Hondo, TX - SKP

Monday - It's warm again! In fact, the A/C just kicked on at 11:30am! I was testing the "Auto" function on the thermostat which switches between the heat pump and the A/C but since you have to pick a one temperature, it either has the heat too warm or the A/C too low. So I'm forced to learn how to program the thermostat. It's now set to switch to "Auto" at 9am at 72°F and the heat pump at 9pm at 68°F. We'll see how that works over the next couple of days.

Tuesday - The mount for the dashcam had broken a while back and I was just going to replace the camera. But I have all of these bits and pieces for the GoPro. There must be something that'll work. i did find some pieces that I "modified" with a Dremel and I think that it should work. Probably better than the original mount as the GoPro bits are much sturdier.

BTW, did I mention that it’s hot again. Quite the change from last week. I’m not sure how long it’s going to last but, hopefully, it’ll stick around for at least a week. 

Thursday - Today was the coop annual meeting. Right after the meeting was over, we were off to the airport. The cheapest flight we could find was on Frontier where they charge for everything. If you need to talk to an agent, that’s $20.  It took a while to figure out how to check in and get a baggage tag printed out ($55 for the first bag as long as it’s under 40#. The counter staff didn’t even show up until the 2 hours before the flight. At that point, the line was almost the full length of the concourse. 

Renting a car at the airport yesterday afternoon to return today was a reasonable, cost-saving strategy. It was less than long term parking and less than Lyft/Uber. And much more convenient. More later on the reason for the trip. 

Still Cold

Thursday - Another cold morning. It didn’t get as cold as was predicted, which was 21°F, but cold enough for this area. I believe the park was planning to shut off the water last night but I don’t know if they did. A number of people here aren’t set up to use their own tanks such as broken pumps. I’m not sure the park models even have tanks. 

I did do a quick check around the RV and no obvious leaks. I still have the water turned off at the pedestal but still have everything hooked up. The pedestal was nice and warm as was the wet bay. I can disassemble all of this on Sunday as the forecast is for highs of 75°F. Texas weather is fickle…

Friday - Another cold day here at the SKP park with an overnight low of 30°F. Not really that cold but you must realize that around here, water pipes are buried maybe 1”. In many cases they are on the surface. Freezing temperatures aren’t the norm. Pictured is our water line with the main line running near the top of the picture. I believe that the park has the water turned off or at least I hope they do.

Saturday - A wet, cold morning. Not a lot of rain but at least it was above freezing. It's on 40°F at 10am but the forecast for tomorrow is 70°F. I think that winter may be over (finally!). There is no more wind in the forecast so I put out the awning to allow it to dry off. When I put it away last week, it was raining. 

Right now, I'm waiting for the morning test session to start. By morning, that's Alaska time so for me it's late morning. I won't be sitting outside for the test session.

Errands & Cold

Monday - Another Costco run partly to pick up corned beef. I’m making St Patrick’s Day dinner next month and Costco had some nice, large flats. 

Tuesday - A morning trip to Uvalde to pick up a prescription for a sore knee. And while I was there, I finally got around to my flu shot. Probably a bit late but the Dr said that I should get it every year. After the Walgreens was H-E-B right across the street for essentials such as ground coffee! 

Not really sure what the knee issue is but I did visit the clinic last week. They took some X-rays and prescribed some medication. 

Wednesday - Winter has arrived again. The temperature was barely back up to freezing by 10:30am and the forecasted high is mid-40s before dropping back to 21°F tomorrow morning. The whole state is cold with northern TX dropping in negative single digits. Plus, the wind isn’t helping much with gusts to 25mph. 

Fredericksburg

Wednesday - I rode the Ural into town today but it was hard to start. Usually, it starts on the first compression but everything was wet from last night's rain. Maybe that had something to do with it. But it did eventually start and I made my morning appointment. UDF after I made it back to the rig. Someone with a lot of questions. 

Thursday - I drove into San Antonio and picked up our friends from Fairbanks and we headed to explore Fredericksburg. On previous trips, the Nimitz Museum was closed but it was open today. It is a huge museum with a lot of exhibits. We didn't even get to all of the sections of the museum. It was pretty cold at 45°F with a north wind.

We had lunch at a small German restaurant and the food was delicious. The German bakery that we visited in the past was closed (on Wednesday and Thursday) but we did find another small bakery down the street was open. We then headed to Hondo as they wanted to see where we were living before heading back into San Antonio to their new hotel. The first one had some sort of conference so they couldn't extend their stay. We had dinner at Rudy's Barbecue and the food was delicious. The place is in a repurposed gas station so not a deluxe restaurant location. Tables and chairs were set up in what used to be the garage. 

Saturday - I had an early morning test session today and noticed it rained last night. I also participated in the regular late-morning session. There are some sub-freezing temperatures in next week's forecast I had removed the "winter water" setup a bit too early. Putting all that back in place will be this afternoon's activity. It had warmed up to 78°F by late afternoon. Quite a change from the last couple of days. I did need to run into Hondo for a new short hose. The old one was leaking at the fittings. I couldn't find repair parts at the hardware store so I ended up picking up a new 10' hose. I now have two hoses that just need the brass fittings replaced. Another Amazon order...

Dinner was at the small Mexican restaurant in D'Hanis. Very tasty dishes and huge servings. 

San Antonio Touristing

Monday - Not too much exciting going on today. After the morning test session, we picked up some groceries and printed all of the paperwork for our taxes. 

