Our RV Adventures

As I prognosticated yesterday, lunch today was at Denny’s for our favorite Ultimate Omelets and then a stop nearby for our weekly HEB stuff.

But before that, we took down the last of our outside Christmas decorations, specifically the Snowflakes. For Christmas they looked like this.

It’s a little involved to pack them away, so they don’t get tangled up. The large snowflakes have to be bundled up and rubberbanded together, as do the small ones. But it still only took about 20 minutes and we were done.

I’ve mentioned before that Rob, our park owner, is adding some more sites right across the entrance road from us. After clearing out all junk over there, Rob started bringing in truck loads of fill dirt.

This is because according to the new rules, all new construction must be elevated about 2’ above the surrounding ground to combat flooding. Which is why his recently built garage/workshop is elevated above the ground level. This, even though there was no flooding here even during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, just a couple of months before we moved down here.

Today they brought in a dozer and started leveling the dirt piles.

Now I assume at some point they’ll have to build some kind of retaining wall to separate the two levels.

This evening, a little before 5pm, Jan and I got to watch the launch and landing of my favorite SpaceX vehicle, the Falcon Heavy.

it’s amazing to watch the launch with all 27 engines running, giving over 5 million pounds of thrust.

In this case, since they were launching a secret military payload into geosynchronous orbit, only the two external boosters were recovered. The center core later dropped in to the Atlantic. And both of these side boosters had already been used twice before.

But I think my favorite part is to watch the two boosters come back down side by side and touch down at the Cape. Ready to be refurbished and launched again.

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Thought For The Day:

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January 15, 2011

Our Cute Blond Chipmunk . . .

Catching up on some old stuff, someone had asked about Brandi possibly having the flu last week. Turns out it was a false alarm. After having flu-like symptoms on Monday, she felt fine on Tuesday. Dodged a bullet there.

I did get a chance to check out my new Sears Air Compressor yesterday and found it worked as advertised. It was able to inflate a rig tire from 90# to 100# in less than a minute. Probably better than I could do with on-board air compressor. Really worth the money.

On a completely different note, I found this fascinating, and maybe a little scary.

They could actually have a real live Wooly Mammoth born in the next 4-5 years.

Jurassic Park, anyone?

The other day I was going thru some paper work and came across the title for our toad, a 2004 Dodge Dakota Crew Cab pickup. It had about 101,000 miles on it when we bought it in December 2007, just a little over a month before we hit the road.

I noticed the other day when I had the brake work done that the Dakota now had over 163,000 miles on it, which means that in our 3 years of traveling, we’ve put 62,000 miles on it.

What’s amazing about this is that this does not include the 37,000 miles being towed behind Beauty. When the truck is in tow mode, it doesn’t register mileage.

This means that besides that 37,000 miles, we’ve driven the truck almost twice that distance just riding around seeing the sights after we park the rig.

This morning, after a very late night (early morning??) we left the rig a little before 11am heading to the Texas Tea Room to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for lunch. We’ve really grown to like this place, with their great soups and sandwiches.

Jan was going to Landon-sit this afternoon while Brandi and Lowell take in a movie and run some errands, so she rode home with them while I headed out to do some errands myself.

First stop was Kroger’s to pick up some lottery tickets, then it was on Chris’ to drop off some magazines for Miss Piper.

Piper had two wisdom teeth pulled out Friday morning and the poor thing was still suffering. Her cheeks were still puffed up and swollen.

I told her she looked like a “cute blonde chipmunk” and wanted to take her picture for the blog. She told me in no uncertain terms “NO”.

Sorry.

Then I stopped by Home Depot looking for my under-sink icemaker water filter. But they didn’t have it. Turns out a little later research showed that my model had been discontinued. So I’ll have to try and figure out how to fit another type in its place.

Finally I headed over to Brandi’s to get the small share of Landon-sitting that Jan allows me. I only somewhat jokingly said that Landon may not walk until he’s two, because between Jan and Brandi, he never gets put down.

