Antique Ford Garage and Lunch

Again today was another Romeo Lunch Ride....  This time to the town of DeSoto, Kansas.  And it is on the way from Kansas City to Lawrence just North of the four lane highway...

That was good because it was about 43 degrees when I finally was brave enough to leave the house here and endure the temps...  But I only had to go about 40 miles and I went on the back highways so I kept the speed down under 50....  And that is much warmer than interstate speeds...

The object of the ride was Wanda's Roadside Cafe....

As usual there were bikes from one end of the little business district to the other.....

Once inside we had a nice breakfast or lunch of your choice....

I had a breakfast, but didn't realize that I should have had a lunch....  This was the special that Wanda had made just for us today.....

I asked Larry here if he thought he could eat all of that meatloaf, and he said something to the effect that I should keep my distance from his plate......

After the big meal, we all adjourned to Dean Weller's Ford Garage.....

Once inside, this 84 year old antique car collector had quite the collection of cars.  They dated way back in vintage to well before I was born... I took soo many pictures that I decided to add them as a slide show..

Suffice to say that many of the vehicles are now priceless...




This You Tube video explains about Dean and his collection.

He has a basement under the main floor that holds stacks and stacks of old car parts that would be beyond acquisition today almost anywhere... It would take days and days to empty this store front... And cataloging these pieces would be a year long job...  And that would be by someone that understood what everything was.. Some of the older cars in the basement still need to be cleaned up and restored to working order, but Dean said he is out of room to display these gems so he is just enjoying the ones he has finished now... None of these jewels are for sale.... "Just couldn't bear to part with any of them...." he said.

Official Romeo Web Site of more photos and the story.

Retired Rod     Boo!!! Happy Halloween.

Go Vote and the computer parts store....

Today the formal business was to be ready when Loyce got home from her doctors appointment to go vote....  This meant that I had to find a sample ballot for our district and see if I could answer the questions...

I never feel good about voting for or against someone when I don't have the foggiest notion who they are or what they stand for....  Of course we all know the big elections because it has been jammed down our throat for weeks on TV...  But what about the county supervisor race...

Aw heck just pic the guy in your favorite party..... Uh, not in Kansas because this is a very Republican state and if there is no Democrat challenger sometimes you will have two Republicans on the final ballot...  Still one has to appeal to you more than the other, if you bother to find out what they want to do or stand for.

So once I determined how I was going to vote then I had to see where the early vote was taking place....  I already knew where the election headquarters in this county were and sure enough that is where we could go...

After that was finished we went to Chic fil A for the premium chicken sandwich...  ( A break from Wendy's)  We brought two of them home for our late lunch...

And then even thou it was only about 57 outside, I dressed and rode the motorscooter up to our local computer parts store...  My wireless mouse has been giving me fits for the last several weeks and I wanted another one....  And a couple of thumb drives to make W8 password key drives out of them..

It is still rather chilly on the scooter but I stayed under 50 mph and was OK for the most part.....  Tomorrow is the lunch, and we are going to a town about 40 miles away..

And then tonight we had the grand kids over here again and I was elected to make the home made mac and cheese....  Lets see, Milk and butter and flour.... Yes I know it by heart....  The kids ate it so it must not have been too bad...

But once I was over here in my corner chair I started on that W8 password key...  and I learned that you have to be signed in on a local password in order to make the little key drive...  I found the instructions and followed them but it took several tries as I wasn't doing it in the right way.....

I had to go into users and create another Rod user that was a local user.... But he had to have administrative rights...  And I gave him a simple password...  It says that you could use a blank password but I didn't try that...

Then after turning the whole machine off and signing back on as the local administrator, the instructions above worked just like they said...  I even tested it like I didn't know the proper word and it worked like a ..... I started to say charm, but that has specific meaning now with the charms bar so I gotta watch that....

The grand daughter and I started to play bejeweled on the W8 machine so that was the end of the computer setup session.....  And of course she uses the Apple at home and wants to drag stuff all over the screen with her fingers...   And has no idea how to use a mouse... what's that for?   See why Microsoft has to get with the program here or they will perish......!!  A mouse might be OK for us older folks but the young people don't see that as intuitive at all.....

Have you sucked it up yet and down loaded your copy of Win 8 ??  You might be able to put it off for a while but then you will pay more money...  But eventually, unless you stop using these blamed machines, its gonna catch up to you........!!

Retired Rod

More on Windows 8

I started messing with the Windows 8 machine again today, and a lot of the day was just gone...

First of all as Rick points out in his comment on yesterday's post, I used the word Mandatory when describing the Microsoft password.... And that is really not the case...  You can go in and set up a Local password..  Both when you are installing the software and afterward even if you already have set up a Microsoft password....

But!  By setting your machine up as a local machine you are giving up the sync qualities of being connected to Microsoft...  If you have several computers, and they are running W8 they will all be connected together under this one umbrella...  Of course this may be the same thing that folks are attacking Google for doing...  Big brother is watching you during your compute session...

Rick explains that he is using Google for his sync connectivity... And yes Google has the jump on brother MS in this regard...  But will they keep it once MS syncs right in the operating system....??  And MS is allowing 7 Gb of storage right from your Metro Interface page.....

Ah, the Metro interface page....  which effectively replaces the start button on your W7 desktop....  This will cause a bit of a panic for you as you start to use this system...  It is designed to be touched with your finger on a touch screen computer...  Or drug from side to side as there is more stuff available over on the right hand side...  But don't worry you can still use your mouse..

If you move your mouse down to the lower left corner, where the start button used to be an icon of your old desktop will appear, which if you click on it will bring up that desktop!!!  Yea!!  There's all my old stuff.....   But if you think about it, MS wants you to quit using that old desktop.... Its a crutch or throwback to the old familiar system....   Give it up...  Move on....!

Eventually we will all have new computers with touch screens, its just a matter of time....   These computers self destruct in about three years or so...  Will these new machines have a mouse....?   Nope...!

Charms Bar.....  Whas that?

See that black strip running down the right hand side of the screen?  Its the charms bar....  Evidently those icons on the bar are really charms...   To get them up on the screen you move your mouse to the right corner of the screen... Either top or bottom and the bar appears...

The bottom charm is a gear, that is the settings charm.  This is where your shut down icon lives.....   along with screen brightness and your wifi connection wizard.  Sound volume and keyboard options live here too...

The middle charm that looks like a window will revert you to the metro top screen from anywhere you happen to be... See they want you to give up your desktop... Its a secondary menu that isn't touch screen friendly...

And that top charm that looks like a magnifying glass is search.... Touching it...ooops clicking on it.... brings up the list of Apps since they are now no longer programs...  And sliding the screen to the left with your finger.....Uh,er,  clicking on the mouse slide bar at the bottom and sliding......... brings up every App...... er program that is on your computer....  even Control Panel and Printers and all that stuff you used to do with the start button....

It is my opinion,  that unless Microsoft gets with the program here and makes one platform that is touch screen friendly, they will be buried by Apple with their new products...  The iPhone and the iPad is already killing them and they are scrambling to catch up...  Google is killing them with sync and they are scrambling to catch up....  They must reposition themselves.... and rather quickly...  Or we will all be paying $1,700 - $2,700 for our computers that will not have any connectivity to anything that isn't sold at the Apple store...

So will you do it?  Knuckle  under and give in to this new system....  Of course you will...  Your new PC will come loaded with it...  Its only a matter of time before your new wiz bang program that you like so well will only run on W8 and so forth....  How many of you are still running Win2000 or Millenium...?  And as far as XP, it is now or very soon will be completely unsupported so WHEN it breaks, there will be nowhere to turn...

Break down and pay the $40 now while it is cheap.....    But with that said, I didn't download the second copy for my other laptop.........    uh practice what you preach.....

Retired Rod

Upgrading Windows 8

Readers that were with us in the middle of summer would remember that we were forced to purchase another lap top in Santa Fe when my older machine took a nose dive to the floor in the motor home as we were driving...




That laptop came with windows 7 home edition, but...  it was assured with that purchase that windows could be updated for a minimal amount when the new version came out...  That amount turns out to be $14.95.

