I Think I Figured Out Why The Camo

Besides the anglers dressed like they just stepped out of a fly fishing catalog, there are a lot that are dressed in Camo. Their waders will be camo and their shirt and/or jacket will be camo also. At first I thought they were trying to sneak up on the fish, but in that case why were the boot part of the camo waders a solid color?? IMHO the only reason to wear camo is if you are hunting wild turkeys without a blind. Then last night it hit me, a reason for wearing camo around here in this campground.

Buzzards circling.

 Shortly after we got here we noticed a huge number buzzards circling every evening. We have also seem them during other times of the day in fairly large numbers. I keep telling The Old Lady to keep moving whenever I see them circling overhead.

 Maybe the people wearing camo are trying to escape the notice of the buzzards?? That's got to be the explanation as you don't need camo to sneak up on fish.

Buzzards roosting in a tree across the river from the campground.

 This is just one of the many roosting places for the buzzards as there must over a hundred of them.

More buzzards.

The Old Lady said this tree had so many buzzards on it the other morning she wondered how the branches on this dead tree was able to hold all of them??

Was told that in the summer there are Turkey Vultures here and in the winter they go south and the Black Buzzards come here for the winter. I guess at this time there is a mix of the two.

The List Grows

As we are here in The Guppy, a number of things are being discovered. After we had had a few days without rain, I noticed the pavement under the RV looked wet in one spot. (At first I thought the shower might be leaking again. It was in the same area as when the shower was leaking. I found some cracks towards the bottom of the shower and caulked them last summer.) When I checked on it, I found it was coming from the water heater area. Couldn't find any leaks in the water heater. At first I thought the water might be from the combustion of the propane. Maybe it wasn't burning quite right. I adjusted the air intake for the burner. The next time we had the water heater on, I checked the water heater. At first, nothing happened. Then after the water started to heat up, I noticed it was dripping a little from the pressure relief valve. That's something I'll have to replace before we use The Guppy next year. Right now it is a minor annoyance, not a real problem. If it was leaking more, then I'd need to correct it.

Another problem that has been deferred until we get home is the light over the stove. The light stopped working, I put in a different bulb and it still didn't work. Then I wiggled the wire and it came loose and arced on some metal. I think I have the end I need for the light socket at home. If not I can get one from a light on one of the junk cars on the place.

That's a couple things on the list. Another is I want to extend the mirrors on the right side out a few inches. Right now about all I see in the mirrors is the arms for the canopy on that side of the RV. I would like to be able to see pass that framework.

Actually, I think maybe I should write things down and make a list.

The Intratubes Be Very, Very Strange

The campground here has Wi-Fi with 4 antennas in various locations. Because we are using the Wi-Fi for our internet, it seems the Wi-Fi doesn't have a definite location. When I sign into my blog and look at the little globe thingee, it says Farmington, MO. When we are watching shows on Hulu it will have a station logo for an Atlanta station down in one corner. When we are at home it will have a local station logo when we are watching an ABC show.

It's possible that because this is a state park the internet hookup is statewide and therefore doesn't have a location. Maybe the various things are using info stored in my laptop to come up with locations. It's still weird that here we are in Missouri and the intratubes are acting like we are in GA.

More Adventures With The Guppy

We've been living in The Guppy for over two weeks now and we are both still alive!! Wasn't sure if we could survive living in a small space together for a long period.

We've had some hard rains since we have been here and have discovered some leaks. Last week we had a couple days off and went to Springfield, MO to do some shopping. The weather was nice when we left, but while we were there it started to rain. When we got back we found our little pavilion we had put up over the picnic table had collapsed. The rain had pooled on the roof and the weight was too much. The metal tubes for the frame got bent  and the whole thing was on the picnic table. But that was minor compared to what we found later inside the RV.

When we went to bed I discovered the bedding was wet under the window. At first we thought it was condensation from the window. We dried everything and thought we'd just have to make sure the condensation didn't run off the window again. Several days later it rained again and this time I saw water was building up between the window and the frame. At first I tried using a towel to mop up the water. This is the emergency exit window, so I opened it to let the water drain out and wiped the frame. Later when the rain stopped I went outside and looked at the window. I found a break in the seal at the top of the window.

The gray line is the seal. This is where the break is in the seal.