Brandi and Lowell got back home about 5 pm and we decided to have dinner at our favorite King Food.  Hmmmm! Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy, and then add jalapenos!

We got home a little after 7, certainly better than last night’s 1:30am.

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January 15, 2012

Second Times the Charm . . .

This morning started out a little after 10am with with the breakfast buffet at La Brisa right up TX 146. One nice thing about their buffet, unlike a lot of others, is that all drinks are included in the $10.50 price, including coffee, milk, and OJ.

And on top of that, the food is really good too.

Getting home I finally decided to do something about my leaky tire. It’s the driver’s inside rear dual, and it’s been leaking on and off for a while. It will go for several months with no problems, and then gets where I have to add air every few days. I had pulled off the Tire Pressure Sensor and the valve extension to be sure they weren’t the problem, but it didn’t help.

It was fine when we got here almost two months ago, but in the last week or so it’s been dropping overnight so it’s time to do something about it. So after we got back from breakfast, I put in a call to Coach-Net to send someone out.

But it took two tries to get it done. I told Coach-Net that I needed someone with a air jack that could lift at least 10,000 pounds, and the gear to handle a 22.5 inch tire.

The first guy came out in a pickup truck with a 2000 pound floor jack and no way to remove the large lug nuts on the wheel. So after sending him on his way, I called Coach-Net back and told them the problem. They said the guy had told them he could handle the rig. He lied.

But the next guy had what it takes – a big dually truck with a large gas-driven air compressor, a 20,000 pound air jack, and a big impact wrench to get the lugs off.

And this guy knew what he was doing. He had the inside tire off in about 15 minutes, and found a slight leak with the valve core. But the big leak was caused by a loose nut on the valve stem itself. He replaced the valve core, and then after putting a little Loc-Tite on the valve stem threads, tighten up the nut.

After airing up the tire to 110 pounds (I normally run 100 pounds in the rear), he dabbed bubble soap all around and found no leaks. Then, before remounting the tire, he carefully checked for any nails or leaks on the tire itself.

He quickly had everything back together and ready to roll in a total of only 45 minutes. A real professional.

Coach-Net covered the service call, and all I had to pay was $65 for the labor. Not bad at all.

Later, after doing some other chores around the rig, I headed up to my client’s office to install the new computers and router. Kept finding other things to do, so I didn’t get back to the rig until after 9pm, but I did get a lot done.

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January 15, 2013

And so it begins . . .

and where does it stop? As I expected the other day, the bans have started.

New York State has now banned “Assault Weapons” with only ONE cosmetic feature, not two like before. So now 100’s of thousands of New York gun owners that owned legal guns yesterday are now criminals. So having a folding or adjustable stock on your rifle, even a standard deer hunting rifle, makes you a criminal. Even if it’s only used so your wife or son can shoot the rifle more comfortably.

They have also redefined a “High Capacity” magazine to be one that holds no more than 7 rounds, down from the previous 10.

You can keep your old 10 round magazine, but if you ever put more than 7 rounds in it, you’re a criminal, even if you never put it in a gun.

And of course you can forget that 13 – 17 round mag that came with your pistol. It’s now a felony to posses one.

Maybe the government ought to take a look at the first 9 ‘Killers’ on this list before they worry about guns.

Under the heading of “Make your own Assault Weapon at home”, it’s almost here.

You may or may not have heard about 3D Printing. A 3D printer is a device that allows you take something designed by a computer and print it out in plastic, or in some cases, glass or metal.

Think Star Trek Replicator.

If you’re a car company, you get a multi-million dollar model to literally print out the parts of a new prototype car, rather than making them by hand.

And if you’re Jay Leno you can use one to made new parts for your large collection of antique cars.

Ever owned an HP LaserJet or InkJet printer? Now you can own an HP DesignJet 3D printer. This ones about $15,000.

You don’t even have to own one. You can design your part at home and then send it off to have it produced.

You can print everything from simple things

to very intricate ones.

Even better you can get one for home use as a kit for between $500 and $1000.

And even more better, you can use this one to print the parts for a new one. Kind of self-replicating. So where does this all lead?

