Refrigerators - TV Antenna Repair - Coloma Chicken Chew - Photos From Our Adventures

June 21, 2017



Our refrigerator problems appear to be over. Since defrosting it thoroughly the temperatures have returned to normal levels. The freezer is maintaining at -1* and the refrigerator is at 39*. Whew, I thought we would have to spend more money. We dodged a bullet.

I also received the parts I needed to repair our TV antenna after the low telephone line incident. It works great now.

Martha has been looking on line for fun things to do here in the area. So far she has found a festival called the "Coloma Chicken Chew," Dairy State Cheese Company cheese factory tours, local bars like Good Ol' Boys Tavern and Grill  with live music on the weekends and of course there is Bingo...(not doing the latter).

The Chicken Chew thingy sounds like a small town letting it's hair down big time with lots to do. We are planning on attending.

Yesterday we went to a nearby state park, Hartman Creek State Park, near Waupaca, Wisconsin for a little hiking. It was a beautiful place with wind whispering through a stand of large pine trees. The air was aromatic with the scent of pine. It was a very therapeutic place to walk.

Jake and I decided to make a selfie

The farm fields here go on forever

 The park had a restored cabin, it was all original and the inside was in remarkable condition. It was locked the day we stopped at the park

Lake Allen

 The

Whispering Pines - Very peaceful 

The couple that was fishing here said they were catching small perch and bluegill. The water was crystal clear.

Martha had to get here feet wet here

More as our trip to Wisconsin progresses

Starting our Wisconsin Adventure

So yesterday we started our Wisconsin adventure.  We drove from Prairie du Chien to Hancock KOA over state highways.

The scenery was beautiful, and most of the towns we went through were clean and fresh looking.  The roads were bumpy, and curvy, and a few were narrow too.  Plus the wind was blowing again.  So, our 3 hours of driving was quite an adventure.  No major mishaps....although Chuck almost ran over a car that he didn't see enter a traffic circle from his left.  The brakes work!

Today we are settling into our home for the month.


It's cool and breezy this morning, and we've had a few rain sprinkles.  I did manage coffee on the "veranda" and am now sitting in the camper, windows open, watching them mow the grass in the campground.  There are 74 campsites and only about 5 are occupied today, but they tell me the people roll in on the weekend.  There is a lovely swimming pool I hope to spend a bit of time in.   But I am waiting until it warms up past 70 degrees outside.  Everything here at the campground is beautifully flat, which makes walking easy for my stiff ankles and knees.  Jake and I took a good long walk yesterday and I think I will try to make it a daily occurrence.

I balanced the checkbook for the first time since about May 25 yesterday.  The good news is we still have money in the bank.  Bad news is we're going to have to be pretty frugal for the next 2 weeks until the paychecks arrive.  But...we went to 5 places in 15 days, celebrated our anniversary, fixed a few RV - related things and had to buy a few things to get us on the road.  So, I expect that with a little pre-planning, we should easily be able to fit within our budget for the future.  Staying in one place for a month will help.  No fuel for the RV needed, and you get a good price break as well, so we can stay in a place with level pads, amenities like swimming pools, and full hookups for the same per night cost of an electric only state park.

After we got here yesterday, we were starving, so we went to a local bar and grill less than a mile from here.   The Good Ol' Boys Bar and Grill didn't disappoint.  I had a prime rib sandwich and fries and Chuck got a 4-pc broasted chicken dinner.  We met a few locals and chatted with the bartender/cook.  We were invited back for their Thursday night bingo and their Friday night fish fry.

Then we took a drive up the road a bit to Plainfield to the nearest grocery store to get a few ingredients for dinner and to stock up on beer and whiskey.  Their prices weren't that bad for a small town grocery.  Except for the whiskey.  The bottle that cost $18 in Arkansas and $22 in Iowa was $28 here.  I may have to learn to like beer more.

