July 17th-29th, 2023 - One of Our California Families Here for an Extended Visit

On the 17th of July our Wiseman family arrived from California to spend two weeks at our house. The plan was for mom and dad to work online during the day while grandma and grandpa kept the six-year-old, Violet, and the three-year-old, Wren, entertained.

Coming up with things to keep them busy eight hours a day proved challenging but we rose to the task. We couldn't hang around the house because the girls would bother mom and dad, who were on video meetings, on a regular basis. The following is not in chronological order, I lost track of what day we did what.

We spent one day at Lake Perry where the girls swam while I cut the grass and later entertained themselves at the lake lot. Violet with a little frog and the girls entertaining themselves with the pool noodles.

We spent another day at the Perry Park Center where half of the gym floor was set up with activities for 3 - 7-year-olds. Very nice and well-done.

We had a pool set up in the backyard and they enjoyed it on several days enduring our hot Missouri weather. We loved it as grandma and grandpa could just sit around and watch with a fan blowing on us. LOL

One day we had chalk painting on the sidewalk. They had a ball and thoroughly enjoyed getting paint all over themselves and then getting squirted off before being allowed inside.

One day we went to the movie. It was Wren's first movie and Violet's second. They enjoyed it and were really well-behaved.  A nice lunch followed. 

Another morning we went to the playground equipment on French Lane but it was just too hot. All the equipment was too hot to play on and there was no shade. We put their suits on in the car and went to the kids' water park just down the street. Luckily there was a little shade for grandma and grandpa making it tolerable. The girls certainly kept cool as they ran from one water feature to another.

On another day the Dinosaur Museum in Ste. Genevieve had scheduled activities for kids, so we took them. They colored and cut out a Triceratops to wear as a crown as they walked around to look at all the exhibits. Great fun and a great museum. I highly recommend it.

We also took them to the Discovery Museum in Cape Girardeau one day. It was a really big hit. It is in an old building downtown with two floors of play areas - a "construction area", a play house, a beauty salon, a stage to perform on, etc. They were really busy the whole time and were worn out.

One afternoon Aunt Alexa showed them how to do Avocado and Honey Facials. They applied the "goo" to each other, to Aunt Alexa, and to grandma. Grandpa got his hands done.

Saturday the 29th the visit ended. We thoroughly enjoyed having them for an extended visit since we see seldom see them. 

While in St. Louis earlier in the month, Annie purchased a brand-new car. It needed to get to California so Tuesday Adam left to drive it home. He was able to take a lot of their stuff so that at the airport Annie only had to deal with one suitcase, one car seat, and the girls. 

We took the three of them to the airport in St. Louis on Saturday morning to find the parking garage full. They sent us to a $20.00 per day lot but when we got there it was full as well. The plan changed. Kelly would drop us all off with the luggage and I would help Annie get the luggage checked while Kelly drove around until I came out to be picked up. 

I don't know what was going on but the terminal was crazy. There was a crowd at the Southwest terminal like we've never seen before. The lines to check in at the kiosks were out the door and down the sidewalk. The entire inside of the terminal was packed with people from one end to the other. After checking in at the kiosk we had at least a fifteen-to-twenty-minute wait before we could drop off the checked luggage. They must have been shorthanded because the luggage conveyor stayed full most of the time and they wouldn't accept more luggage until it cleared off completely. After the luggage was dropped off I said goodbye and called Kelly to come pick me up. 

The three of them got through security rather quickly and had time to grab some lunch before boarding. It is always fun to entertain young children in an airport but to make matters worse after they got on the plane it did not take off for over an hour as they waited for a crew to arrive. Absolutely crazy. They did all arrive home safely Saturday evening and called to let us know.

Sad to see them go but now we must get ready for a campout that begins in Illinois on Monday. Busy, busy, busy!

P.S. I need your input. Some people, maybe all, are notified that a new blog has posted. I send an email reminder. Some have told me they don't need the email reminder. Please let me know if you are notified by Blogspot or if you need the email to know a new one had posted.

Mike

July 10 - 16, 2023 - Washing and Waxing Homer; Fox; Needed Repair, New Battery; New Solenoid and Starter

For me, the absolute worst part about owning an RV is trying to keep it clean and shiny. The fifth wheel was the worst because of its size and height. It would take me five full days, one for the roof and one for each side. Two years ago in Florida I paid to have it washed and ceramic coated. The ceramic coating held up pretty well until we sold it. 

Homer needed the annual cleaning treatment. I got him out of the storage shed on Monday to begin cleaning him up for the camping season. I worked most of the day cleaning the roof. At one time in his distant past, Homer received a good amount of hail damage on his roof. All of the hail divots gather dirt that doesn't wash off the roof with rains. The entire roof was much dirtier than I expected but the divots were the worst. After washing the entire roof with a soft brush, I had to get on my hands and knees with a hard, natural bristle brush and scrub out each divot. The process took most of the day. With the hot weather it was all I wanted to tackle in one day. 

