November 11, 2018

So, it has been a while since my last post.  A long while.  So much has happened this summer and fall.  Here is some of it.  The construction or destruction of the house is still ongoing.  But, the end is in sight.  I had to rent a u-haul storage container to store the furniture from the living room and den.  Every room in the house is packed with stuff from the kitchen and breakfast room.  I was sitting outside with Max and one of the workers came up to me and said, "they are destroying your house", so I go in to see ceiling beams, floor joists, and wall studs.  Almost 3/4 of the downstairs was demolished.  The old dining room is gone along with the bay window that was there.  Sections of some walls were removed.  Plumbers had to move existing plumbing so the wall could be opened up.  Electrician had to come and rewire everything.  We had to use the kitchen in the camper for all our meals, which worked our pretty good.  It was like we were camping at our own house.  Max had to be on a leash most of the time going to and from the camper.  He really wanted to help the workers, but mainly just sat and watched.  At one point I thought it would never get done.  But, looking at the finished product it was well worth it.  We now have a great looking kitchen/breakfast room/living room area.  Here are a few pictures.

These are now.

July 26, 2018

     I just realized that my last post was from San Antonio, TX, and we are here again.  This time we came out for Maddox's birthday, but we did not bring Max.  This has been an expensive trip.  On the way I realized that I had left my laptop and my ipad.  So I was depending on my phone for my electronic connections.  Lessons learned:  1)  You cannot go swimming with your phone in the pocket of your bathing suit.  2)  Make sure your contacts are backed up somewhere.  3)  Make sure you know the passwords to log back in to your apps.  4)   Once everything is lost it is gone until you get it all back in.  5)  It is an easy way to clear out your address book, but not recommended.  The only good thing is that I got a new phone which was really needed.  On my ruined phone I could only keep 2 or three pictures, so this one has 10 times the storage so I should be able to take all kinds of pictures now.  I also decided to buy a chromebook which is a lot cheaper than a laptop.  Since I mostly use chrome anyway it was a logical choice.  I plan to use it in the camper whenever we go again.  While I was here I got the message that the camper was finally fixed and ready to be picked up.  So we will get it when we get home.  That means that we have owned it for one year and for 6 months it has been at Camping World being fixed.  I guess that had it not been under warranty maybe it would have been fixed faster, but not sure about that.  Camping World in Oxford does not have a good rating, and if I am asked I will not rate them very high either.  We can't wait to use it again.  We have several places we want to go. 
    The construction on the new kitchen should start next week.  I was able to do some of the demolition but only one room.  The condition of my shoulders just would not let me do the work needed to tear out the walls and ceiling.  It looks so easy on HGTV.   I will have to let the contractor do it.  I built the house, forty years ago, so I wanted to have a part in taking it apart, but I am no longer able to do it.  One day of work and 3 days to recover from it, so it is not worth it to me.  That is all for now, I'll post again when I get home,

May 6, 2018

     Time passes so fast.  I am posting this from San Antonio, Texas.  Visiting my grand kids out here.  Kale is 5 and his baby brother Maddox will be 1 in July.  We came out to babysit while Emily and Craig went out on the town.  They stayed in a fancy hotel and went to a play.  I think we had the most fun though.  We will head home in a couple of days.  We may try to see some of my cousins in Conroe, Texas on the way home.  It is a slight detour but means we can go back on I-20 instead of I-10.  According to google maps this route is only a slight bit further and only 30 minutes longer.  There was so much road construction that I-20 may be the best route anyway.  

