Ellie went on an RV trip!

It's true  -- IT'S TRUE!!

We went on a trip today!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

We went a whole 28 miles!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Where did we go?

Um....

To the dump station.

Fortunately, this is a free dump station, but they don't provide water to clean up. The water on the ground is a little bit of gray water that escaped. At least it was gray water & not the other stuff! 

Ellie & I need a life. So do the dogs, they went with us.

I probably should have picked up that shredded plastic bag there. It didn't even register in my pee...oops, pea brain to do so. It wasn't my bag, but still. Oh well, I'll just let folks think it's TP instead!

I made a big mistake though. I forgot to put on my ankle brace! Dumb, dumb,dumb....

Pain, pain, pain....

Then I got out, dumped, got finished & drove away. 

Forgetting to put my brace on again!! 

Duh. 

Didn't feel too good once I got back. 

So I got the rig set back up, things back into place, fans turned on.

Took my pain pills. 

But still needed something to make myself feel better.

Well, see below -- I feel much better now! :-9 

PS, I envy ya'll that don't have to drive to dump stations! But then, I guess it gets to give Ellie & her shoes some exercise. 

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

Computer Crash

I was busy typing a blog post yesterday....


then...

black screen!

Totally black. Uh oh. Did the cord come out? It's battery is now worthless, it's drained, so I have to use the power cord with it. Nope, it's still plugged in. 


So I closed the lid, well, that's stupid, shut the computer down, don't close the lid & wait for it to turn itself off! So I used the shut off button by holding it down till it cut off. 

Then I popped the battery out of it & used my blow dryer on it with cool air for a few mins. 

I left it sitting on top of my toilet all day after that -- not much space in a small ClassC! 

Problem was, when this happened, the computer was very hot! Then I realized that the fan wasn't running. 

Hopefully, the computer tried to shut itself off for protection. When I feel brave enough, I'll open it all up to try to access the fan to clean it. Why don't they make these things with easy fan access?? Those things get clogged with dust & well, if you live with pets, pet hair! 

So in the meantime, I got out my old model-t rebuilt laptop & updated it. Which hasn't been used or updated since 8/12/12! I even had to reset the date & time to get it to work again. Tried updating it via air card - it's so old, it doesn't have wifi. I have a wifi card for it. I also have an aircard for internet connection. But with the aircard I have, it was still taking too long, so I ended up taking it into my friends house & directly connecting it to their modem. It ONLY took 11 hours to update! I was considering sticking it IN the toilet at one point! 

So for now, I'm using the old laptop with my aircard to connect. Sure am glad I have that aircard! And that I've hanged onto the old laptop too. I've considered giving it away a few times, but knew I'd need it for a back up in case anything happened to the other laptop, which is probably aging out now too. 

If you hear any flushing sounds during the reading of today's blog...don't blame me ;-) 

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

Have we been dupped?

I added this to my blog post of the other day relating to the fellow RVer that needed help, please follow the link to read about it. 

http://texcynlife.blogspot.com/2013/04/a-fellow-rver-could-use-some-help.html

Health Update

 Had a doc appointment today with the specialist.

Good news is, I get to keep my foot. 

Bad news is, I am definitely heading back to surgery. 

Well, that's actually good news too!

I have a ganglion cyst, which most likely brought back the problems with my foot. 
Or my foot problems caused the cyst? Who knows. 

So the surgery plans will be submitted for approval & I'll go to surgery. 

Bring it on! 

I'm really ready to get well again! 

One of the things I really want to get out there & do is -- GO HIKING! Take long walks! Ride my bike again! So in the future, I hope to be able to gain my life back again! 

Thank you all for your concerns of the past, present & future.  I truly appreciate it.

Have we been dupped? Was: A fellow RVer could use some help

 I sent out this post the other day...although I feel bad that someone has lost their RV, I kind of think that his RV can be repaired....have we been duped?

I went back into his blog & found this:

Here's the post I found where he was asking for money in the past:

http://www.myoldrv.com/?p=1486&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Myoldrvcom+%28MyOldRV.com%29

Not sure that link will work, it's from Oct 19, 2010

 

I'm sorry, but if someone has bought property, then asks for contributions to help pay for it, that's just plain wrong. 

 

I'm not a follower of his blog, so really did not know anything about him. 

 

Below was my original blog post:  

As many of ya'll probably know by now, Andy & Kathy of  MyOldRV.com could use some help. 

Their motorhome was destroyed on Easter due to a devastating hail storm. As was their suburban. They are fulltimers.

Please check out their webpage & either make a donation or just give them some moral support. 

I'm paying this forward in my blog -- you may want to do that as well to draw more attention towards helping them. 

