Summer coming to a close, projects and a new bike.

It's been a busy summer, between getting Amanda moved, maintaining Mom's house and yard and trying to get a few upgrades to the coach and the annual maintenance completed, the summer is almost over! We had our annual Labor Day Picnic so you know the summer is winding down.

We didn't do any major projects at Mom's, just the normal fix ups plus cleaning and sealing 3 decks, and putting in a couple of raised beds in her garden. She seems to be happy with the way her root crops came out when using the raised beds. She has pretty heavy clay soil so carrots and beets always came out short and deformed. The compost/soil mix I filled the raised beds with sure seemed to make them happy.

Coach upgrades: We use a RV Sani-con macerator pump that I purchased from RVUpgrades to empty the holding tanks since the drain I dump into is about 50 feet away and slightly up hill. It has been leaking from the seal between the pump and the motor since the middle of last summer. It wasn't a big deal but sure make a distasteful job all the more nasty.

Earlier this summer I was able to find and purchase a repair kit for the pump so I gloved up and tore into it for a rebuild. I was quite surprised when I opened the pump housing to find a piece of rag wrapped around the blade used to chop everything up small enough to pumped through the impeller. I think this probably was left over from the coach build, since the first dump of the tanks was with the macerator pump. The cleaned and rebuilt pump sure cut down on the time required to pump 45 gallons out of the black water tank!

I was in a rush when we first got the macerator so my installation consisted of using a couple of alligator clips to make the power and ground connections. Since I only looked at it when doing the dumping I never got around to actually doing a nice clean install. Well I finally took care of it this year (this is only the third summer for using the temporary setup). I had some heavy wire left over from the solar panel install and purchased a connector designed for connecting the battery to a electric boat winch. Now the connection is easy to make and disconnect and the pump is running faster and cooler.

As part of our efforts to conserve we only start the water heater up when we are ready to do dishes and take our showers. As the water goes from cold to hot it expands and so builds a fair amount of pressure in the water lines of the coach. If you can keep a good sized air bubble in the water heater it lessens the effect but since water has a tendency to absorb that air bubble it eliminates that cushion fairly quickly. My solution was to install an expansion tank. I picked up a tank at Lowes and installed in under the sink in the kitchen. I originally thought I would install it in the storage area next to the water heater but realized there was a lot of unused space under the kitchen sink. I also figured it would get knocked around a lot less there than where I try to store the ladder, chairs and grill. I have really been surprised at how much better the water flow seems to be with the two gallon reserve we now have.

While I was at Lowes picking up the tank I also picked up a whole house water pressure reducer. I have been using a small adjustable Watts water pressure regulator but flow was substantially restricted due to the small size of the inlet, outlet and internal passages. I decided it was time to upgrade to something that would really flow some water. The new one has 3/4 inch inlet and outlet and is designed to supply a whole house so should have more than enough flow for our needs. I am not currently using it since I know the pressure at the Mom's is less than 50 pounds, I will let you know how it works once we are on our way again.

I also reorganized my storage area getting rid of some the the stuff I hadn't used in the last couple of years and just trying group like items together so I could find them when needed. I decided to move my air hoses and a heavy duty extension cord up to the generator compartment.

There is a nice open area between the generator and the square tubing used to support the front fiberglass shell. I took a couple of straps from Lowes that are normally used to tie walls together in house construction and bent them up to use as hooks to hang the hoses and cables. I don't use the air hoses and extension cord often and they were a pain to get to since the box they were in ended up buried in the lower storage area. Now the air hose is right next to the air connector in the front of the coach and much easier to get to when needed.

I go each year for a physical and this year the Dr wants me to work on lowering my LDL and to loose some weight. The only way to lower the LDL and raise the HDL is to do exercise. I have been walking but when I try to do more my knees and hips suffer from the impact so I have been trying to ride a bike. I've been using my sister's old Schwinn mountain bike, but that's pretty tough on the pelvic bone and puts a lot of pressure on my wrists. The pressure causes my hand to go to sleep, so I tend not to ride it as far as I should. The solution was to plunk down the money I have been earning from fixing computers for a new comfort bike. I couldn't believe the difference in the way this new bike rides compared to the old one.

The new bike (a TREK Navigator 3) shifts great, peddles easier and stops a whole lot better. In addition it has some suspension to smooth out the bumps! I have been trading off the walking and bike riding on a daily basis and am still getting 40 plus miles in a week. I think it was a good investment.

World of Outlaws, Kings Royal and RAIN

For the last seven or so years my oldest daughter has given me tickets to World of Outlaws, Kings Royal sprint car races at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. What we do is take the motor home and then she and her husband meet us down there and spend the weekend in the coach with us.

