Month: March 2022

It seems that more often than not, a bug-a-boo creeps in right before we get ready to commence an Adventure and this time is no exception.

          But…. there may be a Silver Lining.

          Or, at least a Rainbow one.

          The Backstory:

          Whilst preparing the motorhome for travel by making sure that everything was topped off, I drove around town filling the propane and DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid) because these two items are harder to find when on the road.

          On my way back to Home Base, the Check Engine light came on with two different warnings, one said DEF Low Level and the other , DEF Low Quality.

          A word about DEF is appropriate here. DEF (for better or worse) is the reason that we no longer see those big black clouds of exhaust coming out of the busses and trucks when they accelerate. It is a very simple product that is mostly de-ionized water with a percentage of urea mixed in. This is then injected into the exhaust of a diesel motor which then gets “burned off” in a process that kind of scrubs that heavy soot causing particulates to be trapped and burned in a high heat process that is far better for the air quality.

          Or something like that.

          The downside is what I was experiencing with the Check Engine light and accompanying warnings.

          Since this DEF fluid and its application system is somewhat complex (lots of sensors and computer chips) and is not really making the motor more efficient, it has a negative effect on mileage and cost.

          So, the Government put “Safeguards“ into the hardware.

          If the system goes bad and you ignore it (because it costs a lot to fix) the motor automatically “de-rates” itself to the point where you can eventually end up traveling  at only 5 mph.

          Ouch!

          The problem is that most of the time the system is just fine.

          It’s the sensors and “chips” that go bad, not the hardware.

          Enter a global shortage of silicon computer chips exacerbated by the “Big C” (Covid) and we have a situation where trucks and motorhomes have found themselves stranded for periods of time while the search for the appropriate part is located.

          But not us!

          Back when we heard of this possible issue and knowing that if it weren’t for bad luck we’d have no luck at all, we purchased the most offending part and stored it away, hoping never to have to use it.

          It looks like something that would go I your gas barbecue, the burner part, except it has wires on it and costs $950.00. It’s called a DEF Header.

          When I started to experience these issues, I called my local Truck Center that does my service here in Texas. I learned that they were over-booked until sometime next week.

          We were slated to depart in less than 24 hours.

          Another ‘Ouch’!

          Needing to try something, I decided to drain the DEF tank which for some reason only an engineer and design person can explain, has NO drain plug! Mind you, DEF fluid is completely harmless and non-polluting. So why not have a drain on this tank?

           A small pump and hose quickly dispatched the offending fluid and yielded an empty tank which was re-filled with brand new DEF fluid.

          Now I knew that not only was it full, (which it was before anyway) but there was no “pumped” DEF , only the high-quality stuff in a bought container.

          I started her up and still the lights stayed on the dash. In my conversation with Larry at the Truck Center, we determined that the lights may or may not reverse themselves when the new DEF was detected.

          Unless…..

          You guessed it!

           If the sensors or chips were “Bad”, then no amount of new stuff would right this wrong. The part was probably on the fritz. We decided that maybe the Service Center was needed to turn off the check engine light by clearing the codes in the computer.

          It took Sam the Technician 45 minutes to clear just one of the codes. The other one, Low-DEF Fluid, was not clearing.

          That confirmed it. The sensors were rotten.

          This is a job that I am not even remotely experienced enough to do.

          But there is a many-day back log of work at the Truck Center.

          But I always drop a Twenty into the hand of the guy who works on the rig and Larry, the Service Manager.

          Larry told me to be back at 8 am in the morning and he’d get us right in.  😊

          So where is this Silver Lining or Rainbow one at least?

          Another backstory:

          Madison started playing Herd-Ball or, as most people know it, Soccer.

          But when 5-year-olds play it, it’s Herd-Ball. The Herd just runs and follows the ball everywhere. There are no positions to be played even if they tried.

          Their games are on Thursday nights (tonight), and as such, we will probably miss this one as we should be in New Mexico by then.

          Madison’s team is named the Wildcats.

          So far they’ve played the Posies and the Sirens.

          Next up is the one that everyone is waiting for….

          The Rainbow Donuts.

          If the repairs do not go as planned and there is a further delay, we will be able to attend tonight’s game.

          Sorry Madison, There is no way that I cannot root for a team that is named the Rainbow Donuts.

Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen!

          Welcome to the first running of the Traveling Motorhome Stakes sponsored by any number of high-priced Petroleum Retailersfound across our great land.

          (Please put your best “Race Announcers” fast-paced voice in your head and then read on….)

          And they’re off!

