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.

Day 18 - Goodbye 2020!

Thursday (18) - The last day of 2020! Some would say FINALLY but I can’t really complain too much. We had picked up a TT membership at the end of last year and this enabled us to make back-to-back reservations up to 120 days in advance. This allowed us to stay all along the Oregon coast during the summer when we would normally been back home. For this year we spent 242 nights within the TT/Encore system. Around ⅔ of the year. It makes it a pretty good deal. There are lots of people complaining about TT but it’s a convenient default and I anticipate quite a bit of use in 2021. 

I thought that the drop in temperature around noon yesterday was pretty dramatic. That's a cold front coming through! We are still in Athens, TX, for a couple more days before heading to a TT park south of here. A bit closer to Houston and we will be there for about 2½ weeks. We then plan to head further south to enjoy some warmer temperatures. 

I’ve been enjoying being a VE, volunteer examiner, for the remote ham radio tests. It’s as much social as anything else. A good group. I’ve been a certified VE for the Anchorage club for several years as we were using their paper tests in Fairbanks but had only interacted with one person in the Anchorage club once when I took their certification exam (online).

I hope everyone has a safe New Years Eve. We are having Garrett, Carolyn, and family over for dinner. Nothing fancy. Just a pot roast w/mashed potatoes and gravy. And I made up a batch of brownies for dessert. It has been 42°F for the last 24 hours. I think the cat is wanting warmer temperatures...

Day 15, 16, 17 - Athens, TX

Monday (Day 15) - I was notified that I picked up another virtual award using the Apple Watch. I met my minimal daily move goal 1500 times. This means that I’ve had an Apple Watch for at least 1500 days. I hadn’t realized that I’ve worn them that long. You just need to set the bar low enough.

Garrett came by yesterday afternoon to recaulk the front running lights and they were so cracked that they practically fell apart. I picked up replacements at the local Tractor Supply which has become one of my favorite stores. The new ones were designed for mounting to a metal surface so I needed to add a ground wire to each as the front cap is fiberglass. Digging through my supplies, I also found enough LED bulbs for all of the new running lights. Hopefully this fixes another water leak. We’ll find out in a couple of days as the forecast for Wednesday is a lot of rain.

For dinner, I made homemade murg makhani, better known as butter chicken, in the Instant Pot. It came out so much better than the bottled sauce. I think it may be the heavy cream. After sorting out the spices yesterday, I found I only needed a couple more to make this. You need a lot of spices to make just about any Indian dish. Surprisingly, I was able to find both of them at the Brookshire’s grocery store here in Athens. I could not find either one of them at Walmart. BTW, there is no “butter” in the dish.

Tuesday (Day 16) - A slow day here in Athens. Some minor repairs taken care of. I had ordered replacement tow dolly straps that hold the front tires onto the tow dolly. After 15k miles, they were showing some wear. The company had a two for one sale so I ordered two and they shipped two pair. I guess I'm set for a few more years. The 25' water hose, which is also about 1½ years old, sprung a pinhole leak a couple of feet from one end. I just cut the hose and picked up a new end from the hardware store. This was one of the cheap white water hoses sold at just about every RV dealer and was included free with the purchase of the motorhome. I still had the much higher quality 50' hose that we were using with the 5th wheel. This repaired hose is now relegated to be the tank flush hose. 

Wednesday (Day 17) - Lots of rain in the forecast for the next 24 hours. It just started around noon while I was doing one of the ham tests. I ended up needing to switch to Verizon about half way through the session. Fortunately, it can be switched with barely a hiccup on Zoom, Discord, and the testing website. 

I did put things away yesterday afternoon knowing that rain was coming. The dehumidifier is running on high now and is doing a good job of keeping our front windshield fog-free. Even with the Instant Pot running in slow cooker mode adding humidity. I’m making a sweet potato salmon chowder. Today just feels like a “soup” day.  

Some visitors came by today… I think they are enjoying the weather.

Day 13, 14 - Athens, TX

Saturday (Day 13) - Only one more week here at the Texan RV Park and Campus. The “Campus” part is a school for RV technicians and inspectors. They have certification courses and tests for both as well as classes for RV owners who want to repair their own rig. Or at least do some minor repairs and maintenance. We were looking for someplace to park for the holidays that was reasonably close to a major airport served by Alaska Airlines. We knew that Garrett was taking the RV technician certification course and that we needed some things done.

The park has a reasonable monthly rate and allows us to receive mail and packages. We even were able to have things arrive before we checked in. This was incredibly convenient. It’s not fancy with a lot of amenities but the sites are level and dry, clean 50amp power, and a decent dog park. 

The real incentive to stay at this RV park was being able to spend the holidays with Garrett, Carolyn, and their children. They travel full-time in their 5th wheel with a chase car. We initially met them in November, 2019, at a meet up outside of Phoenix with the Loftis Party of 6, another YouTube RV family. We met them again at the TT in Chehalis, WA, last summer. That’s when we learned of their plan for the certification training here in Athens, TX, in November/December. 

Bridget gifted me with a box of 24 empty spice bottles with labels. With the spices stored in a basket, you couldn’t easily find the one you were looking for except by memory. The labels on the lids (and bottles) make it a little easier. They are not in any particular order. The basket makes it easy to move all of them in/out of the cupboard. There is another basket with lesser used seasonings plus some Costco containers of things like onion flakes and peppercorn. 

Sunday (Day 14) - Since I left with the Prius packed to the roof, it has been 499 days. Full-time RVing was never, and still isn’t, the retirement plan. It just sort of turned out that way due to the current environment. Since picking up this coach, we've put on a bit over 15k miles burning 2192 gallons of diesel. Giving us a whopping 6.8mpg. This is towing the Prius. On the initial cross country trip, it was about 1mpg better than that. During same period, we put over 20k miles on the Prius. This is just miles driven not towed. Way more than I had expected. 

I know that I've often mention RV repairs on this blog. More engine repairs were needed but "house" repairs are less than expected. The completely unexpected ones are the windshield issues. The tire replacement was planned. 

We are here for another week before heading for a TT park west of Houston. Only a couple of hours south of here.