June 13-17, 2022 - Club Campout at Canton, Missouri

We arrived at the campground in Canton, Missouri around 4:00 p.m. All the other club members had already arrived. It was hot, really hot and humid! I was soaking wet all evening and kept a cooling towel around my neck. Celina was the campout host and had asked me to grill hot dogs Monday evening, which I did around 6:00 p.m. Hot dogs were followed with homemade desserts. After several hours Homer cooled down so Kelly and I went to bed early. We both slept great in the comfort of the AC but by going to bed early we were told that we missed the strawberry moon over the river. Fortunately they were wrong and it was a full moon Tuesday night.  Here is a picture. It looked more colorful than the picture and it was stunning.

The campground is owned by the City of Canton and is right on the bank of the Mississippi, just downstream from Lock 20. When I got up Tuesday morning, while it was cool, I walked up and watched a tug and barges go through the lock. I talked with the crew members as they floated by. They have to break the barges up into two sets to allow them to get through the lock. As I watched the barges go by I asked how they were propelled since they were not connected to the tug. They said a cable pulls them through then they are tied up at the end of the lock until the rest of the barges get through the lock with the tug. The two sections are then reconnected and head up or down the river. The whole process takes well over an hour. The river is high so the levels at this lock are the same. I wondered why the whole barge unit did not just go through at one time and as one unit to save time and work. The reason is that the tug can’t make the turn away from the lock to get out into the river. Here is a picture of the barges as they enter the lock all connected.

Here are pictures of the barges with the first six disconnected and the lock closed between them and the remaining barges with the tug waiting their turn to get in the lock.

Here are a couple pictures of the campground. It has the river on one side, the road to the lock, and railroad tracks on the other. You can see the train coming on the right while a barge is going down stream on the left.

Of course, trains came through in the middle of the night, at least once each night, blowing their whistles at the local crossing not far from Homer.  

Tuesday Celina had a boiled egg breakfast planned. You put your eggs and fixings in a freezer bag and put it in a big boiling pot of water for six minutes. They were tasty. She also had biscuits and blueberry muffins as well. Here is a picture of the set up and everyone eating the grub. 

Jim is setting the timer for his eggs on his phone while Bev waits as well.

The only other thing planned for Tuesday was dinner at a local restaurant so I took the down time to install the new shutoff valve on Celina's holding tank. Here is a picture of the broken valve I took out at the last campout and the line that I plugged until I could get a new valve.

I had driven all over Chester and Perryville last month looking for a replacement valve but it is an RV part and I had to order a new one online. Here is the new valve installed. Good for another ten years.

Wednesday morning we headed out early for a drive to Rutledge (population 100 and Celina’s home town) for freshly baked donuts and cinnamon rolls at Zimmerman’s, a Mennonite store and cafe. Here are some pictures of the store and cafe. 

Zimmerman's is literally the heart of Rutledge. In fact it is downtown Rutledge. The cinnamon rolls and freshly baked donuts were outstanding. As you entered the store a lady was sitting in the foyer shelling peas. You don’t see that all the time. 

Also the lady who manages the store had her grandkids with her as she was checking out people. Here is a picture. It cracked me up with grandma holding the baby while she rang the cash register and the five-year old on the counter bagging groceries. Everyone took it in stride.

 

Here are a picture of one aisle in the store. The place is definitely geared to it Mennonite customer base.

We then drove to a new brand-new food warehouse operated by two young Mennonite brothers. There are a lot of Mennonites in the area and they are all very industrious and hard working. We saw lots of Gilster-MaryLee products from Perryville on pallets in the warehouse. They have six semis that deliver the food to small stores, mostly Mennonite and Amish, throughout Missouri and Illinois. It was interesting to see that they had a sealed off room in which spices were kept so that they did not permeate the other warehouse products with their smell.  The spices are purchased in bulk and divided into smaller packages for sale. 

Next we stopped by the old Rutledge School. A group of citizens are restoring in stages as funds are raised. They have regular rummage sales, ice cream socials, etc. to raise money for needed improvements. So far the roof has been replaced, the windows replaced, the building tuck pointed, and new kitchen appliances and cabinets installed in the old cafeteria. Soon they hope to rent out space for family gatherings, and other events. The school operated from 1912 to 1995. Grades 1-4 were on one side and grades 5-8 on the other. There were only two teachers. Both of Celina’s children graduated from there.  

