We are at the Paradise South RV Park in Mercedes, Texas (map).
The decision was finally made Saturday afternoon to move the operation to downtown Mercedes, and we shut down HQ and began packing at around 5. We were ready to roll at 8, and drove until 11:30, when we stopped for the night at a rest area just south of Falfurrias. We'd never been down 281, so I am sorry we had to drive it in the dark.
We arrived at the new HQ in Mercedes at 9am Sunday and began setting up. Unfortunately, the crew in the box truck with the server took a wrong turn out of San Antonio and then had some issues in the morning, and did not arrive until after 11. Nevertheless, we had HQ more or less up and running around 3 or so. We did not leave until 9:30.
That made another couple of killer days for us -- 16 hours on Saturday and 14 on Sunday. Yesterday was a more reasonable 11 hours, and today I am almost human again.
It's been in the mid-100s here, and by mid-day on Sunday, with no prospects of a good parking spot or power outlet at HQ, we reluctantly came here, to the closest RV park. The nightly rate is north of $34, but they have weekly and monthly rates of $160 and $300, respectively, plus electricity. They have graciously offered to include electricity in those rates for the Red Cross, and so we just paid the monthly, since we'd be up to that in a mere eight days at the daily rate.
We're home for a quick lunch today, for the first day since we arrived, and so I am taking just a few minutes to blog. More later.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
The George report
Just a couple minutes here for an update...
The vet called Wednesday afternoon to say that the ultrasound showed the stone had passed, and George was acting like a whole different cat. Louise borrowed a car and made the 45-minute trek up there to pick her up.
We're really glad to have her back, and she seems equally happy to be home. More later.
In other news, we weathered the storm here in San Antonio by tucking the bus under a 10' roof overhang at headquarters, so our leaks were not too troublesome. Now that the storm is past, operation management is looking at possibly moving us all to the Rio Grande valley, possibly Pharr or Harlingen. We should know more later today.
The vet called Wednesday afternoon to say that the ultrasound showed the stone had passed, and George was acting like a whole different cat. Louise borrowed a car and made the 45-minute trek up there to pick her up.
We're really glad to have her back, and she seems equally happy to be home. More later.
In other news, we weathered the storm here in San Antonio by tucking the bus under a 10' roof overhang at headquarters, so our leaks were not too troublesome. Now that the storm is past, operation management is looking at possibly moving us all to the Rio Grande valley, possibly Pharr or Harlingen. We should know more later today.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Landfall update
Just a few minutes to post here while we wolf down some lunch.
We are at Red Cross Relief Operation Headquarters in San Antonio. As usual, I can not post the map link. Suffice it to say that we are quartered with the staging operation for the state's emergency response, and it is quite impressive. Of course, the office space we are using was not yet activated when we arrived, and we worked the first seven hours yesterday in 95-100 degree temperatures trying to get the space ready. Somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 it started to be cool enough to be comfortable; we were there well past midnight. It was an 18-hour day for me.
Today things are a bit calmer, except, of course, that Dolly has slowed down, allowing it to intensify into a Category 2 as it makes landfall. The response is likely to get much larger, as flooding is almost certain, especially if the Rio Grande levees are overtopped.
We were able to talk our way into a 15-amp power receptacle for Odyssey, and that's been enough to keep one air conditioner going full blast since we arrived Monday afternoon. It barely keeps up during the day, but catches up and then some at night. The batteries are holding steady, covering the compressor surges and occasional hot water making.
Many people have inquired about George, or sent well wishes. She has been admitted to the hospital; I ended up taking her there in Odyssey as Louise continued to relief HQ with the box truck. After an hour or so, they told me that the ultrasound showed a kidney stone making its way down one of the ureters, which may account for the whole problem. She also has a slight heart murmer. They are hydrating her with IV fluids, and attempting to move the stone through diuresis. We'll learn today from a follow-up ultrasound if there is any success. We are holding positive thoughts -- if the stone does not move, her entire system can shut down from renal failure. We expect her to remain hospitalized for another few days, which, frankly, is a good thing, since caring for her at home right now would be a bit overwhelming.
More later, after things here quiet down some.
We are at Red Cross Relief Operation Headquarters in San Antonio. As usual, I can not post the map link. Suffice it to say that we are quartered with the staging operation for the state's emergency response, and it is quite impressive. Of course, the office space we are using was not yet activated when we arrived, and we worked the first seven hours yesterday in 95-100 degree temperatures trying to get the space ready. Somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 it started to be cool enough to be comfortable; we were there well past midnight. It was an 18-hour day for me.
Today things are a bit calmer, except, of course, that Dolly has slowed down, allowing it to intensify into a Category 2 as it makes landfall. The response is likely to get much larger, as flooding is almost certain, especially if the Rio Grande levees are overtopped.
We were able to talk our way into a 15-amp power receptacle for Odyssey, and that's been enough to keep one air conditioner going full blast since we arrived Monday afternoon. It barely keeps up during the day, but catches up and then some at night. The batteries are holding steady, covering the compressor surges and occasional hot water making.
Many people have inquired about George, or sent well wishes. She has been admitted to the hospital; I ended up taking her there in Odyssey as Louise continued to relief HQ with the box truck. After an hour or so, they told me that the ultrasound showed a kidney stone making its way down one of the ureters, which may account for the whole problem. She also has a slight heart murmer. They are hydrating her with IV fluids, and attempting to move the stone through diuresis. We'll learn today from a follow-up ultrasound if there is any success. We are holding positive thoughts -- if the stone does not move, her entire system can shut down from renal failure. We expect her to remain hospitalized for another few days, which, frankly, is a good thing, since caring for her at home right now would be a bit overwhelming.
More later, after things here quiet down some.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Moving
We've been deployed to San Antonio, TX to prepare for Tropical Storm/Hurricane Dolly, so we're checking out of our campsite here at McKinney Falls. I'll be driving a rental truck full of technology equipment while Sean drives Odyssey to our new digs.
Further updates when we arrive.
Further updates when we arrive.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Mail bag
Well, we're all caught up on errands, and finally caught up on rest, so I have some time today to catch up with our readers.
First, by way of update: we are still at McKinney Falls State Park, driving around in the nerd-mobile, and expecting to be working at the DSMC for a few more days. Of course, we now have two tropical storms on the map, and, while we are a bit out of the box for Christobal, Dolly is aiming for south Texas, and I will not be surprised if we get diverted to San Antonio, Brownsville, or Corpus.
The other big news at the moment is that George has been under the weather. She threw up Thursday evening, and has been lethargic ever since. When our normal arsenal of remedies did not clear things up by yesterday morning, we took her to the vet, to discover that she has a kidney infection of unknown origin. We now have an IV bag of electrolyte solution and have been giving her subcutaneous fluids, along with antibiotics. If we don't see an improvement by tomorrow, we may have to hospitalize her, which would certainly limit our availability for deployment to the gulf. We have both been very worried, and sometimes teary-eyed, about her.
As for reader mail: First, let me apologize to anyone that has been waiting for a response; we tend to get very focussed en route to Red Cross work, and there is just not time to get to everything. What little writing time I do have, I use to update the blog, as that keeps as many people informed as possible.
