Our RV Adventures

Been wanting to open carry your foil or épée on the way home from fencing practice?

Or think you’d feel safer bar-hopping on Saturday night carrying your Texas Toothpick on your belt?

A Texas Toothpick. Also known as a Bowie Knife.

Well, as of today, September 1st, It’s now legal here in Texas to carry knives longer than 5.5 inches, the previously-legal length.

Don’t mess with Texas.

About 12:30 I drove out to the Ranger Station to re-up until next Wednesday, the 6th . . . when we’re supposed to be back here from Colorado River.

Yes, we’re actually supposed to be there, but they got flooded out and probably won’t be open until the middle of September. So we just stayed here, and since the park offices were all closed, there was no one to talk to. But we heard that corporate said it was OK, so we went with that.

So now we’re ‘legal’ here until the 6th, when we’ll check right back in here for another two weeks.

If we don’t go gate guarding.

With that straighten out I drove over into Willis to pick up a few things at Kroger’s. It was interesting to see that although their gas station was pretty busy, with two or three cars lined up at every pump, the price was still $1.99

The store was better stocked than our last  visit, but there were still some odd shortages. For instance, they were completely out of any type of Meow Mix cat foods (Karma’s favorite brand) both wet and dry. And they were fully stocked with Coffeemate Coffee Creamers, but were completely out of any International Delight flavors.

Leaving, I decided to take the back way out, which took me past the Whataburger . . . and found it now open. In fact they had just opened for the first time at 10:30 this morning, and were only serving a limited menu, drive through only  –

Burgers, Fries, and Drinks.

Well, what else do you need?

So I got a couple of #6’s to bring home for lunch. Nice!

Last June, our Sharp microwave malfunctioned and would not let the door open. So when I finally got it open I found that one of the interlocking door latches had broken, so I went online and ordered a new one. 

Here’s that blog.

So for $6.80 I was able to fix it. For a while at least.

A few months later it started acting up again, but with a different problem. When you started it up, the timer would count down, but sometimes the light would go off, and when that happened it would stop heating, but keep counting.

But if we pushed in on the control panel, the light would come back on and it would start heating again. It seemed to be heat-related somehow. It might work for the first 5 minutes cooking something. But if we then tried to cook something else, it would act up.

So yesterday I decided to take it all apart again and see what I could find. I used some silicone lube on the latch moving parts, and exercised the several microswitches.

And when I put it back together, it worked. But now the interior light, which should be on only when the door is open or you’re heating something, now stays on all the time. But it now cooks with no problem.

So I guess I could take it all apart again, but then something else might go wrong, so, since it’s only a light bulb staying on, I think I’ll leave well enough alone this time.

dghdgdh

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Although Fall doesn’t officially start until September 22, according to the forecasts for next week, it’s sneaking in a little early. And it’s going to help all the folks who still don’t electricity for AC’s, and probably won’t by next week either.

Although it hit 90° today, and we’re looking at 91° tomorrow and Saturday, Sunday the temps start dropping until were looking at the low 80’s/high 70’s by next weekend. But even better we’ve got nighttime temperatures in the low 60’s/high 50’s.

Very, very nice.

There’s been a lot of talk on Facebook about the new Trails Collection membership now being offered to Thousand Trails members. If you haven’t noticed the link on your TT members page, it’s at the bottom of your Account Information On the face it looks to be a good deal, but as seems to be usual with TT deals, there’s a few gotchas.

The Trails Collection is $199 per year and gives you access to 106 TT and Encore parks, with 13 on the list having an extra $20 per night.

As you can see, the new parks are mostly clustered in 8 areas around the country.

Now for some of the fine print gotchas.

1. Your Trails Collection membership runs concurrent with your TT membership. And if you buy it at another time, it’s not prorated. So if your TT membership renews April 1st,  and you buy your TC membership on February 1st for $199, then when your TT membership renews in two months later, you owe another $199.

2. You can stay for two weeks at an Affiliated Park but you can not then move to another Affiliated Park. So you can’t go from park to park under the TC plan.

If my current Thousand Trails membership agreement allows me to go park-to-park among the Thousand Trails preserves, will I be able to go park-to-park among the Affiliated Resorts in Program?

No, if you stay more than four nights at an Affiliated Resort in the Program, you will need to wait seven days before visiting another Affiliated Resort in the Program.

But then the question comes up, can you move directly to or from a TT park to an Affiliated Park. And that’s where it gets a little fuzzy. Based on this paragraph in the Frequently Asked Questions, you can’t.

Can I go directly from a Thousand Trails preserve to an Affiliated Resort in the Program? Likewise, can I go directly from an Affiliated Resort in the Program to a Thousand Trails preserve?

No, if you stay more than four nights at an Affiliated Resort in the Program or a Thousand Trails preserve, you will need to wait seven days before visiting another Affiliated Resort in the Program or a Thousand Trails preserve.

So this morning I put in a call to TT to ask about just this fact and here’s what Latoya said.

If your TT membership presently allows you go to got park to park, then you can go directly to/from an Affiliated Park to a TT park.

When I ask why the website doesn’t say that, she said she was told that it was because the majority of TT memberships are now Zone Passes, and they don’t allow park to park.

Big surprise.

Jus to double-check, I asked again, “So there are now more Zone Pass members than regular TT membersâ€, and she said yes.

When I asked her why they didn’t clarify this difference in the FAQ file, she said she didn’t know, but she wished they would, since it’s the most asked question by callers.

3. No matter how far ahead you can book a park under your TT membership (for us it’s 210 days), you can only book 60 days under your TC membership.

4. Finally, good luck actually booking a TC park, as there are only about 10 sites at each park reserved for TC members.

Our daughter Brandi called this afternoon to see if Nana could babysit Landon next week. The Houston Independent School District (HISD) announced today that school will not start back until Monday week, the 11th, so they need someone to watch Landon next Tuesday through Friday.

Talk about throwing Brer Rabbit in the Briar Patch.

So I will drop her off sometime Monday afternoon and pick her up probably Friday afternoon. And it looks like it will be just me and Karma next week.

gsfdg