Its kind of interesting how you go about doing that, as you have to go out on the internet and fill out an application with your name and email address....  Also they want your purchase date and place as well as the make and model number of the computer.  They didn't want any other info from your receipt, so if you can remember where and when and what you purchased your good to go..

What they do is send you a promo code via email to use when purchasing  the upgrade...  Sign on to the upgrade site and follow along like you were going to pay the $39.95, and at the last moment you have a box to enter the promo code..  Suddenly the price has a promotion discount that reduces it to the $14.95.

After paying the bill with your credit card or paypal, you are immediately downloading the software...  It took me about 30 minutes...  And then it goes into the unpack and install which took most of another hour.  I went to Wendy's and the car wash place while it was working...

It reboots your computer several times as it is working.  I had chosen to save all my applications and personal files so it did not reformat my hard drive..  I was warned that some of my programs will need to be reinstalled with W8 versions and I was allowed to print out a list....

The install seemed seamless  as I entered my personal information to start a Microsoft Account..  This is mandatory now and you have to have an email address and a password....  Apple is doing this as well in their iTunes account that everyone has to have in order to have the Apple iOS...  Microsoft is now following suit...

Be careful what you type in as your Microsoft Password for their account, as this becomes the password for your entire windows 8 experience...  When you start up the computer you must now type in this password...  Forget it and you are mostly scr#wed..  The password has to include a Capital letter and a number and a punctuation mark to be valid...

I didn't understand how all important this password would be and just tossed anything at it.. Just to make it go away...  Then upon rebooting and needing this same password, it took me a couple of tries to get it right again....  BEWARE..

The software asks you to make a password key disk.... But it turns out that they want a thumb USB drive and not a physical disk..  I didn't have a spare drive, so that will have to be purchased.  Evidently the presence of this USB drive will get you past a forgotten password...

I found quite an explanation of what to do if you forget in this article .   I don't understand all of it yet, but perhaps tomorrow when I am not as tired it will make more sense....

We have the older laptop that I normally use everyday to update as well, and it is three years old so I will have to pay the full $39.95 for it...  Perhaps I will have used the new software for a while by then and all of this will seem like old hat...

This upgrade needs to be completed by January 31st, as the price will go up on that date, but it wasn't clear by how much....  Windows 7 Pro was $199 so the increase could be quite large...  Also they gave you a new product code for your install so the code on the bottom of the machine must be now defunct.

This way each upgrade will require another $40, and will not be validated by your old product code...  I read that the physical retail disc copy will be $69.95 and I do not know if it will come with a singe install product code.... But my bet would be affirmative...  The days of using these disks to upgrade multiple machines with older product codes seems to be gone .....

We had the big Halloween party here tonight, so my upgrade fun came to an abrupt end, but we were using the W8 machine looking things up as we talked, and also finding the different way that the new start menus worked...  Just try and find control panel!!!  But perhaps that will be for another blog.....LOL

Retired Rod          See the next post for more on Windows 8......

Friday waiting...

I sort of wasted today, as I was waiting for the UPS truck to come with a new pair of soft shoes from Zappos.com....  And as I was waiting, the darned truck must have become lost or something.....

Usually they come by our house by about 3 PM or so, but it became 4 and I was becoming restless.... And then 5, so I was on the computer again looking to see if they had booked that we weren't home or something....

But no it still said out for delivery, just like it had said all day long..  It was almost 6 PM before they finally came by, and left the pair of comfy shoes that I had ordered...  A pair of Teva moccasin style half high tops, made from suede..  One of the reviewers called them flip flops with tops....

With my neuropathy  any shoe is painful, but perhaps these won't be too bad once I can wear them in some and stretch them to fit my feet...  Regular hard leather shoes are mostly a no go for me...

Then I ended up over at Wal Mart turning in a prescription again..  Perhaps the last refill on the old insurance plan before switching to Medicare and its rather poor coverage under part D.....  Bye bye good policy......!   Ouch....

We seemed to be doing stuff all day long, but I'm not sure what.......  Paid a few bills mid afternoon just to take my impatient mind off of the failure of the truck to arrive...   Darned A type personality........

It was quite cool here today, so the motorscooter wasn't an option.  Its hard for me to do the 40s when its just for the fun of it....  We are forecast to be 26 degrees tonight, so a hard freeze is in order...

That pink stuff went in the rig Wednesday, and perhaps none too soon as within 48 hours it will be needed....   Had I not put it in, I would have been on pins and needles wondering what would be broken... More than likely nothing as the coach has pretty good insulation, but once it goes below freezing and stays that way for most of the day, then all bets are off..

We are to be below freezing again tomorrow night as well, and quite close to freezing Sunday night too....  After that is it said to warm up some where nights will be back into the 30s...  But its a non issue now with the coach winterized...

Tomorrow is a big Halloween party here at our house with Jack o Lantern carving and other fun activities..

Retired Rod

Chinese dinner !

I'm sitting here tonight looking at that header picture from last weekend, wanting to go sit in that red lawn chair.....   I just hate having to quit camping for the season...

And yes we will be taking the motorhome down to Arizona in a few weeks, but commuting along the highway, staying in overnight locations could technically be called camping, but not like being out in the state park building camp fires and bar be cuing food...

And just like clock work, the rains came in around 7 AM this morning and it poured for a few minutes as the front passed...  And burr, the temps fell out of the sky....  When we went out for lunch today, it was 42 degrees...

And speaking of lunch, since it was Loyce's birthday we went for mid afternoon lunch at a China Wok restaurant over in Overland Park..  She wanted some shrimp and snow peas in lobster sauce....  Oh and crab rangoon.

I had the egg drop soup and cashew chicken..  It was more than we both could eat, and we grabbed the take out cartons for the left overs....

We went shopping for the rest of the afternoon, which didn't give me much to write about, but we do have pumpkins for the grand kids to carve this weekend now...

Tonight the temps are squeaking across into the 30s and as I type and look at the weather station here beside me it has already happened as we are at 39 now..  And the heater is running....

I wanted to leave last week but the darned Doctors won't let us....

Retired Rod

Loyce wants to thank everyone who wished her Happy Birthday today, with so many calls and facebook messages and the comments here as well....

Ready

First off as you read this, its Loyce's Birthday and she is 39 again!!!  So Happy Birthday to my Dearest Wife!!!

It was 82 degrees on the dash of the pickup as I got out to shut the big double fence gate on the storage lot....  It has a chain and a big combination padlock... But I think the entire world knows the numbers.....  They haven't changed for years........

My hands and arms felt sticky when I got back into the truck but not from the heat, rather the pink RV antifreeze that I was just working with....  The empty bottles were beside me in the passenger floor board...

While the air conditioner was droning away at the house today, a check of the weather forecast told me that we are to be below freezing tomorrow night and for each night until Monday....  Usually they over forecast and it won't get that cold, but can you take that chance..... for $8 worth of the pink stuff?

It usually only takes 2 gallons but we have this whole house  RV filter that probably takes about 2 quarts to fill...  I removed the filter cartridge and dumped the water first...  Then I removed the fresh water tank hose from the pump, replacing it with the little short hose that goes into the gallon jugs....

Tiffin made this setup when they did the plumbing, and I've used it ritually every year since...  Simple and it works..

It always amazes me that I get about a gallon of clear water from the faucets at the sink before the antifreeze runs pink....  And probably another half gallon from the bath sink and more from the shower...  I tossed it out in the weeds.

Step on the pedal for the commode until it runs pink...  And I had already removed and drained the ice maker lines and valve..  Oh, and don't forget the outside shower faucet......  My two gallons were gone from the bottles by now....

I have some older green RV antifreeze that might have been pink at one time, but I don't usually put it in the water lines....  But I dumped the stuff down the drains filling the traps and I'm certain some of it is in the gray tank too...  And then some down the black tank.....  Ok, go ahead and make my day.... freeze if you want to!

And tonight I have been working on a video editor program for Mint Linux...  I took a couple of short videos of the kids playing back yard football when we were out camping.  And needed to edit them together...  So I downloaded Openshot...