We then went back to Zimmerman’s (the only store-cafe in town) for lunch. The roast beef special was excellent, all cooked fresh. A half plate, which was plenty, was only $3.99. After lunch we headed out for a tour of “The Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage”. It is a commune of about 40 adults and 6 children who live there fulltime experimenting with various types of eco-building, eco agricultural practices, etc. The residents live in tiny houses. All structures must be made out of sustainable or recycled materials such as hay bales, old grain bins, old barns, old school buses, etc. They also hold seminars and training sessions teaching others how to limit their ecological impact. Here are some pictures of homes in the village portion of their 280 acres. All are heated with wood. No pesticides, insecticides, etc. are used so the place is pretty wild looking. 

It is quite an interesting place. You can read about it online at: www.dancingrabbit.org.

From the Dancing Rabbit we then headed to Memphis, Missouri for a tour of the Downing House Museum. W. G. and Henry Downing came to Memphis in 1837 as single young men. William married Mary Jones, whose father was the first sheriff of Scotland County. He was quite wealthy and gave them a city block to build a house on. William’s family was quite wealthy back in Virginia so he went back there and brought twelve slaves to Memphis to build a home. It took two years to build the house using bricks made in the area. Here is a picture of the house. 

The building is not air-conditioned so our tour was shorter than usual because of the extreme heat. After the Downings died the building changed hands several times and was a hotel during two different periods. An addition to the building when it was a hotel was torn off and moved next door to get the building back to its original configuration. Here is a picture of that building to which porches were added over the years.

From Memphis we then headed to Kahoka for a buffet dinner at Steve’s Family Restuarant. The fried chicken there was delicious. After filling our bellies we headed back to the campground to chill out. It was an eleven-hour long day of sightseeing. We all then sat in front of Homer overlooking the Mississippi until everyone turned in.  Here is a picture of Homer enjoying the view as well.

Thursday we had Celina’s homemade cinnamon rolls and Bev’s pineapple upside down cake for breakfast followed by a short club business meeting. Those present decided that we will basically let the club go defunct, due to loss of members, and use the club treasury to pay for expenses at future campouts until the money is gone.

Jim and I then cleared off a table under the pavilion and restrung one of his day/night shades that had a broken string. While we did that the women played Farkle. This pavilion was the only shade for several hours during the middle of the day.

After grabbing a quick bite of lunch we all then drove to Quincy, Illinois and toured Villa Kathrine. It was quite an interesting place built in1900 on the bluff of the Mississippi River. It was built by a man who was a bachelor and a world traveler. He incorporated Islamic and Moorish architectural features in the home. It is like no other. Here are some pictures of the outside. First is the front side and second is the back side facing the river. 

 

It had a water basin in the middle of the house below a tower which was covered by a dome. The water in the basin, along with open windows in the top of the tower acted as natural air-conditioning cooling the air as it rose through the building. Unfortunately, a tornado tore off the dome some years ago but you can see how the principle worked in these pictures.

 

The building had very interesting windows, doors, and woodwork.

The central area lights were made in Italy. There was a large one over the water basin and one smaller one on each corner.

This is a view of the basin from the second floor. The intricate mosaic tile work was beautiful.

The walls in the central area were painted black and white to look like black and white mosaic tile which would be normally be used. Not something you see everyday.

It was 100 degrees with a heat advisory so we headed back to the campground to cool off. Around 6:00 p.m. we ordered Casey’s pizzas for dinner. Of course dinner was topped off with great home-made desserts. Everyone then sat in a row watching the river roll by until about 10:00 p.m. Or were they watching their phones?

Since everyone leaves at different times in the morning we all bid each other farewell that evening. Celina did a wonderful job organizing this campout and finding interesting things for us to see. The next group campout will be in Springfield, Illinois in August. Let's hope it isn't so hot! We were blessed with a breeze most of the time.

 

 

June 10, 2022 - Homer Repaired and Upcoming Campout

Homer was in the shop all week rather than just a day or two as I expected. We got him back yesterday (Friday) at 5:00 p.m. just before closing time. The gas tank leak was caused by a varmint chewing on the fuel line on the top of the tank. Squirrels had chewed on a gas line up under the cab last year which I had to get fixed. When we first moved here there were no squirrels, now they are everywhere. I need a BB gun with a scope! (Probably not allowed in the city limits.)

They dropped the gas tank, patched the line, and put plastic wire loom over it, hopefully to deter future chewing. The Rear ABS light being on was finally diagnosed as a faulty sensor, so it was replaced. They thought the parking brake issue was fixed a few days ago but then they realized that the cable kept sticking so the cable was replaced. I like to have the parking brake on when parked. Just being in Park while moving walking around inside doesn't seem to be good for the transmission.

