Monthly Archives: March 2023
A Possible New Diet?
Getting back to our Texas Hill Country visit last week, we’re always amazed at the new projects Chris has added to their home.
In the past we seen the large Wind Chimes he built.
Over 20 feet high, they gently ‘gong’ at the slightest breeze.
And then there’s his Firepit that he cut out and welded up by hand.
He even cut out the patterns by hand using his plasma torch. He said he tried to use templates, but ended up doing them completely by hand.
And this time we found that he had completely fenced in the yard so the dogs can’t roam too far.
But the most impressive addition was actually an art project that he calls his ‘Door Wall’.
And once again he did it all by hand, from the tree mural
to cutting out each petal on the daisies and the intricate random pattern in the center.
Later we took a drive out in the countryside checking out all the Bluebonnets along the backroads, including this one long stretch with a solid border on both sides of the road.
And large areas off to each side.
But I think my favorite is still this shot I got over in Marble Falls.
Thought for the Day:
I think I might try this diet.
Yesterday I was buying 2 large bags of Purina dog chow at Wal-Mart for my dogs Shadow and Lady.
I was about to check out when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
What did she think, that I had an elephant?
Since I had little else to do, on impulse, I told her that No, I didn’t have a dog – that I was starting the Purina Diet again, although I probably shouldn’t because last time I ended up in the hospital.
On the bright side though, I’d lost 50 pounds before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of every hole in my body and IVs in both arms.
I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is you load your pockets with Purina nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry and the food is nutritionally complete, so I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the line was enthralled with my story by now.)
Horrified, She asked : “Did you end up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned you?”
I said: No not at all; I stopped in the middle of the parking lot to bark at another dog and a car hit me.
The guy behind her was laughing so hard, I thought he was going to have a heart attack!
Wal-Mart won’t let me shop there anymore.
March 29, 2009
Gulf Shores – Home to the World’s Tiniest Hooters!
Get your mind out of the gutter!
Not those kind of hooters. This kind of Hooters!
Well, on second thought, maybe we are talking about the same kind.
Anyway, Jan and I went to the Gulf Shores Hooters for dinner tonight. And as the sign says it is the world’s tiniest Hooters!
It’s actually built on a double-wide trailer. In fact, when we were here back in November, one of the waitresses said that if you looked underneath, you could still see the wheels.
Jan and I have always called this place ‘Hoots’ because it was too small to be a real Hooters.
We started going to Hooter’s about 9 years ago and it quickly grew to be one of our favorite places
We were eating out with our son Chris, his wife, Linda, and our then 7 year old granddaughter, Piper. We also had Trudy, Jan’s mother, with us.
We were eating something, onion rings, or fried cheese, I believe, and Piper looks at us and says” This is good, but the ones at Hooters are better”.
I looked at her and said “How would you know?” And she said “Daddy and I go there all the time!”
Ah Ha! Busted!
We went to the NASA Hooters with the family a week or so later and were pleasantly surprised. They don’t serve hard liquor, just beer and wine. And we really liked the chicken wings.
Almost every table in the non-smoking area had a family with kids sitting at it. And they regularly have kid’s birthday parties there.
I mean, I would have like to have my 12th birthday party at a Hooters!
Happy Birthday!
Anyway, we hadn’t been there more than about 10 minutes when I heard someone yell “Greg!” Suddenly someone was hugging me from behind and kissing me on the top of the head.
Without even looking, I knew Jan was giving me “The Look”. You remember the “The Look” don’t you?
It took me a few seconds to realize this was a student I knew from the University of Houston – Clear Lake. Well, I mean, she wasn’t dressed like that the last time I saw her!
A few weeks before, she had come to my office at the university almost in tears. The ZIP disk that held her only full copy of her Master’s Thesis had become corrupted and she was afraid she had lost all her work.
It took a little work, but I was able to recover the entire document, and she was apparently very grateful.
After the explanation, Jan was somewhat mollified, but she still wasn’t too happy about the big lipstick kiss that remained on the top of my bald head.
Oh well…
Besides this young lady who was finishing up her MBA, we later ran into another one who was just about ready to take her CPA exam.
She said she made enough working at Hooters for just 2 – 3 days a week to pay her way thru college.
Anyway, as I said, Hooter’s became one of our favorite places.
I used to tell people that my wife and my mother-in-law insist I take them to Hooter’s at least once a week.
Am I a lucky guy, or what?
March 29, 2010
The Fremont Street Experience…
About 5 pm Jan and I drove back over to supper at Claim Jumper. But it was not to be. When we got there the parking lot was almost empty and a young lady was telling everyone that they were closed until Wednesday for some remodeling.
When we asked about another good place to eat, she suggested Cheesecake Factory across the street. So off we went.
Over the years, Jan and I been to several other locations, but not this one.
We just had appetizers so we would have room for cheesecake. I mean, why go to the Cheesecake Factory if you don’t have cheesecake.
And as with our previous visits, everything was really good.
Then it was over to the north end of the Strip to Fremont Street for The Fremont Street Experience.
Fremont Street is really what’s left of Old Vegas, before casinos started expanding down the Strip. In the mid 90’s the local merchants and casinos looked for a way to revitalize the area and bring the tourists back.
What they come up with, was a canopy 90 feet high and 1500 feet long, spanning 4 city blocks, Fremont Street became a pedestrian mall with a movie screen / light show overhead.
The canopy / screen is what you see held up by the tree-looking supports.
And this is what it looks like in action.
Along with the video show is a sound system pumping out 550,000 watts of music.
Although the original version used colored incandescent light bulbs, in 2004 the system was upgraded to a display consisting of 12.5 million LED’s.
They have a different show every hour for about 10 minutes. Right now they are running shows with tributes to Don McLean, the Doors, Queen, KISS, and others.
We all agreed that this was the best thing we’d seen in Vegas so far.
March 29, 2011
Interstates and Ferry Hawks . . .
Jan and I both slept late this morning so no time for coffee before we had to be ready at 10:30 to head out to Camping World.
I wanted to pick up a grey water valve to complete my set, and while there the new issue of “The Next Exit” caught my eye. In case you’re not familiar with it, “The Next Exit” lists every exit on every Interstate in every state in the US.
It also tells you what stores, gas stations, restaurants, etc. are located there, and whether or not, diesel is available and if you can get a big RV in the station. It also shows rest areas and pull-overs. All in all, very useful.
But last year, after I had already bought the 2010 “Next Exit”, I came across a new one from Good Sam’s and Camping World called “Exit Now”.
Although it’s more expensive ($16 vs. $10 on Amazon), “Exit Now” is spiral-bound and uses much better quality paper. And the brighter-white paper should be easier to read compared to the newsprint-type paper used in “The Next Exit”. So it looks like in 2011 we’ll be giving “Exit Now” a try. We’ll see how it goes.
Leaving Camping World, Jan and I headed toward Corona de Tucson, a small town south of the Pima County Fairground on S. Houghton Rd. We were meeting Al & Adrienne at Argenziano’s, an Italian restaurant they like.