I'd like to acknowledge the many people (too numerous to list) who have either posted in the comments or sent us direct email thanking us for our involvement in the Red Cross. Let me just say that we find the work fun and rewarding, as well as fulfilling, so it is really a win-win (to borrow a trite phrase) arrangement for all. And I can recommend it as an excellent volunteer opportunity for everyone -- the Red Cross is always looking for more help.
As we were en route here, reader Cedar commented that we seem to eat out often, especially for dinner, and noted that it would be more cost-effective to cook aboard, given that we have the facilities. This is absolutely true, and I have a two-part answer to this question.
The first part has to do with that part of our lives when we are working for the Red Cross (since that is when the question arrived). While we usually stick with our custom of eating breakfast and lunch at home (although we sometimes will go to lunch with coworkers to be social), we almost never eat dinner at home while en route to, or working on, a job. In part, that's because we are too wiped out at the end of the day to cook, and in part it's because the dirty dishes, which I often wash the next morning when we do eat in, will simply accumulate in the sink until the following day's dinner time (and, if I'm too tired to cook, I'm certainly too tired to wash all the dishes first, and then cook). And the bus is just too small a place to have dirty dishes lingering for even a whole day.
We have an expense account when we are on duty with the Red Cross. So it's not as if we would be pocketing any savings by eating at home -- we only claim actual costs. We do save the Red Cross some money by eating in as much as we do (most volunteers are eating three meals a day in restaurants, because they are staying in hotel rooms -- yet another expense the Red Cross does not underwrite for those of us in RVs).
As for the rest of the time, when we are not volunteering, well, we just like to eat out. In fact, next to diesel fuel, it's our only real expense. We have all but completely checked out of modern American consumer culture, which, frankly, is the way many people reward themselves on a daily basis. So we get our little pleasures from sampling the local cuisine when possible, or returning to old favorites on a regular basis.
Don't get me wrong -- I love to cook, and we do eat dinner at home quite a bit. I don't ever blog about meals that I prepare myself, whereas I often blog about restaurants, since we figure some of our readers who will pass the same way might want to know about them. But we do spend a good deal of time in the middle of nowhere, where it's cook or go hungry. In fact, we can go two full weeks on our water tanks, and, not coincidentally, we can fit two weeks of food in our little 7.5 cubic foot fridge. Since there are so many nights when we have little choice but to cook in, we take advantage of nice restaurants whenever they are in convenient walking, transit, or scooter distance.
Moving on, this morning we received an anonymous comment taking us to task for the amount of fuel we burned coming here to Austin to volunteer. (Don't bother looking for it -- it was rude and abusive, so we deleted it. This is, after all, our blog.) The implication being that, somehow, the work would just get done without any expenditure of fossil fuels. That's a bit naive, and I'm going to guess that the poster has never spent any time working with any type of humanitarian or other volunteer organization.
For the record, I asked our handlers in Washington why it was that they decided to send us some 1,300 miles just to help turn equipment around here in Austin, and their answer was that we were the most cost-effective solution. (For anyone who has not noticed, donations are down, and the American Red Cross is in the grips of a budget crisis, having to borrow money for the first time in years, and laying off hordes of regular employees.) The reason for that is simple: "normal" volunteers have to be flown in from around the country (and, no, there is not a magic pool of trained and qualified volunteers just hanging around Austin, unfortunately).
Not only is that more expensive than asking us to drive down here (more on that in a moment), it, too, uses a direct quantity of fossil fuels. A round-trip air passenger will consume an average of 40 gallons of Jet-A (which is practically the same stuff as diesel fuel), and they would have had to send at least two and possibly three other volunteers here to get the same work done as the two of us. (Our output is higher because of our extensive training and experience level, the fact that we already work well together as a team, and being here in our own home allows us to work longer hours with fewer distractions.)
So that's already 80-120 gallons of fuel, as compared with our ~200 gallons to get here. Then on top of that, you'll have one or two extra rental cars for those other volunteers, and the fuel to run them. Also, those folks will be eating three squares a day in restaurants, and using up three hotel rooms, all of which have carbon loads associated with them as well as donor dollars. So while I can't unequivocally state that the carbon footprint of sending us from Wyoming to Austin is lower than, say, flying three people in from the east coast, what I can say is that the difference is not as big as you might think. From a donated dollar standpoint, it's much more clear-cut: we're saving the donors $200-$300 a day for each day we are here. (And we include ourselves in the donor category: we donate far more in cash to the Red Cross each year than we are reimbursed for expenses.)
First, by way of update: we are still at McKinney Falls State Park, driving around in the nerd-mobile, and expecting to be working at the DSMC for a few more days. Of course, we now have two tropical storms on the map, and, while we are a bit out of the box for Christobal, Dolly is aiming for south Texas, and I will not be surprised if we get diverted to San Antonio, Brownsville, or Corpus.
The other big news at the moment is that George has been under the weather. She threw up Thursday evening, and has been lethargic ever since. When our normal arsenal of remedies did not clear things up by yesterday morning, we took her to the vet, to discover that she has a kidney infection of unknown origin. We now have an IV bag of electrolyte solution and have been giving her subcutaneous fluids, along with antibiotics. If we don't see an improvement by tomorrow, we may have to hospitalize her, which would certainly limit our availability for deployment to the gulf. We have both been very worried, and sometimes teary-eyed, about her.
As for reader mail: First, let me apologize to anyone that has been waiting for a response; we tend to get very focussed en route to Red Cross work, and there is just not time to get to everything. What little writing time I do have, I use to update the blog, as that keeps as many people informed as possible.
I'd like to acknowledge the many people (too numerous to list) who have either posted in the comments or sent us direct email thanking us for our involvement in the Red Cross. Let me just say that we find the work fun and rewarding, as well as fulfilling, so it is really a win-win (to borrow a trite phrase) arrangement for all. And I can recommend it as an excellent volunteer opportunity for everyone -- the Red Cross is always looking for more help.
As we were en route here, reader Cedar commented that we seem to eat out often, especially for dinner, and noted that it would be more cost-effective to cook aboard, given that we have the facilities. This is absolutely true, and I have a two-part answer to this question.
The first part has to do with that part of our lives when we are working for the Red Cross (since that is when the question arrived). While we usually stick with our custom of eating breakfast and lunch at home (although we sometimes will go to lunch with coworkers to be social), we almost never eat dinner at home while en route to, or working on, a job. In part, that's because we are too wiped out at the end of the day to cook, and in part it's because the dirty dishes, which I often wash the next morning when we do eat in, will simply accumulate in the sink until the following day's dinner time (and, if I'm too tired to cook, I'm certainly too tired to wash all the dishes first, and then cook). And the bus is just too small a place to have dirty dishes lingering for even a whole day.
We have an expense account when we are on duty with the Red Cross. So it's not as if we would be pocketing any savings by eating at home -- we only claim actual costs. We do save the Red Cross some money by eating in as much as we do (most volunteers are eating three meals a day in restaurants, because they are staying in hotel rooms -- yet another expense the Red Cross does not underwrite for those of us in RVs).