I exercised the generator this morning then turned it off and plugged Homer into the electric. I turned on the fridge so it can get cooled down and so the batteries could get charged. We will load Homer tomorrow for our trip to Northern Missouri on Monday for a club campout. It is going to be REALLY hot all next week, like our campout was last month. Bummer. The campground is on the bank of the Mississippi so I'm hoping there might be a breeze. Homer has a good AC unit so it will get a workout. It will be nice to see our friends. 

While camping I have to install a new shut off valve on Celina's freshwater tank. Last month I pulled the defective valve and looked all over but couldn't find a replacement. I ended up plugging the line so she could fill the tank and got online and ordered a new valve. It should be an easy install, just not easy to get to.

I will also restring a broken day/night shade in Jim's rig while camping. We will have a lot of down time with the heat so it will help keep me busy. LOL. 

June 6th - Work Day at the Lake Lot - Homer to the Shop

Yesterday was a beautiful day so we decided to do a little work at the lake lot. I had made a ramp out of 2 x 6 boards for driving the golf cart in and out of the shed. I had trouble getting the boards to stay in place so Kelly thought I ought to make the ramp walkable and permanent. I added 5/8 inch siding to the framework, painted it, and installed it yesterday. It will last for years.

Upon looking at it I decided I need to paint the inside of the doors. The waffle board looks pretty tacky. I also need to decide what to do with the landscaping stones I had there for steps before. a couple are supporting the ramp but the rest need to go.

Next I cut off two cedar stumps left last year after I cut the trees down. Now I can mow over them and we won't trip over them in the dark. Being cedar they will probably never rot away.

Finally, we used loppers to cut off lots of low hanging branches. Here is Kelly working on burning the pile of brush we created.

While it finished burning we sat and had a beer and enjoyed the beautiful weather while watching people put in and take their boats out of the water.

I also took out to install on the golf cart a panoramic rearview mirror. It was advertised to fit our cart but it doesn't. I need to make longer brackets. Today's project.

After returning home we dropped Homer off at the shop for mechanical work today. The leaking fuel issue needs to be resolved, as well as the "Rear ABS" light checked, and the parking brake fixed. Hopefully we will get him back this evening or tomorrow. We are taking him to Canton, Missouri, next week for an RV Club campout on the Mississippi River. We've never been there so looking forward to it.

 

May 23rd - 30th, 2022 - Homer Generator Problem and Memorial Day Weekend at Lake Perry

Last week we got Homer out of storage and put Marge in until we head back to Florida the end of November. 

HOMER GENERATOR PROBLEM:

I got Homer de-winterized in no time and everything worked perfectly except the generator would not run. It started right up for a couple of seconds, then died and would not restart. The first thing to always check is the level of fuel in the RV fuel tank. I did that and had 3/8 of a tank, plenty to run the generator. 

I suspected the bad effects of Ethanol, even with Sta-Bil in the tank over the winter. I pulled the air cleaner off and shot it multiple times with carburetor cleaner (actually two cans of the stuff) in an effort to get it to run. It would run great on the carb cleaner but immediately die. I decided to check to see if the carburetor was getting gas and disconnected the gas line from the bottom of the carburetor. As I expected, no gas came out when I tried to start the generator. I disconnected the fuel line from the RV gas tank and connected the fuel pump to a hose I stuck into a five-gallon tank of gasoline. If fired right up and ran until I killed it. I tried to start it again, but it would not start. I disconnected the fuel line at the carburetor again and no gas, even from the five gallon tank.  I took a small fuel pump I had and connected it to the RV fuel line to draw fuel out of the main tank. Apparently, the pump was too small because it barely spit any gas out. 

Since it wouldn't restart on the five-gallon tank of gas I suspected the fuel pump was bad and decided to pull it off to bench check it. To get to the bottom screw attaching the pump to the generator I had to cut a hole in the side of the metal generator slide out drawer. I took the pump off and tested it with a battery. It ran fine. I then suspected that the pump was not getting voltage from the generator. I visually checked the wiring and it all looked good. Clearly no critters had gotten in there. At this point I decided the pump was good but it wasn't getting voltage from the generator to start pumping. I called the Onan generator repair place in St. Louis that worked on it about five years ago. They said they could probably get me in next week and would call me this week with a date when to bring it up. They warned me that their repair rate is now $168.50 per hour, with a minimum of one hour diagnostic time. I would await their call because I was at a dead end.