     Update on our camper.  So we bought the trailer in August and have used it several times (see prior posts), but decided to have a couple of minor things fixed that would be covered under warranty.  That was the end of February.  March and April are gone and camper is not ready yet.  Maybe when we get home it will be ready.  The last time I spoke to someone in the service department they could not give an estimated time it would be ready.  In fact the person I spoke to said over the phone that she did not know how they would fix the problem.  I knew that the service department had very bad reviews, but the sales department was rated very high.  Maybe I should have purchased elsewhere.  I'll know next time.   I thought I was dealing with a service manager, but maybe not.  Next week I will find out who his boss is, and complain.  I will also complain to the manufacturer, since they could have built a new trailer in the 2 months that it is waiting to be fixed.   I might add that the minor problems did not render the trailer unusable, so I could be using it if it is only waiting for some part to come from China???  I had three issues that needed to be addressed.  1) I had a fuse to blow in my truck that handled the running lights.  I needed them to check for a short in that system.  They did not find a problem, but it didn't matter because I traded trucks.  I just wanted it checked out before turning on the running lights in the new truck.  2)  There was a leaky valve in the gray water tank that would not close all the way.  Not really a major problem since it only drained from the kitchen sink, just soapy water.  I had already bypassed that by adding an external valve on the end of the drain pipes.  They said they could not find that problem.  3)  The trailer has a black water flush system, but when connected no water would flow into the black water tank.  My guess was that there may have been a back-flow valve that could have been installed backwards.  They did say that they found a leak, but did not say where it was.  I assume that this is the thing that they did not know how to fix, but who knows.  I might add that messages left for the service department are not returned.  I feel I have been extremely patient so far, but my patience is running out.  

     We plan to visit my son and his wife on Friday.  (Bogart, GA)  We will take Max on this trip.  He is being boarded at the vet this week.  We pick him up on Wednesday.  Max being a yorkie, thinks he is a big dog, so he will get along fine with Jason's 2 labs.   We are looking forward to that trip.

     One final note.  I am getting ready to hike the Pinhoti Trail.  Plans are to start on the 14th, at the southern terminus, Flag Mountain in Weogufka,  and hike for 5 or 6 days, hopefully ending at Porter's Gap.  My plan is to hike the whole trail this summer, but do it in sections.  We will see how it goes.  Hoping for good weather.  

March 7, 2017

     It has been a while since my last post, and I have no excuses.  I am still doing some trail maintenance on the Pinhoti Trail, but the weather has not cooperated.  Too much rain, snow, and now back to cold temperatures have slowed the maintenance to a stand still.  There are plans to open a new section of the trail with work crews going out this coming week.  I hope to work one or two days with them. 
     January and February came and went so fast that I think we just missed skipped them this year.  Amy flew to San Antonio for a week visiting Emily, Craig, Kale, and Maddox. (also Major and Radley).  I stayed home with Max.  Now she is headed to Virginia for a week to see Katy and her crew.  I'll be here with Max.
     Two weeks ago we went back to DeSota State Park for a couple of days.  Weather was perfect.  That is our favorite place to go.  Pull through campsites with water, electricity, sewer, and cable TV.  Easy to hook up and hiking trails right there make for a fun adventure time.  There were very few campers there this time of year.  We go during the week and usually come home on Saturday.   I am sure there are more there on the weekend.  On the way home I made the decision to trade my new
 F-150 truck.  I just did not feel safe pulling my camper with that truck.

     The travel trailer is 33 feet long and catches a lot of air moving down the highway.  Even though I was within safe limits for towing, I was at near maximum load for the truck.  I could feel a lot of sway with the trailer and sometimes felt like the trailer was controlling the truck.  The truck had a lot of features that I liked, but could live without.  I took the truck to the dealership to have a fuse issue checked out and came home with a new truck.  

     This one is an F-250 and is a diesel.  Has plenty of power and feels safe pulling the camper.  I towed the trailer to Camping World for some small issues that should be covered under warranty.  One was that the running lights caused a fuse to blow in the F-150.  I tried to find the problem myself, but I really did not know where to look.  There is no wiring diagram for the trailer and I have no idea where the lines run.  I suspect it is a grounding fault, but I did not know how to troubleshoot that problem.  Anyway, the truck pulled the trailer effortlessly.  I think we will be able to take longer distance trips now that pulling the camper is no longer a nightmare.  I miss some of the features of the other truck, but not enough to pay for them.  The one thing I miss most though is the other truck had push button start and console gear shift.  Now I am back to using a key and the gears are back on the steering wheel.  

     Amy also is driving a new car.  We took the traverse in for an issue with it and when they told me how much it was going to be to fix it we decided to trade it for a 2018 Equinox.  So, January and February became new car months.  Amy will be driving to Katy's, the first long trip in the car.  One final thing unrelated to vehicles.  Before Christmas I started a Jigsaw puzzle that has to be the hardest one I have ever worked on.  All pieces fit in places they are not suppose to go.  I have about 50 pieces left and they do not seem to fit anywhere.  I will keep swapping pieces until I complete it.  Hopefully before summer comes.