Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Still Getting Set Up

Saturday - We found a few issues with the class A upon returning. The rear A/C no longer puts out cold air. I ordered a Furion Chill Cube with heat pump to replace the Dometic unit but it won’t be here for a week. The class A will struggle with the heat.

We had a similar issue back in May and it was a failed thermal overload. I had an extra one and tried replacing it but it didn’t resolve the issue. 

Tuesday - It’s another hot day with today’s high predicted to be 97°F! Being Tuesday, I set up the JPC-12 in the front yard for the Winlink Wednesday check-in. It’s a very easy setup since I have an antenna cable passthru in the wall. 

I tried starting the Ural. Put the petcock to the prime position, waited a couple of seconds and it fired up after only a couple of revolutions. And idled great. I’ll credit it to the ethanol free gas I filled the tank with back in June. 

Now to get it on the road…

That, BTW, is my new helmet that I picked up in Salem, OR, during our summer travels.

Saturday, September 5, 2026

Arriving back to Hondo

Friday - A modest travel through Texas. It’s not as hot as it has been the last couple of days but at 94°F, it’s still hot. The generator will, again, be running most of the day. Besides he A/C, it is also powering both refrigerators and the converter to charge the AGM battery. Even though the A/C will run off of the batteries, the refrigerator will need to be switched to propane. We prefer to have the propane shut off while traveling just for safety. 

The Garmin always tries to route us through San Antonio so we have Google Maps running as well. Eventually, the Garmin will start matching Google but not until we turn south at Kerrville. The San Antonio route is longer but maybe Garmin doesn’t like secondary roads. 

Friday, September 4, 2026

Wichita Falls, TX

Thursday - A long travel day from Kansas to Texas. About 470 miles and over eight hours. We arrived with the temperature at 100°F. The roof A/C was running all day long with the generator except for gas stops. But we finally made it into Texas. 

The RV park is fine though the showers seemed old. The pool closed at 8 pm, which I didn’t learn until 7:55 pm. Oh well.

Our next travel day is about 100 miles shorter and ends in Hondo. I’m not sure of the state of the class A as the Internet stopped working a while back so I haven’t been able to log into HomeAssistant. This is the second time the AT&T hotspot has quit in the middle of the summer.


Wednesday, September 2, 2026

Minneapolis, KS

Wednesday - It’s a hot one today. A 428 mile travel day to Minneapolis, KS. A small town that doesn’t seem to resemble the more well known version. But it’s nice enough for an overnight stop. Power for the A/C  is all we really need. And it is only $15 at this city campground. 

Tomorrow is another long-ish travel day to Wichita Falls, TX. It’s just across the border with Oklahoma. We had a head wind for most of today’s drive which drove up gas consumption. The class C did fine. I checked the oil level this morning and it was still full after about 2,300 miles. I can’t complain about that. The generator was run since about noon to run the roof A/C on high. The dash A/C sort of worked but it seemed to have difficulty with the triple digit temperatures. But when it was running good, the outlet air temperature was 49°F. 

Dinner is pulled pork! Thank you Annie and Kevin.