Back in D’Hanis - SKP

Wednesday - Muggy but not too hot, yet. It's still only 11:30am but I'm not going to complain about 75°F! The low temperature was 69°F so the rear A/C was left running. The park is emptying out so maybe the AT&T cellular bandwidth will stay reasonable. The morning test session seemed to go fine so I volunteered to lead the afternoon test session.

There were still occasional audio glitches but it seemed to work and didn’t interfere with the test. After my positive experience with Starlink, I’m tempted. 

I tried "fried chicken" in the air fryer. Less than satisfactory results. It was okay, it did have a crust, but no where near as good as pan fried chicken.

Thursday - Another warm day today after last nights low temperature of 70°F! It doesn't feel as humid today as it has on other days. I signed up for the early test session but the candidate rescheduled for next week. Oh well…

I dropped off an Amazon return at the closest UPS store which was most of the way into San Antonio. I took the Ural and it was a pretty warm ride and right around 100km round trip. Lots of traffic. But not too many Ural riding days left before we head north. The A/C in the RV felt pretty nice!

Friday - Speediest results aren't quite as fast as it was yesterday morning but good enough to participate in testing. It's another muggy day with both temperature and humidity in the upper 70s. It's overcast so not horribly hot sitting in the sun. We are packing up, getting ready to head out to the Outer Banks in NC. I have not been there before and really looking forward to visiting Kitty Hawk. 

Mustang Island SP - TXSP

Monday - We will miss our friends as they begin their summer road trips. I believe that they are roughly traveling together for a while until mid-summer. Last night, I had dinner with the Marx’s at a seafood place in Port Aransas. I was finally able to get a decent amount of oysters which is one of my favorites seafood items.

There was wind and showers this morning again. One thing to remember about the coast, it’s always windy. Since we didn’t need any more water, I went ahead and repacked the hose, regulator, filter, and water softener. We arrived with the SeeLevel fresh water level at 51%. I’m guessing that this is about 70 gallons. We are still at 20% which is around 30 gallons. We even ran a load of laundry this morning. 

By noon we had new neighbors on both sides of us. The site on our passenger side is a primo site due to all the extra space from the electrical boxes. Unfortunately, they have yappy, small dogs but we are leaving tomorrow morning heading back to Hondo.

We had dinner at Grumble’s Seafood Co., the same place I had dinner yesterday with the Marx’s. Oyster po’ boy. Delicious!!

Tuesday - Today was a travel day back to the SKP park in Hondo/D’Hanis. It was just under 200 miles. We arrived back around 1pm and within an hour we were all set back up. The RV ran great.

I went into Hondo today to pick up my birthday freebies from Starbucks and Whataburger. Not a lot but the price is right. There are still a few more freebies but they don’t need to be collected today.

Mustang Island State Park - TXSP

Saturday - Most of our group is spending at least part of the day at Sandfest, a sand sculpture event in Port Aransas, which is around 10 miles south. I opted not to go as they only had a full event ticket and no one-day option. It's windy, and sprinkling so I think I like the "stay-at-home" option. The pano is the view from the back of our RV site. These are the dunes between the RV sites and the ocean.

I signed up for the afternoon test session and just got off the phone with the candidate. This will be an easy one. (famous last words!) The Starlink connection has been consistent. 

I took advantage of the time, and bandwidth, to fix an error on the ESP32 microprocessor. It has been reporting a potential problem with my choice of GPIO input I selected a couple of years ago. I switched to GPIO4 from GPIO5 as I was using a pull-up resister on the temperature/humidity sensor. The error message no longer comes up and I'm curious if it fixes some other instabilities.

I was digging through photos and noticed that I had some from the D'Hanis brickworks. It's an interesting site with several dome-shaped kilns which are shown in the next photo. I like the contrast of the red bricks with the dark blue sky. And the blue Ural.

Sunday - A much cooler day today. It was windy all night with some occasional showers. Today's high is only 70°F. Still humid at 92% but it didn't feel muggy. The others in our group are leaving tomorrow beginning their summer travels. We will be heading back to the SKP park on Tuesday.

Mustang Island SP - TXSP

Tuesday - This was a travel day from Hondo to just past Corpus Christi. Most of the drive was hot and humid in the mid-80s (°F). We arrived here around 1:30pm and found our reserved spot with water and electricity (50amp!). It was overcast and windy for most of the afternoon.

