Poo Poo

Here’s another reason not to pick a site under a tree.  One evening is all it took.  These birds must have had some of my chili for sure.

I took it to the $5 car wash.  One time thru didn’t get it all.  I got a second wash for free.  Then it rained of course but we didn’t park under that tree again.

Today we got a Hamilton Beach coffee pot from WalMart via UPS.  Greg White made us do it.  We’ve (I) been waiting to get this for a while now.  Plus we got the 2 year warranty…what the hell.  Now I can use those little K cups and Carol can drink her pot a day.

We also got my CB and all the parts to install it.  Plus the K&N Filter which is gonna be a bear to install.  And I got a battery for my 5 year old laptop.  It was under $20 and that’s what I wanted.  The old battery would only last about 5 minutes on a good day. 

So the only thing that got installed was the coffee pot and the battery.  Hey it was the easiest to do and I was inside.  I need a 1/2 of a sunny day for the air filter and another 1/2 day for the CB.  Plus I need a SWR meter to tune in the adjustable antennae.  Plenty of time….I will wait for a lot better weather for sure.

Here’s what Tuesday morning looked liked.  

It got up to 36 degrees about 4 PM and will be below freezing again tonight.  I don’t won’t to be here in this stuff but glad we don’t have to move the next couple of days.  Here’s outside behind us out a window.

We got 6 fans going to keep down the condensation at least a little bit.  We got two in the windshield and couldn’t see out of it until about 2 PM or so.  Fans ran about 5 hours to clear it up.  Also you can see our LP heater.  Usually we keep it on the other side so as not to walk on the hose.

Slobbering Monday Evening

You know when people eat your food and just about slobber  all over the place, you must be doing something right.  Speaking of slobbering,  I smoked some baby back ribs for the very first time.  Man oh man.  The ribs were fall off the bone tender and so delicious …….  this rack had a lot of meat on the bones and they were so juicy.  Carol used BBQ sauce on hers but Mark & I said they had enough flavor why change it?    

The ribs spent overnight in the frig soaking up the rub and liquids, then 6 hours in the smoker with cherry smoke and the results were…Happy Happy Happy….

It’s early (4 AM) in the morning, raining a lot, and 29 degrees out.  Yesterday it didn’t hit 40 degrees and the wind was blowing. 

We left the aftermarket LP heater on low overnight.  It maintained 66 degrees.  It was the first time ever we left it on while we slept. 

We do have a condensation problem in all of the cabinets in the slide outs.  I think the only way to really fix that is don’t be in areas that have high humidity and temps below 30 degrees….duh.

Oh, our LP heater is a blue flame  KozyWorld 10K BTU bought off Amazon.  It’s hooked into our stove top cooker LP feed line.  We like the size and it’s just enough to get by with.  Anything bigger than 10K they get pretty big.  Overall for us this was on the money.  If we sat longer in colder areas and had a bigger rig then maybe more BTU’s.  Size size size…

See ya….

25 Degrees In Livingston TX

It’s 6:30 AM and it’s firggin 25 degrees outside.  Our water tried to freeze up but didn’t.  We had two small electric heaters on low last night that kept the baby at 55 degrees inside.  This morning I turned them up to high and turned the rig’s LP heating system to 67.  I have the after market LP heater stored down below because I didn’t think we would be using it for awhile.  This cold is unusual for Livingston anytime much less March.

I’m going to smoke some baby back ribs today.  Never done baby back ribs.  Yepper, going for it.  The Bradley Smoker is all put away in the barn but I can get it out pretty easy.  I think I will use it the barn rather outside on the porch.  The smoke does the barn some good I think by getting rid of that storage smell.  I’m going to use a 3 – 2 –1 method of cooking the ribs.

We had another couple asked to be removed from our Loosey Goosey list going to Alaska due to cancer.  Wish you all well and we will put you down for first to join next time.

