Friday, August 31, 2012

Lake Tangipahoah, McComb, MS - hope the dam holds

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with ya'll.

I hope that the people of Hurricane Isaac aren't too terribly put out. Living in hurricane country does have it's issues, as is living anywhere where weather can come, destruct & destroy.

Today's post is about Lake Tangipahoah in McComb, MS.

This is a beautiful 700 acre lake with the Percy Quin State Park nestled around it.

A stunning lake! Which is currently in danger if the dam doesn't hold.

So, I'm holding my breath in hopes of the lake's dam holding.





I camped here in June of 2009. Such a beautiful place. A very relaxing place to stay as well.
We walked around, visiting the different campsites, taking note of this marvelous place. The Percy Quin park has bath houses, cabin rentals, bat houses in various locations & of course, the gorgeous Lake Tangipahoah! Check out the details on the map on this page to get a full view of what is offered at this great state park! And affordable as well!

I truly hope the dam holds, as Isaac's wrath of waters can possibly cause the dam to go at any minute now. The residents of this area of McComb have been forced to evacuate. I hope the best for them & that they can return to their homes, unscathed!
My prayers are with ya'll.

Here are a couple of videos I did while there. There are more videos on my youtube account of ReignBeauHounds. My youtube channel. Please enjoy the vids if you are able to. Otherwise, please enjoy the photos I've uploaded.



I hope my videography has improved since then ;-)  Some of the panning is too fast - sorry about that!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Ack, they're after me!!

Once again, I sign into blogger & get this:

Add blogs to follow in your Reading list
You are not currently following any blogs. Use the "Add" button to enter blogs you'd like to follow in your Reading List
 
I swear. I'll check in later to see if ya'll are still out & about because blogger says I have no friends again....my mother says the same thing! Humpf!
 
 
 
~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Weather related emergency links

In lieu of hurricane & fire season, I decided to share some links I have stored on my computer.

I used to have a great marine url for hurricanes, but lost it on a computer crash several years back.

And of course, please feel free to share any of your links as well in the comment section!

For fires:
http://tinyurl.com/3svfe4r

The above url will show up a map of the USA with current fires burning.

Also go to their main site,
http://www.wunderground.com/

for any weather related info.

Two hurricane sites:
http://www.weather.com/

To follow Tropical Storm, soon to be Hurricane Isaac:

http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker/2012/isaac

Or
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

And of course, Weather.com can link you to other weather related events as well.
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I'll add any further urls from the comment section in this space. Thank you for your participitation!

** This is from John from Shoeless Joe: 

http://inciweb.org/ This site will give you detailed information of every active fire in the US. Click on the individual fire to drill down to complete information, including pictures.

**This is from Winderly:

Have you tried Intellicast? http://www.intellicast.com/Local/WxMap.aspx?location=USTX8883

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Please stay safe out there everyone!!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

What I got for my birthday

My birthday was August 21st.

What did I get?

Well, Murphy is still lingering....

I got strep throat & a sinus infection!

YAY!

NOT!

Ah well, this shall pass....but I'd sure like to sleep at night.

Ugh.

Upside is, today's post is short!
Confused



~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Monday, August 20, 2012

Cleaning the Roof Air Conditioner

As promised, today's post is about cleaning the Roof Air Conditioner on the RV.

Whether you have a pop up, travel trailer, ClassB, C or A RV, if it has an air conditioner. It needs cleaned.

And keep those filters cleaned as well.

Mine is a mounted roof air unit. I don't have ducted air, so really don't have any experience in that venue.

Twice a year, I get up on my roof & take the shroud off of  my air conditioner. I also carry some cleaning cloths so I can really wipe down the unit under that shroud. And I take up a little whisk broom so I can also clean out the drain paths & such. And I clean the inside of the shroud.

