This was a short week at work as I only worked through Wednesday and then Peggy and I hooked up the Vue and drove the Winne home to Maine on Thursday. I need to be back in NY on Monday so we have a few days here to sorta winterize Winne, take care of a few things around the house, including trying to get some leaves picked up and the lawn mowed one last time before winter.
Yesterday I accomplished getting the Winne's water system drained, blown down with air and then added a few gallons of RV antifreeze (the "pink stuff" - while Peggy worked on getting a bunch of stuff out of the inside that we either still need in NY or stuff that shouldn't be left out in the cold while Winne is in storage for a couple on months. Today I'll go through the basement compartments, give her a good washing, fill her up with gas and then put her in storage. She's had a busy year and will appreciate the rest! The last I looked - she has been our home for almost 80% of the last year! Not quite full timing - but close!
I also managed to get the oil changed in the truck and the Vue yesterday as we are planning on taking both back to NY - so Peggy can have something to drive while I'm working. We will be staying at a Residence Inn for a few weeks and there are a few shopping centers nearby so maybe she can get our Christmas shopping done! I'm not sure whether we'll drive both cars to NY or pull the Vue with the truck ... never done that but can't see why it wouldn't work? We have the tow bar - the truck has a hitch - it even has the "trailer towing" package - so I guess it aught to work.
Well - my RVing friends were no help at all so I went ahead and ordered the Cyfre Amplifier and a few accessories. The package was waiting for us when we arrived here at home. So I had to check it out. Our signal strength here at the house is pretty good normally so I couldn't really test the unit on a weak signal but I installed the amp in the Winne between the USB760 in our Cradlepoint router and the Wilson omni-directional external antenna on the Winne's ladder and the signal strength indicated on the router went from "3 bars" to "4 bars" almost instantly. Last night I moved all the equipment into the house and hooked up the system to the mag-mount antenna that came with the amp. I put the antenna on a large cookie sheet to provide a ground plane. Once again the router indicated a full "4 bar" signal strength. I played around a bit using different combinations of both antenna and amp, antenna only, no antenna and no amp. The amp definitely works! The signal strength indicator internal to the Cradlepoint showed 67% without the amp and 81% with the amp in service. Not too bad for a small mag mount antenna sitting on a cookie sheet inside the house! But the real test will be while we are on-the-road in an area of poor reception.
We hope everybody is doing well. Be sure to make it through Halloween with only treats and no tricks!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Wispering Pines - Greenfield Center, NY
Another week down - and things are improving. Only 53 hours this week - it felt like a vacation - I actually got home before dark on two days!! OK that's enough feeling sorry for Mikee. Mikee knew the risks going in and we can hack it for a few more weeks.
Our move north last Sunday went really smooth. We weren't the last ones to leave Deer Run - but we were probably close. The campground was looking pretty abandoned by the time we pulled up jacks around 11:00 AM, filled up with propane on our way out, and made the trip up here to Greenfield Center, NY - just a bit west of our old home in Saratoga Springs.
We are now staying at Whispering Pines Campsites in a 50 Amp - full hook up site in the middle of a really beautiful pine forest. Peggy thinks it's her forest cause we are just about the only folks here! According to the owner - they really close this place around October 15th but they keep one section open till the last minute (October 31st) as they prepare the rest of the place for winter.
So poor Peggy has been stuck here in the middle of the forest all day while I head out to earn a bit of gas money for future trips. We do have a pretty decent cable TV setup but the Internet and cellphone coverage is pretty shaky. She has managed to survive up here in the wilderness but I think she was ready for seeing real folks, and stores, and stuff as we took off this afternoon to do a bit of sightseeing/shopping. We'll be staying here through Wednesday night and then we'll head back to Maine on Thursday for a few days. I need to be back at work on Monday the 1st - so it will be a short trip to get the Winne home and sorta winterized, clean up the yard a bit, check the mail, and head on back. Then we'll get to see how well we survive a few weeks at the Residence Inn!
Like I said - our Internet and cellphone coverage here is pretty shaky. The phone signal goes away pretty often and the Internet connection is slooow at best. While we are in the Winne we use our Cradlepoint wireless router and Verizon Broadband USB760 modem hooked to an outside antenna mounted on our roof access ladder to access the Internet. This works pretty well in most places we have been - but every once in a while we find ourselves in a remote location where the signal is poor to non-existent. SO - I've pretty much talked myself into purchasing a cellular signal amplifier to help out on these occasions. Right now I'm leaning towards the Cyfre direct connect amplifier - but welcome any suggestions from my RVing friends who may have good or bad experiences I can learn from. But you better hurry - once I get my mind made up - I pull the trigger pretty fast.
