RV work

Wednesday - It warmed up to 72°F today so I applied Dicor to the roof where rain may have seeped through. And, I squirted urethane into the rubber windshield seal and adjusted the seal to overlap the glass. It only overlaps by about ⅛” and the cold temperatures may have caused the rubber to shrink (not sure) but we’ll see how well this holds up.

Since I only used about 15% of the urethane, I vacuum sealed to see if it’ll prevent it from drying out. Kind of expensive stuff. 

I ended up borrowing a step ladder from the park to work on the windshield. I left my extension ladder in the class C as I didn’t expect to need it on this trip. After these tasks, I relaxed in the hot tub again. Really nice…

Tampa and Back

Tuesday - Drove to the Tampa airport and back today. Bridget has a doctors appointment in San Antonio tomorrow. I took the toll road as it saves about half an hour each way. Plus, I want to make sure that the toll charge matches the vehicle. I moved the transponder to the Jeep from the RV. The faq claims that it should work fine. 

On the way back, I stopped at a coffee place for a short break. A couple of years ago when we were staying in Crystal River, this was almost a daily stop while out and about. 

It was a 290 mile round trip so it took most of the afternoon. After arriving at the park, I beelined to the hot tub to relax. 

Old Town, FL

Saturday - The Suwannee River next to the campground. They have rental boats and rent dock space. There is one more night of near freezing temperatures followed by more normal Florida-like temperatures. I moved the StarLink dish up to the roof this morning and it looks like it might be better. I joined two test sessions today it it worked good enough as long as I’m not leading the session. It’s fine for watching the Olympics or other streaming services. 

The sites are kind of small but it’s good enough. We will be gone for a bit in the middle of our stay. 

I checked out the Dicor on the roof as there was some leaking while we were at the Harvest Host. I found a couple of possibilities and use more Dicor once we get a warm afternoon. 

Sunday - According to the weather guessers, last night was supposed to be our last freeze, at least for a bit. We didn’t quite hit freezing but it did venture to the lower 30s (°F). It’s 11am and we are on our way to the upper 60s (°F) with some nice sunshine. 

Monday - Friends from Fairbanks came by to visit this afternoon. They RV with their Rivian electric truck and a Brinkley trailer. I hadn’t seen them for years. It was a wonderful visit. 

This evening, I met another Ural owner here at the park. He has a 2007 Ural in southern Illinois. 

Old Town, FL

Friday - On the drive yesterday, we heard a “bang” when a flock of birds flew in front of the RV. I thought we may have hit one with the front cap. Then Bridget noticed a sliver of light at the upper corner of the front windshield. It happened again for the sixth time. We were both pretty discouraged by this. 

Today, we are going into Gainesville to meet up with Matt and Kirsten, friends from Fairbanks, for lunch. We will be stopping at Walmart for groceries afterwards and I’m going to pick up some black urethane windshield glue to fill the gap between the edge of the glass and the rubber seal. And, I may try to work the rubber seal a bit with a little heat from the heat gun. The cold weather may have contributed to this reoccurrence. 

Florida is still going through cold temperatures. It was this temperature yesterday morning at the Harvest Host and had only warmed to around 41°F when we left at around 10am. We had gone through quite a bit of propane since leaving Hondo with a full tank. In 9 days, we burned through half a tank or about 19 gallons (~$69). We used the heat pump if the temperature was above the low 40s (° F) which shows how much cold nights we’ve had. 

The hot tub and pool are open. I didn’t try out the pool this evening but the hot tub was very relaxing. It was around 102°F. It felt wonderful!!!

Ponce De Leon, FL - HH

Tuesday - A slightly longer drive day to a farm within Harvest Hosts. They have five sites with power and water. We just hooked up to power as we have plenty of water. We are staying for two nights before heading for our destination near Old Town, FL. We picked up some eggs, a small coffee cake, and pickled vegetables at their store. The sites are dirt & gravel and the driveway was narrow and bumpy. But no issues with the rv though the Jeep was disconnected for the drive in. 

I also discovered another worn part on the tow bar. I’ll check it out tomorrow to see how serious it is. I noticed at one of our rest stops that one arm was locked at full extension. 

