Monday, April 2, 2018

Another sunshiny day greeted us this morning and it looked like it was going to stay that way all day.  It may even have warmed up a little over the night since we didn’t have the heat on.  We actually had it on but it didn’t kick in.

I wrote my Journal entry this morning and tried to publish the new week but for some reason I couldn’t get it accomplished.  The website kept refusing to publish the week  and I couldn’t get it to work for the life of me.  I’ve had problems before but I never had this problem.  It took about an hour and a couple of reboots before it finally straightened itself out, and allowed me to publish.

We had stuff to do in town today but it would wait until this afternoon before we left to get it done.

Our first stop was at the bank to pick up a couple of rolls of quarters for the laundry.  Sharon didn’t plan any cleaning over the next couple of days but she always needs quarters when the time comes.  Our second stop was to the Post Office to mail the “resume mail” card she picked up the other day when we were here.  It’s been kind of confusing to figure out what we want done with our mail for the next 3 weeks.

Our last stop was to the Giant Grocery Store to pick up some Fried Chicken for Dinner tonight.  We arrived just in time because the fryers were down and we were one of the last ones to pick up chicken.  The deli was almost empty of any fried foods when we arrived, and we didn’t have a back-up plan for any food tonight.  So we took our bag of chicken and a little container of Potato Salad and headed home.

It turned out that the Chicken was absolutely fantastic and very good along with the potato salad.  Sharon makes her potato salad with a touch of mustard and this tasted much like that.  We had a delicious Dinner of Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, Sweet Potatoes and Cranberry Gel.  We finished it off with Apple Crescent Desserts which were extras from Sunday Easter Dinner.  Sharon always makes at least 8 of the Apple Crescents because that’s the number that comes in the crescent roll tubes.

After Dinner we sat and watched repeats tonight on the TV.  I think they were playing repeats because the National Championship Basketball Game was on tonight, but I was more interested my regular shows even though Michigan was in the game.  We heard later on that Villanova actually came out on top in the game.

We still stayed up until after 10:30 tonight by the time all our shows were done.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

We got a leisurely start this morning intending to go out for Breakfast to start the day.  Being late for the regular restaurants, we found ourselves at McDonald’s with no complaint.  But although you can order Breakfast at any time of the day now, don’t expect to get it right away after you order.  But we did finally get it and sat down to eat it.

There was no Hash Brown, no salt and pepper and no extra butter for the pancakes.  Otherwise it was a lovely Breakfast.

After Breakfast we headed across the street to the Rite Aid Drug Store.  It now advertises a Walgreen pharmacy inside the store.  What’s up with that?  Sharon picked up a few items and then we were off on our adventure for the day.

Driving around the town for the last two weeks we noticed an inordinate number of mansions that are here spread throughout the area.  A couple of them are Antebellum but some are after the Civil War.  It seemed like every time we drove around we found a new house to admire.  So today we decided to drive around and take pictures.  Unfortunately the streets are so narrow here that it’s almost impossible to find a place to park while taking the pictures.  So we had to skip some of the houses but we did take pictures of about a half dozen, which is about half of the houses that we tried to take pictures of.

When we started out today it was cloudy and overcast and not a good day for pictures, but by the time we left McDonalds it had cleared up somewhat, and the Sun popped out sporadically.

We also wanted to find a gas station on our side of town so we wouldn’t have to drive all the way over to the West side.  We drove into the campground on fumes cause we couldn’t find a gas station in the direction that we came in.  We actually found one that we can visit on our way out of town instead of driving out of our way to get to it.  Hopefully it will be close enough so that we don’t run out of gas before we get there.

We were home early today from our adventure and just sat and watched TV for awhile.  We had Sloppy Joe’s and Tuna Salad for Supper tonight and of course we finished up the meal with Apple Crescent Desserts.  Man those babies are good!!!

We heard that there was going to be thunderstorms sometime tonight, so while watching TV tonight I went outside and picked up our chairs and tables.  There was no point in letting them get wet again as long as we knew there was going to be rain.

We lost our satellite signal tonight along with the power when the rain started to fall. We were recording two shows at the time and were both were lost.  I thought about it this morning and if I had turned on the Inverter we wouldn’t have lost anything.  Oh well.  Who knew the power was going out.