Many programs for linux are called Open xxxxx as the programs are open architecture and free...  I finally, sort of learned some of the basics which gave me this video...

I didn't use the highest resolution so it could be better, but then I'm still learning about the program..

Retired Rod

Beverly, another place you can't look up!

When I looked up the ride for Tuesday on the internet forum Sunday morning, it was advertised as Beverly, Missouri...  Where?   I quickly typed that into Google Maps......  All things named Beverly in Missouri appeared...  None of which were the town of Beverly...

Reading the forum post more carefully explained that this used to be a town named Beverly and it was just over the Missouri river bridge East of the town of Leavenworth, Kansas....

Further using the Google earth photos, I was able to identify the building in the pictures...  The place is kind of a used car lot outside and a Bar and Grill inside...  Works for me...

I left home today in another gray foggy misty morning wondering if this would be another ride on a rainy day....  And as I rode North along K-7 to Leavenworth the day didn't get much better....overcast and dreary...

As we met in the parking lot and finally went inside to a really good lunch the sun broke thru in passing glimpses...  But by then I was more intently trying to decide how I was going to eat the massive tenderloin sandwich I had received...  Along with freshly fried Kettle Chips that were made as a specialty at this restaurant....  I never did finish the sandwich or the chips....

When the lunch broke, I rode directly home on I 435 at about 70 mph fighting the wind and traffic of this busy highway...  Other than going down I 29 into the center of downtown or returning on K-7, 435 still remained the best or quickest option...  By now it was almost 80 humid degrees, but still overcast.

The rest of the day has been spent on odd jobs around here at home and studying the many blogs that were missed over the camping weekend...

Again there are numerous pictures on the Romeo Web Site but today I managed to stay out of almost all of them.........

Retired Rod

More projects toward departure.

Back to the work grind here at home.....   The darned yard keeps growing....!  I declare that I am done mowing it but somehow it doesn't hear me.....  So again this morning, it was drag out the lawn mowers......

This seemed to kill most of the morning, but at least it was sunny during that portion of the day...

Then I went for some gasoline to use as the base for pickle solution in the John Deere...   Again mixing up half Stabil and half Sea Foam in a gallon of fuel....

This was added to the fuel tank and I was out driving around the neighborhood on the tractor pulling the treated gas into the carburetor.  My neighbors thought I was nuts....

After that, I dumped the gas out of the push mower and ran it dry...  Its a two cycle Lawn Boy, and there is really no way to pickle two cycle gas... It just goes bad..........

And then I attempted to drain the portable generator...  Its a big noisy contractor style Brigs. I had one heck of a time getting the fuel lines off of its carburetor as they were cooked on...  And that tank had about three gallons left in it...  Ever so slowly it drained into a plastic tank... which I dumped into the truck...  There was about 20 gallons of fresh gas already in the tank, so a bit of stale should go right on thru the engine...

And finally I decided our utility trailer we plan to pull back out to Arizona, was purchased in late 2005. It had the same original tires on it...  They weren't really bad as far as tread but they have never been in a garage for their entire life....

So just like RV tires they are 7 years old, and have to go....  So the rest of the afternoon was spent waiting over at my local tire shop while they caught up enough to change out mine....  I just had to get in line and wait my turn...

Tonight we had the last debate on the TV.  Loyce and I are not sure what we are going to do without confrontational gripping TV in the future...  The one thing we did investigate was when we can advance vote, as perhaps we will be gone before election day.

Kind of a boring day, but a lot of work accomplished just the same...

Retired Rod

Just like that its over.......

The trouble with weekend camping outings is they are over almost before they begin...  And just like that it was Sunday morning and the humid overcast came in from the West...  No sunshine today...

Most of us were still rather full from the feast the night before, so a big breakfast was not on the agenda.  We spent most of the morning cleaning things up to go back into storage...

Mostly for us it was redrain the water from the plumbing and cleaning the sewer system for storage again....  I opened the low point drains before we left for KC...  The fresh water tank didn't have any thing in it, so that wasn't much of a problem...  We will watch the weather forecast to see if we need pink stuff before we slip out of Kansas....

We were way up in the air again with the leveling jacks on the front end...  I had used some of the lynx leveler blocks under the jacks and grandson Caden crawled under and retrieved those..   Grandpa doesn't crawl on the ground as easily as he once did...

I think it was about 2 PM when we left, and Caden decided that he needed to ride in the Motorhome on the way back to KC...  His sisters didn't know about that, and were more than surprised as we left the park with him sitting in the big front seat....  Loyce was driving the little car...

I stopped at Ottawa for the Casey's General Store convenience station next to the big Coop Elevator in Down Town....        They had diesel for $4.19 which was as cheap as I had seen it... I gave $4.39 in Olathe on Thursday....  But I noticed that the price here in town now is $4.25...   Must have hit the absolute high point....  But I usually do not drive around in the coach with under a half a tank of fuel...

I'm not as skittish about it now, but finding diesel in a station where you can get the big motorhome into the driveway and back out into the street is somewhat of a problem...  Not so bad when you aren't pulling a trailer or a car, but when you can't back up stations become truck service places only...

We are going to take the trailer back with us to Arizona, so we will be right back in that mode again..  But that is several weeks away.

Anyway the motorhome is back over in its storage lot tonight and Caden is back at home awaiting going to school in the morning....  Our son's have their campers full of the pink stuff and camping is declared closed.....

But spring will be here before you know it!!!

Retired Rod

Camping at the state park......

So what did we do today?  It was cold in the morning so things didn't get started right away, but slowly the kids came out of their respective campers and began to ride bikes and play in the screen tent which was in the sun...

And our aggressive camp host came right over and wanted to know if we planned to sleep in the screen house....  Well no, it might be a little cold with no canvas sides and only the screen fabric....

What she didn't say was that you can only have one camping structure on a camp site, and having a tent and a travel trailer requires a second campsite  and more money....

By mid afternoon the football game started and the kids were keeping our sons busy in the field behind our rigs....  I think the dads got more of a work out than they expected....

Sammy the golden retriever seems to have himself all tangled around that tree, but is more interested in why he can't participate in the football fun out in the back...

But after yarping a couple of times he attracted Delaney to come get him free.... And open up with some of that loving he craves...

And tonight we had our family favorite meal again which is Bar Be Cue, which tonight is take out from the famous Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City....  They have three places in KCK and we had several racks of ribs along with pulled pork, beans, cheesy corn, and Loyce made some cole slaw....

They had a mild sauce and then some hotter n heck stuff... Night of the Living made from chipotle peppers..  There are other sauces too but our family was struggling with the Night of the Living stuff...

Then to top it all off, son Chris made the Apple Cobbler...   In the cast iron dutch oven....  Its kind of an apple dump cake, but with other ingredients that he won't tell about....  There was a bottle of coke on the table where he was mixing the stuff....

It took about an hour to cook this concoction with the charcoal on top and underneath the oven...  And when the lid came off the steam just rolled from the cast iron pot...  Nicely browned without a single burned spot and the apples were caramelized until almost candy like...

The French Vanilla ice cream melted as it hit the warm bowls...  Dear where's my diabetes pills???

The kids are watching a movie in one of the trailers for the 10,000th time and we adults are sitting next to the open campfire as I type this....

Our last official campfire of the 2012 season....  The stories are spinning, but most of us have heard it all before.....

Uh, man am I full!!!!

Retired Rod

Late October Camping

We are at the state park campground on Pamona Lake in Kansas...  Our family has declared this as the season wrap up for camping...  Our sons are winterizing their rigs when the weekend is over and placing them in storage..

The older son Chris leaves his rig right here in this little town..  Vassar, Kansas is on the South side of the lake and the locals make a business out of serving the users of the state park..

Its been dreary and cold all day as we left the city in 50 degree overcast..  The drive out here takes a little over an hour, and we arrived around 3 PM..  We were told to go pick out a spot and take the card from the site post to the office at the maintenance shed.

We picked a fairly nice spot with an open field behind us and evergreen trees to divide the sites....  I made sure that the spots around us were vacant as well knowing that we really needed three sites...