Wednesday - The rain started last night after midnight and continued on/off for most of the day. A drip started from one of the roof vents. I pulled off the inside trim ring and it may be coming from the sealant around the vent or further towards the front of the RV. Possibly even the condensation drain from the AC/heat pump.

Baton Rouge, LA

Monday - After a low temperature of just above freezing, we headed east at around 10am. The weather was nice with a high in the mid-60s (°F). Heavier traffic on I-10 with a fair amount of road construction. Our overnight stop is at a Cracker Barrel on the eastern side of Baton Rouge. 

We had dinner in the restaurant and, in my opinion, the food “quality” seems to have gone downhill. One thing that hasn’t changed is the game on the table. Something to do while waiting for your order. We didn’t park in the RV parking spots as we would’ve had to disconnect the Jeep to fit. But the parking lot was pretty empty. 

Winter Weather in Livingston, TX

Friday - At noon, it is only 49°F. I reconnected the water and filled the fresh water tank (through the water softener) to 85%. I'll disconnect it tonight as I really don't want to damage the water softener. 

Saturday - Today was pretty cold with a low this morning of just below freezing. Tonight’s low is forecast to be in the mid-20s (°F) and it barely rose to 44°F with lots of sunshine. We are planning to head out on Monday as there is a warming trend in the forecast.

On Wednesday’s drive, I wanted to take a toll road to make sure our transponder worked plus I was curious what the toll would be for the motorhome towing the Jeep. We were charged the truck rate. The trip on 99 around Houston came out to $44. Pretty pricy. The good news is that the transponder works. Just in case we want to use it in the future. (I’m thinking of future east coast trips)

Livingston, TX

Wednesday - We left the SKP park around 10:30 heading east after several weeks of delays. Hopefully, we didn’t leave too early as another cold front is in the forecast. We arrived at the Escapee park in Livingston, TX, around 4:30pm. It was a nice, relaxing drive. It’s nice to be on the road again in the class A. 

Thursday - Clear and sunny and has warmed up to the mid-60s. Warm enough to sit outside. We walked over to the mail forwarding office to sign up for the scanning option. This is the location of our mail forwarding service. 

Due to inclement weather forecast to arrive this weekend along our route through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and northern Florida, we decided to hang around here for several more days. Below freezing temperatures, with heavy fog along the I-10 corridor is something I’d rather not deal with. By Monday, the warming trend is forecast to begin. 

One of the other VEs lives here in Livingston at the Escapee park and stopped by to visit. 

Winter’s Here

Sunday - It looks like winter has arrived in TX. The forecast was for much lower temperatures but I still wouldn’t venture out on the roads. The only ice was on the metal steps at the RV door. The steps were pretty slippery. 

I went to Sunday morning coffee, as usual, but I was the only one there. But, since I was there, I went ahead and started this blog post with some coffee. 

The current plan, which is always subject to change, is to head out on Tuesday. If the road conditions aren’t halfway decent, I’m tempted to wait another day. Texas DOT has this obsession with flyovers at just about every major highway intersection, and bridges are the first thing to freeze, and, according to the weather apps, Houston is getting freezing rain. 

Tonight’s forecast is for a low of 16°F. We’ll see if that’s accurate. 

Tuesday - The low temperature last night was 24°F, and tomorrow it's forecast to be around 31°F. So we are planning to head out tomorrow mid-morning. There hasn't been any precipitation, so I'm not anticipating any road issues. The current plan 

Out and About

Thursday - I needed a couple of things from town today, including some Stabil for the Ural. They had it at Tractor Supply as well as a light fixture for an incandescent bulb. I'll put the fixture under the trash can on the other lot to keep the water spigot above freezing. It seemed like a good reason for a ride, even if it is only about 15 miles or so. And it had crept above 50°F. I had made Spam musubi a couple of days ago, and one of them made a great breakfast. While I was getting ready to leave Walmart, a younger guy on a Sportster came by for a chat. He was wondering why he saw so few riders out on such a nice day. I mentioned the "rule" about only riding when the temperature is above your age. He hadn't heard that one before. 

