Life in the Parking Lot

 Holy moly! The things RVers do!!

For the past week or so, there's been a fifth wheel parked next to us...they're not here for service, and the folks at Bretz have no idea why they're here...the guy in it told me his wheel bearings leaked grease and it got on the brakes, so they had no brakes...he changed out the bearings and brakes right there in the parking lot....

Last night, the service manager stopped by to give us an update on our issues, and asked if anything had been going on next to us...so we told him what we had been seeing, and that even if the truck was gone, there was a woman and child inside...so he went over and asked them to please leave, since they weren't customers (a reasonable request, especially since they had been plugged into the electric here for a week.)

So last night about 9, the guy came back with his truck, hooked up to the fifth wheel, and pulled out...and the whole are heard a big metallic clunk! He stopped, got out of his truck, went to the back of his camper, and then he reeled up his power cord...the clunk was the plug ripping out of the electrical box! I hope he didn't damage his trailer (or the power box here)...seems like they have enough problems already...

Then just a little while ago, a motorhome just like our old one (same model, same year, same paint job...I mean identical...I had to go out and look to make sure it wasn't the same one, but it wasn't)

Anyway, this motorhome pulls up the road past me, and I always look at the top of RVs passing by...because I've chased down lots of them with the antenna up...but this one was different...this one had his satellite dish up!! Now ripping a tv antenna off an RV roof would cause some damage....but ripping a satellite dish off an RV roof...well, that would cause a whole lot of damage!!

I went out and pointed to the guy as he sat in his driver's seat...then I pointed to my head, and cupped my hands together on my head and swiveled from side to side...his eyes got wide as he realized what he had (or hadn't) done...he finally got it lowered and we had a nice chat about his motorhome, since we both had or have the same one...and I suggested that he get a clothespin and put it on the key or steering wheel when the dish was up, and on the switch box for the dish when it was down...I told him that, having had the exact same coach, I knew that the travel height is about 12' 8", and his dish was in definite jeopardy! He's really lucky that he didn't have to go under any low bridges!

The RV life is never dull!!!

You should get what you pay for...really!

 Last year...just about a year ago this month, we had a new Humminbird fish finder put on our boat...it was supposed to have had both "down imaging" (which shows what's underneath the boat) and "side imaging" (which shows what is under the water to both sides of the boat).

A few months ago, Dale was trying to figure out all of the controls, and was having trouble accessing the side imaging feature.

We finally looked up the model number on the Humminbird website...and...lo and behold...our fish finder did NOT have side imaging!

When we had picked up our boat after the installation, we hadn't checked the model number of our new fish finder (who actually does that??? well, we do now...) or we would have seen that it was the wrong one, but we didn't know the difference from just looking at it, and we had no idea how the side imaging feature actually works without having the boat on the water...

So today, we went back to the place where we bought the unit and who also had installed it. We spoke to the parts manager, who asked for pictures...a very reasonable request...but I didn't have any pics on my phone...so we told her we would do one better, and, having nothing better to do today (seriously...we had nothing better to do, since the motorhome is sitting in the parking lot of the same place, waiting for some repairs that couldn't get done before we left for Texas last year), we drove the hour home to get the fish finder out of the boat so the parts manager could see it for herself!

Now, mind you, the boat is still on the big trailer...and although it's lower than it is when we travel with the truck underneath it, it's still about 8 feet up, so I played "monkey" and climbed the trailer and got into the boat to retrieve the fish finder.

(We also picked up all of our propane tanks, since we get propane here at the RV place for only $.99...can't pass up that deal!! (propane is going for $3.25 a gallon elsewhere))

But I digress...

So we brought the fish finder back and she looked up the model number in her system...and she looked up our invoice in her system...Incidentally, we had looked through all of our paperwork and couldn't find anywhere that said which fish finder model we had actually paid for...