We sneaked across the street and swiped the card out of the post for that campsite so it looked like it was reserved....  And really it was reserved too because when Ben arrived he went up and paid for it...  But I'm betting that  its not how they thought it should be done.....

This evening we went back into the town of Pamona about 9 miles East of here and had a Pizza fest... Ordering some of the biggest pies available with oodles of toppings.........

But tonight it is to be very cold into the 30 before dawn, so perhaps we will need to bundle up some....  The kids have a campfire going on Ben's site, so I will have to go see how cold it is here after I post this.....

More later, if I can get this to post.... We only have one bar with an external antenna.....  This place really is Far Far Away......

Retired Rod

Motorhome Wiper workaround....

I was searching the internet to find where I found the recommendation about what to do with my 32 inch motorhome wipers.... I spent about a half an hour trying to find that post.  I think it was in I RV2 but even with that I couldn't find it.

But remember how it is about $40 each for the true vision TV8-32 windshield wipers on the motorhomes...   And then another 9.95 in shipping...  So 90 bucks gone to change 20 bucks worth of wipers...

But a fellow suggested on the forum that I can't find, to go purchase the 28 inch Bosch Steel Tech wipers from Wal Mart.   They have the wider frames around the blades, but the plastic inserts are the 8 mm narrow J frames to fit smaller wiper arms...  Well, you say, that won't replace the 12 mm arms on the motorhome...

But if you take the old wipers and push out the plastic insert adapter from the pin thru frame, it will snap right back onto the Bosch wiper,  once you remove the wimpy insert from Bosch...

In reading the forum comments, folks say the 28 inch blades tend to stay on your windshield better than the bigger 32s anyway...  And the bottom 2 inches that you are missing is in the small arc at the bottom....  So you are really only missing the top 2 inches of the wipe.  As I was sitting in the drivers seat, that two inches was well above my head, and in the sky as I looked over the top arc of the smaller wipe...

I haven't found anywhere to go buy these inserts if yours are bad, but if you still have good ones and you can get them unsnapped, the Bosch 28s are only $9.97 at Wal Mart...

I wish I could have found where the fellow suggested this fix to give him credit for his work around...  Alas....

Son Ben and I were out at the local RV dealer again this morning, trying to find a replacement hose for a broken piece out of his Surveyor travel trailer...  He purchased the rig at this dealership, but they just scratched their head looking at the broken piece..

Eventually we decided to take a faucet hook up hose that they had on the shelf in the 5 foot length...  We really only needed 3 feet, but this was pre made and only cost about $9 so while it was not the correct one, perhaps its another work around...

Our day went down the tubes about mid afternoon as the wind began to gust about 30 mph and the temps were in the 50s..  I was outside trying to install a new anode rod into the water heater and had to come in for a heavier jacket..

I had drained the water heater earlier and noted the total destruction of the anode rod when it came out...  I bought another one when I purchased an oil filter for the generator, but never installed it..  So now I can mark that off of the list for fall...

With the wind howling outside tonight it seems like winter has arrived... Lets hope it gets that out of its system in the next few days......

Retired Rod

Rainy lunch..

Once in a while, the Eastern Kansas Romeos have a ride to our side of the state over here in Kansas City...  Since the theme of these rides is small town cafes, they never really get into the city...

They meet on Wednesdays and on this particular Wednesday, they decided to come to Wellsville, Kansas...  A small town about 30 miles South of us here in Overland Park...

When I looked out the window this morning at first light I knew we had cool and rainy weather...  But what the heck, I decided to go anyway...  It wasn't raining outside yet, as usually I don't outright leave the house in the rain.

I even saw the sun off in the distance as I was getting some gas, and riding the 28 miles down there was straight down the interstate so that was quick...





We were headed to Smokey's in the old maroon storefront....  It's a bar be cue, but they were doing breakfasts when we arrived...  We hung around out front until they switched to lunch at 11 AM..



On the right hand side of this table a fellow is bending over asking me which watch I had on today..  I'm barely visible behind him .  I am becoming known for having different and usually large watches on each time we meet..

This was a smaller crowd, and perhaps it numbered 30 or so all total...  As we chatted and chatted, the numbers seemed to thin out.....  What I hadn't realized was that the rains had arrived outside...  Folks were heading for the hills before it poured....

And yes when I went out, it was coming right down..  But I had the full faced helmet, and the rain liner in my jacket so I headed home at normal speeds...  Not on the interstate, as following semi trucks that kick up walls of water is not too fun...

I came up the old US highway 56 to Gardener and then on home on the back roads...  About 55 leisurely mph...  The last couple of miles it seemed to rain harder, but I wasn't overly wet either...  I managed to get myself into a number of the pictures on the Romeo's Web Site for today's ride... If your curious....

Later in the afternoon, we cleared out on the rain but a passing cold front has us much more chilly tonight...

We spent the evening with one of our grand daughters watching shows on TV that are suitable for her age group....  But we had fun as well....

Retired Rod

Appleton City Missouri for Romeo Lunch

Where in the world is Appleton City, Missouri....?  That was my question when this lunch ride was posted....  Never heard of it...  So I asked google and this is the map that it returned...   Well OK then...

It turned out to be 80 miles down there, and my son Ben was interested in going, so plans were made for 8:30 this morning...

It wasn't cold, but rather just cool at 61 degrees as we left...  Still at highway speeds we bundled up in our riding gear and gloves...  Since we are becoming seasoned at these rides, we just headed that way out thru the country South of town...  First one of us lead, and then the other...

We stopped and rested in the new police department building parking lot at Harrisonville, Mo.  Its amazing that a simple 10 minute rest can rejuvenate you to make the rest of the ride.



This is the front door of the restaurant, and we were told that the door would be locked if we arrived before 11 AM... Most all of us did!  But that's the funny part, since we were billed as a motorcycle club, they told us we could park around to the South side of the building and come in the back door...........   ??  Like maybe they were expecting the hells angels??



There it is the very back door by the dumpsters....  Don't want those dirty bikers chasing away our regular customers......!

Well I think there were over 80 of us and we filled the entire room.  Stressed the staff on hand to serve us all and more than likely added about $500 to their lunch day.  And there were bikes parked all over the place, on three sides of the building.  So much for hiding us....  LOL



My son Ben is in the yellow shirt farthest away from the camera toward the back, and I was behind him...  Oh, and that last table against the wall was filled up completely after this picture was taken as well...  We filled the entire room...

The folks hung around outside for another half an hour or more, so if they were embarrassed, I guess so be it...



The door we had to come in was back behind where that blue semi grain truck is parked...  Too much!  Again these photos and many more are posted on the Romeo Web Site for today..

The wind had really picked up as we rode back to Kansas City, which made the ride a bit of a challenge..  We crossed back over into Kansas and returned on US 69, which didn't have as much traffic on it and is better or newer road...

Once we were headed back to the North, the wind was behind us, so keeping the 75 mph speed limit wasn't much of a problem...  We were home by about 2:30..

Retired Rod

I keep the DMV in business once again.. Tomorrows ride...

I was back over to the DMV again today as I had another car tag that needed processed...  And I am happy to announce to the world at large that things were a OK straightened away today.....!!

I checked on the internet, and they said the wait was under two minutes...  That meant that getting a ticket number wouldn't work because it was going to take me 20 minutes to get over there...

I walked in and got a ticket....  I looked over the screen on the monitor as my number appeared in the list....  I think there were about five other numbers  on the screen...  And as I was walking over to take a seat in the waiting area, they called all five of the numbers..

They had more people at the windows than they had customers to assist...  About ten minutes later I had my renewal in hand and I was leaving the office...  Now that's how it should work...

The lady helping me said they had made a lot of improvements to the screens on the computer system, making it match the way we do things in Kansas, which has really helped in the processing time.  And even on heavy business days, like the last day of the month, they aren't nearly so backlogged.

People wait until the last possible moment in the month to get their tags renewed...  Either from shortage of funds or time or both....  They put it off and then everyone needs help all at once...

Tomorrow is the Romeo ride, and the weather is slated to be in the upper 70s, but with strong winds... Wonder if that will effect the long ride they have planned..?  It is about 80 miles to the little town in Southern Missouri..