I didn't work on Homer on Tuesday. Wednesday I began cleaning the front and back caps. They are fiberglass and fiberglass is porous and it oxidizes. These two characteristics allow black streaks to form as dirt is regularly carried off the roof. Holiday Rambler is a well-made rig but for whatever reason they did not install gutters to channel the dirty water away. The fifth wheel had gutters.  

Because the hood sticks out, the only way I can reach the front cap on Homer to wash and wax it is to use a scaffold I made several years ago. Here is a picture of my scaffold after I set it up to work on the back cap.

The scaffold board is a twelve foot long 2 x 10 with a 2 x 4 attached to each side to keep it from bowing when I walk on it.  While it is quite sturdy, it is REALLY HEAVY! When not in us it sits out in the back yard on a brick pile. By leaving it there I don't have to carry it too far to use it. Once I get it in place it is another chore to get it on the ladder rungs by myself.

Regular washing, like washing a car, does not touch the black streaks. Since fiberglass is porous the black streaks actually penetrate the fiberglass. They have to be scrubbed out a little at a time. Regular soap will not work. I have found the best cleaner for this job is "Awesome" from the Dollar Tree. I have to be careful with it though because it can remove paint. (Don't ask how I learned that little fact.) With a LOT of elbow grease, I got the front and back caps cleaned and virtually all black streaks removed for another year. It was critical to get the black streaks out, not only for appearance, but because instead of waxing the caps this year I decided to use a product called "Polyglow". Polyglow is a clear polymer product developed to maintain fiberglass boats.  It seals the surface with a plastic-like coating. Any dirt on the surface is encapsulated until the Polyglow is chemically removed or wears off in time. The product really makes the fiberglass shine and is much more durable than wax. It is a liquid and just wipes on with an applicator. It is suggested to wipe on four to six coats. I applied six coats on each cap. I had used this product several times over the years on the front and back caps of the fifth wheel. I was very pleased with how it held up compared to wax. It is so much easier to apply than the "wax on, wax off" method. For whatever reason, until now, I never used it on Homer. 

I worked all day Wednesday on cleaning and applying Polyglow to the front and back caps. Wednesday it was 89 degrees with a "feels like" 99 degrees. I drank a lot of water and worked in the shade but the heat still wore me down after about four hours. I am happy with the "Polyglowed" caps. This protection will hold up much better than wax and should slow down the black streaks penetrating the fiberglass and making the rig look dingy.  Here are pictures of the back and front caps.

I still had the sides to do. Thursday, after my noon Rotary meeting, I got ambitious and washed the driver side of Homer. The black streaks are an issue on the sides as well. The sides are not fiberglass but painted aluminum. Black streaks are everywhere down the sides because there is no gutter to direct the dirty roof water away from the surface. Fortunately, the black streaks are easier to rub out of the aluminum paint.  It was really hot but I got the side done before I melted. Here's a section before. It is hard to get a good picture of the extent of the streaks.

Friday morning I started early on washing the passenger side.  Washing the passenger side went quicker because there is a patio awning on that side. The awning extends down most of the length of the side. It catches the dirt from the roof and directs it to each end, rather than down the side of the rig as it does on the driver side. Once completed I took a break and went to lunch with a friend.

Saturday morning, before 7:00 a.m., I started back on the project.  I was lucky to have cloud cover most of the day. I got the driver side waxed by mid-morning with the intent of waxing the passenger side on Sunday. After taking an hour break, I decided that, since I had cloud cover, I should trudge on and wax the passenger side. Saturday afternoon Homer was all washed and waxed. Yippee!

Here are pictures of the waxed sides. They shine but not like the caps. Apparently, the blue paint at the bottom was not clear coated from the factory. It has faded and even with waxing doesn't shine much. Next time I am going to Polyglow the blue painted sections as well.

Sunday morning, I washed the windows to complete the project. I am glad this task is over for another year. I wish I could find someone locally who would clean and wax Homer to my satisfaction. I would like to just sit back and watch for a change. LOL 

While working on the front cap I heard this odd sound coming from the woods behind our house. It was like no animal sound I ever heard before. I looked several times but saw nothing. Later I was standing by the ladder and heard the sound again. When I looked to the woods this is what I saw less than fifty feet away from me.