By the way, incandescent bulbs are hard to find. I found a 2-pack a couple of years ago, and I was glad that I still had the second bulb. LED bulbs have taken over. After the morning test session, I'll set up the light on the other site. Until the lot sells, it's still our responsibility, so the shed is still insured, and I need to take precautions against the water spigot freezing. The low temperature on Sunday early morning is expected to drop into the teens.  

Saturday - More cold weather prep today. I put Stabil in the class C gas tank and ran both the engine and generator to try and get it mixed into the fuel and into the carb and efi. Plus, I charged up the lithium batteries and the generator AGM battery. It was only down around 5% but very little solar with all the overcast conditions. Between the engine and generator charging, it went pretty fast. 

Later - At 5:30pm, the temperature had dropped to 35°F. And, it looks like precipitation is in the forecast. Today, I drained the tanks, disconnected the fresh water, and added some anti-gel to the fuel tank. I then ran the engine for about 15 min to kind of mix things up in the tank, then ran the generator for about ten minutes. To get some of that fuel into that fuel system. 

The UPS keeps beeping. I think it doesn’t like the old Magnum modified sine wave, i.e. square wave, inverter. I changed the settings to tolerate the worst AC input. Hopefully that helps.

The forecasted low is below freezing tonight and for the next several days. A lot of people are really worried about the temperature as the freezing rain could cause power outages. We have the 7.5KW generator and an almost full tank of diesel so not expecting any issues. 

Sunny Days

Thursday - Our old lot and shed were inspected today,y and there isn’t anything that I need to fix! I put out our awning with the sunscreen attached for the first time in years. The passenger side of the RV faces south, so additional shade is nice, especially with the low sun angle. The sunshade is staked down in four places, so it’s more secure than just the awning.

It turned out to be a very nice day. High of ~70°F, clear skies, and a light breeze from the south. There are some tasks I need to do, such as changing the oil on the Ural, but I kept procrastinating until it was time to make my contribution to dinner. Extra creamy mac & cheese with three kinds of cheese. All in the Instant Pot. 

Friday - A cooler start to the day. AccuWeather actually said 31ºF, but it wasn't anywhere near that temperature. Maybe 41°F would be closer. Below-freezing temperatures are in the forecast for Sunday morning.

Saturday - Maintenance day on the Ural. Oil and filter change done. I couldn't find the oil filter wrench, so I had to pick one up in town. There are some real advantages to the large toolbox, which is still in Fairbanks. The Ural seems to run quieter with fresh oil but its probably just

Tuesday - Contrary to the title, today is not one of the sunny days as you can see in the picture. Not a whole lot is going on around here. Cooler temperatures in the morning. Last Sunday, it was below freezing. I have my trouble light and incandescent bulb on the old site and just ordered a light and thermostatic control for the water pedestal on this site. I have another thermostatic outlet somewhere, but the odds of finding it after the move are slim. The picture is the view behind our lot. The field is nice, though I wonder if we may have more rodent problems. The houses do have dogs that tend to bark in the middle of the night, though I can barely hear them. 

Today's high temperature is only supposed to be in the upper 50s (°F), so it feels cooler. Time to head to warmer temperatures. The plan is to go to Florida on Sunday, so I need to start getting ready now. It's been a while since we've taken the Class A on a road trip. We will be dry camping for several days (I think), so one of today's tasks was to fill up the fresh water tank. I will be running the water through the water softener as it is so much nicer. I filled it to 70% on the SeeLevel which comes out to over 80% due to the shape of the tank.

Roof and Windshield sealing.

Wednesday -  Today's forecast is for the temperature to hit 70°F by afternoon. I need to apply Dicor to several locations on the roof, and Dicor says 70°F+. There is rain in the forecast for next Sunday, so roof work is important.

Later - No pictures of the roof but I went through my one tube of Dicor, sealing anything that even looked suspicious. I also worked on the windshield. The rubber seal in this corner was only overlapping the glass by under ⅛" so I moved the seal to cover the edge of the glass and squirted urethane sealant between the rubber seal and the glass as well as the edge. I think it'll hold for now. The glass itself doesn't look like it moved.