As ya'll know, I've had my own damages & repairs along the way with my little RV. You know my current health situation & that I can't work right now. So the best I could do was just mention them on my blog & loan them some moral support.

It all counts. 

Thank you.

Popcorn anyone?

I'm making my own popcorn!

Well, that's a lie because I've not made it yet. 

I plan on making my own popcorn! 

Now, that's more in the line of the truth...eventually. 

I don't eat popcorn often, but every once in awhile, I do want some. 

So it's kind of scary what's in the bag of microwave popcorn when you buy that. What are some of those ingredients anyhow? And with the fake butter scare in those bags, is it worth it? What about all that greasy oil in the bag? And the smell that lingers for days, months, years, decades in your microwave?

Nah, it's cheaper & probably more fun to make your own!

So I bought this the other day:

Course, I probably blew it with the seasoning ;-)  But how could I resist? It says cheesy jalapeno! YUM!

I can also experiment with other flavorings or just nuke some real butter to pour over it. 

I also saw on tv where they used olive oil & parmesan cheese on it. Grated of course. But that also sounds yummy!

If you are like me, you might just want it plain sometimes, with nothing on it. 

Or make it sweet, add a little cinnamon and a little sugar. 

Or salty & sweet with both salt & sugar. 

The spices are your limit! *but I'd not recommend you use every spice in your cabinet*..jest sayin'

So next time I crave it, I'm going to make some of my own! 

How?

Buy plain brown paper lunch bags. 

Measure half a cup of popcorn kernels & put in bag. 

Fold bag over several times. Don't staple or paper clip! That might be a problem with your nuker! Just fold a few times instead.

Microwave for about 3 mins - paying attention to the sounds of the popping.

EAT! YUM! 

*****UPDATE

I tried it - it was probably some of the best popcorn I've ever had! No oils, no greasy bag to contend with. 
1/2 a cup is too much though, that makes a great big bowl. Next time, I'll try 1/4 cup. I also used the cheesy jalapeno sprinkles & melted some real butter. Oh man, this was some good stuff! Now back to my movie I'm watching....  

~As always, be kind to your pets (they can have some plain popcorn too), clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Oh 2 Cool!

Welcome to kaholly! I don't see a blog on your profile, but I'm glad to have you aboard! 

So today's post is actually about a little fan that is making a big difference! 

Not huge, but big enough. 

 

My little motorhome has 3 roof vents. Which is pretty good for a rig this size. 

One over my bathroom, with the little exhaust fan. 

One in the center. 

One over my overhead bed area. 

B - U - T

I do not have one of those wonderful vent fans that the lucky folks get to use to help cool their rigs down. 

A 12 volt fan would be a dream -- but is not in the current budget. 

Soooo, I went out yesterday in search of some kind of fan that I could possibly attach to my center roof vent. 

Went to Academy first to look at tent fans. They didn't have any. 

So then I went to Walmart. They actually had one on clearance! 

YAY! 

I looked at it, inspected it, debated over it, put it in my cart & let it take a ride all over the store while I debated. 

Problem is, it ran off of 4 D cell batteries. Fine, I'll get some rechargable batteries, right?

They have 4 on the shelf! OkeyDokey. Put batteries in cart too. 

Then I look for a charger for D cell batteries as mine only charges AA & AAA batteries. 

Nope, they don't have one. 

The tent fan, which is made to suspend from the top of a tent has a couple of problems.

3 actually. 

It comes with an attached battery port, which you put 4 D cell batteries in. 

BUT  if you want to use electrical power, you have to buy that port!

And if you want a rechargable port, well, you can buy that too! 

Hmmmm, at this rate, I might as well buy a 12 volt vent fan & install it because this thing is costing nearly as much. 

I put it back. 

I go to the fan dept & find this little jewel  -- the O2Cool Fan. Cool! 

It's lightweight. It's small. But not too small. And it's cheap!

Alrighty then, it's going home with me! 

And I was able to suspend it from my center vent! 

Hooray! 

 So I used those small tiny bungie cords that we all buy & wonder what the heck we'll do with them. Wrapped one end around the vent handle.

 Put the other end of another bungie into the small hole on my vent screen. Perfect!

Attach the other ends of the bungies to the grills & it works fine this way! 

This fan will run off of 8, yes, 8 D cell batteries! Gulp. So I'm using the electric cord that came with it instead. 

It has a stand, but the cord plugs in behind the stand part. Which actually worked fine too because with the stand extended a little bit, it actually aims the fan towards the living area anyhow. 

And the vent is beside my cabinet that contains my TV, which is always open when I'm not traveling, so I just slipped that cord over the top of the cabinet door. 

It's out of the way & this thing has been on all day, helping to keep the rig nice & comfortable today! 

I thought this worth sharing in case some of ya'll don't have the 12 volt vent fans either. 

