Wednesday Doing’s

Well, Donna’s off to the truck company, but she had to take Sam’s Duramax, her little Escape gave her trouble on the way home last night, She stopped at a convenience store and then when she backed out of the parking space and went to put it from reverse into drive it hung up in neutral and no amount of force would move the gearshift lever. Sam drove up there and he couldn’t figure it out, stepping on the brake hard, shutting it down and then restarting, the lever wouldn’t budge and the car was in neutral. Two guys helped push it back into the the parking space. The tow truck was called and it went to the Ford dealer to be looked at today, Hope we get it back today or Donna won’t have any wheels for work Thursday as Sam is heading out on a trip with the bus.

                                             Donna’s Escape

It’s a 2002 model and so far with well over 100.000 miles it has not costs up much on repairs. See it pays to change oil every 3000 miles.

Hopefully it will be something easy to find, maybe a broken piece of shift linkage, or and electrical part in the brake pedal interlock, this is a ford product that you have to have your foot on the brake to shift it from park or neutral into gear.

Yesterday was another nice sunny day in the 80”s. Sam went out and took both batteries out of the 5th wheel to check them, the top one needed some water in all the cells, the bottom one only needed a little water in two cells, not bad for being hooked up to the post for the winter. I checked both and they both registered fully charged, I think they are both 2 or 3 years old so, I might get another couple years out of them, so far we haven’t camped much without electrical hookups.

Also got the digital TV converter working, but I found it is only good for one TV at a time. I told Donna before we leave we will measure the entertainment center and buy a flat screen HDTV for the living room and keep the small bedroom TV on the converter. That way we won’t have to switch from one TV to the other.

While I was checking the TV’s I opened the DVD to put a disk in it and found one of my train movies I couldn’t find during the winter. It had been left in the DVD on our last trip and spent the winter there. All the DVD players and Radio systems worked.

Maybe today I will sand and paint the spots on the frame and springs and underneath area that needs yearly freshening up I like a nice clean black looking bottom without rust spots.

Sam got his order’s for Thursdays trip, he will pick up some High School students in Jefferson City MO. with three other busses, they will drive to Zanesville OH. Where they will meet 4 other drivers already there, These drivers will take the busses to Washington DC. Sam and the other drivers will wait for the busses to return on Sunday and then drive the students back to Jefferson City MO. The wait is usually boring, but you are being paid to layover. I will make sure to bring the camera and laptop on this trip.

Not much going on as a load of laundry has already been put in, and Sam will catch up on some of the home stuff today. Be Safe out there. Sam & Donna…..

Tuesday Musings

Well, after coffee, Donna headed to the truck company, my son Andy went to work, (Hooray he’s back to work), Grandson Adam is in school, so Grandpa Sam has the house to himself and of course Rigg’s, who will never cease demanding attention until he is so worn out he falls asleep on his rug. But have no fear after a nap he will be ready for more.

Yesterday was a lazy day, I took the truck to Wal-Mart to have four new tires put on, I have found that for LT tires they are reasonable and you can get a warranty on them anywhere in the US, (Maybe even Canada or Mexico Wal-Marts if I am lucky), haven’t read the fine print yet. Didn’t I just put four tires on Donna’s SUV last month.

Ever notice how when you are waiting for work to get done on your truck, there is a natural tendency to say, I think I’ll just look around the store. I know I can’t be the only one with this trait, but true to form that’s what I did.

I remember some time ago reading on someone’s blog about their printer going out while they were traveling and finding an all in one printer for the remarkable price of $40. Don’t know if it was at a Wal-Mart or not but I thought at the time wow that’s a hell of a deal and once we hit the road that’s what I will need rather that my two old printers that would take up the whole dinette table.

Well here I am walking up the aisle near the electronics and there on an end group is a sign This item $40, and right next to it , This item $59. On this end group under the $40 sign were Canon MP250 all in one printers, and under the $59 sign was Canon MP 300 printers.

