Well, the bright, sunny day got away from me, so I never got outside to play with my cellphone camera’s Eclipse Filter. But Thursday still looks good. Other than that, it’s overcast and cloudy as far as the eye can see. Or at least until Saturday, which is as far out as the forecast runs.
Instead, I spent most of the morning fighting a problem configuring the company website for an upcoming national sale. I’m beginning to think that the problem is actually on GoDaddy’s end, with them changing something on their server. Probably an update of some sort.
And you all know how much I hate updates, right?
A number of Texas counties are declaring State of Emergencies for the Eclipse timeframe, and are warning off all the possible problems, including massive traffic jams, running out of food, etc. It’s like it’s Y2K all over again.
Travis, Kerr, Bell, and Burnet are just a few of them.
It would be kind of funny, if due to all the warnings of doom, nobody shows up, and it’s just me and Jan up in Killeen.
We’re heading into a busy few weeks, starting with our Alvin Opry Group at our local Saltgrass Steakhouse for the second month in a row, followed by the Easter Weekend
Then, of course, we’ve got our Total Eclipse outing over April 7-9 before the April Alvin Opry on Friday. Then the Grand 1894 Opera House on Saturday.
We have been going there for probably 20-30 years, seeing everything from all of the Tuna Texas shows to the Smothers Brothers, Bob Newhart, and many others, including most recently, Yakov Smirnoff.
This time it’s going to be Bernadette Peters.
We have seen her on TV and in movies, but this will be our first time to see her in person.
We’ll probably have dinner at Saltgrass beforehand as usual. Really looking forward to it.
Thought For The Day:
Looks like it’s been a lot hotter in the past.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
March 26, 2009
Rain, wind, and storms…
We’re in our 2nd day of rain, wind, and storms so there’s not much going on. There was a tornado about 10 miles up the road in Lillian, but we were OK here.
We had the breakfast buffet again at Hazel’s down the road. Always a good meal.
A little before 2pm, a park guy came by saying they thought we were leaving yesterday and we hadn’t paid for anymore.
After Jan woke me up from my nap (I’m retired, remember) I headed down to the campground office to figure out what happened. I had gone down on Monday (the day before we were supposed to leave) and extended for another week. So what happened?
Well, what happened was that I had extended and paid for a week, but on the computer they only had me down for extending a DAY. Oh, well.
I did find some more info on the surf flags.
Right now, we have a red flag and a purple flag. The purple flag normally means jellyfish or Portuguese man-of-war.
Gulf Shores shuts down swimming on their public beach at one red flag, but the state beaches do it at two red flags.
Although the surf was rougher than the other day, we would have still been swimming/surfing in it.
Surf’s Up!
Hopefully better weather tomorrow, but not likely.
We’ll see.
March 26, 2010
My Vegas Gun Moll…
Today Jan got to check off another item on her Bucket List.
About 10:30am we headed over to The Gun Store so Jan could try her hand at firing a fully automatic weapon. In this case, a Thompson Submachine Gun.
They had pretty much everything available, from Uzi’s to AK47’s to MAC 10’s. But I thought she might appreciate firing a good ole Prohibition Era “Tommy Gun”
Although used by the US military until the early 70’s, it gained its fame as the weapon of choice of people like Bonnie and Clyde, and Machine Gun Kelly during the 1930’s.
Here she is getting instructions on how the gun works.
Then it’s “rock and roll” time.
She had her choice of targets, so she picked Osama bin Laden.
And here she is posing with her ‘Kill”. Although it’s hard to see here, after she got used to the way the Thompson climbs as it’s fired, she put a lot of rounds dead center.
This is going to be a short post tonight.
We’ve got to get up early tomorrow. We’re driving about 50 miles south of here to Searchlight, NV to attend a Tea Party Rally.
Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Victoria Jackson, Joe the Plumber, and many others are supposed to be there.
Searchlight only has about 700 residents, but they’re expecting between 5000-10000 people, so it may be a real mess.