As for the rest of the time, when we are not volunteering, well, we just like to eat out. In fact, next to diesel fuel, it's our only real expense. We have all but completely checked out of modern American consumer culture, which, frankly, is the way many people reward themselves on a daily basis. So we get our little pleasures from sampling the local cuisine when possible, or returning to old favorites on a regular basis.
Don't get me wrong -- I love to cook, and we do eat dinner at home quite a bit. I don't ever blog about meals that I prepare myself, whereas I often blog about restaurants, since we figure some of our readers who will pass the same way might want to know about them. But we do spend a good deal of time in the middle of nowhere, where it's cook or go hungry. In fact, we can go two full weeks on our water tanks, and, not coincidentally, we can fit two weeks of food in our little 7.5 cubic foot fridge. Since there are so many nights when we have little choice but to cook in, we take advantage of nice restaurants whenever they are in convenient walking, transit, or scooter distance.
Moving on, this morning we received an anonymous comment taking us to task for the amount of fuel we burned coming here to Austin to volunteer. (Don't bother looking for it -- it was rude and abusive, so we deleted it. This is, after all, our blog.) The implication being that, somehow, the work would just get done without any expenditure of fossil fuels. That's a bit naive, and I'm going to guess that the poster has never spent any time working with any type of humanitarian or other volunteer organization.
For the record, I asked our handlers in Washington why it was that they decided to send us some 1,300 miles just to help turn equipment around here in Austin, and their answer was that we were the most cost-effective solution. (For anyone who has not noticed, donations are down, and the American Red Cross is in the grips of a budget crisis, having to borrow money for the first time in years, and laying off hordes of regular employees.) The reason for that is simple: "normal" volunteers have to be flown in from around the country (and, no, there is not a magic pool of trained and qualified volunteers just hanging around Austin, unfortunately).
Not only is that more expensive than asking us to drive down here (more on that in a moment), it, too, uses a direct quantity of fossil fuels. A round-trip air passenger will consume an average of 40 gallons of Jet-A (which is practically the same stuff as diesel fuel), and they would have had to send at least two and possibly three other volunteers here to get the same work done as the two of us. (Our output is higher because of our extensive training and experience level, the fact that we already work well together as a team, and being here in our own home allows us to work longer hours with fewer distractions.)
So that's already 80-120 gallons of fuel, as compared with our ~200 gallons to get here. Then on top of that, you'll have one or two extra rental cars for those other volunteers, and the fuel to run them. Also, those folks will be eating three squares a day in restaurants, and using up three hotel rooms, all of which have carbon loads associated with them as well as donor dollars. So while I can't unequivocally state that the carbon footprint of sending us from Wyoming to Austin is lower than, say, flying three people in from the east coast, what I can say is that the difference is not as big as you might think. From a donated dollar standpoint, it's much more clear-cut: we're saving the donors $200-$300 a day for each day we are here. (And we include ourselves in the donor category: we donate far more in cash to the Red Cross each year than we are reimbursed for expenses.)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Squeezing in another update
Once again, I will be brief, because we've been going pretty much non-stop since our arrival.
One of the things that has occupied our time and attention has been the campground itself. We arrived after closing on Monday afternoon, so we could only assume availability of this site for one night. Tuesday morning, when we checked back in at the office, their computer reservation system was down, and they could again only guarantee one more night. By Wednesday morning, when we tried to nail it down for the rest of our stay, all the 50-amp sites were reserved for Thursday night. So, again, all we could get was one additional night. We did, however, pre-reserve this same spot starting Friday night, and through the 26th.
We've been checking back with the office several times since yesterday morning; today they determined mid-morning that we could stay right where we are. So when we came home for lunch, we paid an additional night, and got our passes in order out through the 26th. But that meant we were in the campground office, for 20 minutes or so each time (the TPWD system is very slow and cumbersome): Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, and Thursday at lunch time. Call it almost two hours to finally book a site for two weeks. To their credit, they worked really hard to get us this spot tonight, even though it was nominally reserved. I think our Red Cross status helped a bit (we've been wearing ID, and driving the aforementioned well-marked vehicle). They've also offered to work with us if we need to extend past their normal 14-day maximum.
In the meantime, we've been quite busy at the office. Tuesday and some of Wednesday was spent cleaning and repairing laser printers, and we came home both nights more or less covered in a fine coating of toner dust. I've spent most of the time since then cleaning and repairing ink-jet printers, and my fingers are still nearly black. Louise has been kitting computers. This afternoon I got to spend half an hour troubleshooting a minor electrical problem on one of the Emergency Communications Response Vehicles, which was a nice diversion from printers.
This afternoon after we returned home, one of our readers, Kevin, happened to wander by, and we had a nice chat for a few minutes. We agreed to try to get together sometime later in our stay here. We cooked in tonight, our first opportunity since arriving. Fortunately, we managed to get our Red Cross debit cards in order Tuesday by driving over to the Austin chapter, and we've been using those to eat out. We were also able to put most of the camping fees directly on one of the cards; this weekend, we'll reimburse our mileage and the rest of the camping and en-route meals, which will leave us with a slim balance for the rest of our stay. We'll have to get funds added before we are done here.
I think we'll be off all weekend, which makes this experience very different from a normal Red Cross deployment. That will give us a chance to recharge a bit, and get the house straightened back up from our mad dash south.
One of the things that has occupied our time and attention has been the campground itself. We arrived after closing on Monday afternoon, so we could only assume availability of this site for one night. Tuesday morning, when we checked back in at the office, their computer reservation system was down, and they could again only guarantee one more night. By Wednesday morning, when we tried to nail it down for the rest of our stay, all the 50-amp sites were reserved for Thursday night. So, again, all we could get was one additional night. We did, however, pre-reserve this same spot starting Friday night, and through the 26th.
We've been checking back with the office several times since yesterday morning; today they determined mid-morning that we could stay right where we are. So when we came home for lunch, we paid an additional night, and got our passes in order out through the 26th. But that meant we were in the campground office, for 20 minutes or so each time (the TPWD system is very slow and cumbersome): Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, and Thursday at lunch time. Call it almost two hours to finally book a site for two weeks. To their credit, they worked really hard to get us this spot tonight, even though it was nominally reserved. I think our Red Cross status helped a bit (we've been wearing ID, and driving the aforementioned well-marked vehicle). They've also offered to work with us if we need to extend past their normal 14-day maximum.
In the meantime, we've been quite busy at the office. Tuesday and some of Wednesday was spent cleaning and repairing laser printers, and we came home both nights more or less covered in a fine coating of toner dust. I've spent most of the time since then cleaning and repairing ink-jet printers, and my fingers are still nearly black. Louise has been kitting computers. This afternoon I got to spend half an hour troubleshooting a minor electrical problem on one of the Emergency Communications Response Vehicles, which was a nice diversion from printers.