Getting there about 10 minutes early we stopped at the Ace Hardware next door, but ran out of time before I found what I wanted.
Argenziano’s was really good, with Al & Adrienne splitting a pizza, while Jan had ravioli stuffed with roasted garlic and shrimp, and I had spaghetti and meatballs. We had our usual good time with them and made plans to have dinner tomorrow night, our last night in Tucson, hopefully.
I say ‘hopefully’, because it depends on our getting our Thousand Trails membership number tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.
Leaving the restaurant and Al & Adrienne, we went back next door to Ace Hardware to finish up our shopping. Heading back to the fairgrounds, we detoured to get gas and stop off at Fry’s to pick up a few groceries, and while we were there, I talked to Thousand Trails to see how our membership processing was going. Again, ‘hopefully’, we’ll have our number tomorrow.
Later, we left the rig about 5 to have dinner at Chuy’s – Tucson. It turned out to be more bar & grill than restaurant, and you had to order at the counter, but the food was good, even though the service was spotty because they were so busy.
Hopefully, there’s that word again, ‘hopefully’, we’ll traveling up to Verde Valley Thousand Trails RV park near Camp Verde, AZ. on Thursday . . . or Friday . . . or when we get our TT membership number. Hopefully.
We got home a little before 7 and were down for the night.
March 29, 2012
A Little Bad News . . .
This morning we had a late breakfast and called it lunch.
It’s Thursday and it’s Turkey and Dressing Day at Cracker Barrel and Jan needed her cornbread dressing fix. Remember, If it ain’t cornbread, it ain’t dressing.
Our cats, Mister and Emma have really taken to hotel life. They normally avoid each other, but they’re OK sharing the king size bed. Don’t know what they’re going to think going back to the rig tomorrow.
Later I went by Rush Truck Service to check in on the rig. They still found no coolant in the oil after yesterday’s test drive and still have no idea how it got there in the first place. They also did another pressure test on the engine while it was hot and found no further coolant leakage anywhere.
The system stayed pressurized without losing any coolant. So we’re back to square one on this problem. I’ll just have to keep a close eye on it for a while. They were working getting the exhaust manifold gasket replaced, and said they still expected to have the rig ready to go by 4:30 this afternoon.
But then about 3pm Clayton called with a little bit of bad news. The exhaust manifold is cracked and will need to be replaced. They will have the new manifold in tomorrow morning and expect to be done about noon. We’ll see.
About 4:30 we headed back to Chachi’s for a repeat of last night’s delicious meal. I again had a 3 item combo plate, but this time substituted a chicken flauta for the tamale. Just as good as like night. Even the rice and beans are good. Especially the beans. They’re the lumpy kind of refried beans, with whole beans mixed in.
Jan had a repeat of last night’s plate with a Chile relleno and a soft beef taco.
Chachi’s is definitely on our list when we come back to Las Cruces next year.
Heading home, we stopped off at the Wal-Mart right next door to the hotel for a few things before getting back to the room for the night.
Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be on the road to Balmorhea, TX.
March 29, 2013
Not Much . . .
happened today.
I kept telling myself I was going to get back on my taillight or my dash light/headlights-on alarm projects, but somehow it just never happened.
I ended up spending most of the day doing a map overlay for all the Thousand Trails parks we can access. I recently found out that a number of the parks we can visit are not on the standard Thousand Trails list.
I found that I can access a park in the Florida Keys, and two more in Florida, one near Daytona Beach.
Also parks in Bar Harbor, ME, the Wisconsin Dells, and additional parks in California, Washington and Oregon. Of course some of these are Encore parks and cost us a whole $3 a day, but according to the Thousand Trails office, staying at those parks doesn’t count against our 50 free days each year, and it appears that we can stay at one of these parks for longer than our normal two weeks. Neat!
At about 5pm we headed out to meet our friend’s Al and Adrienne for dinner one last time before we leave Tucson on Sunday. And as usual we spent more time talking than eating since we didn’t say our goodbyes until after 8:30.
And with any luck we’ll be able to catch up with them again later this summer when they’ll be in Cody, WY. Hope it works out.
That’s about it for today. As I said, ‘Not Much . . .”
March 29, 2014
All Landon, all the time . . .
Or so we wish.
After yesterday’s thunderstorms and hail, today was just perfect, with a high of 75 and a nice breeze all day.. Mister spent most of the day outside on his leash, curled up in one of our chairs, basking in the sun, and coming in only when the guy mowing the grass came onto our site.
When Mister’s outside on his leash, we leave the screen door open so he came come in whenever he wants. He won’t go to the bathroom outside, so he comes in for that, or to eat or get a drink of water. He just comes up the steps and into the rig as far as his leash will reach, and then waits for one of us to unhook him, and then comes back to the door when he’s ready to be hooked back up again and go back out. He just runs to the door and waits for me to put his leash back on. Smart Cat.
Brandi and Lowell had talked about coming out to visit today, but we didn’t know if that was still on since Brandi’s been sick. But she felt well enough, and said they’d be out about 3:30 or so. So I headed down to the office to get them signed in as a guest.
They did show up about 3:30 and Landon had a blast, checking out the river and trees behind the coach, and was even pretty good about letting us take his picture.
Landon was really fascinated with Mister. He wasn’t used to being around a ‘nice’ cat. They have a cat at home named Mooshe, otherwise known as ‘The Cat From Hell’. Mooshe would just as soon scratch your eyes out as hiss at you. She only just tolerates Brandi, and hates everyone else.
So Landon at first was scared to even pet Mister, much less play with him. But after a while they were running around the rig, chasing the ball Landon was throwing. But after a while Mister got tired and just laid down and went to sleep on the floor at the front of the coach. Landon would kind of poke at him, but Mister wouldn’t move. He was done.
About 5pm we all headed back into Columbus to have dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Grill, a place we ate at a couple of weeks ago when we were here. And once again we all really enjoyed it.
Jan had a chicken breast stuffed with shrimp, tomatoes, cilantro, and onions, topped with butter wine sauce made of mushrooms, tomatoes, jalapeños and onions. Said was one of the best things she’s ever eaten.
One thing we both enjoy is their specially-made extra-spicy salsa. Not only is it very hot, but it has a really smoky chipotle taste. And this time they gave us a big enough bowl to have some to take home.
Tomorrow we’re heading down to Clear Lake to visit Chris and his family, and also make a quick client visit. Then on the way home, we’ll stop off to have dinner with a former coworker of Jan’s.
March 29, 2015
A Name Change . . .
One of our blog readers, Jim Hamm, commented that with all the restaurant reviews and pictures we do, that maybe we ought to rename the blog, “Our Dining and Gourmet Adventures, With RVing as a Sideline.”
Figuring he was probably right, I met him halfway. While the blog name is still Our RV Adventures, we have a new subhead underneath. Instead of the old one, “I Wish You Could See What We See”, the new one is “Eating Our Way Across The USA”.