People if you are thinking about going to Alaska, do it NOW.  Stop finding reasons for not going.  Later on the reasons will become bigger and they will find you.  If you are thinking about going full time do it NOW!  As we all know, life will not wait for you.  As each year goes by it will become more and more difficult for MANY reasons.  If you want to make so complicated that you can’t do something, so be it.  Otherwise, do it NOW!  Oh by the way, my Mom wanted to full time (solo) years ago and she did. She’s glad NOW that she did because she can’t anymore. She had a blast those few years.  She wishes she started earlier.

We moved my Mom to her new Assisted Living residence in nearby Woodville, TX last Friday.  So far she really likes it and the people to include the staff too.  It just might be what she’s been hoping for.  We will go see her again Wednesday and take some of her gardening stuff. 

Tuesday we will take the Mariner down to Houston for an oil/filter change where we bought it in 2010.  We are really going down south to pick up the power steering gasket for the Baby at Freightliner.  It’s suppose to be in Monday. 

See ya…….

2014 Winnebago 36M Journey Report Card

Well folks, I said I would give my report on our new Baby so here’s my opinion on how it’s been so far.

This is based on 4 months of living in it (full timers)and driving it from FL to AZ and back to TX for about 5,000 miles.  Of that about 2,000 miles were (red line roads (back roads.  The drivability of it was surprising good.  The stocky short wheel base of 226 inches I was ready for a not so smooth ride.  I would say it’s better than the 266 inch wheel base Phaeton.  Both where Freightliners but this is the new lower chassis.  It’s almost as good as our 43’ Newmar Spartan chassis.  If the Newmar didn’t have the tag axle I would have to say they were pretty close.  Again, I was surprised. 

Storage – underneath is better than than the 43’ footer because the frame rails are low and can stack “stuff” high.  Really good.  Better than the two 40 footers.  Inside storage lacked because being only a 36 footer but workable of course.

Living room has plenty of space and compares close to our 3 other bigger motorhomes.  Two slides on the driver side and one long one on the passenger side.  So far so good.  All LED lighting.  All tile flooring front to rear.  Carol really likes being able to clean the floor so easy.  No carpet except under dinette.  Two 40 inch LCD TVs are nice in the living room especially if you can’t put out one slide out while boone docking.  The bathroom is small and tight.  The bedroom is small and tight.  The bed (only queen available)  itself faces the front of the rig like it did in our 1999 Ultimate.  It has a 32” LCD TV that swivels which is nice.  MCD shades throughout – great!

On the Interstates it would get between 8.5 & 9 MPG doing between 60-65 MPH.  It don’t shift into 6th gear until about 63 MPH where most rigs shift about 57/58 MPH.  That’s different.  On back roads it averaged about 7.5 MPG.  Our rigs did good about 60-62 MPH.    If you drive these motorhomes for many miles you get to know where they and you travel the best over all.  This one seems to need to be a little higher at about 63-65 MPH.  It feels like it lugs a little around 60 MPH.  I probably should keep it in 5th gear on back roads.  60 MPH RPM’s are about 1600 which I think is about normal.  This Cummins 360 HP runs better about 1700-1725 RPMs.  I climb hills at about 2,000 RPMs and have no trouble maintaining the speed for the gear that I’m in.

Weight – 12,350 lbs max in front & actual is 11,350 lbs.  I put in 105 PSI in the tires which is 5 PSI over the carrying weight minimum recommendation.  Max in all tires is 110 with load range G.  Rear axle max is 20K lbs and the actual weight is 19,600 lbs.  I carry 105 PSI in the rear tires also which is about 10 PSI over for the rear weight.  I’ve had it weighed twice by Smart Weigh the last (Feb) being loaded for Alaska.  It stand tall at 12’ 4”. 

Batteries – it came with six AGM house batteries (Deka) with the residential frig option plus a 2,800 sine wave inverter.  NO maintenance on the AGM batteries – ahhh so nice.  I installed another two AGM house batteries.  Plus the normal two chassis starting batteries.  I have 490 watts of solar power on the roof.  I had Starlight Solar in Yuma doing the wiring/installing for the solar.  While boone docking I have to turn off the frig at night.  Then turn it on in the late morning.  I lose about 4-5 degrees in the frig.  It really sucks up the juice especially the ice maker.  Overall, yes I would get the residential frig hands down.  No worry of fire or LP to mess with.  The TVs and LED lights use hardly in AMPS while boone docking, very nice.