Like I said, make your own AR-15 “Assault Weapon” at home.

Most people may not realize that the important part to an AR-15 is the lower receiver.

This is the part that has the serial number, and is regulated and tracked by the government. The barrel, stock, etc. are all readily available. But now, you can print one at home.

Of course it’s a work in progress, playing off the type of plastic used, the design, and the durability of the piece.

The first lasted for one round, the second one lasted for six, the third for 40 rounds, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, who knows.

But even better, and what works now, is a print-it-yourself magazine.

They’ve printed magazines that will work with no problems, and will hold up to 100 rounds.

Now that’s a High Capacity Magazine!

So now, let’s ban 3D printers, right?

Also apparently now finger guns are illegal.

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Next up: The Splendide Repairman

I had two problems with our Splendide washer/dryer. The first was a flaky door switch that sometimes would not allow the door to be opened after use, sometimes until the next day.

But while I was waiting for the new switch to come in from Westland Sales, another problem appeared. The dryer stopped drying. Everything worked except for the heating up part.

At first I was hoping it might have a connection with the defective switch so I could fix both problems with one repair. But a close look at the schematic in the service manual proved that wrong.

I could have replaced the switch from the outside, but I now couldn’t avoid pulling the washer out of the cabinet, a real pain in the rear.

So today was the day.

After I removed the retaining strip at the bottom of the opening, I next removed the cabinet doors, and other parts like this latch.

Then I started inching the washer out.

Since there is plenty of room inside the cabinet you think they could have left a little more room in the opening.

You can’t even get a screwdriver in between the washer and the wall.

But finally I had it out far enough to tilt it onto the floor dolly. The dolly makes all the difference in getting it out of the hallway.

Now I could get to the water hoses, after turning off the water, of course.

The string is left over from my fan motor replacement last year. It lets me push the washer back in and hold the drain hose out of the way so it doesn’t get crimped as I do.

Now I was able to push the washer aside so I could get inside the cabinet, unplug the power cord, and turn off the water at the valves, This let me turn the coach water back on.

The gob of sticky Plumber’s Putty holds the drain hose in the drain pipe so it doesn’t come loose while bouncing down the road, and then flood your RV once you get to the RV park.

Now with the lid off I was able to start checking components. And my first test proved to be the last one. Because it found the culprit.

And this is it. It’s a thermal fuse. And it’s your last-ditch protection against the dryer catching fire.

If the High Temp thermostat shorts out, the dryer would just run hotter and hotter, possibly starting a fire. A clogged exhaust vent can also cause this to happen.

But these fuses sometimes just die and open up, which is what happened here.

The markings on the fuse does not tell me the temperature rating, nor does the schematic. So I’ve got a call into the Westland Sales to see if this is a part I can find locally, or one I will have to order from them. Hopefully I’ll be able to talk with them tomorrow.

Coming Up Soon: The Blind Repairman, or How to repair/restring your RV Day/Night Shades.

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January 15, 2014

TSC and PPL . . .

Another nice day. Another nice walk. And nice hot coffee afterwards.

Jan and I  headed our about 1:30 PM for an afternoon of errands and then ending up with dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon.

Our first stop was the Tractor Supply Company in Alvin for a magazine Jan likes and a few other things. Then it was on to PPL Motorhomes at the junction of Beltway 8 and US59. We were stopping there to pick up the Linkage Repair Kit for my Kwikee step.

Now something on my ‘do before we leave’ list.

We also picked up a new step stool since our other one finally wore out.

After a stroll through their RV Parts Store we headed on out to Brandi’s, getting there about 3:45. Lowell was already home and Brandi showed up about 30 minutes later after picking up Landon at his daycare, which is conveniently located right down the street from their house.

After talking for a while we all drove a little down the road to Fulshear to have dinner at Dekker’s Mesquite Grill.

Lowell and I had their great Chicken Fried Steak with smashed potatoes, and really,really good green beans. They were cooked until just crispy and very well seasoned.