Came home to the camper and started looking to see what we can do close to home this week.  We found out that there is a celebration next weekend in Coloma (10 miles from here) called the Coloma Chicken Chew.  Apparently, it is not to be missed.  They have fireworks on Saturday, a parade on Sunday, and a big chicken dinner somewhere in the middle of softball tournaments, pickle ball tournaments, horseshoe tournaments and a bunch of other activities.  So we know where we'll be going next weekend.  There is also a "Dairy Breakfast" in Hancock on Sunday with pancakes, maple syrup, honey, ham, hash browns, cheese, milk, coffee, cranberry juice, ice cream and strawberries for $6 a person.  We may have to make that, even though we can't eat everything on the list.

We are also a short distance from a few lakes with parks and beaches.  So, we have a few places to explore close by this week.  Next week, we'll look farther afield.  I'm compiling a list of places my ancestors lived in the area and will probably make a trip or two down to Green Lake County next week.

Today Was A Travel Day - Carroll, Iowa to Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin - A Broken Refrigerator/Freezer?

Today was a travel day. We packed up at Swan Lake State Park, Carroll, Iowa Swan Lake State Park in Carroll, Iowa and headed toward the KOA in Hancock, Wisconsin.  We are currently boondocking in the Walmart parking lot in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin.

Once in Hancock we will be visiting The House on the Rock, The Dells, Oconto, Wisconsin to visit family friends and Martha will be doing some genealogy research in the area.

We are looking forward to our first full months stay. We have been doing two nights here, four nights there, etc. It will be nice to have a home base and be able to move around and do things but be able to come "home" at night. After all, home is where we park it.

As the heading says, we might have a broken freezer. It will not cool down past 29* (which I believe to be a "default" readout).  This condition occurred while defrosting the refrigerator. Instead of reading the manual as I should have, I reasoned that if I shut off the refrigerator to thaw it and then turn it back on that all would be good. I later found out (after reading the manual) that there is a heating element that actually does the defrosting. In any case I cannot regain a normal reading either in the freezer or the refrigerator. The latter does drop down to 39* so all is not lost, the beer is still cold.

Martha was snapping away as we meandered through the Iowa corn and soybean fields. So here are some of her photos.

     Bison at Swan Lake State Park

Iowa Corn and Soybeans as far as you can see

Manchester, Iowa

Exiting Stuff - More Corn

 More to follow. We will be at our destination of Hancock, Wisconsin in the afternoon sometime. 275 miles for the day.

Oh, and a update on our refrigerator and freezer. We defrosted thoroughly upon arriving in Prairie Du Chien. Temps are falling inside the fridge and freezer, The morning will tell the tale.


Keep on, keepin on.

Dreaming of Iowa - More Repairs To Do

G'morning all,

Dreams

We've been in Iowa for a few days now and it the same as it always was. The people are nice to a fault, they are polite even in traffic and they'll absolutely bend over backwards to help you.  If the winters weren't so cold I caught myself thinking that I wouldn't have minded staying here so many years ago. About that time I woke up......

Wow was that a good dream or a bad one?   Kidding aside, I like Iowa but only in the summer.

Air Conditioning Shroud Replacement

Our replacement air conditioning shroud arrived at my sister-in-laws yesterday so I will be replacing it before we leave Swan Lake. It isn't a big or hard job, just a pain where I sit.

TV Antenna Repairs

When we pulled into Swan Lake I noticed that my antenna would not deploy. I went up on the roof to see what was going on and it seems that the same telephone line that messed up our air conditioning shroud also tore up our antenna. It is a Braude branded antenna and from what I have been able to discern they are out of business. I am likely going to have to jury rig a repair or bite the bullet and buy a new antenna assembly. I guess I will find out soon.

Relaxing? 

No, so far our trip hasn't proven relaxing. We wanted to insure that we saw all of our family before we started touring in earnest. We've been lucky enough to see my brother and his wife, Martha's two sisters and their families and my two sons in St. Louis and their families. This all came with a trade off of moving every two days or so.  We did manage to shed the weight of some heirloom dishes in the process.