He was looking at me and making a "barking" sound. The sound wasn't like a dog bark but more like a guttural sound. He continued this "barking" until I moved around the ladder toward him. He then ran into the woods but stopped and watched me a little longer. In twenty-nine years of living here I have never seen a gray fox before. He was considerably larger than the brown fox we see on occasion when walking in the City Park in the mornings. Kelly looked it up and the males make a "barking" sound while the females make a sound like a woman screaming. So Cool! We have deer in the yard almost daily but never before a gray fox in the open like this. I wish I had videoed him. If I see him again and he "barks" I will definitely get it on video. 

While working on the back cap, I noticed that another one of the ladder mounts was pulling loose from the wall.  Here is a picture. They are just riveted on to the fiberglass cap. This picture shows how it has pulled loose compared to the one on the left.

The other two mounts on that side of the ladder came loose at various times in the past. I repaired each with a mount used to mount stainless steel handrails on larger boats. This mount is much heavier duty than the factory mount and requires much larger mounting screws, not just rivets. In fact, in prior repairs the mounting screws wouldn't hold at all. I had to drill larger holes and use toggle bolts. Here is a picture of one of the replacements I installed sometime back. It has stayed tight and has worked perfectly. I now get to install another.

It is a pain to make this repair. The hardest part is getting the horizonal bar free from the ladder. The mounting "nuts" inside the ladder tube are metal and rust. As a result the screw won't break loose. Removing the screw without damaging the ladder tubing is a challenge. It is critical that the ladder stays well-affixed to the camper as I climb up and down it periodically to clean the roof, inspect it, etc. I looked up the receipt for the last stainless-steel mount I purchased. Upon getting online to order another I found that in a few years the price has gone up 50% and the cost of shipping has gone up 30%. I should have bought an extra last time. Hindsight is always 20-20.

Since I have had Homer here at the house, I noticed that the chassis battery was not holding a good charge. My load tester indicated that the battery was "weak". I pulled out my paperwork and found out that I had just replaced this battery last August. The battery replaced last year was from AutoZone and was six years old. I was happy with that, so I went back to AutoZone last year to buy the same battery with a three-year warranty. On Thursday afternoon I pulled out the battery and took it in to AutoZone. They tested it and it showed "good" but only 52% charged. I told them that my load tester showed it was "weak" and after sitting overnight the battery would only be at 12.1 volts. They finally agreed to give me a new battery and suggested I bring Homer by so that they could test the charging system. 

Friday, after finishing the washing process, I took Homer to Autozone. They tested the charging system and everything passed. While good to go on the battery I had another issue. Recently when turning the key to start Homer it often would just click. After turning the ignition off and back on the starter would engage. In my experience this would be the starter solenoid going bad. While out I stopped by the repair shop. My mechanic agreed it was probably the starter solenoid but he said now there is a second solenoid on the starter and it could be that solenoid. To my knowledge the starter is the original. We decided that it would be best to install a new solenoid and a new starter. Doing this now would be much better than having an issue on the road. I made an appointment so it will be fixed before we head out for our trips in August.

Sunday is a well-earned day of rest. Our Wiseman family from California are coming here to stay for two weeks. Kelly and I will entertain granddaughters, Violet and Wren, ages six and three, every day while mom and dad work online. We are anxious to get to spend this extended time with them, but it may end up more tiring for this old man than washing and waxing Homer. LOL

  

June 30th - July 4th, 2023 - Dollhouse Repair; Trip to Panama; Truck Bed Hooks; Easel; Backup Camera Screen Mount.

DOLLHOUSE DOOR:

I have been making repairs to the old dollhouse for the California granddaughters, who arrive in Perryville on July 16th. The final project was fixing the front door frame and door. For my birthday my daughter Erin bought me a woodburning set to use with my wood carving projects. I used it to carve a new pattern in the dollhouse front door. I found it quite difficult to make straight lines in the door due to the grain of the wood burning the wood at different rates. Here is a picture.

The door frame was repaired with wood filler and then painted white while the threshold was painted black before the door was re-hung.

To keep the door closed I put two tacks in the bottom of the door and glued a magnet in a hole drilled in the threshold.  It works. I thought the white door with white trim looked rather bland, so I painted it yellow. Here is a picture. Pretty snazzy.

Daughter Annie purchased two sets of appropriate-sized doll families for the girls to use with the dollhouse. They arrived a few days ago and I think the girls will be entertained for hours. (I hope so anyway.) At some time in the future, I will have to get this dollhouse to California along with the chest I fixed up for grandson Free.

PANAMA HERE WE COME:

I have always wanted to see the Panama Canal since reading about it in grade school. Friday June 30th we booked a week-long trip to Panama in February of 2024 and purchased our airline tickets flying out of Miami. This is not a cruise but rather a Panama excursion with two days in the rain forest, Panama City tours, and a boat ride through the canal. It was booked through Caravan Tours. This will be our first tour with them. It will be interesting to see how their tour compares to our prior tours with Grand European and Insight Vacations. Friends, Bob and Ronnie, are going as well and they have used Caravan Tours in the past and were quite pleased with everything. 😃

TRUCK BED HOOKS:

We may be driving the truck to Florida in the fall rather than the car due to needing room for all the "stuff "we want to take down. The truck does not have a bed cover, so I started looking for a bed cargo net to purchase. I went out to measure the truck bed and found that the front two tie down hooks in the bed were missing. 

