Lake Park in Lewisville

We are stopped in Lewisville, staying at the city campground, Lake Park, for about a week.

We have the end campsite (there is a new handicapped site being put in just beyond us).

Dwayne, enjoying watching the watercraft on the lake, on Friday afternoon.

The sunrise view that I woke up to this Saturday morning!

US380 and Bay Landing

Driving east on US 380...

we saw many interesting sights...

Including a large metal bovine along the side of the road!

We spent the night at Thousand Trails Bay Landing. It is right on US 380, and we could see a bit of Lake Bridgeport from our front window.

We headed on to Lewisville to get the bus inspected (it passed!!!) and we are no waiting for check-in time at Lake Park in Lewisville, where we'll be staying for about a week of our 3-4 weeks in the DFW area.

The short drive on I-35 and I-35E from Denton to Lewisville was a reminder of how glad I am not to travel these roads on a regular basis!!!

Roswell, NM

We have visited Roswell, NM each year that we've been on the road as we have been heading back toward the DFW area.

In 2015, after our first winter out, deciding if we wanted to go fulltime in the motorhome or not, we stopped in Roswell after visiting the Trinity Site on the first Saturday in April. We were in Roswell for Easter Sunday and visited with Nancy and Burton (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2015/04/christ-is-risen-christ-is-risen-indeed.html).

In March of 2016, we again were in Roswell, and able to join with First Baptist Church with their outreach in the community (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/03/friends-and-christian-family-members.html) and to be with Nancy and Burton again on Easter (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/03/he-is-risen-christ-is-risen-indeed.html).

And last year brought us back through Roswell - albeit fighting colds as we were traveling (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2017/03/roswell-means-we-or-at-least-i-get-to.html).

This year, we had not really planned to drive through Roswell on our way to Dallas - we were going to stay on I-10 through El Paso and then I-20 into the DFW area... but as we were discussing the route and timing, we realized that we really like the drive on US380 across the Llano Estacado (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/03/driving-across-western-texas.html) - and besides which, we really like seeing and visiting with Nancy and Burton!

The Walmart in Roswell definitely welcomes RVers, even with signs telling us where to park (though I have to admit, this sign did not really help us - when I talked to an associate while we were driving there, I asked where she would like for us to park, and she recommended the part of the lot near Chili's because it was not usually heavily used by their customer traffic). We were also able to get fuel at the Sam's Club next door.

And we were able to meet up with Burton and Nancy and got to enjoy delicious food at Pepper's in Roswell!

First Baptist is in the process of lots of renovation of their facilities. We were sorry to miss celebrating Easter with them, but we are excited to be with our own church family at MacArthur Boulevard on Sunday!!!

Daylight Saving Time and Smoke Alarm Batteries

We were in Arizona when Daylight Saving Time came in... so we didn't "lose" our hour until we entered New Mexico yesterday.

On the Sunday that most of the rest of the US entered Daylight Saving Time, we discussed that we were supposed to check smoke alarm batteries, and whether we were supposed to check them both when Daylight Saving Time started and when it ended, and whether people in Arizona ever check their smoke alarm batteries... but we didn't check ours....

So, yesterday, I was driving, when suddenly something hit me on the top of the head and bounced off. It didn't hit the floor. I said, "What was that?" Dwayne had not seen anything, but then noticed that the smoke alarm that usually is mounted in the front of the rig over the driver's seat was no longer there, and there was a smoke alarm in the trash bag that we have hanging at the front dash!

Since it was down, we checked the batteries...

Uh oh, 10-18-16! We missed a couple of changes to and from Daylight Saving Time!

So... we tried to put in new batteries, and both of the dual-sensor smoke detectors (Kidde) just kept alarming after we put in the new batteries. We called Kidde, and they are sending replacements to us (in care of Janell in Coppell).

We are not very good about doing the "test weekly" thing... and we're not very good about vacuuming them out regularly.

We have one smoke detector that is just the ionization type, and it seems to be working after we put the new battery in.