This last weekend was race weekend, so we loaded up and headed out Friday morning about 11 AM. We normally stay at the Darke County Fairgrounds in Greenville, OH for the race weekend. The place is usually pretty deserted other than at fair time so we didn't bother to call and verify we would have a place to stay. Well, guess what! They were having an antique tractor show and the place was totally packed!

Thank God for mapping software and cell phones. We found another campground in the area, Wildcat Woods. It's a small campground with marginal 30 amp electrical service but has plenty of shade and friendly people.

Eldora puts on a race Friday night called the night before the King's Royal that gives the racers and chance to get somewhat dialed into the track. We ended up getting there just in time for the Dash and the feature races. It was a great night of racing with Joey Saldana winning the main event. There was a chance of rain so they made sure the delays were minimal so we were headed back to the coach by 10:30.

Saturday morning we got some rain so we ended up going into Greenville so the ladies could get a little shopping time in. The sun was back out by noon but the forecast was for more rain beginning about 5 PM. We stopped at CJ's for lunch before heading back for naps since we expected it to be a late night due to anticipated rain delays.

We ran into a little rain on the way to the track but they were out running hot laps when we got there. That was very short lived, by the time we got the coolers and seat cushion out of the car the rain had started, shutting everything down.

Once we got a break in the weather we grabbed our stuff and headed into the grand stands. Did I mention we have seats in the covered grand stand area? Well we do so we weren't worried about a little rain.

There was another break in the weather and the push trucks managed to get back out on the track to help dry and pack the dirt racing surface. By 8 PM the rain started again and a little after 9 they postponed the race until Sunday evening. Since 3 of us had to be back to work on Monday morning we ended up missing the race. We're disappointed we missed the race but had a really good time with the kids.

The really hard part of the whole trip was the stop at the gas station just before getting home. We had driven about 540 miles on that tank of fuel so I figured we would need about 60 gallons of diesel. We thought about just waiting to fill up when we pulled out in the fall, but figured it would have gone up a bunch more by then. We bit the bullet and pumped 62.5 gallons, at $4.79 a gallon, adding $300 to the credit card. We just keep telling ourselves if we didn't have the coach we would be spending all that money on heat. We would much rather send our winters where it's warm than watching the snow fall.

My Summer is Slipping Away!

I have been working hard to get Mom's list of things that need fixing around the house completed and at this point appear to be down to the last two items on her list and 1 item I added. So far I have fixed a number of small things around the house, cleaned and sealed/painted 3 wood decks, replaced the back garage entry door and revived her riding lawn mower that has not run in 3 years. I still need to finish up the mower, paint the replacement door and do some mortar repair on the fireplace chimney.

Along with these tasks I keep the lawn mowed and try to keep up with the outside maintenance. Then the neighbor across the road always seems to have projects that need additional hands or muscle for me to get involved with.

Today I am waiting for a call from my son-in-law so I can go and let the plumbers in so they can finish up the basement bathroom in their new house.

My summer seems to be flying by and I have yet to get started on any of my projects/maintenance for the motor home and Jeep.

Last night we were having dinner with Mom and our two nieces. I was drafted to grill the steaks. I had left Bud in the back yard so he would not have to be couped up in his cage and decided to bring him out front to be with me while I was grilling. He was laying in the shade holding his left front paw in the air as I arrived to get him. I had to pick the poor boy up as he could not walk on the injury. I looked him over and did not see any real injury, but did see one of his pads would quite red. I am guessing he got stung by a wasp.

The was a very traumatic experience for the boy and he just kept looking at me saying help me. We held him for 15 minutes or so and then I took him back to the coach, gave him a baby Benadryl along with dinner and slipped him into his cage. I then returned to the house to dig into a well prepared steak (if I do say so myself). By the time I returned to the couch later that evening all the pain and suffering from our foot was over and we were back to normal. I tell you dogs are as bad as kids!

Hello Portland

Yesterday we started the final leg of our depositing Manda in Portland. We were both awake so we got started at 5AM. We had about 160 miles to go so we arrived at the apartment about 8:30 in the morning, basically before Amanda and her friend got up! We unloaded the car, parked the tow dolly on the side of the street and backed the truck up the hill and into the parking lot of her apartment building. I am kind of a pain when it comes to getting all the junk moved in so everyone let me get things organized and we soon had the truck emptied. From there we headed for the Penske truck return which was across the Willamette river. As usual we managed to get turned around a couple of times before we actually made it, but it really wasn't that big a deal.

I really loved the scenery along the Columbia River Gorge, we had reasonably good weather and could see for a really long way. We manged to see a few water falls while traveling along I-84 and decided we needed to make a day trip back up the gorge once we traded the truck in for our rental car.

Next on the agenda was to pick up the rental car and get some lunch. Other than a few missed turns things went fairly well. Next Amanda needed to get the car's emissions checked prior to registering it in Oregon. From there we dropped the girls off and headed back to the east to check into our hotel. By this time Linda and I were ready for some dinner and since we were staying in an extended stay hotel we needed to stop at and pickup some groceries.