Son, Ben is coming in the morning, and we are leaving fairly early if all works as planned..  The restaurant doesn't do breakfasts, so that will give us some extra time.  It will be a mix of back roads, and some fast four lane highway..   I really enjoy the slower roads without the hurry better....

As usual, I am stoked for another ride!

Retired Rod

A ride in the car and Red Robin Burgers

Well so much for my worry about folks taking exception with my taxes information on Obama Care...  Only 4 folks were stirred enough to make comments...  I guess everyone understands the ramifications....

But we did have about twice as many folks look at the blog than we normally do, so the title is somewhat of a hot button...

It was a beautiful day here as the sun was out almost from the start of the day and temps rose to about 70 degrees in the late afternoon...  Biscuit and I were out in the sunshine cleaning on one of the cars..  Many of our neighbors were out in front of their houses as well...  Just enjoying the warmer day..

Loyce went to a movie with the grandkids and their mom...  I'm not much of a movie goer, and definitely not a kids Halloween movie, so I stayed back at the house...  But late in the afternoon, a couple of the kids and Loyce and I went on a ride out thru the countryside in Missouri...  We enjoyed the afternoon sun and the fall colors..  Our leaves have been somewhat confused this year as some trees have outright lost their leaves due to the drought, and others are still just as green as summer.....  We haven't had a hard freeze yet....

Tonight we went over to Red Robin for a burger with the entire family of my second son...  It was kind of an impromptu thing as we were together and hungry at the same time..   

And then later tonight it was wrist watch shows on the shopping network..  I know, that is a total waste of time, but they were in the Bahamas which is cool...  And I didn't buy anything which is also cool....

Retired Rod

The mirror is back in the MH / Obamacare Taxes

It rained here all day and quite hard at times turning into a soaking down pour...

And since the only work that could be done had to be indoors, I decided that it was time to tackle that mirror that I had rebuilt by my friend Larry..  Remember we had caulked the glass mirror into the rebuilt frame and left it to solidify in the garage..  And it did just that with the caulk becoming quite firm.

Originally it was glued to the inside wall of the coach with construction adhesive, and then nailed to the wall with an air staple gun.  The brads were just short of being long enough to go completely thru the wall and extend out the outside...

I have an air staple gun, and my brads are 1 3/4 inches long, which would have protruded completely thru the wall...  Easy, go buy shorter brads.....  But the only wood these nails are going into is the 3/16 ths panel under the wall paper, otherwise it is just styrofoam.

So I decided to use some dry wall screws..  They were short enough to not go all the way thru, and they have some thread on them to help bite into that flimsy wall....

I did use about half a tube of tub surround liquid nails on the back of the mirror frame first and then I drilled holes thru the frame for the screws.  After setting about half of the screws into the holes, Loyce and I carefully lifted and placed the mirror on the wall.  We only had one time to get this right..  The glue grabbed almost instantly, as we tried to correct the placement for straight up...

While Loyce held the mirror in place I started to set the screws home...  They pulled the glue into compression remarkably well..  I used a bunch of them...  And they look kind of tacky, as you can see the heads..  But they are black and phillips which almost looks like the factory did it that way...

We left the coach out in the driveway as it was time for the Iowa game...  Which I can happily report we won in overtime....  I about had a heart attack watching...

But tonight the coach is back over in storage with the mirror on its wall, and the drive over there didn't seem to hurt the mounting scheme any...  And I am much relieved....
---------------

In reading the Tin Teepee tonight, I ran head long into a discussion on Obama Care... Where the US folks are expressing their fright, and several of my Canadian friends are wondering why we are so concerned...

So I am taking an attempt to explain what I feel the problem here might be..  I don't think anyone is concerned with the additional coverage and protections of the plan, as they are all nice and help with prior short comings of the system...

But as an accountant that worked with taxes for most of my life I feel the problem is the additional taxes especially on employers... It is very punitive on small businesses that have more than 50 employees...  In 2014 many of these companies will be eliminating anyone that might not be absolutely mandatory  to  their operation...  We haven't seen anything yet as far a people out of work...      I found this discussion on these taxes on About.com..  Please read it to help your understanding...

Taxes under Obama Care 

Our economy will remain in the tank as far a jobs are concerned with these provisions hanging over our heads as small business employers will not hire anyone new.  There just isn't enough profits in today's economy to sustain these costs......

You may disagree with my take on this as I realize that it is the conservative line...  So the comments are open, go ahead... and I will not delete anyone as long as it is respectful of others views...  No flaming or name calling...

Retired Rod

Motorhome comes home...

That oil change on the generator is done!  And I had too many other things left to do to return the rig back to storage tonight so it is still here at the house...  Parked sideways across the driveway...

It gets dark quite a bit earlier now, so I ran out of daylight before all the work was done...  But I was out of gas personally, so that was fine......  I had worked outside for most of the day...

The pickup is parked over in the storage lot where the motorhome usually sits, so that gives us room in the driveway for the coach, but I miss the pickup as I usually use it for the errand jobs like looking for parts, as I work on the broken stuff in the rig...

And that was what I was concentrating on this afternoon, broken windshield wipers....  We have the 32 inch kind with the hook arms that are popular today... But replacements are costly $35-40 for each wiper and then shipping to  get them here...   I'm not brave enough to ask the RV shop locally what they want, but $50 or more is my guess.  Otherwise I didn't find a source here in KC.

So I thought I would just give up the 32 inch replacements and go for more normal 28 inch truck wipers...     And I took the blade over to the auto parts store and the fellow sold me the 28s he thought I needed...  Had the hook ends on them and everything......   But!

When I got home with them, it was quite obvious that they were much narrower than the bigger heavy duty  ones on the motorhome.  Turns out that normal truck wipers have 8mm width hooks on their wiper arms...  And the motorhome version has 12mm wide hooks..  The circumference of the hook's arc is the same, but it would take a lot of grinding to make the smaller blades match the arms...

A little thought about that, and I decided that trying to find replacement arms later after I modified ours would just add to the problem..  Everyone I have ever talked to about wipers has warned me about their cost and availability..

So as I took the smaller wipers back to the auto parts store, that's when it started to be too dark......  I just picked up the tools and closed all the doors to wait for another day...

But the pesky genny is now filled with three quarts of new fresh Rotella 15w-40 diesel grade oil and the genuine Onan replacement filter.  I did look up a cross reference part number for Wix and Fram replacements as I think I am about done paying $18 for the factory model..  Its just a little three cylinder diesel engine...  Next year will be different...



And I was reminded again why I don't like to change oil in diesel engines, as the stuff is black as your hat and stains everything..  I was wearing nitrile gloves, or my hands would be nasty too...  Again this is one of those engines you can't get done at Jiffy Lube...

You have to take the front side out of the green case to get to the filter.  There is a trap door on the bottom, but when you spin off the filter the used oil runs right back down the door and onto your arm and clothes...  And usually the filter is cooked onto the engine  tighter than you can turn by hand anyway..   I use a strap wrench....  I had black oil everywhere to clean up... Took about a roll of paper towels..  glad that's only once a year!

I just let Biscuit out, and its raining outside and about 50 degrees,  I think I will turn on the gas fireplace for its ambiance and warmth, like my friend Rick did up on Vancouver Island.........

Retired Rod

Back and forth to the garage...

Deliver the motorhome to the Freightliner garage, and pick up the youngest grandchild at her school...  That was the order of the morning...  We were up and at it fairly early, but time seemed to slip away as we found that we were almost late to go to the school...

But we did manage to get there before Abby's teacher brought her out of the school...  And she must be enjoying that school because she was talking and talking about it as we headed for the motorhome.

It was overcast from about 10 AM on today, and as I was pulling into the garage parking fence, it seemed to be sprinkling....  The service writer was inside waiting for my keys....  But we were early for that appointment...

By this time Biscuit was in the back seat trying to sit with Abby in her car seat...  She loves the grandkids but is too forward with them, sometimes almost frightening them with her enthusiasm..  But Abby takes it in her stride saying "Biscuit get down!"

We came home for Abby's lunch and I was busy on the computer....  Answering emails and paying bills....  The rain never seemed to come...  But it was warm in the low 70's.  So I slipped out on the scooter, when Abby went down for a nap...

