Monthly Archives: June 2022
You Could Have Heard A Pin Drop . . .
Found this in an old blog and thought I’d repost it in honor of our recent Memorial Day.
You Could Have Heard A Pin Drop.
JFK’s Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60’s when Charles de Gaulle decided to pull out of NATO. De Gaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible. Rusk responded,
“Does that include those who are buried here?” De Gaulle did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of ’empire building’ by George Bush.
He answered by saying, “Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and Americans. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, “Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?”
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: “Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?”
You could have heard a pin drop.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, “Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?”
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, “Maybe it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
And finally… Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry-on. “You have been to France before, monsieur?” the customs officer asked sarcastically. Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously. “Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.”
The American said, “The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.” “Impossible. Americans always have to show their passports upon arrival in France!”
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ”Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one’s gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: ” Frankfurt , Speedbird 206 clear of active runway.”
Ground: “Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.” The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: “Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?”
Speedbird 206: “Stand by, Ground, I’m looking up our gate location now.”
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): “Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?”
Speedbird 206 (coolly): “Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, — And I didn’t land.
You could have heard a pin drop
Titusville, FL
June 1, 2009
Home Repairs and a Scenic Drive…
Well, today turned out to be a handyman day.
Last night the rear AC that we normally only use at night quit cooling. The fan would run, but no cool air came out.
So I got up early to go up on the roof of the coach to look at the unit while it was still cool. After I got it apart I used a walkie-talkie to have Jan turn the unit on. And I immediately told her to turn it off.
It was easy to see the problem. The time delay module on top of the start capacitor was turning red hot and starting to smoke. After pulling the cap and module out, I found the cap had shorted and had started melting the module.
A little Googling told me this was a somewhat common problem for the Coleman AC units on our coach. Some of the comments said they had trouble finding the part.
I decided to start looking at a small RV dealer down the road in Cocoa called Coastal RV and hit the jackpot the first try.
They had the part, and even had a 2nd one. I bought two figuring that I will need the other one sooner or later for our other AC.
It only took about 20 minutes to install the new part, button everything up, and test the unit. And it worked like a charm. Hopefully it will keep working.
This afternoon Jan and I visited the graves of her mother, father, brother, and niece so she could put some flowers on the graves and tidy things up. Jan’s mother died 2 years ago the 29th of May.
We also drove by her old house and were happy to see it was looking pretty good. The new owners had made some nice additions.
After lunch we drove back up from Cocoa on the Indian River Rd. This road runs along the Indian River for about 8 miles north toward Titusville. It’s a very scenic trip with a lot of nice homes mixed in with some old ones that have been there 50 or more years.
After that it was back to the coach for a nap.
June 2, 2009
Our Blog has gone viral!…
A friend of ours told us last week that her son’s teacher was showing the class some funny photos online, and before showing one, said that this one was her favorite…
And it was us!!!!
Wheeeeeeeeeee!
Someone had posted it here…
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/?p=1402
on May 8th. We don’t know who posted it, but we love the comments down below. Be sure and scroll down to read them.
I had originally posted it to our blog here…
http://ourrvadventures.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/wheeeeeeeeeee/
on April 13th.
Our friend’s son Spencer said everyone was really laughing at the picture, and then he said “I think I know those people”, and everyone laughed even harder.
We might not have ever known about it being posted except for Spencer seeing it in his class.
Now that’s really a coincidence.
It’s Caspar, Not Casper
June 2, 2010
Casper WY…
We left Gillette about 9:45 heading for Casper, WY about 185 miles away. All of the 3 other remaining coaches were leaving also.
The trip was smooth and pretty uneventful, which is good. We did see a lot of pronghorn antelope along the way, along with a lot of great scenery.
We arrived at Fort Caspar (Yes, that’s the way it was originally spelled) Campground and got set up.
Although it’s pretty plain, it is a Passport America park so it’s cheap. It’s also level, with good power and water pressure. All things considered, you can’t really ask for much more when you’re only staying one night.
The funny thing is that there are 3 other American coaches here from the rally we just left, including the one right next to us.
About 3 pm we headed out for a late lunch at Sanford’s Grub and Pub, just like Humphrey’s that we ate at the other day in Gillette. They’re a small chain of about 9 restaurants here in WY, ND, and CO.
And they are really good. There’s another one in Rawlins, WY where we’ll be about lunchtime tomorrow, but it’s downtown, so we’ll have to see if we can find a parking space.
Tomorrow we’ll head out for Rock Springs, WY about 230 miles away where we’ll stay for one night at the Rock Springs KOA.