Pretty apropos, actually. Thanks, Jim.
I mentioned a while back about the dashcam I bought. But our trip up from Tucson to here in Apache Junction a week ago was the first time I had a chance to set it up here in the rig.
The movies, at 600 megabytes per 5 minute segment, are too big to post here, but here are some stills of our trip up here.
This first one was before we pulled out of our site at Voyager RV Resort.
This one is from right after we pulled out of the Flying J after fueling up.
Here we’re turning onto SR 77 that will take us to Apache Junction.
And this is our rest stop at the Tom Mix Memorial.
With the wide angle lens, and recording at 1080p HD, the videos are really stunning.
A118 Full HD 1080P Car DVR Dash Camera
The camera is only about 2” x 3” and comes with a windshield mounting kit. A great deal for only $80. Check it out.
Around 1:30 Jan and I made a Wal-Mart run to the store up on Apache Trail. Jan was looking for a few things, as was I. But the thing we were both looking for was a new foam mattress topper. We’ve had a 2” one on our bed since right after we bought the rig, and it’s always been very comfortable. Except for one thing. It’s hot.
I’d heard that the newer gel-infused ones are much cooler, so I wanted to see what Wal-Mart had. Turns out that they have a queen size 2” Memory Foam, Gel-Infused topper for $100, but I wanted to check Amazon also.
And checking Amazon, they have a similar one for the same price, so I’ll probably pick up the one from Wal-Mart in the next day or so.
While I was there I also checked out the paint department to see if they could mix or tint the Rust oleum Protective Enamel that I used on the rig bumper since I want a lighter shade of gray. Finding they didn’t, I bought a small can of white to see if I can mix something up that I like. We’ll see.
As usual when I’m in Wal-Mart, I wondered through the RV section, checking things out. And this time I came across a pretty good deal.
This Camco EVO Premium Water Filter was close-out priced at $15 (normally $49 or so, even on Amazon, and uses the standard filter inserts. The reviews are pretty good, except for those people who ignored the instructions and over-tightened and broke the connectors.
I’ll let you know how it works.
About 4:30 Jan and I headed out to the #1 Eastern Super Buffet, our go-to buffet place here in Apache Junction. The place stays busy enough that the food turns over quickly, so it’s always fresh and hot.
March 29, 2016
Another Day of the Blahs . . .
I woke up this morning, again kind of ‘blah’. I think it’s from the doctor changing one of my prescriptions, and if it’s like in the past, it’ll take a while to adjust to it. Blah!
After getting some coffee in me, I started to dig into the rig AC. But before I get up on the roof I wanted to take a look up at the inside part. After taking the cover off, I realized I needed the stepstool to get up in the unit, while I was out at the truck for the stepstool, I went ahead and got the ladder out, since I know I’m going to need it eventually.
About this time, Jim Dean dropped to see if there was any progress on Barbara Spade’s refrigerator problem.Told him she was looking for a residential replacement, but not having a lot of luck due to the size constraints.
Then, as if my day wasn’t screwed up enough, a client down in Clear Lake called with a request, so about 1:45 I headed down that way, sans Jan, who just wanted to stay at the rig.
So much for AC repair.
Along the way our friend Chris Yust, of C and C RV Insurance fame, called with some questions about a Thousand Trails membership she and Charles are thinking about buying. Sound like she looking at one just about identical to ours, 63 parks, 14 days in, and park to park. I assume she would also have 210 days in advance reservations, but I didn’t ask.
Chris, check this too.
Of course, when I got down to Clear Lake about 3:30, the client had decided he didn’t want to do what he thought he wanted to do. So, after getting gas, I headed back for Columbus a little after 4pm, not getting to the rig until about 6:45, due to having to come home through Houston Rush Hour Traffic (pat. pending).
After a delicious dinner of Dennis Hill Smoked Pork BBQ sandwiches on King Hawaiian Bread, Jan’s Funeral Potatoes, and Kroger’s Cranberry Nut Salad, I called Jim Dean to help him set up his new Silverleaf VMSpc computer virtual dashboard.
Mine looks like this, running on a laptop along with my Delorme Street Atlas GPS program. It sits on a shelf to the right of my chair, making it easy to keep an eye on things.
![Silverleaf 2_thumb[1]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Silverleaf-2_thumb1.png "Silverleaf 2_thumb[1]")
Looking at this graphic, it’s been a while since I screenshotted (screenshat?) this. The number under the yellow header that says Miles Since 1/6/08 and reads 44118.2, now reads over 71,000. And 1/6/08 is the day we picked up the rig at the dealers in New Braunfels and drove it back to La Marque, TX. And a month later, on 2/6/08, we headed for Alaska.
Of course that was via Yuma, San Diego, Long Beach, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, Colorado Springs, Billings, Cle Elum, Coeur d’Alene, and Bellingham, finally ending up in Fairbanks, AK on April 26, 2008.
Getting back to Jim Dean, we discovered that the Serial to USB converter cable he had does not like Win10. So he’ll have to pick up another one tomorrow before we can proceed.
Later I did some inside checks on the AC hoping it would be something simple like a bad freeze-up sensor. This is a thermistor that sits on the evaporator coil and if it detects that the coil is icing over, it turns the compressor off for a while, leaving the fan running until the ice is gone. Then it turns the compressor back on. So if this is bad, it won’t cool at all.
But unfortunately it wasn’t the sensor. But it’s only the simple thing when you don’t check that first.
March 29, 2017
Chili Delayed . . .
After our morning coffee, and while Jan read, I spent the morning working on a new website proposal for a customer. Hopefully he’ll like it.
Then about 1:30 we headed out for some errands and then later an early dinner. Our first stop was a nearby O’Reilly’s for another jug of AW32 Hydraulic Fluid to keep on hand for when I need to top off the rig’s reservoir next time.
Then it was off to the car wash next to Countryside RV Park where we’ve stayed several times before. It did a pretty good job, but not as good as the ones at HEB or Ocean’s back in the Houston area. This one didn’t have the separate rotary brush on an arm that comes down and scrubs your wheels.
Next it was on to Wal-Mart so Jan could get her hair cut while I picked up our prescriptions and then shopped for a few things while I waited for her to be finished.
Since the Jan’s Chili got put on hold until tomorrow, leaving Wal-Mart, we made the 20 minute run over to Gilbert to have an early dinner at Joe’s Farm Grill, another of our favorite places here in the Apache Junction area, and also featured on Triple D with Guy Fieri.
We’ve eaten here a number of times, and it’s always been great.
And today was.certainly no exception.
We each got our favorites, with Jan’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Cheese, Grilled Onions and Avocado, along with a side of their Asian Slaw on the right, while I got the Sonoran Dog with a side of their Fried Green Beans with Pesto on the left. The green beans are fantastic and big enough to share.
And of course we couldn’t leave out a big glass of their homemade Strawberry Lemonade, made from strawberries and lemons grown right here on the property.