That's probably why Peggy didn't let me look at the new motorhomes today when we were at the RV store!
Our move north last Sunday went really smooth. We weren't the last ones to leave Deer Run - but we were probably close. The campground was looking pretty abandoned by the time we pulled up jacks around 11:00 AM, filled up with propane on our way out, and made the trip up here to Greenfield Center, NY - just a bit west of our old home in Saratoga Springs.
We are now staying at Whispering Pines Campsites in a 50 Amp - full hook up site in the middle of a really beautiful pine forest. Peggy thinks it's her forest cause we are just about the only folks here! According to the owner - they really close this place around October 15th but they keep one section open till the last minute (October 31st) as they prepare the rest of the place for winter.
So poor Peggy has been stuck here in the middle of the forest all day while I head out to earn a bit of gas money for future trips. We do have a pretty decent cable TV setup but the Internet and cellphone coverage is pretty shaky. She has managed to survive up here in the wilderness but I think she was ready for seeing real folks, and stores, and stuff as we took off this afternoon to do a bit of sightseeing/shopping. We'll be staying here through Wednesday night and then we'll head back to Maine on Thursday for a few days. I need to be back at work on Monday the 1st - so it will be a short trip to get the Winne home and sorta winterized, clean up the yard a bit, check the mail, and head on back. Then we'll get to see how well we survive a few weeks at the Residence Inn!
Like I said - our Internet and cellphone coverage here is pretty shaky. The phone signal goes away pretty often and the Internet connection is slooow at best. While we are in the Winne we use our Cradlepoint wireless router and Verizon Broadband USB760 modem hooked to an outside antenna mounted on our roof access ladder to access the Internet. This works pretty well in most places we have been - but every once in a while we find ourselves in a remote location where the signal is poor to non-existent. SO - I've pretty much talked myself into purchasing a cellular signal amplifier to help out on these occasions. Right now I'm leaning towards the Cyfre direct connect amplifier - but welcome any suggestions from my RVing friends who may have good or bad experiences I can learn from. But you better hurry - once I get my mind made up - I pull the trigger pretty fast.
That's probably why Peggy didn't let me look at the new motorhomes today when we were at the RV store!
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Hey There Ya'll - Scaghticoke, NY
Two weeks without a blog entry! Sorry about that but I've been a bit busy. No need to go into details here but 67 work hours 2 weeks ago and 61 work hours last week has just about wore me out. What part of "retired" did I forget? Oh well - hopefully this upcoming week will be a little less chaotic.
This is moving weekend. The campground here at Deer Run closes tomorrow so we are pulling up jacks and heading north a bit to near Saratoga Springs where we found another campground that is open till the end of October. It's only two more weeks and then we will need to take the Winne home.
When I agreed to take this job I expected to be done no later than just about now. As the job unfolded - it became apparent that the project I am working on wouldn't be completed until around mid November ... so I agreed to help out until then. Now it looks like it may take until perhaps January to get-er-done!! So I had to break the news to the Project Director yesterday that although I really wanted to see the project completed, Mikee needs to move on down the road soon - so they better start finding a replacement. Right now I'm planning on being done here on November 19th.
Since we will be moving the Winne a bit north tomorrow - and since the poor girl has been sitting here since mid June without a bath (outside water use restrictions pretty much all summer) - today was scrub-a-dub-dub day. First came the top - man was it filthy. 4 months of sitting under a bunch of oak trees made for a pretty mungy mess. But after a couple hours of scrubbing - the Winne's roof is all nice and brite white again. After a bit of a rest break - it was on to the outside vertical surfaces. More water - more suds - more scrubbing and that was done! Phew - I needed another break. Then I accomplished the last few chores on the list for today - top off the tire air pressures (I had to add about 5 psi to all tires since it was about 90 degrees outside when I last filled them and it's closer to 60 degrees today!) - and charge up the chassis battery. OK that's enough - I quit for the day. We are pretty much ready to roll tomorrow - even if it is only about 35 miles.