Today Linda and Amanda started the process of getting the car switched to Amanda's name and registered. Things went well until the DMV asked for proof of residency. Amanda was not quite prepared so they needed to return to the apartment and get proof of her address. The car now lives in Oregon and Amanda is studying for her written drivers test.

The girls and I took a took the Historic Columbia River Highway from Troutdale to Multnomah Falls and then crossed the Columbia River using the Bridge of the Gods into Washington. From there we headed back west on highway 14 to Vancouver, then took 205 back into Portland.

At this point the girls are cleaning up the apartment and I have been drafted to make Mexican Chicken for dinner. I am currently drinking beer to recover from the day and preparing to make tonight's dinner.

We are working on getting the hundreds of pictures Linda's has taken during our trip organized and will post a link as soon as we have them ready.

Day 3 of the move to Portland

Yesterday we made it to Cheyenne, WY and had dinner with Robin, a friend we originally met in Texas. Mileage was much better on Sunday due in part to a tail wind instead of a head wind and I tried to keep the speed at 60. We managed a respectable 12+ MPG for the day.

Tonight we are in Ogden, UT. Our original plan was to stop here for the night but, I had hoped to make another 120 or so miles today. When we stopped at around 5PM for gas the Flying J computers were acting up, so we could not fuel up, which kind of told me we should just call it a day. The Comfort Suites was at the same exit just on the other side of the road, so we decided to just get fueled up in the morning and hit the road early. The scenery was really great today, Linda managed to fill the memory card in the camera before lunch! We had to offload the card at the rest area so she could take a bunch more. There were lots of prong horn antelope next to the the highway and there was a fair amount of snow next to the road where the snow fences had piled it up pretty deep over the winter.

We saw several wind farms in Wyoming & Utah today and they were pretty impressive.

On our way to Oregon

We have begun Manda's migration to Oregon. Friday night we picked up a 16' cargo van and tow dolly from the Penske truck rental in Howell. From there we loaded Manda's stuff (mostly shoes and clothes) and loaded her 11 year old Grand Am up on the tow dolly.

Next it was Bud's turn to get farmed out for the almost two weeks we would be traveling. Since he does not get along with my mother's male Jack Russell we take him out to Linda's Mom and Dad's house. They have two female dogs so Bud just takes over the house and everyone gets along reasonably well. Linda and I both looked for him all evening and every time we have stopped today for gas or just a rest stop we kept thinking we needed to get him out so he could do his potty thing. Funny how we get so conditioned to things in our live and have trouble making the change.

We managed to make it to Des Moines, Iowa the first day, about 500 miles. The cargo van worked well although we were both hoping for a little better then the 10 miles per gallon we have been getting today. Of course since we are headed west we have had a pretty good head wind, hopefully the wind will let up from here on out and we can get a little better mileage, expecially since gas prices are running about $4 per gallon.

The only other complint I have with the van is it doesn't have cruise! I have been so dependent on cruise control I have been having a lot of trouble maintaining a steady speed. It's getting worse as we are driving through the rolling hills of Iowa.

One thing I have to tell you about is a little joke we played on Manda. You see when we got home from Texas I noticed that she was missing one of the mufflers on the car. When asked about it she said it fell off on the express way and she didn't notice because her music was too loud. So when we called tonight we told her that everything was going well but someplace along the way we lost her car off the tow dolly. We told her we were to busy talking and listening to the radio to notice it was gone until we stopped for the night. She is so gulible she actually believed us! What a goof!

A new Dell Laptop

Amanda has managed to get about 6 years life out of the laptop we bought her while she was still in high school. She ran out of hard drive space a long time ago, just after she got into music downloads, and of course memory requirements are much greater now then they were six years ago. So to get by we invested in an external hard drive. By moving all the music and pictures to the external drive the built in drive had enough breathing space to actually function as work space for the operating system. As far as memory goes, I installed the memory I took out of my laptop when I moved to Vista into hers. Between those two changes she managed to get this last years use out of the old machine.

Graduation brought some money into her life and we decided to use part of it to purchase a replacement machine. We did a similar thing for Jamie when she graduated from Western Michigan but she decided she could get by with a desktop machine. You sure can purchase a lot more machine in a desktop configuration then you can as a laptop for the same amount of money.
We have had good luck purchasing refurbished machines from Dell, as a matter of fact the last three laptops we purchased have all been refurbished. You don't get to customize it but there is usually a good inventory of machines, so you can pretty much get whatever you are looking for. I have been looking into Dell's new Vestro line. These are geared to the business user so they aren't bleeding edge but are put together with good components and don't have all the "crapware" loaded like the normal consumer machines. I call all the trial applications that get loaded to most new machines "crapware". They are either only good for a short "trial" period or are partially crippled so you will shell out the money for the real product.