And it turns out that we were charged for the correct (and more expensive) fish finder...but when the unit was entered for the installation guys, whoever had typed it in had gotten one number off, and so the less expensive, non-side imaging unit was ordered for installation. (Can't fault the guy who installed it either...he did what he was told!)

So we're waiting for the verdict, figuring that we would be offered a refund for the difference, but that's not what we really wanted...we wanted the unit that we had ordered...we wanted side imaging!

So the parts manager looks up and says "well, we installed the wrong one. The warehouse is currently out of the correct model, but I'm ordering it and we'll call you as soon as it comes in, and we'll install it...with no charge to you, since this is obviously our mistake.

Wow!! I was kind of expecting to have to argue the point that we should have the unit that we ordered, but we didn't have to say a single word! I'm impressed!

Then Dale commented that, of course, they would take the wrong one out and we would just have the new one...and...the parts manager said "you know...I don't even want to mess with trying to do anything with the other one...you keep it and sell it or do whatever you want to do with it"

So I have to say that I'm thoroughly impressed with the service we received today at Bretz RV on this matter!

Now, hopefully, the rest of our "fun with RV repairs" will go as smoothly...tomorrow will tell!!

Playing hide and seek with corrosion is not a fun game

 Well!  The batteries on the trolling motor haven't been holding a charge....after less than a half hour of use, they die...they should last for 3-4 hours at least!!  Our first set of batteries lasted over 6 years, and this set was less than a year old!

They've been plugged in overnight and still read dead this morning, so we took them to the parts store to have them checked.  One had bad cells and the other one is borderline bad...so rather than spank it and put it in the corner to think about its behavior, we decide to replace both batteries.

Dale has been wanting to get plastic boxes for the batteries to keep them out of the weather and salt water.  So we bought the boxes along with the 2 new batteries.

We had unhooked the myriad of tangled cables, and marked them all so we knew how to hook everything back up.

Then we removed the old trays that held the old batteries, cleaned all the dirt and sand that had been hiding underneath, and filled the old screw holes with silicon.

We had to figure out where the new boxes would go, because they need a little more room than the little trays. We had to hook up the cables again to make sure we had enough clearance.  When I started putting things together, I noticed that one of the cables had busted almost all the way...it was being held on by only a little piece of the plastic sheath!

I was looking at the wire, and I saw that it was corroded...so I cut a little piece off so I could put a new end on...and...more corrosion!  I kept cutting off little pieces...I showed Dale, and he took over cutting off little pieces...and we had to cut off almost 3 inches to get to good wire!  Finally, I got to put the new end on...and moved on to other cables...When I moved another wire, I felt a tiny "snap" and there went another wire!!  We looked at a couple more wires, and they were all breaking and totally corroded!

Now, mind you, we've learned a lot about corrosion and rust since we got to Rockport last October, and a wonderful product called CorrosionX, which is my new best friend...but this didn't happen just in the last 6 months...this is years of corrosion making its way up the wires, inside the plastic sheathing so we couldn't have seen it or known it was there.

So now we're wondering if that's why these batteries only lasted a year...we've never had batteries die so quickly!

But here's the difficult part...all of the broken wires are from the battery charger...and they're hard-wired to the charger...so I don't know if they're replaceable, or if we're going to be in the market for a new charger now, too!  

I guess it's time to start researching charger repair....and we definitely won't be using the trolling motor until we get it fixed or replaced...Oh, well...you know what BOAT stands for, don't you?

Break Out Another Thousand!!

1 Fish...2 Fish...Redfish...Black Drum!

So we went out again on Monday because the weather was supposed to be nice (remember, I said "supposed") with calm winds.  We decided to go out earlier than usual for us because it was supposed to get a little windy and rainy in the afternoon.

We got up and got ready and when we got outside it was FOGGY!!  Years ago I listened to a morning radio show on B100 called the B Morning Zoo...they had Kermit the Frog give the morning fog report...and he reported the amount of fog at 1 to 5 "Piggers"...so when we went out to go fishing on Monday morning, I would have to say it was about a 4 pigger!  Pretty foggy....

