, and I saw a lot of trucks at the oil rigs running these. And they’ve been great for us too.
Another product I picked up from the oil rig trucks is Diesel Kleen.
I found a lot of the fleet operators use it in their engines, and it’s less then $9 at WalMart.
While I was at West Marine on Sunday checking out their battery cables, I also picked up a bottle of BioBor JF Diesel Biocide. With all the rain we’ve been having, and the cooler temperatures on the way, your diesel tank is a perfect breeding ground for algae. Which then clogs up your engine’s fuel filter.
But keeping your tank as full as possible, and using BioBor regularly, will head off the problem.
I mentioned several months ago, before our most recent trip, that I wanted to order a new wheel simulator donut for one of our rig’s front wheels.
The missing one looks like this.
And the replacement will look like this.
So I finally remembered to order a new one from Spartan for $24.11. So not a bad price. Until I saw it come through on my PayPal MasterCard, a charge for $44.72.
So they charged me $20.61 to ship it via UPS Ground?
Ouch!
We’ll probably head out around 9am tomorrow, hoping to avoid the heat since we won’t have the rig AC’s, with a stop at the La Marque Buc-ee’s to top off our diesel tank for our upcoming Florida trip. That will get us all the way to the Tallahassee area stop.
Our second stop will be for Jan. I have always appreciated how low-maintenance she is as far as jewelry, clothes, etc. But apparently she’s had her eye on this high-end Vera Bradley shoulder bag that she wants to take on our European trip.
So our second stop will be right down the Interstate at the Tanger Outlet Mall to see if the Vera Bradley store has one in stock. If not, I’ll order one for her.
After all, it’s our 51st Anniversary coming up the end of the month, and she’s definitely worth it.
Thought for the Day:
The weatherman said it only rained twice this summer: once for 45 days and then again for 30 days. That’s about right here in Houston
fghfgh