We’ll see.
March 26, 2012
Stuck in Las Cruces – Still
To recap: Yesterday as we turned off on Exit 135 into Las Cruces, NM, my engine sputtered a few times and then quit. We were just cresting the top of a hill that precedes a long sweeping curve down into Las Cruces. Although it was fun steering the coach without power steering, we were able to coast a little over 3 miles before being stopped by a red light. At that point, I was able to pull off onto a side street that had a wide shoulder that kept us out of traffic.
Thinking that I might be out of diesel, I unhooked the toad, grabbed my 5 gallon can from the bay, and drove right down the road to a Fina station, and by making two trips, got 10 gallons of diesel into the tank.
I then spent the next 30 minutes running through the re-prime procedure, but with no luck. So it was on the phone to CoachNet. They made some calls, and then told me they’d have a wrecker out in about 45 minutes who would tow us to the repair lot. Though being Sunday, no one would be there until Monday morning. And after telling me it would be 45 minutes, the wrecker showed up in only 30 minutes. Great service from CoachNet.
Well, after a somewhat fitful night sleeping in the lot outside Rush Truck Center here in Las Cruces, I checked in with the shop when they opened at 8am. I was still under the assumption that I might be out of diesel, despite the fact that my Silverleaf computer dashboard said I still had 35 gallons in my tank, plus the 10 gallons I had added.
After getting my data, a tech showed up about an hour later and tried to get the engine started. By pre-filling the Lift Pump Filter, and using a small amount of ether, the engine started up after about 10 seconds of cranking.
YEAH!
The engine ran about 3 minutes and then quit.
BOO!
Rinse, Lather, Repeat.
A second attempt did exactly the same thing.
BOO! HISS!
The tech then started checking some things, and pulling the engine oil dipstick, discovered coolant in the oil.
RUH-ROH!
Not Good.
The next step was for them to tow the rig into their shop lot using a forklift. The facility manager Clayton said it could be something as simple as a water pump or cooler gasket, (BUCKS) but it could also be a blown head gasket or a warped head. (BIG BUCKS).
But it could also be a cracked block. (REALLY, REALLY BIG BUCKS)
OUCH!
Clayton said he wanted to let the Cummins rep look at it first, hopefully later in the afternoon. Since we couldn’t stay in the rig, Jan and I packed us and our two cats off to a nearby La Quinta (They take pets).
After lunch and a nice nap in the room, we drove over to the shop about 4:30 to check in. Unfortunately, the Cummins guy still hadn’t shown up, so we’ll have to wait ‘til tomorrow to find out what’s what.
Stay tuned.
March 26, 2013
Old Friends and Goodbyes . . .
A little after 10am, Chris and Charles Yust headed out this morning, on their way to Waco, TX for another rally. Through their C & C Marketing and Insurance, they sell GMAC Insurance for RV’s and autos, as well as Good Sam products, such as Extended Service Plans, Roadside Assistance, and their new product TravelAssist.
We buy our insurance from them. You should too. (How’s that, Chris?)
About 10:30 Jan and I drove over to Poco & Mom’s to meet our friends Al & Adrienne for brunch.
A small family restaurant, it only has 12 tables and if you don’t get there early, you will have a wait. But it’s worth it because they can perform culinary magic with Hatch Green Chilies.
After a delicious meal and a lot of conversation, Jan and I drove over to a nearby Bookman’s used bookstore. If you’re familiar with Half-Price Books in Texas, this is the Arizona clone. Then it was on down the road to a Chase Bank to get a replacement checkbook cover, and since we didn’t have coffee this morning, we stopped off at Starbuck’s for our Cinnamon Dolce Latte fix. Then home for the day.
Several blog readers have asked about the Taillight Test Box that I’ve mentioned lately.
It looks like this.
It’s built in a 98 cent Wal-Mart 3×5 file box, and that box, and one of the 3 switches are all I had to buy. That was because I wanted a center-off SPDT switch so I could switch the turn signals off.
