Dishwasher In A RV

I always thought it would be nice to have a small dishwasher in our RV.  About now a lot of people are saying no way.  I say do you have one in your home?  The motorhome is our home.  Carol is against this.  I bring this up because I had dishes to do from last night’s dinner with Art & Caroline over.  The dish count was not a lot but putting them in the dishwasher and turning it on was nice.  Did you know that you use less water using a dishwasher than washing by hand usually?

Did you know that Sandy and Katarina Storms were about the same strength?   Sandy’s covered area was double the size of Katarina and was in a more populated area.  Sandy covered 480 miles.  I thought that was an interesting fact. Do you realize that I’m full of facts this morning?

LUNCH.  Time for the lunch bunch at La Colonia Mexican Restaurant.  Art & Caroline even showed up for the lunch bunch.  It was great as usual.

Repair Shop Tomorrow. Today I got the Beast ready to pull out tomorrow about 7:45 AM. I even hooked the Jeep, disconnected the electric and aired up the Beast.  It’s ready to roll.  Looking Goooooood.

I left my front boards down by mistake.  I stopped by chance before I ran over them with my rear wheels. I didn’t have to take out my clothes and valuables because I never put them back in from the last time it went in the shop.  That gets old.

I got a bag of candy in case we get any tricker treaters  which are rare.  I’m sure Carol will know what to do with them when she gets back.

I have half way decided to take my Bradley Smoker to North Ranch with us when we leave.  I got the room to carry it.  Denny & Susie would like to have smoked pork butt at the Escapees Chapter 44 rally that they are hosting in March.  We can do the smoking at North Ranch and then take it over to Chapter 44’s rally.  Plus maybe some “practice” smoking at North Ranch before hand.

I also have half way decided to take my Camp Chef 3 burner stove/grill/griddle to North Ranch when we leave.  I will make room for it.  I just think it could be of more use in AZ than here in Texas especially with the time we will be gone from Texas this time.

Yes we will take our little Weber 100 with us also. 

You know I just might take that Cobb slow smoker.  I got that electric grill too.  Oh, and that big Coleman…..I guess I better leave some of them here in Texas.

No trick or treaters………..candy for Carol…

See ya……

 

 

Still Busy Doing Nothing

My “To Do List” is getting longer.  I don’t think I’ve forgotten anything to add and that’s the problem.  I need to lose my list.  Ain’t no way I can remember everything on the list. 

I’m already thinking hard about getting ready to leave and we won’t be leaving until 27 December.  Only 58 days away but who’s counting – ME!  It’s in my blood even though it’s thinned out with blood thinners.  It’s there – what can I say?  Carol too but not as quite as bad.

Here’s the pork butt.  It’s been smoking for 15 1/2 hours at this point.  Looking good.  Another 4-6 hours to go then it gets wrapped up and into the ice chest to cook itself for several more hours.  Mark and I have just about perfected the way we smoke pork butt for pulled pork.  No complaints.

Art drove his Medium Duty Truck (MDT) over this AM.  He came to see Wayne & Beth (next door) before they leave this morning for a chapter 10 rally.

I’m waiting for Art & Caroline to show up for dinner.  I got a little fancy.

 

They arrived.  They left.  No complaints.

We sat around and talked for hours .  They brought some chocolate cheesecake.  I had to have a couple of pieces, one for me and one for Carol of course.

Earlier I got a call from Joel West RV Repair.  The Beast’s awning is in.  We agreed that Thursday would be a good day to get it installed.

See ya…….

Smokingggggg

I put the marinated (overnight) pork ribs in the smoker after adding a rub about 10 AM using the 3-2-1 method.  In a nutshell 3 hours smoking, two hours in foil cooking then one hour smoking again.  Then foiled it up, wrapped them in a towel and put in an ice chest (no ice) until dinner.  There are a few other details but that's the jest of it.

I went and got our snail mail from the Escapees Mail window.  Hey, got a very large check from Newmar like $6,100 a total refund for the upgraded fiberglass roof and all fuel costs to and from California.  They have shipped a new awning that should arrive later this week.  Hey, Tiffin never paid anything for fuel and they messed up several things.

On the way back to the lot I saw Art Fennell.  Caroline and him got in yesterday.  I invited them over for dinner tomorrow night. 

