Monday, January 18, 2021
Day 35 - Harlingen, TX - TT
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Day 31, 32, 33, 34 - Columbus, TX - TT
Thursday (Day 31) - I saw 71°F this afternoon. I’m not going to complain about that! This mornings walk was a little short at 2.27 miles as there was an early ham test today. About an hour earlier than usual. Google calendar chose today to put me back in AKST. Earlier in the week, it registered CST like it had for the previous couple of months.
Friday (Day 32) - Another nice walk though it was windy and coo but at least it was sunny. I keep looking for a convenient route that'll be over three miles. This is just because I had signed up for a virtual 5k. And I figure that I really need to start walking everyday again.
Right now, I'm waiting for another test session to start. I hadn't signed up originally but there was a message sent out last night that they could use a couple more VEs. Since I didn't have anything planned, why not. A couple of weeks ago, they started testing two people at a time each in a seperate breakout room within Zoom. The problem they are going to run into is each room requires three VEs. I don't know how this is going to scale.
Later - The applicant passed two tests and is now general class. There is another session tonight (8pm CST).
Saturday (Day 33) - After the first testing session, I took a walk and by zig-zagging around all of the trails and roads, I managed to find a route that was over three miles. Still a tenth or so under 5k but close enough. We are going to be here for a couple more days before we head south to Harlingen, TX, which is just north of the border. The temperatures there are warmer than here with highs in the mid-70s. We will be in that area for around five weeks.
This park is just about completely full as is typical most weekends. Those here for the weekends seem to bring a lot of outdoor stuff and usually build fires. Lots of scooters and bicycles.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Day 31 - Johnson Space Center
This is Artemis, a proposed moon landing vehicle, being used for development. It seems small.
Here is a mockup of the Orion capsule being developed by Boeing. I thought it was interesting that there was little or no mention of SpaceX. All of the displays talking about future manned missions seemed to focus on the Boeing vehicle. I think it’s because it’s familiar. More of the same old thing.We then went to the Saturn V building housing the actual launch vehicle for the cancelled Apollo XVIII. Not a model or a mockup. It is housed in it’s own building right next to Rocket Park where there is a Redstone rocket used on the Mercury missions and a test vehicle for the emergency rockets for Gemini. It’s amazing to see the size difference between the Redstone and the Saturn V. BTW, the five stands for the number of engines on the first stage.
Within the visitor’s center, there was a nice mockup of a moon landing. There was a room with numerous moon rocks as well as a history of space suits including one still coated with moon dust. Very dusty. There was an excellent movie on the history of manned space flights including mention of both the Challenger and Columbia disasters.
Outside, was one of the 747s used to ferry the Space Shuttle from its landing spot back to Florida. The landing sites were usually Edwards Air Force Base or White Sands. Many of the later missions used the landing strip right at Cape Canaveral which simplified getting the shuttle ready for its next flight.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Day 30 - Columbus, TX - TT
Monday, January 11, 2021
Day 27, 28, 29 - Columbus, TX - TT
The water level of the river seemed to drop a bit more. Kind of hard for me to tell l since I rarely look at the river from the same location. It just looks like there is more ground showing. Today's walk was only 1.65 miles as the first hame radio license test session ran long due to Zoom issues. We learned that if you "boot" someone out of a session, they can't reconnect later unless a flag is cleared on the meeting configuration which is only accessible through a web portal not through the application.
Sunday (Day 28) - I think this is the warmest it’s going to be today. It’s snowing to the west and north of here. I think that it has been raining on and off since about midnight and will be continuing throughout the day. The furnace has been getting a workout but at least the front heater is actually working. The air from the vent under the sink is putting out 100°F air where it wasn’t putting out any air before. The living room is a very comfortable 70° according to my HomeAssistant temperature sensor.
Friday, January 8, 2021
Day 25, 26 - Visiting Friends + - TT
Thursday (Day 25) - Another walk around the park this morning. The weather was “brisk”. I think that’s the term. Windy with temperatures in the low 50s (°F). Lots of mud from yesterday’s rain so I avoided the trails. Even with the rain, the water level of the river looks like it dropped.
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Day 23, 24 - Columbus, TX - TT
Tuesday (Day 23) - Another 70°F day here at the TT campground. I was VE for another radio exam while sitting outside under the awning. The other VEs were from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Alaska. All have been experiencing freezing weather. At least I didn’t have green grass in the background. No virtual background needed for these Zoom sessions. I mentioned that I was going to be headed to the pool shortly. Was that a bit much...
I went for a couple of bike rides today as well as another walk around the park. The walking is preparation for a virtual 5K race that I signed up for on April 15th. I figure that 5K is a reasonable goal given my current shape.
Wednesday (Day 24) - The day started out warm but rain is in the forecast for this afternoon. I took a shorter walk today and picked up a time slot for the hot tub later this afternoon. I find it hard to pass up. This wagon is at the entrance to the park. I don’t know anything about it but I liked the metal wheels.
There was another ham test this afternoon. I believe the group has administered over 400 remote tests so far with a failure rate of just under 10%. This compares with the failure rate of the paper based tests of 28%.
The video below is a very short capture of the water running off the roof of the RV during the storm this afternoon.
Monday, January 4, 2021
Day 20, 21, 22 - Columbus, TX - TT
Friday, January 1, 2021
Day 19 - Hello 2021!
Friday (Day 19) - It still feels cold around here today though the forecast is for warmer temperatures. Last night, it dropped into the high 30s (°F) so I thought it would be a good idea to start the engine. One because of the ambient temperature and secondarily for my peace of mind. No surprises tomorrow morning when we get ready to leave. I did not run the block heater. The grid heater was on for about 30sec with the "Wait to Start" light lit. It cranked for about 10sec before starting. I've read that this is about normal though the Cummins engine in the truck starts up much easier than that. But, I'll take it. Normally at these temperatures, I would run the block heater for at least an hour or so as I will do tomorrow morning. I let the engine run for about 15 minutes while I was draining and flushing our holding tanks. The engine water temperature got up to 140°F. Not truly warmed up but easily long enough to build up air pressure in both air tanks.
Overnight, the heat pump kept the coach warm enough until around 3am. At that point, it was 65° in the living room. I switched to the propane furnace at that point and turned off the electric heater in the bedroom. I should have moved the electric heater to the living room at that point as the furnace still struggles when it's colder outside. This RV has only 2" walls and an unheated basement so not really designed for "extreme" environments. 70°F preferred.So far, we have a few reservations made like the Albuquerque Balloon Festival in October and Fort Wilderness for sometime in December (I think). We do have some near term reservations nearer to Houston followed by several reservations in Harlingen, TX. I need to fly back to Fairbanks sometime in the beginning of March. Maybe from San Antonio, TX.