The black and red cables are connected to the vehicle battery. The other cable connects to the vehicle lights.
The left switch turns the unit on and off. The center switch turns the taillights on and off, and the right switch turns the left or right turn signals on and off.
Besides the interconnecting wiring, the only parts inside the box are a 5amp inline fuse and a 2 prong turn signal flasher.
And because I never throw anything away, I think my total cost was about $4. If you have any questions, leave me a comment.
March 26, 2014
An Asian Two’fer, for real this time . . .
Jan and I left the rig this morning about 9:45, heading down south to the Clear Lake area. Jan had one last doctor’s appointment to take care of, and I had some shopping to do.
But first, it was lunch at King Food. We had intended to eat there last week, but at the last minute, Jan changed her mind and we ended up at Twin Peaks. But today there was no last-minute change. And it was as delicious as usual. We’re really going to miss this place when we leave the area.
I dropped Jan off at the doctor’s and then headed down the road to spend some time perusing the aisles of the newly-opened Harbor Freight Tools, one of the places, that along with Fry’s Electronics, I can spend a lot of time just wandering up and down the rows.
And of course, I found a few things I just had to have.
Next up, I stopped off to get the truck washed. And of course, within 15 minutes of that, it started to rain.
Then I drove over to Wal-Mart for a few things, then I stopped by an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts for a couple of light bulbs.
By now it was time to pick up Jan and head back up to the Katy area. We were hoping to have dinner with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, but Brandi was still under the weather coming off her flu, so we just got together with Lowell and Landon. We all met right down the road from their house at our new favorite Vietnamese place, Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro. And as usual, it was really, really good.
Little V’s is a family-owned place that really goes all out. Everything’s just a little different, and much better. They even make all their own sauces from scratch. And even their Spring Rolls are different. Rather than using the thicker, sticky, translucent wrapper, they use one that’s thinner and not as chewy. And they’re made fresh to order.
Even more, they’re so dedicated to their food, that a different family member sleeps in the restaurant every night so that at 2am they can start making the stock used in their Pho dishes.
After getting our Landon and Lowell hugs, and after a quick stop for a going-home cappuccino, we got back to the rig a little after 7pm.
We’ve got more bad weather on the way so we’ll see how things go tomorrow.
March 26, 2015
First Coat . . .
I did get the first coat on the rig done early this afternoon, and it looks really good. In fact Chris did such a good that so far I haven’t found any places that really need to be sanded or smoothed.
Since this is enamel I can only do about 1 coat a day, but in a good light it’s already pretty glossy.
Tomorrow I’ll take off the license plate and do the center section. It wasn’t damaged or repaired, but it should match.
I was a little disappointed in the resulting color, which is called Smoke Gray, and looks a lot lighter on the can. Of course, it may get lighter as it dries, but right now it looks more like Battleship Gray. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do another coat tomorrow.
About 4pm we headed out for dinner and some shopping. Our dinner destination was a place we discovered yesterday on our way to Wal-Mart / Sam’s Club near SanTan Village.
We passed a place called Joe’s Farm Grill that looked interesting, and was very busy to boot. Then this morning, I checked them out online. Turns out that Joe’s Farm Grill is a Triple-D winner, I.e. a Diner’s, Drive-ins, and Dives place, and their menu looked delicious.
From things like Grill Salmon, Ahi Tuna, and Fresh Beet Salad, to pizza, hot dogs, and burgers, Joe’s pretty much has it all. Their logo is “Common Food Done Uncommonly Well”, and that certainly describes their food.
Jan and I have both been jonsin’ for hot dogs recently and Joe’s seemed like the place to fill that void.
Jan had the regular hot dog basket, with an all-beef dog, onions, and farm-made relish, along with Garlic Fries.
I had Mix-n-Match, with a Carolina Dog, with Pulled Pork BBQ, coleslaw, and BBQ sauce, and a Sonoran Dog, wrapped in bacon and topped with farm beans, two cheeses, sour cream, and jalapenos, as well as an order of their Triple-D rated Onion Rings.