This afternoon after we returned home, one of our readers, Kevin, happened to wander by, and we had a nice chat for a few minutes. We agreed to try to get together sometime later in our stay here. We cooked in tonight, our first opportunity since arriving. Fortunately, we managed to get our Red Cross debit cards in order Tuesday by driving over to the Austin chapter, and we've been using those to eat out. We were also able to put most of the camping fees directly on one of the cards; this weekend, we'll reimburse our mileage and the rest of the camping and en-route meals, which will leave us with a slim balance for the rest of our stay. We'll have to get funds added before we are done here.
I think we'll be off all weekend, which makes this experience very different from a normal Red Cross deployment. That will give us a chance to recharge a bit, and get the house straightened back up from our mad dash south.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Austin
We are at McKinney Falls State Park, in Austin, Texas (map).
We arrived at the Red Cross Disaster Services Maintenance Facility (DSMC) just about on the dot of 3, at the early end of our projection. We spent an hour or so meeting with the staff, getting oriented on what needs to be done in the next few days, and calling around to get our logistics in order.
Rather than renting a car, we've signed out a Red Cross vehicle that is used as a test mule for communications projects. It's an old Nissan Pathfinder bristling with antennas, and with so many radios and microphones in the console that there is hardly room for your knees. But it runs well, and the air conditioning works. On the downside, it's a fully identified Red Cross vehicle, with giant red crosses on the doors, which means we've been getting quite a few stares as we drive around the campground. Also, hanging out at the local watering hole is out of the question.
The park is just four miles from the DSMC, although it takes almost five minutes just to get from our camp site to the park entrance. But basically, we are ten minutes from the office, so it will just be a 20-minute affair each day to walk the dog, possibly less if we combine it with a lunch stop.
The sites here are mostly 30 amps, for $16 per night (not including the $4 per person park entrance fee, which our Texas State Parks pass covers), although there are perhaps a dozen sites with 50-amp hookups for just a dollar more. We snagged one of these latter sites for tonight, although we arrived after the office closed so we don't know yet if this site is available for a full two weeks. We may end up moving at some point, possibly as soon as tomorrow morning.
By morning, our batteries will be fully charged (as they were when we arrived in Austin, but we ran them down a bit by running the air conditioners for a couple hours while we were at the DSMC), and we can probably get by on 30 amps if that's where we have to move. But it's so stinking hot here that the 50-amp breaker tripped while we were out at dinner, even though I had the input draw dialed down to 37 amps. We've since dialed it further down to 30 amps, which really should be plenty of headroom. I have to imagine that we'd only be able to pull 20 amps from the 30-amp pedestals in the heat of the day, which is really tight for two air conditioners.
It's the end of another long day, so this will be a short post. More later as time is available.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Another day, another greasy spoon
We are at a roadside picnic area, where US-183 and US-283 divide, just south of Throckmorton, Texas (map).
We had another long day today, but I am a tad less tired tonight because we did not have the extra whammy of changing time zones. It was awful hard to get up this morning, though, and we took some extra time over coffee to pry our eyelids open.
We blasted through the rest of Kansas and all of Oklahoma today, stopping only to walk the dog, take a potty break, or change drivers. Once again Louise relieved me for an hour or so in the middle of the day.
We finally crossed back into Texas late in the afternoon, and figured a dinner stop for either Vernon or Seymour. We did not pass any restaurants in Vernon that were still in business or open, so we pressed on to Seymour, where there was a Sonic, a ramshackle Mexican place, and a greasy spoon called "Maverick's." We opted for this last choice, and it was a mistake. Now we've eaten in plenty of dilapidated roadside diners, and many of them have been quite excellent, with good and plentiful home cooking. We've learned you can't tell just by appearances. This, however, was not such a place. Sad to say, but Sonic would have been a better option, which may be why their parking lot was more crowded.
Oh well. At least we were provided sustenance, and we were glad we did not wait another 45 minutes to Throckmorton -- there weren't any restaurants there, either. My projection for today was to stop somewhere between Seymour and Throckmorton, so we started looking for a place to stop. This picnic area is a bit close to the roadway, but there is little traffic here, and it's secure and comfortable. I really did not want to press on another 45 minutes to the Wal-Mart in Breckenridge, which is a mile off our route anyway.
Tomorrow we will drive the final 250 miles to the Red Cross Disaster Services Maintenance Center in Austin. While we have successfully stayed in the parking lot there for a couple weeks in the past, we've learned that the landlord has put a stop to this, so we'll probably end up in nearby McKinney Falls State Park, where there is at least some power to run the air conditioning -- it's projected to be in the 90's for the foreseeable future.
We had another long day today, but I am a tad less tired tonight because we did not have the extra whammy of changing time zones. It was awful hard to get up this morning, though, and we took some extra time over coffee to pry our eyelids open.
We blasted through the rest of Kansas and all of Oklahoma today, stopping only to walk the dog, take a potty break, or change drivers. Once again Louise relieved me for an hour or so in the middle of the day.
We finally crossed back into Texas late in the afternoon, and figured a dinner stop for either Vernon or Seymour. We did not pass any restaurants in Vernon that were still in business or open, so we pressed on to Seymour, where there was a Sonic, a ramshackle Mexican place, and a greasy spoon called "Maverick's." We opted for this last choice, and it was a mistake. Now we've eaten in plenty of dilapidated roadside diners, and many of them have been quite excellent, with good and plentiful home cooking. We've learned you can't tell just by appearances. This, however, was not such a place. Sad to say, but Sonic would have been a better option, which may be why their parking lot was more crowded.
Oh well. At least we were provided sustenance, and we were glad we did not wait another 45 minutes to Throckmorton -- there weren't any restaurants there, either. My projection for today was to stop somewhere between Seymour and Throckmorton, so we started looking for a place to stop. This picnic area is a bit close to the roadway, but there is little traffic here, and it's secure and comfortable. I really did not want to press on another 45 minutes to the Wal-Mart in Breckenridge, which is a mile off our route anyway.
Tomorrow we will drive the final 250 miles to the Red Cross Disaster Services Maintenance Center in Austin. While we have successfully stayed in the parking lot there for a couple weeks in the past, we've learned that the landlord has put a stop to this, so we'll probably end up in nearby McKinney Falls State Park, where there is at least some power to run the air conditioning -- it's projected to be in the 90's for the foreseeable future.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The end of a long driving day - half way there
Short update tonight, because I am dog tired.
We are at the Wa Keeney Travel Plaza 24-7 Truck Stop, at the junction of I-70 and US-283 in Wa Keeney, Kansas (map).
We had a relatively uneventful drive from Badlands today. We did have about a ten minute or so stop for road construction on South Dakota 44 going through the Pine Ridge Reservation, and we changed drivers twice somewhere in Nebraska so that Louise could relieve me for half an hour or so.
During my little break, I did some more work with the mapping software, and determined that we could shave another dozen miles off by cutting over to US-283 via Kansas 23 and US-50, and so we turned off onto 23 just outside of Selden. The tentative plan from there was to overnight and have dinner in Hoxie, which resources showed as having a free city park and at least two restaurants.
When we arrived in Hoxie, at least one of the restaurants was defunct, and another looked mostly unappealing. The clincher was that the city park was virtually inaccessible, with a humpy driveway and a low tree, and did not really evidence any signs of being overnight-friendly. It was also still early in the day, around 6:30 Central time (and our bodies are still on Mountain, where is was only 5:30), so we decided to press on.