I went to several auto parts stores looking for a certain type of door ding protector that I had seen on the internet, but didn't find it in real life... And to Wal Mart for a prescription...... and of course Wendy's..  Still no rain...  So that was how our day went here...

Tonight after 5 PM I was back over to the Freightliner place paying my bill... $275 for a 17 quart oil change and three filters...  The oil filter, and two diesel fuel filters that are bigger than the oil filter...  Each of them are about $30, again with the oil filter being the cheaper one.

I have reconciled that this service is going to cost about this much each year and that it is a good thing, because they keep track of the recalls on the chassis and perform them each time we are there..  Today it was inspect the brakes.

Seems that as these chassis have aged and sat around as much as motorhomes do, the calipers have deteriorated and leak and get mushy when the brakes are applied....  Ours passed the inspection, and the fellow thought that since we spend the winters in the desert, moisture while sitting wasn't nearly as much of an issue....  But he did say this is an ongoing program to inspect and see how bad the fleet really is...  They could still formulate an across the board repair or replacement of the calipers.....  Just hang in there, and we will all know more in the future.

The engine seemed soooo smoooooth as I was driving back to the storage lot.  I always like how new oil feels for a little while anyway..

So our grandchild went home, and we came back to watch the debate again tonight...  The talking heads were spinning and spinning afterwards, until I had to turn it off...  Again one fellow didn't watch the same event that the other fellow did...

Its amazing how these days can go by so fast, but we do have fresh oil and are that much closer to an Arizona departure...  But I never did get back to the house with the coach to do that generator oil change...  Maybe tomorrow.....!

Retired Rod

Getting Ready for the Southwest

I had a lot of things planned for this morning, but going into the master bathroom and disassembling the commode wasn't in the plan...  But we got a gigantic water bill.....

And mostly, I think the broken pipes from the outside irrigation system were the culprit.   We think that the water had been running underground before the big break that caused the street flood...

Our neighbor to the West was all over that event, turning off the water supply at the irrigation valve.  It only ran about a half an hour...  But since we do not need anymore of those nasty bills, lets get the running toilet fixed while we are at it...

This house is only six years old, but the stuff that goes into homes these days barely lasts.  I decided to go get a flapper valve first and then adjust the float once the big hole in the bottom of the tank was closed...

I took the motorcycle over to Lowes, and it was really cool in the early morning....  And naturally they didn't have a ball flapper that had the exact same length in the arms....  Again, the cheap toilets were made in Siberia or somewhere remote like that....

Once home with a close as possible part, I spent the next part of an hour adjusting things to make it work....  And the water only runs when the handle is pushed!!!  Nice...

The next step was back on the scooter and about 20 miles to the South and our local RV dealership, where I purchased an Onan Generator oil filter and an anode rod for the water heater...    Ours could be used longer, but why not replace it while its out...

The next stop was to make an appointment at the Freightliner repair shop for the annual oil change......  And they had a spot for tomorrow, so I took it..  This is pricey work, but I changed the oil at home one year and it was such a mess with 17 quarts of dirty used oil to deal with... So I'll have to pay..

After a Wendy's, I was back at home changing oil in things that can't be taken to the Jiffy Lube, or Wal Mart...  First the motor cycle...  I paid to have it changed last spring, and they hit me $257...  For four quarts and a filter...  Not doing that again........!

It did take me the best part of 2 hours to take the plastic sides off and get it changed... And that is why it costs so much..  Its not hard, just slow...  And I am slower, but retired....

So since I was already oily, I tackled mister John Deere next...  He only holds a quart and a half, but having him picked up from the dealer and worked on and then delivered back, makes the motorcycle seem cheap...

So that was our day here, as when I was cleaning up, the sun began to set...  And once the sun is gone the cold comes rushing in.....

After I get the motorhome engine serviced, I will have to bring the rig back here and change that genny....  It takes three quarts and a filter, but you have to disassemble the big green case that covers the engine to get at the filter... They say you can reach up inside from the bottom, but I have never been able to...

We do most of this stuff every year getting ready for the Southwest.......

Retired Rod

I thought Dearborn was in Michigan...........?

I did manage to get out of bed before the sun was out this morning and was ready to ride by about 8 AM...  But, it was still in the 40's and I sort of held back.....

Dressing slowly in the riding gear, and adding an additional layer to my upper torso...   I had the liners in the coat and pants and heavy socks on...  But once the temp reached 50, I was off....

This was a highway ride to Dearborn, Missouri..  It is up North of KC on I 29, just outside of Saint Joseph...  Google Maps called it 54 miles, and that seemed to be about correct...

I still messed around getting a full tank of gas and letting the sun warm the air..  But eventually I hit the road and speeds of about 70...  It was cool....  I made it up there by about 10:15 and some of the riders were already standing around in the street, but I was with the first group that went in to the restaurant.  The Cooks Corner..  The place was fairly nice inside and we were treated like royalty...  There are lots of photos on the Romeo Web Site including one of me looking rather fat.......  Now if that don't make you go look, nothing will....




Your probably tired of all these pictures of folks eating in Restaurants, so I will only put one on here and let you go look at all the others, if you want...

We stood around outside for a while looking at the bikes and telling more stories, until all at once everyone headed out.  I ended up following a group of fellows on BMW bikes.  They were travelling rather quickly back South..

My bike speedometer registers about 10% fast and I was showing 85...  That would be somewhere around 78.. But as I looked in my mirror, a fellow on a Honda Gold Wing came up from behind....

There were two of them on this bike, and the rider was a gal...  They beeped at us as they passed, but they were keeping at least 15 mph more than we were..  Zoom, right on by.....  I do think they were going 90 or so.....  I expected to see them pulled over with a big ole Kansas Patrolman behind them.... But it never happened, at least on the road that we were on...

It didn't even take an hour to get home following these fellows.....

Later in the day, I ended up over at Wal Mart waiting for a tire to be installed on the back of the pickup truck.....  Remember we had one replaced out in New Mexico on our trip back, and now it has a mate on the other side of the back end.

As we go into the possibly slick weather, I felt it was important to have matching new tires on the back end, or perhaps the older one with minimal tread would spin while the new one grabbed into the road..  The fronts were better, so I left them on...  Maybe next year....!

And in answer to Rick's question about me begrudging a little turkey and mashed potatoes, it was more like I was lusting for some.......  It happens every year, my Canadian friends send me all these pictures of 18 pound turkeys and things, and I have to wait until late November....  And by then the Canucks are down here having a second Thanks Giving.....  That must be awful thankful!!  From what I can tell.......

I had better shut it up before I get myself into even more trouble.....

Retired Rod

Thinking of Arizona...

Sandie wanted to know if we plan to take the Motorhome back to Arizona, and I think the answer to that is Yes...  We neither one like to stay in Motels and Biscuit is so antsy at night listening to the other patrons, that we never get any sleep...

It will cost a bunch more, but RVing is a lifestyle choice..... And its never cheaper!   Perhaps we can use the RV to go on some winter trips around the area.....

And then Sandie brought up Quartzsite......  And yes, but with a quotation of perhaps.....  We don't do very well without water....  With my handicap from last years surgery....  But I'm not going into that here on the blog... TMI.

I can't help but wonder what the weather will be like by the time November rolls around....   It can be fickle and threaten to snow, or be nice and indian summer like...

I was thinking about that as I was draining the water out of the motorhome...  Especially when I was draining the ice maker lines in the fridge....  Will it actually get all frozen and cold by the time we leave....?  Should I put in the pink stuff...?  But if I don't it I will be asking for nasty weather......!

Not much going on here, but I was thinking all day about all of those really thankful Canadians, who were slaving away making Turkey!!  And Mashed Potatoes!!  I was lucky if I had turkey sandwich.... and then it was that thin sliced deli kind of turkey!  Too bad its so far up there......

Tomorrow is another Romeo Ride, but I will have to look where they are going...  With rides this far into the fall, it is all about how the morning looks, or more importantly how cold it feels.....  I think they are going about 50 miles each way, and its mostly interstate...  That's kind of boring...!