I looked at both of them and could not see any difference from the two other than the model numbers, the fellow working there was helpful and said he didn’t know the difference either but that from what he had heard they did a good job and were selling fast. Since there were only 3 of the 250’s left I guess I can believe that.

I asked them if they could be used with a laptop and if they were network compatible and he said yes. The clincher was I asked if I didn’t like it could it be returned without any hassle and he said yes.

Well I brought it home and plugged it into the laptop and ran the software and clicked on share and then tried to print, copy, and then scanned a photo. The results were great. The photo scanned in better resolution than my old flatbed scanner, which in all fairness was bought in 1998.

                                        40 Dollar Printer

How in the heck can buying a printer take up so much blog, Anyway I have already decided it’s small enough to go in the trailer and now we can make copies and pictures while were on the road.

Oh yeah the printer when added to the new bubble levels for the trailer, and the two bags of chips, and tax made it $70 before it was over, not counting the tires. So much for just looking around.

Anyway if your need a reasonable all in one printer it works for me so check it out at Wally world. Be Safe out there. Sam & Donna.

Monday, Monday.

Well, it’s back to the usual routine, up at 04:30am, Coffee, Donna gets ready for work, then she heads for the truck company at 05:30am, San heads downstairs to his office and fires up the computer. While on the subject of computers the new to us laptop has been loaded with just the programs from our desktop as we will need to put a blog out while on the road, and also download pictures from the camera, I managed to find out why my Outlook wouldn’t send e-mail, but would receive it, Evidently when it automatically configured the wireless and the mail program it put the wrong pop info in . When I got home from my last trip I took it down to the office and compared the account settings in Outlook to one another and bingo the one in the laptop was different, After making the correction it sends and receives just fine.

             This is the command post for Sam & Donna’s Blog

As you can see my office space is the male bastion of the household decorated in a railroad theme. One wall in the family room has the cop wall which contains awards that gathered after 30 years of crime fighting,

                                          The Cop Wall

OH well Donna does have a sewing room.

Hey, here’s Rigg’s and he wants to tell you about his weekend.

“Now Mom you know a dog can have a runny nose too!....no, I don’t have a runny nose but you know it

never hurts to be prepared !   anyway how do you know I was the one that took that whole box of Kleenex

And as far as that package of Adams you call peeps....

they looked just like bunnies and I am a hunting breed, so eating bunnies is a natural instinct in me....I didn’t take anything else, yeah I know, I'm not suppose

to take anything off the table, but technically it was in a basket that was on the table.

I am VERY sorry about hurting you this weekend, I didn’t mean to wrap the chain around your legs and have you fall

on the concrete, it was a new maneuver I was trying when chasing a ball.

I will try to be better tomorrow. Honest Mom, Honest I will.”

Yesterday was so gorgeous, Sam got out there and drained the RV antifreeze and flushed all the water lines and then filled the tank with fresh water, I thought my water pump had gone out, since after the tank was full  couldn’t get it to pump anything to the faucets.I hitched up the hose to the city water and it ran fine. So I disconnected the hose and then when I tried the pump it ran fine and pumped water.Don’t know why unless there’s a check valve that was stuck. Now maybe today I will pull the two batteries and check them and see if they are okay, I have a feeling they are a couple years old so I hope they will be okay, I kept them on a charger all winter.

That’s it for now,nothing planned for today just an off day before my trip on Thursday. Be Safe out there, Sam & Donna

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, everyone, As soon as the grandson Adam was awake the hunt to see what the bunny left was on. It didn’t take long, but Adam has had eight years of experience trying to outsmart that wily wabbit. He checked out some of the previous years locations like the sun porch and Grandma’s upstairs sewing room, Then he made a beeline for the love seat in the living room and moved an afghan and there it was his Basket.

                Adam makes the discovery of the secret hiding place.

                          Now let’s check out the loot.

              Hey Grandpa look, marshmallow eggs, Yum, Yum..