I got back to the lot and pulled a 10 lb pork butt out of the frig that I just bought.  Did a rub on it and put in the smoker.  The smoker hadn’t even cooled down from the ribs yet.  Here’s the new meat.

My guinea pig, Mark, came over to test the smoked ribs.  We decided that the smoke flavor was a little on the heavy side.  The tenderness was good but didn’t pull off the bone completely but close.  Overall they were very good but me and Mark like perfection.  We have some ideas to take them to the next step.  I wonder if we can find any guinea pigs?

 

The 3 lbs of pork back ribs didn’t las t very long.

I called Carol in Baltimore and all is well as of 6 PM her time.

Wayne and Beth came over later to visit.  That was nice.   

Sad note:  Teresa, who is the office manger for the Escapees Headquarters, lost her husband over the weekend.  He was out hunting and died as the result of an ATV accident.  He was doing what he loved to do – hunting.  He was well liked by all.  Our hearts go out to her and her family.

See ya……

Out Of Room

I’m running out of room in the mobile not in the 43’ Newmar Dutch Star AKA the Beast.

Yes that is a popcorn popper setting there.  I use it a lot.

In all this and I still managed to prep the pork ribs.  I had to cut them so they would sit in my pan.  This is 3 lbs.

Now here’s the Beast storage compartments on the passenger side. I got two chairs and a grill to go in here.  The back bin is just about empty.  The case of water I will move upstairs.

One of these bins is just about empty also.

You can’t see it but I have an empty bin behind these two bins.

This compartment is empty of course.  I’m thinking about my large (like real big) Camp Chief grill or the Bradly  Smoker.  I haven’t decided and probably won’t until just before we leave.  Plus and minus for each.

I have another big slender compartment that I haven’t changed since day one.  It has our picnic table cover, autoformer, 3 water filters and an electric griddle.  They all fit so perfect.

Excuse me - back to NASCAR………

I had a TV dinner for dinner…not too bad.

It got down into the 30s last night.

Sandy hurricane - Well, I guarantee you if we were in an RV on the middle or upper East Coast we would be gone.  It wouldn’t be a maybe or wait and see.  We   would be going southwest for sure.  Oh well….don’t have to worry about that…

Full Timing Without Wheels

The Beast is ready to go into the shop.  The kitty and I are waiting in the mobile without wheels.  I did the laundry and was pretty neat about it, folded and all.

I leave my clothes out so I can see what I got.  I have left everything out as you can see.  This way I don’t loose anything.

I found an old pet bed that use to belong to my Mother’s dog.  The kitty claims it now.

For lunch I had Mark’s pulled pork and used some Tubbs BBQ sauce.  Yes, it was so good.  Just missing a little cole slaw.

I went to H.E.B. a local grocery store.  Since they still had pork butt on sale I got another 10 pounder.  So now I have about 50 lbs.  Here’s 40 lbs.

Then here’s another 10 lbs of pork butt and a slab of pork ribs and some BBQ chicken thighs ready to smoke or grill.

I’m ready to have a little get together except I’m missing my buddy that can worry about everything else to make.  She will be back next Saturday.

I only smoked ribs one other time and I flunked.  Monday I will try again but follow what is called a 3-2- 1 smoking method.  Mark is invited to be my guinea pig.  He too has no experience smoking ribs.  I will prep them Sunday and smoke them for about 6 hours for Monday dinner.

I stayed inside most of the day.  It never got out of the mid 50s.  I did look at the Pressure Pro on the Beast.  It monitors the tires pressure of my 8 tires on the Beast.  I need to add almost 10 lbs to each of the tires due to the cold weather.  These are Load Range L tires.  We will be traveling in cold weather come the end of December and stay in it until about March or so.  Then I will reduce the tire pressure down for the summer running.

Guess what I had for dinner?  Yeper, the last of Mark’s pulled pork.  It was still good.

Carol is in Baltimore where that storm Sandy will be in a day or two.  At least she’s in a house and not in an RV.  If we there in the RV we would be leaving for sure.

See ya…….

Fuel Coming Down, Temps too!

I went out this morning wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals.  Now I have to start looking at the outside temps before I go out in the morning.  It was 55 degrees out. Now I’m wearing long pants, socks and shoes.  Still wearing the t-shirt.  I did some more weeding after I fixed the weed eater.  I ran it till it broke again.  I will have to brake out the Gorilla Glue now. I mean later.  I’m done.