In fact, much of the fruits and vegetables used in the restaurant are grown right here on the adjacent farm. And actually the restaurant itself was built around the family home built in the 1960’s.
All of the brown and green areas are the farmland next to the restaurant.
I still haven’t heard back from the glass people yet, so hopefully soon. And based on suggestions from several blog readers, I’m casting a wider net looking for new window awnings for our rig.
So thanks for everyone’s suggestions and ideas.
March 29, 2018
Peaks and Wings . . .
Unlike last week’s doctor appointment, today’s lab work appointment wasn’t scheduled until 1pm, so we had a quiet morning, finally leaving the rig around 12:15.
The actual blood draw only took a couple of minutes, but why did they have to do over all the same stuff they just did a little over a week ago. Stuff like blood pressure, pulse rate, weight, temp, etc., and then there’s all the medical history that I just gave them last time. Don’t they write this info down.
But by 1:30 we were on our way back over to Webster and the Twin Peaks there to have lunch. Although it’s one of our favorite places, it’s been a while since we’ve been here. In fact the last time we were at a Twin Peaks, it was the one up in the Woodlands.
One thing about TW is that they regularly change their menu. You won’t get bored, but you will lose some favorites now and then. In our case we lost their Creamy Tomato Basil Soup. But we gained their Green Chile Chicken Soup. Delicious!
Jan had the Greek Salad along with six Spicy Thai Chili wings.
I again when the soup and veggies route, with a bowl of the aforementioned Green Chili Chicken Soup, as well as the Sautéed Broccoli, the Sautéed Green Beans, and the Grilled Asparagus.
All done perfectly, and delicious.
After finishing up we headed up the Interstate a piece to do the Sam’s Club/WalMart thing for prescriptions and groceries. And then it was back to the rig.
Our Dodge Dakota ran perfectly with absolutely no problems. It’s good to have it back. And being able to borrow our son Chris’ truck for the interim was a big help.
Thanks, Chris.
March 29, 2019
Four Weeks And Counting . . .
As I’m posting this blog, four weeks from today we will be about 6 hours into our flight from Houston to Frankfurt, Germany, on our way to Budapest, Hungry, and the beginning of our European vacation.
That flight is about 9 hours 45 minutes, and then after a 3 hour 35 minute layover, we’ve got a 90 minute flight on to Budapest, arriving on April 27th at about 1:45 in the afternoon. So a total journey of almost 15 hours.
Then, counting our two pre-cruise days, we’ll spend four days in the Budapest area before heading on to Vienna.
We can’t wait.
Glad We Didn’t Go
Over the years Jan and I talked about visiting the Grand Canyon Skywalk on the Hualapai Indian Reservation, located between Las Vegas and Kingman, AZ.
But we didn’t, for two reasons. There was no way Jan was getting out on a piece of glass dangling over a 1000 foot drop. Even if’s supposed to safely hold over 800 people, and they only allow 120 on it a time.
And at the time, the way the tickets worked, she had to buy a full ticket, even if she didn’t go out on it. Though I think that’s changed now.
For my part, I would have no problem going out on it, but there’s apparently one more catch. You’re not allow to take a camera, phone, or anything else out with you. So no pictures of your own. Just high price ‘professional’ photos of your visit.
But maybe Jan had the right idea, since yesterday, Thursday, a tourist from Hong Kong was taking photos along the unfenced edge of the canyon, stumbled, and fell 1000 ft. to the bottom of the canyon.
Yikes!
Tomorrow we’ll do some prep work for our Sunday rig test drive. Things like checking that the slide will come in without problems, and that the refrigerator will switch over to propane. Luckily the last couple of days the rain chances have dropped from 60% to 20%.
So hopefully it will stay somewhat dry.
March 29, 2021
Wrong Line Of Work?
We’re getting an early start tomorrow because Jan has her yearly mammogram tomorrow afternoon, something that she’s very careful not to skip each year since she was diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2014.
Luckily back then, she only needed a lumpectomy, with no radiation or chemo involved. But it was a big enough scare that she never misses one now. Especially since she almost skipped the one in 2014 when they found the lump.
So she wants to remind everyone to get this done every year.
Anyway, we’ll leaving the rig about 12:30 so we’ll have time to eat lunch first, and then after I drop her off, I’ll probably go by work for a while and catch up on some things.
Then this Thursday, we’ve both got our big annual physicals starting at 8am, that way we’re the first appointments of the day, and don’t have to wait.
Then we’ve got lunch all planned, at a new place called Texas Huddle Grille, located on NASA Rd 1. And I already know what I’m having.
The PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger.
It’s harder to imagine two greater sandwiches combined into one.
Looks like we’re all getting together up at Brandi’s this Sunday for Easter. She doing a Prime Rib Roast, Potatoes, and a dessert, with everyone else bring sides dishes.
And the pool will be open, and heated if necessary.
Sounds like a lot of fun. And delicious food too.
Well, it’s obvious I went into the wrong line of work. Back in high school I was a lifeguard with Red Cross certifications. I had both Basic and Advanced, and was also certified as an instructor, though I never ran a class.
But if I’d known it could have turned out like this, I might very well have stuck with it.
Top paid LA lifeguards earn up $392,000 annually
Life’s a beach for these California lifeguards.
The highest-paid Los Angeles lifeguards earn up to $392,000 annually — and dozens of others rake in more than $200,000 a year, according to an investigation by Forbes.
Seven LA County lifeguards earned more than $300,000 in taxpayer dough by tapping into overtime pay in 2019, the latest year available, Forbes found.
Maybe I could have been on Baywatch too.
Whether I Wanted It or Not . . .
Well, despite my blocking it every way I could, all of a sudden, about 11am, my HP desktop rebooted and started downloading and installing Windows 11.
But at this point there was no way to stop it without probably screwing up things completely so I just had to let it go. And about 30 minutes later, and after several reboots, I was running Win11.
And all I can say now, is So Far, So Good. Everything seems to be working OK, though I did have to reset a number of things, like the WiFi signal.
The only really obvious difference I’ve seen is the new look of the requestors and an pop-up windows.
Anyway, I’ve got 10 days to easily roll back to Win10. After that I would have to reinstall Win10 from scratch.
I’ll keep you updated.
Lunch today was at Snooze once again, with Jan getting her usual, favorite Bravocado Toast,
while I got the 3 egg omelet, with something I haven’t had in a omelet before, Shrimp.
As well as Ham, Jack Cheese, and Pico de Gallo.
I always get the Fruit instead of Hashbrowns, and a Grilled English Muffin.
Delicious as always.
Then it was on up to Kroger’s to pick up a prescription and down to WalMart for additional stuff. And after P.O. stop for our mail, we were home a little after 4pm.
Nice Day!
Getting back to our Fredericksburg visit last Tuesday, after our delicious Der Lindenbaum German meal, including the fresh-baked German Marble Rye bread,
we drove around the town for a while before checking into our La Quinta Inn a little after 3pm, and were in for the night.
