Click, Clack....Buzz

That is the sound that our washing machine made yesterday.  It has made the click, clack before and Dad looked at and couldn't find anything wrong.  The next time it did it, he put his hands on the top of it and he healed it.  BOL!   Dad is in Washington DC and Mama doesn't seem to have the same healing powers. At first, the door wouldn't open.  Mama wanted to get the clothes out it.  She thought it would be embarrassing for a repair person to see Dad's underwear plastered to the glass in the door.  She also thought the machine might have an odor after being closed with wet clothes for days.  Finally, the door opened and she rescued the underwear. Mama read the manual and found there is a place to look for coins and other things that may have fallen into the pump. She didn't read the part that said to be prepared for water to drain out.  The only thing she could find that would fit under the washing machine was a pizza pan.  That was interesting.  The water finally stopped, but she can't get the knob to open.  She turns the knob counter clockwise like the instructions say, but nothing happens.  ::::sigh::::  I know, it doesn't sound complicated does it?  She has tried to turn it clockwise just in case her counter clockwise is not correct.  BOL   I bet Dad will turn it and it will open instantly.  The guy that Dad works with here gave Mama his number and said to call him if she needs anything.  She decided this does not count as an emergency even though she will have to do laundry with the lizards. The laundry room here is an outdoor one and lizards frequent it.  I think as long as she doesn't see a snake, it will be okay.  We hope we can fix the washing machine because if not, it may be a long time before we buy a new one. 

Scout at Indiana Dunes State Park

Mama spent yesterday morning shopping.  She ate at Wendy's and had one of their Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburgers.  Has anyone had one?  She thought it was really good.  She is going to have another one this week so see if the first one was just a fluke or if it was really that good.  BOL  Here is Wendy's description: 
A delicious new twist on our classic hot n juicy cheeseburger with a sweet & smoky honey mustard sauce, melted cheddar cheese and applewood smoked bacon all on a warm, soft pretzel bun. 
 

Me at Indiana Dunes State Park

Mama finally had some pictures of me printed off and framed.  It is about time!  Most of the pictures that are framed are of Jack.  Mama takes tons of photos of us, but she never bothers to print them out.  It is not like we have a lot of room for frames, but it is nice to see my photo on the dash with the other "kids".

Have your heard about Tropical Storm Chantel?  She is still headed for us, but it looks like we will be a day ahead of her.  We just hope we don't end up getting a lot of rain from her.   It doesn't sound like she will be bad, but it is not fun driving a motor home in rain. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Like His Mama Having A Car Because She Has Fun Without Him

Our Last Weekend In South Florida

This past weekend was our last weekend in South Florida.  The folks were pretty busy seeing the sights.  Scout and I stayed inside where it was nice and cool. Our new shades really seem to be helping our place stay cooler. 

Friday, Mama noticed that the control board that monitors things showed that we were only running on 30 amps.  We should be on 50 amp.  She called Dad and he came home from work because we didn't know if it was our problem or the park's problem.  The office is closed on weekends, so we needed to figure out the problem before they closed for the weekend.  It turned out that it is our problem.  We need to get some sort of a board like a computer board, I guess.  The folks tried to order one of Saturday, but the store couldn't do it because their Internet was down.  Dad asked if they could check on it and call us back so we could order it and they said "No".  Mama thought that was pretty funny because there is a sign on the door that says customers are their business.  The part is a few hundred dollars, so you would think that would have motivated them.  Everything is running fine, so we will order it when we get back to Missouri.

Saturday night, the folks ate at a Cuban restaurant.  It was Mama's first time. She said it was really good!  She didn't have any leftovers, so I can't tell you first hand.  They planned on eating a dessert that they love, but they were so full that they couldn't.  The dessert is Tres Leches, which is a cake that is soaked in evaporated, sweetened condensed and whole milks and topped with caramel sauce and whipped cream.  

Yesterday, the folks visited Fruit & Spice Park.  They took a tram tour where they learned about all sorts of fruits, but not that many spices.  They thought it was quite interesting.  They learned about poisonous plants that many people have in their yards.  Some of the plants will cause itching and people don't realize it is the plant doing it.  Unfortunately, Mama can't remember any of the names.  She is a lot of help isn't she?  She said that with all the traveling we are doing that she has to remember so many street names and such that her brain just can't hold much.  She is putting all that stuff into short term memory.  I think she is just getting old.

Jackfruit - Dad says it is really good to eat.