That put the kibosh on continuing down 23 all the way to US-50, because there were absolutely no restaurants, nor any apparent overnight spots, along that route until Cimarron, a good three hours further. So we opted instead to hop on I-70 from 23, and head east to Wa Keeney, where the guides showed two truck stops and a few restaurants. While this route is a couple miles longer than continuing on 23, it's still about ten miles shorter than the original plan of US-83 all the way to Texas.
That kept us on the road about an hour longer than planned, but we were able to just walk over to dinner (no wine, though), and also get gas for the scooters. As a bonus, we are now just 50 miles shy of the halfway mark, with about 700 miles to go to Austin. That will put us arriving Monday afternoon, well before closing. Tomorrow night, with any luck, we should be in central Texas someplace southwest of Wichita Falls, after crossing the Red River from southwest Oklahoma.
We are at the Wa Keeney Travel Plaza 24-7 Truck Stop, at the junction of I-70 and US-283 in Wa Keeney, Kansas (map).
We had a relatively uneventful drive from Badlands today. We did have about a ten minute or so stop for road construction on South Dakota 44 going through the Pine Ridge Reservation, and we changed drivers twice somewhere in Nebraska so that Louise could relieve me for half an hour or so.
During my little break, I did some more work with the mapping software, and determined that we could shave another dozen miles off by cutting over to US-283 via Kansas 23 and US-50, and so we turned off onto 23 just outside of Selden. The tentative plan from there was to overnight and have dinner in Hoxie, which resources showed as having a free city park and at least two restaurants.
When we arrived in Hoxie, at least one of the restaurants was defunct, and another looked mostly unappealing. The clincher was that the city park was virtually inaccessible, with a humpy driveway and a low tree, and did not really evidence any signs of being overnight-friendly. It was also still early in the day, around 6:30 Central time (and our bodies are still on Mountain, where is was only 5:30), so we decided to press on.
That put the kibosh on continuing down 23 all the way to US-50, because there were absolutely no restaurants, nor any apparent overnight spots, along that route until Cimarron, a good three hours further. So we opted instead to hop on I-70 from 23, and head east to Wa Keeney, where the guides showed two truck stops and a few restaurants. While this route is a couple miles longer than continuing on 23, it's still about ten miles shorter than the original plan of US-83 all the way to Texas.
That kept us on the road about an hour longer than planned, but we were able to just walk over to dinner (no wine, though), and also get gas for the scooters. As a bonus, we are now just 50 miles shy of the halfway mark, with about 700 miles to go to Austin. That will put us arriving Monday afternoon, well before closing. Tomorrow night, with any luck, we should be in central Texas someplace southwest of Wichita Falls, after crossing the Red River from southwest Oklahoma.
One last National Park before deployment
We are at the Cedar Pass campground in Badlands National Park, South Dakota (map).
As I wrote earlier today, we had intended to spend the night at the Bear Lodge campground in the Black Hills National Forest. It was an idyllic spot, just a half dozen sites nestled in the pines, with only one other camper in the whole place. We had paid for one night, and I had already scoped out a dispersed site a bit further up the road to perhaps settle in for the remainder of the weekend.
We arrived early in the day, no later than perhaps 1:00. The phone rang with the deployment news while I was out hiking -- scoping out that dispersed spot and walking an old alignment of highway 24, now long abandoned. I walked back up to the bus while Louise was still on the phone with the Disaster Operations Center. So there we were, scrambling around at 3 in the afternoon, looking at possible routes to Austin, and trying to get guidance from Disaster Staffing about actual deployment orders and travel reimbursement.
I looked very seriously at turning south at Rapid City, which would shave another dozen miles off the total -- in the neighborhood of 1,300 miles or so, of which perhaps 900 would be reimbursable at the rate of 58 cents per mile (it costs us about a dollar per mile to operate Odyssey). But all the routing software was adamant that it was quicker by an hour to drive east on I-90 to US83.
Now, before the deployment call, our plan had been to continue east to Sturgis, and maybe scope out the town and the ongoing preparations for the motorcycle extravaganza that will descend upon it in four weeks' time. We planned to stay at the nearby Fort Meade National Recreation Area, then continue east to the Badlands, staying at the primitive campground on the west end of the park, down a five mile gravel road.
All of this had also been on the agenda four years ago. When we first embarked on this grand tour, departing Sumner, Washington in September of 2004, we had an October commitment in Billings, Montana, after which we intended to continue across the northern states all the way to Chicago, and then onwards to New Jersey, where I have family. I'm sorry to say that none of this is recorded here in the blog, because we did not start blogging the adventure until we were already in New Jersey, in November of that year.
We indeed met our commitment in Billings, and had a wonderful drive across Montana and a small corner of Wyoming on US212, which brought us into Belle Fourche, SD (and who can go there without thinking of that classic John Wayne/Bruce Dern film, The Cowboys). From there we drove south and did the canonical tourist loop of Mount Rushmore and the black hills. We were just about to continue east to Sturgis when we got a phone call.
That was before we were Red Cross volunteers, though. In that case, it was a call from my attorney (in a lawsuit against a former employer), saying I was needed in San Francisco for a settlement hearing. Few of the other ten plaintiffs could attend, and my presence was deemed critical to a successful negotiation, and so, somewhat reluctantly, we turned south, to Denver, which was the nearest airport from which I could get a flight at anything less than a king's ransom.
That was an interesting diversion, in part because it meant Louise was on her own with Odyssey for a couple of nights, after dropping me off at DIA. She had a great experience, as I understand, at Cherry Lake state park. In any case, when I returned from SF, we continued our eastward journey from Denver, missing the rest of South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and not rejoining our originally planned route until Chicago. (We have since learned how to solve this: we don't plan our routes now more than a day or two in advance.)
It was against this backdrop that we decided that, as long as we were blasting east along I-90 today, that, by golly, we had enough daylight left to loop through Badlands, and between choosing the faster route and electing to bail out of our paid-up camp site to get an early start, we'd be okay taking the roughly one hour detour through the park. Besides, we needed a place to stay tonight, and this campground was as good an option as any.
We did take a few minutes en route to actually admire the breathtaking scenery here in the park. We arrived at the campground around 8:30, just at sunset, and immediately headed up to the concessionaire-operated Cedar Pass Lodge for dinner. Unfortunately, our late arrival meant the only dinner option was the buffet, which was completely unappealing, and so we returned to the bus and I grilled a steak, despite the late hour.
We're glad we made the detour, but, just as I said four years ago, we need to come back and do it right. I am hoping it is not another full four years before we return here.
Tomorrow we will get an early start, heading south to Interior on SD-377, turning east onto SD-44 which will take us all the way to US83, somewhat south of I-90. 83 will take us all the way to Texas.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Very, very quick update...
We are at the Bear Lodge Campground in the Black Hills National Forest, still in Wyoming (map). We're only 30 miles from where we started the day at Devils Tower, but this place really appealed to us.