Jan had the Shrimp Scampi with Fried Asparagus. Also very good.

Brandi had the Rotisserie Chicken which she said was some of the best chicken she’s ever had.

It was lucky we got there early because by the time we left about 6:15 the place was pretty full. Really good. We’ll go back.

Out of 6 tries in taking Landon’s picture, this is the only one that came out.

Heading home after saying our goodbyes and getting Landon hugs, we luckily missed most of the ‘going home’ traffic. Getting back to the Clear Lake area, we stopped off at the Sam’s Club to see if they had a K-Cup storage drawer like the one that Lowell and Brandi had gotten there. But we didn’t find them.

Since we were so close, we next stopped off at Chris’ to pick up our mail, and then started home again. But remembering the Sam’s Club down in La Marque, only about 5 miles further down I-45 from our normal Dickinson turnoff, we drove on down there.

But that Sam’s said they hadn’t had any since around Christmas, so then it was finally home about 8:30 PM.

Later I found one on Amazon and it will be here Friday.

K-cup Storage Drawer

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Orlyn, one of our fellow gate guards who was down the road from us last year, called about my blog concerning changing the batteries in his Tire Pressure Sensor like I did, and wanted know how I did it. Turns out he has a Pressure Pro system, and like the previous Doran system I had, the batteries are not replaceable. You have to send the sensors back to the company and they will sell you new ones. That’s one of the reasons we changed to the TireTraker. Orlyn also said our gate is still going strong, and our replacements, Jim and Linda Mossman, are still there. Glad to hear they’re doing OK.

On another note, one of our readers, Jerry Criswell, alerted me to the universally bad reviews on Amazon for the One Touch Can Opener that I mentioned the other day.

I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe they made them better 10 years ago or so when we bought ours, but ours has worked perfectly every time. As they say, Caveat Emptor.

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January 15, 2015

Scary Cherries . . .

When I got up this morning I saw something I haven’t seen in a while, bright sunshine, finally nice enough for some outside work. But first I had some client web stuff to work on, updating some things and working on a couple of other problems.

A little later I called the client who’s computer I delivered yesterday to see if she was having any problems. She said that she was having a problem with YouTube videos being scrambled. Audio was OK, just a video problem.

After a quick Google, I told her to left-click on the YouTube screen, select Settings, and turn off Hardware Acceleration. She said that fixed the problem. Good!

Then I was on the phone to American Coach to ask about a leaky shower. For a while now I have had water leaking from the shower under the wall into the bedroom and wetting the carpet.

It only happens when the shower is running, and by looking into the access port in the shower base and I can see the water dripping down from the back of the shower enclosure. Which is where the Moen single handle faucet is on our shower as you can see here.

It was obvious that I would have to cut an access hole through from the bedroom to the rear of the faucet since there was no access panel, but first I wanted to double-check with American Coach.

And as it turns out, I’m supposed to have an access panel there. Apparently there is normally a mirror on that wall and the access panel cover is behind it. We don’t have a mirror just a blank wall, with no panel.

So it looks like I will be cutting through the wall. In anticipation of this, when I was at Harbor Freight Tools the other day,, I found a Multipurpose Oscillating Tool on sale so I picked one up with a set of blades.

It should cut right through the thin wall with no trouble, and then I should be able to see what the problem is. If I’m lucky it will be something easy like a loose connection.

As far as outside, I did a few easy chores that were at the top of my list.

First up, I repaired the Charge Wire connection on the truck. I noticed it had come loose a few weeks ago, and wanted to get it fixed before we head out west this year and encounter a lot of hills.

The Charge Wire is part of the electrical hookup between the RV and Truck that syncs the truck taillights with the rig’s. On flat terrain, it’s not really needed, but when we’re going though a lot of hills, the truck’s auxiliary braking system gets a workout. And since the Brake Buddy runs off the truck’s battery, you can sometimes arrive at your destination after a long day of hill climbing and descending and find your battery dead

The Charge Wire takes care of this by connecting the truck battery to the RV battery so that the truck battery is kept charged as we travel.

