Our RV Adventures

Normally on a travel day I’m up at around 6:30, but since we have only have a 70 mile, two hour drive over to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, and we didn’t need to leave until the 11am checkout time here at the park, I slept in . . . all the way until 8:30.

About 10:30 I pulled the rig forward enough to allow us to hitch up, and we pulled out of the Timber Ridge RV Park a little before 11, and headed southish on Hwy 6, down to Navasota, where we turned east on SR 105. 105 would have taken us right into Conroe, but we turned north on FM149 to cross over the top of Lake Conroe and then down around to the RV Park.

We got checked in and drove over to the ‘G’ section to find a spot. As we turned down a row we’ve stayed on before and a took a small curve, Jan said, “There’s one, and, OH, there’s Janice and Dave Evans right next door.†And it was.

While I was getting us unhitched, parked and set up, Jan and Janice were planning our evening dining pleasure, which turned out to be El Bosque, our favorite local Mexican place, one that we’ve eaten at for years, even following them when they moved to a new location a couple of years ago.

But that wasn’t until 4:30 or so, so by 2pm it was time for a nice nap, so I headed back to the bedroom for my nap, while Jan stayed out on the sofa for hers. A bout 4:30 Jan and I walked next door to meet up with Janice and Dave and headed out for El Bosque for dinner.

Jan got the Pollo ala Parrilla,

while Janice and I both got the Beef Fajitas Poblanas.

I don’t remember what Dave got, but it sure looked good, with Beef, Chicken, Shrimp,and a lot of other stuff.

And as usual with RV’ers, we spent a lot of time catching on everyone’s travels, talking long after we were finished eating.

Coming home we made a Dollar Tree stop. It’s amazing how you can go in there and buy a big bag of stuff, and it comes to only $7.32.

Wrapping up, we once again have washer problems. Jan did a wash load yesterday morning with no problems, but when she did a second load in the afternoon, it started washing and then stopped, with the timer not advancing. And even when you manually advanced the knob, it just washed. The only position that did anything else was the OFF position.

The first thing I thought of was of course the timer itself. And although like the water pump I replaced earlier this year, the timers are no longer available, I stripped a spare out of Nick’s old Splendide when he bought Miss Terry a new one.

So this afternoon, pre-nap, I put a call into Westland Sales out in Washington state. They’re the go-to people for all things Splendide, and have been a big help to me in the past. And so it was this time.

When I described the problem, the tech guy immediately said “you’ve got a pump problem, and they’re not available any more.†I told him I knew that because I had replace my old one with a new one from a different make of washer back in February.

He said, “Well you’ve got the same problem again.:†Well THAT wasn’t very helpful.

He said that at the end of the wash cycle, the pump is supposed to start up and drain the water out. This is the signal to the washer to start letting water back in for the rinse cycle.

But if the pump doesn’t pump, then the washer stays in the wash cycle waiting for the water to empty out.

So once again, I’ve got a pump problem. And since it’s not leaking, that means it hasn’t come loose, and I don’t hear the pump running, which means it’s probably not clogged with a lost sock or something. But, just in case I did ask Jan if she was missing a sock or anything, and she said No, that they all matched up.

So I’m left with either the new pump has gone bad, or it’s not getting power for some reason, like a loose wire or a bad relay.

This is how I kludged a new pump into the washer. This is the new pump after I had it plumbed in.

Then I mounted it on the crossbrace running diagonally across the bottom of the washer.

And this is what it looked like after was tied down and hooked up.

So yeah, it looks a little kludgey (well, a lot kludgey), but it’s worked great for over 6 months and saved me over $1000 dollars from buying a new one.]

BTW here is a graphic of the online prices for a new Splendide.

Let’s see. Should I buy a new one from PPL, or should I buy it from Camping World for only $172 more. Decisions, decisions.

So even though the problem could be something as simple as a loose wire. I’ve still got to drain the washer, pull it out of its cabinet, and then turn it upside down in the middle of the kitchen to take a look at the problem.

And then hope we don’t get another gate in the middle of all this.

Thought for the Day:

“Cats are definitely smarter than dogs. You won’t see eight cats pulling a sled through foot deep snow.

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First off, Happy 49th Anniversary to my Sweetie. It’s hard to believe that 49 years ago I got you to say “I doâ€. And even then it seems like only yesterday when I first met you.