Other great thing about refurbished is it's ready to ship as soon as you decided on which one to purchase. I found and ordered it on Sunday and we received it on Thursday. The bad thing about that was now I needed to get busy transferring all the songs and pictures and other stuff she had accumulated over the past few years to the new machine.

Here is the rundown on the machine we purchased at $1,097 including a 3 year extended warranty, sales tax and shipping.
Vestro 1700 laptop
17" display
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz)
3 GB memory
160 gig hard drive
8X DVD writer
Nvidia 256meg graphics card

It actually took me a couple of days to do the transfers using Vista's included ‘Windows Easy Transfer’ utility, which included a failed first attempt. I am not sure what happened because I didn't do anything different with the second try than I did in the original attempt. All I know is when I went back to check on the progress the old machine had stalled with a write error.

Additional applications I loaded for her were Office XP and Trend Micro Internet Security. I figure any security suite that survived through 4 years at MSU with no infections was something we needed to stick with!

Under the weather and Graduation

It's been a while since my last post, I have been a bit under the weather. I made it all winter without incident but then once we got back to Michigan and I was exposed to the Nieces and what ever I may have come in contact with when I went in for a physical was just more than my system could handle. It sort of knocked hell out of me for about 5 days but we are finally on our way to recovery.

Amanda our youngest graduated from Michigan State this last weekend with a Civil Engineering degree. The graduation ceremony went smoothly, then we met back at Mom's for a steak fry with some of the neighbors and a couple of Manda's long time school friends.

She has a job lined up with the Oregon Department of Transportation. Our next big project will be to get her focussed on finding a place a to live before we get her there, what she will be taking with her and the general logistics of getting her there and ready to go to work the beginning of June. Linda has pretty much everything lined up that she can but we still need to know how much we are taking and such so we can rent a truck for the move. She has a beater of a car (97 Pontiac Grand Am) that runs pretty good but sure looks like junk. It is hard to decide if we should just try to sell it here and get a new vehicle for her in Oregon or spend a little to fix this one up and transport it to Oregon. She has a lead on a room in a house that would be very close to work so maybe it would be better to let the raggedy car sit around rather than having a new vehicle getting the usual dings and dents with little usage.

The fish pond is up and running, clearing up nicely. Only have 1 fish left so we will need to pick up some replacements pretty soon. It was a really tough winter and our luck over-wintering fish didn't fair as well this year as it has in the past. I have had the usual repairs to the stream and bog areas to eliminate water leaks but nothing more than expected.

Vista SP1 Problems

OK so here is a little rant for y'all. See my Texas accent? I have been a supporter of Vista and an early adopter. When people were complaining I just said this really isn't any different then what we have gone through with every major release of Windows. The real issue this time is other manufacturers have dropped the ball as far as supporting their old applications and hardware. In the old days you could go to the manufacturer's web site (or bulletin board for those of us who knew about computers before the web) and download updated drivers for your current hardware and fixes for your software. This time around a lot of companies, HP in particular have decided that it is time for you to purchase new hardware and/or software for the new OS and are not supplying drivers/updates for anything that is not currently in production. So in my opinion the big stink about in-compatibilities really isn't anything new. And yes every time we get a new release you have to spend some time figuring out how to get to all your old tools/utilities under the new interface.

So now to the rant part of this article. I recently installed SP1 which the world has been waiting for to fix all the Vista problems! Well guess what? It broke two Microsoft applications we run regularly on my laptop. The real issue is Microsoft has no fix at this point for the broken apps. The one I can almost understand, it's an older version of Encarta so I can't squawk too much about that but the other is Microsoft Streets and Trips version 2008! When I contacted Microsoft support their reply was yes that application is not compatible with SP1 and we suggest you uninstall SP1. Un-freeking believable! This is a company that has been getting all kinds of bad press about Vista, and they knowingly break their own applications without having a fix available.

I did some research on the net and was able to find a work around for the problem, you set the properties for the executable to run as administrator and Streets will run under SP1 but I was not able to get Encarta to run no matter what I tried.

Back in Michigan, Cook Duty and Identifying Stroke Symptoms

We arrived back in Howell early Friday afternoon, April 18. We had good weather all the way home and it's hard to believe but we have even had good weather since we arrive. Word is it's not going to last but we have to be thankful for what we get.

It's been a busy week so far, the neighbors and family got together on Sunday for a steak fry. I got recruited to do the grilling. Then on Tuesdays the family gets together at Mom's for dinner. Jamie asked me to make her Mexican Chicken, so I have been pretty busy cooking!