For more smoke detector information: http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2014/10/fire-and-life-safety-in-your-rv.html

We are parked for a couple of days at the Walmart in Roswell, NM. Looking forward to getting together with friends this evening. While here, have shopped at the Sam's Club next door, and Zero Degrees...

I got a yummy Triple Berry Tea Smoothie with Boba -- YUM!

We need to stock up at Walmart - it has been a while since we've been parked at a Walmart - good time to stock up!!!

Entering New Mexico!

After 7+ consecutive weeks in Arizona (9+ weeks counting the time we were in Quartzsite, with a short interruption to return to Las Vegas for the Bluebird rally there), we've entered New Mexico.

A picture from last night - Miss Kitty and Tabitha were wanting food... we think that Tabitha had helped herself to Miss Kitty's food while we were away from the bus yesterday having lunch with Ginny - there was a lot less food in Miss Kitty's dish in the afternoon than is normal for Miss Kitty's consumption. So, I gave Miss Kitty the food that I would normally give Tabitha at 6pm. When Tabitha starts begging for food in the evening, Miss Kitty joins in with her most of the time, even if Miss Kitty still has food in her dish. Tabitha's technique is to bump the shoe rack that is hanging on the bathroom door (just to the right of her in this picture). It certainly gets our attention, if not accomplishing her purpose (I feed her a specific amount at specific times of the day and her begging does not alter the schedule!).

This morning Miss Kitty was enjoying the sunshine on the front dash, with her food up on the dash -- its normal location ... theoretically inaccessible to Tabitha (she would have to brave the "dangers" of coming to the front of the bus *and* jump up onto the dash) - but when we are driving, I put Miss Kitty's food on the floor because sometimes the rocking and rolling of the bus causes things on the dash to fall off.

The mountains around our campground in Bowie, AZ this morning

"Dwayne's Mt View RV Park"

Beautiful! I-10 was just south of us, and the railroad track just north of us and some people might find it noisy, but we had a good sleep and awoke refreshed and ready to go this morning!

Not too many miles later, we entered New Mexico.

 There are directions on signs along I-10 on what to do in a dust storm...

"In a dust storm"

"Pull off roadway"

"Turn vehicle off"

"Feet off brakes"

"Stay buckled"

My understanding is that they recommend no lights or brakes (lights) when you are stopped because vehicles that may still be traveling may see the lights, think that you are a moving vehicle, and try to follow you (like in fog, depending that the vehicle ahead of you can see further than you can and trusting in that for safety).

I was remembering that the last time we came through this area was December, 2016, and we ran into dust storms as we were leaving Texas (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/12/no-lights-marfa-mystery-lights-that-is.html). Today looks clear so far!

Moving east!

We left our "street surfing" spot outside of Michael and Tami's home at the crack of 9am this (Monday) morning. We were sad to leave our friends, but happy to get on the road on our way back towards Dallas!

We met up with Ginny at the outlet mall near their home and shared lunch together. It was great to get to see her again, albeit for a short visit!

The mall was raffling off a "Slingshot" motorcycle/roadster...

We probably should have put our names into the drawing - just what we need, something else to carry along with us!

We have stopped for the night at Mountain View RV Park in Bowie, AZ.

Distances to some places where we might want to visit!

The other side of the mileage sign....

Distances to places that we are going to... or coming from!

The campground also has a small gift shop... We had seen billboards along I-10 for many miles telling us to get off at exit 362 for "Dwayne's World Famous Jerky"! We had planned to stop at the campground because it has a good Passport America rate ($15/night for full hookups) - the fact that Dwayne has a gift shop here was just a bonus!

Miss Doozie and the Jee-rage settled in for the night...

I got up on the roof to make sure that all looked good since this is our first "long" drive with the solar panels on top. Everything looks like it is riding well!

We have encountered some pretty good winds from Benson to Bowie in Arizona. It looks like wind will continue as we go across New Mexico, but maybe a little less intense.

Binary

Warning: a geeky math post

This "math joke" works best in print... not so much spoken. (source: https://www.spreadshirt.com/there+are+only+10+types+of+people+geek-A13043855?view=D1)

Though you never think of it, in base 10 (decimal, "normal" numbers), the value 10 is 1*10 + 0*1 = 10 (base 10).