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

 

Swivel Seat = Extra Seating

Hi, hope all is well with everyone! 

Now grab your seat, turn it around & listen up:

I have the luxury of my front seats in my cockpit area being able to turn around. Swivel that is. 

Don't fret -- they don't do that on their own! 

Really, they don't. 

They have bars under them in which you push to turn the seats around. 

However, turning the drivers seat around is rather moot because the steering wheel gets in the way & well, it also would simply turn into the corner of the sofa. Plus I store a folding table behind the drivers seat that I use for various things. Mostly outside things, like when making jewelery or other projects. 
Turning a seat where it's facing a fold up table seems kinda stupid huh?

Sooo, it's still a luxury of being able to swivel the passenger seat! 

I've been sitting on it the past several days while my dogs have been hogging up the sofa. Literally, they've taken my sofa hostage! How dare they! But all in all, the passenger seat is actually more comfortable as it provides back support. To sit on the sofa & stretch your legs out on it, I have to pile pillows on the wall behind it for back support. Then it's a hassle of getting the pillows just right, then they eventually slip between the sofa & back of the drivers seat anyhow. 

OK, back to the passenger seat. 

I've had it swiveled around & have been using my step stool - my most valuable step stool that stays in my RV always! Because I can't reach inside of some of my top storage cabinets without it. 

I digress, back to the seat - someone tell my mind to stay focused please. 

So again, I've been sitting in the passenger seat, turned towards the living area & using the step stool with a pillow on top of it for foot support. If I don't keep my bad foot supported, it swells & gets painful. But I had another problem with that. I didn't have knee support! My knees have started killing me. Literally. They've been stabbing me! Naughty knees, naughty! 

So I was looking online for collapsible ottomans. Trying to figure out how I'd store them when not in use. I found some, but they weren't available right now. So I was getting dressed to head out to the stores to see if they had any in the stores. I then spotted my file box! Hmmmm....that just might work. Looks like the right height. So lets put it in front of the seat & put the step stool in front of that! 

 Perfect! Just the right porridge! Oh wait, that's some little lost girl in a forest eating the bears porridge. 

That's not me, I'm askeered of bears. 

So perfect, just the right height! 

Yay! 

 Ok, now lets put some pillows on top - ohhhh, groovy man! Mundo Perfecto! (I'm practicing my spanish, I only know the simple words - simple minds & all that y'know)

 Now lookee here! Now if I were only 3' tall, then I could sleep here! Ha! Then I'd also only need one stool too huh? Zat's ok, my knees are happy now & they might just spare my life after all. 
This is the perfect computer station for me too. I have a folding camping tray that fits between the front seats that my computer is happy to sit upon. It likes having it's own space too. And the dogs like my sofa.....sigh...

Actually, my new seating area kind of looks like a fat marshmallow. I hope they don't eat it. 

That little round pillow on the back, it's actually one of those folding blankets - I have two. I have lots of blankets. Although I really don't know why? I live in Texas for goodness sake! Texas isn't known as the keep warm blanket state after all! But oh well, at least I don't collect elephants or anything like that...

And furthermore, the striped thing behind the seat on the dash is a curtain I found on clearance. I keep it there to keep the dash clean & dust free. Got tired of constantly cleaning that dash..now it stays nice. 

Another Yay please!  

PS, if you feel the need to mail me a bigger rig, I'll keep checking the mailbox daily! ::hint hint:: (think that will work guys? Can I have my couch back then guys?)

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

Vent Covers - Cleaning & Replacing Gaskets

Hey, I'm not doing anything at the moment -- just posting this to my blog! 

Aprils Fools! Yea, right...well, it's true, I AM posting instead of working on the RV for a change! 

Ha! 

Soooo, you might be asking if I ever really do leave my roof??? 

Well yes, I do. How do you think I wash the RV, check the tires, drive the RV, etc?  ;-)

Anyhow, yes, I was on the roof again. And yes, I'm careful when I'm up there. Very careful. 

No one wants to fall off an RV rooftop! And I take care of my foot while going up & down that ladder too, so please, don't worry. 

I make sure that I have all my supplies before I get up there & I take the most minimal supplies up there. 

Sooooo, why in the heck was I up there? 

Because I've been looking at dirty roof vent covers for WAY too LONG! 

So I decided to open all of them from the inside & get a bucket of cleaning solution to the rooftop to clean them. My first attempt was a spray bottle of solution & a rag. That didn't work well, I really needed a bucket of the stuff, so that worked way better. 

 Tip: Getting the bucket of cleaning solution was way easier by placing it on top of a ladder, then reaching from the RV ladder to place on the roof. Worked like a charm!

 

         Bucket of cleaning solution.

 Dirty roof vent. Yukky Poo.