We actually had enough to watch, even after losing the two recorded shows, so it really didn’t matter that they were gone.  We gave It all up about 10:30 tonight.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

We woke up to a nice sunshiny day today and the only problem was, that it was cold outside.  A little chillier than its been for awhile.  And the best part was that we had nothing to do today.  We had our usual “day before leaving” chores to do, but other   than that, we were without places to go and people to see.  Even Sharon was sitting around knitting today.

I had picked up the chairs and tables the other night when it rained so I didn’t even have that to do.

So I partook in my favorite activity of all time.  Watching TV.  Although we had some inside stuff to do today instead of saving it for tomorrow morning.  Stuff to put away and stuff to clean up but that didn’t take very long.

I had also thought about dumping the holding tanks today instead of tomorrow morning but Sharon was so bored that she decided to take a nap.  Since I would be monkeying around in the back and making noise I decided to hold off on that til later.  Well “later” came and went, but she didn’t, so I changed my plans to dumping in the morning.  It wasn’t that big a deal, but I don’t like to save that stuff for the morning in case I have problems.

We had Coney Dogs for Supper tonight along with the leftover Tuna Salad. It was my suggestion to have that when I found out we were having leftovers tonight.  But it was quite good like I knew it would be.

After Dinner we camped out in front of the TV for the night.  The DVR was running constantly tonight either playing shows or recording them.  We finally gave it all up at 10:30 and headed for the feathers.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

We woke up this morning with no power and suspected that the power was out in the campground, which we later found out was not the problem.

We got on the road this morning at a leisurely pace since we only had about 110 miles to Arley, Alabama and Hidden Cove Resort.

The first stop on our route would be to a gas station that is just south of the edge  of town but on our way to the highway we need to take east.  We put 72 gallons in a 79 gallon tank.  But it’s hard to tell exactly how much cushion you have when the gauge is reading empty.

Sharon picked up a Breakfast for us while she was in the station.  She had Scrambled Eggs and a biscuit and she added gravy to my biscuit.  It was okay for gas station food.  The main thing was that we were filled up, food and fuel for the day.  We were back on the road heading east.

We got to Guin, Alabama and we got on the wrong road, according to the Navigator.  It took us out of the way, laterally, for a couple of miles, but straight to the Interstate which took us back very quickly.

We arrived in Arley a couple of hours after we left Aberdeen and found out we had no power there either.  By the time we found the problem I knew it was time for a repairman.

We called the same guy at Anytime RV who put the satellite dome on our roof in November.  He gave us a couple of tests to do and figured out it was probably our transfer switch.  He would stop over later tonight to check it out.

So as long as we were going to be out of power, we turned on the Inverter and decided to watch TV.  With the Sun shining our solar panel on the roof should take care of our batteries.  And it certainly did.  We turned on the Inverter at about 3 and it ran until 10 without a problem.  We still had 12 volts left in the batteries at 10.

About 9:30 Will from Anytime RV showed up after his daughter’s softball game.  He opened up the Transfer Switch Case and you could see the burnt wires.  Sharon had said this morning that she thought she could smell something “hot” while she was still in  bed.  The Transfer Switch is in a compartment outside just under the bed.

I stayed up tonight just long enough to watch Chicago Fire to its conclusion.  The DVR was still recording since we had the Inverter turned on.  And by 10:15 Anytime RV was finished rewiring the box that holds the Transfer Switch.

Friday, April 6, 2018

We were greeted with rain this morning that threatened to be present all day.  So we would be operating today in the rain.  I can’t say that hasn’t happened before this winter.

We were off this morning to the Arley Café to have some Breakfast on the cheap.  They have very reasonable prices and good food.  It was disappointing to hear before we ordered that they had no Hash Browns today.  I offered to grate my own this morning but she wasn’t having any of that.  So me and the Mrs. both ordered pancakes.  They don’t have French Toast so that was out.  But we had a good time and a good Breakfast anyway.  And it only cost just over $9.

After Breakfast we went to the Dollar General and picked up a few items that were cheaper there than at the grocery store.  We had to later stop at the grocery store anyway but we saved a few bucks by doing it the way we did.

After the grocery we headed toward home and it was still raining.