A very nice hotel.
Friday morning we headed out toward Kingsland, with our first stop at the local HEB for gas, according to GasBuddy the cheapest gas in town. And it showed since we had to wait in line for about 10 minutes.
Our next stop was only a few miles down the road, and the other reason, besides Der Lindenbaum, for our visit.
And that was Wildseed Farms.
A large gift shop, plant nursery, clothing store, and snack bar.
One of Jan’s favorite places, and she always finds something she just has to have.
Then we were back on the road for the hour-long trip over to Kingsland and our son Chris’ place, seeing a LOT of Bluebonnets and Paintbrushes along the way.
Getting there a little after 1pm, we spent some time sitting out in Chris’s great backyard.
He and Linda have put a lot of work into it, with something new every time we visit.
I’ll have more about our trip tomorrow.
Thought for the Day:
“Everything is funny as long as it’s happening to somebody else.” ― Will Rogers
March 28, 2009
Well, we’re still upright…
That’s about the best I can say.
Last night was a real experience. The wind was blowing so hard that I went out about 3am to let the window awnings in. Luckily, it wasn’t raining but boy, was the wind blowing. I also cranked down the roof TV antenna since it was also making noises I had never heard before.
The satellite dish had already blown over earlier in the evening, so it was no longer a problem. I just left it there.
While I was outside I kept hearing the strangest chirping, snapping sound coming across the swamp behind us. At first I thought it was some animal in the swamp. But I finally realized it was the sound the wind made hitting the the still out awnings of the RV’s behind us across the swamp.
And then about 4am I went back out to cut down the windchimes that had been hanging from the awning arms and were now being slammed against the side of the coach.
And then about 6am a burst of thunder that sounded like it was about 5 feet over our heads, made the coach rock on the levelers. Man, that was loud!
And then today, not having got a lot of sleep last night, Jan and I stayed around the coach all day, napped, and ate leftover pizza.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be better…
March 28, 2010
Over the Hump to Pahrump…
Today we started out by heading over to the Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant for a very good brunch. They advertise that everything is made from scratch, including the fresh-squeezed orange juice, and is shows.
Then it was off to Fry’s and then next door to the Border’s Book Store.
Then it was “over the hump to Pahrump” as they say here. “The hump” is a long climb up and over a mountain range. And the view on the trip was spectacular.
Pahrump is a town of about 30,000 people located about 50 miles from Las Vegas. Its real claim to fame is that it is home to the closest legal brothels to Las Vegas.
But before we tracked them down, we wanted to check out the Escapees RV Park in Pahrump. And it was nothing to write home about. It had little in the way of shade and was really kind of desolate.
Unlike another RV park right down the road a piece. And it was Terrible. Or, rather it was Terrible’s. Like many casinos, Terrible’s (yes, that’s the name of a chain of casinos) has an RV park attached.
And this one was very nice. A lot of green landscaping, shade trees, and a nice lake.
This is a place we wouldn’t mind staying at.
And then it was off to find the whor…eh, the brothels. And it didn’t take long.
It turns out that they were at the end of the road we were already on.
There are two brothels here in Pahrump, Sheri’s Ranch and The Chicken Ranch. And to make things convenient, they’re right next door to each other.
Based on the signs it’s really kind of hard to tell what kind of place Sheri’s Ranch ( Warning! This link is a little risqué ) is.
But the Chicken Ranch ( Warning! This link is a little risqué, too) is a different story.
They’re pretty up front about it.
Although The Chicken Ranch in Pahrump is named after the famous one in La Grange, TX, as depicted in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, there is no direct connection.
Our curiosity satisfied, we headed back to Las Vegas. And by the time we got back, we decided it was time for supper. Since we enjoyed Blueberry Hill so much for lunch, we decided to try it for supper. And, once again, really good.
March 28, 2011
Thousand Trails in the Mail . . .
After coffee we slowly got the morning started around 9:30.
After Jan talked to Al & Adrienne about getting together tomorrow for lunch, I spent time talking with a client for a while, and then about 11:45 I went up to the RV Office and paid for our site for two more days. They told me that we would have to start using another entrance/exit to the fairgrounds since they are repaving the main entrance before the Pima County Fair starts on April 14th.
Then about 12:30 I called the fairgrounds office and found out my Priority Mail envelope had arrived, so I jumped in the truck and headed over there.
I was waiting for my paperwork from Thousand Trails so I could get it turned back ASAP, so we can head up to the TT park in Camp Verde, AZ within the next few days. We can only stay here for a few more days before we have to leave because of the upcoming fair.
I got the papers filled out and faxed in, and then called them to make my transfer payment over the phone. Hopefully I will have our membership number in the next couple of days so we can head north.
While I was driving around the fairgrounds we got these photos of some of the RCS carnival equipment.
This is one of their large dormitory 5th wheels.
And out on one of the side lots are a bunch of the ride trailers.
About 5:30 Jan and I drove over to Jack’s BBQ for supper. According to the online reviews, Jack’s is the best BBQ place in Tucson, and the reviews were pretty accurate. Jan had a BBQ Beef/Pork sandwich, and I had the Sampler Platter with a little of everything. All very good.
After dinner we drove over there to get a DQ fix.
Then it was home for the evening.
March 28, 2012
Good News, so far . . .
Today started out with breakfast at Denny’s. Much, much better than yesterday’s IHOP fiasco, believe me.
In other news I decided not to win last night’s Mega-Millions drawing, to allow the prize to rise to the largest amount in world history, $500 million.
That’s Half A Billion Dollars!!
After breakfast Jan and I drove over to Rush Truck Center to check up on our RV repair But when we got there Clayton and our RV were both gone. He had taken it on a test drive. Yay!
About 20 minutes later Clayton pulled back into the lot with our RV. And after taking to him, it turns out things were a little different than we thought.
First off, the engine stopping had nothing to do with coolant in the oil, or my thinking I had run out of diesel. The problem was one of those UNKNOWN codes that my Silverleaf couldn’t read. It indicated a fuel sensor problem on one of the engine fuel rails. Replacing this sensor and adding fresh oil got the engine up and running with no other problems. It started with no further priming. And apparently ran just fine, EXCEPT . . . but back that in a minute.
But now the problem is, where did the coolant come from? They still don’t know. That’s one of the things that the test drive was supposed to look at. But by the time we left, the tech still hadn’t checked the oil for more coolant, but Clayton said he’d call me later this afternoon if they found a problem, and he never did. So I guess they didn’t find more coolant.
Clayton said they’ve occasionally heard of this happening, and apparently never happening again. At this point I don’t think I want to spend big bucks to tear into the engine without having some idea what the problem is.
So unless they found something else today or tomorrow, I’ll probably just start checking the oil every day we travel and keep a close eye on it.
Now for the EXCEPT – Clayton said both exhaust manifold gaskets were leaking. I had already figured out that I had a leak in the exhaust system somewhere since my Pac Brake doesn’t work as well as I thought it should. Plus I’ve never been happy with the engine power when accelerating up hill from a dead stop.