For breakfast I had two eggs and a hunk of that hickory smoked ham I did yesterday.  That was real good.  I will have a ham sandwich for lunch.  For dinner I’m taking ham over Mark’s for dinner.

Fuel prices are coming down.  Yesterday I watched as the local gas station went from $3.34 to $3.29 for gas and diesel went from $3.78 to $3.74.  Last November I paid $3.60 for diesel at the same station. Not a big move but a definite move in the right direction.  Damn, I filled the Beast ($3.79) just before we arrived here thinking it would go up before we leave the end of December.  Oh well.  I got two cars with 1/4 tanks of fuel.  I will run them down even more and see if gas goes down some more.  It might be time only to get $10 worth of gas instead of filling up.

Last year (2011) the least we paid for diesel was January in Yuma and paid $3.19.  The most we paid was $5.45 in Watson Lake in the Yukon going to Alaska.  The most we paid in the U.S. was in California, Utah & Colorado all of which were over $4 a gallon just two months ago.  Utah was the most expensive at $4.48.  Yes, higher than California.

I had some grease coming out from behind the lug nuts and hub cab on Beast’s front wheel.  That usually means a possible wheel bearing seal leak.  I took off the hub cap and it was dry as a whistle.  Good!!!!  I probably had some wheel cleaner and road grime that made it look like a leak.  Scratch that off my list of 31 things to do.  I won’t bore you with all the things on my list.  There things that have to be done like air up the tires (cold weather), install solar panels, etc. before we leave the end of December.

Are there any serious Hummel collectors out there?  I (mother) have about 60 dating back to the early 1990’s.  Email me at dennisrving@gmail.com

Dinner at Mark’s was great.  He had a couple there that was passing thru en route to their home in southern Texas.  We had pulled pork and ham for dinner.  They all liked the hickory smoked ham.  Since I had a captive audience I shoed Alaska pictures.  We sat around and talked Alaska since the visiting couple had been there too.  Mark just slobbered all over himself out of envy.

I didn’t get back until after 10 PM past my bedtime.

See ya……..

What To Do

I have a list of “Things to do” but don’t want to look at it.  I might add more to it!

It’s suppose to rain tomorrow so I think I will leave the rewiring of the solar panels alone for today. 

Ahhh, the smoker.  Time to get it ready for something.  I do have a ham.  I got some hickory for the smoker too.    Sounds like a plan. 

So I sat it all up and here’s the finished product around dinner time.  I got a lot of ham now.

 

Here’s some friends, Dick & Sue getting weighed.

 

I pulled up and they all left!  What's up with that?

For lunch it was the La Colonia.  I think it blends in well with the Jeep.  Mark leads this afternoon lunch bunch. This is the place you walk in and you have just stepped into the twilight zone.  It’s like being across the border into Mexico.  Looks like it, smells like it and tastes like it – good.  Everything is hand made and all that stuff.  I had tamales.  That’s something I have never gotten at a restaurant.  It was pretty good. Check it out if you are ever in Livingston.

This is Carol’s kitty under the table.  She follows me all around the place.  She lays at my feet constantly or sits next to the computer when I’m using it.  She meows a lot and is always purrrrrring.   She misses her MaMa.  Carol will be returning from Baltimore on November the 3rd.  That gives me a week or so to clean up the place.

I called Newmar about the Beast’s awning.  I was told it should arrive next Thursday to Joel West RV here in Livingston.  That probably means the Beast will go to the shop the following week.  I will remain in the mobile for the time being because I don’t want to move all my junk back and forth.  If I had the solar panels hooked up I wouldn’t even have to plug in the Beast.

I checked on getting some automatic wheel balancers for the Beast’s front tires.  About $250 out the door installed.  I will get them but not right now.  I’m a strong believer in automatic wheel balancers for the front end.  Had them before and I didn’t have to worry about the wheels wearing wrong due to improper balance.  It’s hard to knock these RVs out of alignment but real easy to throw a weight off the wheel.

See ya………..

Texfest Going Going Gone

The last day of the Texfest.  They started off with some seminars that I wasn’t interested in.  Instead I continued to unload the belly of the Beast.  If I haven’t used it in the past year or so, it’s coming out.  I found a case of bottled water that we had forgot about.  That’s pretty bad when you loose a case of water in your storage space.  Yes, that means you got to much storage space for sure.  Didn’t use the air compressor so that probably won’t go back in.  It’s a nice thing to have but not “have to have” item.  I have an airline off the engine’s compressor that I did use one time for low tire pressure.  What I need to do is get a 100 foot airline hose vice the coiled 50 foot.