A few months ago, I did this while on my trip. In May. I got to DeGray Lake in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. I was enjoying my stay there, then the next day, the power took a dive. Then my a/c acted up. It acted up bad. I heard this awful loud noise & thought someone was working on their boat there somewhere. Then I realized that the noise was coming from INSIDE of my rig! Yikes! Not good!
::sigh::

So, I shut it down, took some things up to the roof with me (cleaning rags, a few tools, cell phone -- might fall off the roof y'know. )  Once up there, I noticed that a lot of my fins were smashed down. We had a hail storm about a month before I left, so that was probably the culprit. Really, I should have done this maintenance BEFORE I left for my trip! And while it was still cool outside! But noooo, why do that when it's convienient. After all, I'm at a campground with nothing to do except get an order finished of custom beaded strands that were due in a few days!

Mind you, it's also 95 degrees outside as I'm up on that roof. No shade. I have fans going inside of the RV with windows open now for the poor dogs.

I kind of figured someone would see me up there & offer up some help. But nope.

So first thing I notice are the smashed fins. I sat up there & straightened up each & every single one. With my thumbnail. I probably could have counted the fins. I should have. Then I could have had a contest here. Oh well. Too late, so nobody wins anything. HA!

OK, got the fins seperated & they look pretty good. I go down, start the a/c back up. Screeeeeeeeeeetch!! Crap. No good. Not the problem, but that needed fixing anyhow.



Shut down a/c. Go back to roof. Take off shroud. Clean the unit up really well. Clean tracks. Inspect it to see if there is anything that looks awry. Nothing looks odd. Clean shroud & return it. Go back down. Turn on a/c. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch!! ARGH! So now what? It's memorial weekend. No one can help. A few RVer's help by taking a look & listen. (after I asked for help). They think it's my fan motor going out. Bummer & not good. So on Monday morning, I head out, looking for RV places to help me. No one can! Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhh! So I kept going, finally  stopping for the night somewhere. Then when I get to my destination the next day, I take the RV to a place. I beg them to take a look. We could die in the heat without a/c! So they reluctantly go in & listen. No more problems. Go figure. So at best guess, a mud dauber must have built a nest in there & the drive up there broke it up? Don't know. It still wants to squeal just a tad at times, then quits squealing. Anyone know what that's about?

Anyhow, this post is supposed to be about cleaning the A/C, not my problems with it. But sneaking it in if anyone can answer doesn't hurt, right?

I keep my filters clean all the time. When I went to the RV place, the guy sneers at me & spouts out that the filters MUST ALWAYS BE CLEAN! HA! He pulls them out & looks surprised. Yea, they are clean. Lets move on ok? HA! Back at ya!

Ok, back to cleaning.

So since I did the external cleaning in Arkansas at a campground, unscheduled cleaning at that. I decided to clean the rest today. Since I took the inside cover off yesterday to photograph the model numbers & all, I decided to clean it today. I thought logging a photographic file of the numbers would be a good idea so I'd not have to take the cover off if I needed them again any time soon.


What my a/c looks like on the inside of the RV without the cover on.

I got my shop vac, I love my little shop vac! I use it all the time for things. It stays stored in my van usually since I use it so much. I missed it on my trip!

Oh yea, I took my shop vac, put an attachment on the end & blew the heck out of the a/c! Then I made a mess all over the inside of the RV. So be prepared when you do this. Dust & stuff flies all over the place. So do this when you need to clean anyhow. Then I put it on the vacuum side & vacuumed what I could of the a/c as well. I have attachments that fit pretty well into crevices & such.

Someone should clean this thing...


Now I have the cover to clean. The filters are ok, but I wash them anyhow. Took the cover outside & washed it down as well. Then set it in the sun to dry all day since the a/c will remain off for awhile anyhow.


Yukky poos, we be dirties!

Now it's all nice, clean & ready to reassemble. Or rather ready to be screwed back onto the ceiling. But wait. I can't do that yet. Because I'm a pathetic perfectionist & now I must also wash the ceiling. Will do that tomorrow morning while it's a little cooler outside.

So I hope my little episode of cleaning the RV's air conditioner helps someone that wonders how to do this. They are pretty much sealed, but it doesn't hurt to get any extra dust & debris off of them. I don't know how mud daubers can get inside? But I'm not going to unassemble it to find out either. Mine also has a heater attached to it, so other's may look different if they don't have that. Mine is also a Carrier AirV. Carrier no longer makes a/c's for RV's. Oh well, it's really a great air conditioner when I can use it!