          Out of the gate it’s California Dreamin’ and Fuel Prices neck and neck followed by Crowded Highway, Rest Stop, Big Flat Tire, Bumper to Bumper and Late Arrival.

          Lots of movement in this race folks!

          Going into the first turn its Crowded Highway making its move past Rest Stop, setting sights on Late Arrival, with Big Flat Tire always in contention.

          There are no clear-cut leaders’ race fans, odds-makers had Fuel Prices as the early favorite, but it’s anyone’s race now!

          Down the backstretch its Bumper to Bumper coming on strong, moving up on Crowded Highway and blowing past Rest Stop. Late Arrival is threatening as Big Flat Tire blows out and pulls up.

          Hold on folks! In the Clubhouse turn it’s California Dreamin’ fading fast with Fuel Prices surging ahead!                                                    No one is in control!

           Out of the turn it’s Crowded Highway, Bumper to Bumper, and Rest Stop. Big Flat Tire threatens again, and Late Arrival could be a spoiler here!

          Wait!

          I’ve never seen this before! Down the stretch they’re all lined up, neck and neck!

           Once again, it’s anyone’s race!

          Now it’s California Dreamin’ and  Fuel Prices on the rail, nose to nose! with the rest of the field thundering right behind!

          Hold on to your hat’s fans!

          Fuel Prices is fading quickly, Big Flat Tire is out of the running, Bumper to Bumper and Crowded Highway dropping back and are now out of contention.

          Rest Stop is coming up and looking good as Late arrival is now nowhere to be seen.

           At the wire it’s California Dreamin’ by five lengths as the rest of the field comes across the line.

           California Dreamin’ wins the Traveling Motorhome Stakes!

          Or so we hope!

          It’s only two days until “Wheels Up” and we commence our Great Circumnavigation of the Lower Forty-Eight on the Way Back to New Jersey for the Summer Expedition.

          Please feel free to share this blog with anyone that you think may enjoy it. It is not private and even though I introduced all of you to it, it does not require my introduction to anyone else.

          With any amount of luck, I should be posting almost daily as we will be traveling and actually have something to write about!

          So, let’s go kick the tires and check the air pressures, pull the dipstick, and help me wash this big rig,

          I hate to travel with it dirty!

It has been 77 years since she was last angry and fired at anyone.

          At 110 ten years old, she is showing some age, and  even though she was born with her “matronly” shape, she somehow still is able to maintain that figure when, in comparison,  all of her contemporaries have faded from memory and have passed on into history.

          If you feel another History Lesson is coming your way, you would be correct.

          But I promise to keep it short!

          Almost exactly one month and year to the date of the day the RMS Titanic foundered, The USS Texas was launched in Newport News, Virginia. The Texas is a ship of firsts, both in battle and peace.

          She was the first to have anti-aircraft weapons installed to fight that pesky new-fangled contraption, the airplane.

          She was the first US battleship to launch an airplane, and one of the first to employ another new idea and invention…. Radar.

          In peacetime, she was the first to become a permanent Museum Ship, the first to become a National Landmark and the only WW I era dreadnaught battleship still with us today, and she is still afloat!

          There is something about still doing what it was designed to do that must be an alluring aspect because it would seem to me that it would be far easier to prepare a harborside site somewhere, float her (or any ship) in, pump out the water and fill in around it, and never have the upkeep of a floating hull again.

          But no.

          That is not what is done with these awesome Museum-type ships.

          The respective organizations charged with the safe-keeping and maintenance of these vessels go to the ends of the seven seas to keep them afloat.

          Oh, and by the way, The USS Texas is the only battleship that fought in both WW I and WW II.

          Currently she faces the issues that I alluded to earlier, that is the ravages of Mother Nature on any man-made object that was not designed to last forever. The Texas lies in her berth just off of the Houston Ship Canal in San Jacinto State Park. She has undergone several re-fits and refurbishments in her storied career, all in an effort to preserve her for future generations to visit ….. and learn.

          Not too long ago, she was leaking to the tune of over a thousand gallons a minute and had numerous pumps working full-time in order to keep her afloat. Thanks to some timely repairs aided by some generous Texas based corporations, that number is now down to about fifty gallons a minute.

          Now that is a number that can be dealt with.

          Nonetheless, she is slated for a full-on, incredibly needed, much deserved, overhaul at a drydock in Galveston, about 75 miles away. Shortly, she will be towed there as soon as everything that needs to be prepped has been completed.

          From there, when the work is finished, she will be searching for a new home. It’s not that the present location is bad, it is just not good.   It is very easy to get to, but like they say, “It’s off the beaten path”.