Linda and I had dentist appointments on Tuesday and I had a Dr's appointment on Wednesday for my annual physical. Good news at the dentist both of us just had cleanings with no signs of problems. My physical went well until it was time to draw blood for cholesterol checks and such. At the end of the struggle I had three new holes in my arms and I still had all my blood. In the past, they have had trouble drawing blood but have always succeeded, but today I guess I just didn't co-operate! They decided to send me to the lab to have my blood drawn, and I decided to let my arms heal up a bit before I tried again.

We have added a new article to our web site outlining the STR hints for recognizing when someone's having a stroke. Please have a look, it could save a life.

Day 5, Sikeston, MO. Some flooding

We are at the Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO. It's a great overnight stop and is close to Lambert's Cafe "The only Home of the throwed rolls". A great restaurant that calls to us every time we are through the area. I had the rib dinner and brought half a slab home for tomorrow nights dinner. Linda had the roast beef sandwich and she brought half that home as well as one of their cinnamon rolls for us to share!

We managed to get the wind behind us today so mileage was a bunch better than we got the first two and a half days of driving. We stopped at the Flying J, exit 57 on highway 55. As we exited the highway I looked to the east and saw part of the Mississippi a lot closer to the highway then I expected. Check out the two photos Linda managed to get. Click the image to see a larger version.


We saw a fair amount of flooding in Arkansas but nothing compared to the Mississippi, we are told it is at 41feet which is about 7 feet over flood stage! Linda usually wants to go to the New Marid river overlook but that wasn't going to be an option this trip.

We plan to be to Mom's early afternoon on Friday if all goes well. We will try to keep you informed!

We are licensed and in Arkadelphia Arkansas

We checked out of the Escapees park when they opened this morning and headed for the Texas Department of Public Safety to finish up our drivers licenses. We got into the office about 9AM and had to wait in line a few minutes but things went smoothly. We had all the paper work done and since Linda was only getting a class C license she just had to sign her name, turn over her Michigan License and pay her money.

I had the opportunity to keep my motorcycle endorsement for a mere $15, no sense going through that process again if I ever win the lottery and can afford a Harley. From there I had to take a 20 question written test. As I was taking it I wondered why I needed to know the rules for a class A license when I was only trying to get a class B license (A is for someone driving a vehicle that weighs over 26,000 pounds and pulls a trailer that weighs more than 10,000 pounds).

I passed the written test than got scheduled for a driving test, another 30 minute wait. Things went well on the driving test and I was all done by 11AM. We headed to the WalMart again to hook the Jeep up (you have to park on the side of the highway at the DPS office). Since Taco Bell was right next door to the WalMart we had lunch before hitting the road.

We made pretty good time today and managed to get to the Arkadelphia Campground & RV Park in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. We had stopped here last year so were familiar with where it was and how to get there. There are new owners this year and they appear to be making a number of improvements. We are about half way to Michigan, so should be to Mom's on Friday without pushing it too hard.

No luck getting a license today!

We kept checking with the Department of Public Safety throughout the day, the system was still down. About 2 we decided to take a tour of the area and go see Lake Livingston. I won't go into the details but let just say that my navigator had a few problems reading a paper map..... We finally managed to get around most of the lake and got to see some pretty scenery!

Once we were in cell phone range again we checked back on the camera/computer issues and they finally had the system back up. It was about 4PM and too late to do anything today, so we will have to make another attempt in the morning. The plan is to break camp and check out first thing in the morning and then drive to the office trying to be there as early as possible. With any luck I can get through the written and driving tests and we can get some mileage under our belts tomorrow.

Inspections and Registrations are complete

Things went quite smoothly this morning. I was awake early so we got under way by 7:30. First stop was the RV Shack to get both vehicles inspected. We managed to be first in line, so they took the coach in first thing. As we were being inspected another guy came for an inspection but was turned away, seems we got the last two inspection stickers they had on hand. Everything went fine and we were on our way to the Polk County Tax Office by 9AM.

Since it is downtown and there is not a lot of parking we left the coach at the WalMart at the junction of 190 and 59. We thought we might have a problem at the tax office when we saw the sign that said no out of county checks. Apparently that is just an out if they have a suspicion about the customer. They were happy to take our out of state check.

From there it was back to WalMart to get the new plates on, then we headed for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Big snag here, seems the camera and computer were down and they were waiting for their tech support guy to show up and get things going again. So at lunch time we are waiting for the office to open back up from their lunch break so we can call to verify things are back up and running again. I am taking the time to study for the drivers test a bit more.

Livingston we have arrived!

We made it to Livingston Texas today with no problems what so ever. Since it was Sunday we decided to run straight through down town Huston. There was a fair amount of traffic and we went by an accident that had traffic in the other direction backed up a bit.