This is a great spot, and we had figured to settle in for the night, or maybe two. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen. Even though we've already paid for the night, we are packing up right now to head out, as we have been called to Austin, Texas by the Red Cross.
There is no disaster in Austin, of course. But long-time readers of this blog know that the technology maintenance center is located there. Tons of equipment is now coming back in from the various operations around the country that have been ongoing for the last few weeks, including the Midwest floods and the western wildfires. In order for that equipment to be ready to go right back out again for the next disaster, qualified folks need to be in Austin to clean it up and "re-certify" it.
I'll post more about this later, as we are now under the gun to get rolling. They'd like us there by Monday, and it's at least a 25-hour drive. We'll put as many miles under our wheels as we can tonight, to get a bit of a head start. And we'll consider our $8 camping fee here a donation to the Forest Service.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
The Bear's Teepee
We are in the Belle Fourche campground at Devils Tower National Monument (map). We can see the tower out one side of the bus, and the Belle Fourche river out the other.
The guides had advised that this Park Service campground fills up by early afternoon, and so we got a relatively early start from Gillette. We took US14 out of town, shunning I-90 as is our custom. There is, however, a 30-mile stretch where the two highways run side-by-side, separated only by a grassy median with a barb-wire fence.
We elected to spend two nights here, even though most visitors to the Monument, other than rock climbers, spend a mere matter of a few hours here. Yesterday afternoon we explored the small park on our scooters -- the park's 25MPH limit makes for easy travel even on the 49cc Honda.
This is our first visit here, and, I have to say, the photos and postcards do not do it justice. It truly is impressive and imposing. Of course, only the white man, in his arrogance, calls this place Devil's Tower -- the native Americans call it Tree Rock, the Bear's Lodge, or the Bear's Teepee, depending on tribe.
Today we are having a day of relaxation around the campsite. We will also take another ride up to the visitor center, and perhaps even walk around the tower on the paved trail. The temperature is projected to be in the 90s today, and so we'll also walk over to the river later for a dip, which will involve reclining, as the river is perhaps five yards wide and a foot or two deep.
Tomorrow we will continue east into the Black Hills National Forest.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Last day in Gillette
We are still in Gillette, in the same spot behind K-Mart (map) where we planted ourselves on the way in to the Escapade. We finally finished presenting our Red Cross training Monday night.
We were the last rig left in the Reata campground (really just an enormous field with some power panels sprinkled around and water run in above-ground pipes) late yesterday morning. As we packed up the hot tub, patio furniture, and scooters, the Cam-Plex staff was mowing the field all around us. We were paid through noon, though, and we held firm until then, when we rolled out and headed over to the dump station.
Dillon, Alex and Dawson enjoy the 80-degree tub. Louise baby-sat while their grandparents and Sean taught a class.
Our next stop is Devil's Tower, and we certainly could have made it there yesterday. But Louise had a Red Cross class to teach last night by teleconference, and we were concerned that cell service might be too spotty there, so we decided to stay here in town one more night. Additionally, we need to restock our supplies, and between the K-Mart and Wal-Mart we should find everything we need.
After we're done shopping this morning, we'll roll right across the street to the Flying-J. We still have over half a tank, but Gillette has the cheapest diesel in the country right now, at $4.439, and so we'll fill the tank up to the 325 gallon mark. That will also give us roughly a 1,900-mile range in case we get deployed to any disasters, although Bertha's current track projection shows it heading into the North Atlantic without threatening the US. (Bermuda, however, will likely not be so lucky -- the projection has Bertha hitting it dead center Sunday morning.)
We're heading into the store now, and I expect we'll be at Devil's Tower early this afternoon.
We were the last rig left in the Reata campground (really just an enormous field with some power panels sprinkled around and water run in above-ground pipes) late yesterday morning. As we packed up the hot tub, patio furniture, and scooters, the Cam-Plex staff was mowing the field all around us. We were paid through noon, though, and we held firm until then, when we rolled out and headed over to the dump station.
Dillon, Alex and Dawson enjoy the 80-degree tub. Louise baby-sat while their grandparents and Sean taught a class.
Our next stop is Devil's Tower, and we certainly could have made it there yesterday. But Louise had a Red Cross class to teach last night by teleconference, and we were concerned that cell service might be too spotty there, so we decided to stay here in town one more night. Additionally, we need to restock our supplies, and between the K-Mart and Wal-Mart we should find everything we need.
After we're done shopping this morning, we'll roll right across the street to the Flying-J. We still have over half a tank, but Gillette has the cheapest diesel in the country right now, at $4.439, and so we'll fill the tank up to the 325 gallon mark. That will also give us roughly a 1,900-mile range in case we get deployed to any disasters, although Bertha's current track projection shows it heading into the North Atlantic without threatening the US. (Bermuda, however, will likely not be so lucky -- the projection has Bertha hitting it dead center Sunday morning.)
We're heading into the store now, and I expect we'll be at Devil's Tower early this afternoon.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Red Cross training in Gillette
Just a quick update from Gillette.
The Escapade is over, and we are now in the middle of Red Cross training. We're in the same spot at the Cam-Plex in which we've been parked since arriving here last Saturday
Thanks to everyone who came by on Friday for the tour. I would guess we had about 30-40 people come through in the course of about two and a half hours. We probably got more comments about the hot tub than anything else, and I think one couple might even end up buying one.
Wednesday, I only managed to clean out one bay (tool drawer, actually). It was the worst of the lot, though, so it felt good to get through it. I added a bunch of stuff to our "free" pile, most of which is now gone. In fact, we only have a small handful of items left, including the toaster. People have also been coming by and leaving things on our free table, so we'll be taking more than just our own stuff to the Goodwill.
Wednesday afternoon I also made another pass at the Webasto. After all else had failed, I finally did what I should have done right off the bat -- I replaced the nozzle and cleaned the little flame sensor window with WD-40 and some elbow grease. I'm not sure which of those things did the trick, but the Webasto is now working normally. (I should have done these one at a time, but it's such a pain in the butt to open up the burner head that I just did them both while I was in there.)
The nozzle I installed was a used one that I had saved from the last time we had a full service on the burner. I'll now need to order a new one so that I have a good spare. While I am at it, I will order a spare fuel screen and a pair of copper washers for the supply banjo -- removing the banjo and checking the screen would have been the next step had these last two changes not fixed the problem. With the Webasto running well now, we've enjoyed soaking in the hot tub every night this week.
In a few minutes, I have to head over to the conference room to teach a Technology class. Tomorrow I'll be in the classroom all day, and Tuesday they boot us out of the Cam-Plex. We're not sure where we'll be next; if we don't get called up, we will visit Devil's Tower and then head to the Black Hills. However, we go on the availability list Wednesday, and, in addition to the ongoing flooding in Iowa, tropical storm Bertha is taking aim at the east coast.
The Escapade is over, and we are now in the middle of Red Cross training. We're in the same spot at the Cam-Plex in which we've been parked since arriving here last Saturday
Thanks to everyone who came by on Friday for the tour. I would guess we had about 30-40 people come through in the course of about two and a half hours. We probably got more comments about the hot tub than anything else, and I think one couple might even end up buying one.
