Tuesday, February 11, 2025

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. 

Friday, February 7, 2025

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. 

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

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. 

Sunday, February 2, 2025

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.

Saturday, February 1, 2025

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.