December 28th - A Little Electrical Project for Marge Using a Christmas Present

The 50 amp electric cord that came with Marge is 36 feet long, thick, heavy, very stiff, and thus really hard to handle. Very rarely do I ever need a 36 foot long cord to plug in at a park pedestal. I decided it would serve our purposes to cut the cable at about ten feet and install a male plug on the ten foot cord and a female plug on the remaining section. By doing this I can just pull out the ten foot cord for almost all hookups and plug in the other section as an extension cord when I need it. With this project in mind I put on my Christmas request list male and female 50 amp plugs.

Well, Santa (daughter Erin) was good to me and I received the plugs I requested. Today I went to the storage shed and retrieved the electric cord from Marge. I brought it home, cut the cord, and installed the plugs making a shorter cord and an extension.  Here is a picture of the finished cords.

This modification will make future electrical connections much easier. This cord is about an inch in diameter and has a black polyvinyl casing which is really stiff and hard to handle even in warm weather. If I ever upgrade the cord I would go with a cable that has a rubber casing which is much more flexible. Those cables, however, are more expensive and I just haven't been able to bring myself to spend $300-$400 for a new cord when I still have a functioning one.

Also on my Christmas request list was a portable LED work light. So many times I am working under one of the campers or on something else around home and I need a lot of light in a dark area. I have good flashlights but they throw a small beam and I have to hold them to get the light where I need it. In almost all things I'm working on I need two hands for what I am doing. Flashlights just don't work very well for that. Santa Erin came through again and got me two LED work lights. They are really bright with two settings plus a flashing setting for emergencies.  The lights came with Lithium batteries, are rechargeable, and have a nice adjustable stand which allows me to set them on a surface and point the light where I need it. Here is a picture of one. They are about six inches wide.

I will leave one light in my shop toolbox and put the other in my toolbox in Marge. They are exactly what I wanted and are well-made so they should last a long time.

Another nice item I got for Christmas from daughter Alexa, is a "Pad Pillow".  It is a wedge shaped foam pillow which I can sit on my lap and browse away on the internet without having to hold the I-pad. It has a lip on the bottom which keeps the iPad from slipping off. Here is a picture of it on my lap.

I love it!  I use the iPad a lot traveling and camping while sitting in my recliner. It will get a lot of use at home and on the road.

I also got some nice clothes from daughter Annie, some of which fit, come of which didn't. The pants that didn't fit have already been sent back and I'll pick out a replacement soon.

Hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas.

I wish we were in Florida for the winter but just not in the cards this year. We have, however,  scheduled a week in a condo in Gulf Shores in January. We have never been there and will enjoy seeing it for the first time and visiting with Perryville friends who will be there. We are also thinking about scheduling a short trip South in April when the Chemotherapy is complete. We will see how things go.

Happy New Year to everyone.

November 28th-30th - Thanksgiving and Repairs

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Mountain View. It is great to get the whole family together.

Kelly’s family has a tradition of giving a “Jack Horner “ gift before dinner. Here is a picture of everyone opening their gifts.

Here is a picture of my gift.

Here is a picture of all of us after dinner.

Friday morning Adam and I decided to tackle a couple of kitchen projects. The first was installing new LED lights in the kitchen. There were three two-foot fluorescents, one of which didn’t work at all. Here is a picture of the new lights. A major improvement. Adam will have to do a little patching on the ceiling.

The next project was replacing the thirty year old faucet. Of course being that old the mounting bracket below was rusted beyond recognition. There was no way it was going to come loose as intended. I ended up carefully prying on it from below and bending it until it finally came out above through the hole. The installation of the new faucet was then a piece of cake with no leaks. Here is a picture of the finished installation.

Today we wrap Christmas presents we brought out with us then we fly home. It will be a long day because we don’t land in St. Louis until midnight. We won’t get back to Perryville until about 3:00 a.m. on Sunday.

November 25th - Flight to Oakland

Yesterday we left Perryville at 3:30 a.m. for our flight to Oakland, California. We had to change planes in Salt Lake City. As we were approaching the runway a small plane flew into our airspace and the pilot had to pull up hard and circle around 25 miles to make another approach. That was the first time that has ever happened to us. When we landed in Salt Lake City it was snowing. We originally had an hour lay over but by the time we did the second approach and landed we were only at our gate ten minutes and they started boarding.

