Our RV Adventures

Work today was another of those times when I took care of a bunch of small things, but just didn’t seem to get a lot really done.

I’m making a list (or lists) of all the things I want to have done before we leave on our 3 week trip to Illinois and Alabama  in a little over a month. I’m still hoping to get the two websites moved from an in-house server up onto Godaddy’s servers. We’ll see.

I mentioned yesterday that Brandi and her friend Chantelle are spending the week down in the Dominican Republic’s Punta Cana resort area, staying at the Hard Rock Resort & Casino.

And for free due to the sales contests that Chantelle has won.

And for a going-away present, Landon built this Mother’s Day artwork for her.

I swear the kid can build pretty much anything from Lego’s.

Recently the AC blower in our truck became intermittent and then died. At first I thought it was the motor itself, which I had already replaced in 2015. But when I tried to pull apart the connector to check for 12vdc coming in, the motor roared to life . . . for a few seconds, anyway. And when I pulled the connector apart, I found that it looked like this inside.

So it was off to AutoZone to get one of these

to replace the burnt one.

I had planned to splice the new one in using crimp connectors, but didn’t have enough slack on one side so I had to solder those wires and cover them with heat-shrink tubing. Then I sprayed it with Strike-Hold and it was fixed.

This past Friday afternoon we had our RV Mobile Lube visit for our biennial (triennial?)RV servicing.

I asked for the:

Full Engine Service:
Change oil and filter, lube chassis and driveline, replace all fuel filters on diesel & correct tire pressure

Full Generator Service
Change oil and filter, change air filter, and change fuel filter

Coolant Test
Using Cummins Test Strips

And A Possible Air Filter Change
I was hoping I wouldn’t need a new filter due to the cost.

All of this took about 90 minutes. One thing new is that now I don’t have to run the RV and the Generator for a while to warm the oil up so it will drain properly. They use a vacuum pump that just sucks it all out. The tech appreciates it since he doesn’t have to work under a hot engine and  generator.

On two previous visits I had the transmission fluid changed out using Transynd synthetic fluid. This extended my next transmission service out to 185,000 miles. Since we’re presently at 147,000 miles, it’s very possible that we’ll never need it serviced again before we hang up the keys, or they drop from my cold, dead fingers, anyway.

Richard, the tech, said everything looked good, and the coolant tested good, too. He did replace both the engine and the generator oil drain plugs since they were getting a little chewed up.

When he pulled the air cleaner out to take a look at it, I was happy to see that the output side that goes into the engine was clean and white.

But then he turned it over and banged the input side on the ground, and it looked like two or three ‘bird’s nests’ fell out. A lot of grass, twigs, bits of paper, etc., and the inside was brownish-black. So it had to be replaced.

And here’s what it looks like installed.

So now it was time to crank the engine to be sure that the engine was primed and ready to go. So I turned the key …and nothing. Just silence.

Richard said he could hear the lift pump starting up, so it was getting power. After trying a couple of more times, even using the AUX Start switch, we still got nothing.

Talking it over, Richard asked about a disconnected plug he had seen while he was replacing the air filter.

Having nothing to lose, I had him plug it back together, and . . . rumble, rumble, vrooom!. He said that the lock on the plug is apparently broken so it won’t stay together. I’ll ty-wrap it in the next few days.

So the cost worked out to:

$400 –  Full Engine Service
$200 –  Full Generator Service
$  20 –  New Drain Plugs

and the one that hurt –

$250 –  New Air Filter

That totaled up to:

$870

But I’m good for at least another two years, maybe more, depending oh how much we travel. The last time I had it Full-Serviced was 2015 so that averages out to about $250 per year for routine maintenance. Not bad.

Thought for the Day: 

“No power gets exercised more vociferously than small power.†– Mark Twain

ghbdgh,

I’ve mentioned before that my mother was an Army Nurse during WWII. Her first command as a Captain in the Army Nurse Corp was at Fort Benning, GA, where she was Chief of Nursing while George Patton was there.

When Patton left for California to set the Desert Training Center for the Tank Corps, my mother, now Major White, was transferred to West Point where she spent the rest of the war, again as Chief of Nursing.

In August 1945, she and her nurses were on the train heading for New Orleans where they were to board a hospital ship heading for the coast of Japan to prepare for the coming invasion of the Japanese mainland. Then Hiroshima happened and they were turned back around

So it’s a good possibility that I’m only here because of the atomic bomb.

My father, on the other hand, a police detective in civilian life before he enlisted, spent the war in the Navy Shore Patrol, stationed in Chicago guarding the Navy Pier installation. He always said that he figured he did his part because “no Japs ever made it past Chicago.â€

And  then there’s a couple of the other mothers in my life, our daughter Brandi, and of course, my wife Jan.

Both here in one photo.

Jan and I headed out a little after 9am, on our way up to Katy,to meet up with our daughter Brandi, and her family. Then it was off to Anthonie’s Market Grill in nearby Simonton for a Mother’s Day get-together.

We’ve never eaten there before, but Brandi and Lowell had heard a lot of good things about it, and the reviews are great.

We were also meeting up with Brandi and Lowell’s friend’s Eric and Chantelle Nugent, and their son, Maddox.

Unfortunately Landon had wondered off.

And luckily for us, the reviews, if anything, were understated. The food was fantastic.

I started off with one of their House Specialty Bloody Mary’s.

Made with Spicy V-8, as well as some added heat, it was great. I’m not sure what they used to heat it up, but it wasn’t the Tabasco Sauce that many places use, because I can taste that. But it was much hotter than standard Spicy V-8 juice.

Jan had the 1/2 Flame-Kissed Rotisserie Chicken  with the Grilled Asparagus.

I really like Wedge Salads, and I’d heard Anthonie’s had a great one. So I got the Wedge Salad with Grilled Chicken.

Brandi and Lowell both got the Ribeye, Brandi’s with their Creamy Spinach Stuffed Grilled Tomato. Brandi gave me a couple of bites, and this was a really good piece of meat.

One of the things that make Anthonie’s so good is that, despite the high-quality of the food, the prices are on the level of a Longhorn or Saltgrass Steakhouse. Not bad at all.

Hopefully we’ll get to go back soon.

On a side note, Brandi and Chantelle are leaving tomorrow morning for the Dominican Republic and the Punta Cana resort area. Chantelle is a travel agent and is always winning sales contests for free trips, resort stays, etc.

So she and Brandi get to spend an all-expenses paid 5 day stay at an all-inclusive resort there. Nice!

After that great meal, Lowell, Landon, and I drove back to their house, while Jan and Brandi headed out to get Mother’s Day Mani-Pedi’s. So they came home with pretty toes, and Lowell and I got to nap.

So a good time was had by all.

We headed home about 3pm, with a detour by our new storage room. We had brought a loaded bin and some other things to drop off, and also finally install our combo lock on the door.

I was happy to see that no one stole our stuff before we got it locked up

Thought for the Day: 

Sometimes holding in all this sarcasm physically hurts. And you’re not helping.

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