January 12, 2017

January 3, 2017

 Last month I included our itinerary for the spring trip back to Oregon and said it was written Jello.  Well, we stirred the pot a little and made some changes:
2-6 Apr:  Calistoga, CA.
6-11 Apr:  Travis AFB, CA
11-15 Apr:  Beale AFB, CA.  Joyce and I really like the California Gold Country so we’ll do some exploring there and hopefully visit friends who live in Nevada City.
15-18 Apr:  Redding, CA.
18-27 Apr: Valley of the Rouge State Park, OR.  Gonna do some exploring the area.
27 Apr-1 May:  Jim and Jeanne Glaspey’s RV Park, Oakridge, OR.
1 May-1 Jul:  Tumalo State Park, Bend, OR.  Hosting.
1 Jul-1 Sep: Smith Rock State Park, Terrebonne, OR.  Hosting.

 When we arrived at Hidden Valley we met Dave and Jan Sasse from Minnesota who are on their first extended trip in their 5th wheel trailer.  We plan to go to the San Antonio RV Show together and take them out to Lackland AFB for a Basic Military Training graduation.

January 6, 2017

 Yesterday Joyce, Dave, Jan and I went to the San Antonio RV Show to check out what is new in the RVing world.  Well, a lot has changed in not only in the new motor coaches but a lot more interesting improvements have been made in building 5th wheels.

 We saw some 5er’s with two bedrooms, a lot with a bath and a half others with front living rooms or galley’s.  It is amazing what manufacture’s have designed in just the last six years since we bought our Landmark 5’er.

 I would say that more than half of them had residential refrigerator's and some were even all electric, a trend in the building of higher-end motor coaches and trailers these days.  About 75% had king beds and two that we looked at even had a very large walk-in bathroom.

 The weather here in south Texas has made a drastic change for the worse.  It got down to 31º lasts night and right now at 7:45 AM we’re even getting a little freezing rain.  The high for today is forecasted to only make it up to 39º with a low tonight to 26º.  Both of our heat pumps have been working overtime and we even have a floor heater going in the living room.

 The crazy part of all this weather is by Tuesday the forecast is for the temperatures to get back into the high 70’s and even in the 80’s in some places.  It’s a wonder that folks don’t get pneumonia around here.

January 7, 2017

 Burrrrrr…….!  Man, it’s cold down here.

 Yesterday a cold front moved into south Texas and hit us like a pile driver, sending the temperature down to 21º this morning.  Before we went to bed last night I made sure the fresh water tank was full, disconnected our shore water hose and switched from the heat pumps to using the furnace for our heat.  The forecast for tonight is more of the same.  Grrrrr!

January 9, 2016

 Joyce and I went to see  Passengers yesterday.  Very good movie with a lot of great cinematography.

 The temperatures here are starting to warm back up thank goodness.  Last night it got down to 45º and the high for today is going up to 70º.  Thursday and Friday it’s supposed to be in the 80’s.  Yay!

 Tomorrow we’re taking to rig up to Iron Horse RV to have them give us an estimate on repairing the roof where the clear coat is pealing off.  There is a possibility that our insurance is going to cover some of the work so we are keeping our finger’s crossed for that to happen.

January 11, 2016

 Yesterday we got up very early hoping to beat the traffic on I-35 on the way up to Iron Horse RV and to be on time for our 7:30 appointment.  Well, that didn’t work out so good.

 When Joyce went to lower our satellite dish the darned thing stalled out and we got an error code that indicated the elevation motor was not working.  So, in the dark and fog up the ladder I went.  The roof was very wet so I was not happy about that.  There wasn’t anything that I saw blocking the mechanism so after digging out the operators manual, the troubleshooting section said “yep, it’s broke and to call Winegard".  Well, ain’t that special.

 Joyce started searching the forums on iRV2.com and found an entry by someone that had the same problem.  We followed his directions to recalibrate to dish and that did the trick.

 On the way up the highway we ran into stop and go traffic in the downtown San Antonio area which added to our frustration and our one-hour delay getting to the shop.  I wish you could see the dash camera video of the drive.  It would scare the devil out of you.

 The estimate to fix the roof and to do some other work on it is $8,613.  Holy poop Batman!  The labor alone is $7,260.  We are hoping our insurance will pick up some of this cost but we are betting that they won’t cover it all.

 When we got back to Hidden Valley the satellite dish deployed perfectly but just for grins I called Winegard.  I didn’t want to wait on hold forever so I just left a message fully expecting not to hear from them for a few days.  Well, about an hour later a really nice gal from their tech support called back and explained what had probably happened.  A few days ago we had some pretty high winds here and we are sure that the dish got buffeted around a bit.  She recommended that we lower the dish in winds above 30 MPH and to re-calibrate the system every few months.  Why isn’t that information in their manual?

January 12, 2016

 Yesterday Joyce, Dave, Jan and I had lunch Lin’s International Buffet which we think is one of the best Chinese restaurants we have ever tried.  Tasty food that was all fresh and very reasonable priced.

 After eating way too much we went to tour the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Plant.  The tour started in the visitor center and then we made our way over to the main plant where we boarded a tram for the guided drive though the plant.

 Toyota builds their Tacoma and Tundra trucks in a huge facility here in San Antonio. The plant operates two shifts, six days a week producing about eight hundred trucks a day.  We found it interesting that the employees work on two teams which rotate shifts every two weeks.  Each shift is eight hours with 1.5 hour mandatory overtime each day.  For their first two weeks of employment they are required to spend two hours in the plant’s gym after their shift is over strengthening their muscles.  Also, each shift begins with a six minute stretching routine.

 During the manufacturing day there are over 7,000 employees working which includes the several parts supplier companies on site.  The plant also uses the “just in time manufacturing” principle which allows them to build both the Tacoma and Tundra on the same assembly line.

Tomorrow we are going to fly to Orlando, And then drive up to St. Augustine to visit Michelle and her family.  I am in the serious need for some “grand baby spoiling” time.

Have a great day!