The plane left the gate on time but because of the snow the plane had to be de-iced. I never was on a flight before that had to de-iced just before take off. Here are two pictures I took of our de-icing at the end of the runway. It was interesting to see how the equipment worked it’s way around the plane.   It delayed us about a half hour.

We arrived in Oakland and after visiting for a couple of hours went and picked up granddaughter, Violet, from pre-school.

Here is a selfie I took with her this morning before she went to pre-school.

It is supposed to start raining this afternoon and throughout the night. They need rain badly here. The last rain they remember was in March. When we drove Homer out to California in 2016 it rained so much it broke the state drought and flooded many of the areas around us. In fact we had to get out of a campground because part of the road washed out. I think California should hire me to come out more often and bring rain!!!!

Tomorrow we will shop for Thanksgiving dinner. We are all assigned dishes to prepare. Grocery shopping and cooking should be fun.

November 23rd - RVs in Storage

Thursday we got Homer out of the storage shed and put Marge in. This is the first winter in the eleven years that we have owned Marge that she won’t be making a trip to Florida. Sad for her and for us. We all enjoy the warmer weather there, as well as our many friends in the park.

We found another place to store Homer inside for the winter which is about eight miles out of town. Here he is on a rainy and cold Saturday morning awaiting his fate to be put up for the winter as well.

After he was backed in I pulled the chassis battery out and brought it home. I put it on a trickle charger in the garage for the winter along with his house batteries.

Monday we fly to California to spend Thanksgiving week with all the kids and grandkids. We are excited to go. I may blog about it even though it isn’t an RV trip.

In January we booked a week in a condo in Gulf Shores. Our friends Carlene and John will be in the same building. We have never been to Gulf Shores so it will be an adventure and we will have a great time with them.

These two trips, along with Erin and Kellen flying in for a week at Christmas, will help break up the long, cold Missouri winter.

November 3rd - Marge and Moe Sitting It Out

For the first time in seven years Marge will not be making a winter trip to Florida. She and Moe look so forlorn sitting here in the driveway waiting patiently for winter to come and pass.

Both are winterized, as is Homer, who is in the storage shed with his batteries here in the garage on chargers. I will run the generator in Marge monthly to keep it in shape and to keep her batteries charged. I will probably drive Moe around once a month to keep him limbered up as well. Hopefully by spring things will improve and we will be able to hook them up and head out somewhere.

Normally this time of year we would be planning a summer RV trip with grandson Kellen. Things are too tenuous at this point in time to make such plans. This is a constraint we have not had to deal with since the last kid left the house twenty years ago. Times change and we are rolling with them.

Since we will just be sitting at home this winter there will be limited, if any blogging going on but don't think I've given up on it. We still have places to go and things to see when things improve.

October 20th - Generator Fuel Leak and Generator Door Latch Fixes

Applying Permatex gasket sealer to the fuel pump fitting on the generator did not solve the fuel leak problem. My mechanic friend, Danny, felt that there had to be a crack in the fitting on the fuel pump since it just started leaking after all this time and suggested I take the fuel pump off and inspect it closely. I took the fitting off and inspected the female fuel pump connection closely. I couldn't find any crack in it. I then got the idea of getting a new fitting to see how it would screw into the fuel pump. My hope was that a different fitting could have been machined a little different and would tighten up in the position I needed it to. I purchased a new fitting for $4.00 and dry fitted it. It was going to tighten up in the correct position, unlike the old one. I installed it, ran the generator for an hour, and NO LEAK.  Here is a picture of the new fitting installed. Dry as a bone.

The brass fitting in the picture looks identical to the old one but obviously it was machined just a little different allowing me to tighten it in the correct position to connect to the fuel line. The leak was fixed for $4.00. I also slightly adjusted the governor and after putting various loads on the generator it did not surge one time when the load was changed multiple times. I am a HAPPY CAMPER!!!  We don't use the generator that often but when we do we need it work properly.

Another maintenance issue in the generator area was the left generator door latch wasn't locking. I noticed this in Albuquerque but needed to wait to get home to order a new one. Today upon trying to take the lock off to get its size for a new one I noticed that it was working properly, it just wouldn't stay tight. Here is a picture of the other generator door latch that works correctly.

This is a picture of the latch which was loose and not locking.

The black rubber washer was missing on this latch. This caused the latch to not fit tightly and thus not lock. I made a rubber washer and reinstalled the lock. Problem solved at no cost. Here is a picture of the repaired lock.

(I should have cleaned all my fingerprints off the door before taking the picture.)