          I took the trip there on Sunday because this past weekend was the last time that the Texas would be open to the public before she goes into that drydock in Galveston. It’s about two hours from where we are in Brenham to Houston’s port where the Texas is berthed. I wound my way in, around, and through the refineries that seem to stretch to the horizon.  In comparison, this place makes the refineries that line the NJ Turnpike in the Bayway section between  Linden and Elizabeth look like Bob’s Filling Station where Bob would actually pump your gas and clean your windshield.

          So, no one is just aimlessly driving by and saying, “Hey Look! It’s the USS Texas, let’s go visit her!”

          Nope. That is not happening.

           In order to generate the dollars needed for her maintenance, a more suitable location is being sought. One that has an already built-in or visible base to draw from. There are several towns that have expressed an interest in the Texas, one of them being Galveston. Having visited that port last year, I believe that is where she will end up and all things considered, is probably the best place for a permanent berth. Galveston is a resort town, a Cruise Port, and has the infrastructure to handle another large attraction.

          I watched as the kid scrambled over the same massive anchor chain that I was avoiding for fear of tripping over it. He clambered around in his brandy-new USS Texas tee-shirt that his dad must have bought him when they came on board. I had seen him previously back amidships plying the elderly docents with a plethora of questions and I could see that the guy stationed here at the bow was soon to be peppered with yet another barrage of young, inquisitive, queries.

          I watched the face of the man as the kid approached.

          It was all smiles.

          Someone has to tell the stories important and tales valiant, so when that kid grows up, and brings his kids to get their tee shirts, he can say, “I remember…..”

Last night was a first.

          I’ve never been in a Tornado Warning before.

          We knew that the potential for some large storms was possible from the reports of the day before, so the all-day big rains and gusty winds came as no surprise. As the day rolled on, the reports became a tad more intense, and it became obvious that we could have some significant weather.

          There are a few things in this world that frighten me.

          Actually, there are a lot of things that frighten me, but these are the ones that stick out.

          Spiders

          Alligators

          Sharks

          And Tornadoes…..especially in the dark.       

          It’s probably strange then to admit that Twister is one of my favorite movies. The cast is superb, Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman round out this crew of rag-tag storm chasers whose only goal is to gather information to help in developing an early warning system. Not the loser TV storm chasers who’s attempts at this are gossamer-veiled efforts of thrill-seeking, grandiose, You Tube wanna-be’s who benefit at someone else’s expense.

          I’ll get off of my soap box now.

          Anyway, Danny had been giving us hourly updates as the day progressed. He kept the TV on and of course the Houston stations and the Weather Channel gave periodic reports all day long. It was decided that if a Warning came our way, that the prudent choice would be to abandon the motorhome and retreat to the relative shelter of their house.

          Why, and how, do tornados always find a Mobile Home park to devastate? This is one of the aspects of tornados that I do not like. Do they have a mind of their own? Are they that masochistic that they need to find the most vulnerable of us and like a bully in the playground, inflict as much devastation on the weakest of us?

          Sorry…. but that’s how I see it.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

          It was sudden enough.

          We were in the motorhome watching the second season of West Wing when both of our cellphones shrilly announced what we did not want to hear.

          A Tornado Warning.

          Tornado Watches are handed out like pamphlets in front of the side-shows in New York City.

          Warnings are a different animal altogether.

          Warnings, especially in today’s age of Doppler Radar, where they can actually see the tight rotation on the fringes of a thunderstorm cell and predict its path with some un-nerving accuracy, are something altogether different.

          It is now officially scary time.

          We gathered a few things, wallet, purse, flashlights, etc. and headed over to the house where we could see the many cones of probability displayed on the TV screen. I’ve never seen so many Warnings posted at the same time. This was a very prolific system.

          There we were.

           We had our very own cone of probability to contend with.

          It was getting dark outside, and the sky was about as portentous as it could be, which was compounded by the Warning that we had just received. The only other time that I have experienced anything like this was in 1962, I was in Second Grade in Berkeley, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. It’s one of those things that I’ve never forgotten, not because we were effected by it, but just because of that ominous nature of the sight of that funnel dangling from the classic murky green-gray sky that always seem to breed these monsters.

          Except in the dark.

          You can’t see it in the dark.

          You can only hear it in the dark.

          It was now dark where we were.

          You think of stupid things at these times. Tons of what-ifs that hopefully never mature into what-nows.

          My what-if had to do with the three-foot long model of the USS Constitution that I’ve been working on for several years. Aside from the perilous nature and personal safety aspects of this time, and thinking that just about anything else can be replaced, I thought of my model.

          I cannot replace those years of time and effort.