I went to bed that night and the "no fuel issue" kept me up all night. I thought that, while I had checked the pump to see if it ran, I had not tested it off the generator to see if it was actually pumping fuel when running. The next morning I hooked the pump up to a five gallon gas tank and it would not pump. I decided that the pump was bad and I ordered a new one for $42.50 (a Chinese knockoff because Onan had none available at $99.00). The pump came two days later and I put it in. Here is a picture of the new pump installed. To get out the old pump and to install a new pump I had to cut a hole in the metal side of the slide out tray the generator is mounted on. The arrow points to the access hole I cut.

The new pump immediately pumped out of the five gallon can and the generator ran like a top. I hooked it back up to the RV gas tank line - no gas. I decided I had a fuel line problem from the RV fuel tank. I would need to take it to my local mechanic for that, not Onan. (A lot closer and a lot less expensive.)

Before heading to the lake for the Memorial Day weekend  I filled up the RV fuel tank. I got home and tried the generator again and it fired right up off the main RV tank and ran until I killed it. I started it back up several times and it popped right over. PROBLEM SOLVED? IF SO, HOW? 3/8 OF A TANK OF GAS HAS ALWAYS BEEN PLENTY. 

Side note:

RV generator lines into the main fuel tank are intentionally set to quit drawing out of the RV fuel tank when it gets down to a 1/4 of a tank. This is so the generator doesn't run you out of fuel while camping. When I first got Homer the fuel line for the generator was rotten and they had to drop the fuel tank and replace it all the way into the tank. My mechanic told me he did me a favor and ran the line all the way to the bottom of the tank. He didn't know any better and I wasn't about to pay him to correct it. I know about it, that's good enough.

Saturday morning we got to the lake and set up. We could smell gasoline at the entrance door. I looked everywhere and could not see any gasoline leaking. I couldn't smell it anywhere but by the entrance door, which is on the opposite side of Homer from the fuel tank filler and the generator. I started the generator and there were no leaks anywhere around it. Homer obviously needs to go to the shop to see what is going on with this smell. 

THE MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND:

It was a beautiful weekend at the lake. The weather was perfect. Here is a picture from our lot looking at the new docks they put in across from us. There is a small beach there for kids to play in which was quite busy this weekend.

One of our first chores when we go to our lot is to pick up sticks before mowing. We have lots of trees and they lose lots of small limbs regularly. Here are a couple of weeks' worth of sticks piled up for burning. The pile outside the fire ring was this weekend's pile.

Sunday morning, while Kelly was still sleeping, I sat outside and drank my coffee. I then looked to see if there was a fishing pole in the shed. There was one pole with one lure on it so I thought I would try my luck. Within a few minutes I caught this guy just two lots down.

He was about ten inches long so I threw him back. About fifteen minutes later I caught another. He may have been the same fish. LOL

No more bites so after a while I quit. I definitely need to bring some fishing tackle and rods back out to the lake.

On Sunday daughter, Alexa, and her friend, Aaron, came down from St. Louis for the day.  Here is a picture of Kelly and Alexa enjoying the campfire.

Here is a picture of Aaron bring everyone cupcakes for dessert after a meal of grilled brats, corn on cob, and pork and beans.

We had brought out the golf cart a couple of days earlier because on Saturday we had to register it with the lake association and provide proof of insurance so that we can use it at the lake. The cart had to be physically there so they could put a sticker on it showing we were registered. The golf cart fits in the shed but I have to revise the ramp I built to get it in and out. Another project, another blog.

Monday morning we packed up Homer, dumped our tanks, and headed home. Upon getting home I backed into the driveway to unload. We could immediately smell gas at the entrance door and it was strong! I looked around and upon crawling down to look underneath, I saw gasoline almost running out of the top of the tank. Whoa! I found the problem. I took the gas cap off to release the pressure in the tank and the leak immediately stopped. Here is a picture of the front side of the tank where the gas was running out. The arrows point to the dark, wet streaks where the gas was running down the tank from the top. 

I'll call tomorrow and get Homer a repair appointment. Of course, he has a full tank of gas, which has to be emptied before they can drop the tank to see what is going on. Also since coming out of storage, the "Rear ABS BRAKE" warning light is on. I'll have that checked out as well. That warning light came on one time a couple of years ago after sitting for the winter and it was low fluid. Hopefully that is it again. A third item for repair is the emergency brake. I had this worked on in the fall but it is not fixed right. Sometimes it catches, sometimes it does not. I'll get that worked on as well.

I'll keep you posted on the repairs. The squirrels had eaten one of the gas lines up front last year, maybe they got up on top of the tank, who knows.