As we launched the fog was starting to clear a little...maybe down to a 2 or 2 1/2 pigger...so we plugged in our navigation lights and started out down the ICW.  The foggy morning was quiet and calm, and the sight of a shrimp boat heading past us was pretty majestic.

And there were dolphins hanging around our fishing area, which usually means there's fish nearby!  (And they're such talented dolphins...they swim sideways!)

The spot we had picked wasn't far, so we got there pretty quickly.  We were using frozen shrimp and FishBites, a packaged scented bait that we had heard was working pretty well for Black drum and Redfish right now.

We fished the first spot for about a half hour and caught a couple of small fish, but nothing we could keep.  So we moved to another spot...and no bites there...We moved a couple more times during the morning, trying to find "the" spot.

As the morning progressed, the fog cleared, but the sky was looking pretty ominous and dark.  It started sprinkling and the wind picked up a little...I'm not too opposed to fishing in the rain, but I'm really not fond of fishing in the rain with the wind blowing, too...and the dogs are really not fond of it!!  Samson was giving me dirty looks the whole time...

But even though the weather was kinda crappy, we fished on, because that's how we roll...we're either hard-core or crazy...you decide which one!

So we picked one more spot...the one where Dale had caught his first keeper Black Drum, across the ICW from where we were currently fishing.  The reason we hadn't gone there in the first place was that we had lost a bunch of tackle there because there are oyster beds right where we were fishing and we were trying to bottom fish because the Drum were staying deep, in about 5 feet of water.

(Now before we got here, we had only fished mountain lakes that were 30-300 feet deep...and when we got here, we got told that the fish were deep and to fish in the deeper waters...so one day, I asked what is considered "deep" here and was told that down here, 4 feet is deep!  Everything is relative...)

So we went across the ICW to that spot and tossed in a couple of lines...after a few minutes, Dale's line went ZING! and his rod bent over...he reeled in a nice big Redfish, but when we tried to net it, it spit out the hook and it went flying right past my head!  But it missed me "by that much"!!  Oh, well...you can't catch 'em all...and at least he got to see it.

Then about 5 minutes later, he reeled in because his line had gone slack and he wanted to check his bait.  As he reeled, all of a sudden, it took off and spooled some yardage!  He reeled, the fish fought...it was a great battle!  Dale finally won, and we netted a nice 21", 5 lb Black Drum!  

Then about 10 minutes later, he reeled in a 20 3/4" Redfish!  The Redfish put up a good fight, too! 

A little while later, Dale's pole bent over...he grabbed it and it ran his line out fast...it must have been really big because it took his line and before he knew it, his line snapped!  It took his leader and all! 

I still hadn't caught anything keepable, but I wasn't giving up...I got caught up a couple of times on the oysters, but the nice little pinfish would grab my bait and try to run with it...they weren't big enough to get hooked, but they would move my tackle off the oysters and get me unstuck!  If only they would quit stealing my shrimp!!

After the pinfish got my line loose from the oysters, I cast one more time into the 5 foot water...and...BAM! something grabbed my line and started running!!  The fight was on!  I reeled...it ran, spooling my line...I reeled some more...and finally I got the nice Black Drum to the boat where Dale netted it.  It was my first Black Drum and was about 20 1/2", 5 lbs.

We fished for a little while longer but the wind was getting pretty strong so we decided to head for home...what happened next is for another post...I think I'll call it "The boater's Walk of Shame" although it doesn't involve walking at all...

Fishing, Finding, and Catching

 So I never really thought about it before, but there's a huge difference between "fishing," "finding," and "catching".  

Take the last few weeks, for instance.  We had that nasty cold spell that killed a bunch of fish here.  And ever since, we haven't done very good.

We've gone "fishing" multiple times.  We see others coming back with lots of nice fish, and lots of posts about people getting lots of nice fish...but we haven't been getting anything, often not even getting a bite!