Oh and another thing. One day when I turned off my a/c & unplugged the shore power & left to drive, the a/c peed on my floor. Inside of my RV!!! So when I stopped for the day, I took off the cover & found one of the mounting bolts on the inside came loose. Those are an easy fix. Just screw them back down tightly. They come loose sometimes with all the road rattles. I wish they'd take those rattles out of the roads. They are annoying.


Also if any of these RV places or insurance companies tell me that I need to maintain my RV, my blog is proof that I do. So there :-p```
And I'm happy to share my experiences & maintenance with ya'll too. Even if you want to come help maintain.
I sometimes think it would be great if we had a central place to meet & help each other with our RV fixes & suches. Wouldn't that be great!?
Well I can dream....


~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

The powers to be...ok, power for air conditioning that is

Hi, hope all is well with everyone.


OK, so it's still August. It's still pretty hot in most of the country.

Those of us that are fulltiming in this heat, in RV's,  know that means using our a/c's.
And electricity.

How do we tell if our electrical needs are adequate?

One thing, a voltage meter can help.

I bought one last year, but I really didn't realize how very important it was. I bought it as it was on sale & I was ordering my new converter. It was on the same page.

Turns out, it's VERY valuable to have!

Get one & use it religiously!

It can't regulate your power of course, but it can tell you what your power is running at. That's why it's so important.


It should be running at around 120 volts.

The above photo is mine.

As you can see, it's running at 120 volts.

The place where I'm plugged into shore power now is where the reading is from.

It's at the proper level.

However, when I turn my a/c on, then it drops down to around 108! Or below...Not good.

From what I've googled, it can go either way plus or minus 10 digits, but any more or less than that, you may run into trouble.

And did I!

:-((




The above photo is my adapter. Melted. Waaaahhhh. It was such a pretty adapter. Now it's trash.

 Bummer. I must go buy another one, but won't be using it here at this residence anymore. Still need one onboard though. Well wait, I am using one. Duh. I still have the RV plugged in, just am not using anything that draws much power inside of the RV for now. But it's not pretty like the one above..well, that is, above before it melted! So I want to get another pretty one. Plus I like having an extra. It's a girly thing to want a pretty one ;-)

The low voltage caused my a/c to surge & drop drastacially while I was plugged in, using it. I feared that it damaged my compressor. And that CAN happen & WILL if one keeps pushing it! I got lucky. Extremely lucky!

I thought I did kill my compressor. I went somewhere where I could use my a/c because I still had the dogs with me. Actually, that place was the mechanic that worked on my generator. He had 30amp power, so let me plug in there. Although he charged me $10 a day, it was better than not being able to use my air conditioning.

However,

The a/c compressor would not kick on for the entire next day. That had me worried. I really thought I trashed it. I told the mechanic that evening & he said he'd take a look at it in the morning. The RV ran around 86 that day. Usually it runs around 69-72 & that's on the lowest setting. So yes, I had concerns. And never heard the compressor kick on.

Until,

That night when I went to bed! Yipeeeee! The compressor FINALLY kicked in & all was good with my little a/c world again!

I will never make this mistake again. I will never let my a/c run when the power goes so low as to damage it. Of course, one also has to keep an eye on that voltage meter to be sure that the power doesn't peak either. That can be just as damaging to your RV's electrical system.

Again, I got lucky.

So now we're trying to figure out our best options here at the house (my friends & I) as to adding a 30amp power point for me to use. They don't want me to leave. I'm too valuable as their cook & kennel help right now ;-)

Until then, my RV is sitting in the driveway, plugged in just to keep the battery charged & the fridge running. Plus a few fans. It's been cool enough, with a fan, to sleep in there at night.

I can't wait till August is over & it gets cooler again! But then, I might be waiting till October or later for that cooler weather. Then I'll be complaining about the cold! Because I can. :-p

There are many sources to google that you can read to learn about using your RV's source to a regular house current. My a/c is either a 13,500 or 15,000 BTU unit. I can't seem to find out which, but that's a pretty powerful unit when you factor all other things electrical inside of your RV. The compressor when it kicks on, generates a lot of power to use, then kicks back & relaxes a little on that power. But each time that compressor kicks on, it generates a power surge (so to speak), so if you are on inadequate power, you can kill your electrical system. Or your compressor. It's not worth the risk. Especially when you don't know what voltage you're using at that moment, so get a voltage meter & track it.

