Irene and I left beautiful Mardon Estate in Mission, TX on Wednesday, April 8th. It was a 2 day drive to Tucson and our visit with baby Bela and her parents. We had a wonderful time with her. She is one of the smilingest kids you would ever meet. It's always great to see your children "walking in the truth." Joshua preaches at the Old Spanish Trail church of Christ in Tucson. He does a great job.
We were in Tucson until Saturday the 18th. It was an easy 5 hour drive over to Copper Basin Bible Camp in Prescott where we would be involved in a physical sojourn doing mainly painting to get the Camp ready for its summer Camp sessions.
We left Voyager RV Resort (highly recommended if you are an RVer and need a place to stay in Tucson) at about 9:00 AM. Even stopping along the way for lunch we would get there by 3:00 PM easy-peasy. We were not quite to Phoenix when Greg Ryznar called and asked what time we were going to be arriving. I kind of jokingly asked "Is there a spot for us?" He replied "Yep, I got one saved for you guys right beside us." "Cool, sounds great" I replied.
Then about an hour later Del Ray, the team leader for the sojourn called us when we were already north of Phoenix.
"Hi, this is Del Ray. Are you guys on your way here already?"
"Yep, we are already north of Phoenix and should be there in about 1 1/2 hours."
"Well, here's the thing: I don't think I have a spot for you."
SAY, WHAT???????????????????????
"Really? We just spoke to Greg Ryznar about an hour ago and he said he had a spot for us right beside him."
"REALLY!" he replied. "Well, let me talk with him and we'll get back with you."
(I guess here is where you should be told that when a location asks for a sojourn the application asks SPECIFICALLY "How many RVs do they have room for?" Then THAT is the number of lines that are put on the request form for the sojourners to sign up on. The sojourn is "FULL" when that many Sojourners have signed up for that sojourn. So, theoretically, it should be impossible to ever hear: "I'm not sure I have a spot for you.")
About a half-hour later Greg called us back. "Yep, there's a spot right beside us. I do need to tell you though that there is a wash you'll need to go through with about an inch of water in it."
SAY, WHAT???????????????????????
The Trekker weighs 45,000 lbs (as in 22 1/2 TONS). What you talkin' 'bout a "wash with 1inch of water in in?" The LAST THING you want to do is sink 22 1/2 tons of RV up to the axles in mud or sand. The hairs on our neck stood up.
The next thing Greg told us was "We are going to put some boards in it to raise it up so you can get across it without dragging. There's a bank you have to go down into the wash and last year even in our 40 footer we drug the rear hitch going through it."
SAY, WHAT???????????????????????
The Trekker is 45 feet long. As in 5 feet LONGER then your 40 foot rig. If you dragged as you went through it we could get our rear end ripped off, destroyed or we could get stuck so our front end would be in the bank on one side and our rear end (which extends 8 feet PAST our rear tires) stuck into the dirt and all 8 wheels spinning in the air. YIKES!
So, Irene and I decided we should drive to the Walmart in Prescott; drop the Ford Flex; leave the Trekker at the Walmart and drive the Flex the 8 miles to the camp and take a look at the situation ourselves.
When we arrived we were, what's the proper word: shocked, NO, aghast, NO. Heck I don't even know what to call it.
The wash with 1" of water in it was the LEAST of the worries. The "wash" had concrete poured in it and could have easily handled the weight of the Trekker. The slope down into the wash was mild enough to make it down into the wash. The REAL problem was the grade OUT of the wash on the other side. It was a steep enough grade that I can guaran-ding-dong-tee you we would have caused major damage to the rear cap of our rig if we had tried to go up it. But for the moment I'll humor you and say we could make it.
The bigger problem was, how could we get into the camp itself. Have you ever seen the sign on a tractor trailer truck that says "This vehicle makes WIDE right turns?" It's because of the length of the trailer (usually 54 feet). The trailer (or in our case the RV) has to drive until its REAR wheels are past the corner or building or tree BEFORE it can start its turn or BAMMMMM! the truck trailer (or our RV) creams the side of the building, tree or the pedestrian that was standing near the curb it just jumped up onto.