Next I dumped a batch of Biocide into the fuel tank to take care of any algae growth caused by the high humidity and cold weather we’ve had. I got caught by this in 2009 up in Massachusetts and ended up with a clogged fuel filter. Been using a biocide every since and have not had another problem with it.

Finally, I did my monthly check of the water levels in the house batteries. Not needed for the engine batteries since they’re sealed and maintenance free. I was happy to see that the water levels were fine, especially since I recently install the new power converter.

For dinner Jan fixed up our steak leftovers from last night, really good, and then for dessert, I made Scary Cherry Sundaes.

Scary Cherries were one the ‘hot’ gifts that our son-in-law Lowell gave me for Christmas

Scary Cherries are Maraschino cherries soaked in hot pepper solution, in this case, Carolina Reaper peppers, the hottest in the world. They also have two weaker heat levels, one with Ghost Chiles, and one with Scorpion Chilies. But why mess around with the kiddie stuff?

To make the sundaes, I started with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla, and then dusted them with three chopped-up cherries each. Then I chopped up some Hershey’s Cherry Cordial Kisses and sprinkled these on. Last up was a heaping pile of whipped cream, topped off with a whole cherry for me, and a chopped-up one for Jan.

She was kind of worried about eating a whole cherry by itself, so that’s why hers was chopped up.

As it turned out we both really liked the heat from these cherries. Glad I’ve got more ice cream and more cherries.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be even warmer than today, maybe more conducive to spraying water and vinegar on the roof to remove the drilling mud, but we’ll see.

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January 15, 2016

More ‘V’ . . .

Later, about 4:15 we all headed into the Katy area to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at one of our all-time favorite places, Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro.

Landon decided we were laughing and talking so much that we were making too much noise, interrupting his game play. So he stayed underneath the table using the seat as a rest for his tablet.

After a great dinner, we all headed back to Brandi’s for a bit so I could pick up some mail, then it was on back to Colorado River.

And then tomorrow, believe it or not, we’re going to do it all again.

Yeah, like we have a problem with that. Back when our kids were small, we once ate at the same restaurant every night for a week So two nights in a row is no problem.

If it’s good once, it’s good twice, right? Or even seven times.

We saw online about a big frack site fire up in Oklahoma, near Chickasha. So far it seems that truck off to the side caught fire and then it quickly spread, finally consuming the entire site.

The site, owned by Continental Oil, and being fracked by FTS has been rated as a total loss, with 22 trucks, valued at over $1 million a piece, burned to a crisp.

Luckily, probably because it started as a fire and not as an explosion, everybody got out safely with no injuries.

Even though we’ve never been extremely close to our frack sites, glad this didn’t happen at one of our gates.

The story about one of the PowerBall winners that was going around the Net yesterday, about the California winner being given the 1/3 winning PowerBall by her boss, turned out to be a prank, one that apparently got out of hand. The boss did give all of his 9000 employees a PowerBall ticket. That part was true.. But the winner part of  it came about when a son called his mother at work, and as a prank, told her she had won.

But things quickly got out of hand, the press was called, and the announcement went out nationwide, with TV and news reporters crowding into her workplace. I suspect that her son is now very sorry he did this.

If he’s still around.

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January 15, 2018  

I Give Up . . .
Back at work this morning, I gave up.
For the last couple of months I’ve been trying to move my client’s website and online store off the in-house Linux server and up onto Godaddy. But so far everything I’ve tried has been a dud

To do that I need to set up a new version of Zen Cart on Godaddy and then copy the Zen Cart MySQL data from the Linux server and then just install it on GoDaddy’s version.

Yeah, right!

Well it would be that easy except that access to the MySQL file is password protected. And the password is not any of the ones from my list of the previous guy’s passwords..

But I kind of figured out a workaround only to find that the data file itself is encrypted. Why the hell, I don’t know. There’s no reason for it.

And even worse, it’s encrypted with AES-256 encryption, the same standard used for online banking. So good luck breaking that. So now it’s down to grunt work.

