Our RV Adventures

After we sat outside with our coffee this morning I prepped our Weber 200 grill for the hot dog roast this afternoon. Actually the prep just consisted by wire-brushing off the charred remains of our BBQ ribs from a few weeks ago. And it still smelled really good.

Since 2004 and up until July 20th of this year, the FAA said that a person who flew above 50 miles, or 80km, was entitled to Commercial Astronaut Wings.

Yes, there was that little quibble about outer space not really starting until 62 miles, or 100km. But the rules are (were) the rules.

At least up until July 20th.

On July 9th Richard Branson, along with 5 others flew a 53 mile high sub-orbital flight on his SpaceShipTwo, qualifying them all for Commercial Astronaut Wings.

At least up until July 20th.

Then on July 20th Jeff Bezos and three others, including both the youngest (18) and the oldest (82) crew members ever, flew over 62 miles high, again on a sub-orbital flight. Qualifying them for both Commercial Astronaut Wings and the honor of actually making it above the Kármán Line (62mi/100km) and officially into outer space.

At least up until that same July 20th. That’s the day that the FAA suddenly decided to change the rules.

Now you have to fly above 50 miles and that would-be astronauts must also have “demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety,”

Well, I’m sorry, but I think ‘civilians’ putting 10 people ‘safely’ into space and bringing them ‘safely’ back to earth should qualify. Plus the rules weren’t changed until after Branson’s flight, so he and his crew should still qualify.

Otherwise it just seems like Sour Grapes. I mean, the last time NASA even put anybody into space was 10 years ago, in 2011 with the last shuttle flight. Since then all US astronauts sent up to the ISS went on Russian rockets, or more recently, on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, another one of those ‘civilian’ companies.

I may need a new front AC or maybe not. Sometime during the afternoon our front AC just up and quit. Every now and then over the last couple of days, Jan and I both thought we smelled something electrical getting hot, but I was never able to narrow it down to a specific location.

At first I thought it might be a bad breaker, but when I switched it over to another one, it popped back off immediately. So my first thought was that the AC compressor had a dead short.

But then I got to thinking that the AC compressor shouldn’t be coming on then anyway because the AC was turned off at the thermostat. Plus even if it were turned on, there’s a 2-3 minute delay when you put power back to the unit before the compressor would come back on anyway.

So now I’m wondering if it might be the same control box up inside the unit that I replaced back in March after it burned out.

So I’ll pull it down tomorrow and take a look at it.

But I’m beginning to wonder if there’s not a problem with these boxes, since everywhere I’ve looked online either shows them Out of Stock or Back-Ordered.

If it’s a burnout relay like the last one, I may end up kludging in a new one. I’ve got the schematic of the box,

so the first thing I’ll do is short across the NO and COM wires on the Compressor Relay. If the AC comes on, then I’ll know it’s not the AC Compressor, but the Compressor Relay.

But if I get a big, blinding arc, then I’ll know the AC compressor is shorted, and I’ll be looking at $800 or so for a new rooftop unit.

We actually weren’t too uncomfortable today. Our rear AC is ducted to the front. Plus the humidity was low and with all our fans running, it only got up to about 83° in the rig, so not too bad.

I did go ahead and grill the dogs and brats outside and they were delicious.

And we’ve still got enough for a couple of more meals.
 

Thought For The Day:

What if UFO’s are just Billionaires from another planet?

We sat outside with our coffee again this morning, really enjoying the nice weather. Especially after all the rain we’ve had recently It was only about 80° with a nice breeze, perfect patio weather.

We were also admiring Flamingo Frank in Paradise (yes, that’s his name), Jan’s latest addition to the Flamboyance.

But because he’s a statue we decided he would look better on the patio rather than out with the rest of his buddies.

We left the rig about 11:30 this morning, with plenty of time to meet friends Janice and Dave Evans up at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood in Webster. At least we thought we had plenty of time, but some ‘brilliant’ highway planner decided to put shut down the northbound side of I-45 to one lane. All three lanes. Down to one.

And, believe it or not, the southbound side, too.

So, on one of the first nice, rain-free weekends in a good while, they shut down the main road to and from Galveston.

Brilliant!

So our normal 20 minute trip took us almost an hour and 20 minutes. So Janice and Dave were already there when we finally arrived.

But we quickly got our orders in while we caught up with each other’s adventures.

Jan got her usual Grilled Catfish and Veggies, and a Side Salad. I was also thinking about getting the Side Salad along with my usual bowl of Shrimp Gumbo. But as I looked over the menu, I saw Floyd’s 19th Hole Salad. I think I’d probably seen it before, but I guess I’d never really read the description. But then the word ‘Wedge’ caught my eye.

So along with my Shrimp Gumbo,

I got this really good Wedge Salad.

Rather than being just a wedge, it was more like half a head of lettuce. And they really piled on the Bleu Cheese too. Really delicious.

It was really good to see Janice and Dave again, and we’re already planning our next get-together in August.

Coming home we decided to take Hwy 3 back down instead of the Interstate to avoid the 3 miles of bumper to bumper traffic.

But guess what?

Some ‘brilliant’ highway planner (the same one?) decided that this would the perfect time to narrow Hwy 3 down to one land going and coming for repaving.

So we were back in bumper to bumper traffic once again.

Brilliant!

With this past week being so busy, we’re just staying home tomorrow and grilling hot dogs and brats on the Weber grill.

Tasty.
 

Thought For The Day: