Monday, September 26, 2011

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!  :)

10 comments:

  1. I can't really tell from the picture but that might be a Quaking Aspen tree. They make a nice rustling noise when the wind blows.

    I sure am enjoying reading your adventures. The picture of your camera falling was a hoot.

    Give Katie a hug and tell her the rain will stop soon ♥♥

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  2. Awww...thank you for the warm welcome !!

    We have learned a lot from your blog already. After all, you are a few steps ahead of us...LOL

    We are also glad that you can "learn as you go". It would be very overwhelming otherwise.

    Good thing RV'ers are so helpful and friendly, because there is so much to learn !!

    TnT

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  3. I am not getting updates from your blog last one was three weeks ago, but if I click on it to read, it is current. I tried to e mail you and couldn't do that either.
    I always put the water filter on the rig. 15 years, never had any problems.I do that so if anything is in the hose, the filter takes care of it, before entering the rig.
    some of the newer rigs hot water heaters don't have that rod, I have heard. Never changed mine.

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  4. I don't have a filter for the water but I have seen others with them and yes they are at the water turn on for the park or do they all that a spicket? I have used my mh so little that I am reading all these thing that need to be checked out. I will take it in for a service when I get home.

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  5. Water regulators can get plugged up from all the hard water mineral deposits and sometimes need to be replaced. You might check backwashing it if you can. Sometimes running some water backwards through it can dislodge whatever gunk's stuck in it and give you a little more life. Some folks add a filter between the hose bib and their regular for that reason.

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  6. I don't know anything about the water heater anode rod. Have never had to mess with mine if it has one. A maintenance schedule is a good idea. It's amazing how much time can get away from us before we realize that we've neglected to do those things.
    Youtube is an excellent source to look up for RV maintenance or even trouble shooting issues.

    Try some bounce dryer sheets on Katie when she gets nervous with the rains & storms. Sometimes, their coats get static electricity in them & it probably feels pretty creepy to them.
    I love the sound of rain on the roof!
    It's beautiful where you are! Can't help on the camera advice. I'm still using an old Olympus C-2100 digital camera from 9.5 years ago. I'll cry up a storm when it dies. it's been a great camera! Need a nice updated quality video camera though. Mine is ok, but I'd like the crisp HD images that mine doesn't have.
    Oh & yes, I put my water filter on the campgrounds spigot. I had to use it on my RV once though because for some reason, it would not go over the campgrounds fixture. Be sure to run a little water through it & your hose first to flush out though. Filters are a good idea because of so many different waters. Where I am now, there is a lot of lime & minerals in the water & it leaves calcium deposits. I'd never use this water here without a filter!

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  7. Whether you have an anode rod depends more on whether you have a Suburban or Atwood water heater than how new it is. Check Rick's blog today to get a good idea of what is going on. The anode rod is attached to the drain plug. It is supposed to get ratty looking. And it is not hard to get the drain plug off if you have a socket to fit it and put the right handle on it so you can turn the plug. Doing it with a crescent wrench is much harder because of the location. I usually put a little teflon plumbers tape on the grooves to prevent leaks. Same tape works great when you hook up the water. Eliminates drips.

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  8. That looks like a Cottonwood tree. They generally grow bigger and don't have the white bark that an Aspen has. I am sure that there are Cottonwoods in that campground. If you spend much time near rivers or creeks in the West, you will get very familiar with Cottonwoods.

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  9. I first put a brass splitter on the faucet (I go with brass as they last a very long time, unlike the plastic ones). This allows me to have two hoses on, should I need a second one, and- when I am ready to leave- allows me to depressurize the potable water hose for removal. Next I put the brass water pressure regulator on one side of the splitter. I use the kind that you can adjust as it is far superior than the Camco one piece. Then I put on my water filter. The reason is that the sand and other contaminants in some water is very bad for you and your RV systems. The type that I use now is a two-stage. The first stage is a cleanable filter that takes out anything 20 microns or larger. The second stage takes it down to 1 micron. That will remove even one cell organisms such as Giardia and Coccidia. All the 'weight' resides on the faucet end and only the end of the potable hose is on the RV side. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9QQCJP/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07198GQPV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://smile.amazon.com/Clear2o-DIRTGUARD-Sediment-PRE-Filter-CPF1000/dp/B0899G45XC/ref=sr_1_5?crid=OUPQPES3OPK5&dchild=1&keywords=clear2o+water+filter+for+rv&qid=1619820817&sprefix=clear2o%2Caps%2C254&sr=8-5 https://www.walmart.com/ip/CLEAR2O-RV-INLINE-WATER-FILTER-Reduces-Contaminants-Bad-Taste-Odors-Chlorine-and-Sulfur-Taste-Smell-One-Micron-Filtration/269825607?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0

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