I winterized Marge yesterday in case we get a long cold snap before we head to Florida in December. Better to be safe than sorry.

I also winterized Homer yesterday and put him back in storage. I pulled out his batteries and have then in the garage on smart chargers. He should be good to go in the spring.

October 16th - 17th - Flying Video and Generator Fuel Line Leaks

Yesterday our pilot, Brian, posted a video he took of my flight last Wednesday. He took it with a camera attached to the basket. It is a totally different perspective than my video. It starts with the basket laying down on its side which is the way the pilot gets in and then gets pulled up by the balloon as it rises.

Click on the link below to highlight the video, then click on it again to open it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=yWZvXFoCTRE

There may be a better way to post a YouTube Video. I am learning about posting videos so bear with me.

While unloading Marge when we got home on Tuesday I noticed a wet spot under the generator. When I opened the door I found that the fuel line from the tank to the fuel filter had a hole in it and was leaking pretty badly. The leak was at a spot where the fuel line had a pretty hard bend in it. I cut a short piece of the line off and reattached it. That seemed to solve the problem. Here is a picture of it fixed. If the bend wears a hole I will have to do some rerouting of the line and filter.

There is still a fuel leak where the fuel line comes out of the top of the fuel pump. It is a slow drip from the threaded fitting and I think it has vibrated loose after six years. We have used the generator more this year than all the previous years with our trip to Newfoundland and this two week boondocking trip. Here is a picture.

Since both fittings are threaded I will have to take it apart and put some gasket sealer on the threads going into the fuel pump and hope that stops the leak. Because of the threaded fuel line on the left going into the carburetor the fitting has to stop tight at a certain spot to match up. That is my project for today. Wish me luck.

October 12th - 14th - Final Days of Fiesta and Trip Home

Our pilot, Brian, wanted to go up Saturday morning but the wind conditions did not cooperate. He left Saturday afternoon after the Award Ceremony because he had to be back at work on Monday in Missouri. Crew members, Jane and Tom, who worked every day, did not get to go up. I hated that. They worked hard and were looking forward to it.

We decided to leave on Sunday morning rather than Monday as previously scheduled. Sunday morning was the last "Mass Assention" and it was great because the wind blew the balloons over our campground and the field behind us.  Here are some pictures.

 

One balloon was only about twenty feet over the top of Marge on its way to land in the field behind us. Here is a video of one landing.

We left the RV park about 8:30 a.m. headed for Amarillo. Bob had told us that we needed to see Palo Duro Canyon in Palo Duro Canyon State Park and camp there if we could. We got there about 4:00 p.m. but there were no campsites available due a bike race going on. We were directed to the Paul Duro Zipline place next door that had full hookups. They had a site so we hooked up and dumped our black and gray tanks, which needed it after twelve days of boondocking. The sites were level but the campground was pretty crappy. We then headed to the park for a drive through it. I had no idea anything like this existed in Texas. Here are a couple of pictures.

It was a 10% grade to drive down into the canyon. It was a beautiful day so we had a picnic lunch in the park. It is a large park and several places on the roads it indicated areas that flash flood. There were flood marker signs in feet posted nearby. It had obviously flooded not too long ago because in many places the mud was still on the road. Here is a picture of one such place and a pile of dirt pushed up off the road nearby.

We really enjoyed the stop even though we couldn't camp inside the park.

Our final stop on the way home was at the Quapaw Casino RV Park. We stopped there on the way out. Because we now had a "Players Card" for the casino we were able to stay one night for free. It was a nice evening so we sat out with a drink and watched the sunset. This Quapaw Casino is in Missouri. I did not know that there was any Indian Reservation property within Missouri. 

The trip across Missouri was an easy and uneventful one (the best kind). Traffic was moderate and we arrived home about 4:00 p.m. and got everything unloaded and the grass cut before eating supper.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta had been on my bucket list for a number of years. I am glad we took the opportunity to go this year. We met lots of nice Boomer Escapees at the RV park and I thoroughly enjoyed crewing even though our balloon only went up three times. It was a great experience.

The only RV issue is I discovered a gasoline leak on the generator fuel pump. It is a threaded fitting so I purchased some sealant. I will have to take it apart and fix it one of these next few days.

Nothing is scheduled now until we fly to California to spend Thanksgiving with the kids and grandkids. We are looking forward to seeing all of them.

 

October 8th - 11th - Balloon Fiesta and My Flight

On the 8th our pilot did not go up due to weather conditions. On the 9th I got to fly. The weather was perfect so we took off from the field and headed out into the desert. Here is a video of me in the basket going up.