Since I only used about a tenth of the urethane, I vacuum sealed the tube in an attempt to make it not dry out. 

Shed is Painted!

Wednesday - The painting is finished and I removed the carpet. The baseboard is painted and stacked in the workshop and will be reinstalled after new flooring is installed. 

There is quite a bit more that Bridget wants done but for now, we just moved the shelving and her table into the space. The screened room on the front of the shed is mostly empty. The old carpet and a broken 2-drawer file cabinet will be hauled away at the end of the month on the park “dump run”.

The small door next to the shelving leads to the workshop area. It needs organizing as I just moved stuff in to get it out of the way. 

New Lot in the SKP Park

Sunday - Here is the new lot. The shed is larger with a screened in porch and no tree. We still get some leaves from other lots but no where near the pile of leaves of the other lot. Behind the lot is an open field so no neighbors in that direction. 

We have someone painting the inside of the shed including the ceiling. We had originally emptied the other shed into the screened porch and I rearranged a lot of stuff into the small workshop on the right side of the shed. 

Monday - We were given a pile of keys for the shed most of them didn’t fit anything. The two doors had a deadbolt and a doorknob. None were keyed alike. I picked up new lock sets and deadbolts at Home Depot and installed them today. Now all of those are keyed the same. A step in the right direction. 

Tuesday - I found some wood to fix the porch railing thanks to Paul here at the park. I had removed this section to allow me to store the Ural under cover. The wind had pulled some of the plastic lattice loose last summer. I used the pneumatic stapler to fasten it back in place. The lot is scheduled for inspection this Thursday and I’m curious to see what else I may need to repair. 

Moving

Thursday - Another warm day. We moved the RV to the new lot yesterday and I brought the utility trailer to our old site to begin emptying out the shed. A friend came by yesterday to help empty out the “attic” storage.  Fortunately, most of our stuff is still in bins and boxes.

Saturday - I began the day attending the ham radio club breakfast followed by the meeting. After the meeting, I was a VE for their testing session. I then finished clearing out the shed and cleaning our old site. This included the hydraulic fluid on the concrete. But it’s done. 

In my next post I’ll show the new site. 

Unseasonably Hot - SKP

Saturday - Another unseasonably hot day for January. Had a few RV chores to do but not much else. The A/C was running by late morning and has been coming on well into the evening the last couple of days. Tried FT8 on 10m and 15m and got a couple of dozen contacts with the furthest being in South America.

Tuesday - It’s still unseasonably hot here in TX. It actually got up to 83°F this afternoon. We finally got all of the Christmas decorations packed away. Fortunately, when you are in an RV, there isn’t much room for stuff. 

I also started re-installing the gate and railing that I had removed last Spring to have someplace sheltered for the Ural. We will be moving to a different lot and putting this one up for sale. The fence and gate did improve the appearance. Two 2x6 pieces were rotted when I disassembled it so I’ll need to pick up a replacement and repaint the porch. 

Wednesday - It’s supposed to be warm again today but cooler than yesterday. We turned in the paperwork to put this lot up for sale and made the payment for the other lot today. We now have two weeks to empty the shed so I brought the trailer back from storage. 

Happy New Year!

Thursday - Another quiet day. I put away some of the outside Christmas decorations. But still have the lights on the shed. The “good luck” lunch at the clubhouse was black eyed peas, collard greens, and cornbread. It was delicious, and it appears to be a southern tradition. The green collards are the color of money, the peas are for coins, and the cornbread is gold. There were about 35 people there, which is significantly less than there were on Christmas. 

Friday - I rode the Ural into town to pick up a couple of things at Walmart and ended up talking to someone for a while about the Ural. It turned out that a friend in AK used to live across the street from them. Small world. 

It is unseasonably hot today. Especially with the colder temperatures the last couple of days. Texas winters…

After some poking around on the Internet, I found the pressure switch on the class C air conditioner and shorted out the pins. After starting the engine, the compressor was running. I  attached the freon container to the low-pressure port, and it indicated that the pressure was low. I added almost the entire 18-oz can. The gauge now reads in the green, which suggests 'OK", and cold air was coming out of the dash vents. I'll call that a success for now.