Our RV Adventures

I was on the phone awhile this morning, first with the Moen faucet people to order a new 1222 cartridge. Our Moen single handle shower faucet has started leaking, i.e. it doesn’t turn completely off. This is the 2nd time I’ve had to replace the cartridge to fix this problem. Luckily we have an on-off switch on the shower head so we can still turn it off there.

Then I put in a call Fleetwood-American Coach to get copies of the electrical schematics for the dashboard area. Our taillights and turn signals don’t work, and with both not working it’s almost certainly something with the main power feed to the systems. I need to get this fixed before I put the rig in the shop for the oil leak.

Later, after a nice morning, Jan and I headed out about 1pm, and on the way to drop off some trash at the dumpster, we found we had visitor to our site.

Our first stop was the Snooze up in Webster for breakfast, with each of us getting our usual, Jan’s Bravocado Toast,

and my 3 Egg Classic.

Our favorite meal is breakfast, and we have it a lot when we’re eating. In fact, we also had breakfast a couple of days ago at our local Denny’s, with Jan getting an Mushroom Omelet with a side of Avocado,

while I got the All American Slam with Fruit.

Then it was on to Sam’s Club, WalMart, and the Post Office before finally getting home about 3:30pm

Nice day.

And in case you think you might have the WuFlu, you can use this chart to check your symptoms.

 
Another in our Where We Were 5 Years Ago Today series.

June 30, 2015

Sedona and Wyoming . . .

About 1:30 Jan and I headed for a train day in Cornville, AZ. We were going to visit the Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad in the small town of Cornville.

Located in a fairly non-descript warehouse type building, there’s no sign of what’s inside.

The only giveaway is the mailbox.

Located in a 50’ x 75’ building built just for this purpose, it is geo-thermal heated and cooled via ten 180’ deep wells under the building. Right next door is a 30’ x 36’ shop where all the woodworking and metal working is done, keeping all the dust and fumes away from the trains.

We were warmly greeted by Verryl Fosnight, the owner and head engineer of the Wyoming Division Railroad, who spent over an hour showing us around and explaining the layout.

The layout depicts the 485 mile Union Pacific route between Cheyenne, WY and Ogden, UT in the year 1957, and is built on 3 different levels, with the top two levels for operating and bottom hidden level for staging the trains and simulating other destinations, like Chicago, California, and Oregon. Using 1957 as the year of operating allows them to authentically run both steam and diesel locomotives on the railroad.

As you can see from the above diagram, the layout folds back and forth on itself several times, allowing the depiction of the many towns and industries along the route. It also isolates the operators from each other’s view, allowing for more prototypical operation.

And overhead catwalk lets you look down on the layout, giving a better view of the overall operation.

This is one of two helices on the layout. A  helix is basically a spiral staircase for trains, enabling them to move up or down between the 3 levels.

And this is one of 3 turntables used to move engines into the roundhouse for either maintenance or storage. In addition, it can also be used to turn an engine completely around.

These control boards allow the operators to remotely control the many switches in the train yard.

The towns and industries on the layout mirror the actual ones found along the real route.

As of 4/15 the benchwork, track, and the DCC control system are all up and working, and they have regular operating sessions once a month. About 1/2 half the buildings are done, and then the actual scenery comes next.

Verryl just recently got his website up, and much more info can be found here:

Wyoming Division Historical Society HO Model Railroad

Sheldon would be so jealous.

Finally leaving the Wyoming Division, we drove toward Sedona on AZ179, a route we’ve never taken before, and in our opinion, much more scenic than the usual route coming in from Cottonwood on 89A.

Our main reason going to Sedona was to have dinner at the Szechuan Restaurant. We had been jonsing for Chinese since we left Prescott and our favorite Beijing Garden, so we thought we’d give this place a try.

The Yelp review gave this place only 3 1/2 stars, but looking at the reviews, it showed a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews, and some 1 and 2 star reviews, complaining about how they thought the martini’s were too expensive, or they didn’t like the sushi.

Our review would give it 5 stars. Everything was delicious.

We both got the Dinner Special, which gave us Hot and Sour Soup as well as an appetizer plate.

Jan got the Sesame Chicken, with white rice,

and I got the Orange Sauce Chicken with fried rice.

Note all the peppers on mine. I finally found a place that doesn’t wimp out when I tell them I want it extra, extra, extra, extra spicy. Mine also had pieces of grilled orange peel in it. Probably the best Orange Chicken I’ve ever had.

And because we had soup and appetizers, and the entrée portion was so large, we both had plenty to take home.

It would be nice to go back, but I don’t know if we’ll have time before we leave here next Monday.

