Happy New Year!

Thursday - Another quiet day. I put away some of the outside Christmas decorations. But still have the lights on the shed. The “good luck” lunch at the clubhouse was black eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread. It was delicious, and it appears to be a southern tradition. The green collards are the color of money, the peas are for coins, and the cornbread is gold. There were about 35 people there, which is significantly less than there were on Christmas. 

Friday - I rode the Ural into town to pick up a couple of things at Walmart and ended up talking to someone for a while about the Ural. It turned out that a friend in AK used to live across the street from them. Small world. 

It is unseasonably hot today. Especially with the colder temperatures the last couple of days. Texas winters…

After some poking around on the Internet, I found the pressure switch on the class C air conditioner and shorted out the pins. After starting the engine, the compressor was running. I  attached the freon container to the low-pressure port, and it indicated that the pressure was low. I added almost the entire 18-oz can. The gauge now reads in the green, which suggests 'OK", and cold air was coming out of the dash vents. I'll call that a success for now. 

Tasks…

Tuesday - Regenerated the water softener today before moving it into the basement storage. Freezing temperatures are possible so I need to set things up for that and, unfortunately, that means no water softener. I need to figure out a good way to have the softener in the basement storage and still have it connected. 

The filter and pressure regulator have been relocated from the pedestal into the wet bay. And the heated water hose is in place. 

The pedestal has a drop light with an incandescent bulb plugged into a thermostatic outlet. The blue hose is the extra heated hose which will add some additional heat into this area. The whole pedestal is wrapped with fiberglass insulation and covered with a large plastic trash can. 

The NWS has issued a freeze warning for this country but I doubt it’ll reach those temperatures tonight. But, I was needing to do this anyway. 

Wednesday - New Years Eve. Bridget had a follow-up appointment in San Antonio. Afterwards, we went to Costco and Jason’s Deli. I love their salad bar. It’s one of the few around.

There was a New Years Eve party at the clubhouse with appetizers, games, and a lot of visiting. One person brought parisa, a local Medina county specialty. It is freshly ground, very lean beef mixed with cheese, jalapeno peppers, onion, garlic, and lemon juice. Kind of like steak tartare but “Texi-fied”. 

Between Christmas and New Years - SKP

Saturday - We had a quiet Christmas here at the SKP park with a potluck dinner in the afternoon. I believe there were around 60 participants with way too much food and desserts. The park provided the ham and the residents provided the sides. I made roasted cauliflower with a three-cheese sauce. Very cheesy and, if you liked cauliflower, delicious. 

On Christmas Eve, there was a campfire for roasting marshmallows and hotdogs. The fire ring had been unused due to a misunderstanding of the fire ban. What was banned were large burns such as farm fields or bonfires. Campfires are permitted with a call to the sheriffs office. I don’t think that’ll be the last campfire this winter. 

Most of the leaves are off the tree and I’ve moved most of it towards the street. The guy we hired for lot maintenance said that he will take care of the leaves. That’s music to my ears. I finally finished the last step of winterization of the class C. Running rv antifreeze into the water pump. 

Sunday - I rode the Ural into Uvalde this morning and it was nice to be on the road. It was a 75mile round trip and the Ural ran great. It sort of bogs if you try full throttle at 55mph. It’ll slowly work its way up to 63mph if you don’t use full throttle. 

Our gingerbread house won 1st place. The team was GaryC, RexB, and myself. It was a fundraiser and they didn’t raise that much so this may be the last time. It was a close contest with the difference between 1st and 2nd was under $2. And 2nd and 3rd was a bit over $3. 

I was gifted a used Hughes Autoformer that was left on a site. This device is installed between the power pedestal and the RV. It compensates for low voltage at the pedestal. I’ve been looking for one of these devices for over a year as the voltage within the park occasionally drops low enough for the electric management system in the RV to disconnect. Hopefully, this fixes the issue. 

Almost Christmas at the SKP Park

Sunday - The leaves on our tree are quickly changing and are starting to fall. It has been a long week since the Riverwalk last Tuesday. Bridget should be released from the hospital soon, maybe tomorrow. It’s a pretty long drive between the RV and the hospital. Somewhere around 60 miles. 

A resident of the park made a shrimp dinner last night. I think there was around 60 people. Not shown is the garlic bread. I’m not usually a fan of coleslaw but this version was very tasty. 

The food at the hospital cafe was sort of so-so. A deep fried dinner. Fries, chicken nuggets, and fried small shrimp. I was hoping the salad bar was open but it wasn’t. Sunday must be a minimal kitchen staff.