Clayton also said that the pressure test yesterday showed one leaky radiator hose that was only going to get worse, and should be replaced at some point.
I told him to go ahead and replace the gaskets and the hose, and get it out of the way. He said the hose would have to be ordered and would be in tomorrow morning, and said we should be ready to go late tomorrow afternoon.
I figure we’ll just wait and leave for Balmorhea on Friday morning.
After finding out things were looking up, Jan and I headed back to our room for more of the hotel good life, basically doing nothing, but again reading and napping. Jan’s read 4 or 5 books since we got here, and I’ve 4 or 5 really good naps. We’re both happy.
For dinner we wanted to try Chachi’s. Clayton, the manager of the truck repair center working on our RV had recommended it, and online reviews certainly reinforced it. So about 5 pm we drove over there. And unlike a lot of good Mexican places, this wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall place, but a very nice restaurant in a small shopping area.
Not only was the food delicious, but the prices were great too. A 3 item combo plate (in my case, two enchiladas (counts as one item), q Chile relleno, and a tamale, with rice and beans was only $8.50. And according to Larry, our waiter, everything is made inhouse, tortillas, tamales, etc.
It certainly tastes like it. We may even come back tomorrow.
When we got back from supper, we had these email pictures from our daughter-in-law Linda, of our granddaughter Piper’s prom invitation.
Pretty inventive way to ask her and looks like he got a ‘YES’ check on it.
March 28, 2013
A New Favorite . . .
This morning I got back on figuring out why my dashboard gauge lights quit working. After getting some more info from American Coach on how the circuit was wired, I started tracing the wiring back and after wedging myself in between the driver’s seat and the underside of the dashboard (not an easy job, believe me), discovered that the problem is with the headlight switch. Or at least the dash light dimmer part of it.
The switch is one of those that you pull out to turn the parking lights/headlights on and then rotate the knob to dim/brighten the dash lights. I did find out that the switch is a standard truck part so a replacement would be easy to find, but getting it out looks to be a problem
I would try to spray some contact cleaner in it, but it looks to be pretty sealed up so I would probably have to remove it to do that, and then I’m right back where I started.
I’m going to look at it some more, but I’m kind of tempted to just disconnect the dash light wire plug from the switch and then short across the wires so the lights are on full bright all the time, since that’s the way I drive with it anyway.
More tomorrow.
My Priority Mail package finally showed up today that our daughter Brandi sent out on Monday. It should have gotten here yesterday, but according to the USPS tracking, it was “MisSent” (what ever that means) out of the Tucson PO yesterday and got lost.
A little before 4 Jan and I headed out to check out Brushfire BBQ. We read good online reviews about it, and it certainly smelled good when we drove by.
As we were just leaving the coach, Mike and Cheryl Sipes stopped by to say Hi and drop off a menu for the Hot Wok, a place they say is even better than Luckie’s Thai.
This means it must be fantastic, because Luckie’s is really, really good. Hopefully we’ll be able to try it before we leave here on Sunday.
And Brushfire turned out to be really, really good, too.
If fact I think we have a new favorite BBQ place here in Tucson.
It’s as good as Famous Dave’s, a couple of bucks cheaper, and a lot closer to the fairgrounds.
Jan had the Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs with Grilled Green Beans and a loaded Baked Potato, and I had a combo plate with Sticky Ribs (St. Louis Style) and Beef Brisket, with Grilled Green Beans and Grilled Corn on the Cob.
The meat was moist, tender, and very flavorful. But even as tender as it was, it had some texture to it. I hate it when they parboil the ribs first to make them cook faster when they’re being smoked, and the meat turns out just mushy. Yeah, it does ‘fall off the bone’, but that’s because it’s been boiled to a pulp.
And the Grilled Green Beans were outstanding. As the description says, they’re cooked on the grill and come out crisp, but still tender, and delicious.
My only regret about Brushfire is that we didn’t go sooner. They only have two locations, both here in the Tucson area, so it will probably be next year before we can go back.
BUMMER!
We got home a little after 5 and I got back on the taillight problem. I got the old, ‘extra’ taillight converter out of the system and patched around, and now the rig part of the system is working fine.
But getting that part working revealed another one. I’ve apparently got a bad ground somewhere in the truck’s wiring. If I hook my test box up to the truck, the lights work fine. But if I hook the rig up to the truck, the turn signals work fine, but the left taillight doesn’t work and the right taillight is much brighter than it should be. An obvious grounding problem
I think I know where the problem is, but I finally ran out of daylight, so I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow.
I did have a couple of blog readers drop by to say Hi while I was working on the taillights, but I didn’t get their names. Sorry. But it is always nice to know people enjoy the blog.
March 28, 2015
Good Mexican Food and Zombie Outbreaks . . .
I did manage to get a coat of paint on the center portion of the rig bumper early this afternoon before the sun hit it. I’ll do another coat on everything in the next day or two. After that I’ll sand it with some 2000 grit and see what it looks like after I polish it up.
So far the timer I put on my Powermax converter/charger is working perfectly so far to keep both sets of batteries charged, so I can do away with setting up the separate charger each time. Good so far.
Jan and I recently stumbled into a new TV show we kind of like. It’s on the CW network and it’s called iZombie. Now, although Jan and I like such ‘supernatural’ shows as Grimm and Once Upon A Time, zombie shows and movies have never really been our ‘thing’. But this show came on one night while I was working on the blog, and after a bit I started paying more attention.
The heroine, Liv Moore is a medical student, who after being scratched during a party that became a zombie outbreak, becomes a zombie herself. Finding herself now craving brains, she decides to go to work in the city morgue, easing access to her needed nourishment. She’s aided in this by the Chief Medical Examiner who knows her secret and is studying her condition, hoping to find a cure.
But there’s a catch. After a brain burrito, or some brain sushi, she sometimes takes on the memories, feelings, and talents of the brain’s donor. And after partaking of a murder victim’s brain, she sees ‘visions’ of their death, which she then uses to help the police solve crimes. Of course the police detective she works with doesn’t know she’s a zombie. He just thinks she’s psychic. I don’t know which would be harder to believe.
The thing that makes this show really good is the humor woven into the plots, as well as Liv’s comments to the audience as she goes about her secret life.
The first two episodes have already run on the CW on Tuesday nights, but if you want to give a try, TNT is rerunning the show from the first episode, starting this Monday, the 30th. Check it out.
About 4:30pm we headed over to Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans) for dinner. Even getting there at 4:30 they were already on a wait, and it didn’t get any less busy as the evening went on. But then it is Saturday.
Everyone enjoyed what they had, and I have a new favorite dish there: the Carne Asada.
The meat was extremely tender and perfectly grilled. And it comes with a Cheese Enchilada, as well as rice and beans. Really good.
Tomorrow I’ll get back on my magnetic shade project and continuing sewing the magnets in place.