One more thing, always use a surge protector before plugging into shore power! That too can safeguard your RV's electrical system. Do you research on the type you need to use for your specific rig's needs.
It's very important to use a surge protector as well!

I'll go back to using the portable a/c once I get the correct set up for it as well. It uses less power. Doesn't freeze me out of the RV, but is necessary to help keep me cool out there as long as I'm staying here.

Today, I cleaned the a/c. I'll do a seperate post on that.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Friday, August 17, 2012

New Tab - Motorhome Upgrades & Repairs

Today's post is to let everyone know that I've added a new tab to my blog.
My Motorhome Upgrades & Repairs.

I thought perhaps this page could be useful to others. It's a page of what it suggests, upgrades & repairs. I've also added the urls to references I've put up there from my blog when I blogged about them so folks can find these items as well.

I've missed some things & as I think of them, I'll add them on.

The things I missed would be things like awning items, refinished items, stuff like that. I've not missed any of the mechanical issues.

I just want to be as honest as I possibly can so if others come across this page, it may be of some aid to them on their own issues.

Now for today. I got caught in my jammies!

Yikes!

Not that there's anything wrong with my jammies, but there's just something weird & vulnerable feeling about getting caught in them.

A male friend knocked at the door, I opened it, invited him in & rushed off to change my clothes!

We visited for awhile, then he left & I ran to the store to get some items.

I left my RV windows open to to try to keep it from getting over 100 in there since I have food items in there, fridge is still on, etc. I have it plugged in, but only to run the fridge, a couple of fans & keep the battery charged up. Once I empty the fridge, then I can shut down the battery.

So anyhow, at the store, I pay for my purchases & leave. As I'm walking through the parking lot, the skies break loose! I get my items into my van before it really pours.
The moment I get them in, put the cart where it belongs, I open my door to get inside & the skies break loose!

OK, so now I'm thinking, OH NO! RV windows are open!! At least I did close the vents & put the reflectix back up over them. But that was to help block the sun & heat. Whew!

It's absoutely pouring buckets. I'm rushing back to the RV hoping it's ok. I get halfway home & the black cloud that burst over the area I was in, hadn't burst in my area yet.

Whew.

I get my groceries in the RV, then the skies break loose!

How I got lucky twice is beyond me.

So I'm now inside of the RV, it's 96 in there, but the humidity is 55, so I was actually not too uncomfortable. BUT then I thought, hmmmmm....why not get more comfortable.

So I had a bowl of ice cream!

As you see, I am a clever survivor! :-)

Here is a photo of a Texas Lizard that I saw not too far from where I live.
What is a Texas Lizard? An alligator of course!
And look, it was a teen. How do I know that? Check out the beer it was trying to hide...
(that's how they cool off)


~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Thursday, August 16, 2012

RV cleaning

Welcome Marsha Nelson -- I don't have a blog for you, so if you have one, please share it. I'll post it here as well. Glad to have you along!

And welcome to Joe Baker too! Same goes to you. I don't see a blog listed by you either. Again, glad to have you along though!



Hope all is well with everyone.

So I've been busy, busy & busy. I got back Monday from the mechanics. I think I will take a break from mechanic camp! Geez. Enough already huh?

So when I got back, I got the dogs & kitties settled back into their proper places. Got out all the dog blankets, kitty blankets & such from the RV & washed them. Then did my clothes. They get priority y'know. Since I can't plug in to use the a/c right now, I didn't do much inside of the motor home. I left windows open  & such, hoping it would be cool enough the next morning to get some interior work done. And it was. So I set forth to really strip things out & do a deep cleaning. I pulled things out, pulled out all the carpeted runners I use, etc & washed everything. Including a tarp. Yep, a tarp. Hey, it's washable, although a plastic one, it's washable. So washed it too. The runners & tarp, I put out on the bushes to air dry.

