Our RV Adventures

When I got up about 11 this morning, the park water was off. And of course since the AC leak and microwave problem had jumped to the head of the repair list line, I have not yet installed the new water pump that came in last week.

Luckily we had enough water in a jug to still make coffee this morning. Otherwise things could gone downhill very quickly. So, up next, the water pump install.

I know most RV’ers have a love-hate relationship with their water hose. I know I do. How can something labeled “Non-Kink”, or “No-Kink” find so many different ways kink, twist, or knot up while it’s just laying on the ground.

And I’m sure, like me, you’ve looked longingly at those expandable Pocket hoses that you can wad up in a ball, and thought, maybe it wouldn’t give me cancer if I drank from one all the time.

Well, someone has finally come with an RV version. Called the Zero G RV and Marine Hose, it’s available for about $32 for a 25ft length.

About 4pm Jan and I drove down to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Thursday being Turkey and Dressing Day, it’s Jan’s favorite day to eat there. But after looking over the menu, I was having trouble choosing between two items, both new on the menu – the Strawberry Chicken Spinach Salad and the Beef Campfire Grill. So I got both.

Or rather I got the Campfire Grill and Jan and I split the salad.

The salad was really great, with Strawberries, Blueberries, Spinach, Grilled Chicken, Bacon, Feta Cheese, Pecans, and Red Onions, with a Strawberry Vinaigrette. Probably the best salad of this type we’ve ever had.

With Jan going for her Turkey and Dressing, and us splitting the salad, I got to have the Beef Campfire Grill, with Beef Roast, Carrots, Red Potatoes, Onions, and Corn on the Cob. Kind of like a Louisiana or Low Country Boil, but with beef (or chicken) rather than shrimp or crawfish.

it comes like this,

and opens to this.

Everything was tender and delicious, especially the beef roast, very flavorful and perfectly spiced. Try it.

Landon’s out of school for the summer, all ready to be a 1st Grader this fall. So he gets to spend some time with his father, Lowell, hanging out at the new Starbuck’s near their house.

Looks like his recent treadmill faceplant has healed up.

Wrapping up,  be sure and get your copy of Nick Russell’s latest best seller, “Return To Dog’s Run”.

Picking up 15 years after the original “Dog’s Run”, it’s a fast-paced read that Jan says grabbed her before the end of the first chapter. Get your copy now before Amazon runs out.

Thought for the Day:

“Marriage lets you annoy that one special person for the rest of your life.”

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but it still doesn’t work . . . Yet.

When we got here Sunday afternoon I noticed that we didn’t have a picnic table for our site, and looking around, we were the only site that didn’t. And the guy directly behind us on the other side of the ‘E’ ring had two picnic tables.

I guess he saw me staring over at him later that afternoon because the next day it was suddenly back.

Kind of. He had just pulled it out in the open space about half way between our two rigs. You’d think he would have brought it all the way, but No. So I had to drag it the rest of the way myself.

Normally I wouldn’t care about a table, but I want to use it to assemble the new armrests that my son Chris made for me.

Later in the afternoon I took another look at my microwave problem, based on some more info I found by Googling. One guy said he removed what looked like a wooden trim strip and found  the two bolts that held his microwave in place.

And that was exactly what I found.

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And when I pulled it out, (it was held in place by Velcro) I found the two bolts.

At this point I could see that the unit was just hanging from the two bolts, and not mounted in any kind of cabinet. So, weighing 70#, it wouldn’t be easy to get in and out.

But looking around, I found another screw that had been revealed when I removed some of the trim strips.

And removing this screw and unplugging the power,  led me to this.

And sticking in a ball point pen in here and lifting a little opened the door.

And then I could see what the real problem was.

The left of the two hinge pins on the open lever had broken off. allowing the open lever to fall away.

Having already researched parts, I went online and ordered the open lever for $6.80, and matching door hook part, just in case. The total with shipping was about $25.00. And it shipped today. Nice.

But while we were waiting on parts, I wondered if we could still use the microwave by manually opening the door when we needed to. So I put cup of water in the oven and turned it on.

The first thing I noticed was that the turntable wasn’t rotating, and then I found that the water wasn’t getting hot either. But it did look like it was working, the light came on and fan started, but no heat. Just to be sure, I also tested it in Convection mode, with no better luck.

Looking inside the mechanism, it looks like there’s another microswitch that the open lever would be pressing on if it was in place. So I suspect that switch is what confirms the door is really locked and lets the microwave work.

Later this evening I received confirmation that the parts had shipped so I guess we’ll just have to wait . . . and eat out more.

I know Jan will just hate that.

I had noticed that over the last couple of days we were started to tilt a little, and checking things out I found that my right rear leveler was sinking about 4 inches in the ground. Since I was parking on what looked like hard packed gravel, I had decided to not worry with putting down my pads.

So I cranked up, raised the levelers, put down my pads and then releveled.

Hopefully I learned my lesson.

Thought for the Day:

If you’re wrong and you shut up, you’re wise.

If you’re right and you shut up, you’re married.

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