We presently have about 1680 products in the database, so my fall-back is to just start copying the individual products over one at a time. It’s likely to take several months, but as I told Jan if I’d done this to start with, I’d be done by now.

At least it’ll keep me off the streets and out of trouble. Well, one of them, at least.

We had originally planned to have our left-over El Pollo Loco for dinner tonight, and then eat out tomorrow, but the incoming weather intervened. With tomorrow, we’re expecting temps in the low 20’s with freezing rain, sleet, black ice, and snow flurries/snow. Sounds like a good day to stay home.

So as soon as I got home we turned back around and headed back up FM646 to have dinner at our local favorite, Pho20.

We both started out with their delicious House Crunch Salad, with Miso Dressing and Tempura Crunches. Then while Jan again went with the Hibachi Chicken,

I once again got the White Chicken Pho with Vegetables.

Really good and enough to bring home more than I ate to start with.

Before heading home we made a detour by the nearby HEB for a few things.

Tomorrow I’ll double check that our fresh water tank is full and then disconnect us from the Shore Water for the next couple of days, since we’re looking at 23° tomorrow night and 26° on Wednesday.

Since we’re looking at possible icy road conditions Wednesday morning, we may find that Jan’s lithotripsy gets rescheduled. We’ll have to see.

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January 15, 2019

No. 5 Is Alive . . .

I had several outside projects on tap for today, but the weather wasn’t very cooperative. It just barely got into the 50’s here, and the sun never even sent a beam in our direction.

So, catching up on 2019 so far . . .

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon came down from Katy on New Year’s Day to meet us at King Food for lunch. Landon brought along his latest creation, a Lego robot.

Brandi said a few hours before this was a bunch of small parts in a box. When Landon was done, he had a robot that he can program and control from his iPad. Cant’ wait to see what he comes up with next.

Brandi says she’s thinking about signing him up for a kid’s coding class called Code Ninjas. Sounds like it would be right up his alley.

On the 3rd of January Jan and I met the Conroe Bunch up in Spring at the Potatoe Patch restaurant there. Good food and great friends. Couldn’t get much better.

Left: Debi Hurlburt, Sandy Mills, Judy Mott, Mike Mills and David Evans. Right: Janice Evans, Jan White, Logan Unterzuber, Ed Hurlburt, and Greg White.

A motley group if I ever saw one.

Dinner today was breakfast at Denny’s, followed by a WalMart excursion.

While we were doing the WalMart thing, I set Runkeeper to track our distance to compare the mileage accuracy with Jan’s new Fitbit. Runkeeper, a Android phone app, uses GPS to very accurately track your mileage.

When we got back to the truck, I showed a distance of .43 miles, while Jan’s Fitbit showed 0.47 miles, a different of 0.04 of a mile. Not bad at all.

After Jan’s initial panic last month after her left eye cataract removal, her vision settled down just as the Dr. said it would, so Jan scheduled her right eye operation for this coming Thursday morning, with a quick checkup Friday morning.

For my part, after using the steroid drops on my left eye for the last month, I’m going back to get my problem checked out to see if I have Fuch’s Dystrophy or not.

I guess we’ll see.

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January 15, 2021

Drink More Coffee . . .

I mentioned the other day that according to the IRS website, GET MY PAYMENT, our two $600 Stimulus Checks were mailed out on January 6th, and then yesterday I got an email from DakotaPost saying that our checks, and well as a DMV refund from our Jeep tags, were sent via Priority Mail yesterday, the 14th. So it should be here in the next couple of days.

Is there anything it can’t do?

A new study was just released showing that drinking coffee helps reduce your chances of prostate cancer. And the more you drink, the less your risk.

The highest level of coffee consumption ranged from two to nine or more cups per day, while the lowest level ranged from none to fewer than two cups per day, they said.

Good to hear since I average about 10 cups a day.

And for those of you of the non-prostate persuasion, you’re not left out either. Past research has linked coffee consumption to a reduced risk for liver, bowel and breast cancers.

So Drink Up!