The water capacity is 85 gallons (+ 10 gal hot water heater) and that is fine.  Fuel 100 gallons.  Grey is 65 and black is 45 I think.  That’s fine.  The DEF tank holds 13.2 gallons which is nice.  Maybe 3-4 gallons per 1,000 miles.  Hard to till so far.

Oh, get this.  Driver side of the coach does not work with the inverter.  No 110 elect on that side when boone docking.  Yes that’s the way Winnebago does it.  How ignorant of Winnebago.

The outside color of grey/very light blue (cool graphite?) is no longer  available.  We choose this color because it was their coolest (temperature) available.  Darker exterior colors don’t do good in the sun because they get so hot and in time it usually shows.

I think it only has 13 options available which is nice.  Winnebago stocks them pretty nice.  I think we got all the options except the outside TV, the airbed and the oven (drawers instead).  It was custom ordered by us and listed about $275K.  Actual cost was about $193K  which was about 30% off list. We got high Kelly Blue Book on our trade in.  Financed it for 20 yrs at 4.25% interest.

So folks that’s it on our last RV (again).  Any other questions just email me at dennisrving@gmail.com.

Happy Happy Happy (she is, so I am!)

See ya……..

Worked The Phone

I called Winnebago Factory in Forest City, Iowa.  I made an appointment with their service department for mid April.  No problem picking a date.  I guess people don’t like the 50’s and 30’s (night) to get their rig worked on.  The Baby got 5 things to repair or check and nothing major but above my level to repair.  They said they would reserve three days to work on it.  It must really be slow in April to reserve three days.  I was going to wait until our return trip from Alaska (Sept) but figure do this on the way up and then might need another appointment coming back.  After Alaska  we will get a full Freightliner/Cummins check out/oil/filters at Baltimore Freightliner.  Carol’s bro is a diesel mechanic there and we get a discount along with superb workmanship.

I called Freightliner Houston and ordered a power steering reservoir gasket.  Ours is still leaking and I will install the $13 part instead of going thru their shop and warranty.  Hey, how hard can it be?  It will arrive next week and we will go get it in Carol’s car the Mariner. 

I also called Westport Lincoln in Houston where we bought the Mercury Mariner in 2010.  It’s going in for it’s free oil/filter maintenance thing the same day the RV’s gasket is suppose to be ready for pick up.  Let’s see if it all comes together.

I ordered a K & N air filter (38-2009R  $268) for the Baby.  It was about $90 more than an original factory air filter.  Last time in Alaska (2011) I had to replace my air filter with only about 4K miles on the filter.  That was the only time I had to replace an air filter out of 4 times up there.  Since this is our last RV (again) it should be a good investment.

Then I called it a day.  Pun intended….

See ya……..

Can You Hear Me Now

Monday we will take my Mom to Woodville to see an assisted living home.  Carol & I went there last week.  We liked the staff and the facilities.  We were invited back for their lunch.  Hey, a free meal.

We got to finally meet the owner of the Gardens assisted home where she’s at now.  Carol & I just don’t like the guy nor his facilities.  He’s a money hungry person and shows no care nor respect for his tenants.  Mom picked this place in Dec and has hated it ever since.  The new place, The Orchards, we found and we like.  Now we will see if it meets Mom’s approval.  We are sure she will like it.  The we will try to get her moved by the 1st.  That will be interesting with her bed and electric cart.

I ordered my CB “stuff” for the rig.  It’s four separate items and some of it’s on a slow boat from China.  It’s a cheap radio with a real good tunable antennae plus all the mounting items & cable.  I use to be really into CBs big time many years ago so mounting it and tuning it won’t be a problem.  I need a SWR meter though.  You will be able to “hear me now” when I “get ur done.”