I really thought that my carpeting would need a serious shampooing after this trip, but it looks great! The runners did their job of protecting the carpeting underneath them.

So it's been a busy day of cleaning when I could -- had to go in & out several times. The heat gets to be too much. Soon, we'll have to resolve this issue. I really wish it were later in the year & I'd not have to worry about this. But then, this is Texas, you can expect to use a/c on some winter days here! And sometimes Santa even wears shorts for Christmas!

But I really can't live in someone's house. I really love living in my own little RV. So we'll have to think of something.

If I had it my way, I'd be in Colorado or the PNW to keep us all cool. But one day, I'll get that dream..sometimes we just have to really work for it.

I'm trying to find time to just sit & catch up on blogs too. During all this time of my mechanic shop visits, I've fallen seriously behind.



Today's photos are views from where I was at the shop getting my generator fixed.


~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Generator - part two

OK, so I got pretty discouraged yesterday.
Generator still not totally fixed, thus not working yet.

I think I made a mistake. 
I should have not panicked.
I should have waited & taken the rig to a certified Onan technician.
But nope.
I panicked & took it to the first person that said they could fix it.

So he pulls out the generator.

Says it has a dead starter.

He goes to Houston & buys a new starter. And a new selenoid.

Installs them, reinstalls the generator.

Dead.

Nothing.

Dead.

Deader than before.

He puts a call into Onan.

I have to stay another night.

Onan calls him back the next morning & tells him how to test the generator to see if it's the switch or circuit board. He tests it & it suggested the switch, but could be the circuit board.

So I paid him for the services rendered & left.

Have to save money for the other items. I told him I'd buy them myself & take them to him. But now I'm having reservations about doing this. My instinct is to call Joy over at PPL & arrange for them to take a look at it instead. When I have the money saved up.

I guess I can say he did the toughest part since he had to actually take the generator off the motor home. If it's the switch or circuit board, the generator doesn't have to come off the rig. But I'm not sure what I should think of all this....I guess most technicians would go by process of elimation to some point.

Where Ellie & I spent the 2nd night. First night was beside the garage outside. We were hooked up to 30amp power, so that was good!

Ellie dropping her goods on the ground again. She has got to stop this!!

EEEks, generator guts!

Where we were.

One more thing. Don't remember if I mentioned this, but Ellie had a flat tire that I noticed on the way to the shop. I stopped by a store & noticed that my rear outside drivers side dually was looking a little pathetic. So I gave it compressor to stem resusitation. Filled that tire up. She held her air for a few days, then slowly leaked it all back out again. I looked at the inside of that tire. Yep, I was pretty LUCKY actually! In Arkansas at the COE park, Ellie got a rock stuck between her toes! She sure did limp! Then she kicked it out, but it damaged the inside wall of that tire. At least it was one of the two older tires I plan on changing out. Fortunately, the tire shop put both older tires on that side, so when the time comes, I'll have them both changed out. For now, Ellie is grounded!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Tour de Mechanic

Tour De Mechanic

Yes, it's an olympic event. Tour De Mechanic.

I'm SURE to win the GOLD!!

Or at least I'm pretty sure....

Yes, I seem to be living in the parking lot of yet, another gracious mechanic.

He has me hooked up to 30amp service – yipeee! For $10 a day. I won't complain.

Nope.

Otherwise, I'd be going down the highway heading for another state park to spend the night.

Soo, yes, you are asking, why in the heck are you at a mechanics?
Aren't you supposed to be grounded in your friends driveway now?
Didn't you say that you were staying put for awhile?

OK, it's like this. Power spiked way low yesterday. Yikes! A/C screamed, then acted like it was going to dump it's ownself onto the floor. I quickly turned it off, then shut the power down.
I came back to a useless portable a/c, so was using the roof air till I could get it checked.

It's really NOT a good idea to plug an RV into a regular 110 outlet. Not good at all. Well, if you are planning on using your a/c that is.
Ouch.
Plug melted.
Power dipped, dropped, said get lostola.

So then I cranked on the generator thinking I'd go get another portable a/c.
Then my friend wanted to check the power in various stages of my RV usage. TV, computer, a/c, etc.