I'm told that there was a pretty strong headwind and, I'm pleased to say, I didn't even notice it. No problem maintaining 63mph and even speeding up to pass vehicles. 

Wednesday - The highlight of the morning was going to the H-E-B+. The store was huge with a very nice produce section. The temperature and the high humidity make me want to sleep all day. Or stay inside the A/C...

The RVs on each side of us are friends. Bridget has been planning this trip with them for a while.

I tried participating in a test session and the Internet was so flaky that it was almost unusable. At one point, the upload throughput was only 20kbps. Dialup speeds. I dropped out of the session.

Thursday - RMarx let me attach to his Starlink router. I'm in the Zoom session right now and it is working much better. No freezing video, no disconnect and reconnect, and the video is nice and smooth. 

Friday - After making coffee, I finally walked to the beach. There was a nice breeze from offshore so the temperature was pretty nice. 

We then drove south to the Padre Island National Seashore. They had a visitor center so I could get a stamp in our national park book. The beach was almost deserted and was also windy. I'm finding the humidity makes me really tired...

Getting Ready - SKP

Sunday - Another warm, muggy day. We need to get the RV ready to travel again. I noticed that the air intake hose had come loose again. It is a large, flex hose from the air cleaner intake to a large air box built into the rear fiberglass cap. This allows cooler, air from outside the engine compartment to be brought into the engine. Cooler air, higher density, slightly more power. I don’t know when the hose came off as I usually don’t look up when checking the engine oil. It went back on with less hassle than the last time I needed to put it back on. 

I also put my most of my tools back into the RV. I feel more comfortable having them with me while traveling. Overall, we probably lightened the RV by at least 500 lbs due to stuff being left in the shed. We are only going to be gone for a week. Most of our basement storage is about a third full. I still have a few more chores to do before we can take off. 

Monday - More “getting ready” tasks. Added air to the front RV tires to 110psi. Disconnected the bulk propane line. Put the TPMS sensors on the Jeep. Installed a 20A/40A switch to the DC-DC charger (I’ve only run it on 20A as we rarely need charging from the engine). Brought in the two potentially problematic slides (no problems). Switched the basement freezer to run off of DC. Filled the fresh water tank about half full. Rolled up the window awnings. Removed the ladder extension from the back. Removed tire covers. Pack the folding chairs and tables. Move the dash cam to the RV. Clean and pack up the Blackstone.

All that’s left is dumping the tanks, windshield sun screen and driver side Reflectix, disconnecting water and power, and pulling in the last two slides. 

I’m sure we are forgetting something. But that’s why we are starting early.

Tour de Castroville

Friday - Actually rode the Ural a bit yesterday to pick up some stuff to support the Tour de Castroville bike ride tomorrow. I need a clipboard to hold the paperwork I'm supposed to be filling out during the event and some paper to record the bib numbers of the riders as they ride through the checkpoint. 

We had a pleasant surprise yesterday. A colleague and friend from Fairbanks stopped by. WalkerW grew up in the area and was in San Antonio for a work-related conference. The conference ended so he is visiting friends and family. We had a great visit, went to the local steak house for dinner, and he drove us around the area showing us where he grew up. It really was a surprise as I had known Walker since the mid-90s and he was one of the most technically competent IT individuals at the university. Bridget taught his kids at the elementary school so there was a lot to catch up on.

This morning, while waiting for the morning test session, I played around with APRS some more. Since the Anytone does have a GPS, I set it up to beacon my location. The radio GPS is -5 and the phone GPS is both the blue dot and the -4. The -5 location is off by about 100'. The -4 differs from the blue dot since I've been walking around and the phone is connected to the TNC via BT. 

RMarx and I traveled the bicycle route this afternoon and tested our radios making contact with the Castroville repeater. Since I only have a handheld 2M radio, they switched our locations. I’m now at rest stop #1. It’s in a much more open location and I didn’t have any problem hitting the repeater even with just the regular antenna on the handheld. 

Saturday - The event started early-ish as I was at the rest stop around 7:45. Initially, I set up on the west side where the bikes came in on their way around the loop. But I moved to the east side and recorded the bib numbers as they left the rest stop. 

There were 250 riders but I missed at least a quarter of the riders as I couldn’t read the numbers. I was out there until around 1pm. Pretty warm day but it was a fun, community service activity. The ham radio club gets community service credit. 

Afterwards, we met back at the park in Castroville for a discussion on what should be changed for next year. 

We went to Whataburger, a Texas fast food chain. Their smash burger is pretty good (in my opinion). Plus, they have sugar free lemonade which I mix with unsweetened ice tea.