 Clean roof vent! Yay!

Why do my vents get so dirty? Because I adore fresh air, but by keeping them open, they get really, really dirty....it's pretty dusty here in these parts. It's been dry & windy, thus, my RV becomes a dirt collector. 

I guess even RV's have to collect something?

OK.

Now.

Another problem. 

I tried washing the gaskets - that didn't go well. 

They were old & weathered. 

Really bad. 

Sooooo, the resolution was to go to an RV supply place & buy new gaskets. 

I did that. 

And I'm glad I did, they really, really needed replaced.

 New gasket - bought 3 since I have 3 roof vents.

 Note old gasket - yukky poo! I also took some wipe sheets up to clean around the frames when I took the old gasket off. Be careful when you do this. The sharp galvanized steel can cut you! I got a paper kind of cut from it.

 Check out the old gasket above & below. It was so brittle that it was cracking.

 Installing new gasket -- FRESH! NEW! IMPROVED! New AND Improved!! CLEAN! YAY!

 

Inside view - mucho bettero! All nice & clean now - ahhhhhhh.....

And if you are not yet dead of boredom, well, there's even a video! Which is pretty much the same as this post, just live! Yes, folks, live! Because it would be weird dead? 

 

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

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter Everyone

No matter what your religious values are, have a wonderful day! 

Maintaining The Clearance Lights

**I wrote this post a few weeks ago,around 3/08/13  but once again, fell behind with all the things I was doing at the time & it never got posted. So I'm finishing it today to get it posted & done with! :-)

***********************

Yep, I'm still at it!

I know, I know, ya'll are saying "Stop it Already!".

But it's gotta be done.

Then we all can sleep better at night.

So over the weekend, I maintained my clearance lights.

When they rebuilt the overhead cab, you would have thought that "maybe" they'd put on new lights? Or at least be sure they all worked???  Nope.

So it was bothering me that 2 of them were burnt out. It also bothered me that I saw dirt building up under the covers of both front & rear lights.

So I went to work. Of course, when I had the overhead leak again, I panicked. Imagine that huh?

I put duct tape over the tops of all the clearance lights! Perhaps I went overboard, but leaks will put you into panic mode & make you do things like that.

The duct tape left residue. Sigh...

 Light cover with residue - bottom light cover.

Residue all cleared off! It wasn't a hard job. I used some remover & it worked well. Goo Gone I think is what it was.

I had one light on the front that was too corroded to work. That bothered me. I'm a stickler for things like that. Could I have just left it as is? Sure. Texas doesn't inspect those, but it's one of those things that with me, everything has to work!

So I rewired it. 

I then took off all covers, cleaned them, cleaned the bases & returned the covers. Checked to be sure that all lights were working, then I caulked around all of them. Front, rear & side clearance lights. Done! Yay! DONE! I say, DONE! For at least another year or so :-)   I even caulked around the seals on the covers, not just around the bases. When I noticed how much dirt built up under the covers, that alerted me that moisture was probably getting in there too. So I wanted to cover all bases & I did.

 New caulk lined around the cover & the base to be sure to protect any moisture from penetrating.

Since I had my caulk out still, I also cleaned the old caulk off of my door handle & my exterior electrical outlet. I replaced that outlet last year. The old one was white & really weathered, just waiting to crumble at the slightest touch. It was an easy replacement though.

I use exterior outdoor clear silicone caulk, but I wonder sometimes if I should use the white caulk instead. I'm never sure which to use, but I kind of like the clear as it's just a cleaner look.

Below is a video of my step by step process of redoing the clearance lights if you are interested:

Leaving Pam's Place

I'm leaving Pam's today & heading back to Houston.

(This post was written on Tuesday, the 26th, I've not had a chance to finish it till today -- my computer became non responsive during the post on the 26th- grrrr)

I'm so grateful to have had this time to take this trip & visit close friends!

I'm so grateful for Ellie too! What a great way to travel! What a great way to live!

My dogs can stay inside in comfort & I have a comfortable place to lay my head (& body) at night!

It's a win-win situation!

Ellie parked & actually level in Pam's driveway. It's also nice to have power! The dogs get to listen to TV all day long, even if the channel isn't to their liking ;-)

 Meet Fonzie! Fonzie is Linda's dog. Pam is taking care of Linda's dogs while she is getting treatments & such. Linda has 3 salukis, Fonzie, Manitou & Rio. I don't have a photo of Rio yet, he stood right beside me, making it impossible to take any pictures of him! Fonzie is a tri parti marked coloration. Isn't he beautiful!?

Pam's place is full of charm. She has little garden  areas around the property. Little surprise flowers pop up everywhere. It's like a  secret enchanted garden here. Things are just starting to bloom - hopefully, last nights freeze didn't harm them.

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