Drifus' Travels

Well since I last wrote a few things have happened. We drove to South Dakota so I could get my drivers license. This was met with the license bureau being closed for veterans holiday. Ironically I had talked to my mail forwaring company saying that I was planning to come up and see the office and get my license and they didn’t mention that they would be closed. We at least had a decent dinner at The Ground Round. Now the down side Hotels.com messed up my reservation (smoking vs. non-smoking) and we had to check 3 other hotels in the area due to a state champion was in town and most everything was full. Well eventually we found a hotel and went to sleep. Well the next morning we headed back to KS and that part of the trip was pretty much uneventful. Later that night we were wathing the news and saw that 3 tornadoes had hit central Iowa. That was not surprising since the cross winds we hit on the drive home were a little intense. We have had some other fun times recently. We met Steve and Vicki Riegle who have full timed for 3 years and also spent 3 winters here in Kansas City. We had a wonderful time comparing Montana’s and swapping ideas for improvements to Montana’s and winterizing. You can find them on the MOC forum. We look forward to seeing them again before they head out in January and hopefully at rallies. Then 2 days later we met Dale and Kathy McKee who own a Montana are located in the same park as us. We had a similar conversation that we did with Steve and Vicki. We also watched the final race of NASCAR, Greg Biffle won, Tony Stewart won the points and my favorite Rusty Wallace is now retired. Well I have decided to re-do the winterization of the water hose. Basically it will be the same but I will use the orange heat tape that you but at your local hardware store. The heat tape cable kit needs some diagnostic, I will use it to wrap my 15′ hose and I’ll have a longer hose for another time. Our first electric bill came and it was $130, to note we are using electric for the water heater. I may change to gas to see what difference it makes. We also have had our propane filled from 30% to 70% and it was about the same at $127. We are keeping the coach at 68 degrees for now and we will see how things fair out as it gets colder. We had some chilly days (30′s to 40′s) but now we are back in the 50′s. Well see ya for now!

Well I have had some friends and family ask me to include pictures of our new home. So here is the bedroom and a modification I have made of the closet where a washer and dryer would go.

Well I know this seems late since we have had Forever for almost a month. We finally had our first Fulltime dinner. We had roast with carrots, red potatoes and onions. It tasted great and was a far nicer meal then some of the places we have been to the past few weeks. Well I didn’t get much else done today, the weather was a little rainy so other than an errand we just stayed in and I did some computer work. I have also decided to work on my VCR to DVD conversion of some movies we have taken. I am using an old ATI All-in-Wonder video card. It’s an 8500-DV, I have updated the drivers and I will see how it goes. If it does not go well I will get a newer card and work with it.

Happy Halloween !! Well another day in the life of a worktimer. On my way home from work I stopped at Harbor Freight Tools. I picked up a 6 ton bottle jack and a Campbell Hausfeld 1 gallon air compressor. With the air compressor I inflated the tires to the proper 80 lbs, with the jack I was able to lift the RV to make it more level. Why did I not use a truck, well I do not have one at this moment. It’s on the book for early next year, I figure I should have a nice check from Uncle Sam and have my current vehicle paid down enough. Well anyway I was able to lift the RV enough to get it level which make me happy and I am sure the RV is happy too. Just to let you all know before I started this I had named my original tow vehicle “Digital” and the RV is named “Forever”. They were named after the website however. Ironicaly Digital is full of gadgets like GPS, CB, TV, DVD, PS/2 etc. Forever is due to this being my last residence until it’s time and being in my later 30′s that also will be a long time. I am going to work with another fulltimer maybe this weekend and skirt Forever so it will be as warm as possible.

Well finally we are moved into the Montana. We have our offices setup, now just some minor touches needed to the rest of it. I installed 2 Maxx-Air vents, one over the bathroom vent and the over the toilet vent. I am not able to cover the Fantastic-Fan since it’s the automated-rain sensor style. Next year the last vent (in the bedroom) will have an AC placed in it and the venting will be finished. I also worked on our water supply since we will be in Kansas City for the winter. Here are a few pictures of my winter line making. Now I am not finished with the entrance head I just ran out of time that day since I had other things to do. I plan to finish the wrapping of the heat tape and then run a high quality extension cord to it. Then wrap insulation around the head and then cover with a 5 gallon bucket. Maybe paint it back to absord any heat it seeks. I may also go back and rewrap the water line in black too. UPDATE: I removed the water filter and the pressure regulator since the pressure here is in the safe pressure for the RV. So I finished wrapping the line and plugged in the heat tape and all seems well. I plan to build a “foam board” box around the entrance head to ensure that the pipes stay frost free.