Then what? ---- After our stay up near Saratoga is done in a couple of weeks we will be taking the Winne back to Maine and get her winterized. Then it will be back to NY for a few more weeks to finish up my work commitments - while living in the Residence Inn. It certainly won't be as nice as living in the Winne - but it will have to do for a few weeks.
When we are done in NY - the present plan is to head back home for Thanksgiving and stay till shortly after Christmas. Then we plan on heading south. I know we will be stopping in NJ cause it's been waay too long since we've played with the grandkids. After a bit of time in Jerzee we'll keep headin' south. We still haven't figured out whether to go southwest to AZ and/or TX and then travel back to AL or go to AL and then head further west before heading back to Maine. We are considering attending another FMCA rally in GA in mid March. I'm sure a plan will come to us before we head out.
Well that's about it - not much else new here on the working man front - except that I remain pretty convinced that being retired is not all that bad and needs to be tried again. This work stuff is waay overrated!
This is moving weekend. The campground here at Deer Run closes tomorrow so we are pulling up jacks and heading north a bit to near Saratoga Springs where we found another campground that is open till the end of October. It's only two more weeks and then we will need to take the Winne home.
When I agreed to take this job I expected to be done no later than just about now. As the job unfolded - it became apparent that the project I am working on wouldn't be completed until around mid November ... so I agreed to help out until then. Now it looks like it may take until perhaps January to get-er-done!! So I had to break the news to the Project Director yesterday that although I really wanted to see the project completed, Mikee needs to move on down the road soon - so they better start finding a replacement. Right now I'm planning on being done here on November 19th.
Since we will be moving the Winne a bit north tomorrow - and since the poor girl has been sitting here since mid June without a bath (outside water use restrictions pretty much all summer) - today was scrub-a-dub-dub day. First came the top - man was it filthy. 4 months of sitting under a bunch of oak trees made for a pretty mungy mess. But after a couple hours of scrubbing - the Winne's roof is all nice and brite white again. After a bit of a rest break - it was on to the outside vertical surfaces. More water - more suds - more scrubbing and that was done! Phew - I needed another break. Then I accomplished the last few chores on the list for today - top off the tire air pressures (I had to add about 5 psi to all tires since it was about 90 degrees outside when I last filled them and it's closer to 60 degrees today!) - and charge up the chassis battery. OK that's enough - I quit for the day. We are pretty much ready to roll tomorrow - even if it is only about 35 miles.
Then what? ---- After our stay up near Saratoga is done in a couple of weeks we will be taking the Winne back to Maine and get her winterized. Then it will be back to NY for a few more weeks to finish up my work commitments - while living in the Residence Inn. It certainly won't be as nice as living in the Winne - but it will have to do for a few weeks.
When we are done in NY - the present plan is to head back home for Thanksgiving and stay till shortly after Christmas. Then we plan on heading south. I know we will be stopping in NJ cause it's been waay too long since we've played with the grandkids. After a bit of time in Jerzee we'll keep headin' south. We still haven't figured out whether to go southwest to AZ and/or TX and then travel back to AL or go to AL and then head further west before heading back to Maine. We are considering attending another FMCA rally in GA in mid March. I'm sure a plan will come to us before we head out.
Well that's about it - not much else new here on the working man front - except that I remain pretty convinced that being retired is not all that bad and needs to be tried again. This work stuff is waay overrated!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Watching Out For Muggles - Topsham, ME
Peg and I drove back home yesterday. 300 or so miles of rain, rain, and more rain. Sometimes I could even see the taillights on the car in front of me! Oh well that's done- we're home - and it looks like a beautiful day out there today.
Our main reason for coming home was simply to take care of some yard work - normal fall stuff to get ready for what follows. Mow the lawn, clean out some gutters, clean out the flower beds. That kind of stuff. It may sound a little early to start getting ready for winter - but not really. I may need to work next Saturday, I need to change campgrounds the following Saturday because the one I'm at is closing for the season, a couple weeks later the new one will be closing so I need to bring the Winne home for pre-winter trip maintenance. All that - and I still need to finish up this job so I can get back to being retired. See - not much time left!
Last weekend, before we left for the reunion banquet, Peggy and I decided to try out some more geocaching. I went online and found a couple of caches listed in a nearby park - next to one of the locks of the Erie Canal Waterway. After a quick download of the info into the GPS Gadget - we were off to find the park. We got a little confused as to what side of the river the park was on but we finally found it.