Post Eclipse - SKP

Tuesday - It's kind of quiet around here today. Many of the visitors when came for the eclipse have left. BTW, it is scattered clouds with quite a bit of blue sky today. One of the other VEs took this eclipse photo in Maine yesterday. He said that they had unseasonably cloudless skies.

A new ham radio project arrived yesterday. This is something that I've been curious about ever since I got my license. I picked up a Mobilinkd TNC (terminal node controller). It is a small device that has an internal rechargeable battery and connects to my handheld radio in the audio ports with a special cable. The connector has PTT (push to talk) connections as well. And, it connects using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) with my phone. There are two applications I'm interested in trying. Winlink and APRS.fi. Winlink is an email client and APRS.fi is a location posting and receiving app. Both give you the option to use the TNC for transport. For APRS, you just tune the radio to 144.39mHz, the North American APRS frequency, and the app will send out periodic position information over VHF.

I already tried the Winlink app using telnet as a transport and verified that my email address (al6t@winlink.org) works. The nearest Winlink stations are in San Antonio and Kerrville. A bit far for my VHF handheld. 

Wednesday - This morning, I replaced the tube in the rear of the Ural. The screw did quite a number on the old tube. Ripped a huge hole and the valve stem was pulled out. Fortunately, I have several spare tubes. 

   After replacing the tube in the pusher, I rode out to my checkpoint to see if the radio worked on the Castroville repeater. I could hear the code identifying the station but never got a response to me “radio check”. But APRS worked and I could hit the Hondo repeater easily. And the Castroville one was even closer. 

It was pretty windy on the ride. Headwind and crosswind on the way back to the RV with some pretty significant gusts. So I stopped for lunch in Hondo at my new favorite fast food place. Whataburger. Tasty smash-burgers with plenty of veggies. 

While I was having lunch, I thought about the torn out valve stem. I didn’t remember actually looking at the valve stem. After arriving back at the RV, I removed the pusher, removed one bead and the inner tube and searched for the valve stem inside the tire. I’ve had enough practice over the years that it only took about 15 minutes. 

Found it…

Total Eclipse 2024 - SKP

Monday - The day started out with breakfast so I was in the clubhouse at 6:30 making sausage patties and eggs for breakfast biscuits. The RV park had several events such as this presentation by a NASA educator. She was a daughter-in-law of our neighbors. The ham radio club had numerous members scattered around the area and reported using the local VHF repeater. There were some reports of heavy traffic and full parking lots in a few areas. Several of us shared one tactical ID as we were all sitting in the same area. We had 100% cloud cover for most of the day. 

But it did get dark at the predicted time. And, it was amazing how quickly it seemed to transition to dark. It did cool off during totality. 

Here is the output from our solar panels during the eclipse. 

The special dinner was pulled pork with all the standard sides. A couple of days ago, they made the smoked pork on the parks smoker. It smelled fantastic for several days after wards. 

After dinner they had karaoke and door prizes. I stuck around for a short time just to be sociable. 

Misc - SKP

Friday - This morning, I met with a couple of folks from the local ham radio club as I had volunteered to help with the Tour de Castroville, which is a local bicycle/walk/running event a week from tomorrow. Since I had never volunteered with them before, they wanted to make sure I knew what I would be doing and what to expect. I will be at one of the rest stops along the bicycle route keeping track of bib numbers and reporting them over the radio. And monitoring the frequency if they need to contact anyone at the rest stop. There will also be someone there with Winlink set up. This is an email setup that uses radio as the transport to an Internet connected gateway. 

I’m interested in getting Winlink set up as there is now software for the iPhone that connects to a BT enabled TNC. Next week’s project…

The upcoming eclipse is the “big deal” around here. We are right in the path of totality so, if the weather cooperates, it should be a nice view. The current forecast is for clouds and rain so it’s wait and see time. Visitors are scheduled, meals and events are planned. My only role is helping out in the kitchen on Monday morning. 

The weather channel forecast is for clouds on just about the entire path. Maybe that’ll keep folks away from this area.

For dinner, I prepared one of my favorites. Carnitas and had it in tacos. There is enough leftover for at least one more meal. 

Saturday - I rode the Ural to the monthly ham radio meeting. Because of events this month, the meeting was held a week early and moved to the small town of Lacoste. It was a 60 mile round trip which makes it the longest Ural ride this year. It was a nice, relaxing trip. After the regular meeting, I stuck around to be a VE for their in-person test session. I haven’t done an in-person test in almost four years. It was definitely different. 

