Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Port “A” from my window. . .

This Great Blue Heron has come to the same spot on the dunes near us every day that we’ve been in at Gulf Waters RV Resort.  Wonder if he is as grouchy as he looks?DSCN7585

Yesterday this one flew in and stayed awhile, never getting close to the big guy—another Great Blue or maybe a Grey Heron?DSCN7589

GET & Dulee enjoying a little sun.DSCN7580

In general Dulee is a slug but in this stance he looks like a real guard dog!  (A few minutes later he was curled up inside on the back of the sofa.)DSCN7581

Ever since we hosted at Island RV Resort during the winter season of 1998-99 Port “A” has had a special place in our hearts.  We regularly stop during our travels.  I accidently got this shot a the Wetlands Birding Center during our 2005 stop.HPIM2000 egrets cropped

Port “A”----another of our many very favorite places in the U.S.A.  Another reason we continue this lifestyle!

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Filling a gaping hole. . .

Opened the door after a great day touring the Bush (#43) Presidential Library to be greeted by the refrigerator’s beeping sound.  “Uh oh, we left one of the refrigerator doors open.”  Opened and closed the door:  the beeping didn’t stop!  Let’s try this again…nope beeping, beeping, beeping so turned it off completely and called Barry from Running Bear RV Service.  We’d become fast friends with Barry since arriving in Northlake, Texas; first he fixed the large “kitchen” slide out and then the landing legs but I’ll skip this long story and share the refrigerator saga.

So sad, because from all outward and inside appearances it is in perfect condition.DSCN7471

First Barry did the same magnet fix that Rick in Ventura had done earlier in the year.  Yeah, the refrigerator started working so Barry went on his merry way.  A couple minutes later I detected a strong ammonia smell, an indication that the whole cooling unit was gone.  This is serious!  We have options, albeit all pretty much involving a serious expenditure of money:  1)replace the cooling unit ($1,500 give or take), 2)replace the refrigerator with another RV style refrigerator (about $3,000,) and 3)replace refrigerator with residential type (cost unknown depending on the refrigerator.)  We quickly eliminated option #2---$3,000 is just too too much!  We decide to go the new cooling unit route after checking the cost of a new counter depth frig, the only size which will fit into the limited space.  RVers know that exact size is more often more important than cost and style when buying for a RV home.  “Ok, Barry let’s go with replacing the cooling unit.”

Even though we feel that it is a total waste of time we stop in to check the Sears Outlet near the movie theater where we went to see “Unbroken.”   What are the odds that there will be a refrigerator which fits in the 35” wide by 27” deep by maximum 68” tall opening…at a decent price?  Not going to happen but there it is! And it has been marked down another time not shown on this tag! (GET ripped off the final sale price.)  It is a discontinued model (who cares what year your refrigerator is?) and has a small dent on the door (“we’ll cover it with a magnet”) but the savings are enough to make us almost cheer!

Hot buy? You bet it’s a HOT BUY! “Barry, cancel option #1!”

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Old refrigerator leaving.DSCN7480

A little collateral damage.  The glass in the china cabinet gets broken taking the old unit out (I’ve been wanting to replace it with opaque glass so I’m sort of happy. . .shhh, don’t tell GET.)

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Gaping hole in our home-ouch!DSCN7481

Ah, the Frigidaire Gallery fits after trimming off about 1” of side molding and the gaping hole is filled,   Note the  Uff Da” magnet covering the little dent?  We are not boondockers so we are still deciding whether or not to buy an invertor or a generator to power the refrigerator on the rare occasion that we have no electric power.  Most likely an inverter.

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We retrieve our food from Kelle & Joe’s freezer and unpack the ice chest—yeah!

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So far I have found two baskets to utilize the 5” space on top.  Still looking for a narrow basket to fill the space between.  (Remember the “exact size is a more often more important than cost and style”  I mentioned earlier? Forgot this rule and came home with two perfect baskets that were 1” too tall-back to Michael’s!)DSCN7573

Oh dear, I lost the wonderful drawer under the RV refrigerator! Have to figure out where my “Tupperware” is going to call home.DSCN7474

This turned out to be a domino effect project:  moved the canned goods to have a place for the Tupperware drawer, moved the linens to make space for the canned goods, moved some of my crafts to make space for the linens and on and on and on!  Almost worse than moving!

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Let’s see now, landing legs are working,  kitchen slide out is moving in and out and we once again have a refrigerator.  What is next?  This is like living in a house. . .except we can move when we want to!

Exactly why we love full time RVing!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

BRRRR...

What better thing to have on a cold, rainy, blustery day in Galveston, Texas than to have a delicious cold frozen custard? 

We didn't know there was such a treat until we tried it a few years ago in Branson,  MO and were hooked!

A COLD DAY AND A COLD TREAT!

(Written and published from my new Samsung Galaxy S5)

Monday, January 05, 2015

Our Christmas tree travelled just fine…

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I traditionally take my Christmas decorations down while GET watches football ALL DAY (AND ALL EVENING) on New Year’s Day.  (An aside:  New Year’s Day is the day that I usually feel like kicking the TV in after SO much football on TV!) So last week when we left Kelle and Joe’s to travel to Galveston I wasn’t quite ready and decided to see how it would travel while still “dressed up.”

Gary’s garage and Betty’s Diner and the little Hallmark train rode up on the bed.  I don’t collect Christmas village scenes but a few years ago Don & Lee saw Betty’s Diner in a thrift store and couldn’t resist buying it for me.  Then, a couple of years ago we spotted Gary’s Service Station in a craft store and Gary just had to have to go with the diner!  They take quite a lot of space in my Christmas bin but worth the sacrifice of space.20141219_082814

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After the recliner was tucked into its travel position I covered it with a beach towel and carefully moved the 2’ tree, complete with decorations, over and settled it back into the chair.

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Next, had to make sure it would be secure so carefully covered it with another beach towel and then tied a strap rather tightly over the top.  (The back of a RV tends to be greatly affected by road bumps.)

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After our seven hour travel day I gingerly untied the strap, removed the covering towel and placed the tree back on the credenza.  Voila!  It traveled almost perfectly. . .the white topper angel was lying in the branches and a couple of the little red and silver ball ornaments fell off but all in all a success!  I’ll definitely do this again.

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2015

Happy New Year from the road!