Baldy’s BBQ
June 2, 2013
If you didn’t know better, you’d think they were brand new . . .
After coffee this morning, Jan read her Kindle and I tried to figure out how I wanted to hook up the replacement drinking fountain that I bought back in Reno, NV a couple of weeks ago.
I had put it off because I also had a Filtrete Under-Sink Advanced Water Filter and I figured if I had to pull every thing out from under the sink and then crawl under there, I’d rather only do it once.
But I wanted to figure out how the best way to hook it in place of the old Omnipure in-line filter that I was replacing. After thinking about it over coffee, I figured that if I just got some adapters that would go from the 3/8” tubing of the new filter to the quick connect fittings on the old filter, that would do it.
If I could find a adapter like that, I could just plug the new filter’s tubing into the old quick connect sockets and be done with it.
So I’ll make a stop at Lowe’s this afternoon and see it I can come up with something that will work.
Later in the morning, Jan talked to both of our kids. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon are getting settled into their new house, and Chris, Linda, and Piper are in the process of moving into our house. Hopefully we’ll be able to Skype with Master Landon next weekend.
About 2:30 Jan and I headed into Bend for some shopping and dinner. Our first stop was up north of Bend at the local Lowe’s to see if I can find the adapter that I need. And after a little sniffing around the plumbing section I found exactly what I wanted.
asdfsdf
The tubing from the new filter slips into one end and locks, just like one of those old Chinese finger traps. Then the quick connect adapter screws into the other end.
Easy Peasy.
Or at least it seems that way right now. How it goes tomorrow might be a whole ‘nother story.
Leaving Lowe’s we headed over to a place that we’ve been anticipating since we got here.
You’ve just got to love a guy with a hairline like that.
Although it’s a BBQ place I know from past experience that their steaks are fantastic. So I went with the 16oz Ribeye with fries, beans, cole slaw, and honey-jalapeno cornbread.
Just as delicious as last time.
Jan went old-school with a full rack of their great ribs. Along with the beans and cole slaw, she got the chipotle potato salad. Notice when they say a ‘full rack’, they mean it. That means Jan has plenty of leftovers to take home.
We also had a good time talking to our waitress, Kalani, whose in-laws are RV’ers, and are presently at the Verde Valley Thousand Trails park in Cottonwood, AZ, one of our favorite areas too.
Completely stuffed, we headed home with a stop at Fred Meyer’s (that’s Kroger’s out here on the West Coast) for a few things before getting back to the park about 6:30. We stopped off at the produce stand, but they were out of the fresh cherries Jan wanted, so we’ll have to try again later.
As we came further into the park we came across a flatbed trailer behind a semi that had these two beautifully-restored old trucks. Ironically I had seen this truck coming south on US97 as we were heading north into Bend this afternoon. So it was really great to be able to get a closer look.
This is a Ford C500 COE (cab over engine), Based on my internet research, I think it’s about a 1955 model.
This one says Hall-Scott on the side, but I think it might actually be a Kenworth, with a Hall-Scott engine. Hall-Scott was mainly a engine manufacturer, though they started out building self-powered rail cars in 1910.
I wish I had been able to get a look inside, but anyway, these are really neat.
Tomorrow I’ll see how the filter/faucet install goes.
Humphrey is a Camel
June 2, 2017
Solenoids and Hojos . . .
Once again we were out the door a little before 9am, heading for Gillette, WY, about 125 miles away. But our first stop was the Mobil station right before we got on I-90.
We needed gas for the trip, and also wanted to check the place out to get diesel for the rig when we leave here . . . well, whenever we leave here.
We’re booked here until Tuesday the 6th, but we may stay until the following Saturday. We’ll see. But it does look like the Mobil station would be an easy in/easy out for the rig, and plenty of room to hitch up the toad.
Our road trip to Gillette was two-fold, or maybe three-fold. I wanted to pick up a specially-ordered part for our rig’s Onan generator, we wanted to eat at Humphrey’s, a favorite restaurant of ours, and on the way home, take a detour out to Devi’s Tower on the way home.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
We were picking up a new starter/solenoid for our generator. A couple of months ago we tried to use our generator and it wouldn’t start. In fact , it wouldn’t even crank. Normally the start switch on the dashboard flashes as the generator cranks, but nothing this time.
My first check was the big 300 amp fuse in the battery bay that feeds the 12 volts to the generator.
But it was fine, so while I was there I took it apart and cleaned and wire-brushed the contacts.