You see there were these trees next to the turn-in to the camp. The turn-in to the camp that is much to small for a 45' rig to turn into without the tree on the driver's side removing the final 10 feet of the driver's side of the Trekker. Apparently whoever planted these tree had never heard of the law of physics that "No two pieces of matter can occupy the same space at the same time" and this tree already has THIS space occupied. It was making the entrance to the RV area impassable to us in our 45' rig. When the camp was opened the longest RV was probably only 30' long so there wouldn't have been a problem.
We spent about an hour calling RV camps around Prescott and driving to them to see if one might have an opening for the 2 week of the sojourn. No such vacancy existed. So sadly we had to leave and not participate in the sojourn. We also called Camp Bee and told them that there needs to be a place on the application for a sojourn and on the sojourn sheet that states the MAXIMUM length of a rig that can get into the camp, church parking lot, etc.
So, we have come back to Tucson to spend the 2 weeks that we were supposed to be at the Copper Basin Bible Camp with our grand daughter beautiful Bela. It's given us time to prepare for our sojourn coming up in Kayenta and our Sojourn in Cincinnati, OH.
We leave this Saturday morning for Kayenta AFTER Josh and I go see Avengers: Age of Ultron Friday night.
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
A Virtual Potpourri!
Let's start with a tech note. I got a new laptop about 3 weeks ago. It is an Apple MacBook Pro 15" with 500 GB SOLID STATE memory. Talk about blazing. It take 10 seconds from being Powered Off to being Turned ON and up and running. Everything loads SOOOOOO quickly. It's amazing to work with. PLUS, it has the retina display on it. I have NEVER seen a screen that is so sharp. Everything seems to just POP off of the screen. I highly recommend solid state memory in your next computer. If you don't like Apple you won't be able to get Retina Display. If that's the case then get a PC notebook with a video card that is 4k UHD (Ultra High Definition).
I think I've shared on this blog that I am a LITTLE BIT of a TV-aholic. So, when the 1 to 8 splitter (1 HDMI input, 1 HDMI output and 7 CAT6 outputs) that was fed by our Winegard DirecTV Trav'ler antenna went bad it was "Katie bar the door time." I got hold of David Bott (an A/V genius) that is also an RVer to get a handle on what to do. It necessitated my ordering a replacement splitter from Tiffin. I also replaced both of the HDMI cables that went from the sources (the DirecTV antenna and the BlueRay DVD player) to the 2 splitters. Now I'm happy again.
While we have been here in Tucson, AZ, I also have taken the opportunity to wash the Trekker. We used the formulation given to us at Tiffin for our washing solution - 4 ounces of Baby Shampoo; 4 ounces of Vinegar in 5 gallons of water. The rig just shines. It's such a beautiful home to live in and to drive down the road. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E we see (even other Tiffin Owners) comments on how "lovely" and "unique" our rig looks. "They all look so much the same, but yours is beautiful." I think anyone that gets a customized paint job (like us and the Botts got) gets more compliments about our rigs and the way they look. Today, I took about an 1 1/2 hours and cleaned the aluminum wheel rims and shined the tires. POP! POP! POP! Looking sharper than sharp.
On to our Port Lavaca church of Christ sojourn. We had a great team of 11 sojourners. The dates were from March 16th to 26th. On the 21st they had a Ladies Day at which Irene was the primary speaker. The theme she developed was "Christ in You, the Hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27)." They also wanted to have a Gospel Meeting from the 22nd - 25th. I taught Sunday morning class and preached both sermons on Sunday. David Johnson preached the Mon, Tues, and Wed night sermons. They were all based on the names of well known Hymns. Mine were titled: Holy, Holy, Holy; Why Did My Savior Come to Earth and Nothing but the Blood. David's were Jesus Loves Me; Old Rugged Cross and He Lives.
The Ladies Day attendance was knocked down some because of torrential rains they had in Port Lavaca that morning. Those that did make it had glowing, rave reviews of the material that Irene had presented. The gospel meeting was VERY well attended. The church there is growing and doing an excellent job of presenting a positive image of Christ to the community.
We leave Friday or Saturday for Kayenta, AZ. This is a second time we will have been there. We worked with the church for 2 weeks in 2013. It is on the Navajo Indian Reservation. We will be with Greg and Cathy Ryznar there. They are 2 of the sojourners we are closest to. They are very loving, focused, humble and willing to serve. It's always great to be "in the building" with them.