Tuesday - This morning, we drove into San Antonio to meet up with Ron and Connie from Fairbanks. They were on a cruise and decided to do some sightseeing around TX. Since it was sprinkling, we drove to a couple of the missions. This is Mission San Francisco de la Espada, the one furthest south from San Antonio. We had also stopped at Mission Concepción but I didn’t take a picture. 

Before heading back to the River Walk area, we stopped at a local Mexican restaurant for lunch. In San Antonio, we parked at the Houston Street parking garage. At $10 for all day parking, it was more reasonable than most of the other parking options in the Riverwalk area.

We also visited the Alamo as it is the iconic tourist destination in San Antonio. The site has changed quite a bit since our last visit but there is still a lot of restoration work being done at the site. 

Minor Ural Repair

Wednesday - Another grocery run to the much larger H-E-B in Uvalde which is a town around 30 miles west of here. Not as hectic of a drive as heading towards San Antonio. 

I finally installed the exhaust gaskets on the Ural. They fell apart when I pulled the heads back in November and it took quite a while to get a couple of replacements during the Christmas holidays. Plus, when I received the order, they shipped the wrong order. So I now have some new fuel filters and fuel line courtesy of Raceway. 

Thursday - I took the Ural for a short ride into Hondo to see if the exhaust gaskets quieted things down. Not really and there is still an occasional “pop” in the exhaust. This usually suggests an exhaust leak leaking fresh air into the exhaust. There is slightly more power now than yesterday and the only change was the exhaust gasket install. Full throttle now gets you to 65+ mph. When I rode it to Pipe Creek, it would top out at around 60mph. 

Friday - A morning test session today. It's only 71°F right now (11:30am) though the RH is 84% so it feels kind of muggy. 

RV Tasks

Monday - My attempt at fixing the chip on our windshield. I should've taken a "before" picture as this looks like it'll do the job. The challenge was that the repair kit was designed for a regular, angled windshield. The RV windshield is almost vertical so the repair liquid didn’t pool on surface of the windshield on the chip.

It hit 82°F by mid-afternoon so I’m glad we have the new A/C unit installed. 

Tuesday - It's an overcast, humid (81% RH) morning. Fortunately, it isn't too hot yet, though the forecast is for highs in the low 80s! I'm outside for the morning test session. I packed away the winter water insulation as it had gotten wet when it touched the ground. I noticed that the short hoses that I've been using for years have slow leaks where the fittings attach to the hose. I like the short ones for when we are in the park as it's only about 6' from the spigot to the RV.

After the morning test session, I rode the Ural to Pipe Creek which is east of Bandara. About 95 miles round trip. I just needed to open an account at the propane business so we can easily get our tanks filled without needing to wait for the tanker truck. It was a nice ride. This was the first long-ish trip since we’ve been back this year. 

Warm Day

Sunday - Clear and sunny. I neglected to check the dip switches on the A/C unit yesterday so the thermostat didn’t know there was a furnace installed. The heat pump worked just fine. This morning, I pulled off the covers to access the dip switch and enabled the furnace. Then reset the thermostat.

RMarx helped again to lower the old A/C unit and dismantle the scaffold. Still more projects and I can no longer use weather as an excuse. 

Next task was de-wintering our water inlet. Packed up the heated water hose, pack up the fiberglass insulation I had wrapped around the water spigot, re-install the water softener, etc. I probably need to regen the softener as the last time was at Bay Landing. I’ll need two containers of table salt for that task. 

I still need to repair the chip in the windshield and install the SS slide skis on the living room slide. The RJ45 pass through for the StarLink still needs to be installed … somewhere. And the replacement slide topper for the kitchen slide is still waiting to be installed. And I’m sure that there are many more things such as Ural exhaust gaskets.

Back in the SKP Park - New A/C

Friday - For most of this week, this is what the weather has been like. Drizzle to rain almost continuously. Yesterday, it started to clear up but the wind kept the temperature in the upper 60s (°F). It was even warm enough for me to participate in a test while sitting outside!

The new front A/C w/heat pump arrived on Wednesday afternoon. It’s around 100# and the biggest challenge is getting it up onto the roof. The park has scaffolding available which I picked up yesterday afternoon. This is the first time I’ve needed the trailer since we arrived.

I have the first 5’ of the scaffolding assembled and need to figure out where the best location for it. I might just move the kitchen slide in and set it up there. Maybe I’ll replace the slide topper while I have the scaffolding set up. 

This morning, we drove to the outskirts of San Antonio to an urgent care for Bridget. It just happened to be near Costco so a visit may be in order.

Saturday - This morning after I helped with the park “dump run”, RMarx helped me to add the second level to the scaffolding and lift the new A/C unit up onto the roof. I then disconnected the wiring and unbolted the old unit from the roof. I’m in the process of lining it up with the roof opening before finishing up the wiring. There are dip switches on the control board that need to be set before testing. The final task is moving the old unit back down to the ground where I plan to salvage some parts.

It’s a very pleasant 72°F right now with a light breeze. Very pleasant. It would’ve been a great day for a motorcycle ride to just about anywhere. 

Later - The new A/C unit is mostly installed. It’s running right now as the RV was almost 80°F. The air from the A/C unit is 48°F so it appears to work. I still need to tape some foam into the ductwork to isolate the intake and outlet from each other.