Moving comes with packing and unpacking items (mostly kitchen stuff) each time we move. We are starting to perfect that bit, though we are looking forward to our next move which will take us to Wisconsin and a month in one place.

That's all for now, more later.  Keep on, keepin' on.

Playing Tourist in My Old Home Town

Today, Chuck got a massage.  Which meant I had a couple of hours to myself to wander around Jefferson, Iowa.  We were there visiting my sister, but it was our home town for about 5 years back in the 90's.  I spent about 30 minutes driving around, and then (once the rain stopped) got out of my car and went walking around the square.  The town is interesting.  It's very much the same as it was 20 years ago.  Even some of the businesses have the same names and the same owners.  But it seems more modern and progressive than it did back then.  They are restoring the downtown area and there are a lot of neat additions. After Chuck's massage with Heidi at Body Masters (she is a good therapist, by the way) we had lunch at the Peony Chinese Restaurant, that has been there since at least 1998.  Still great Chinese food.  After that, we headed south to visit my other sister in Ankeny.  I realized that I remembered the drive down to the Des Moines area more than I remembered living in the town of Jefferson.  We spent a lot of days off driving that road to visit relatives or do shopping.


I took a bunch of amazing photos today of the town square, the courthouse, the new Thomas Jefferson Gardens, and Sally's Alley....an alley through downtown with amazing bird photos...I even paid $3 to go up to the top of the Mahaney Bell Tower and get amazing photos of the area all around Jefferson.  They even have businesses painting on their roofs so that it can be seen from the top of the tower.  Sadly, I managed to delete them before I got them saved in dropbox...so here's all I have to show you:  The "Freedom Rock" at the trailhead in Jefferson.

11 Things I Have Learned by Living in Campgrounds

1.  People with digital antenna TV miss at least 50% of the programming because it cuts in and out.
2.  The more you like the program, the more it will cut in and out.
3.  Campground designers never tried to drive a 40 foot RV around a small space.  Either that or they were all sadists.
4.  Just because it says free wifi, doesn't mean you'll actually get access to the internet.
5.  30 Amp service is typical in state parks and other public campgrounds.  This means you can't run the pancake griddle and the exhaust fan at the same time.
6.  Campfires are more fun to watch than TV, anyway.
7.  Showering at night seems to work better, since we smell like campfire smoke.
8.  We can go 2 days without emptying the gray water tanks, if we don't take real showers (i.e. turn the water off after getting wet and only turn it back on to rinse.)
9.  Take your time setting up and getting ready to leave.  A minor mistake can make a major problem.
10.  It's always good to check and see what day it is when you get up in the morning.  In only 12 days, I'm already finding myself off by a few days...
11.  Use the amenities...hike the trails, swim in the pool, put your feet in the lake...that's why you're here...to experience where you are!

Martha

A message to my friends

Hi.  This is Martha.

I haven't written a blog post yet, but I'm actually an author on this blog, so I can...and I get to write post number 100!  I'll be poking my nose in once in a while to say hey and give some of my perspective.

This post is for my friends, especially Lynn and Marie, who I gave this blog to so they could follow our progress...

Despite what my dear husband has posted, we have done a few things besides fix the RV.  We had a lovely visit with my brother-in-law and his wife...went wine tasting in Herrmann, Mo.  We took a short trip to St. Louis to have dinner with my husband's sons and two of the three grandkids.  The oldest granddaughter had her wisdom teeth pulled, so she and her mom stayed home.

We had planned to just kick back and relax this weekend, but between Chuck's repairs and the mid-90's temperatures, we ended up not doing much outdoors.  We did drive into town to get parts and a few groceries.  We managed to get one good picture!

I also my desk sorted out and organized, so I might be able to find something in it now.

I can't believe it's only been 2 weeks since I did my last massage.  For the first time in 11 years, I'm letting my fingernails grow.  It feels strange, to be honest.  We didn't have room to bring a massage table, so I'm not even working on Chuck now.  I had to book him a massage with someone else.  THAT feels weird!