The “Baby” needs a little more prep for Alaska.  I need to raise the mud flap as high as it will go which is basically another inch or so.  This is so IT don’t kick up debris/stones from the road.  Then I have to wash and wax the Baby.  Yes I know I had it waxed down in Yuma a couple of weeks ago.  I will try to get to it within the next month.  I got to grease all the compartment door locks too.  I finally got my tires aired up to where I want them.  A 100 lbs across the rear tires and 110 in the front when it’s 65 degrees out.  I basically raised them 5 lbs each since the weather is colder now and will be the rest of the year basically with going to Alaska and all. 

The Jeep needs a wash and wax too.  I got a Yoga mat (Walmart $9) for the windshield.  I need to cut it down and see how it works being towed down the road.

Se ya….

Milepost 0 Dawson Creek BC

About 90 days from now we will be at Dawson Creek, Milepost 0 of the Alaska Highway.  This has been our starting point for our last four trips up there.  We will have friends nearby who are members of the Loosey Goosey Group like in 2011.

 

This will be our first night after Dawson Creek….a closed down provincial park.  Room for about 25 big rigs.

Being full timers we have already loaded the RV of course.  We are removing a few things and loading up on others.  We won’t load up on food till we get to the last big city before we head into Canada which will be Great Falls.  No sense carrying it around before then for us. 

We are anxious just like if this is our first trip. 

We will leave Livingston, TX, ABOUT April Fool’s Day but not at a gallop.

We will take it slow because it will still be cold going North towards Canada.  We will cross over at Sweetwater above Great Falls, MT about the 17th of May give or take a day or so.

Stay tuned…

See ya……..

Merry Christmas !

We woke up and had had our normal Uncle Herschel's breakfast at Cracker Barrel where we spent the night.   After breakfast we got under way for our 180 mile trip to Livingston, TX.

You are a red neck if you still have your Christmas signs up.  It’s called normal in this neck of the woods.

Now do you have a drive thru liquor store?  That just don’t seem to go together.

We stopped at a Pilot to get DEF at the pump for $2.79 gallon.  We had to drive into a big truck pump area backwards, opposite the normal direction.  Our DEF tank is on the passenger side and the DEF pump is on the driver side.  Thus drive thru in the opposite direction.  The truck stop was slow so it was no problem.  I also filled up the two 2 1/2 gallon portable containers.  I added 4 gallons in the RV DEF tank and earlier added the two 2 1/2 gallon containers.  So, that means overall the RV DEF is lasting about 4 gallons per 1,000 miles.  Since the RV DEF tank is 13 1/2 gallons.  We can go 3,000 miles on a tank and that is a very rough estimate.

In Onalaska we got fuel for $3.53 a gallon.  I jammed it in.  In Livingston the fuel is $3.59.

We got to our lot about noon.  It was 80 degrees and 90% humidity.  Whew…. we gone from a dry heat to a wet heat.   

The power steering gasket is still leaking.  I will order the gasket and install it myself in the next few weeks.  No bigee hopefully. 

See ya………

Go

Here’s what we woke up to Tuesday morning.

We ended up at Cracker Barrel in Waco, TX Tuesday evening which was 550 miles for the day.  We didn’t plan it that way it just happened.  We still had a slight head wind or a little south wind but it was a very nice drive.  It was ALL back roads which made it longer but nice scenery.

Really trashy in some areas.

Cattle and oil in West Texas

They got wind power too.

A lot of these back roads in Texas the speed limits are 70 and even 75 MPH.  We did mostly 65 MPH.  

Some little town hanging on.

 

We saw over 50 dead skunks today.  Here I thought most of the skunks were in Washington DC

A few alligators along the way too.

Got fuel in Midland at the H.E.B. grocery store for $3.65.  That should be it until Livingston.  I had the LOW DEF light come on near Waco.  I added 5 gallons of DEF that I carry.  I still haven’t figured out my DEF fuel mileage yet.

It’s Wednesday morning and it’s time to go get our Cracker Barrel breakfast.

See ya…..