Once we hit Livingston and started the trek to the campgrounds we managed to pick one of the more scenic routes (read narrow winding road). We made it without incident. The check in lady was friendly and very helpful, especially when she found out this was our first visit to an Escapees park and we were here to become Texans. She handed us a cheat sheet outlining what we will need to have with us, what order to do things in and giving locations of the three stops we need to make.

After getting settled we decided to drive around the town and layout our route for Monday. First we need to get a vehicle inspection for each vehicle. At this point we are not sure what is involved, the only thing I have a doubt about is a stone chip we have in the jeeps windshield. It's been injected with a stone chip kit from Permatex but you can still see the little star in the windshield. Tomorrow will tell. Next stop is the Tax office for vehicle registration and to pay the difference in sales tax between what we originally paid in sales tax on the amount required by Texas. Final stop will be the Department of Public Safety. I believe Linda will only have to hand her Michigan drivers license over and get a new Texas class C License. I will need to have a class B non-CDL license to drive the coach and that requires a written and driving test.

We'll let you know how we make out.

Were on our way, headed back to Michigan

This is our first day of traveling after being holed up in south Texas since the last week in October. It takes a little getting used to herding this big box on wheels especially when heading into the wind for most of our travels today.

We got started right on time with only a small glitch with the lights on the Jeep. Seems ever since we had the safety recall done to correct a problem with the wiring for the exhaust brake and brake lights, we have been blowing the fuse for the trailer plug on the motor home. I thought I had it licked when I replaced the brake/turn signal bulbs with LED's on the Jeep. We made it all the way down here without an issue. This morning when checking to make sure the lights on the jeep were working I found the fuse was blown once again. I guess I will have to get in touch with Spartan to see if there is a fix for this issue.

We only put in about 250 miles today. We both figured that was enough for our first day. We want to be in Livingston, TX Sunday night which is only about 440 miles from Mission so we are better than half way there. Anyways it works well with my 230 plan, thats stop after 230 miles or 2:30 in the afternoon. Today we made our mileage by 1PM so I have some extra time for a nap.

We are staying at the Lazy Longhorn RV park in Victoria, Texas tonight. The have nice concrete roads and sites with a good cable lineup and free WiFi. Bud is enjoying having all the new smells to check out and Linda and I are looking forward to a nice nap this afternoon.

An empty park, cleaning and packing!

Things are really getting quiet here in the park. I've only parked 1 rig in the last 3 days and have been having 6 to 8 rigs heading home each of those days. I am still opening the front gate in the morning, cleaning the pool and closing the gates in late afternoon. Along with any other odd jobs they need done in the park.

We are scheduled to leave on Saturday the 12th and are keeping a close eye on the weather. We seem to be okay for the trip to Escapees Rainbows End in Livingston but who knows what the trip from there to Michigan will bring. The big storms seem to be coming one after the other and really pounding the middle of the nation.

I have started getting our rig cleaned up and repacked. It's surprising how much work it takes to get all the stuff re-packed. I know I have added a couple of things, like the stand for the grill, but everything that I know I brought with us got bigger while we were here!

Our friends from Quebec are still holed up in Arkansas waiting for the weather to clear and the snow to clear out in I'lle Bizard. At one point there was 16 feet of snow piled up around their house.

Looking for beach gold combined with a road trip

It's been a fairly cool weekend here in South Texas, at least for this area anyways. High in the 80s with cool nights that make for good sleeping weather.

Saturday we did another of our driving tours, my first intended stop was Boca Chica beach. There is usually a nice wide sandy beach but this weekend due to wind direction and tide levels there wasn't much beach to be driving on. In fact the usual hard pack just wasn't available for driving on. We probably would have turned around and headed for South Padre Island if it hadn't been for the fact I really wanted to collect some black sand to take home and run through my cleanup sluice. I know that south Texas is not known for gold but there have been some reports of gold on the beaches. We ended up using 4 wheel drive on the ole jeep to get down to where the black sand gets piled up. Once we get home and I have a chance to run the sand through the sluice I will let you know if we had any luck.

From there we headed over to South Padre Island. We visited the B & S Kite shop. I was proud of both of us because we didn't spend any money there even though we could easily have spent a lot. We then cruised along hotel row and managed to get on the beach for a bit. Linda tried to do a little shopping but didn't find what she was looking for (clothes for the little girls).

It seems one of Linda's favorite stops is Seven Seas in Los Fresnos, on Highway 100. She did manage to spend some money there but with what she has been saving most of the winter I guess I can't complain.

Bud and I figured this would be our last chance to hike in Bentsen RGV State Park so about 9AM we headed in to hike the Rio Grande Trail. It's a two mile trial but we had to hike into the trial head. So in total we must have hiked a bit over 4 miles round trip. Bud has not had the ambition to get off the couch since we got back. In previous years we have made this trip a number of times each season but due to my work camping job, this was the first time we have made the trip. Always an enjoyable hike!