We're going to Iowa tomorrow, to see family.  We booked a campground in Iowa again in August because we've decided to go to the Iowa State Fair!  So we're going to do a little back and forth as we go along.

After Iowa, we'll be in Wisconsin, and we'll be staying in one place and just sightseeing by car.  I'm definitely looking forward to having a home base for a little while.  Packing it all up and moving is fun, but it gets tiring to do it every few days.

Thousand Hills State Park - Near Kirksville, Missouri - Telephone Lines And Quirky Repairs

After leaving Lost Valley Lake RV Resort we headed toward Carroll and Jefferson Iowa.  We drove half way yesterday (June 10th) to Thousand Hills State Park near Kirksville, Mo.

When we arrived we tried to locate our campsite which was in "Camping Loop #1."  I motored past that turn and I decided to turn around by going into camping loop 2 and coming back out.  Upon entering the Camping Loop 2  I must have hit an overhead telephone line with my satellite dome (we heard nothing). This in turn must have whipped the line up and down and on one of the down cycles the telephone line got under my rear air conditioner shroud and ripped it from the coach and smashing it into 10 pieces.

This was an "aw sh_t!" moment for sure. Now I have no cover on the A/C, it's Saturday afternoon, no RV dealers in Kirksville or the surrounding areas.  Having no option I decided to preform surgery on the shroud by drilling 300 holes and installing 150 wire ties around all of the cracked and dislocated pieces. In the photo below you can see some of the wire ties. After stitching the shroud back together I applied "100 mph tape" inside and out over the cracked and stitched shroud.  I then added four more fasteners to the shroud when I put it back on the air conditioning unit. I'm hoping this will get us to my wife's sister place in Jefferson, Iowa (180 miles from here).

In the mean time I relied on Amazon to have the correct shroud and of course they did. It is being shipped to my wife's sister's address in Jefferson, Iowa on two day "Prime" delivery.

I worried and vexed when we loaded the "Beast" as to whether I was carrying too many tools. The answer to that concern is no, I had what I needed to make a quirky repair. And that is a good thing in my book.

This park is really a nice one.  But as is the practice of most state parks, there is no sewer or water and the electric service is only 30 Amps. There are hose bibs available to fill your water tanks but they are far and few between.  The park features numerous trails, a marina with boat and pontoon rentals and Native American petroglyph's to see.

 If you have a boat you can ski and tube here and the lake is stocked with small-mouth bass. Since I have handicap status our site cost us $25.25 nightly. The shower house is very nice and very clean too. 

That's all for tonight, I will post again when we get to Iowa and our next RV park. Keep on, keepin on.

Charlie,

Grey Water Valve Seal Problems Again - Maintenance List Whittled down

Grey Water Valve Repair

Didn't you read about that back in April?  Yes you did.  And yes, I replaced the whole valve assembly but it was leaking past the gate valve again. So, being in the location we are the park has it's own RVIA certified RV maintenance staff.  $60 an hour plus parts and tax for any item you need fixed. I had them do the work and my out of pocket was $35. Pretty great deal.

Yesterday I spent about five hours doing various repairs to the "Beast." I was/am still tired and beat up from those endeavors. So, I figured that it would take a half hour to an hour to replace or repair this valve and made the decision to call Lost Valley Lake's maintenance staff to do this repair because I hate working on those valves anyway.

They showed up early this morning to do the repair. On inspection one of the seals had been slightly crimped when I installed it. They replaced it and it seems to be holding now. Time will tell. For $30 plus tax it was an easy decision.

Headlamp Replacement

When we pulled into our spot here at Lost Valley Lake, Martha saw that our left headlamp was burned out. I got replacements yesterday in Owensville. Since the backside of the lamps were so accessible I figured that it would be a matter of loosening the old bulb from the assembly and putting the new bulb back in. Sounds easy peasy right? I decided based on this to replace both bulbs.

The passenger side bulb was a piece of cake. However, the driver side bulb is in front of literally 24 different wiring harnesses which are all very stiff and wire tied together. When I twisted the bulb from its mount and then went to ease out the old bulb on it's harness the ground wire on the bulb harness broke off down inside the harness fastener.  Damn!