          So, glancing at that Cone of Probability and knowing that any meteorological event was still a little while away, I went back into the motorhome and fastened it down using the same techniques that I do when we are traveling. It’s actually very secure and aside from something being tossed into it, it may have at least a fighting chance of survival. You know the story. A refrigerator is tossed and found blocks away with the carton of eggs still inside with not one of them broken.

          Who can figure?

          I figured that I at least give her a fighting chance, they don’t call her “Old Ironsides” for nothing!

          We watched that cone progress on the television. We are situated on the eastern side of Lake Somerville, and it appeared that the rotation was headed for the western side of the lake and would miss us.

          Good for us, but it was far from over for anyone else that was in its path, and it was headed straight for College Station, the home of Texas A & M University and all of its student housing. Hopefully it either didn’t develop or changed course a little and kept to the relatively vacant thousands of square-miles of farmland that abounds in this part of Texas.

          We will find out a little later when we tune into the morning news.

          We leave for Colorado at the end of next week and as much as I like where we are now, I’m not sure that I could endure a summer’s-worth of Tornado Alley activity.

          If I were here regularly during this season, I would have a Tornado Shelter in a heartbeat.

One of the things to do when we are not traveling around is to catch up on and perform various maintenance tasks. Most of these involve trying to keep the motorhome looking as nice as possible, but there are other jobs that are performed so that various component’s run and work to the best of their ability.

          I should explain something here.

          Any RV, ( coach, class A,B, or C, fifth wheel, pull-along, or anything) is not designed, or built, for full-time living. There are better built units and there are cheaper ones also. This is no different than any type of purchase that one makes on any level.

          Here choices such as, cost/affordability, and use, play important parts in our collective decision’s when it comes time to purchase anything.

          Back to my statement that none of these units are designed for full-time living.

          They are designed for occasional use. When the engineer-type folks get together with the design and marketing people, they realize that 99% of their target buyers want something that they will use a few times over the course of a year, (long weekends, vacations, etc.) and design it so.

          They would be fools not to.

          Having said that, there are still differences in the ways (and costs) that companies approach their products, and it would be best to acknowledge their differences and inherent values contained within.

          A better built unit (costs more) will, if all things are equal, usually make a better choice for stretching that design envelope when it comes to living in it full time.

          Yugo vs. BMW

          For the most part, it is far easier to run that Yugo into the ground before the BMW.

          But what about the middle ground?

          What if I can afford the Chevy or Ford, not the BMW? Something a bit more middle-of-the-road as it were.

          No worries, that may work fine too. You will probably just have to watch and maintain a few more aspects of them, remembering that it is not designed for what you are doing.

          That’s where I come in with my trusty tools and basic automotive knowledge and “handyman wanna-be” skills!

          Over the past fifty years or so, I’ve done most of the maintenance work on my vehicles myself. Brakes, oil changes, tune-ups, exhaust systems, alternator replacement, and a host of other minor repairs have all fallen within my capabilities.

          That’s a good thing because now, living in my car so to speak, means that I can monitor any issues with that basic knowledge that I’ve acquired over the years.

          But…… I do not perform all of those tasks anymore. Working on one of these big diesel engines, or the air brake system, requires a skill level that I do not possess. Luckily for us, both here in Texas and back in Sussex County, there are two Truck Centers that are very reliable and who work nicely with the motorcoach community.

          That leaves me with trying to keep the other aspects of wear and tear under control. I just started looking around (and finding) the beginnings of rust underneath. Luckily for us, this coach has never seen a New Jersey winter complete with salted roads but that does not mean that our everyday driving in the rain does not eventually take its toll.

          It does.

          But armed with a wire wheel on my cordless drill and some good metal primer followed by some nice Rust-oleum type paint, I can keep up with this kind of stuff and treat it before it becomes an issue. Keep in mind that the chassis of this baby is built by Freightliner expressly for this type of use. Thankfully, this is the one area of build and design, that does not fall into the occasional use category. The chassis and its components are the exact same ones that they use when making any of their trucks. The Cummins diesel motor, coupled with the six-speed Allison transmission, are the same ones that are used commercially in a myriad of trucks and construction equipment.

          Phewf!

          So, with these aspects of the motorhome, I just need to make sure that the regular maintenance is performed. In this respect of the design envelope, we see a case where we will never exceed the use capabilities of the components because the components are the exact same ones used really full-time in the trucking industry.