Wednesday, I only managed to clean out one bay (tool drawer, actually). It was the worst of the lot, though, so it felt good to get through it. I added a bunch of stuff to our "free" pile, most of which is now gone. In fact, we only have a small handful of items left, including the toaster. People have also been coming by and leaving things on our free table, so we'll be taking more than just our own stuff to the Goodwill.
Wednesday afternoon I also made another pass at the Webasto. After all else had failed, I finally did what I should have done right off the bat -- I replaced the nozzle and cleaned the little flame sensor window with WD-40 and some elbow grease. I'm not sure which of those things did the trick, but the Webasto is now working normally. (I should have done these one at a time, but it's such a pain in the butt to open up the burner head that I just did them both while I was in there.)
The nozzle I installed was a used one that I had saved from the last time we had a full service on the burner. I'll now need to order a new one so that I have a good spare. While I am at it, I will order a spare fuel screen and a pair of copper washers for the supply banjo -- removing the banjo and checking the screen would have been the next step had these last two changes not fixed the problem. With the Webasto running well now, we've enjoyed soaking in the hot tub every night this week.
In a few minutes, I have to head over to the conference room to teach a Technology class. Tomorrow I'll be in the classroom all day, and Tuesday they boot us out of the Cam-Plex. We're not sure where we'll be next; if we don't get called up, we will visit Devil's Tower and then head to the Black Hills. However, we go on the availability list Wednesday, and, in addition to the ongoing flooding in Iowa, tropical storm Bertha is taking aim at the east coast.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Odyssey Open House at Escapade
You're invited!
We'll be giving tours of the bus and meeting friends, old and new, Friday, July 4th from noon to 2pm. We're in the Reata Campground, site B-31. That's right in the middle of Reata; look for our tall roof deck railings above the crowd.
Here's the schedule of events in Gillette, so you can plan your day. All events are at Bicentennial Park except as noted:
We'll be giving tours of the bus and meeting friends, old and new, Friday, July 4th from noon to 2pm. We're in the Reata Campground, site B-31. That's right in the middle of Reata; look for our tall roof deck railings above the crowd.
Here's the schedule of events in Gillette, so you can plan your day. All events are at Bicentennial Park except as noted:
- 6am Volunteer Firemen Pancake Feed
- 7:15am Firecracker 5 miles Road Race
- 9am Parade
- 10:30am Register for Bicentennial Park activities
- 11am Free Hot Dog Feed
- 11am Kids' games; Chalk It Up
- 11:30am Mud volleyball; Strong Man/Woman challenge
- Noon-2pm Odyssey Tours at Cam-Plex, Reata Campground, site B-31
- 12:30pm Fireman water fights
- 1pm Mini hot dog eating contest
- 1:30pm Tug of War
- 2:30pm Escapees' 30th birthday bash with cake and ice cream, Cam-Plex Central Pavilion
- 7-9:30pm Family activities at Cam-Plex
- 10pm Fireworks!
Escapade
We are at the Cam-Plex in Gillette, Wyoming, at the Escapade (map). For those who are here, we are in Reatta B-31. We've been swamped since we arrived here, which is why I have not had the chance to post until tonight.
After some last minute exchanges at both Wal-Mart and K-Mart Saturday morning, we made our way here and were directed to this spot by the efficient parking crew. Had we been fifteen minutes earlier or later, we would have had a more favorable north orientation -- we are now facing south, which means the covers will stay up on the windshields all week, to keep the heat down. Also, we need to be careful when on the deck not to step in front of the satellite dish.
The electrical service here is a central panelboard with a dozen 30-amp pendants hanging from the bottom, and just four 50-amp receptacles mounted to the sides of the enclosure. I immediately pounced on one of the available 50's, which required dragging out the 50' 6-gauge extension cord, since we were just a tad too far away for the 25' shore cable to reach. Many rigs had to use multiple extension cords to reach, as they were quite some distance from the panel.
We came in with full water tanks, but I hooked up a hose to the provided water service, also centrally located and consisting of a "tree" of Y-adapters, so we could fill the hot tub. I wanted to get that set up early, before lots of folks hooked up and were then counting on city water pressure. So I pretty much immediately started to work on finishing my compressed-air adapter for inflating the tub, which involved opening the street-side tool drawer.
Wouldn't you know, the darn latch on that drawer failed? We had just been through the ordeal of disassembling the LPG bay door on Friday, after its latch failed, and now this. No latches have failed for nearly four years, and suddenly we have two in the span of three days.
Fortunately, the latch on the opposite tool drawer had failed once before, not long after we were on the road, and I had, at that time, fashioned myself a little tool to insert through the gap around the door and, in essence, jimmy it open. I have since weatherstripped those gaps, however, so I did have to force the tool past the weatherstripping. I was able to get the door open after four or five minutes of fiddling (again involving swear words), to find the release wire had jumped off its guide roller, which was better than the first time this happened, where the swage had come loose and I needed to re-crimp it. (Lacking a swager, I used our 30" bolt cutters instead.)
Once I got the drawer taken care of, I was able to finish my little inflator gizmo and try it out. The hot tub was inflated in just a few minutes with the compressed air, as opposed to several times longer using the little electric blower we have, followed by a hand pump. I've already ditched this latter item, and the blower is history just as soon as I confirm that my gizmo will work equally well on our inflatable boat.
After we got ourselves fully squared away, we tracked down some friends and went to dinner. My vote would have been for the prime rib joint, but there were grandkids involved, and we ended up at Dairy Queen. We had a lot of catching up to do, which killed the rest of the day.
Sunday involved yet more setup, as we wanted to deploy the deck, and I needed to set up the funky external fuel tank for the Webasto (to continue with troubleshooting and also to heat the hot tub). We did take time to enjoy the steady parade of new arrivals from the deck -- Sunday was the official arrival day. We also did a full pass of the exhibit hall before the afternoon's opening ceremonies, keynote speaker, and other activities.
Monday we had a visit from Brian and Hillary, whom we know through the bus conversion bulletin boards. They are converting an MCI 96A3 in their spare time, and travel in it periodically when they get time off work. They just happened to be passing by here on a whirlwind three-week vacation, and we enjoyed getting to see their rig and the progress they've made in the past five years or so. We had a nice couple of hours sitting out under our awning and talking shop -- great folks. Although we had to do a little two-step with the security patrols, since our guests were not registered for the Escapade.
Today's gig involved cramming bus projects in between seminars, along with Louise having to deliver a Red Cross training teleconference this evening. After I spent some time on the phone yesterday with Sure Marine, I made another attack on the Webasto problem, this time changing the burner nozzle out (for a used one that I saved after the last routine service), as well as aggressively cleaning the flame sensor photocell. After getting it back together, I fired it up to heat the hot tub, and it ran for four hours with absolutely no evidence of the problems we've been having. I have my fingers crossed that I finally have this licked.
I also spent a frustrating few hours working on the toilet's water supply. One of the problems we've had ever since we hit the road is that the toilet uses way more water than we expected. The specification says it's two quarts per flush, but it's actually been somewhere north of three quarts. For a while, I tried to adjust this using a stop on the supply line, but with minimal effect.
