July 28th-29th - Homer Projects

Yesterday I drained the water tanks which had been sitting with bleach in them for a couple of days to get rid of the RV antifreeze taste. While doing that I noticed that the faucet strainers didn't seem to be at full flow. I took each one out. Both were BADLY blocked up.  The first picture is of the bathroom strainer. It not only had sandy grit in it but also two sizeable pieces of white plastic. I have no idea how they got in the water tank and lines.

The next picture is of the kitchen strainer. It too was blocked with sandy debris plus had a number of tiny pieces of white plastic in it as well.

Once the strainers were cleaned and reinstalled the water flowed as it should from each faucet. I have not used a water filter on Homer because he is rarely hooked to city water, only the tank filled. Maybe I need to consider using a filter.

The second project on Homer yesterday was to make an extension rod so that I could use a drill to raise and lower the back stabilizing jacks. I have never used them before because we move around frequently with Homer and I haven't been concerned with a little shaking as we walked around inside. I was quite surprised that the jacks were not seized up nor hard to crank down. My friend Gary gave me a 3/4 inch socket to use for the project. I welded it to a 14 inch long piece of rebar which chucks into my drill. It worked fine so I painted it silver to inhibit rust and to make it easy to see on the ground. Here is a picture of the finished project.

I'm waiting for the new fire/co alarm to arrive today so I can install it. With that Homer will be ready for the next adventure. I just wish it wasn't so danged hot to travel anywhere.

July 16th-24th - Fort Wayne, Indiana - Oxford, Michigan - Indianapolis, Indiana

On the 16th we headed to Fort Wayne Indiana for the first stop on a three-stop trip north. We driveway mooched at Jim and Marilyn's for three days. Jim and I were going to go to a car show on Saturday morning but Friday night it poured rain and the event was cancelled. We did get to go to the stock car races in Angola, Indiana, on Saturday night. It was a nice track and we had excellent weather. Sunday we all went to a winery in Fort Wayne. Here is a picture of Kelly, Marilyn and Jim at the winery. The wines were very good and we had a nice charcuterie board of meats and cheeses as well.

Monday Jim, Kelly and I visited the Fireman's Museum in downtown Fort Wayne. It was really interesting. Here is a picture of their oldest fire pumper in the process of being restored.

Here is a picture of how they hung the fabric hoses for them to dry between uses. The area is about three stories tall.

This is a picture of the museum, which is housed in the oldest firehouse in Fort Wayne. The section on the right was the original building, complete with stable areas for the horses. The firemen could be dressed and the horses hitched up in 90 seconds.

It is very nice museum with a number of old firetrucks and lots of firemen's memorabilia. I learned that even to this day the city does not provide food for the firemen who live there for days on end. The firemen weekly designate a "cook" for the week and he/she shops for food and divides the bill among the firemen. I also learned that the firemen provide their own bedding. They strip it at the end of their shift and take it home to wash it.

We had a nice visit with Jim and Marilyn and seeing some sites in Fort Wayne.

After three days in Fort Wayne we headed to Oxford, Michigan, to visit three of our Florida neighbors. They are three sisters and their husbands - Chris and Marj, Dave and Jean, and George and Janet. We circled the wagons in Chris's yard. It worked out well because the first night we had to take refuge in their basement rec room as a major wind, rain, and hail storm passed through. Here is a picture of the rain storm through the screen door. It was POURING HARD. Luckily the hail was only pea sized.

The next day they took us on a tour of the area and we went to a place in the Town of Metamora called Hoard House for lunch. Here is a picture of the plaque which describes it and a picture of the building.

The inside of the building was quite interesting. On the ground floor some of the flooring is made of sawed planks of wood carved to fit together to make a tight floor. Here is a picture.

Another part is made of slices of  tree trunks set in concrete. Here is a picture of a section of it.

Most interesting was the floor upstairs, which is the original floor from 1850, when the upstairs area was broken up into sleeping areas. You can see where the original walls were 170 years ago. It is now used as a dining hall. Here are a couple of pictures.

Here is a picture of the group waiting to order a marvelous lunch. They are on the left - Dave, Kelly, and Janet. On the right - George, Chris, Marj, and Jean. Great friends and a fun group.

After lunch we drove around the area which for decades encompassed dozens of huge gravel and rock pits. Most of these areas have now been turned into subdivisions with water filling in the old quarry holes to make private lakes. The area is now big horse country. There are huge horse farms throughout the area where horses are bred, boarded, traded, and ridden. Big money!

We left Michigan Friday morning and headed to Indianapolis for Kelly's nephew's delayed wedding reception on Saturday. Friday night Kelly's brother, Andy, smoked pork steaks and provided a nice meal for all the sisters and their husbands. 

Nephew Andrew and his wife Maggie were married during Covid and are now expecting a girl in November. Due to Covid the reception was postponed until this past Saturday night.  It was the first time all of the McKerrow siblings had been together in years. Here are a couple of pictures. The first is Maggie, Andrew, Andy, and Tana. 

These are the McKerrow siblings from left to right: Alexa, Nancy, Joan, Andy, Kelly, Mary, and Ann.

I can't remember the last time they were all together since they are from North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, and Texas. It was a fun time.

Here is a picture of Homer at the campsite in Indianapolis. He's small and doesn't take up much space.

I thought the campground looked familiar when we pulled in and I later realized that is is where Jim and I camped when we went to the Indy 500 about seven years ago. I think we may have even been on the same site.

We had a nice trip home, arriving at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, and then did all the unloading of clothes and food. I had several things to fix on Homer once home. One was the shower hose. The stainless steel cover had just untwisted so it was an easy fix. The showerhead is a high pressure. After I screwed the hose back to it water would barely come out. What the heck? I took it apart, blew through it, and some little calcium deposits, or sand, came out. It then worked great again.  

Another project was to work on getting the RV anti-freeze taste out of the fresh water. When I de-winterized Homer I ran a lot of water through the system to get the anti-freeze out but it wasn't enough. Although the residual anti-freeze is not poisonous, it tastes bad. We didn't drink the water but even brushing our teeth with that water we had a bad taste. I drained the water tank and filled it again adding two cups of bleach. I then ran water through all the lines and I am letting it sit for a day. I will then drain it again and see how it tastes. 

Before leaving on the trip I put new batteries in the fire alarm/co detector but it didn't seem to work consistently when I tested it. I pulled it down and it was dated March of 2006 so I decided it was time to order a new one. It will arrive in a couple of days. It is identical to the old one so it will be a simple install. 

Our trip was 1412 miles and Homer ran like a top averaging 8.3 miles to the gallon at 65 mph with the AC on. I'm going to schedule him in for an oil change (only due to the length of time since the last oil change), a parking brake pedal adjustment, and a lubrication of the cruise control system, which stuck on me once.

Our next planned trip with Homer is to the "King Biscuit Blues Festival" in Helena, Arkansas, in October if it isn't ungodly hot. The venues are outside and Home sits out in a field in the sun all day. Last year we left early because the heat was so oppressive we couldn't enjoy ourselves either at the venues or sitting around Homer. Hopefully this year will be cooler weather. We've gone in the past when we needed blankets to sit out.