Point, TX - TT

Thursday - We got quite a bit of rain in the middle of the night. A front blew through with wind the last couple of days and pleasant temperatures today. I believe the forecasted high is 76°F. It feels nice. 

The StarLink outages occur several times per hour but I’m surprised at how well it has worked given the tree cover. Better than I would have guessed. 

I’m waiting for a few items in the mail now before I can play with the new HF radio. An antenna mount and cable. The sales guy thought the antenna mount would include a cable but when I looked up the part number, there was a note that the pictured cable was not included. 

Several friends have moved on so it is pretty quiet around here. I'm waiting for another test this afternoon. Testing is an activity that I enjoy. A little bit of socialization a couple of times per day. 

Friday - A quiet morning as Bridget is visiting several museums with other RV friends. It is another cool day at 67°F@11am. Kind of overcast but it's not windy or raining.

The afternoon session was canceled so I tried out the hot tub. It was nice. And since it wasn’t hot and sunny, the pool was deserted. No complaints from me!

I also drove into town again to pick up an Amazon package. I now have the antenna cable but still waiting for the mount. UPS tracking claims Monday. 

Sunday - Humid and warm at 78°F before noon. It’s also a bit breezy and rain has been in the forecast since yesterday into the first half of the week. So far, most of the rain has been north of us. 

Point, TX - TT

Monday -Yesterday, we left Bridgeport for another TT park near Point, TX, roughly 50 miles east of Dallas. We are here with RV friends that we’ve met several times over the years. I cooked a turkey breast in the sous vide while we traveled, and, like every other time, it came out tasting great. 

I set up the StarLink antenna on the roof but there are quite a few trees. It works fine for streaming but there are short outages every couple of minutes so the AT&T hotspot will be used for the Zoom calls. 

Today’s “chore” was back-flushing and regenerating the water softener. It’s been a while since I had last done it. I had been carrying around the two containers of salt since we left TX, assuming I would get around to it sometime. 

Tuesday - It is supposed to hit into the mid-80s (°F) later this afternoon but with the nice breeze, it still feels pretty nice. A pretty laid-back day. The wind picked up last night so no more awning for the next couple of days. It was mostly up to keep the leaves out of the Blackstone while cooking. 

During the afternoon test session, I moved the Starlink antenna towards the back of the RV and facing an opening in the trees. We'll see if it makes any difference. The previous orientation averaged about 7 outages per 15-minute period for a total of 53 seconds. I have been using the AT&T hotspot for the test sessions.

Wednesday -Today's adventure was visiting Ham Radio Outlet in Plano, TX, to look for an HF (high-frequency) transceiver. I had narrowed down a couple of radios that are pretty similar. I also picked up a power supply and an antenna. Traffic was horrible heading into Dallas.

Bridgeport, TX - TT

Monday - The afternoon task was removing the "nuclear" gorilla tape and Eternabond from the windshield. The mobile glass company said they plan to come out tomorrow morning to reset the glass. The tape adhesive was challenging to get cleaned up. I have it off of the rubber seal and the glass. There is still some adhesive on the painted fiberglass around the seal. I'll tackle that after the afternoon test session.

Tuesday - The windshield guy arrived this morning right when he said. It turns out that the windshield has a crack starting from a rock chip. The flexing from the crack could have allowed enough movement for the windshield to come loose. Now more phone calls. I had them re-install the lock beads into the seal so we would be able to travel next week as I don't think that this is going to be resolved quickly.

Wednesday - It’s supposed to be a hot one today. Still nothing from the insurance company. The RV glass contractor is waiting for notification from Progressive on coverage. 

There was a pool and “hot” tub at this park but neither one was heated. The pool was nice and clean but the temperature was somewhere in the 70s (maybe) so I didn’t stay in long. But the pool deck was quiet and relaxing. A nice warm breeze felt good after getting out of the pool.

My morning task was washing the Jeep. I had run it through a car wash a few weeks ago and, after the Balloon Fiesta South RV lot. The Jeep was pretty dirty. 

Thursday - By 11:30 this morning, it was almost 80°F. I think it's going to be a warm one. Plus, the forecast is calling for wind this afternoon which means I need to bring in the awning. It's nice to have on these hot, sunny days. Plus, it shades the back of the refrigerator.

I saw this on Zillow yesterday evening. So I guess it’s official. We are now “homeless” or “house-less”. I’m celebrating 🎉! That was a long process.

After riding the e-bike to the pool, I have another flat on the rear tire. Sigh…

Bridgeport, TX - TT

Saturday - Another beautiful day. It's 68°F at 11am with a light breeze. I have been watching the wind as there was one evening when the gusts got up to 35mph. A bit too high for the awning. 

My epoxied pedal-assist sensor ring seems to work. I had to order a crank puller from Amazon as my other tool is in Hondo (or Fairbanks). The Amazon tool was cheap and I ordered it yesterday and it arrived today. That’s pretty decent. After riding around the park a couple of times to test it out, I returned to the A/C as it’s almost 80°F right now. So much for the cooler weather. 

Sunday - I’ve always wanted to make sauerbraten but never tried it. Today, I’m making it two different ways just to see the difference. The first was a “traditional” recipe I found on the Internet where the beef roast was marinated for five days then roasted in the oven for four hours. The second was an Instant Pot recipe with no marinating and an hour and a half in the Instant Pot. Sides are a traditional red cabbage, German potato salad, and a green salad. 

Since it’s on the warm side, I’m cooking what I can outside. The four hours in the convection microwave is heating up the inside of the RV. Since we are on a 30amp connection, we can’t run the A/C until the oven is off. 

Later - Predictably, the traditional version had a lot more flavor.