We also got an order of their Fried Green Beans for both of us to share.
It was easy to tell we loved this place, Jan and I got really quiet, with a lot of lip-smacking, but very little talking going on.
Joe’s is part of a real family farm that provides much of the stuff they serve, with the rest locally sourced as much as possible. The restaurant, built around the old family home, looks like an indoor fast-food place,
but the food certainly doesn’t taste that way. This is a great place to eat, so check it out. You can see their menu here. Joe’s Menu
Our next stop was the nearby Sam’s Club. We were there to pick up a prescription that wasn’t ready yesterday because they were out.
Then it was on to Fry’s Electronics. I wanted a new HD for a computer I’m building up. I got a 3TB HD on sale for cheaper than what the 2TB from the same company costs. Nice.
March 26, 2016
OPA !
We didn’t walk today, our last day here at Lake Conroe for the next two weeks, since we’ll be doing another Wal-Mart walkabout this afternoon, and that’s always good for at least a mile, or even more.
So after coffee and breakfast, I went outside to do my normal Saturday prep to travel tomorrow morning. Normally I would have closed our gray valve a couple of days ago, but with all our recent coming and going, I forgot.
So today I just closed the valves and put away the water and sewer hoses without dumping the tanks. Back inside I squirted a large dose of Dawn into the toilet, along with a cup of Calgon Water Softener and a cup of powdered laundry detergent. The black tank is about 90% full, so all this will get to slosh around in the tank until we get to Colorado River, for just a general cleaning.
This is not really to clean the tank level sensors since we don’t use them. We can go 14 days on our black tank with no problem, so I normally just dump it right before we move. And we can go longer – our record is actually 19 days, but the tank was filled to the tippy-top by then. Not a good thing.
Tomorrow morning I’ll be up about 6:30, and then finish up everything else outside, except for power, I.e., satellite, awnings, folding step, etc. Then around 8 Jan and I will head down to the Cracker Barrel for our traditional Sunday Travel Day Breakfast.
Back at the rig, I’ll crank up the diesel, raise the levelers and stow the pads, bring in the slide, and disconnect shore power. By this time the coach will be up on the airbags, and we’ll be ready to roll. And it looks to be cool enough so we can be comfortable with just the fans.
This afternoon, about 3pm, we drove into Conroe to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. We saw the first one years ago, and really liked it, and this one was just as good or better. All of the original cast are back, including some you probably thought were dead since the original film in 2002.
Both this movie and the original one were produced by Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and Rita and John Stamos have cameo roles in this one.
And a couple of things I was surprised to learn, is that the original movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is listed as the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time. And based on a percentage of return – it cost $6 million and made $369 million, it is the second most profitable movie of all time, bettered only by Paranormal Activity.
Who Knew?
March 26, 2017
Shrimp Boats A Coming . . .
Today was a stay-at-home, catch-up-on-some-repairs kind of day. And part of it was just goofing off. Very nice.
One thing I did was to replace the wire on the back of a picture that a friend painted of one of my family’s shrimp boats, one of seven we had at one time back in the early 60’s.
Then I replaced the rig door’s gas spring and mounting bracket.
A while back the bracket broke off and took the gas spring mounting end with it. I was able to quickly get at new spring, but it took a while to track down a new bracket. American Coach couldn’t help because in their parts list, the bracket was part of the door and they didn’t stock parts for it.
But while I was looking for something else on Amazon, I stumbled across a replacement bracket. And of course, as usual, I ordered two.
Again on the Amazon front, I had an order that was supposed to be delivered by the Post Office today, but a little after noon I received a text message saying that the package could not be delivered due to a faulty address.
Now I had had two packages delivered here on Friday and Saturday so I knew Amazon had the correct address. So I assumed the PO had screwed up somehow. But this time it turned out to be Amazon’s fault.