And it’s been a wild ride every since. And I love you more every day.

Jan and I really appreciate all the comments, both here on the blog and on Facebook also, about her kidney stone problem and our gate loss. We’re going to get back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails tomorrow and rest up a few days before we seriously start looking for another gate.

In our first morning of freedom off the gate, I slept in until about 11:30, and I did need it. I was completely wiped after we got to Bryan around 7pm, too tired to even think about going out for dinner, or even eating anything at all. All I did was get a hot shower and went to bed and immediately fell asleep.

I did wait up at about 11pm which would have been the normal time I would have relieved Jan on the gate, but what I did was write and post the blog. Back to bed, I now had trouble sleeping, since this would have now been my awake time on the gate. Hopefully I’ll get back on a fairly standard sleep schedule soon. At least until we get another gate.

About 2pm I walked across the road to the park office to settle up for our 2nd day at Timber Ridge RV Park. This is a very nice park, and at $50 a night it should be. But it was the 4th park I called, and the only one that had a vacancy.

The first thing I noticed after we got parked and I hooked up electric and water. Here’s a photo of what I saw.

See what’s wrong. There are only two vehicles in sight in the entire park. Since Texas A&M is just up the road, Jan figured they might be rental units for people in town for the games. When I asked the guy in the office about it, it turns out that Jan was almost right.

They’re not rental units, but they are here for the A & M games. People bring their RV here and park them for the duration of the football season, so they have a place to stay and party. We drove around and saw everything from a small camper to an Airstream to a vintage American Tradition.

One thing nice about this part is the really large spaces, large enough to actually park two RV’s side by side, but the space is only for one RV

Really nice.

In addition they have an excellent free Wi-Fi system that covers the entire 90 space park. Speedtest.net shows a 26ms ping with 12Mbps down and 3 up. Not too shabby. And they also have a free DirecTV Cable TV hookup right at your pedestal with 32 channels. Also neat.

Tomorrow we’ll make the 70 mile trip over to Lake Conroe for a couple of weeks, or until we get another gate, whichever comes first.

Jan and I headed out about 2:30 with our first stop at Great Clips to get a haircut, my first in about 6 weeks, so well needed. I had called ahead to try and get an appointment for 3pm so we wouldn’t have to wait all afternoon to get taken care of.

But as it turns, they do not take appointments. You download their app and then you use it to ‘Check In’ at the location of your choice. Kind of like doing the Call Ahead Seating at many restaurants, you don’t have a specific time, but as soon as you get there, you’re the next in line.

And it worked just that way. In just a couple of minutes I was in the chair and the clippers were buzzing. Neat!

Next up was a quick stop at Sam’s Club for Joint Juice for Jan and Lipton’s Diet Green Tea for me. Then it was on down Hwy 6 to have our Anniversary Dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, the same place we ate at when we first got here back in August. And it was just as good this time.

We started out with an Anniversary Amaretto Splash Sangria, which we shared. Needless to say, Jan and I aren’t big drinkers, maybe only once or twice a year.

We started out with salads, and I went for my usual Wedge Salad.

With a wedge of lettuce topped with homemade ranch & balsamic dressings with bacon, tomato & crumbled bleu cheese, it’s really good. And after Jan had a taste she said she’s getting one next time.

Jan got her usual 12oz Top Sirloin.

She likes it between Medium and Medium-Well, and always cuts it open to see if it’s right when they bring it to the table. Else she sends it back.

I repeated our previous visit with a Medium-Rare 16 oz Pat’s Ribeye along with really good Sweet Potato Fries.

They really know how I like my steak here. It’s Medium-Rare on the inside, with crispy charred edges on the outside. Just perfect.

And of course the big pat of garlic butter makes it even better.

And with these big steaks we had plenty to take home for tomorrow.

Our next, and last stop before heading home, was at the Kroger’s, for our favorite coffees, and also for Jan’s Anniversary Gift.

Now most people know that the 1st anniversary gift is Paper, and the 25th is Sliver. And while the 50th Anniversary is Gold, most people don’t know that the 49th Anniversary is Small Appliances, especially Electric Can Openers.

Hey, it’s what she really wanted, and I aim to please.

Coming home, she said she was giddy and couldn’t wait to try it out.

Personally I blame the morphine.

“The lion shall lie down with the calf, but the calf won’t get much sleep.†—Woody Allen

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