People tell us "we limited out here" or "they were killing it there"...but when we go "here" or "there," do we come home with any fish?  Not a one.  It gets pretty frustrating sometimes...

But just being out on the water "fishing" outweighs the lack of "catching".  (Although, catching is definitely more fun than just fishing.)  

Like last week...we were told about a spot where we had never fished before, where the person who told us about it and his friend had limited out on large Black Drum 2 days in a row.  We scoped out the area on Google Earth, and picked out our areas to go.  It was about an hours' drive to the launch, so we got up before daybreak and headed out.  We launched the boat, got to the area, and started fishing.  It was a great day, although it was kind of windy.  We fished all of the guts (that's what they call dug-out channels here).  No bites.  We fished deep...down to 10 feet deep...No bites.  We fished shallow...about 1 foot of water...No bites.  We fished every depth in between...No bites.  But when we got back to the marina there was a guide taking pictures of his 3 clients and their 12 nice Black Drum!  I asked them how deep they were fishing when they caught their fish, and they told me they were caught in 7 feet of water...we had fished all over that depth, and deeper, and shallower...oh, well...it was a good day "fishing".

I've realized that "finding" is a big part of "fishing" because if you can't find them to fish for them, you can't "catch" them!  And I am becoming convinced that "finding" is the hardest part of fishing.  You have to know a lot about the fish that you want to catch...behavior, feeding habits, general physiology...there's a lot that goes into it.  

Now, the guides know how to find the fish...they know where they'll be on a given day at a given time.  They consider the tides, temperature, wind, location...lots of stuff...and it's because they do this every day.  It's their livelihood...it's how they feed their families...they have to find the fish.

We've had guides tell us exactly where to go, exactly when to be there, and exactly what to use to catch the fish....and we went there, and did what we were told, and didn't get a single bite!  We were even where others were catching fish right next to us!

Maybe you're thinking about now that I'm whining about not "catching" lots of big fish...but I'm not really.  Fishing is fun! (unless you're in the middle of Diamond Lake during a massive Midge hatch, but that's a nightmare for another time)  Even when we're not catching the big ones...although catching the big ones is REALLY fun!

So after reading a bunch of posts on a local fishing page, we decided to go out this last Tuesday for a while.  We were betting that since it's still been cool, the fish we wanted would be kind of deep.  We headed down the ICW to a gut only a few hundred yards away from the marina.  We tossed in our lines and BAM! we started catching fish!  I caught a couple of small Redfish, and Dale caught a keeper Black Drum!  This was our first Black Drum!  We were excited!  He caught another small drum and a small redfish...and just as fast as it started, it ended...we didn't catch any more fish...

I watch tons of videos from pros and great fisher-people, and one consistent theme is that if you are in a spot for over 20 minutes and not getting bites, you need to move to a new spot.  So we moved to a new spot...and...nothing...we moved around a couple more times...and...nothing...But at least we were catching some fish again!

We've also been told that "catching" here during the colder months can be difficult...so I don't feel bad at all...I've talked to people here who have "fished" here all their lives and still don't "catch" much.  I know we'll do better when we come back in October for next winter season...the boat is all set up, we know more techniques, we know more about the behavior of our target fish...

All I can say is...our next season is going to be epic!!

Here's a pic of Dale with his Black Drum...it looks really small in the picture, but it's almost 16"...

Cold Weather and Good Neighbors

 Last week the weather in Texas and the surrounding states decided to go off its meds and freeze the heck out of everything and almost everybody!  South Texas hasn't seen temperatures this cold, that came on this fast, and stayed this long since the 1800s.  And Texas wasn't ready for it...

Fish that didn't make it out to deeper waters froze to death.

Sea turtles that stayed in the bays were stunned by the frigid water temps and those that weren't rescued and brought to a rehab center sank to the bottom and drowned.  (But in our area almost 4,000 sea turtles were rescued and have now been returned to the warmer waters of the Gulf).