Here are a couple of pictures as we lifted from the field.

All the tents are vendors at the side of the field. The field is 57 football fields in size. This is the largest balloon event in the U.S. The pilots are given free hotels, some meals, free LP gas, a gasoline gift card, and an embroidered jacket for coming. Pilots come from all over the world because of the Albuquerque box. The air comes over the mountain and makes a box so that the balloons can fly one way, drop down, fly back, and then up again making a flight box. There are several places in the world that have this phenomenon but Albuquerque is the best.

Here we are going over other balloons.

These pictures are looking back over the field and us going over the river.

Here is a balloon going down in a residential area.

This is us flying over the cul de sac where we took off from two days before. I was shocked to see them inflate in the middle of a lot of trees. It is all about the wind conditions.

Our balloon was "Major Award". It is blue on top, white in the middle, and then red and blue. Here are a couple of pictures the chase crew took of our flight as they followed us.

We landed in a field just beyond a residential area. It was a great landing, touched once and bounced about a foot and we were down. We got the balloon down and in no time the chase crew was there to pack it up.  We flew at about six hundred feet. It is absolutely quiet except for the sound of propane when the pilot hits the burner. I expected to feel a lot of wind but I didn't. We flew about six miles out.

Nobody flew yesterday. Everything was cancelled due to high winds except the fireworks in the evening. Since we had the day off Kelly and I went with our new friends, Jane and Tom, to Sante Fe. Tom and Jane and been fulltiming in their motorhome for a year and we really hit it off with them. On the drive to Santa Fe (about 60 miles from Albuquerque) we booked a "Beer and Art Tour" of the downtown area for the afternoon. While waiting for the tour to start we walked around the downtown area and went through St. Francis of Assissi Basilica. Here are a couple of pictures.

This is the fourth church on this spot. The earlier ones were made out of adobe and the weather did them in over the years. This one is built out of sandstone.  Inside in a side chapel there is a statue of the Virgin Mary that came from Spain in the 1400s via Mexico. In the 1600s a priest from Mexico brought it here. Here are a couple of pictures.

We were the only four on the afternoon tour. We met with our guide at the Upper Crust Pizza Place where we sampled five different local beers. A couple were really good. We then headed down the street to the oldest house in the United States. It dates back to the early 1600s. Here is a picture of the outside. ItT has two small rooms downstairs and two small rooms upstairs. Our guide said nine families lived here. I can't even imagine.

From there we walked across the street to San Miguel Church. It is made out of adobe and dates back to the 1600s as well. Here are a couple of pictures. The first picture is today, the last picture was taken about 100 years ago.

San Miguel (St. Michael) in the middle rather than Jesus, pretty interesting.

From there we walked to the State Capitol Building. It was built in 1981 and everyone thought it was so ugly they planted trees all around it to hide it. Inside and out however are hundreds of works of art by artists of New Mexico. Here is a picture of one outside sculpture.

Inside the walls are lined with many, many works of art, approximately four hundred of differing styles. Very impressive.  From there we walked to a little house that had originally been one of several housing railroad workers. It was now a brew house. There we sampled five more beers. Here is a picture of the beer house, the beers, and us.

The tour lasted about an hour and was great fun. From there we walked back to the truck and headed to a Mexican restaurant for supper. Kelly said it was one of the best Mexican meals she had ever had. All of us liked what we ordered. We then headed back to Albuquerque. After being home about an hour and half and the fireworks started. I watched it from the RV park. It was just too cold to walk the mile to the field. They really put on a nice display and it was easily visible from behind our camper.

The temperature dropped significantly overnight as forecast. We didn't have the furnace on and when I got up at 5:30 a.m. it was 52 degrees inside. Our pilot picked us up at the RV park because we were heading North to launch and then fly back to the field to compete. They compete by dropping bags over big white 'X's on the field. They get points for competing and points for getting the closest. We all gathered in a field to await the opening of the field. They can only compete within a limited time frame. As we waited the weather got worse. Here are a couple of pictures I took as we were awaiting our turn to inflate.

This is a picture inside a balloon as it is being blown up by a big fan.

We were last to inflate and by the time it was our turn the wind had picked up too much and the pilot cancelled the flight even though the basket was up and we were ready to pull out the balloon. I was really disappointed for Tom and Jane who hoped to go up today. The last day our pilot is flying is tomorrow. I hope we have a great day so they can go up.