Heat, Texas Drivers License and a few last jobs

Well it's 77 degrees at 7AM, I think it might be a warm one today. Being the first of April we will be having a mass exodus today. There has been a small trickle of people leaving daily and the park is almost to the point of having more open sites then full ones, but that will change today. The winter work campers are pretty much done as of today. Rich and I are still going to be helping out with the gates, pool and occasional odd jobs but I should be able to start getting our stuff cleaned up and repacked in preparation for our leaving on the 12th.

We plan to head for Livingston, Texas, home of the Escapees organization. I for one would like to see their mail operation and take a look around the area. We also plan to become Texans while there. I bought a cowboy hat in preparation for the move! I have begun studying for the drivers license test, I will need to get a class B non-commercial license to be able to drive the coach since it's GVWR is over 26,001 pounds (actually 34,000 #). I have downloaded the DL manual from the Texas Department of Public Safety which also contains a list of 120 study questions. I am not sure if Linda is going to attempt it or just go with the standard class C license.

There are a several advantages to becoming Texans. One of the biggest is no state income tax and the other biggie is the cost of vehicle registration is a lot less compared to Michigan. In Michigan vehicle registration costs are based on the value of the unit being registered. In the case of the coach plates will be about $300 compared to $1,500 in Michigan. We also figure the state income tax elimination will help pay for the cost of fuel.

I have a couple of utility pedestals that the mice/rats got into last fall and basically destroyed the wiring for the control module. I figure I will tackle them once my co-worker goes on duty so I won't get interrupted while working. The other issue is when they did the supply wiring to the pedestals they didn't bother to mark the breaker so I have to guest which breaker is supplying power to the pedestal I need to work on. I will make sure to mark them as I figure out what’s tied to what. I will let you know how it goes.

Day Night Shade Repair and Work Camper Appreciation Dinner

Linda was lucky enough to be messing with the day/night shade that sits behind my chair when one of the strings broke. I usually leave it closed because the sunlight shining on my laptop screen makes it impossible to read the screen. Consequently I am always giving her a hard time about messing with my window shade. So I had to give her a bad time about breaking my shade and now what was I going to do since I couldn't even read my laptop! The real issue here is now it's my responsibility to get the repair parts, take the blind down, restring it and get it re-installed. As you may be able to guess I have been teasing her about breaking it since it happened.

We found a fair about of information on the restringing process on the internet (what would we do without the internet!). I ordered a repair kit from the Dirty Blind Man, which arrived while I was working last go round. The kits are quite complete, including replacement string guides, tension springs, replacement string, string anchors for the bottom of the blind and a CD with pictures showing the restringing process. The only problem is our shades didn't exactly match up with the blinds shown on the CD.

I carefully disassembled the blind making a diagram of the string routing. I even took a couple of pictures of the end caps and how the tension springs connected to the end caps. The only place I had to work that was large enough to handle the 4 foot blind was on the floor. Bud was very curious as to what I was doing and how each and every part of the shade smelled. I guess everything was OK because he was finally able to get back up on the couch and watch my progress from there.

Reassembly went fairly smoothly, although it included putting the center rail on backwards. The other little problem I had was with the strings tangling when assembling the upper and lower shades to the center rail. By the time I was done I didn't feel like trying to get the shade re-hung with the valance and all so that waited until today. Re-hanging went smoother than anticipated and everything is back up and working. I left the extra string hanging below the anchors just in case I need to do some more adjustment. The excess string will be easy to trim off once we are confident things are working properly.

Last night we had a work camper appreciation dinner at the club house. The caterer brought in a rolling smoker/grill affair that turned out some really good beef, chicken and polish sausage. Along with the meat they served Spanish rice, beans and pico de gallo and of course tortillas. Excellent food and plenty of beer, wine and soft drinks to wash it all down. As usual when good food is involved I ate way too much!

An Evening with Friends and Morning Departures.

03/25/08 - Last night Linda, I and six friends went out to Red Lobster for dinner. It's not one of my favorite places to eat but sharing a meal with good friends made it even better than I had hoped. Dinner ended with a little story from Mary Ann about a dinner adventure they had when she, Don, Reynoud and Gratia went to San Antonio to see the sites and lights of the city during last years Christmas season. Before Mary Ann got started Don, her husband, noted that she had never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I have to admit after that story I have to agree with him.

It all started when they decided to go out to dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. Since it was close by where they were staying, they decided to walk. Reynoud had been there previously so he led the way. According to Mary Ann they walked at least 50 miles through the alleys and under the expressway all the while being followed by a bunch of menacing cats! Apparently when they had come to a Y in the road Reynoud chose the scenic route, when if he had taken the other route it would have been less than a mile to the restaurant. When she was done with the story my stomach muscle's hurt from laughing!