So I shut down genny & adibed.

Then when I went to turn genny on again, it said, get lost! I'm not working for you anymore! Oh great. No a/c, can't plug into power. So my friends dug out their generator. But my a/c said, nope. Not strong enough. I love power. I'm NOT liking that generator & acts like it's gonna dump onto the floor again.
Wonderful.
Not.

So last night was spent pretty much sleepless, running the engine off & on to use the dash air for the dogsters.

This morning, I headed out to find power. And a mechanic. I found both!
Wish me luck...I sure could use it at this point.

Btw, it's August. I think I might have to grow to hate August. The hottest month of the year. Although we're not as hot as Arkansas was, it's still too hot not to use a/c. And humid.

My friend took her ac from the kennel in for repairs. Picked it up Friday. We installed it yesterday. It would not turn on! So my pupsters are still in the RV with me.

To be continued.....

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Friday, August 10, 2012

I want to be a Mocking Bird



Yes.

A Mocking Bird.

Yes.

Me.

A Mocking Bird wanna be...

Wait?

What?

Yeppers!

So what does that mean then?

I'm a Texan, I live in Texas.

So??

(Uh oh, looks like I'm talking to myself again -- and answering!!)

OK, so there are snow birds, right?

All of us in the RV world know what Snow birds are.

They are people from the north that seek warmer climates in the winter. To avoid those bone chillin' cold, cold winters. Brrrr, I don't blame them. Nope, not one bit.

However, in the south, some of us want to move onto cooler climates!

Thus, Mocking Birds.

Kinda.

In an opposite way.

I want to head north to escape the heat!

So, that's what I want to be...

A Mocking Bird...

Maybe one day when I grow up...

~~Oh great, that'll never happen!


Speaking of Mocking birds. They are the State Bird of Texas.
Our area is full of them, probably our most common bird here where I'm located.

Wednesday, when I got one of my dogs out to walk him, I heard a rustle from a bush. I saw something drop on the ground. Uh oh, a very young bird. A mocking bird. So after I put the dog back inside, I went to investigate the bird. It appeared to have a broken wing :-(   So I contemplated what to do next. Do I let nature take it's course or do I help it? Do I observe it for awhile to see how it fares? Do I try to catch it & take it to a rehab center? No rehab centers near me though...so what do I do? I decided to observe it. I'd go out to check on it periodically. Once I noticed flies starting to bother it, I decided to try to catch it. But it was very, VERY scared! So I was afraid I'd give it a birdie heart attack. Plus it was behind thick brush.
So I went back to observing instead.
I gave it some time. Then walked back to where it was. It saw me. It FLEW! Ahhh, so the wing is injured, but not broken. But it could not fly well & it's head was cocked off to it's right side. I can only assume that it was learning to fly & bounced into a window or something, thus the injury.

It flew into a low tree, hanging upside down on a branch. It was determined to survive. On it's own! So I left it alone, coming out every so often to watch it. Yesterday, it was in a different area of the yard. Still flying in low trees, but looks like it's doing pretty well. Although head is still cocked off to the side. Poor thing. Today, I saw it again. Flying better! Still a little cocky, but obviously doing better. So if the hawks & other birds leave it alone, I think it will heal & be ok in the long run. It was observed flying much higher today & landing in higher trees!

I hate these kind of ordeals. I am always unsure how to react. Once I saved a bird that lost a wing. It was a sparrow. Took it to a vet, he told me what to feed it, etc. It lived a few months, then died. The vet named it wingwong.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Eagles Rest RV Park

Eagles Rest RV Park

I promised the owners of this park, Ken & Donna Williams, that I would definitely put a blog up for them. A shout out so to speak!

I was tired.

Dead tired.

As ya'll that have read my blog of late, you know about the transmission problems I had.

Finally, I found the right shop & they ordered me a new heavy duty transmission cooler.

It got installed Thursday morning, Aug 02, 2012.

Finally, all is good again!

Yay & Yipee!!

So we thank everyone profusely.

17 days on the road, well, not exactly on the road.

17 days from leaving Pa to Arkadelphia, AR, to Marshall, TX was a bit much.