After talking to both Amazon and the PO, I found out that the address on the package was incomplete. Instead of
Greg White
c/o Santa Fe RV Park
1800 N. Ironwood Dr.
Apache Junction, AZ 85120-1912
All it had was
c/o Santa Fe RV Park
1800 N. Ironwood Dr.
Apache Junction, AZ 85120-1912
Apparently, the PO couldn’t just go ahead and just deliver it to the RV park and let us sort it out. So I’ve got to call tomorrow and see if I can pick it up at the PO.
David, a blog reader, had this question about our use of Passport America as we travel around the country. Here’s what he said.
You seem to use PA frequently when you guys are moving around.
I have found that many parks place “harsh” limits on the usage of PA. along with some pretty run-down parks. What’s your take on this?
Here was my reply.
David,
We use PA all the time, and have since we started RV’ing in 2007.
If we’re going to an area/park that we haven’t used before, I first check the park out on RVParkReviews.com. This lets me weed out any questionable parks.
It’s worked well so far.
All the parks have different PA rules. Some parks only let you stay a day or two, or three. Some a week, or some will let you stay an unlimited time.
This park, Santa Fe RV Park, a very nice park, lets you stay 14 days, saving us $280 for the two weeks.
PA is $45/year.
So three nights at $15 instead of $30 a night pays for a year’s membership in PA.
Normally this only takes us a couple of weeks each year.
Hope this helps.
We consider PA one of our best values, and it saves us hundreds of dollars or more every year.
March 26, 2018
A Big Step Closer . . .
My day started with an early call from Brock’s Car Care, telling me that as soon as they started up my truck, the oil pressure came right up normally.
BUT . . . they said they could hear a little rod knock and lifter noise for a few seconds before it smoothed right out, indicating that the engine had run for a short while without oil pressure. So they were able to see the problem. and they’re sure that no lasting damage was done to the engine during this episode.
Because it’s seemingly intermittent, they first suspected that with the high mileage on the truck (277,000+), some carbon/crud buildup in the oil pan had broken loose (maybe when the driveshaft broke off) and is occasionally clogging the oil pickup tube in the pan. Which explains why it didn’t show up during the previous repair, then did for me, and then didn’t this morning.
So they’re first going to drop the oil pan and see what’s going on. Hopefully cleaning all the gunk out will correct the problem. If not, the only thing really left is to go in and replace the oil pump.
More $$$$
But still cheaper than a new truck.
One last thing to note is that this looks to have nothing to do with my ‘oil pressure’ problem a couple of months ago. Then the engine never actually lost oil pressure, since I could drive for an hour or more with no problems. And replacing the oil filter fixed the sensor problem.
Hopefully, I’ll have the truck back tomorrow or Wednesday.
On the upside, I did make a big jump forward at work today. I finally found where the previous IT guy hid the SQL databases used by the websites, and now have control of them. I can now copy them/back them up . . . and when I’m ready, move them online to Godaddy.
And going through a desk drawer, I also found where the previous IT guy hid his marijuana bong and Zig Zag rolling papers. Which probably explains why the webserver he set up is so squirrely.
Getting home about 4:15, we headed back out to have dinner at the nearby Pho 20. As on previous visits, we went to our favorites. Jan got her House Crunch Salad with their delicious Miso Dressing, as well as an order of Shrimp Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce.
I got the big bowl of the While Meat Chicken Pho with Mixed Veggies. And the Mixed Veggies pretty much covered the gambit, with Cauliflower, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Mushrooms, Spinach, Snow Peas, Onions, and Cucumbers.
This, along with the usual Pho garnish plate with Bean Spouts, Thai Basil, Cilantro, and Jalapeno’s, makes for a full bowl of Pho.
One thing that Sherry, the Pho 20 owner, is known for is giving us samples of new dishes and other gifts. And tonight’s was a bowl of her new Hot & Sour Soup that’s going on the menu.
Just as delicious as everything else.
March 26, 2019
It’s Weird . . .
