March 30th - The Planned Summer RV Trip

This time of year I am normally busy laying out a route for our summer RV trip, making reservations, etc. When school was out in May we had planned on flying our grandson, Kellen, in from California and spending the month of June RVing the "Michigan Circle". The Michigan Circle is a route along Lake Michigan on the Michigan side on the way up and then back down on the Wisconsin side. There are lots of sites, lighthouses, etc. to see.

Several months ago, before the coronavirus issue, I had ordered maps, and brochures of various areas along the route. I have received several and they keep coming. It is clear we will not be able to make this trip this year with the coronavirus still playing out and none of us knowing when it will end.  Here are a few of the brochures I have received.

There are some really interesting places to see in a part of the country we have never RVed in before. We also have Snow Bird Florida friends who live up there who we wanted to visit with as well, particularly since we couldn't go to Florida this past winter.

I will save the brochures. Maybe we can make the trip in 2021. With the coronavirus news that keeps coming out it is getting hard to make any plans, much less RV trip plans.

Stay inside and stay safe.

 

March 29th - Moving Homer out of the Way

I got a call this morning from the fellow I rent space from to store Homer. He asked if I could come out and move Homer so another fellow could get his camper out. I loaded up the starting battery, tools, and the keys and headed out there.

When I put Homer in storage out there last fall I was concerned about mice so I put out three sticky traps. One in the engine compartment and two inside. Immediately upon opening the hood we saw the trap got one mouse. I assumed you didn't want a picture of it. He was not a pretty sight. I hope he was the only one. I put the battery in Homer. He started right up and I pulled him out of the way. Inside by the driver seat was a sticky trap but fortunately no mouse. Good. I think the other sticky trap was in the bathroom but I didn't go back there to look for it.

I noticed that the backup camera was not working. I'm hoping the mice didn't eat the video cable. They had done that when we bought Homer in 2015. I had to buy and run a new cable from the front to back. No fun. I am hoping maybe there is just a bad connection somewhere. I'll work on it when I get him home next month.

After I pulled Homer back inside the building I took the sticky trap that was inside the cab and put it up under the hood, just in case another one is wandering around. I left the battery in since I will be bringing Homer home in a few weeks to de-winterize and ready him for any possible trips we may be able to take with the coronavirus situation. Our June Michigan Circle trip is cancelled. I doubt Kellen will be able to fly here and I doubt it will be all clear for camping and traveling then. I think this summer is just going to be a traveling bust.

March 23rd - Coronavirus Affecting Truck Repair

Thursday, March 18th - Moe (our truck) to the shop.

On the18th I had an appointment to take Moe to the Ram dealership because the oil temperature gauge has been acting funky. When the truck was totally cold that morning it showed the oil temperature was 122 degrees. It was only 45 degrees outside so the oil temperature should have been the same. Driving down the road the last several trips I noticed that the oil temperature would swing all over the place. Making the gauge information virtually worthless. 

After I sat in the waiting room for two hours they said they had to keep it overnight so they could check it when the engine was totally cold. They gave me a ride home. Friday they called and said that they were communicating with Chrysler about the problem. Apparently there is a miscommunication issue between the gauge and the engine somewhere. Now, due to the Coronavirus, the gurus at Chrysler are working from home and response time is sketchy at best. The dealer hoped to hear back from Chrysler Friday afternoon but apparently didn't because I haven't heard back from them. Why couldn't it just be an easy fix, like a sensor?

I want to get this fixed before "camping season" but now it looks like there may be no camping season or traveling season for that matter. Crazy times.

March 18th - Truck to the Shop and Looking Back

On our last RV trip I noticed that the oil temperature reading in the truck was sporadic. Since I am almost always towing, oil temperature and oil pressure are really important. Yesterday when I got in and started him up the oil temperature was at 122 degrees when the engine was totally cold. The water temperature was 55 degrees, the same as it was outside. The oil temperature should have been the same.  I got an appointment to take it in today. After waiting two hours while they diagnosed it, the mechanic advised that they had to have the truck when it was totally cold to determine which component was acting up. They have time to work on it again tomorrow so I just left it there.  I'm glad I thought to get this checked out before the towing season begins. I guess I will soon find out how well my extended warranty works.

Today I thought it would be fun to look back at pictures of our very first RV trip in 1982. A group of us from Perryville went to the World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. At that time we had a 1973 twenty-one foot long Concord pull behind trailer towed by a 1978 Cadillac. Here is a picture of us stopped at one point.

It was a good first trip but not without issues. Outside Knoxville we made reservations at an RV Park none of us had been to before. When we got there, because of the high demand for sites due to the World's Fair, they had cut new "sites" into the side of the hill. Our site was one of those. There was about two feet on each side of the trailer.You can see the dug out area on the left and the built-up area on the right.  Here is a picture.

Notice how level the sitting area and picnic table was. Our tow vehicle wouldn't even fit on the site. Here is a picture from below.