Dad looking at the bananas.

The tour guide.

Bamboo

This is a common plant here that most people do not realize has fruit on it. 

Mama thought this was called The Living Tree - but can't find anything on it.  It has a lot of water in it. It is supposed to bring you good luck if you put your left hand on it.  You can hear an echo if you knock on  it.

I apologize that my report isn't better.  Mama said the names that the tour guide gave them were not their common names, so that makes it even harder to remember them.  Mama said the park would be better if they had signs up telling you what things are. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks This Post Is One Of His Worst Yet.  Hangs His Head In Shame.

Shade Saga - The Conclusion

Yippie!  The "shade saga" is over!  It only took two more trips to Home Depot and two hours of work!  Dad had to put them up a non-conventional way, but it works.  No more suction cups, pillows, Velcro or brooms.  I forgot to tell you about Mama using Velcro straps and the broom to hold the shades open.   The Velcro worked for a few days. The broom worked fine, but it was a pain to put it in place and take it down each day. 

The new shades look so nice.The color is perfect and they look so much nicer than the old ones even before they broke.  The folks didn't replace the bedroom ones though because they are not raised and lowered much and they are still in good condition. 

It's amazing how much more window there is when you don't have pillows blocking the view.  BOL!

This really is not that comfortable.

We have new shades!!!!

I am a happy camper!

Look!  No pillows!  BOL

  The new battery arrived for the laptop and it wasn't the problem.  Mama ordered a new power cord and it arrived on Wednesday.  The power cord was the problem, so now we have two batteries which is not a bad thing.  There is something strange going on though with the power cord.  It only charges when the computer is turned on and is running.  It cannot be in a sleep mode and it has to be on.  What is up with that?  Our old one charged when the computer was turned off.  Is Mama doing something wrong?

The folks were able to watch fireworks from the campground last night.  The Hard Rock Casino is just down the street, so that show was pretty close. They could see other fireworks in the distance. The 4th is huge here.  Dad said they should have gone to his hotel to watch the fireworks at the beach.  Mama said traffic would have been terrible and she didn't know how we would do alone.  We were fine though.  It didn't scare us even though it was pretty loud.  We took our last walk at 8:30 p.m., so we were safe inside before the big noises started.

Scout is planning our next trip.

Our time in Florida is almost up.

Next week at this time, we will be on the road.  We are headed home for a visit.  It will take us three days to get there.  Actually, we are stopping off to do some trout fishing first.  Grandma, Grandpa and one of my skin cousins will be there.  We will head home after that.  It will take us a day just to get our of Florida.  Mama is ready to leave South Florida.  She is not happy being at the bottom of the state during hurricane season.  Let's just hope nothing shows up in the radar in the next week.  Dad is actually going to DC next week, so we are on our own.  We had hoped we would be able to go, but he has to work on Monday and needs to be there on Tuesday.  Motor homes can't travel that fast.  BOL!

On a sad note, we lost another one of our blogging friends.  Jaime has gone to the Rainbow Bridge.  Mama always laughed when she saw pictures of Jaime with her HUGE teddy bear, Kevin.  You are missed Miss Jaime.  We are thinking of her family.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves Having A Full View Of The Outside World Again

The Shade Saga

It is not uncommon to have problem with RV shades.  The strings break which causes the shades not to stay in place.  Our shades started having problems a few weeks after we bought the motor home.  The motor home is eight years old so that is not surprising. The folks were told that re-stringing them was a major pain. Dad said it was worth the $16 that the kit costs to try it.  Mama bought a re-stringing kit before we left Houston in March.  Mama has been asking Dad to try re-string one since that time.  She didn't think she could do it herself because she watched a You Tube video and it looked really hard.  In May, Mama was still asking Dad to re-string it.  She was tired of propping up the shades with pillows and suction cups.  The suction cups fly off and the shades fall down and that scares us.  The suction cups fall behind the couch and then Mama has to use kitchen tongs to fish them out.  It is quite a production.  She decided to cut off the "day shade" and just leave the night shade to make it easier to hold the shades up.  She couldn't use the day shade anyway.  That worked well for a few weeks, but then the shades lost all their pleats and were harder to hold up.

We can use pillows on the two windows that have couches in front on them.