Things get worse when we are plugged in -- the slight bump in DC voltage caused by the charger makes the 24-volt water pump run at a slightly higher pressure, causing even more water to flow to the toilet during the (non-adjustable) cycle time. I've long suspected that installing a water pressure regulator on the toilet supply would cure this.
That said, I've never been able to find a regulator small enough to fit in the limited space in the toilet "tank" (actually a hollow in the porcelain fixture, in which sits the complex air and water valve mechanism). Turns out, though, that one of the vendors here in the exhibit hall had just such an item for sale -- I merely needed to remove the garden-hose style fittings from it and replace them with appropriate pipe-thread items.
To make a long story short, I wrestled with the new fittings for quite some time, trying to get the brass-to-plastic junction where it connects with the PEX to stop leaking. I finally got it down to a slow drip, stuck a towel under it, and called it a day -- I'll need more parts to fix it right. By that time, the hot tub was up to 104 and we enjoyed a nice soak after a long day.
Our soak was interrupted by sudden 30+ mph wind gusts, which prompted us to get out and take down our new little bug-screen room, one of the items we had so carefully set up on Sunday so we could have a mosquito-free place to sit outside.
Tomorrow is mostly set aside for cleaning out the bays. We'd like to add any items thus removed to the little pile of "free stuff" we've been displaying in front of the coach. Some of that is moving quite slowly, but the vacuum disappeared within mere minutes of setting it out. I've also promised a number of folks that we would offer tours, and I would announce them here. Right now, that's looking like sometime Thursday or Friday -- stay tuned.
After some last minute exchanges at both Wal-Mart and K-Mart Saturday morning, we made our way here and were directed to this spot by the efficient parking crew. Had we been fifteen minutes earlier or later, we would have had a more favorable north orientation -- we are now facing south, which means the covers will stay up on the windshields all week, to keep the heat down. Also, we need to be careful when on the deck not to step in front of the satellite dish.
The electrical service here is a central panelboard with a dozen 30-amp pendants hanging from the bottom, and just four 50-amp receptacles mounted to the sides of the enclosure. I immediately pounced on one of the available 50's, which required dragging out the 50' 6-gauge extension cord, since we were just a tad too far away for the 25' shore cable to reach. Many rigs had to use multiple extension cords to reach, as they were quite some distance from the panel.
We came in with full water tanks, but I hooked up a hose to the provided water service, also centrally located and consisting of a "tree" of Y-adapters, so we could fill the hot tub. I wanted to get that set up early, before lots of folks hooked up and were then counting on city water pressure. So I pretty much immediately started to work on finishing my compressed-air adapter for inflating the tub, which involved opening the street-side tool drawer.
Wouldn't you know, the darn latch on that drawer failed? We had just been through the ordeal of disassembling the LPG bay door on Friday, after its latch failed, and now this. No latches have failed for nearly four years, and suddenly we have two in the span of three days.
Fortunately, the latch on the opposite tool drawer had failed once before, not long after we were on the road, and I had, at that time, fashioned myself a little tool to insert through the gap around the door and, in essence, jimmy it open. I have since weatherstripped those gaps, however, so I did have to force the tool past the weatherstripping. I was able to get the door open after four or five minutes of fiddling (again involving swear words), to find the release wire had jumped off its guide roller, which was better than the first time this happened, where the swage had come loose and I needed to re-crimp it. (Lacking a swager, I used our 30" bolt cutters instead.)
Once I got the drawer taken care of, I was able to finish my little inflator gizmo and try it out. The hot tub was inflated in just a few minutes with the compressed air, as opposed to several times longer using the little electric blower we have, followed by a hand pump. I've already ditched this latter item, and the blower is history just as soon as I confirm that my gizmo will work equally well on our inflatable boat.
After we got ourselves fully squared away, we tracked down some friends and went to dinner. My vote would have been for the prime rib joint, but there were grandkids involved, and we ended up at Dairy Queen. We had a lot of catching up to do, which killed the rest of the day.
Sunday involved yet more setup, as we wanted to deploy the deck, and I needed to set up the funky external fuel tank for the Webasto (to continue with troubleshooting and also to heat the hot tub). We did take time to enjoy the steady parade of new arrivals from the deck -- Sunday was the official arrival day. We also did a full pass of the exhibit hall before the afternoon's opening ceremonies, keynote speaker, and other activities.
Monday we had a visit from Brian and Hillary, whom we know through the bus conversion bulletin boards. They are converting an MCI 96A3 in their spare time, and travel in it periodically when they get time off work. They just happened to be passing by here on a whirlwind three-week vacation, and we enjoyed getting to see their rig and the progress they've made in the past five years or so. We had a nice couple of hours sitting out under our awning and talking shop -- great folks. Although we had to do a little two-step with the security patrols, since our guests were not registered for the Escapade.
Today's gig involved cramming bus projects in between seminars, along with Louise having to deliver a Red Cross training teleconference this evening. After I spent some time on the phone yesterday with Sure Marine, I made another attack on the Webasto problem, this time changing the burner nozzle out (for a used one that I saved after the last routine service), as well as aggressively cleaning the flame sensor photocell. After getting it back together, I fired it up to heat the hot tub, and it ran for four hours with absolutely no evidence of the problems we've been having. I have my fingers crossed that I finally have this licked.
I also spent a frustrating few hours working on the toilet's water supply. One of the problems we've had ever since we hit the road is that the toilet uses way more water than we expected. The specification says it's two quarts per flush, but it's actually been somewhere north of three quarts. For a while, I tried to adjust this using a stop on the supply line, but with minimal effect.
Things get worse when we are plugged in -- the slight bump in DC voltage caused by the charger makes the 24-volt water pump run at a slightly higher pressure, causing even more water to flow to the toilet during the (non-adjustable) cycle time. I've long suspected that installing a water pressure regulator on the toilet supply would cure this.
That said, I've never been able to find a regulator small enough to fit in the limited space in the toilet "tank" (actually a hollow in the porcelain fixture, in which sits the complex air and water valve mechanism). Turns out, though, that one of the vendors here in the exhibit hall had just such an item for sale -- I merely needed to remove the garden-hose style fittings from it and replace them with appropriate pipe-thread items.
To make a long story short, I wrestled with the new fittings for quite some time, trying to get the brass-to-plastic junction where it connects with the PEX to stop leaking. I finally got it down to a slow drip, stuck a towel under it, and called it a day -- I'll need more parts to fix it right. By that time, the hot tub was up to 104 and we enjoyed a nice soak after a long day.
Our soak was interrupted by sudden 30+ mph wind gusts, which prompted us to get out and take down our new little bug-screen room, one of the items we had so carefully set up on Sunday so we could have a mosquito-free place to sit outside.
Tomorrow is mostly set aside for cleaning out the bays. We'd like to add any items thus removed to the little pile of "free stuff" we've been displaying in front of the coach. Some of that is moving quite slowly, but the vacuum disappeared within mere minutes of setting it out. I've also promised a number of folks that we would offer tours, and I would announce them here. Right now, that's looking like sometime Thursday or Friday -- stay tuned.
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