The break in the seal just happened to be almost exactly under where a stream of water was coming off the roof from a low spot on the roof. On one of our days off this week we went shopping again, this time to Rolla, MO. At Lowes I got a tube of bath and tile caulk.I figured this would be the easiest to work with as I don't have a caulking gun with me and I could just squeeze the tube to get the caulk out. This window wasn't the only leak we had found, there was another in the bunk area over the cab. I used that tube of caulk to redo some seams in the bunk area and to fill the gap in the seal on the emergency exit window. When I caulked the seal on the window I filled the gap and then did a thin layer all the way across the top. I sprayed the frame on the window with Pam and hopefully I'll be able to open the window again without it being sealed shut. If it doesn't leak while we are here, I won't try to open it again. Also went around and redid the caulk at the top of the window frames on most of the windows until the tube was empty.

Water on bed platform. It was the escape window on the side that leaked.

Other than the above problems, The Guppy seems to be holding up pretty well. We've been here over half the month and the propane tank is still over half full. We've used the gas for cooking, heating water and the furnace. (The first day and night we were wishing the A/C worked as it was in the 80s. A couple days later we turned on the furnace for awhile.) We usually only run the furnace long enough to warm the place up and then shut it off. We don't leave the furnace turned on at night and some mornings it is quite brisk. We also have an electric space heater for when it's just a little chilly. We may have more cool weather from here on out, but if the tank runs out, I can hook up a 20# tank that I have with us. The previous owner put a tee and valve in the propane line so you can hook up a small propane tank. (Or even a 100# one, but the hose I got is too short for that.)

Honey Wagon

First saw these at a RV store and the reaction was WTF. Now after being here for a couple weeks and seeing them in action can see where these shit wagons can come in handy. If you are camping for a longer time you'll at least need to empty the gray water holding tank. Most people fill their fresh water tank when they arrive and there are water spigots (some people will connect several hoses together, sometimes borrowing hoses from other campers to reach from the water spigot to their RV) around the campground. Even if you aren't using the toilet, sooner or later the gray water tank will need to be emptied and it's easier to haul a tank like this (or a bigger one as they come in many sizes) to the dump station than to have to haul your trailer or drive your motorhome to the dump station. Once you are set up in a site, you wouldn't want to move until you leave.

But it's still funny watching pickups and SUVs pulling these little tanks around.

The campground host sites are the only sites with full hook-ups. I got the hose hooked up and into the sewer line with both holding tanks valves open. Thinking I might close the valves for the last week or so and then drain the black water first and flush the hose with the gray water tank.

The Old Lady's New Toy

We get a golf cart to use as campground hosts. After I showed The Old Lady how to operate it and she drove it around the campground she was hooked. She loves driving it around. She said it is real simple to operate. I told her it has to be simple to operate it so golfers can use it.




One of things we have to do is pick up trash if any is left on the campsites, that's why there is a garbage can in the back of the cart.



This is how simple it is. The pedals tell the story. The only other thing is you have to turn the key on and there is a lever to shift from forward to reverse.




The above pictures were taken with my tablet. This picture was taken even tho I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of because of the glare on the tablet.

This picture was taken with my camera.

Adventures With The Guppy

Last week we left home with The Guppy. We had The Old Lady's car in tow behind it. I expected the gas mileage to suck, but wasn't quite ready for how bad it did suck. I had expected close to 10 mpg and what we got was under 7 mpg. 

700+ miles later we were at The Kid's place in Missouri. About the only problem we had was the tires are flat-spotted and made noise. It was noisier when the tires were cold. For the first 50-60 miles it was fairly loud and then it was only noticeable every once in a while. While we were at The Kid's place I changed the right front tire as that was where most of the noise was coming from. On the way to the campground where we are at for the month, it was better. The spare couldn't have been flat-spotted as it had never been used, it still had pieces of rubber sticking out in the tread area from the mold. It's also possible the spare tire is the oldest one on the vehicle and may in fact be one of the original tires for the motorhome.

Another problem we had was the console on the engine cover came lose. When we started we were able to put our travel mugs in the cup holders, but when it came lose, we were kinda shoving it back in place to keep it from falling on the floor. It was held in place with a couple of screws like drywall screws and they had pulled thru the engine cover. There were multiple holes from where the screws had been. Yesterday we went to a hardware store and I got some stovebolt type screws, washers, and locking nuts. I used fender washers to make sure they wouldn't pull thru the engine cover as it basically made from thick pressed paper.

Here we are set up in the campground. In the couple of days that we have been here we have figured out some of the things we forgot to bring or didn't realize we needed. Some of the things we will buy here and some will be put on a list so we can include them in The Guppy before we head out again next year on another adventure. (One of the things is a couple of new tires for the front.)

We are being amused by the trout fisherpeople and their get-ups. This park supposedly has some of the best trout fishing in the state. It should be good because there is a fish hatchery here and they stock the river with fish everyday. Maybe next week I'll check it out, but this weekend will be a madhouse because there is a fishing derby going on.