Mama started growing impatient and decided to try re-stringing herself.  However, the video she watched said she needed to take down the valance and she couldn't figure out how to do it.  Dad told her not to attempt it.  He told her on a rainy weekend, we would put up new shades.  Finally, this past weekend was rainy.  Mama was excited. Dad was not.  The folks headed to Home Depot.  They had picked out shades there.  They are not RV shades, but according to forums Mama has read, people have used these and are quite happy with them.  Dad said they should just buy one to make sure they liked it because since they were custom cut and they could not be returned.

Let me just say that putting this shade up was not easy. The folks started on it Saturday afternoon and finally Sunday night it was up.  It took five trips to Home Depot to accomplish this. They kept bringing home wood and bigger screws.  The biggest problem is that the valance is in the way and it will not come down.  The folks checked the forums and found out that the manufacturer says it is not removable.  It is very hard to get the shade to clip into place.  Dad kept lowering the placement of  it so that he had more finger room.  It was difficult and several bad words were said.

Ready to see our new shade? 

Isn't it pretty?

Mama loves her new shade.  It has a black out feature which will help block the sun.  We are not sure how well it does that yet because it has been raining since it was put up.  She will really be happy when the remaining four are put up, but she doesn't have a clue when that will happen.  We only have one more weekend here and it doesn't sound like Dad wants to waste it putting up shades even though it would make Mama really happy and she would love to have it done before we go home.  Pssst....Dad if you are reading this, that is a big hint for you. If Mama is happy, we are all happy.  BOL

Dad thinks he has a different way to install the rest of them, but it involves another trip to Home Depot and even longer screws.  BOL   FYI:  Dad is actually really good at home repairs but motor homes are a totally different beast.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Glad That All He Has To Do Is Look Cute To Make Mama Happy

Home Alone With Brownies

Yesterday, Mama decided to make some brownies. Actually, they were a combination brownie and cookie.  She decided to use the oven instead of the microwave/convection oven because the microwave/convection oven really heats up the RV.  It just blows out the heat.  It is great in the winter, but not good in the summer.  It usually raises the temperature about five degrees or more in here and it takes our air conditioning a long time to cool it back down.  On a side note, remember when Mama said that you can't use the microwave right after using the convection oven?  Well, she was wrong.  It can be used right away and she does it all the time. 

Okay, so back to the brownie making.  She used the oven and it only caused the temperature in the RV to go up two degrees, so she will probably use the oven more often now.  She set the brownies out on the counter to cool and then the folks left for dinner.  Yep, she left them uncovered.  As they were paying the bill at the restaurant, Mama remembered the brownies and us.  She got really scared.   They rushed home and on the way she said "I'm sure they didn't eat them.  They don't touch food.  Oh, wait, Scout ate my spaghetti once."  Dad reminded her that there was a bunch of stuff on the floor in front of the counter and that might discourage us from getting near the counter.  (That is a whole other story that we will talk about later this week.) They pulled into our driveway and while Mama was running to get inside to check on us, she bumped her leg on the tow hitch on the car and now she has a big lump.  She opened the door and I was the only one who greeted her which is unusual.  I was licking the sides of my mouth.  She looked at Scout who still in bed and she was licking the side of her mouth.  Mama said "OH NO!"  She ran to the pan of brownies and they were untouched!  Yep, we did good!  We got lots of hugs for being good.  Why were we licking the outside of mouths?  I'm not telling.  BOL!

How were the brownies?  Well, something went really wrong with them.  They turned out to be very hard.  Dad had a heck of a time getting some out of the pan.  It was quite comical.  Dad said there is something sticky on the top of them.  He thought it was caramel.  Mama said it is a cookie dough mix that came in the box.  We don't know what happened to them.  No, really we don't.  Mama usually makes a decent brownie or at least that is what she says.  We are not allowed to have any since they are chocolate.

We think the tent campers are here to stay.  They brought in a dorm sized refrigerator, a cook top and they hung up misters.  They are having trouble with their screened area that goes over their picnic table.  The roof keeps falling in on them.

No luck in getting a decent photo of us for the contest.  Time is running out.

Mama is not going to start on the cross stitch project for a while.  It may be a winter project.  She has other projects going on right now.  She has been knitting with her looms again.

Our new battery for the laptop should be delivered here today.  We hope the battery is the problem and not the cord.  Mama has been on an ordering frenzy because we are leaving here in two weeks and we will not have mail service for at least a month after that.  Bully sticks are on their way, too!!!  We can't run out of those, you know.  They really do keep our teeth clean. Scout has never needed a dental and I'm looking good so far.  Yep, we love our bully sticks.  BOL

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Passed The Brownie Test