I think I've shared on this blog that I am a LITTLE BIT of a TV-aholic. So, when the 1 to 8 splitter (1 HDMI input, 1 HDMI output and 7 CAT6 outputs) that was fed by our Winegard DirecTV Trav'ler antenna went bad it was "Katie bar the door time." I got hold of David Bott (an A/V genius) that is also an RVer to get a handle on what to do. It necessitated my ordering a replacement splitter from Tiffin. I also replaced both of the HDMI cables that went from the sources (the DirecTV antenna and the BlueRay DVD player) to the 2 splitters. Now I'm happy again.
While we have been here in Tucson, AZ, I also have taken the opportunity to wash the Trekker. We used the formulation given to us at Tiffin for our washing solution - 4 ounces of Baby Shampoo; 4 ounces of Vinegar in 5 gallons of water. The rig just shines. It's such a beautiful home to live in and to drive down the road. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E we see (even other Tiffin Owners) comments on how "lovely" and "unique" our rig looks. "They all look so much the same, but yours is beautiful." I think anyone that gets a customized paint job (like us and the Botts got) gets more compliments about our rigs and the way they look. Today, I took about an 1 1/2 hours and cleaned the aluminum wheel rims and shined the tires. POP! POP! POP! Looking sharper than sharp.
On to our Port Lavaca church of Christ sojourn. We had a great team of 11 sojourners. The dates were from March 16th to 26th. On the 21st they had a Ladies Day at which Irene was the primary speaker. The theme she developed was "Christ in You, the Hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27)." They also wanted to have a Gospel Meeting from the 22nd - 25th. I taught Sunday morning class and preached both sermons on Sunday. David Johnson preached the Mon, Tues, and Wed night sermons. They were all based on the names of well known Hymns. Mine were titled: Holy, Holy, Holy; Why Did My Savior Come to Earth and Nothing but the Blood. David's were Jesus Loves Me; Old Rugged Cross and He Lives.
The Ladies Day attendance was knocked down some because of torrential rains they had in Port Lavaca that morning. Those that did make it had glowing, rave reviews of the material that Irene had presented. The gospel meeting was VERY well attended. The church there is growing and doing an excellent job of presenting a positive image of Christ to the community.
We leave Friday or Saturday for Kayenta, AZ. This is a second time we will have been there. We worked with the church for 2 weeks in 2013. It is on the Navajo Indian Reservation. We will be with Greg and Cathy Ryznar there. They are 2 of the sojourners we are closest to. They are very loving, focused, humble and willing to serve. It's always great to be "in the building" with them.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
I hear the clamor
My "Peeps" are in rebellion! The horde is charging the gates! The clamor for another posting has become so loud that I fear for my life?
Well, 3 or 4 of you all have asked "Do you still have your blog?" or "I miss your blog posts."
Thanks to each of you, your check is in the mail.
So, what have Irene and I been doing since December 18th?? (Wow, even I didn't know it has been 4 months.) Let's see.....
We moved into "Mardon Estate" (the name we have given our home) our "winter haven." As you may know from previous posts we purchased a winter "base of operations" in Retama Village in Mission, Texas. We spent January unpacking and trying to find a place for the stuff we shipped down from Lafayette, IN. And OH, that's right, in January we also had 2 sojourns we were involved with:
1. San Benito, TX - Sunny Glen Children's Home
2. Pharr, TX - North Church of Christ in Pharr, TX (the "HOME" church of Irene and I now that we've moved to Mission, TX.)
So, no TIME (or strength) to write blog postings in January.
We didn't get quite finished moving into the new house when .... (Insert the descending "duh, duh, duh, duh" organ music from the silent serials of long ago HERE) we got the "South Texas Crud." That upper respiratory infection that won't go away and always gets named after wherever you are living: i.e. "Indiana Crud;" "Southern California Crud" (Oh, no, that's smog), er, ah - "Florida Crud" etc. For some reason no one's figured out this is the "Universal Crud." However, it wasn't the Flu, since Irene had gotten the "Government Formulated and Approved" Flu Shot this year like every other year. BTW, the words "Government Formulated and Approved" are the reason why I have N-E-V-E-R gotten "the flu shot." Being a Jeffersonian Conservative I have an innate distrust of ANYTHING the government wants to control beyond what the Constitution says they can control. "That Government which governs least, governs best" as Thomas Hobbes said. (This has been an unpaid political endorsement for small government!)
