Texas!!!! but where?

We left Joplin this morning in pretty good spirits.  As the morning shaped up we traveled on 69 south through Oklahoma and got a real treat with some of the views.  As we got closer to our "scheduled" stop we decided to press on a little further. Lo and behold a few minutes later we crossed into Texas.  Toie got a great pic of the welcome to Texas sign on 69/75 South.  I'll let her post that on her own.  The RV ran great today with no issues,  I plan on making a more complete posting of our trip once we are stopped for more than just an overnite.

Have a GREAT DAY!!  (And try to stay cool)

(btw. Just North of Waco)

Pulling Out

We received our drivers licenses today and guess what?  We are finally leaving on Monday.  Everything over the last few months has led up to this moment, and I have to admit I have a slight case of the jitters.  Yesterday I finished securing the generator to rear deck and tomorrow I will pull the Wilson Cell Booster antenna down and stow it on the roof and then put the kayaks up there on Monday right before we leave.  I don't expect to be on the road before 10am with all the last minute preparations and re-fueling the RV.  Our goal is to make it to Sullivan Missouri the first day and Miami Oklahoma the second.  I really only want to drive about 250 miles a day and I figure 5 hours a day is enough, we really don't want to be in a hurry. 

I really can't believe that the day of our departure is finally here.  We can't wait to get south and start our new life adventure.

Generators and stuff

There is just something about an older onan generator that gets the blood a pumping. I don't know if its the green color or the sound of a 2 cylinder horizontally opposed motor that does it, but there is just something about it.  After having a few days to play around with the 4.0BF-3CR and kind of getting to know it, I am very satisfied with it. The bottom plate is missing and I have to find the rubber mounts for it but all the important stuff is there. 

A buddy and I tried to get it to start yesterday without any luck.  Luckily I found a resource on the inter webs for manuals and a message forum full of knowledgeable members.  I have got the manuals and troubleshooting guides at my fingertips and its only a matter of time before I get her running again. 

There are a few things that really drew me to this particular generator. First being that it does not require an external starter, the generator is the starter. Second is the simplicity of design, the ignition system is simple to diagnose and fix. Third, its rated for continuous duty, once I get it running properly, I can run it for days without worry. Most "backup" generators built today are rated for occasional use.

This is going to give me something to mess with once we are in Texas to pass the time and I can't wait to get it fixed up the way I want.  I will be posting pictures of the progress.

Have a Great Day!

Blogging

It's a funny thing, it sometimes is really difficult to come up with subject matter that a reader may find interesting.  Over the last few days I have re-coated the roof, our grandson visited for a few days and gone kayaking. 

The re-coat of the roof went pretty smoothly for the most part.  I used a product called Henry's Roof Coatings #287 and so far I am pleased with the results.  I saved a little so that I can do a little spot repair after we take the kayaks off the roof.  Not that I've put them up there yet, I'm waiting until we are ready to move the RV to put them up there.  Application is pretty easy, you can just roll it on and it's white so it reflects quite a bit of solar energy.  Which is much better than the black roofing tar that had been used previously to repair problems areas in the past.  While I was applying the coating I decided to remove the old non functioning TV antenna that no longer could be cranked up and down or rotated properly. The cradle it sat in will be used to hold the mast of our cell booster while the RV is under way.  I don't want to make our height requirements much higher than they already are. 

Our grandson's visit went well. Luckily its easy to entertain an almost 3 year old child and he has a real sweet disposition for his grandma.  The dog really enjoys these visits as well because he scores quite a bit of goodies.  We can always tell when he is sneaking stuff to the dog because he giggles when Moe takes it.

Kayaking today was absolutely wonderful. I haven't been able to do it since my hernia surgery and it felt great.  My left elbow started getting pretty sore after a bit, I think I may be developing a little arthritis there.  We paddled between 6 and 7 miles round trip on a place called Burris Ditch on Lake Odessa.  Its really shallow in that area right now so we didn't have to worry about the power boaters. At times we were in no more than 6 - 7 inches of water.  At one point I was screwing around paddling backwards and flipped my kayak.  As soon as I overbalanced I knew it and said to myself "well that was dumb". Luckily the water was only about 3 feet deep and I got it righted before I lost anything out of it. After bailing for awhile we moved myself and the kayak closer to shore so we could empty it of water and hand off some of the cargo I was carrying for our picnic lunch.  I can tell you that a half filled kayak is no fun to maneuver.   After a nice lunch we paddled back to the vehicles. If you have never tried it I highly recommend it.