The power grid went down...I saw an article where they blamed it on water supplies freezing...I don't know if it's true, but if it is, then they definitely weren't prepared!

And there was really no way to prepare for the frozen water lines and mains...being so close to the Gulf makes the water table here really high, so water lines and mains are not very deep at all...and homes here just aren't built for hard freezes.

We have neighbors here in the park who live in mobile homes.  The pipes under their homes aren't insulated for the cold...people did their best to try to prepare, but there's just no way.  One couple who we are close with have a heat pump/AC unit...but below 40F, the heat pump just shuts down...so they had no heat at all!  We brought them the propane heater from our boat to use to stay warm...they weren't warm, but at least their house didn't freeze!

Then in the middle of it all, not only did the power go out, but the water system froze and broke!  So that pretty much hosed everybody who was trying to keep their water dripping so it wouldn't freeze their pipes.  Folks were using the burners on their gas stoves to heat their homes...while this is somewhat dangerous, it was their only option!

Not a lot of people had generators, but it wouldn't have done them a whole lot of good water wise...pipes were gonna bust no matter what.  But the folks with generators could at least get some heat inside.

We were really lucky in that being from Montana, and having lived multiple winters in Montana in our motorhome, we were pretty much unaffected by the weather.  We had a full tank of diesel which runs both our generator and our Aquahot system which is our water heater and also is our source of heat. When we heard that we'd be cold, we filled our fresh water tank to 60%.  So we had heat, water, and power.  We were the lucky ones.

When we got to Rockport, we joined the local community Facebook group.  The people in the community were offering help wherever they could, and when a request for help was posted, it was answered pretty fast with multiple offers.  This is a tight-knit and amazing community!

The worst thing that happened around me was that on the second day of the freeze, I was looking out the window, and saw some black smoke not too far off.  The smoke got thicker, and I went outside.  As I was walking to see what was burning, there was a loud explosion...a bumper-pull trailer was in full flames and something had exploded.  (it turns out that it was probably the refrigerator cooling unit...the neighbors had already grabbed the propane tanks off of the trailer)

Right then, a fire truck blew past me, and then another...they were really quick to get set up and start dousing the flames...but it was already too late to save any part of the trailer...it was a total loss.  The firefighters managed to keep the flames from damaging any surrounding trailers.

It turns out that the trailer was owned by a young family with a baby and a little boy.  Thankfully, they weren't home when the fire started or it could have been much worse!!  Because there wasn't any heat or water, they had gone to stay with family in the next town.

After the trailer fire was out, we went back home...and pretty soon there was a knock on the door...it was our neighbor with a bucket collecting money to give to the family.  There were about 6 people canvassing the park, collecting for them.  When it was all said and done, in just about 2 hours, these 6 folks collected about $1700!  The young man who owned the trailer was in tears when he saw how much money had been collected from people in the park whom he had never even met!

All in all, I have been amazed and impressed with how the residents in our park, and also the people of Rockport and Aransas Pass can pull together and are so willing to help each other out in the blink of an eye...it just goes to show that there are good people out there!

Couches, Dishwashers, and other assorted things

 So the other day we were outside talking to another couple about motorhomes and fifth-wheels. Shirley was telling us about replacing the recliners in their unit and trying to find one that fits her needs, since she's kinda short, and Bob is kinda tall, so they can't just buy 2 identical recliners.

I told her about our last motorhome...that I couldn't stand the washer/dryer unit that came with it, so one day Dale came home and I was dismantling the cabinet it was in and dragging it out. I had to get a neighbor to come help get it out the door because it was too heavy and lunky (is that a word? It is now!) for us to maneuver. I told Dale I either wanted shelves or, if I could find one that fit, a dishwasher. We measured the cabinet and I did find a dishwasher that fit the hole! So together we installed it and it was great!!