Anyway we were laid waste for the month of February. We just laid in front of our 65" Samsung TV in the Living Room of "Mardon Estate" and watch all 7 seasons of "The Closer" with Kyra Sedgewick in it. We'd never even seen one episode before but with Amazon Prime it was an inexpensive undertaking. Just reclining on our couch watching something is easier than having to do all of the thinking and typing necessary to write these blog posts. So in February we were to SICK to write any blog posts. Though I did have to slog through finishing out the inside of a shed at Joel and Brenda's new abode in Odessa, TX. THAT was a real nightmare.
March came and we were getting over being sick but we had to prepare for the 1st Sojourn for which I would be team leader. This was in Port Lavaca, TX. If you are a follower of this blog from the beginning you will remember that we were at Port Lavaca last year also. Port Lavaca's sojourn finished on the 26th of March and we drove back to Mission, TX that afternoon (about a 6 hour drive). We had from the 27th of March to the 1st of April to hit it hard and get ready for the bulk of our Sojourning year.
The first week of April we spent back in Lafayette, Indiana. I am on the Board of Directors for Shults-Lewis Children's Home in Valparaiso, Indiana and we had a board meeting on the 4th of April. We flew there on the 2nd of April and flew back to McAllen on the 7th of April. During that time we spent most of our "Free time" with our granddaughter, Neo (yes, and her parents Kazumi and Steve also). We got back to Mission on the 7th and "hit the road" the very next morning.
If you've actually looked at our Website: www.JITrekking.com - you can go to the tab Our Sojourns and see our schedule for the year. You can see that our first "out of Texas" sojourn began on the 18th of April at "Copper Basin Bible Camp" in Prescott, AZ. This gave us the opportunity to see our newest grand baby - Izabela Rain Gordon (and her parents, our son Joshua and Cristina Gordon). We got to Tucson, AZ where they live on the 10th of April and were supposed to be in Prescott, AZ on Saturday the 18th. SUPPOSED TO BE...... we will leave that for another posting. Let's just say for now that we are back in Tucson, AZ and visiting with Bela some more and are leaving this coming Saturday for Kayenta, AZ.
We left Retama Village on the 10th of April and will not return to Mardon Estate in Mission, TX until AT LEAST the end of October (after the Camp Bee workshop) and quite probably the middle of November (if we need any work done on the Trekker at Red Bay) following this year's Sojourning season.
I'll give you the run down on the Sojourns we've had so far in separate blog postings. Hopefully, not that far in the future.
Well, 3 or 4 of you all have asked "Do you still have your blog?" or "I miss your blog posts."
Thanks to each of you, your check is in the mail.
So, what have Irene and I been doing since December 18th?? (Wow, even I didn't know it has been 4 months.) Let's see.....
We moved into "Mardon Estate" (the name we have given our home) our "winter haven." As you may know from previous posts we purchased a winter "base of operations" in Retama Village in Mission, Texas. We spent January unpacking and trying to find a place for the stuff we shipped down from Lafayette, IN. And OH, that's right, in January we also had 2 sojourns we were involved with:
1. San Benito, TX - Sunny Glen Children's Home
2. Pharr, TX - North Church of Christ in Pharr, TX (the "HOME" church of Irene and I now that we've moved to Mission, TX.)
So, no TIME (or strength) to write blog postings in January.
We didn't get quite finished moving into the new house when .... (Insert the descending "duh, duh, duh, duh" organ music from the silent serials of long ago HERE) we got the "South Texas Crud." That upper respiratory infection that won't go away and always gets named after wherever you are living: i.e. "Indiana Crud;" "Southern California Crud" (Oh, no, that's smog), er, ah - "Florida Crud" etc. For some reason no one's figured out this is the "Universal Crud." However, it wasn't the Flu, since Irene had gotten the "Government Formulated and Approved" Flu Shot this year like every other year. BTW, the words "Government Formulated and Approved" are the reason why I have N-E-V-E-R gotten "the flu shot." Being a Jeffersonian Conservative I have an innate distrust of ANYTHING the government wants to control beyond what the Constitution says they can control. "That Government which governs least, governs best" as Thomas Hobbes said. (This has been an unpaid political endorsement for small government!)