          We live in this thing full-time; we do not drive it full time  😊

          I leave the oil changes up to the Truck Centers for a few reasons.   One is that it needs to be changed  only every 20, 000 miles. This interval is because the motor is not being used to haul dirt and rocks (which it can and does in a dump truck) and the oil pan holds 18 quarts of the good stuff, a nice reservoir as it were. I also like having someone with tons more knowledge than me poke around under there and look for anything that may be amiss and need some attention. I usually have a question or two for them to check. It’s well worth the added cost to have them scrutinize down below twice a year for our peace of mind.

          An oil change, or wet service as it’s called, complete with chassis lube and filters runs about $500.00. I’ve reconciled that number with my brain already, so I’m used to it by now.

          However, I do perform the oil change on the diesel generator. This is extremely simple and takes about 15 minutes, start to finish, and does not necessarily coincide with our every 20,000-mile engine spruce-up. With the amount of boondocking (Walmart parking lots, etc.) that we do, the generator gets used quite a bit. Hence the more frequent oil changes, about every 150 run-time hours or so.

          I’ve also done a few construction projects. One was done for the aforementioned not-deigned-for-full-timers, and the other to help keep the inside of the motor home cleaner.

          I built a set of steps that go over the ones that automatically extend when the door is opened. The steps are retractable and so they have hinges and levers that work nicely, but not full time! So, you can see by the accompanying photo that the new overlay used for when we are at home base, helps immensely.

          The other addition is our deck. This not only gives us a nice spot for a few chairs, but it also allows us a place to kick some dirt, leaves, and what-have-you, off of our shoes before we enter the motorhome.  It has helped with this dilemma nicely as we do not possess a “mud room” on board!

          One of the other things that we do around here are “Special Projects.” Danny and Kaitie are really good to us, and we don’t pay rent so we try and help out around here and construct additions that we think may be helpful or just nice to have.

          The latest is the Goat Mansion that Paula and I constructed for Chones (chowe-neez) and Abigail, complete with ramps and stairs for them to climb up to the roof. The part that they like best is that they each have their own bedroom because Chones used to kick Abigail out of their old, shared bedroom and this did not sit well with Abigail, especially since goats hate to get wet and she would have to stand outside in the rain.  ☹

          The current project involves getting water over to the corral permanently and installing a floodlight that will light up the corral, goat area, and the work area just outside the corral. A ditch was dug from the ‘She Shed’ where the utilities are and water and electric lines were run over to the fence corner where everything will be situated.

I need to stop now as it is getting light outside and I can hear some projects calling my name!

There is a dilemma brewing in the offices of the Great Circumnavigation of the Lower Forty-Eight Motorhome Voyage headquarters.

          Employing our already cheap attempt at some sort of legitimacy by using one of Shakespeare’s writings in our blog title, “Much ado about nothing” we will further this low-brow way of expressing ourselves by saying,

“To drive, or not to drive, That is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fuel prices,                                 Or to take arms against a sea of petroleum retailers,                          And by opposing them?  To stop, to  drive no more….

Well, with the current state of affairs in the world and its effects on the petroleum industry, this may, or may not be the time to embark on our terrestrial voyage.

          To better get a grasp of what this adventure may cost us, I whipped out my trusty Excel Spreadsheet so that I could fill in the blank little boxes with some numbers and the best part is that I could color code them to my hearts delight!

          I started with a Base.

          The Base is what it would have cost us using the Before Prices.

          In my mind, you can’t look at the New Total Cost when evaluating this sort of thing. You need to look at the difference between the New Total Cost minus the Base Cost because the only other option would be not going based on the original Before Cost and since we had already decided that we were going to do it, our final decision needed to be based on whether we would want to spend the additional dollars.

          Not the already-decided Original Dollars.

          Get it?

          Ok. Now I calculated the milage of each leg of our journey, arriving at a total of about 7500 miles. We get between 8 and 10 miles per gallon, so using the lower of these two numbers we will use about 950 gallons of diesel fuel.

          Then I went out in fifty-cent increments and calculated the cost (topping out at $7.00 per gallon) attempting to put a dollar number on our usage.

          It’s a lot!!!

          But not enough to dissuade two not-getting-any-younger-who-may-or-may-not-be-able-to-do-this-in-the-future people!

          The only difference for us is the price of fuel.

           Everything else stays the same for us.

           We are home!

           We can eat at home!

           We sleep at home!

          So, eager readers, have no fear, your vicarious travel companions will do their best to bring you to adventures un-experienced and locations yet-to-be-seen, hopefully without having to cut anything out because it got way too expensive!

          Maybe we should get a sponsor  😊

          For my last line in this contrived attempt at legitimate literature I will paraphrase Bill’s last line, the ending of the great Romeo and Juliet,

          “For never was a story of more woe than the dilemma of whether to stay or to go.”