I didn't complain about our site because two others in our group had sites which were literally just wide spots in the road. Here is a picture of their "campsites". Notice the great fire pit location.

 We've come a long way.

March 16tlh - Blog Appearance, Summer Trip, and YouTube TV

I have been trying to make some changes in the blog appearance. Many things on the layout page do not work as I think they should. Today I'm trying out a new "theme", I like it better for now. I need to keep experimenting. I bought a used book "Google Blogger for Dummies" which I hope will help me figure things out so I can present a more "sophisticated" blog page. LOL

We were planning on flying Grandson Kellen in from California when school lets out on Memorial Day Weekend. We were scheduling about a month long RV trip known as the "Michigan Circle" during the month of June. Now due to the Coronavirus his school has been closed indefinitely. We must now assume that they will extend the school year to make up for this time off. That being the case we have decided not to make any reservations for this trip until we learn how this is going to all shake out.

Here in Perryville the schools are closing on Wednesday and all meetings and events with over fifty people have been cancelled. Even going to church has become an individual decision. I am glad to see that people are taking this pandemic seriously.

We went to Walmart earlier today for a quick trip to pick up a few essentials. We found the shelves in many areas bare. We wanted potatoes but the only potatoes available were sweet potatoes and high-priced baby potatoes. The frozen foods cases were about empty, although ice cream is still in great supply.  I didn't check out the toilet paper availability. (We have plenty.) Many other shelves were bare as well. It is all a little weird I must say.

At home we are trying out YouTube TV to replace Dish. It is accessed through an App on our phones. Here is the App on my phone.

YouTube TV is less than half the price per month of Dish and it, along with Netflix and Amazon Prime, provides all the TV we need to watch. We purchased a Chromecast adapter so that we can cast anything from our phones to the TV. It is pretty cool. When traveling we will no longer need to pack the big, clunky dish and tripod. All we will need is a Chromecast adapter for the RV's TV, a charged phone, and an internet connection. In Florida we will get internet through the cable company while at the RV Park. There is a learning curve with YouTube TV because you use your phone rather than a remote but I think it is going to work out fine.

It continues to rain here so I'm not getting Homer or Marge out of storage. Since our April flights have been cancelled I have plenty of time to get them both home and de-winterized before we head out anywhere.

March 14th - Travel Plans Change

Well, like everyone else, we have had to change our upcoming travel plans.

Kelly had a ticket to fly out to the San Francisco Bay area of California on April 4th to be on hand for the birth of our third grandchild. I had a ticket to fly out on April 14th after my CT scan and hormone treatment. Due to the Coronavirus spread we cancelled both trips yesterday. Our age and immune compromised systems make it too risky to travel, especially by airplane. The virus is spreading in California. My kids out there have been mandated to work from home. Yesterday grandson Kellen's school was closed.

The plan now is to drive out there leaving on April 14th unless further warnings are put in place or the virus gets considerably worse in California and/or anywhere in between making it unwise for us to out.

Our airline tickets were non-refundable but we have credit to purchase other tickets within a year. If it becomes clear that we shouldn't drive out on the 14th, we will just wait and book flights at a later date.  It is disconcerting how everything is now up in the air. We were planning a month-long RV trip with grandson Kellen in June of the Michigan Circle. He would fly here from California to make the trip with us. They are talking about the spread of the virus still being an issue a couple of months from now so I'm holding back making any reservations for that trip now as well.

All I can say is WASH YOUR HANDS THOROUGHLY, DON'T SHAKE HANDS, AND AVOID LARGE CROWDS, and maybe we can through this quickly and return to "normal".

March 2nd - Hail Storm - March 3rd - Exercising Marge's Generator and Battery Maintenance

March 2nd:

At 7:30 p.m. we had a hail storm at the house. It was nickel size hail which really came down hard. We thought it was going to break some windows but luckily didn't. Here are a couple of pictures of the hail on the deck after it stopped.

March 3rd:

Today we checked the truck for hail damage but luckily didn't find any. I hate that my most expensive vehicle has to sit out at times like this but our garage just wasn't designed for a crew cab dually truck.

I then headed over to the storage shed to exercise the generator in Marge and charge the batteries. I do this once a month to keep both in top shape. When I first start her up she blows a little black soot as the choke gets the idle where it needs to be. Once she warms up the smoke stops. Here is a picture.

I have adjusted the carburetor so that at idle, without a load, the generator puts out about 130 volts. I have a plug-in voltmeter nearby that helps me monitor the voltage output. Here is a picture of the meter showing the generator running with no load.

The plug next to the voltmeter is for powering the charger/converter nearby. The converter/converter converts the 120 volt AC to 12 volt DC for all the house lights and charges the batteries. Nearby there is a battery cutoff switch which kills the batteries when the RV is not being used. Without this switch installed phantom loads will drain down the batteries in just a few short weeks. Here is a picture of the set up.  The red box is a voltmeter I installed that shows me the condition of the house batteries and the generator battery when being charged and when resting. The cutoff switch is the red lever below the red box. On the left of the picture is a silver box which is the charger/converter.