Speaking of boring, that's a lot like this blog so I will stop right here.......

Retired Rod

Last night in Des Moines

While 28 is not the coldest night we have spent in the motorhome, it is on the list of coldest nights..  I had both forced air heaters going and the electric space heaters running as well....

The space heaters run non stop when it gets that cold, and then the LP heaters come on and off to help catch things back up... Otherwise the electric heaters couldn't keep up....

When I went to bed, I turned off the back heater, as we like it kind of cool, and the front LP heater was set at 66...  It blows some heat into the water locker where the hoses fasten onto the water fittings....

When we got up this morning, Loyce had to turn on the water pump to get some water........ Uh, must be froze up in the hose.... but when I went outside, I found that the water hose bib didn't have any water...  It came up from underground and didn't seem to be frozen...

We decided to go get a biscuit in town, so as we were leaving, I stopped by where the park owners were cleaning the master bathroom...  They acted like they didn't know that part of the park had no water and blamed it on my frozen hose....  But I explained that none of the hookups in our loop had water... He said he would look into it....

We drove around Waukee, the town to the North of the campground and passed the local shooting club where they shoot clay targets... Its quite close to the CG so once they start in the morning, you can't sleep in... Boom, Boom, BOOM!

When we arrived back at the CG, we had water....Either it miraculously unfroze itself, or the owner had shut it off, as it was now on and running normally...  I looked on the internet and the temps were only below freezing for about 2 hours, so the water lines never froze........

But with water restored that was our cue to get all the jobs done to head out.  After a shower for both of us, I washed out the water tanks and the sewers..  And as we were leaving, I opened the drains on the water storage tank...

It took us 4 hours do drive back South to KC and the sun warmed things as we drove.  It was about 60 as we pulled into the driveway here at the house...   Once here, I pulled out the drain plug on the water heater and opened the low point drains on the plumbing...  I'll leave it open for a couple of days before installing the pink stuff..  I also opened the ice maker line on the back of the fridge...  I broke that valve a couple of years ago....

After carrying loads of stuff back into the house, I went and put the rig in storage... Loyce went over to our son's house for Biscuit doggie....  She has been entertaining the grand kids all weekend.......

These big weekends are tiring on us old codgers!!  Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends and readers.....!

Retired Rod

Another luncheon and my buddy's CVO Harley

Today was a ham buddy lunch date....  I actually made the lunch that all the Des Moines fellows go to on Saturday....  This one was at a place out on the Southside of Des Moines by the Airport..

It is called Francies, and when I worked in town, we often met here for lunches during the week as well as on Saturdays...  But it never occurred to me to take a picture of the place..

But after lunch, we traveled over to one of my ham friends homes, where I asked to see his new touring ride...  A CVO Road Glide...   Now CVO stands for Custom Vehicle Operations...  And so this machine was not produced on the normal motorcycle assembly line..





It is hand built by one person from the the beginning to the end..  That fellow picks the parts and assembles them from the very start...  The paint is all custom and can cost over 5K more than a stock machine..

Also all that chrome would be about 8 K more....   The seats are custom leathers...  And the list goes on with special loud stereo and so on....

It was an over cast day, and my little cell phone camera didn't do the bike any favors...




But you get the gist of all of this, with its 1800 cc engine which is 110 cubic inches, this thing is beyond a normal ride.....  When started it has a deep throaty sound that might still be Harley, but it also says I am a poppa Harley...  Its potato potato but about an octave lower than its brothers....

Custom Vehicle Operations replaced the older Screaming Eagle bikes that Harley was making in 2009.  And this is a 2009...   I know it just looks like another motor cycle, until you get the normal stock machine beside it and see how much difference there really is...

Any way I ended up back over to my sister in law's home, and then out to eat again tonight....  It was family and lots of things to get caught up on...

Oh, I did go over to Northern Tool and Equipment that has a store here in Des Moines and purchase a small inverter that will plug into the cigar lighter and put out 110 volts AC at 200 watts.  Its a Chinese piece so nothing special, but it ran my laptop without any problem at all and will allow for phone charging and several other tasks...



I am spoiled that I have the 2000 watt inverter in the motor home, but nothing in the Honda, and at $28, the little inverter seemed to be a bargain.  It was on special, and was priced less than its 150 watt cousin.

Tonight we are to be below freezing again, and hope to see some warm up tomorrow...  It was rather cool in the motorhome last night, but we managed without much trouble...

Retired Rod

Cold, but too busy to notice...

Today was a whirlwind of activities as we were up early in the morning and found a temperature of 40.... We showered and dressed in a hurry with the heaters running....

As we headed out for the day, that was when I noticed the low tire pressure indicator in the car was on.......  Whoa, that's not good.... So I turned right around and went back for the air supply compressor in the coach....  With a gauge I learned that most of the tires were about 30 pounds but that one was 26, and that must have been the culprit.

Once aired back to about 35 all around, we headed back out for the day.  We found a Mc Donalds for a biscuit and coffee, but I can't remember where... Somewhere in Urbandale, I think...

Next we headed to the show arena downtown...  The show was held in the Des Moines Events Center, which is the old Veterans Auditorium, but it has been remodeled by the Hy Vee grocery folks....  I dropped Loyce at the side entrance... She wanted at least three hours.....

Well that was alright with me, as I headed back out to West Des Moines for the Amateur Radio luncheon...  It is held every Friday at a Chinese Buffet...  They have the meeting room reserved on most days, and there are several steam tables with numerous hot entrees....

I took it easy, but found a baked Salmon with Lemon Butter and then braised with bar be cue sauce...  Boy it was to die for...  And then General Tao Chicken...  Rice and Pot Stickers, and on and on........

I lost count, but I think there were over thirty of us at a single long table...  Everyone was talking with everyone all at once.....

I almost forgot that I was supposed to go get Loyce at 2 PM....  But I shook clear almost in time until I hit the big group of emergency vehicles on the freeway...

I wasn't too late, and she had enjoyed the show so much that she said it was one of the best ones ever...  And declared that we were coming back again next year....  Uhhh,.....  We'll never get out of Kansas any earlier than snow balls.....

Then tonight we had a wonderful diner over at our sister's home in Urbandale...  She cooked stuffed pork loins for us with potatoes and broccoli.    We're eating way too well here....

But back at the coach after dark the inside temp was 44 degrees...  And it is to be below freezing before morning.....  I broke down and started the propane heaters.. You have to have them all running, to keep the water lines from freezing..

So I'm about killed tonight from a big day of seeing so many friends, that I can't list them all, but we really enjoyed seeing and talking to everyone....

And tomorrow will be more of the same....  I had better go stoke the fire....!

Retired Rod

Quilts??

It was rather cool in here tonight when we got back from Fuddruckers after having one of those little third pound burgers..........  emmmm good..

The heater said 53 degrees when I started it and it has run for about and hour now and is up to 67...  We could start the forced air furnace, but it makes so much noise and dims the lights and burns copious amounts of propane......

They said on TV that by morning we will see 36 degrees..... and that is rather cool for the motorhome...  We've stayed in here in the 20s but that takes the forced air furnace and the space heaters...

As you may have guessed, we are not in Kansas any more, as we have headed North to Des Moines for the quilt show that Loyce wants to attend....

It was in the mid 60s when we left this morning, but we quickly left those comfortable climates behind as we headed up I 35...  The same interstate I was on two weeks ago heading for a Romeo luncheon..  And I was quite warm.....  But not today, as we fell into the 50s and then the 40s with rain...

We stopped at a truck stop in Bethany that has a Wendy's, and it rained so hard I had to wait in the motorhome for a while..  Then it began to sleet some pelting little white balls....  I ran for the restaurant...

After lunch and a fill up of diesel ($3.94), we drove on North to the state line where the clouds began to lessen..  And the temps came back into the 50s....

But the wind was still out of the Northwest and blowing the big slab sides of the rig, while I chased the coach all over the road.... Herding it along up the highway.....

So even though I set the rig up in sunshine, it was still rather cool here at the Timberline Campground West of West Des Moines....  We have stayed here so many times before, the lady at the desk, looked up at me and said I recognize you.... your one of our regulars....