Anyway we were laid waste for the month of February. We just laid in front of our 65" Samsung TV in the Living Room of "Mardon Estate" and watch all 7 seasons of "The Closer" with Kyra Sedgewick in it. We'd never even seen one episode before but with Amazon Prime it was an inexpensive undertaking. Just reclining on our couch watching something is easier than having to do all of the thinking and typing necessary to write these blog posts. So in February we were to SICK to write any blog posts. Though I did have to slog through finishing out the inside of a shed at Joel and Brenda's new abode in Odessa, TX. THAT was a real nightmare.
March came and we were getting over being sick but we had to prepare for the 1st Sojourn for which I would be team leader. This was in Port Lavaca, TX. If you are a follower of this blog from the beginning you will remember that we were at Port Lavaca last year also. Port Lavaca's sojourn finished on the 26th of March and we drove back to Mission, TX that afternoon (about a 6 hour drive). We had from the 27th of March to the 1st of April to hit it hard and get ready for the bulk of our Sojourning year.
The first week of April we spent back in Lafayette, Indiana. I am on the Board of Directors for Shults-Lewis Children's Home in Valparaiso, Indiana and we had a board meeting on the 4th of April. We flew there on the 2nd of April and flew back to McAllen on the 7th of April. During that time we spent most of our "Free time" with our granddaughter, Neo (yes, and her parents Kazumi and Steve also). We got back to Mission on the 7th and "hit the road" the very next morning.
If you've actually looked at our Website: www.JITrekking.com - you can go to the tab Our Sojourns and see our schedule for the year. You can see that our first "out of Texas" sojourn began on the 18th of April at "Copper Basin Bible Camp" in Prescott, AZ. This gave us the opportunity to see our newest grand baby - Izabela Rain Gordon (and her parents, our son Joshua and Cristina Gordon). We got to Tucson, AZ where they live on the 10th of April and were supposed to be in Prescott, AZ on Saturday the 18th. SUPPOSED TO BE...... we will leave that for another posting. Let's just say for now that we are back in Tucson, AZ and visiting with Bela some more and are leaving this coming Saturday for Kayenta, AZ.
We left Retama Village on the 10th of April and will not return to Mardon Estate in Mission, TX until AT LEAST the end of October (after the Camp Bee workshop) and quite probably the middle of November (if we need any work done on the Trekker at Red Bay) following this year's Sojourning season.
I'll give you the run down on the Sojourns we've had so far in separate blog postings. Hopefully, not that far in the future.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Happy Birthday Trekker from Lazy Days
We arrived at Lazy Days RV on the 8th of December and will be leaving Saturday. It seemed only right that the Trekker should celebrate its 1st birthday (yesterday) at the place where we bought it and took possession of it.
It's been an eventful 12 days. It began with having 5 nights of free camping. We had a coupon included in the initial package of "baubles" they gave us when we bought the Trekker. It was time to cash them in. For our 12 nights we would only have to pay for 7. Cha-Ching!
Just as a matter of serendipity but last weekend (Friday-Saturday and Sunday) they had Bob Tiffin and numerous of the front office personnel here for a "2015 Tiffin Product Line Introduction Rally". I decided we should go just to see the newest offerings and talk with Bob and Danny Inman again.
They had the newest Allegro Bus 45 here. It is our Bus on 'roids. It is built on a new Freightliner Chassis which has a Front Axle with an 18000 lbs GAWR. It has a 600hp Cummins Engine. It is a monster. I'll bet it gets 2-3 miles per gallon. Because of its 31.5 wheels all the way around it sits about 5" higher on the road than the Trekker. The one here is called a 45HL. They are also making another floorplan on this chassis, the 45OL (or it could be an OP). It was nice to see the newest line-up. It also convinced us again that the Trekker is the best of all the available RVs and the mods we have made to it only made it better.
Another thing we wanted to accomplish while we were here was to get our new wifi antenna and external cell antenna installed. We asked to make an appointment the day we came and were told they had a cancellation so they could fit us in at 9 AM on the 16th. So on the night of the 15th we moved over from the Lazy Days Campground to the Lazy Days Crown Club Service area (which is free). It ends up that even though the appointment was for the 16th that THAT isn't the appointment to get worked on, but an appointment with a Service Advisor to SCHEDULE the actual work. So we got worked on yesterday. Here are pictures of the new antennas and our new wifi service area in the rear of the Trekker.
The above picture shows the finished products: A RogueWave Long Range Marine WiFi antenna on the right (the white one) and on the left side of the ladder (with the black "thimble" on top of it on the left side of the antenna).
