Working On The Motorhome – Day 7

The motorhome is parked in Mary’s yard at her home at Murphys, California. I expect to be here until shortly after Thanksgiving cleaning and doing minor work on both the motorhome and Bronco. After our 682 day journey, they are both ready for some attention.

Yesterday was a cool 57 degrees and cloudy most of the day. Sunny skies return today with a high of 64. Then sunny through November 7th with temps in low 70’s to high 60’s.

Now that all my outside work is done on the motorhome and Bronco,  I’ve shifted my attention to the inside of the motorhome, meaning…interior cleaning.

Yesterday was clean the refrigerator day. The day after I arrived around four weeks ago we unloaded the items from the refrigerator brought them into Mary’s house. I then installed the supplied plastic clips on the doors to allow for air flow while the refrigerator is in the shut-off mode…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

The cleaning took about an hour. The refrigerator is a 6.3 cubic foot. This photo was taken before the cleaning was accomplished…

One more item to remove from my to do list.

Slowly but surely, I’m chipping away at my to do list. More cleaning today.

Since our accident about 1.5 years ago, I now suffer from diminished energy/stamina. I can now work only 2-3 hours a day before I get tired and have to quit. I know that these current Blog entries are not particularly exciting reading, but they do reflect the daily activities of a full-time RVer. Gotta stop and clean and work on the vehicles once in a while!

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

Mary Abhors Waste…

My sweet Mary is many things. One of the things she is…is a true environmentalist and she really hates to waste anything. Essentially not wanting to discard an item until it is totally used up.

I on the other hand…being an ex-engineer which means I’m logical…believe when something is nearing the end of its life…you replace it when it’s practical and convenient. For instance…I would much rather replace a coming-to-its-end-of-life item in the convenience of Mary’s yard instead of waiting for it to die when out on the open road with the RV.

So it was the case with the matter of replacing the TV in our motorhome. Even though our motorhome is a 2006…the TV was manufactured in 2004 which makes it seven years old. It’s showing signs of giving up the ghost with about a six-inch round spot of incorrect colors. My sweet Mary was resistant to the change indicating…”But it still works.”

Since our current plans have it structured that once I leave with the motorhome shortly after Thanksgiving…it…the motorhome is not expected to return to Mary’s yard once again until October, 2013. In other words…it will be out in the world for the next two years. Confident that if not changed now…the TV would quit within the next two years…out on the open road. Because changing TV’s will require some degree of modification to the TV’s holding cabinet…and since Mary’s youngest son just happens to be a carpenter…I indicated that it makes sense to change it now rather than out on the open road.

I finally won her over with the comment…”Do you drive on your cars tires until they blow-out before replacing them?” With that behind us…she finally agreed to the change while the motorhome is here. In addition…we’ve got a delightful six-channel surround-sound audio system and the current TV has that crummy picture. True we do not watch a lot of TV…but when we do…why not have a good picture and sound?

So…in my true ex-engineer way…I got on the Internet and spent several days researching new TV’s. I finally found the right one. An LG Led-Lcd 26″ flat panel set. We bought it at Best Buy in Stockton, California….about 60 miles from Mary’s home. Since her youngest son…the carpenter…lives only a couple of miles from Best Buy…he picked it up for us and delivered it to Mary’s home yesterday. Here’s a photo of the box…

Mary’s son…the carpenter…has obligations for the next few days and will return next Monday to help us with the install.

In other news…

I continue working on the motorhome. Up on the roof for the last time yesterday…I applied a covering of Protect-All to all the plastic items on the roof. It protects these items for the sun’s UV rays which in time causes them to disintegrate. Protect-all slows the process.

Also I received this strange-looking device in the mail…

“What’s that?”…you ask. Why it’s an RV Refrigerator Cooling Fan.

RV Refrigerators are not the normal refrigerators with which you might be familiar. They sometime struggle to maintain the recommended 33-40 degree temperature. Usually two things cause this struggle. First is when the outside temperature gets over 80 degrees and secondly when too full. Unfortunately…my Sweet Mary has a tendency to put ten pounds of stuff into a five-pound package. Remember thou shall not waste? Wouldn’t want to waste any of that storage space!  🙂

When an RV refrigerator is too full…the air cannot circulate and here comes the struggle. This silent fan rests directly upon the cooling fins in our refrigerator which is supposed to help circulate the air in the RV refrigerator and hence help maintain the recommended temperatures. At least that’s the theory. For a measly $15…it’s worth the effort to install it to see if it will work. Here’s a photo of it in the refrigerator…

Hooked to the hot wire of the refrigerator light…it draws very little power and runs even when the door is closed. Will it help? Only time will tell.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust