Not much going on....

We've been fairly sedentary for the past few weeks. Last Wednesday we took in the lunch buffet at The 2nd Street Bistro at the Double Tree in McAllen, turned out to be a very good Tex Mex offering. It was 2 for 1 with 2 beverages, which made it a fairly decent deal. We also have been hitting some of the country and rock and roll jams at local parks. The weather is forecast to be much better in the coming days, into the high 70's to mid 80's.

Dale's been busy with crocheting classes and Spanish classes, here in the park, seems to be enjoying both. Also she has made a lot of headway on getting our tax records sent off to our preparer of many years in Indiana. In the mean time, I have been basically a slug doing only what needs to be done and catching up on my sleep, which has been hit or miss about every other night. Either waking up at 2:30-3:00 for the day or sleeping until 7:30.

This next weekend we have entertainment at a local park by Adam Pope and The Rebel Roots. They are a 3 piece rockabilly band fronted by Pope, who is a songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. This will be our 4^th show with him performing and we hope to not miss it.

Yesterday started off with the second “dead” battery in the past week on the Flex aka Oster Toaster. I used my compact jump start and it fired right up. I checked the voltage at the battery while running and found 14.5v from the alternator. After about an hour of running and charging, I turned it off and found 10.43v at the battery terminals. At this point it was off to the local Walmart for a new battery, This morning all is well the Flex fired right up without any hesitation, but I had a low battery alarm from our, Tire Pressure Monitoring System, driver's side rear needed a new battery. So that interrupted my planned early morning nap, as I replaced the battery which should make that sensor good for a year, just have 19 more batteries to replace over the two motorhomes and two toads.

I think Duchess and I will wait for Dale's return from one of her classes at the patio table, take in some sun, read some and more than likely, both doze off.

Until next time...Terry

It's a New Year......

So far this year we've experienced three cold snaps here in the Rio Grande Valley. We've had a couple of nice days, high 70's to mid 80's then back to the refrigerator. You notice I didn't say freezer, because not like northern Indiana, ice cream will always melt here if left outside overnight..We have had a few nights of low to mid 30's but that is much better than what the northern US has been receiving. This morning it's 51 with a high in the 60's – low 70's.

We've been hanging out close to the RV for the most part, other than the few days it was in the shop for annual maintenance and a perky repair. Dale had been seeing low fuel pressure/boost error/engine shutdown message on her command center screen. It started out as a seldom event and had started displaying every time we started rolling for 2-4 seconds then disappear until the engine shutdown and restart. The excellent folks at Holt Cat RV Center in Edinburg, Texas came through again and corrected the problem. It took a few hours of diagnostic work but all is well. My Silverleaf engine monitoring system which runs as we travel had 20+ error codes showing in the “diagnostic history” section. . . the Cat ECM computer at Holt showed two codes maxed out to 255 instances. Now our turbo, waste gate and fuel systems have been all checked out and we have a new boost actuator valve and a new boost sensor. All is well. A rather cheap repair as diesel engines go from past experience, $390 in parts and around $450 labor. So at 131,225 miles Phaeton Place will be ready to roll when we leave the Valley in a few months.

Dale Ann and her Mom have been attending park dinners, with me staying at the RV to fend for my self, just too much salt for me in these “home cooked meals,” which I don't care for anyway. If I'm going to gain 3 pounds from eating a meal overnight, then work for 3 days to get rid of the “water weight,” it's going to be something this boy likes.

Well that's all I have maybe Dale will add some more....Terry