Today was originally going to be our visit to the Van Gogh exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, along with lunch at Katz’s Deli and a stop-off at the iBurn store for the latest in HOT stuff. But, like this past Sunday’s rig test drive, it all got pushed back a week, to next Tuesday.
We spent the morning going over things we want to get for the trip. One thing especially I’m looking at are SIM cards for our phones while we’re over there, for voice, text, and data.
There are a lot of choices, but one common theme is that all the ones I’ve found so far require the phone to be unlocked. And apparently, some Verizon phones and plans are unlocked, or can be unlocked, and some can’t. So I’ll have to check with the Verizon store and see.
We also checked out the websites for the hotels we’ll be staying at in Paris and London. Both seem to be pretty central to the city centers.
Here’s our room at the Hotel Eden Opera in Paris.
And here’s our room at the Lancaster Gate Hotel in London.
Both seem really nice.
Of course, our real rooms could be in the back of the building, down a long, dark hallway, overlooking the stinky dumpster in the alley below. You never can tell.
Jan and I headed out about 1pm, first for lunch/breakfast at Snooze AM, and then some WalMart/Sam’s Club shopping. Jan did get her pneumonia shot while we were at WM, which means that now I don’t have to worry about catching it from her.
As I’ve said before, except for my recent Shingrix Shingles shot, I don’t get vaccinations. The last time I got one, a flu shot in 1966, it put me in a coma for 4 days, and in the hospital for 2 weeks. And the doctor said I might not survive another one.
The one the year before just made me sick as a dog for 4 or 5 days
Now, yeah, I know vaccines have changed since then, and that was the flu one, and this is for pneumonia, but why take the chance?
So I just depend on the kindness of strangers. If everyone else gets all their shots like they’re supposed to, then there will be no one for me to catch anything from.
At least that’s my theory, and I’m sticking with it.
Several readers have asked about my diet plan that I’ve used to lose 70 pounds in the last year or so, so I’m putting together a blog post about it. However I’m not sure it will be much help to anyone, since according to Jan, it’s “weird”.
Hey, it may be weird, but it works. For me.
March 26, 2020
A Good Report!
and We Scored!
Jan had her yearly mammogram this morning and everything came back fine. So of course we’re really happy about that. Jan really likes this place because she always knows the result before she leaves.
Then while Jan was getting that done, I headed over the WalMart, getting there about 7:30. I was surprised to find them handing out toilet paper, with your choice of two brands, and of course, one to a customer. In addition, they also had plenty of fresh eggs.
I was also looking for Paper Towels, but no luck on those, but they did have the Kleenex Jan wanted. So all in all, a successful trip.
Picking up Jan, and getting her great news, we decided to make a stop at the nearby Costco for a couple of other things Jan was looking for. Driving in, I noticed that their gas had dropped to $1.49/gal.
Good for us, bad for the oil ‘bidness’
We got there about 9am, and seeing people wheeling out carts with toilet paper and paper towels, we figured we were on the right path. So we were able to score a package of Paper Towels. Even better, we got a 6 tube pack of Lysol wipes. So our stop here was successful, too.
And as we were checking out, they announced that they were now out of TP and PT, so we really lucked out, I guess.
However, the problem was that when you buy Paper Towels from Costco, you get a 12 pack that takes up the entire backseat of the truck.
Somebody at Costco has a real sense of humor, as seen in this photo I found online.
And it looks like those of you who have squirreled away years of toilet paper, sanitizer, etc. (none of our readers, I’m sure) might be getting their comeuppance, since I saw this sign at Costco today.
Since we left the rig about 6:45 this morning, it was too early for coffee, but I set it up before we left, and then used my Switchbot phone app to start it brewing as we headed home.
Jan had one last doctor’s appointment this afternoon, with her oncologist pretty much to just go over her mammogram results, really just a formality since the news was so good this morning.