But then I had to help her with my name, but I was in the data base on her computer, so checkin was rather quick....  As we talked about spending the winter in Arizona....  They spent last year in Mesa Spirit, where we stayed in 2009 and 2010...

After dinner tonight, I decided that my light jacket and sweat shirt just weren't up to the task, so I went over to Wal Mart and purchased a heavier coat for our stay here....  They are calling for near freezing before Sunday when we plan to leave heading back South....

But any night in the RV is a good night even if it is a tad cool.....

Retired Rod

Still fixing on that broken mirror....

I always reflect on my activities of the day trying to find something that was the most interesting out of what I have done...  But some days there just isn't much that is interesting....

I think I explained in a past blog how the full length mirror on our motorhome's wall became lose and fell when I was driving last summer...   In the desert heat while the coach was stored, the glue that fastened the mirror to the wall melted..  Also the glass was too heavy for a few remaining brad nails to hold it up.

So I had left this mirror and frame at my son Chris' neighbor's house...  He is a proficient wood worker, building many different things and selling them at country shows here in the midwest....  We would call them flea markets out in the Southwest...

So I went over to Larry's today to pick the re assembled frame and glass mirror back up....  He had installed steel angle brackets on the back of the frame and had re glued the corners and filled he crumbling frame.  It looks as though nothing has ever happened to it from the front.

Together we cut the hardened glue caulk from the back of the glass and reinstalled it into the frame....  And then Larry knew just the place for me to take the mirror to get it recaulked..

After driving to the glass shop and explaining my needs, a fellow came out with a glue gun and climbed into the back of my pickup and re glued the glass into the frame...

I have decided not to put the mirror back into the motorhome for a week or so in order to let the caulk become hard and solidify the bond.   Perhaps one day next week it can be reglued into place on the wall.  But I want to use some screws to hold it in place as well....  It may not look as clean as a factory job, but perhaps it will stay on the wall for a longer time......

And I did go over and get the motorhome, which is parked out at the curb in front of the house tonight...   That breaks the rules, but since it is now midnight and the police haven't come yet, perhaps we will be good to go for a while tomorrow.....

My son Ben and I loaded the portable air conditioner out of the side door tonight, as we probably will not need the unit again this year....  But next summer it will be ready to rip when we travel in the heat again...

And yet again we had the scrub brush out with soap and water washing those pesky black streaks off of the painted sides of the coach.  Seems like I am always washing this dark colored RV....  Do your self a favor and don't purchase a rig with lots of navy blue and black in the paint scheme....

Of course tonight we watched the debates, and then the news coverage after the  candidates were done....  I am amazed at the lack of objectivity in today's news coverage.... MSNBC might just as well have the Democratic party as their network logo....   And we all know that Fox leans far to the Right....  Its like they didn't even watch the same event.!

But not being a political blog, I'll leave my own views out !!

Retired Rod

Sister's and Friends, Hume, Mo.

You see that tan building behind the stop sign?  Its the restaurant that was the object of today's Romeo Rider ride.  But more interestingly do you see the grain bin to its right?  Its part of the restaurant.....  Its called Sister's and Friends....



We are in Hume, Missouri, a little town about 70 miles South of Kansas City along the Kansas and Missouri border.

The aging pictures on the wall in the restaurant show coal mining activities and the loading of rail cars with the mined coal.   The train tracks still go North to South thru the center of town.  But I didn't see any coal activities today...  That probably ended many years ago..



This picture was taken in the grain bin dining room.  The Romeos were in attendance in numbers that filled the entire room.

Its hard to get an accurate count, because some come for breakfast and arrive early in the morning, and others come for brunch and still others for lunch arriving around 11 AM.  Mostly the bikers are gone by noon before the usual town folk crowd would arrive.

They felt that there were 60 to 70 Romeos during the morning, in addition to the normal local crowd..  That should make a big difference in this tiny community.

I have to admit that I didn't have any sensation that we were in the grain bin when I was eating my scrambled eggs, sausage and biscuits and gravy #1 breakfast...  I think it was $5.49  and if I had ordered ham it was a dollar more.



As usual, the picture that I am in is of my back, as I am the round fellow at the left of the picture...  But my son across from me seems intently listening to my line of bull.....  Even the waitress in the middle of the picture had a Romeo T shirt on....

I didn't have any lunch after that...  But as I was leaving town, looking at the outside of the establishment, I realized that we had to be out in the steel bin...  I scratched my head at that one...

Today my son Ben came over at about 8:30 and rode with me out of Overland Park down the divided highway of US 69.  We moved right along in the cool but brightly sunny morning.  We exited the good road at the town of Prescott, which is on the Kansas side of the state line, but sister to Hume.

It was rather cool as we left town with readings of 51 on the bike temperature gauge.  I adorned my full finger gloves right at the start of the ride, and after about 10 miles, I put an additional liner in my jacket as the wind up my sleeves was becoming quite cold.

On our way back home, Ben and I enjoyed a leisurely ride thru the towns of La Cygne, and then thru the country side to Osawatomi, and then Paola where I was last week in the rain.. It was drop dead gorgeous in the low 70s with little wind.  We didn't want to come home....

But our freedom came to an end by about 3 PM as we had daily activities and responsibilities to pursue, but we hope the weather will continue so we can do this again.......

But the forecast for next week is for much colder, and Loyce wants to go to a quilt show up in Des Moines..........  But this day will be one for the memories, especially because Ben rode with me to enjoy it.....

Retired Rod

Pictures from the Romeo weekly ride web site...

Finished at the lake, and Apple Ipad update...

Ah yes the pontoon boat, was covered in spider poop and web upon web from the countless spiders that have lived in it over the second half of the summer.... nasty!

We never did get to use the boat over Labor Day, as it rained and rained all that weekend...  And it was quite cold...  The grandkids were turning blue just trying to swim from the dock.

So the power washer had to come out and I spent about three hours with it and a scrub brush on a pole...  It  was sort of cleaner, but as I took off the cover anyway...   it became  power wash the parts under the cover, but eventually I gave up and  had to do the fuel pickle and get the engine started even though it remains  so dirty.

I made up a mixture of stabil and sea foam using 50/50 8 ounces of each in a gallon of gas..  I added this mixture to the gas in the tank, about 12 gallons....  I am sure that the gas wasn't overly fresh either.

I cranked for quite a while, but it finally caught and coughed into running...  I let it run on a fast idle for quite a while, and then took off around the side of the lake....  After about 4 miles, I declared that the treated gas was now up into the injection system...  It was running as smooth as I have ever heard it, so that means the Sea Foam was doing its thing.

Back at the dock, I tied up and put the cover back on once I had the battery tender installed and plugged in...  The battery was dated 04 of 09, so its about on its last legs, perhaps the tender has its work cut out for it.

We had all the normal cleaning tasks  as well once the dock was secured..  Oh, I had to drain the water line that goes from the house out onto the dock...  Its plastic pipe out to the sea wall , and from there it is ordinary hose...  I didn't get it drained right one year and the plastic pipe shatters when frozen water is inside!!

Tonight we are back here in KC and I have been going round and round with Verizon and Loyce's Apple Ipad.  Seems that they cut us off since our card account had a new expiration date...   But they couldn't renew the card because our software wasn't the newest version.... on the ipad...  What?

But we didn't have a connection to get the newest version because the bill wasn't paid.....  I spent a couple of hours with the tablet hooked up to our cable internet wifi updating the operating system, which then locked up because it couldn't find the verizon connection......  See the circle of no return here?

So I don't have that cult like feeling about Apple.....  It isn't just better....  The verizon tech told me that he couldn't fix it...  Call Apple, who is closed by now and will have to be called in the morning..........

Once off the phone with verizon, I kept repeatedly clicking on this continue button and it kept freezing, until I tapped it about ten times in a row out of frustration...  And boom!  it went to the next page wanting me to agree to the conditions and agreements....  I answered a few other quick questions and bang I was updated and on the new system with our verizon connection restored ........  Yes you too can purchase an Apple tablet..  But be sure to keep your credit card info up to date.............!!!

Retired Rod