Upon the generator getting up to speed and generating electric the charger/converter kicks in and starts putting a bulk charge on the batteries. Here is a picture of the voltmeter with just the charger/converter drawing power from the generator. It pulls down several volts.

Once the generator motor is warmed up I put a half load on the generator by running a 1500 watt space heater. When exercising the generator you want to not only run the motor but also put a half electric load on the generator so that the electrical windings all stay in good shape. Here is a picture of the heater I sit outside on full power to put a load on the generator. 

The generator is a 4000 watt model. The 1500 watt heater and charger/converter provide a half load. Here is a picture of the voltmeter with both the heater and converter/charger running.  122 volts is perfect.

When we installed the generator some years ago we installed its own battery. The thought being that if the house batteries went dead and the generator was connected to them we then couldn't start the generator to charge the batteries.  I could have gotten by with a lawn mower battery but opted to spend the extra money to get a car battery with plenty of reserve power. Here is a picture of the generator battery box which is located above the generator fuel tank near the generator. I checked the water level in it today while I was exercising the generator. It is good to go.

While the generator continued to be exercised I checked the condition of the house batteries. Some years back I opted to install two 6 volt golf car batteries in lieu of one 12 volt deep cycle battery. Golf car batteries have a lot more plates which converts to a lot more electric storage capacity. I had room in the battery compartment for two batteries. Here is a picture of the current batteries. This set is about two years old.

While the batteries fit in the compartment, there is not a lot of room on top to check the water levels periodically. I use a little mirror that I shine a flashlight on to see how much water is in each cell. If water needs to be added I have a little bottle I can get up in there.  Here is a picture of me checking the water level today with a flashlight. All cells were good.

RV generators require maintenance and regular attention. We don't use the generator that often but when we do it is invaluable. We used it the most ever on our trip to Newfoundland last summer. On one part of the trip we were in an RV park with no hookups for five days. We ran the generator several hours each day to charge the batteries and charge our cell phones. Even with that usage we only put 59 hours on the generator all year. We also use it when we pull into rest areas or truck stops to microwave a meal while traveling or when staying at a Cracker Barrel or Walmart overnight.

Having a generator in a fifth wheel trailer is a luxury so we don't mind the extra maintenance.

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March 2, 2020 - Last Chemo Treatment - Let's Go RVing!

Today I had my last chemotherapy treatment. It has been a long eighteen weeks, particularly since it dashed our wintering in Florida this year. I received a certificate from the Siteman Cancer Center. Here is a picture of me outside with the certificate as we head home.

Here is a close-up of the wording of the certificate for those interested.

They also gave me a very nice metal "Survivor" key chain. Here is a picture of it. It is the size of a silver dollar.

I go back on April 13th for a CT Scan, blood work, doctor visit, and to get my next hormone therapy shot. My doctor said the CT Scan will give him a baseline for the future. My PSA is once again negligible, like it was after my operation four years ago.

With the CT scan and hormone therapy dates lined out I can now buy a ticket to fly out to California to see my new granddaughter who is due to arrive on April 12th. Kelly is flying out on April 4th so that she is there for the big event, as she was last time. I will stay four or five days and then we will both fly home AND MAKE PLANS TO USE THE RVs!!!!!!!

We have a Carri-Yals rally in Illinois at Rend Lake in May and another in Shelbyville, Illinois in June. We have made reservations for both but may miss the June rally if that is the time that Kellen can come to Missouri and go on an RV trip with us.

This year we want to spend about a month doing the "Michigan Circle". It is a road trip around Lake Michigan, half in Michigan and half in Wisconsin. We also want to spend some time visiting our Michigan friends (from the RV park in Florida) while we are up there. As soon as we establish Kellen's summer vacation time we can begin to make plans and reservations. We have friends we met at the Alburqueque Balloon Fiesta that may be able to make the trip with us. It will be great fun and a chance to see a part of the country we have never seen before.

Kellen said he didn't want to spend the entire summer with us as he has for the last several years. He wants to spend some of his summer vacation with his buddies in California. We understand that, although we don't like it. At thirteen grandma and grandpa clearly aren't the "draw" they used to be. He is a good traveler and I know he has enjoyed all the places we have taken him over the years. Hopefully many good memories for him as I know our memories with him are special.

I'll keep you posted as our plans materialize.

Tomorrow, or the next day, I will go to the storage unit and exercise Marge's generator. I'll take a few pics of the process. It is boring to just sit there while it runs under half load for at least forty-five minutes. I have been thrilled at how well it has been running since I adjusted the governor (which many suggested only a certified generator mechanic should do.) I obviously ignored their advice. You will recall we had some issues with it in Alburqueque at the high altitude as well as a gas line leak. When I get Marge home I will need to change the generator oil and oil filter. An easy job but messy (I always manage to get a lot of oil on me.) She will also need to be dewinterized and the batteries checked out thoroughly.

LET THE RV SEASON BEGIN!