So, this necessitated removal of the headlight assembly in it's entirety to do an effective repair. This is when I discovered the joys of getting fiberglass fibers embedded in my arm and hand. I must have had fifty of those little bastards stuck in me all of which needed tweezers to remove them.

Once the assembly was out of the housing I soldered on a new wire (longer) wire to the inside of the harness plug and reversed the process, putting the assembly back into the "Beast." Everything lighting wise is now working.

Battery Maintenance

Before we left Bennett Springs State Park I checked and topped off my batteries with distilled water. It had been more than six months since I had done this because the RV was in storage. I was worried that I hadn't been diligent enough and the electrolyte levels would be too low. I was pleased when I found the levels above the battery plates, so all I did was top them off. I will endeavor to do better in the future.

TV Relocation Project

Early on when we first bought this coach we decided that we wanted better seating and a better position for the TV for viewing. We both hate the overhead TV and eventually will remove it and have a replacement cabinet made to rid us of the head banger cabinet.

To this end we relocated our TV from our Stix n Brix home to the RV on the Kitchen slide. It is mounted temporarily on a cheap stationary mount to protect it. I still need to run the power for it.

Once the wiring is completed we will be ordering a "TV Lift." The lift raises and lowers the TV to conceal it when not in use.  It will lower the TV to the position you see above and will raise it to window height. The idea is to have the TV where we want it and be able to conceal it when not in use so that the window behind it is usable when we are not watching TV.

 In addition we will be ordering a TV cabinet to fit in between the kitchen cabinets and the little wing table you see on the left. After installing the cabinet I will wire in a blue ray player. This will allow us more storage and will eliminate the need for the overhead TV. Eventually we will take the overhead TV out and have a cabinet made to match the existing overhead cabinets.

This configuration is and was operational for casting video to it from our phones using an MS Display Adapter and using Netflix downloadable movies and TV series. However we still had to break our necks to see the old overhead TV for local channels.

When we got to Lost Valley Lake I decided to start the installation of power and TV coaxial cable for this TV and its ultimate end use.  The first hurdle was to get coax to the TV's position.

At the curbside rear of our coach we have a basement bay that was set up to be a external TV bay. Power and coaxial connections are already there. I simply used the coaxial connection to attach my coax and routed it forward to the kitchen slide. Power will be ran to that position next.

Just a heads up, we have moved to Thousand Hills S.P. in Kirksville, Mo. for the next two days. From here we go to Jefferson, Iowa and Spring Lake County Park.

Checked Fluid Levels On Our Generator

I am guilty of neglecting our generator. So, I checked it and all fluids were as they were supposed to be.

That's all for this installment of our blog.

Keep on, keepin on.

Lost Valley Lake RV Resort - Owensville, Mo.

Hello all,

Martha and I are now at Lost Valley RV Resort. My brother invited us to stay here as they are members. The park offers a lot of amenities such as two aquatic centers, hot tubs, boat rental, a spa and horseback riding.  It is a nice concept but the infrastructure is need of updating and the park roads are horrible.  My 40' rig hasn't been level since we got here because of the slope of the RV pad.  I have six blocks under the drivers side front jack and still cannot take the coach high enough to get it quite level. On the plus side we have FHU's with 50 amps. 

Nice and level eh? The vacant lot is the one they tried to put us in.  The one we're actually in isn't much better.

It is really great to spend time with my brother. It has been far too long since we've been able to sit down and just talk. I am loving it.

Yesterday we took Ken and Ann on a wine tour in Herman, Missouri. We had a good time. 

Endless Summer Winery - Herman, Missouri

The Lakes here are really pretty. With all the rain we've had this spring everything is so green that the lakes really stand out.

We will be heading to the Jefferson, Iowa area on the 10th to deliver some family heirlooms that we have been carrying with us since departure. I think we are going to stay in a county park called Spring Lake County Park, Jefferson, Iowa assuming there is availability. It is a first come, first serve park. 