We quickly found a nice walking trail through the woods next to the river and the Gadget was pointing down the path. 500 and some feet later the guiding arrow on the gadget swings quickly to the left and we leave the trail heading into the woods - only about 70 feet left to go. 20 feet to go - 10 feet - 1 foot! We're there!! But where is the cache? We're near a big tree but nothing that looks man-made around here. Then I look up.
Sure enough - right above my head - about 30 feet up this tree is a plastic tube hanging by a rope that is looped over a branch and then run several hundred feet over to another tree - where it is attached by a clip device. Disconnect the clip, lower the tube to the ground and voila - there's the cache.
After signing the logbook and checking out the goodies in the cache - taking none and leaving none (TNLN in geocacher talk) - we closed up the cache and re-rigged it for the next geocacher to find.
Then we we're off to find the next one. Another tenth of a mile or so down the trail we take another side trail and then once again the needle swings quickly to the right this time. About 20 feet off the trail the "distance to our destination" goes to 0 and we start looking. This time we found the cache in a typical geocache old army ammo can hidden in a hole at the base of a tree.
Once again we checked out the "stuff" inside (this one was dedicated to those serving in the armed forces), signed the log book and then re-hid the cache - just before some "muggles" walked by. I understand that "muggles" is a term from the Harry Potter world that Geocachers use to describe civilians that aren't looking for geocaches and you don't want them to find one by spying on what you are doing.
Yup - just as you imagined - Geocaching is a game played by us kids of all ages. But all-in-all I think it's a good thing. You get some exercise, you get to learn the skills of using a handheld GPS which could really be useful if you spend time hiking in unfamiliar territory, and it's kinda fun.
Just don't let the muggles catch you
Our main reason for coming home was simply to take care of some yard work - normal fall stuff to get ready for what follows. Mow the lawn, clean out some gutters, clean out the flower beds. That kind of stuff. It may sound a little early to start getting ready for winter - but not really. I may need to work next Saturday, I need to change campgrounds the following Saturday because the one I'm at is closing for the season, a couple weeks later the new one will be closing so I need to bring the Winne home for pre-winter trip maintenance. All that - and I still need to finish up this job so I can get back to being retired. See - not much time left!
Last weekend, before we left for the reunion banquet, Peggy and I decided to try out some more geocaching. I went online and found a couple of caches listed in a nearby park - next to one of the locks of the Erie Canal Waterway. After a quick download of the info into the GPS Gadget - we were off to find the park. We got a little confused as to what side of the river the park was on but we finally found it.
We quickly found a nice walking trail through the woods next to the river and the Gadget was pointing down the path. 500 and some feet later the guiding arrow on the gadget swings quickly to the left and we leave the trail heading into the woods - only about 70 feet left to go. 20 feet to go - 10 feet - 1 foot! We're there!! But where is the cache? We're near a big tree but nothing that looks man-made around here. Then I look up.
Sure enough - right above my head - about 30 feet up this tree is a plastic tube hanging by a rope that is looped over a branch and then run several hundred feet over to another tree - where it is attached by a clip device. Disconnect the clip, lower the tube to the ground and voila - there's the cache.
After signing the logbook and checking out the goodies in the cache - taking none and leaving none (TNLN in geocacher talk) - we closed up the cache and re-rigged it for the next geocacher to find.
Then we we're off to find the next one. Another tenth of a mile or so down the trail we take another side trail and then once again the needle swings quickly to the right this time. About 20 feet off the trail the "distance to our destination" goes to 0 and we start looking. This time we found the cache in a typical geocache old army ammo can hidden in a hole at the base of a tree.
Once again we checked out the "stuff" inside (this one was dedicated to those serving in the armed forces), signed the log book and then re-hid the cache - just before some "muggles" walked by. I understand that "muggles" is a term from the Harry Potter world that Geocachers use to describe civilians that aren't looking for geocaches and you don't want them to find one by spying on what you are doing.
Yup - just as you imagined - Geocaching is a game played by us kids of all ages. But all-in-all I think it's a good thing. You get some exercise, you get to learn the skills of using a handheld GPS which could really be useful if you spend time hiking in unfamiliar territory, and it's kinda fun.
Just don't let the muggles catch you
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