I will have room for the freezer or the Bradley Smoker.  I don’t think I will take either.  Just won’t really use either that much if at all.  I got 3 bins half full of canned food.  That I will reduce down to 2 or maybe even one.  I think there are a few grocery stores out there in our travels.

I also checked and cleaned the electrical wiring for the solar panels.  I need to reinstall that pretty quick.

I did get a letter from Newmar saying they would return over $6,000 that we have spent because of their screw ups.   Wouldn’t it had been better to enclose the check instead of telling me what I already knew.  Kill another tree.  Hey Newmar, less talk more action.  Rick (owner) of Joel West Repair talked to me today.  He said that he’s been talking to Newmar and they seem to be shook up about their screw ups and dealing with me.  About friggin time.  AND I’m NOT done until it’s done right.  Hold them manufactures accountable!

About 10:30 AM I went up to the activity center for the last seminar.  It was a personal safety seminar by Jim Koca.  It was pretty good both for the inexperienced and experienced RVer.

Now it’s almost 12 noon.  You know what time that is?  It’s time to work the beer tasting booth with Mark again.  This time Mark brought in his own home brew for people to try.  It was a slow day today.  I guess people hadn’t recovered from the previous two days.  I then had a Frito pie.  It’s a plate with crunched up Fritos and the makings of the taco on top.  It was OK.  Since I won the free meal I can’t really complain about it.  I was all beered out and had a soda.

Dave & Marilyn abandoned me after lunch.  They headed for Thousand Trails in Conroe.  Marilyn has a dental appointment tomorrow.  It was fun having them here on the lot.  They’re new rig (View?) is really nice.  It’s not really a View but people kid them about it.

Later the Bake Auction was a big hit.  I couldn’t afford the calories or the prices.  They collected over $8,000 for the local fire department.  Then it was 4 o’clock and the Texfest ended.  It was fun and as always all good things come to an end and thus it ended.  GONE AGAIN.

I went back to our humble lot and ate a TV dinner and watched TV and had popcorn all night long.

Solos do have a hard time.  They are always the odd number out in just about everything.  They are by themselves so they don’t get all the information as if there was two of them collecting “what’s happening”.  Odd setting arrangements in a small car or setting at a table eating out.  The solo gets looked at when they have a conservation with themselves.  The list goes on.  I’m glad I’m not a solo.  For now, I got my kitty cat and she lets me know a few things or so especially at feeding time.  Right now she got up at 3 AM with me and now is laying on my foot to keep me warm as I type this.

Tomorrow I will….?????

See ya…………..

Keep On Wining..

This morning I went to Walmart because I was running out of socks.  I also got some tools that I need to do some projects on my list.  My list is very long and I should be able to get them done in two months.

For lunch the Texfest had Mark’s pulled pork sandwiches.  I put a little special vinegar (Mark’s special) and it was real good.  Of course Mark and I was tasked with handing out free beer samples again.  What a rough job.  Our shirts even matched.

Today was Market Day and there were over 30 vendors.  I didn’t see anything I couldn’t live without.  I did stop at the LED light vendor and was tempted but said no.  I got enough things to do on my list without changing out the lights in the Beast.

One of the vendors was the Chips Away Windshield Repair.  The Beast had a small chip in the middle of the windshield so why not get ur done.  He did and it was free because our insurance paid for it.  Most due in most states.

At today’s social hour I won for the cutest photo in the photo contest.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.  I won another free lunch for tomorrow.  I haven’t bought any lunches yet – I won them all.

For dinner it was a BBQ plate dinner catered by Bodacious BBQ.  It was barely OK.  Their Barbeque sauce was great.

For evening entertainment they had Walter Plant.  He’s been coming here for years.  He was good.

Tomorrow is the last day of Texfest and the last day of Mark’s and my job of handing out free beer.  I guess we can handle one more day…..

See ya….

Texfest Monday In Livingston

No state sticker for the Jeep window.  So, I went into town first thing this morning I got a duplicate one.  I was in and out in less than 5 minutes.  That’s great.  Since I already got the Jeep inspected, it’s all legal now.