And in fact, it was apparently so much a ‘formality’ for the office, that they called and wanted to do the appointment online, using a phone app called VSee Clinic. And the call consisted pretty much of the doctor saying the mammogram showed no problems, which of course Jan already knew. And it did save us a trip back up to Webster this afternoon.
But we did head back out anyway a little after 4pm, first for a stop at our storage room to drop off our 2-year supply of Paper Towels and Lysol Wipes. Then we phoned in a food order to Los Ramirez Mexican to pick up on our way home. I also had them add 4 $25 gift cards to our order, to help them out as much as possible. We want them to stay around.
Day 4 in Homeschooling at the Morrison household seems to be a bit rocky.
First thing this morning:
If quarantine doesn’t end soon he’s getting shipped off to boarding school.
Then later.
Lowell bought some mini Twix bars yesterday and Landon kept sneaking them, so today I hid them and Lowell ratted me out and Landon says to me “bruh…just keep the food where it is”.
He’s now contemplating his sarcasm in time out.
Then our son Chris suggested.
Military School!
March 26, 2021
A Non-Stop Friday . . .
At least at work.
Today was one of those days at work when I walked in the door at 10:30 and I was already way behind. But I actually like it like that.
It seems like you just sit down, and then you look up and it’s time to go home.
I was able to get our new CubiCubi Dresser Storage Tower put together pretty quickly last night. The instructions were pretty decent for a change, but they really weren’t needed anyway.
And even though we had measured where it would fit, it somehow seemed smaller than in the online photos. Of course, doesn’t everything. LOL
Now to decide what to stow away in it.
March 26, 2022
We Have A Date . . .
First up, I want to thank everyone for their concern about my BPPV attack. It faded as the day went on, and was gone by this morning, just as it the past.
I went out early this morning to try and remove my shore water inlet check valve. It turned out to be both harder and easier than I had expected, mainly because my fingers don’t quite have the strength that they did back in 2013 when I last replaced this.
I got the old one out and the new one in, but I couldn’t get it tightened down without a Crescent wrench. However, it was about time for us to head out for lunch/errands so I’ll finish it up this afternoon.
Lunch today was the Pho Barr up in Webster once again. And now we have a date.
The new Pho Barr down in our area is supposed to open next Saturday, April 2nd. So I guess we’ll see next weekend.
After finishing up our shopping errands and we were back home I used a Crescent wrench to tighten down the fittings on the new inlet/check valve. And now it looks like that problem is fixed. There are no leaks, shore water now goes in, and no water comes out when there’s nothing hooked up to it. So the check valve part is working. I’ll finish mounting it tomorrow.
I said ‘that problem’ was fixed because I have another one that I found when I was working on this one.
This is the ball valve that diverts shore water into our 100-gallon fresh water tank to fill it up. When the handle is straight up, like in the photo, shore water works as usual. But when the valve is turned down to the left, water is sent to the tank. However now when the valve is in the tank fill position, a stream of water, kind of like what comes out of a squirt gun, comes out the back of the valve.
The exact replacement, is now only sold in Europe, but I found one on Amazon (of course) that should work, and will be here on Monday.
It’s always something.
March 26, 2023
My Blue (Bonnet) Heaven . . .
After a great breakfast with everyone at the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, we all got our hugs, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways. Brandi, Lowell, and Landon back to Katy, Piper and Derek back to Taylor, Chris and Linda back home, and Jan and I headed back to Santa Fe. Texas, that is.
We had a great time, great food, great fun, and we’re already talking about when to do it again. I’ll spend the next couple of days catching back up with all the good times.
On our way, we did make a quick stop at Jan’s favorite Pottery Ranch in Marble Falls. And the first thing she saw as we got parked was this guy.
I told her that if it would fit in the Corolla, she could have it. Well, at least until I saw this.
Yikes!
Well, maybe not.
But she did find some other (smaller, cheaper) things she wanted.
Back on the road home, we came across this field of Bluebonnets and an old, abandoned stone house.
Really neat.
As is this Bluebonnet close-up.