More later.

Bennett Springs State Park, Missouri - Here Until Tomorrow

Good morning all,

We moved from Downstream Casino RV Park to Bennett Springs State Park yesterday. We took the long way and turned a two our drive into a four hour drive. Our motor coach was acting a little strange yesterday on the road. All of my tires are fully aired to 110#'s each yet handling was a bit wonky.  In fairness the roads were narrow and full of dips and lots of tight turns. We think it is a load distribution problem so when we got to Bennett Springs the first thing we did was empty the basement completely and then we distributed the weight more evenly. We will need to be weighed to see how we did.  This is something that I have been wanting to do for quite sometime anyway.

This campground was fully packed yesterday. This morning we awoke to a nearly empty campground. What's puzzling is that the travel trailer next to us had nine, yes, nine kids with them all of which were hooping and hollering loudly last night and we heard zero noise or slamming around. Kudos to them. 

It rained for quite a while early this morning so I am guessing that most of the campers here wanted to get home and get things dried out. I am also thinking that the couple with nine kids wanted them to stay clean and free of mud. The park is really quiet now which is beautiful. We now have managed to see the worst in 

There are some kids playing at the playground. I am guessing Mom n Dad aren't watching this little one.

Today the plan is to go down to the trout hatchery, take a short hike and continue our quest to rest and get over the last two weeks of packing and getting ready for full time living.  We aren't exactly in a hurry to do anything right now.

We went for a drive today and to the source of the Niangua River which is Bennett Springs. This is truly a beautiful place to be. The spring has a daily output of over 100 million gallons of cold water a day. That's a lot of water.

Bennett Springs - The source of the Niangua River

The trout hatchery pump house

Full Time At Last - We're Just Two Hours From NW Arkansas but We're Finally Full timing.

Yesterday we shed ourselves of our stix and brix. We've finally gone full time, that's right, we are living in our RV now.

It took a lot of time, soul searching and perseverance to get here but none the less, we've arrived.  The coach is running well. All systems seem to be functioning properly and we're glad of that.  So, what does it feel like to be shed of  lease, water, sewer, gas, electric, cable and big cable business internet bills? It feels pretty damn good actually.  We have a proposed budget for our travels and I think with Martha retiring we are still going to be in good shape.

We spent our time during the Garage Sale camping in our coach at night.  We it had at Rocky Branch Corp of Engineers Campground.  I highly recommend STAYING AWAY from this park. It has only 15 amp electric available. PERIOD.  Additionally, there is only one dumpster and one shower house in the park and it's a mile from the campground. It also ill kept. It is evident that the parks administration hasn't done a damn thing to maintain ANYTHING in this park. There are a lot of dead pine trees in the park presumably from the pine beetle blight a couple of years back. These trees are rotten and many of them were directly adjacent to our coach.  We had two significant thunderstorms during our stay and I was worried that one or more of these trees would fall on us.

We were in site 43 which was a real challenge to get a forty foot coach into.

Our move from Rocky Branch yesterday signified the start of "full time" status for us. Let the adventure begin.

We are now near Joplin, Missouri at the Downstream Casino which is owned and operated by the Quapaw Indians.  The casino is very nice and well ventilated so the gaming floor isn't fogged up by cigarette smoke. The RV park is a giant concrete slab with power pedestals and water spigots. No sewer at the site but there is a dump station in the park. Notice in the picture below there is a third chair. The chair nearest the door is for our 14 year old Dachshund, Jake. He isn't happy until his feet are off the ground so he can survey his kingdom. 

Yesterday was our 26th wedding anniversary so we celebrated by splurging and eating at the casinos "Red Oak Steak House." Wow, was it outstanding. It was one of those meals that one will inevitably end up comparing all of your other steak house experiences against. It was just outstanding.

After dinner we headed back to our house on wheels and had an extended happy hour. Life is good.

If you already know you like RV life and have the urge to "someday" go full time, just do it!  It was a long time coming for us but we're here and we're loving it.

Keep on, keepin on.