But again, I'm very grateful that all mechanics let me plug in so I could run the a/c for the dogs.

Whew!

So on Thursday, Aug 02-2012, I finally hit the road towards home!

I'm beat.

I'm exhausted.

I stopped by Walmart on the way out of Marshall to get some food & a few supplies so I'd not have to stop once home.

So that deed done, but I did keep the engine running with the a/c on. It had been running awhile, it was 107 outside. Another totally freaking hot day!

I go down 59, but the RV is soooo hot. Not overheating hot, but inside hot due to the outside heat beating upon us. So I pull over where I find a place. Crank on the generator & roof air & decided to just sit a spell. Carolyn of amigoingsomeplace texted me. She was trying to find me a COE park. I was done driving. I just wanted to find an RV park & pull over.

So I drive & drive & drive. But I'm tired. I'm near nodding off. Finally, I find a park! I passed quite a few before I wanted to stop. Go figure. I actually pulled into one park. It was rather large. With several buildings all over the place. I could not figure out which was the office. I had no clue on the cost of this park. I had just previously passed one that was $30 a night. No thanks. I just wanted a place to plug in, run the a/c & sleep.

Finally, I found this park!

Yay!




The owners live on the property in a brick & stick house. They used to be fulltime RVers, but gave it up once they got older & didn't enjoy the traveling anymore. He told me that he still wanted to travel some, so he'd go to cities around Texas & his wife would stay home. Then he quit traveling & they opened up their own RV park.
Very nice people. He even gave me a discount! Yipee!!! And a free appointment book.
So I promised that I'd put a shout out for their park.

The park is located a little north of Livingston, Texas.

Their rates as of the date of 8-02-12 are as stated:
Daily  $25.00
Weekly  $140.00
Monthly  $230.00

My site. Electric, water & sewer!

50amp, 30amp & regular 110 plugs.  

Although not really very functional, I liked the cute little picnic table.

The brick house is their house. The white building is the shower/bathroom building. But it's not in use at the moment, so be ready to use your own shower in your own rig.

Click on below photos for larger images. These are photos of sites in the park.




I took liberty of taking pics of the flowers. After all, there were some busy bees working. Look at the pollen all over the bee. ;-)


And a nice pond at the rear of the property. He told me I could walk my dogs back there & not have to pick up after them. But it's ingrained into me to pick up after my dogs. I still out of respect, did walk them back there though. Actually, it was so hot that I ended up walking back there where I could find shade in which to walk the dogs.  

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Blogger Question

I hope all is well with everyone. 

I'm recovering from my grueling trip back from my trip. 

Wow, what an ordeal! 

I have things to post, but am just too dang tired today.

I'm back to the old lifestyle of helping my friends & helping tending to the animals here while they are out of town. 

Actually, I'm quite glad to be alone today. Need the down time. 

So my question is, is there a setting  somewhere to open new tabs for each of the blogs I follow? Sometimes I keep open tabs while I read back on some blogs, yet, open another just to read. But now they all open in the same tab, so I lose the previous blogger I'm following. 

There's got to be a setting somewhere, right?

I plan on trying to catch up with everyone...but naps keep interrupting me! Such a crisis, I know...

Google Chrome did not work for me. IE still wants to crash. So yesterday, I downloaded Mozilla Firefox. So far, so good with that. If it can't open something, then I fall back on IE. That's been working out ok too. 
Chrome just didn't work for me...so it's gone. 

I WILL also download the antivirus that ya'll suggested too as soon as I'm clear minded again. The current one I use has suddenly become too invasive for me. In that it constantly wants to download Chrome back into my system with each update!

Thanks. Ya'll are GREAT on helping me out with these perplexing questions! 

:-) 

~As always be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~


Thursday, August 2, 2012

17 days & home!

Finally, I'm back.

 It only took me 17 days to get back! 

Geez. 

12 days of being stuck kind of sucks, but yes, I was VERY LUCKY that I had comfortable places that I could plug into so I could run the a/c! 

Whew, it's hot out there in that big old world.

Will write more later, thank you to everyone for your concerns. 

Oh & "she" drove beautifully on the way home this morning. She wants to go again. I sneered at her....


~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~