I told him the Bunny must have known where Rigg’s keeps his treats  in the treat milkcan, as there was a fresh supply of Doggie treats in it for him.

Tonight we are having a combined Easter and Grandpa’s birthday feast, amongst the course’s will be Ham, Au Gratin Potatoes, and grandpa’s favorite, corn fritters.

Adam is going to watch the movie Grandpa brought him home from his trip, It looks like a kid adventure called Hoot.

When he is out of town on long trips he never forgets to bring a small souvenir back for his grandson.

It was supposed to be sunny and 80 today but it is starting out overcast. Hope it gets better and maybe I will go out and winterize the water tanks and flush the lines in the trailer today.

I can only hope there will not be another hard freeze,in MO. this late.

Well enjoy the rest of your holiday, and be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

At home Saturday.

Sam got in at midnight, naturally his buddy Rigg’s was overjoyed to see him, he was so excited that in anticipation of Dad’s return he killed some time by stealing a full box of Kleenex and distributing it about the house.

Oh no, caught in the act, sorry Mom.

 

Maybe she won’t notice if I just lay on the evidence.

Needless to say it was I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Sam will have off until Thursday off, then Thursday morning he will be off at 0600am to take some high schoolers from Jefferson City MO to Washington DC, There will be three bus loads, This should be a fun trip. Beautiful day again in Dardenne Prairie I keep itching to winterize the 5th wheel and start our preparations for setting it up for full timing.Just the thought of all the work makes me think of taking a nap. Anyway Tomorrow we are going to have my birthday celebration so I am looking forward to that, Adam already reminded me that the bunny comes tonight so we will be searching for goodies in the morning, to bad Grandpa can’t have sugar.Be safe out there. Sam & Donna

Illinois sunrise

Well it’s just after breakfast, 07:00am in Ullin Il. the entire town consists of four buildings, the motel, convenience store, BBQ restaurant, and Sheriff’s substation. its a well protected corner.

I shot a sunrise picture with the phone, they seem to go over big with other bloggers, mine isn’t so hot a lot of clouds right now.

I know I told you in a previous blog to watch out for red, white and blue coaches with Huskey on the side, but Huskey bought Show Me USA so we have some that are yellow like this one or predominately red, with silver trim. This is about as big as it gets, it holds 59 passengers, 60 if you count the front jump seat which is rarely used   except for maybe a tour guide. 

The team I brought down has two games starting at noon, so we will leave for the field at 10am. I am hoping to be home in Dardenne Prairie Mo, by midnight,

I never  did tell you how old I was yesterday, you can figure it close by the About Me, Viet Nam (60’s), 30 years in police service, etc, etc. I’m not vain,just like to keep a secret. See how close you come.

Be safe out there, Sam & Donna.

A Birthday to remember

Got up at 02:00am,left the house at 02:30am, drove to the terminal in Kingdom City MO. 65 miles from Dardenne Prairie. Got the beast, I mean bus fired up and pre checked, Of course it did not have enough fuel for my trip so my first stop was the truck stop to put $350 worth of diesel in.Left the truck stop at 0400am and arrived at Quincy Il. at 06:30am.I picked up the Boys baseball team and we departed for Ullin Il. at 07:15am.
Arrived at Shawnee Community College in Ullin Il. at 12noon, after warming up and then playing two games and winning both, Boy I love college baseball. We headed for the motel at 6:00PM which was only 7 miles away, when we got there the coach found out there was only a BBQ place & a convenience store that sold pizza’s and sandwich’s
He then asked if we could go thirty miles north to Marion Il. for a choice of food. I then broke the news to him that I was already over my 15 hours of duty for the day so I didn’t have another hour and the bus would have to sit till tomorrow.Can’t say as he was very happy, but my birthday meal for all day consisted of a sub sandwich from the convenience store and a 20oz. Coke,plain nothing to liven it up.
Been a long day , so be safe out there,
Thanks to all for the Birthday greetings, they were appreciated.

 Sam & Donna.