Below is a picture of where they had to drill through the Trekker's roof down into the rig itself. We had them put it in the very back of the rig - in the closet/washer/dryer area - on the driver's side. The white "goop" is a self-leveling weather impervious caulk designed specifically for RV roof usage.
Another thing we wanted to accomplish while we were here was to get our new wifi antenna and external cell antenna installed. We asked to make an appointment the day we came and were told they had a cancellation so they could fit us in at 9 AM on the 16th. So on the night of the 15th we moved over from the Lazy Days Campground to the Lazy Days Crown Club Service area (which is free). It ends up that even though the appointment was for the 16th that THAT isn't the appointment to get worked on, but an appointment with a Service Advisor to SCHEDULE the actual work. So we got worked on yesterday. Here are pictures of the new antennas and our new wifi service area in the rear of the Trekker.
The above picture shows the finished products: A RogueWave Long Range Marine WiFi antenna on the right (the white one) and on the left side of the ladder (with the black "thimble" on top of it on the left side of the antenna).
Below is a picture of where they had to drill through the Trekker's roof down into the rig itself. We had them put it in the very back of the rig - in the closet/washer/dryer area - on the driver's side. The white "goop" is a self-leveling weather impervious caulk designed specifically for RV roof usage.
The picture below shows the plastic black "grommet" that they put into the bottom of the hole they had drilled to give it a more "finished" look. Unfortunately they didn't have a white one they could use. The black wire is from the External Cell Antenna and the Gray-White wire is from the WaveRogue WiFi antenna.
The picture above shows (on the right toward the top) our MBR95 cradlepoint wireless router. Right in the middle of the photo is our Wilson Signal booster. Under it (literally) is our Novatel Wifi Jetpack which was sold to us by Verizon our WiFi signal carrier. The Jetpack is picked up by the router since we have the router set to "Wireless as WAN (Wide Area Network)." The black wire going out of the Wilson Signal Booster goes up to the External Cell Antenna. The gray-white wire which enters into the black connector wit 2 green LEDs on it comes down from the WaveRogue WiFi antenna.
Tomorrow we are going to Green Cove Springs to pick up our mail. Irene's got 3 packages which would be monstrously expensive to ship to here and would get caught up in the Christmas Mail rush. So we are taking the day to go get it all. It's a 3 hour drive - ONE WAY.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
There's an RV in that there tent OR We are outta here!
The final stop in our (almost) fully-expenses paid luxury vacation to the Tiffin Motorhomes Service Center and Allegro Campground was the body shop. The Trekker had cracks developing in both of the front slideouts - On both sides it was where the exterior wall of the slide met the floor and the vertical wall of the slide. The slides are a single piece fiberglass. So the bus is essentially a 45 foot, 43,000 pound Corvette! (And JUST LIKE A CORVETTE gets about 6 mpg of fuel.) Below are the two corners AFTER they've been fixed. They are so nice and pretty now. Just like new.
The big thing that had to be done is the repainting of the Trekker. This is NOT a monochrome colored vehicle like most cars and trucks. RV's have multiple colors on them. In the case of the trekker there are 4 different colors: Biarritz White, Ebony Satin, Oceana Teal and Silver Sage. To repaint the slide out after the fiberglass was repaired required taping off and repainting each stripe of the slide out individually. After the four colors have been repainted then the 3 coats of polyurethane "clear coat" had to be sprayed on.
Travis and Chase did a great job with our body work.
AND
Oh, by the way, as an added gift, at ABSOLUTELY NO additional expense to us, they replaced our spotlight - F-R-E-E. Of course that happens when their employee waves you into the repair bay BEFORE the bay door is all the way up and your original spotlight is torn off on the bottom of the door. OUCH!
We left Red Bay early Saturday morning and drove down to Monticello, Florida just east of Tallahassee. There we stayed in the Tallahassee East KOA. Sunday we went to church at the Monticello church of Christ. A congregation of about 35 with a minister and his wife and 3 children that have been there about 6 months. That evening we went to the Timberlane church of Christ in Tallahassee. Between the 2 services I got the "privilege" of watching the New Orlean Saints get the stuffing knocked out of them by the Carolina Panthers. (Just a note: As I am writing this I heard that Cam Newton, the Carolina Panthers quarterback was in an automobile accident today. His truck was hit by another vehicle and rolled several times as a result. He has (as Irene calls it) a "seat belt injury" - 2 broken transverse processes in his lower back. He is in "Fair Condition" and will be in the hospital overnight. He will completely recover fairly quickly but he will be sore for a while, of sure. We send our best to him in his recovery.