March 28, 2016
No Cooling, No Cooling . . .
or Up On The Roof!
I was actually up a little early this morning, but was feeling a little ‘blah’ so we didn’t walk or sit outside. Just had our coffee and cereal in the rig.
Sometime during the night, our Direct TV DVR glitched and reset itself to no channels. I first tried powering the receiver off and on a couple of times, which has helped before, but not this time.
So I called and ask them to reset it from their end and they said they would. It seems like we have to do this every couple of years or so, Apparently the receiver gets a garbage code command from the satellite and goes into ‘dork’ mode (yes, that’s a technical term). But after a few minutes, still nothing. But I thought I’d wait a while before I called them back.
I checked in with Barbara about 11 to see if there had been any change in her refrigerator problem. She said ‘No’, but that her tech guy had finally called her back, and agreed with me about it probably being a blockage (great minds think alike), but didn’t think much of the idea of turning the unit upside down for awhile. I don’t either, because by the time you get it out, you might as well put a new residential unit in.
Around 2pm, feeling better after coffee, I drove over to Barbara’s to try another way to possibly clear the blockage. I had a foot long piece of dowel and a small hammer, and my idea was to use the dowel rod and the hammer to gently tap along the 8 ammonia tubes visible at the top of the access panel. There are 4 tubes in front, and then 4 more behind those and offset upwards. I figured there might be a chance that this would break the crystals loose and free things up.
But when I got there, Barbara said the unit had died completely sometime that morning, with no lights working at all, not even the one inside the unit. All this indicates a loss of 12vdc to the fridge so after checking the fuses on the control board, I tracked down and checked the fuse sending 12v to the unit from the rig, but it was good too.
Before I could go any further, Barbara said she was researching residential types to replace it. I did go ahead and use the rod and the hammer to lightly tap along all the visible ammonia tubing, in case I do get a chance to look at it further.
The unit Barbara is trying to replace is a Dometic Royale RM3862, which is no longer made. But nothing on the residential side of things is showing up either.
The problem is the size. It’s 60” high, 24” wide, and 24” deep. Looking at the cabinet, she might be able to gain an inch or so on height and width, but unlike many installations where there is a drawer underneath, in her rig that’s where her heater lives.
I posted the question on RV.net and a couple of other forums asking for info, but haven’t heard anything back yet.
Finishing up at Barbara’s I drove down to the office to pay my 50 amp add-on fees, and get my car tag and gate codes.
Getting back to the rig I found I had a couple of problems of my own. One, Direct TV still wasn’t working, so I put in another call, and found out THEY have a problem. For some reason they cannot uplink any codes to a certain swath of receiver addresses.
Every receiver has its own individual address. That’s how they can send a pay per view movie to only your receiver, and not everyone else’s. It’s like your computer’s IP address, where your computer is the only one in the world with that particular address.
So now we wait.
But Two is the big problem. My almost new (6 months old) Coleman Mach 15 AC that I installed (with help from son Chris and son-in-law Lowell) back last August, is not cooling. It runs, but it just doesn’t cool.
My first thought was that it was maybe frozen up, so I ran just the fan for a while. I didn’t really think this was the problem, since the humidity is real low, and the fan is blowing strong air, but with sunset coming it was about all I could do.
So tomorrow it’s Up On The Roof to see what’s wrong with the compressor. Maybe just a bad capacitor. Well, I can hope, can’t it.
I’m assuming it’s still in warranty. I’ll check tomorrow.
March 28, 2017
Weather Watch . . .
The weather the last few days has been really nice, with highs in the mid-70’s and low’s in 40’s/50’s.
In fact at noon, it was still only 69° here. Just about perfect. And even better, on Friday the high is supposed to 68° and sunny.
I’m still waiting to hear back from the RV Glass people, and really hope we can get this taken care of before we leave for Las Vegas on April 8th
I also put in a call to Arizona RV Awnings down in Wellton, AZ to get some info on replacing our rig’s Carefree window awnings. Before that Jan and I went outside and measured our present ones to see what we needed.
Based on their website we should be able to get heavy duty Sunpro replacement fabric for all four for around $430, which includes free shipping. But our thought is to pick them up ourselves on a day trip down to Gila Bend and Yuma. So maybe we can get a discount since they won’t have to pay for the ‘free shipping’.
I’m still waiting to hear back from ‘Eric’ who’s supposed to answer my questions and take my order.
Later I stuck my phone camera underneath the rig’s Kwikee step so I could get the part numbers for the step (It’s a Series 28) and the motor I need to replace.
Blog reader Steve Mesz clued me in on the fact that many of these step motors are Ford power window motors, so I’m going to follow up on that.
For an early dinner we finished off our leftover Famous Dave’s BBQ from yesterday, along with some Bush’s Brown Sugar and Bourbon Grilling Beans. Then tomorrow Jan’s doing a big slow cooker batch of her world famous chili. Really looking forward to it.
Tomorrow we’ll run some errands and take care of a few other chores, and hopefully I’ll hear back from my windshield glass and awning people.
March 28, 2018
Switches and Shastas . . .
Well, our truck is finally back home after the latest repair. Hopefully the last one for a good while.
As I had hoped, (and maybe prayed a little) it did turn out that the problem was not a faulty oil pump, but instead, just a clogged oil pickup tube and pickup screen in the oil pan. That’s what 277,000+ miles worth of gunk will do. But it’s all cleared out now, and hopefully good for another 277,000 miles.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been gradually automating a number of things around the rig. The first one was our power converter, which needs to be power-cycled twice a day so it will keep the engine batteries charged. Others, like lights, the TV, etc., are just for convenience, or for fun.
I started out using these TP-Link Switches,
but they’re expensive, $22 each, and they’re big. Big enough that they cover up the other outlet on the wall plate. But they allow me to control them from anywhere using an Android app, and locally from our Alexa.
So next I tried out these PECHAM WiFi Switch units.
At $11 each they’re half the price and half the size. The only real downside is that it will only handle 10 Amps vs.15 Amps for the bigger ones. But nothing I’m controlling uses anywhere near that current, so cheaper is better.
Another nice thing about these is how quickly these can be set up. Once you’ve installed the app, just plug in the unit to an AC outlet, hit Search on the app, and in a few seconds you’re done. Then you can give it a name and it’s ready to go.
Our son-in-law Lowell recently alerted to the fact that one of our favorite diners has come to town. Black Bear Diner, a staple out west, has a new location out in the Katy area, with more to come around here.
We’ve also enjoyed the very first ‘Black Bear’ Diner located in Weed, CA., home of Mt. Shasta.
I put the name in quotes because it’s actually called the Hi-Lo Diner. Hi-Lo was the first, then there was a divorce. So one side went down the road a piece to the city of Mount Shasta, and utilizing the same newspaper-like menus and décor, they named it the Black Bear diner, and a chain was born.
We’re looking forward to checking it out soon.