When it was on to the connections to the generator itself, and for that I had to crawl under the rig. After checking that I had 12 volts there I disconnected the 300 amp fuse. Then I cleaned and wire-brushed those connections too..
After hooking everything back up, I stay underneath with my voltmeter and had Jan try to crank the generator while I checked the voltage at the connections. Starting with 13.2 volts, it dropped to about 12 volts when she tried to crank it. So something was doing something.
I had noticed that when I was trying to crank it from the generator itself, the light in the switch was flashing, and I could hear the slight clicking for a few seconds as the fuel pump pressurized the system.
After I finally tracked down the full service manual for the unit, I used that to translate the error code that the button light was flashing. And that code indicated “Low Cranking Speed.”
Well, duh!
How about NO cranking speed?
But one thing I noticed was that I never heard anything from the starter, OR the solenoid.
Now every solenoid I’ve ever fooled with makes a click or clunk of some kind when it’s engaged. So I put my hand on the solenoid while I tried to crank it and didn’t feel anything either.
And since I had power to the contacts on the solenoid, I was going with a bad solenoid.
But I quickly found out that Cummins/Onan now longer sells the solenoid separately, but only with the starter as a complete unit. And it was $140 and a special order. Hence our trip to Gillette.
Then after picking up our starter, we headed into downtown Gillette to have lunch at Humphrey’s Bar & Grill, a really good place where we’ve eaten a number of times.
Humphrey’s has one of those eclectic themes with a little bit of everything on the walls and hanging from the ceiling.
Jan had the Easy Cheesy Burger, a 1/2 pound sirloin burger with sautéed onions and mushrooms, covered in nacho cheese sauce, along with fries.
For me, I went with the 1/2 pound sirloin burger with crispy bacon and cheese, along with Hojo potatoes. Hojos start with a whole potato which is then sliced into 4 or so thick pieces, and then battered and deep fried to order, and served with sour cream.
Really good, and very crispy-crunchy on the outside with a soft center.
After a great meal, we got back on the road toward home about 12:30. As I said before we had planned on doing Devil’s Tower along the way, but as we left Cummins and headed toward Humphrey’s, I started getting a headache that just kept getting worse.
So with that, and the fact that it poured down rain a good part of the way home, we decided to postpone our visit to another day. We had visited here in 2008, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
After taking some Advil as we left Humphrey’s, and a two hour nap after we got home, I was on the mend. My version of Jan’s migraines, I guess.
Tomorrow I’ll start working on getting the solenoid replaced.
June 2, 2018
Penny Doesn’t Work There Any More . . .
She’s in Pharmaceutical Sales now.
Jan and I spent part of the morning going over all the things we need to get done before we leave on our trip on the 21st. We’ve got almost three weeks, but it will go fast.
Jan and I headed up to our son Chris’ house about 3:30. We were also meeting up with Brandi and Lowell who were bringing down a bunch of furniture in their Tundra.
Chris had gone up to Katy this morning to bring Landon back down so they could spend the day hanging out together. Then we were all meeting up for dinner.
Chris and Landon spent the day building the Eiffel Tower from a Lego kit like this.
with this as the result.
Of course Landon, never the one to do things the easy way, then made this drawing,
and then constructed his own model from cardboard.
The kid’s got some talents, and he’s only 7.
While we were there, we looked over the furniture that both Chris and Brandi want to give to Jan’s sister Debbie, who we’ll be visiting on our trip later this month. We’re going to take as much as we can of it with us in the RV and the truck, so I wanted to get some idea how much we were talking about.
Finally about 4:30 we all headed down to the Baybrook Mall area to have dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. The last time Jan and I ate here was in 2013, so it was good to be back.
It was just Brandi, Lowell, Landon, Chris, Jan and I, since Linda had to work and Miss Piper was in Florida with her boyfriend.
Jan and I both had the Tuscan Chicken, with Grilled Chicken Breast, Tomatoes, Artichokes, Capers, Fresh Basil with Balsamic Vinaigrette, and served Over fresh vegetables.
Really, really good.
Brandi and Chris had steak, Lowell had the Orange Chicken, and Master Landon had the spaghetti.
Then Chris, Lowell and Brandi got cheesecake to go, but Jan and I were just too full to even think about it.
Saying our goodbyes, we made Sam’s Club and WalMart before getting home about 8pm.
Another very nice day.
Thought for the Day:
When I’m bored, I send a text to a random number saying, “I hid the body. So now what?”
.
No Blog Tonight . . .
Out with friends. Got home late.
Check back tomorrow.