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Thought for the Day:

It’s so much easier to suggest solutions when you don’t know too much about the problem. — Malcolm Forbes

Well, it looks like Gilead, the developer of the WuFlu miracle drug, Remdesivir, has announced the pricing structure.

It will cost $3,120 for a 5 day course of treatment for patients with private insurance, $2,340 for patients on government healthcare programs, and $600 for patients in poorer countries. And if you need a longer course of treatment, it will run over $7,000 for private insurance patients.

So, what do you get for all these dollars? A miraculous cure? An end to the virus?

Well, maybe not. But you have to get all the way down to paragraph 11 for the ‘money quote.’

The drug interferes with the coronavirus’s ability to copy its genetic material. In a U.S. government-led study, remdesivir shortened recovery time by 31% — 11 days on average versus 15 days for those given just usual care. It had not improved survival according to preliminary results after two weeks of followup; results after four weeks are expected soon.

So, if you don’t die, you’ll get better 4 days earlier. But it won’t keep you alive.

Or will you just live 4 days longer before you die?

And this is what the U.S. government chipped in $70 million in development funds for?

Another in our Where We Were 3 Years Ago Today series.

June 29, 2017

The Gang’s All Here . . .

Jan and I headed into Katy once again this afternoon, about 12:15, but with a first stop at the Park Office.

I realize this morning that since we hadn’t left the park after we got here on Sunday, I hadn’t paid my $3/day 50amp fee yet, so I stopped off to take care of that.

We got Brandi’s just as Lowell arrived with Curtis, Tana, and Gwen, after picking them up at the airport. They had flown in this morning from Orlando after doing the theme park thing there. So we finally had the whole crew in one place.

Early in the afternoon we surprised our daughter-in-law Linda with a birthday cake.

Then everyone ended up in small groups scattered around.

It was really funny listening to Jan, who did medical records coding for 35+ years, Miss Piper, who’s now doing psych facility coding, and Curtis, who’s also in the medical field, throwing medical codes back and forth.

Chris brought all his gumbo paraphernalia with him today and started working on a big batch of Seafood and Andouille Sausage Gumbo for dinner. Really made the house smell good, and the gumbo was even better.

Jan and Brandi made up garlic bread to go with, the perfect addition.

Then it was cleanup time with a lot of helping hands.

Later in the afternoon I was finally able to get everyone (except me and Jim who were taking the photos) somewhat lined up so I could get a group shot for posterity.

top left to right: Our son Chris, his wife Linda, Me, Jan, our son-in-law Lowell, our daughter Brandi, Jan’s sister Debbie, Debbie’s husband, Jim, Debbie’s daughter-in-law Laura, Laura’s husband Jason, Debbie’s daughter Tana, and her fiancé Curtis.

bottom left to right: Tana’s daughter Gwen, Laura’s daughter Avery Jane, Miss Piper, Landon, Laura’s daughter Ella, Debbie’s daughter Christina, and Laura’s daughter Annisten. And of course, Baxter the dog. I think I got them all.

That’s a motley crew if I ever saw one.

But it took some work to get the finished photo above.

This is the photo I started with.

But note that the arrows point to three of us who weren’t in the original shot.

Annisten, the little girl on the right, was taking a nap, and Jim and I, in the back, were both taking pictures.

So later I took this shot of Annisten sitting on the sofa arm and then inserted her into the photo.

Next I had Jan take a photo of me standing behind the sofa and inserted it into the photo.

But I never got a shot of Jim so I found one in some other family photos and put him in the photo too.

After a great time with everyone, Jan and I finally headed back to the rig about 7:30, and after a quick stop at the Brookshire Bros. in Columbus, we were back at the rig by 8:45 after another fun day.

Tomorrow we get a day off, since most of the bunch are going over to San Antonio for the day. As far as Jan and I, Been There, Done That. Several Times.

But Saturday it all starts back up again with a cookout. Then Sunday we’re going down to Sugarland to watch Landon play Ice Hockey.

Wrapping up, I had been worried about the status of my Arizona CCW permit. I mailed it off from Apache Junction April 12th to an address right down the road in Phoenix. So now at the 2-1/2 month mark I was starting to get antsy.

Every time we would talk to Brandi I’d ask if they’d gotten anything for me from Arizona. And always, NOPE.

And I was sure that I had ask for my CCW permit to be sent to Brandi’s, but I was wrong. This evening, when I went through our mail that had come to our son Chris’ I found the letter with my permit. enclosed. And it was dated May 2nd. When means it got sent back out one day less than 3 weeks after I sent it in.

Fast service.

Thought for the Day:

Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. – Robert Orben