RAIN - finally!

WELCOME to our new followers, Trent and Teresa!  They are new Canadian Snowbirds who just downsized, started their blog, and will be scraping the snow off their Tioga RV(love that photo!)  and snow birding this winter. (They bought FroggiDonna's rig - from the photos in their blog, it looks brand new.)  Trent and Teresa, it will be fun following along with you on your adventures - have a great time on the road!


RAIN!  Look at the grey skies and wet roads.  The sprinklers are on in the center grassy area, but the wet roads are not from the sprinklers - it's from the rain.  It's really coming down hard.  When it rained on The Palms briefly before, I was disappointed that it didn't sound louder on the roof, but now I know it wasn't raining very hard then, because it's LOUD today!

Katie was acting a little scared, so I picked her up and brought her to the open door and talked in a happy voice about how good and nice the rain was.  She buried her head in my neck.  :(  She's curled up in a ball in her pillow right now.  I think she's okay though, she will get used to the noise.

 This is behind The Palms

 This is on the other side of the park.

 What tree is this?

I don't know what kind of tree this is, there are a lot of them in the park. When the wind blows, each leaf blows and makes noise.  Together they make a wonderful sound; it sounds like it's much windier than it it really is.

So...  all day long I kept hearing this music, the bass was low and it was really annoying.  I could hear it over my TV.   There is a rig next to me, and one next to him on the other side, and I figured that's where the music was coming from.  I took Katie out for a walk on a recon mission to find out how long these noisy neighbors were going to be here. I didn't want to have to hear their music for another four days.

So I walk past their driveway,where his truck was sitting with all the doors open.  Great!  He's got it blasting from his truck so he can hear it at his picnic table behind his RV, I thought.  I checked his post, and the reservation ticket said he's staying all week.  Rats!  I decided I'd ask him if he could lower the music a little, and down the walk comes a man my age.  ???  I was expecting someone in his 20s.  I mentioned something about the music, and it turns out there has been an event much larger than the car show at the golf course all weekend, and today they had bands playing all day.  NO WONDER IT WAS SO LOUD!  He said he and his wife walked up there earlier to watch the football game on their large screen TV, there were over 100 people watching it.  

The event is called "Between the Vines," and it's an annual event with a car show, music, helicopter rides, etc.  From their website:  CAR SHOW! WINE TASTING, TOURS, GRAPE STOMP COMPETITIONS, ALL DAY RAFFLE, KIDS EVENTS, HELICOPTER RIDES W SILVERHAWK AVIATION, HORSE DRAWN CARRIAGE RIDES, LIVE MUSIC THROUGH THE DAY!

The music ended at 5:00, which was good since the clouds started coming in around that time, and they had a beautiful weekend up until then for the outside event.  Considering it was just up the hill from me, I'm amazed it wasn't louder.  

And that's why you always approach these things with a nice attitude. :)   I was able to meet a very nice neighbor who lives close by.  He was funny.  He said his truck doors were open because his wife's clothes took up the closets in the trailer and his stuff was basically in the truck.  So whenever he needed anything, he went out to the truck and just left the doors open. 

And here's why I always keep my camera strap around my wrist:

My camera would have landed right on the road.   Speaking of cameras, I've decided on my next camera, and they have it at Costco.  It's a Nikon Coolpixi S9100.  If I buy it on their website I also get a 4GB SD card and a Nikon leather case.  I don't know if it comes with those at the store site.  It looks like exactly what I've been looking for and has very high ratings.  My current cameras has a 10x optical zoom, and this Nikon has an 18x wide angle optical zoom lens.  Do any of you have this camera...  any reviews?

Monday morning:

Last night my water stopped.  It was dark outside, so I used my flashlight to check the hose and hookups through the window and it all looked okay, so I just used my on-board water tank for the little bit of water I needed for the rest of the night.

This morning I went outside and checked everything I could, and it seemed the water in the park wasn't working, except the sprinklers were on and working fine.  I checked my hose and filter and they seemed okay, but when I hooked them up to the faucet, the water would flow, then stop.

Luckily, as I was finishing my testing, a volunteer came by and I asked him about the water.  He re-checked everything I did and had the same results, then he screwed just my water regulator into the faucet by itself, which I didn't do, and it turns out that was the problem.  The water flowed out, then stopped.  My water regular is bad.  So we took that off the hose and everything is working fine.  I'll have to get a new one when I'm in town.

Another thing he told me is that I'm doing my water filter wrong.  I recently got one, and someone told me it didn't matter which end of the hose I screwed it onto, so I've been screwing it into the rig with the hose on the other end, and then the other end of the hose goes directly into the campground faucet.  When I told him that, his wife said that's the wrong way.  I should screw the water filter into the campground faucet, then the hose into it, and the other end of the hose directly into the rig.  They said they used to put the filter on the rig side of the hose, and the weight of the filter, over time,  pulled the fittings out of the rig.  That was really good information.

Which end of your hose do you put your water filter on?  The rig side, or the campground faucet side?

Then she said to make sure I have the anode rod for the hot water heater changed out every year.  I've never heard of an anode rod, but she related a story of theirs' almost completely deteriorating, and their RV repair shop said to replace it every year.  So now that's on my list for next summer.

Do you replace your hot water heater anode rod every year?

There is so much to learn, I'm glad all this information is coming slowly, one bit at a time.  I can't imagine having a crash course in RV Maintenance and Information, and having to remember everything.  Do you have a good chart/list of things that have to be done on a regular basis so you don't forget anything important?  I'm going to have to do a search on the forums to see if one is available.

This morning the rain is gone, the sun is out, the sky is blue and it looks like a beautiful day.  I want MORE rain, but I'll take the beautiful day, too. 

From Me and My Dog, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)