We arrived at Lazy Days in Seffner, FL yesterday and will be here until the 20th when we drive over to Kissimmee, FL for Christmas with the family until the 28th.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Remember the one about the NASA engineers that forgot to convert inches into centimeters and buried a Mars probe INTO Mars instead of landing it ON Mars? OR "We will OWN our mistakes!"
September 30, 1999
Web posted at: 1:46 p.m. EDT (1746 GMT)
(CNN) -- NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one engineering team used metric units while another used English units for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.
For that reason, information failed to transfer between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft.
"People sometimes make errors," said Edward Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science in a written statement.
"The problem here was not the error, it was the failure of NASA's systems engineering, and the checks and balances in our processes to detect the error. That's why we lost the spacecraft."
If you've read this blog since the beginning you know that we have had to replace the Trekker's radiator fan clutch and fan twice. The first time was immediately after it was delivered to us in January of 2014. The second time it broke we had to be towed 75 miles to Pharr, TX to have it replaced. Here's the www.JITrekking.com blog postings about that menagerie:
http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/03/red-bay-we-have-problem.html
http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/03/o-o-there-goes-my-baby-o-o.html
http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/03/red-bay-we-have-problem-part-ii.html
The fan clutch originally put into the rig and the 2 that were installed each time it was previously replaced were a NEW type of fan - a "squirrel cage" type. Here's picture of it:
You can see that it has about 30 blades. It is about 10 inches high. You can see that it is quite substantial in size and weight. Below are 2 pictures of the fan clutch that turns the fan on and off as needed to keep the radiator coolant within an acceptable temperature range. This top one shows the fan clutch with the pulley that turns the clutch when it engages.
The one below is the fan clutch with the pulley removed (it was reused on our NEWLY installed fan and fan clutch assembly).
Now, WHY? Why was there a constant breakdown in these fan and fan clutch assemblies. I mean this is the newest "fan" technologies, right! Why the high failure rate? Well, it seems that the engineer(s) that designed it at Tiffin forgot to factor in the additional weight of the new fan, the clutch and the additional air weight that is compressed by the multiple blades and the additional torque by the new fan. OOPS!
Now, before you say "You've got to be kidding me." I think it's VERY IMPORTANT to reiterate something that Bob Tiffin (the founder of Tiffin Motorhomes) told Irene and I when we spoke to him personally BEFORE they started building the Trekker.
"All Motorhome manufacturers make mistakes. The difference is we OWN ours and will replace any item, ANY TIME (in or OUT of warranty - JRG) that is OUR fault.
I was talking to the Parts Manager today at the repair facility and was saying that we were having our fan and fan clutch assembly replaced. I made the statement to him that I'm sure there are other Allegro Buses out there." His reply was "384 of them." They intend to replace EVERY ONE OF THEM at NO COST to the owners as Warranty work.
So, here are pictures of the new fan and clutch:
As you can see they are significantly lighter. We also have it on good authority (owners who already have the "fix" installed) that the new fan and fan clutch do an excellent job of keeping the rig's engine well cooled.
Below is a picture of he new fan installed into the Trekker I got before they lowered it to the ground again.
Web posted at: 1:46 p.m. EDT (1746 GMT)
(CNN) -- NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one engineering team used metric units while another used English units for a key spacecraft operation, according to a review finding released Thursday.
For that reason, information failed to transfer between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin in Colorado and the mission navigation team in California. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft.
"People sometimes make errors," said Edward Weiler, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science in a written statement.
"The problem here was not the error, it was the failure of NASA's systems engineering, and the checks and balances in our processes to detect the error. That's why we lost the spacecraft."