I also met the folks I will be working with next week on the Tour de Castroville event. To get ready, I dug out the programming cable for the Anytone radio to program in the Castroville repeaters and re-setup APRS. Dave gifted me with his homemade antenna for the Anytone HT. It seems to be slightly better than the Nagoya NA-771 that I’ve been using. I can actually hit the Hondo UHF repeater from inside the RV. 

Sunday - Here is a “leftover” project from back in Fairbanks. I installed an NMO antenna mount on the Ural box. It’s a ½ wave antenna so no ground plane is needed. I couldn’t reach the local repeater with the HT but I can with this antenna. I had this antenna mounted on the truck before but had a more powerful dual-band radio (50 watts). I still can’t believe reach the APRS gateway as I think the closest one is around 18 miles east near Castroville.

I think I have APRS configured correctly. To test, I had it send out a beacon every 30 seconds. I then rode out on 90, took the back road through town, and went a mile or so out towards Castroville. The track matches my path. After returning, I changed the APRS intervals to very infrequent updates. 

After turning around on 90, I picked up a screw in the pusher. Switched to the spare while RMarx, who was on his way back from the Dallas area, made me more visible. It took maybe 15min to put on the spare. It’ll take me much longer than that to patch the tube. Sounds like a project for this week.

Busy Week - SKP

Happy Easter - There was an Easter dinner here at the park today. Lots of tasty food and wonderful company. Needless to say, no dinner this evening. It hit over 83°F today and it felt pretty muggy. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to be in the low 90s. 

Upcoming projects are Dicor around the front solar mounts and the front cap, rv tire air pressure, water softener regen, Jeep oil change, and generator maintenance. It’s going to be a busy week.

Monday - First thing this morning, I took the Jeep to the Quick Lube place in Hondo. They were fast, efficient, and friendly. One task is done. After picking up some groceries, I started to work on the next task. The stud extractors that I picked up on Amazon worked like a charm. I was worried that the brass drain plug would just shear so I used a torque wrench to limit the torque. I started out at 60 ft-lbs and it started to turn before that. The oil is draining while I'm preparing for the morning test session. I changed the oil filter but I’ll hold off on the fuel filter so I don’t get diesel fuel all over my hands. (See the following paragraph) I need to reread the manual to find the air filter access.

Bridget volunteered to do a presentation on sous vide cooking. This translates to both of us doing a presentation on sous vide cooking. On Saturday, I picked up some boneless skinless chicken breasts at H-E-B and seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic, and two different dried herbs blends. I just started the sous vide in the clubhouse and it should be done shortly after the presentation starts.

Tuesday - We had quite the storm blow-through last night. Lots of wind, lightning, and thunder. There was a weather warning of possible hail but I don't think we had any.

The presentation was well received with quite a few questions. And the chicken that I cooked as a demo turned out pretty tasty. 

Today was a busy day. I finished up the maintenance (air and fuel filter) on the generator. Started it and ran it for 15 minutes. While I was at it, I started and ran the RV engine for 15 minutes. Regenerated the water softener, emptied and flushed the black tank, and Bridget's newly ordered combo washer/dryer arrived.

Thank you to RMarx for his willingness to help get the old combo unit out and the new one in. The combo unit is 150lbs so it's not an easy move. It's now installed and the first load is running.

Wednesday - I had an appointment at the local clinic here in Hondo. Just an initial setup of the paperwork and get some baseline and history. I need to go back tomorrow morning for some lab work.

Back to RV Maintenance- SKP

Wednesday - It has been raining for most of the morning. Not continuously but enough for it to be somewhat cool outside. By late morning, the time for the early test, it's only 58°F. 

I got the maintenance "kit" for our Onan 7500QD generator. It includes the air, oil, and fuel filter. I found the operations manual online so that will be my next project. I was going to start this afternoon but no one had signed up to lead any of the afternoon test sessions. So I went ahead and volunteered.

Thursday - I tried to change the generator oil but some “rounded” off the brass drain plug. I ordered a broken bolt extractor and it should be here on Saturday. I then tackled my next task, replacing the RV headlights. Very dusty job as I had to remove the mounting brackets holding the headlight to the fiberglass front cap. I only did the passenger side as it was getting hot.