Been fun so far at the Texfest.  A lot of people.  Here they are eating lunch.  It was Bud’s brisket.  I didn’t have any.  Instead…. I helped Mark at the Free Beers tasting booth.  That was a hoot.  We had to open each can and make sure it was the right temperature.  I had to go back and sleep for an hour and half.

A family who dumpster dives together stays together.

“I think we can get a nickel for this.” Mark is saying, “I don’t care as long as I get the beer inside of it.

At the social hour they had games.  I volunteered to be the first guinea pig for “Minute To Win It.” I won  the game and as a prize I won a beer and holder.  Also a free lunch tomorrow for Mark’s pulled pork.  Then at the door prize drawling I won a large canvas carrying bag.  It’s a pretty good one too. 

I stayed for dinner that in my opinion was NOT worth the $9.50, not even close.  It was some type of chicken casserole and the chicken pieces were canned.

I stayed on for movie.  It was True Grit.  I don’t think I ever saw it all the way thru at one setting.  I liked it and the popcorn.

See ya………

Texfest In Livingston

This morning I somehow got started doing maintenance checks on the Beast.  I knew it was low on oil.  I put in 2 quarts.  It has a 25 quart capacity.  That’s two quarts in about 19K miles.  I don’t think that’s bad.  This Cummins 400HP ISL is due for an oil change at 20K miles.  Then I checked the 7.5 Onan generator and it was fine.  Added a gallon to the windshield washer container.  I found that I have a very small leak of oil out of the right front hub cab edge.  That usually means a bad seal or bad front seal.  No bigee. I will take the hub cap off and get a better look another day.  I took some “stuff” out of the lower compartments and put in the big shed.  I got a lot of “stuff” that accumulates that goes in the shed.  I still have to raise the air temps in all the tires (10) too.  I raise them up about 10 lbs in the winter to make up for the constant colder weather.  Then in the spring I let them down again.  I got automatic wheel balancers for the front on my list to get while here in Livingston.

The Escapees park here has kicked off there Texfest.  Thirty some years ago the club was started right here and they celebrate it each year at this time.  They got a whole bunch of stuff going on during this week.  I was a runner for door prizes.

Here’s Mark and Tommie Sue.

Cathie giving out door prizes.  Bud was floating around somewhere.

And the crowd waiting….man …it looks like a retirement home….

They had bingo afterwards but that was too exciting for me…smile…

See ya…..

Geo Bachelor Continues

Will, the Jeep didn’t have any of the required two Texas stickers in the windshield.  One was the state inspection and the other was the registration sticker.  The registration sticker was lost when they replaced the windshield a few months back.  The inspection sticker was never had.  So, today was get it inspected and that’s how I started the day.  Next week I will go to DMV and get a duplicate window registration sticker.

Then I went to see my Mom in the local nursing home down the road.  She likes her new electric cart I got her a couple of months ago.  She’s doing fine and likes the nursing home.  She’s the bingo queen there. 

Next was Walmart.  I was running out of food and underwear.  I saw another geographical bachelor while I was there, Cathy Carr.  I got some TV dinners and no fat snacks too.

Yesterday I did managed to work in the laundry late.  I even used soap.  As a matter of fact, I used several different soaps.  Since I had one large load with different colors and fabrics I figured I should use the different soaps that were available in the mobile. It all worked out fine I guess.

It was the little boys racing in NASCAR so I watched that.

Carol called.  She has a return flight for Saturday night November 3.  I guess I should pick her up..smile.

The 4 o’clock social at the Escapees Activity Center was bigger than normal.  Afterwards a lot of us went to Florida's for dinner.  I had their catfish.  I really like it.  Most people brag about their ribs but I say it’s pretty good but not real good.  Catfish is the way to go.

It was Jim’s birthday so he got sung to.  He was embarrassed…..funny…

Here’s Jim enjoying his birthday ice cream.

 

I caused a line to get out.  I was overcharged by about $3 and they were correcting it.  Then they tried to give me $10 too much back.  They finally got it right but the line grew.

A few of us went over to Mark’s.  I got to show some Alaska pictures.

Then we sat out on his porch with his fake fire pit.  It was nice.

The other night we had dinner here.  Mark smoked a pork butt.  Here’s the picture I got back then.  That was good!

See ya…….