Tomorrow I’ve got a 1:30 appointment with my GP again to rerun some tests. She’s unhappy about my calcium levels. And after I did a little research I think I know what the problem is. I’m not getting enough calcium.
Doh!, right?
I figured that I was getting enough calcium from my vitamins, but looking at the bottle it only gives me 20% of my daily needs. And since I don’t eat a lot of milk, dairy, cheese, etc., that wasn’t enough. So I’ve started taking Viactiv chews to make up the difference.
But we’ll see what the doc says, I guess.
March 28, 2019
Red Green . . .
No, not this guy, who can build pretty much anything with duct tape.
It’s more like Red v. Green. As in Antifreeze.
Jan had her very last doctor’s appointment today, a wrap-up with her oncologist. But since it was at 12:30 we decided to have lunch first, this time at East Star Chinese Buffet, where we haven’t been for a while.
We knew we were getting there early, about 10:45, and figured we’d just wait until they opened at 11. But we found they were already open, so we went in and got started. However they were still putting food out, but somehow we did find enough to eat. Really delicious, and of course, VERY fresh under the circumstances.
Afterwards, we had enough time for me to pick up a couple of things at WalMart before heading over to the doctor’s office.
Since Jan had already had gotten a good report from her mammogram so this was just a final checkup. One thing that Jan was hoping would happen, and did, was that since it’s been 5 years since her cancer, her doctor took her off her cancer preventative, Anastrozole, that she’s been taking.
She started out on Tamoxifen, but had a very bad reaction to it, saying it made her feel like she was crawling out of her skin. So after a few months, the doctor switched her over to Anastrozole. And she’s had no problems since. But she was glad to be off it anyway.
And after another stop we were on our way home for the day.
I talked to Cummins again yesterday, but not about my oil filter, or my Onan Genset. This time is was about antifreeze, and the whole Red v. Green thing.
Our RV has the Green diesel antifreeze in it, and though I don’t use a lot, the green version is getting harder and harder to find. In fact, truck stops like Flying J and Pilot no longer carry it, at leas the ones I’ve checked. And the last time I bought some I had to order a case of 4 from NAPA. And the price has doubled since then.
So I’m probably going to change over to the Red version sometime in the future. But I’ve heard a lot of stories about whether or not they can be mixed, with people who should know on both sides of the issue.
Plus now, there’s all the in-between colors, like pink, orange, and yellow. Mixtures that some say can be used to transition between the other colors.
But what I was really wanted to know was what I needed to do to change over from Green to Red, since I’ve heard various stories about that too. But what I got pretty much confirmed what I already thought. So according to the Cummins Tech –
Drain the Green antifreeze, fill the engine with distilled water, and then run the engine for about 15 minutes. Then ideally, drain the water and do t this again.
Finally change out the coolant filter and fill the engine with the Red stuff, and I should be good to go.
But first there’s my engine oil leak problem,and of course, my long-neglected Onan Genset problem.
It’s always something.
March 28, 2020
Fixing . . .
After a quiet, isolated morning, I spent the afternoon on the rig’s roof working on our Coleman Mach XV AC unit.
I mentioned the other day that our front AC wasn’t draining, but was leaking down into the rig. So grabbing my tools Jan steadied the ladder while I got up on the roof.
It takes a bit of time to get the unit apart, because of all the screws that seal up the evaporator side of the unit. You don’t want any outside air leaking in.
But I also had to take the sides off so I could get to the drain holes. I had brought an old coat hanger up with me just for that purpose, so I was able to poke it down in there to open up the hole.
I know they keep the hole small as part of keeping the unit sealed as much as possible, but next time I have to do this I’m bringing up a drill bit to ‘waller’ it out a little bit more.
After the built-up water had drained away, I dumped some water/bleach solution down in the drain pan to kill any more fungus/mold to help prevent the problem from reoccurring for a while.
I had originally planned to clean the ‘gunked-up’ evaporator coil, but when I looked at things, I decided to just do it while I was up there. I had Jan passed me up the can of coil cleaner I got the other day, and a towel to cover up the opening down into the coach.
After getting the coil nice and clean, I buttoned the AC back up and came down.
Jan doesn’t want me up on the roof until she’s sitting outside watching me. A while back I asked her if she was going to try and break my fall if I fell off the roof. She said, “No, but I will call 911.”
It’s the little things in a marriage that keep things interesting.
For dinner tonight I did another batch of Chicken Tenders in our Ninja Foodie Digital Air Fryer. As before I dipped the tenders in egg whites and then rolled them in crushed BBQ Pork Rinds.
Though you can buy Pork Rind Panko, I crush my own using a Ziploc bag and a heavy jar. This is because the pre-crushed Panko is about 6 times the cost per ounce as ones in the bag.
And 25 minutes later at 400°, this was the result.
The egg white batter gives them a crispy crust, and the pork rinds get them a delicious crunch.
Don’t know why, but the distinctive BBQ of the Pork Rinds seems to disappear with the taste of the chicken.
Tomorrow if the weather holds we’ll try and get started on assembling our storage shed.
March 28, 2021
Well, 90% Anyway . . .
Jan and I headed up to Webster about 12:30 to have lunch at Snooze once again, but first I went by the office to start up a cloning job to an SSD drive, so it would be finished, or almost finished, by the time we got done with lunch,
Even getting to Snooze a little before 2pm, we still had a 20 minute wait for a table. But as usual, it was worth the wait.
When we got back to the office the clone job was finished, so I shut down the computer, opened the case, and moved the SSD driver over in place of the regular HD. As I was doing this I did notice that there was two HD’s in the case, not jus the one I had expected. And this quickly turned out to be an unexpected problem.
So when I connect the SSD drive in place of the two HD’s and rebooted, I got a Boot Error saying it couldn’t find the Boot Block on the SSD. So I hooked the two HD’s back up and booted up into the BIOS area. And there I saw my problem.
The two HD’s weren’t configured as two separate drives, but a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) array. And I’m assuming it was a RAID 1 array, which means that the two drives are mirrors of each other, so that if one fails, the other one takes over.
Well, as it turns out you can’t clone a RAID correctly, so I’ll have to break the array and try again. But that’s for another day.
While I had the case open I installed the new TP-Link WiFi 6 high-speed network card, and then booted up and found it worked fine. Then I went in and reconfigured that network settings . . . again.
For some reason, often when we get a Win10 update from MS, it goes through and configures al the network settings back to the default, I.e. no network. So then I have to go in and set it all up again.
Have I mentioned I hate ‘updates’?
Close to finishing up, I installed the final WiFi card in the Point of Sale computer and got it working. So sometime this week I’ll get all 3 machines moved over to the new, much faster network. So I guess I got 90% done of what I wanted to, so not bad.
And; sometime in here I need to break the RAID array apart so I can re-clone that drive, and also clone the POS computer too.
Busy, busy, busy.
Coming coming back toward home, we made a quick HEB stop for a few HEB-specific things that Jan likes, finally getting back to the rig a little before 6pm, a long, but interesting day.