The test session today was a large class with over 20 candidates. It was long…

Friday - I just lost most of this post as I had the editor open twice. The older one updated overwriting the changes. Another warm day. 

Saturday - I changed the driver side headlight today and it went much faster. It turns out that this headlight was used on 2002-2005 Ford Explorer so replacements are readily available. 

Not a Project - SKP

Sunday - Finally, not a project. Just a walk around the park. It was around 1.5 miles but completed the “circuit” before it started to rain. I’ve been running the propane appliances for the last couple of days and they all seem to be running fine. The water heater used to shut off prematurely but that seems to have stopped after cleaning. The rear furnace has been used all winter without any issues. 

Monday - Another walk after a Ural trip to H-E-B. The steering damper mod is working fine. The little bit of extra travel can’t hurt. I swung by the Hondo Medical Clinic to find out where the reception area is. I have an appointment this week. 

Today was a “meeting day”. A disaster preparedness meeting, two lot improvement committee inspections, and social hour at the clubhouse. Plus I went for another long-ish walk this morning. 

I ordered some supplies for another project. Generator maintenance. I need to pick up an oil drain pan. Too bad I didn’t pack one of the three in the garage. 

Tuesday - A couple of Ural trips to town this morning and led a couple of test sessions. Between it all, I changed the engine oil and filter on the Ural. No discoloration and no metal on the drain plug magnet. I also greased the U-joints for the sidecar drive. I’d call this a somewhat productive day…

Even More Projects - SKP

Friday - It is a sunny, warm morning. Around 75°F at noon so about the ideal temperature to add more Dicor to the roof. It looks like there may be a small leak around the screws holding the rear-most solar panel. This one did not line up with a roof truss so I had tried to hit the top of the wall with a long screw. I was counting on the Sikaflex to make a good seal around the screw hole and hadn't added any Dicor. I now have Dicor self-leveling sealant around the perimeter of all of the plastic mounts and on the screw heads. The problem didn't occur until I had installed the tilt mounts and the plastic mount came loose. This is my best guess of the problem. No pictures of Dicor drying. I have other projects.

There were multiple updates for the laptop and the phone so I'm using the WiFi in the clubhouse. It's almost as fast as AT&T but more importantly, it doesn't use any of my limited quota. AT&T hotspot is limited to 100GB/month. And I usually get pretty close by the end of the month. The Mac OS update was almost 4GB.

During the afternoon test session, the wind picked up so I brought the awning in. After looking on WeatherUnderground, it looks like it will be windy for the next week or so. The high for today was 85°F! I had both A/C units running since around 1pm.

Saturday - The front furnace ran several times and not only did it light immediately but it was putting out more heat. All the bug carcasses limited the flow of propane. I think I need to make sure the vent hoses aren't clogged as the airflow through some of the vents seems really low. Since the burner on the furnace was clogged with insect carcasses, I checked the water heater burner. It had a few. Nothing like the furnace. 

One of the minor tasks was re-attaching the LVP flooring to the stair tread. Originally, it had two small finishing nails on one edge and the trim was glued with construction adhesive. The adhesive didn't stick really well and the LVP moved on the underlying plywood. I screwed the LVP and the trim in place with #6 wood screws with flat washers in addition to Gorilla glue.

There was even an opportunity for a Ural project. This the aluminum scrap I had found and used to replace the thinner aluminum piece I was using. I had just used the existing holes in the piece but it limited the travel of the hydraulic damper. By moving the mounting point a bit, it significantly increased the travel of the damper. I need to take a test ride now…

More Projects - SKP

Wednesday - UPS delivered this yesterday. It is a drive-over cable protector for the propane hose. Neither the Ural nor the Jeep is that heavy but it’s rated for 11,000 lbs. The yellow part is hinged to position the hose or cords easily into the channels.

All the bits and pieces came in for me to allow the solar panels to lay down again. One of the panels has an additional piece of steel angle to reinforce the plastic mounts to the roof. And that steel angle prevents me from putting nuts on the bolt holding the panel in the lowered position. My solution is to install rivnuts on the mount to take the place of the nuts. And instead of just doing the one problem panel, I was going to do all of them. Including the panel supports. This means no wingnuts or other hardware to get lost. The picture was my test of the tool.  

I got a couple of the panels done before the afternoon test session. The rivnuts and the tool work. And the metric unibit was a good purchase as it made the perfect size hole for the M8 rivnuts.

I now have the solar panels flat on the roof again. This project is almost done.