"10" in binary (base 2) is 1*2 + 0*1 = 2 (base 10)

Our friend, Michael, showed us his binary watch:

Its battery was dead, so it was not showing a time...

It would have various indicators lit, and you would have to calculate the value being shown... so, if, in the hour, the first and third indicators were lit, the hour would be 10 o'clock. Likewise, if the first and last indicator for minute were lit, it would be 33 minutes past the hour. An example with the face lit can be seen here: https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/6a17/

A curiosity, but probably not very practical for telling time in a timely manner!!!

Before finishing this post, I need to address the term, "geeky" or "geek".

Many years ago, I posted about something that I had discovered about DB2 (the database product that I taught/developed courses on). In the forum with other instructors/developers, I indicated what I had discovered and added the note, "I know I am a geek, but I thought this was neat."

One of my colleagues, a fellow from Europe, who spoke several languages, and probably spoke English better than I, responded with something like... "I am not sure what you are saying. I looked up the definition of 'geek' in the 1988 Webster's World Dictionary on my desk and it says that a geek is a circus performer who bites the heads off of live chickens or snakes."

Really?

Yes, really!

From:  http://www.dictionary.com/browse/geek

4. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

I responded on the post saying, "You know, I haven't had a good live chicken head in a while!"

Progress continues!

On Friday, we drove Miss Doozie down to the parking lot outside Aaron's Solar Penny store. There we met up with Mike Isley of Fiesta Mobile RV Repair to do some additional work on the electrical systems.

Parked in the lot, getting serviced

Beautiful sunset!

We ended up spending the night in the area of the parking lot - sometime in the past few weeks, our headlight switch stopped working. We tested various fuses and have not found any that are a problem, so we think it is the switch. We ordered a headlight switch at O'Reilly's Friday evening, and it is to arrive on Saturday, but we didn't want to drive back to Michael and Tami's without lights (we have daytime running lights, and the brake and turn signals work, but the dash lights, headlights, tail lights, and headlight buzzer do not).

This is the switch that we think may be bad - it visually looks like a 1988 Caprice switch, which is what we ordered at O'Reilly's.

Boondocking in the parking lot gave us the opportunity to try out the display on the remote for the new inverter. During the night, I got up and checked the batteries several times and they were always in good shape! Hurrah! We can let the refrigerator run overnight without worrying about the batteries!!!

Some additional pictures from the roof....

I posted about drilling the holes for the clevis pins a couple of days ago (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2018/03/continuing-on-with-some-tasks.html).

Looking toward the back of the bus - you can see one of the hinged sides with clevis pin, and then the back panel is not hinged.

Looking forward on the roof - the closest panel to me was the rear-most one which is fixed in place... then 3 that are hinged, and then 2 in the front which are also fixed in place (it is hard to distinguish the front 3 apart from each other in this picture).

We're moving along. We will meet with Aaron from Solar Penny when his shop closes at 2pm this afternoon for him to go through the system and check it out.

An industrious plant

We noticed a plant that had decided to grow up through the sign post that is at the corner of Michael and Tami's yard...

There is the sign looking down from the roof of the bus (and 3 of 6 of our old batteries on the wall around their yard) - if you look closely, you might see some plant material at the top of the sign post...

Zooming in a little... you can see that it has little branches going out the sides of the post in places too!

It got to the top and has continued putting out shoots!

Quite an industrious plant!

Continuing on with some tasks

On the roof, we wanted to drill holes to hold the frames closed with clevis pins...

We were looking for pins that would hold the frame closed and one of the Home Depot employees showed us these clevis pins that seemed that they would do the job.

We were holding the frame closed with bolts, but thought that would be difficult to deal with on a regular basis...

So Dwayne and I went up to drill a hole through the two pieces of uni-strut to insert the clevis pins. We got those all completed on Tuesday.

We had been trying to figure out how to provide adequate ventilation for the solar controller if we installed it in the bay with the inverter/charger... after lots of discussion, we decided it would be better to install it inside the rig. We had it on the floor and Tabitha was checking it out...

... she did a complete "cat scan" on it!