Summer 2007 Summary

I have not posted an update since our trip to see Deanne finish up her Residency in Little Rock, AR last June. This summary will serve as an update of our summer activities. I am also using some new software that an RV'ing friend of mine, Mark Didelot of Lake Charles, LA installed on my PC at the last campout of our Gulf Coast RV Club outing. We will see how well I learn to use it.

During our last trip, we had pulled over for a little lunch, and started the A/C generator. After hundreds of hours of faithful service, I seemed to quit putting out power. When we got back to Victoria, Rick and I did a little trouble-shooting, and decided it was "broke beyond our capabilities". I made an appointment at the Cummins/Onan Service Center in San Antonio, and we drove up there. I also wanted to check out the center, since we are looking at buying a Bus with a Cummins diesel engine. It turned out to be the voltage regulator, one of our guesses, and after $350 (including a minor overhaul of brushes and rotor service) we headed back to Victoria.

In early July, Patsy and Laura decided that we should join the Victoria Zoo, and begin to take our grandkids periodically. They did, and here are some pictures:
The Gulf Coast RV Club had a campout on July 20--22 at the Columbus RV Park in Columbus, TX. To make it a longer trip, we met our camping friends, Mark and Sue Didelot in San Antonio, TX and we stayed a couple of nights at the Admiralty RV Park near Sea World. We toured the Riverwalk and went to Old Gruene. Here are some pictures from the campground ( it was a rainy weekend!):

During the camping weekend, we picked up the grandkids on Thursday and they spent Thursday night with Patsy and I in the motorhome. On Friday night, Rick and Laura came up and we all spend Friday night in the motorhome at the campground. On Saturday, the weather broke, and we went to the Sheridan Water Park in Sheridan, TX. We had a good time and the kids had a great time in the water. Here are some pictures:

When we travel, we tow Patsy's car, the Honda CRV, behind the motorhome. Since we purchased it new in 2000, we have put 103,000 driving miles and another 70,000+ towed miles on it. In the last few months, it developed a leak on the power steering rack and pinion unit. Honda wanted almost $900 to replace it, and the part costs $250.

At the first of August, I talked to my nephew, John King, who is a very qualified diesel mechanic, and he agreed to "let me help him" change it out!! When he came over, he asked if I had changed the timing belt, a chore that should be done at 100,000 miles. I hadn't, and we decided to do it all. We started on Friday night, and had a few problems getting the old rack and pinion out (Honda does some weird engineering), but we finally got it out by 10:00pm. By Saturday at 6:00pm, we were through. In addition to the rubber timing belt, we changed out the water pump, spark plugs, all seals and gaskets that we found, the radiator hoses and coolant, and the drive belts. It's ready for another 100,000 miles! Here's a picture of the new rack and pinion, and some pictures of John working:

Lastly, in case I haven't included enough pictures of the grandkids, here are some shots from their cousin Tyler's birthday party on August 5:

That concludes the summary. This coming weekend, we will be camping with the Gulf Coast RV Club at Rayford Crossing RV Park in Spring, TX. More on that in the next post.................