Then we moved back to Montana and were parked at Dale's sister's house, and we were looking at the recliner in our motorhome...it was ratty and the bottom skirting had been chewed off by our first Papillon, Spirit. And sometime in the near past, our second Papillon, Ember, had chewed a hole in the center of the cushion...(I told Dale that she had been trying to smell his farts and got carried away...lol!)

Anyway, we decided to take it out, but since it was still a comfy chair, we gave it to his sister...she used it for a while and then passed it on to someone else.

Dale and I had talked a little bit about taking out the couch and getting 2 recliners instead, but he just wouldn't commit...so...one day he had to go to town...and...when he came home, I was in the process of unbolting the couch from the floor! (Never leave a determined woman at home alone...you never know what she'll come up with!) He was a little unsettled by the thought of taking out the couch, but I said that if we don't take out the couch, we'd never get recliners! So I proceeded to take the couch apart (it was in 18 pieces by the time I was done...it was way too big to go thru the door whole)

So then we had no recliner and no couch in the motorhome....I brought in our folding recliner chairs from the patio to use until we found what we wanted...it took a few weeks, but we ended up getting a 9 foot long, double recliner couch called the Transformer...it was nice and comfy!!! When the delivery guys brought it in, it almost didn't fit thru the door...yikes! They assembled it for us, and we were in recliner heaven! The only issue we had with it was that it was electric and the buttons were on the top of the armrest, around the cup holders...yes, my couch had cup holders!!

But back to the button issue...the issue was that the cats learned to push the buttons...so you'd be sitting there, all relaxed, watching tv...and all of a sudden...you were not so comfy any more because the chair was going back to a sitting position...or you'd be eating dinner, and all of a sudden, you were laying down!!! And you can't tell me that they didn't know EXACTLY what they were doing, because they'd be looking right at me with a great big kitty smirk on their face!

Anyway, Dale was concerned that the selling value of the motorhome would decrease because we had swapped out the washer for a dishwasher, and the recliner was gone, and the couch wasn't original...but as it turned out, the couch and dishwasher were the main selling points for the people who bought it when we traded it in!! Yay!!

But enough of the back story...we have this new motorhome (well, new to us, anyway...it's 6 years old but still really nice) and it has an L-shaped couch...when we bought it we were told that there were recliners in the couch, but it turned out that it only had foot rests that only lift our feet a few inches off the floor and it's really uncomfortable...as a matter of fact, I haven't really liked the couch since we got the motorhome...and we don't have a recliner at all (when Dale is having bad pains, it really helps him to sleep in a recliner)

So Shirley was telling us about their quest for new recliners for their place, and I told her about our old motorhome...and I told her that our couch wasn't very comfortable for me and that I needed Dale to leave town for a day (lol...actually, it only takes a couple of hours to dismantle a couch, so he wouldn't have to go too far away)...and we left it at that...just a couple of neighbors swapping stories....

A couple of days later, Dale comes to me and says "you know, maybe getting recliners and replacing the couch wouldn't be such a bad idea" (HA!! My plan is working!!) He agreed that replacing the couch in the old motorhome had not affected its sell-ability (also now a word!!) and that while this couch was also a sofa-bed, this is our home for the next 20 years or so, and we need to make it comfortable for the 2 of us and not accommodate people who may or may not ever need a place to sleep...and also, when the bed part is pulled out, it actually touches the passenger seat, so we can't even get out of the motorhome without climbing over the bed!! (stupidist (new word!) thing ever!!) (I've always said that I want to meet the people who design these thing and just slap them silly!!!)

So long story short...well, it's way too late for that...so long story just a little bit longer...

We're now looking at what it will take to get the couch out (and see if anybody wants to buy it) and get a couple of nice recliners...It's gonna be a while because we have to replenish our savings after all the stuff we added to the boat...and we still have some work to get done on the motorhome this summer...but when we do, I want a recliner with a cup holder, and butt-heat...yeah...I want butt-heat in mine! And now that we don't have cats, buttons on the top won't be an issue...