Sharon took off for the clubhouse to start on a jigsaw puzzle for the afternoon.  Instead of starting one in the motorhome she’d have some peace and quiet at the clubhouse. That was short lived as the guy who came in yesterday, who’s parked next to us, went over to play the piano.  She said she really enjoyed the music but he did hit a couple of clunkers during the serenade.

After I got home I got busy finishing up last month’s Newsletter.  I had to print up copies for the people who don’t have computers, and are not online.  Luckily that turns out to be only 6 copies.  I send it out digitally to another 61 people.

Sharon whipped up a Brizza for Supper tonight.  Brizza is all the fixin’s for Pizza but wrapped up in a bread dough and then baked.  It’s absolutely fabulous and something that Sharon invented a couple of years ago.  We have it every now and then instead of Pizza.  It contains a heap of stuff on the inside.

Our satellite TV was giving us trouble tonight and most of the day also.  Even though it reset a couple of times it still was having trouble bringing in the signal.  We couldn’t watch regular TV tonight so we caught up on taped shows instead.

We stayed up til about 10:30 tonight before we finally turned it off and went to bed.

Saturday, April 7, 2018

We got up and took our showers and ate our Breakfast at home this morning before we took off for town in Cullman.

It was still misting somewhat as we headed into town for the Flea Market.  Its an every weekend Flea Market with a huge tools store.  It’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen including the several at Quartzsite.  We were there once in the Fall, on our way South.  We were here at Hidden Cove RV Resort for two weeks when we first left home.  The last time we were here it cost us $800 to replace our Satellite Dome.  This time we have a defective Automatic Transfer Switch that’s already cost us $200 and we haven’t replaced it yet.

On our trip into town we found the short cut that we got lost on in the Fall.  It really only cuts off about a mile on the trip into town.  And it’s about 30 miles into Cullman.

We were at the Flea Market about 90 minutes and by the time we got finished we were hungry.  We drove to the Post Office to mail out the Newsletters and there was a Jack’s Fast Food place across the street.  So we stopped and got a burger to hold us over til Supper.

While still in the parking lot at Jack’s we called DirecTV and spoke for 20 minutes.  Our TV signal is going in and out and AT&T thinks it’s a problem with the Dome. I was thoroughly disgusted after the call.

We got back home and decided that if it was the tree next to the motorhome, we’ll move the motorhome.  We got such a good signal in the middle of the forest at Aberdeen, Mississippi that I didn’t believe that this scrawny tree next to us could be causing the problem.  We moved the motorhome forward about 8-10 feet and no improvement.  So we moved it back past the original spot until the signal improved.  Since that time the signal has been solid and unwavering.  I give credit to Phil Bach, from California, who uses this technique all the time when he can’t get a signal from DirecTV.  I learned something today that I’ll remember for a long time.  Never assume that damn tree or bush is not affecting your signal.

We watched TV for the rest of the afternoon and tonight and never lost the signal a single time.  We stayed up until 10:30 before we finally gave up for the night.

Sunday, April 8, 2018

Yesterday on the way back from Cullman Sharon noticed that we had a warning light lit for a low tire.  So before she headed off to church this morning I went out and blew up the tire for her.  I just put air in cause she was in a hurry, but I’ll check the pressure when she get back from church.

After she got back from church I waited until the tires got cool before I checked them for a final pressure.  In the meantime Sharon was back and forth to the laundry room with the car until I finally forgot about checking them.  No matter I’ll do it tomorrow as long as it doesn’t go low again.

Sharon got frustrated today with people leaving their clothes in the washers and dryers unattended.  There’s only two of each and it screws up everybody’s day when they do that.  She finally gave up on the whole deal today, after she figured it would be too late to start.

After she gave up she came home and finished up our Supper tonight.  She had put Chicken Legs in the Crock Pot yesterday, but since we at a late lunch at Jack’s, she took them out and reheated them on the grill for tonight.  The meat on the bones was so tender that she almost didn’t get them off the grill grate, even though she put aluminum foil on the grate first.  We had the Chicken Legs, Fried Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes and a salad for Dinner tonight.  It was all quite delicious.

We’ve been having perfect reception for the TV for the last couple of days.  Our signal has stayed strong and consistent.

We camped out in front of the TV for the night until after 10:30 before our programs finally ended.