Thursday - The new burner head arrived today and I had it installed in about 15 minutes. The propane is back on and the thermostat switched to the furnace instead of the heat pump. We’ll see how well it works once it’s cooled back down. It’s 71°F right now.

The next project was installing rivnuts on the aluminum pieces used to hold the solar panels when tilted. These rivnuts are SS but weren’t much more difficult to install. I don’t plan to install them again while we are parked here. 

Still have more projects...

A Few More Repairs - SKP

Monday - Most diesel pusher motorhomes have a front door. Kind of like a bus. The area where the inside steps are would be a "hole" right in front of the passenger seat. To make it more comfortable for the passenger, there is usually some sort of cover to fill in the opening level with the rest of the floor. The cover for ours is fastened to the backside of one of the inside steps which can rotate to fill the opening. The six wood screws fastening the plywood cover to the step had pulled out and the cover no longer worked. I had to remove the vinyl plank flooring from the step and the underlying plywood had only two screws. I reattached the floor cover to the back of the step using the original six screws then added several more. 

I led two tests today while sitting outside our shed. It's not very warm today and it even rained B a bit. Between the test sessions, we drove south to Devine, TX. Bridget picked up a new pair of glasses at a small shop and we also did some grocery shopping at the Devine Walmart. I think it may have been even smaller than the one in Hondo.

The rivnut assortment arrived today. The hole for the rivnut needs to be pretty close to the outside diameter which is 11mm. A 7/16” drill is 11.1125mm which is too large. The drill bit arrives Wednesday so installation is put off for a couple more days. 

Tuesday - I knew that there was probably a mud dauber nest somewhere inside the furnace as the burner didn’t light every time. I found one next to the air intake for the burner. That sounds like a good candidate . I broke up the nest but the furnace still doesn’t start every time. I hear the igniter and smell propane in the exhaust but it’s not lighting every time.

Later - I pulled out the burner assembly from the furnace and found two problems. The first was a rusted out burner head. A replacement was ordered on Amazon. 

The second problem was a partially clogged jet. It was clogged with insect carcasses. How they got in there isn’t known but there were quite a few. I emptied out the tube after removing the jet. 

Not sure what they are but they had the jet pretty clogged. 

Site Maintenance - SKP

Wednesday - After morning coffee, I cleaned up our site from all of the old leaves and flower remnants from the tree. The leaf blower is still getting plenty of use even though Fall is long gone. Most of the leaves on our lot were from trees on other lots behind us. Not from our evil tree. It was pretty warm today with a high of almost 90°F.

Thursday - Another warm day but not as sunny. The project for the day was finishing up the propane hose from the bulk tank to the RV. There is a two stage regulator on the bulk tank and a buried line to a valve next to the concrete pad. I spliced two hoses together using a 3/8” flare union. 

The hose then runs to the low pressure side of the RV regulator. A brass 3/8” NPT tee is used to allow the bulk tank to feed into the RV propane line. I will add a shutoff valve replacing the 90° 3/8” flare fitting. 

Friday - The morning was spent helping to make meatballs for the spaghetti dinner tomorrow. We made around 160 meatballs. My job was to mix the ingredients and add seasonings. It was a fun task.

I went up on the roof to see if the solar panel mounts were still secure and I ran into a problem. When the panels are in the “folded” position, I couldn’t get my hand under the panel to bolt it in place. I ordered a rivnut tool and will be explaining the process in a later post after the tool arrives. 

Saturday - A few days ago while heading back from Uvalde, I stopped the Sabina Country Store and they had a Cajun boudin kolache. I’ve heard of boudin recently and wanted to try it and this seemed like a good way. Boudin is a sausage made from cooked pork, rice, some veggies, and spices. This one was pretty mild and I think just some onions. It made for a delicious breakfast. 

Rain today gave an opportunity to wash the Jeep. There was a lot of road grime from the Florida trip. At least road salt was not part of it. I got about ¾ done before the rain started again. I was told that due to water restrictions, cars can only be washed on weekends and only by members. Seems like a strange “rule”.  

Yesterday’s dinner was corned beef w/cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. One of my favorites. It does seem like I have a lot of favorites…

The propane shutoff valve came from Amazon today. If compared to the other picture, you can see that I replaced the 90° flare fitting with a ball valve. The lower hose is from the bulk tank. When the hose is disconnected, the valve would be turned off and the flare fitting capped off to keep it clean. BTW, the yellow is propane-rated thread sealing tape and used on all NPT fittings. None used on flare fittings.