On a sad note Don, Mary Ann, Reynoud and Gratia pulled out this morning headed towards home. There were lots of hugs and well wishes. The really sad part is that of the four couples from last night's dinner Linda and I are the only ones that will be returning to Bentsen Palm Village next season. Two of the couples will be returning to the Valley but will be staying at a park in Alamo Texas. Lou and Sandy are not planning to return to the Valley next season. So the good-byes were especially emotional for all of us.

On a side note, the little gray cat has taken over Bud's water dish. This fact makes it extremely hard for the boy to pay attention to the job at hand when he is taken out to go potty. Bud has to be on alert to make sure that sinister cat doesn't sneak up and attack us.

Holding Tank Fun, Concrete Pads and Kitties.

03/24/08 - We have finally noticed a gray cat that appears to be living under the porch of the front office. I say we meaning Linda and I because I believe Bud noticed a couple of weeks ago. Every once in a while when I took him out for his last evening potty break he would show a lot of interest in something behind the coach or once in a while under the coach. When our next door neighbors pulled out the other day I noticed the cat sitting on their patio and have since seen it a number of times around the first 3 or 4 sites in our row. I figure it will move on once most of the people have left.

The last couple of nights there has been a small RoadTrek parked next to us, piloted by an older lady and her two dogs. She was heading out this morning and was trying to get close enough to the sewer connection so she would not have to get her hose extension out. Only problem is these sites have about a six inch drop off at the back of the pad. Well guess what? She backed up just a little too far and dropped off the pad. Linda happened to see it occur and told me about it, so being a good neighbor I am dug through my boxes of stuff to find a couple of wood blocks left over from our 5th wheel and headed over to help.

She ended up being close enough to the drain as long as someone held onto the drain hose. I volunteered and let her run the drain controls. Once we had the tanks empty we started trying to get her back up on the pad so she was in a position to leave. It took a couple of tries but we were able to get her back up on the pad using our wooden blocks as a ramp.

I had left the door to the lower storage open while helping the lady next door and when I went to put my blocks away guess who I found checking out our basement? Yep, it was the cat. As soon as I showed up she decided to make a leisurely getaway. I will have to be a bit more careful about keeping the storage doors closed or we have one very upset kitty.

By the way I uploaded recipes again today, just check the dates for the latest additions.

Wildfires, Friends heading home and New Internet Options

03/21/08 - We have added a number of new recipes to our site. Follow this link to the index page, I have tried to identify the latest additions with the date they were added. If you have a recipe you would like to see published here please send it to contact@westmorelandadventures.com and we will get it up with your name as contributor.

I was lucky enough to have high winds almost every day during my last shift. First they were out of the East South East shifting to the South East, then on the third day they stopped. That only lasted about an hour and they started back up only this time out of the North returning with a vengeance. I cleaned up a couple of branches that blew down and just pulled a few out of the way so the grounds people could take care of them the next morning. The winds were bad enough that a power line was blown down north of Edinburgh, which started a brush fire. The blaze managed to burn more than 50,000 acres and closed highway 281 which is one of the major north/south access roads for the Valley.

Our next door neighbors headed home to Illinois, on Wednesday. They consider all us young people their kids. Ernie is 86 and Lucile is 85 and both have a few health problems. They have been married 66 years! Most of the people around them try to help them out. We made sure we took their trash with us each day when we went and when I saw them trying to do maintenance around the trailer I would offer to help. They are very nice people and we hope to see them again next season.

We are hoping to make another one of our road trips this weekend, so should have something to write about in the next couple of days.

I am starting to look into using a Cellular Data Modem for our internet connection. We are hoping Linda can use this for work allowing us more freedom to travel. Currently she must use vacation time to travel between our summer and winter locations. What we would like to do is take our time going home so we can see more of this beautiful country of ours, which requires a reliable internet connection. We have not found reliable connections at most of the campgrounds we stop at so need to supply our own. We were looking at a tripod mounted satellite dish but have been holding off due to costs and the time and effort required to setup the equipment. The cellular modem would pretty much be just a plug and play solution after the initial setup process.

We are currently looking at a Verizon USB727 Modem tied to a CradlePoint MBR-1000 router, amplifier and external antenna. All available from the 3GStore.com. I know we wouldn't need the amp and external antenna all the time but it could make the difference in Linda being happy with her connection to work and all of us being unhappy. I will try to keep you informed of my progress.

Friday night was our last dinner & a movie night for the season with our friends from Quebec. A new Macaroni Grill opened up in McAllen so we tried it out. They just opened so were out of lasagna and Caesar salad. We had popcorn, Bud loved Gratia and we watched Employee of the Month. The movie is about employee competiveness at a warehouse super club. Now we need visit a Sam's Club or Costco to check things out.