If you've read this blog since the beginning you know that we have had to replace the Trekker's radiator fan clutch and fan twice. The first time was immediately after it was delivered to us in January of 2014. The second time it broke we had to be towed 75 miles to Pharr, TX to have it replaced. Here's the www.JITrekking.com blog postings about that menagerie:
http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/03/red-bay-we-have-problem.html
http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/03/o-o-there-goes-my-baby-o-o.html
http://www.jitrekking.blogspot.com/2014/03/red-bay-we-have-problem-part-ii.html
The fan clutch originally put into the rig and the 2 that were installed each time it was previously replaced were a NEW type of fan - a "squirrel cage" type. Here's picture of it:
You can see that it has about 30 blades. It is about 10 inches high. You can see that it is quite substantial in size and weight. Below are 2 pictures of the fan clutch that turns the fan on and off as needed to keep the radiator coolant within an acceptable temperature range. This top one shows the fan clutch with the pulley that turns the clutch when it engages.
Now, WHY? Why was there a constant breakdown in these fan and fan clutch assemblies. I mean this is the newest "fan" technologies, right! Why the high failure rate? Well, it seems that the engineer(s) that designed it at Tiffin forgot to factor in the additional weight of the new fan, the clutch and the additional air weight that is compressed by the multiple blades and the additional torque by the new fan. OOPS!
Now, before you say "You've got to be kidding me." I think it's VERY IMPORTANT to reiterate something that Bob Tiffin (the founder of Tiffin Motorhomes) told Irene and I when we spoke to him personally BEFORE they started building the Trekker.
"All Motorhome manufacturers make mistakes. The difference is we OWN ours and will replace any item, ANY TIME (in or OUT of warranty - JRG) that is OUR fault.
I was talking to the Parts Manager today at the repair facility and was saying that we were having our fan and fan clutch assembly replaced. I made the statement to him that I'm sure there are other Allegro Buses out there." His reply was "384 of them." They intend to replace EVERY ONE OF THEM at NO COST to the owners as Warranty work.
So, here are pictures of the new fan and clutch:
As you can see they are significantly lighter. We also have it on good authority (owners who already have the "fix" installed) that the new fan and fan clutch do an excellent job of keeping the rig's engine well cooled.
Below is a picture of he new fan installed into the Trekker I got before they lowered it to the ground again.
As an additional added touch to this post. Below is a picture of the Trekker being "Prepped for surgery." The rig is lifted up on 6 jacks (one on the outside wheel of each axle - front, drive and tag axles). These lifts are electronically connected to lift it in unison.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Out with the Old and in with the New
Yesterday and Today we've been getting the windshield replaced. If you've ever seen a picture of the Trekker you know this is one monstrous large window. It is over 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide. That's over 40 square feet of personal viewing pleasure.
Here is a picture and video of the removal of the cracked windshield:
To do the initial install took 1 whole day. Then today we went back and the did the final "touch up" around the glass. more of the adhesive is used this this time AROUND the window (the original adhesive is applied on the frame BEHIND the window and the window is pulled into it to bond it to the frame. This second round brings the adhesive out so the adhesive and glass are level all the way around the glass. It doesn't take long to apply, but you have to sit for 8 hours again while the adhesive is curing.
A couple of interesting facts about the windshields:
1. They are manufactured in TURKEY and shipped here in crates of 10-12 depending on the make and model of RV they are installed in.
2. The glass is NOT recyclable in broken windshields. Safety glass is multi-layered and has an adhesive between the layers so it does not shatter when it break like normal glass would. This makes in un-recyclable because you can't separate the adhesive from the glass.
Here is a picture and video of the removal of the cracked windshield:
The old windshield had to be beat with a crowbar to break it enough to bend over to fit into a large dumpster:
The replacement glass is held in place by a special adhesive. Large suction cups are secured to the rig sides and top and to the windshield itself. Then ropes are tied to pull the glass back to the rig and into the adhesive as it cures. It takes 8 hours to set to the point where rig can be moved at all. Below ia a picture and a video of the men installing the new windshield:
To do the initial install took 1 whole day. Then today we went back and the did the final "touch up" around the glass. more of the adhesive is used this this time AROUND the window (the original adhesive is applied on the frame BEHIND the window and the window is pulled into it to bond it to the frame. This second round brings the adhesive out so the adhesive and glass are level all the way around the glass. It doesn't take long to apply, but you have to sit for 8 hours again while the adhesive is curing.
A couple of interesting facts about the windshields:
1. They are manufactured in TURKEY and shipped here in crates of 10-12 depending on the make and model of RV they are installed in.
2. The glass is NOT recyclable in broken windshields. Safety glass is multi-layered and has an adhesive between the layers so it does not shatter when it break like normal glass would. This makes in un-recyclable because you can't separate the adhesive from the glass.
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