These are essential for tying down a cargo net. I got online and found some OEM (original equipment manufacturer) Toyota hooks. They were $13.50 each and with shipping and handling totaled just over $38.00. I decided I didn't want to pay that much. I have lots of small pieces of scrap metal of various shapes in a bin in the garage. I decided to make my own hooks. In looking through my stash I found part of an old bike rack that would work. Here is a picture of the metal bike rack piece next to the hook I needed to fashion beside it.

With the help of my vise, a large pipe wrench, and a large hammer, I was able to bend two pieces of the metal rod into two "U" shapes. I then had to weld flat metal pieces on the bottom of each "U" for a way to mount the hooks to the bed. I am not a good welder by any means and welding small pieces like this is difficult using a stick welder. It is challenging to attach the 8-inch welder ground clamp to a small hoop like this. Then I had to hold the hoop against the flat mounting piece while striking a spark to start welding. After several attempts I did get the job done, although it wasn't pretty. Once the welds were ground smooth and holes drilled where needed, I painted the hooks.

They aren't perfect but they will work. I then went to the hardware store and purchased four metric bolts and washers to mount them to the bed of the truck. 

The bolts and washers cost $6.00. If I had purchased the OEM hooks, I still would have had to spend the $6.00 for bolts and washers. I then would have had over $44.00 invested rather than $6.00. I think it was worth my effort on a very hot Saturday afternoon. Now I need to get back to measuring for a cargo net. 

EASEL:

John asked me to make a sizeable easel for displaying a picture in the Perry County Military Museum. Last year I had made three smaller easels to use to display the branch of service plaques at the funeral home. This one is ready to be put to use.

BACKUP CAMERA SCREEN MOUNT:

For my birthday Kelly bought me a backup camera for the truck.  It is really handy for hooking up the utility trailer and the truck is too old to have one built in. A couple of weeks ago I installed it with the screen mounted to the dash with a suction cup. All worked well until on Sunday when I took the truck to church and it sat out on in the hot sun in the parking lot. When I came back to the truck the screen had fallen down onto the counsel. 

I reattached the suction cup but between the textured dash material and the heat, the suction cup would not hold. I needed a Plan "B". 

There is nowhere else on the dash to attach a suction cup so in looking over the situation I noted that a sunken area on the counsel below the dash may work. Plan B was then to make something for the suction cup to stick to down there. It turned out to be more of a challenge than I expected. 

I cut a piece of wood to fit in the opening. The block was still recessed and the suction cup would not stick to it. I added a second block. The second block raised the block high enough for the suction cup, but the screen couldn't to turn to the angle I wanted for viewing. I cut the block on a 45-degree angle to correct this problem. This worked, except then the Velcro I was using to hold the double block in the recess of the counsel, could not hold the weight of everything attached. I wedged a piece of foam rope in the bottom to hold the block in place. Now the block stayed in place, but once again the suction cup just would not stick to it. I decided that the suction cup was not sticking because the wooden block was not as wide as the suction cup base itself. On to Plan "C". 

I needed to make the surface area larger for the suction cup to stick to. To do that I needed to attach a larger piece of wood. To mount this piece I had to glue a spacer to the original block and then cut another piece of wood to cover the entire area. This piece was large enough for the entire suction cup to adhere to. Here is a picture of the final wood mount painted black and installed. 

Unfortunately, after numerous attempts, the suction cup still would not stick to the wood. I needed a Plan "D". 

I decided to eliminate the suction cup portion of the mounting bracket and replace it with a wooden bracket which could be screwed into the mounting board pictured above. The wooden bracket would be attached to the remaining port of the screen bracket by the angle adjusting bolt. Here is a picture of the wooden bracket I made to eliminate the suction cup mount. The holes on top are where the bolt will go through to attach the swivel portion of the screen bracket. (Sounds complicated but it really is not.)

This bracket was painted black and screwed to the larger mounting board previously made. The pivoting portion of the screen mount was then attached. Here is a picture of my work awaiting the attachment of the swivel ball on the screen mount. Actually, after a fitting, I had to lower the bracket so that it attached to the board at the bottom, not in the middle.

The rotating ball portion of the screen mount was attached and the installation complete. 

Everything is staying in place while the truck is sitting in the garage. Time will tell if it will all hold together bouncing down the road. I'm also hopeful it won't rattle. Road update to follow.