Leap Day - Kinder, LA

As predicted, we spent a quiet day around the rig and Bayou Segnette State Park on Monday. We ventured out for walk around the campground and had a couple of meals/visits with D and J - but other than that - we "enjoyed" another day without sunshine.

Yesterday was a travel day. We rolled out of the New Orleans area around 9:00 AM, found our way back to I-10 and maintained a westerly course for a few hundred miles to our present spot here at the Coushatta RV Resort and Casino in Kinder, LA. The trip was only a little over 200 miles - but it seemed longer. I think the combination of fog, overcast skies, sorta rough roads, and I-10 truck traffic combined to wear us all out more than usual. 

Regardless - we made it here safe and sound ... and right on time for Tea Time. Isn't it interesting how we always seem to arrive right about Happy Hour wherever we go and whatever time zone we're in?


After Tea Time we donned our glad rags and drove over to the Casino - about a mile or so from the RV park - and joined them for dinner. We opted for the fare at the Terrace Cafe, one of 6 restaurants in the place. After enjoying our meals (good but not fantastic) we avoided all the slot machines and made our way back to the RV park. We then took a short walk around the pond/park to allow our meals to settle before returning to our rigs and calling it a day/night.

We'll be staying here in Kinder for another day before continuing our journey over to the Rainbows End Campground in Livingston, TX - home of the Escapees RV Club. Darrell and Judy are full time RVers who use Texas as their legal domicile and use the Escapees mail service in Livingston as their mailing address. So I guess D and J are heading "home" for a visit! Since they haven't been "home" for awhile (about 6 years) it's time to get their truck safety inspected and take care of other "domicile" chores.


That's pretty much "the way it is" here - this Leap Day - Twenty Twelve - still looking for the sun - but haven't seen it in several days!

More Muffuletta - NOLA

OK - time to get caught up since I have been lax in providing updates the last few days.


After a great breakfast at the clubhouse on Saturday morning - brought to us by Larry Cameron (AKA Larry the Cook) and his band of helpers I spent most of the day doing chores that I should have done days ago like wash the car and Winne - and then I moved on to chores to get us ready to travel - like mount the bikes on the car and empty some holding tanks. After getting our chores done we wandered over to the Patterson abode for a wonderful haddock chowder made with Frozen At Sea Haddock picked up in Topsham, Maine last summah. We were joined by Norm and Linda Payne, Don and Gloria Martin, and Gary and Millie Small for a pre-travel send-off dinner. Great chowdah and great conversation!


We started the "2012 Go West Young Man" leg of our tour yesterday. We are being joined on this leg of the trip by Darrell and Judy Patterson. We have never traveled with another RV couple before so this should be fun. We began our trip with a relatively short (190 mile) drive along I-10 to New Orleans, AKA "NOLA", AKA "the Big Easy" ... whatever!! The drive west went pretty smooth -- well except for a couple of stretches of I-10 that bounced us all over the road.


We arrived here at the Bayou Segnette State Park - on the "south" side of the Mississippi River across from the city. Bayou Segnette is a very nice state park. Hard to believe they have such a nice park this close to NOLA. After setting up in our sites we loaded ourselves in the Vue and drove over to the Algiers Point Ferry Landing, boarded the ferry, and crossed the river to the Canal Street Landing, right at the edge of the famous New Orleans French Quarter. 

The weather was starting to get colder and damp as we walked up Canal Street to Bourbon Street. For those of you who have never been to New Orleans and have always imagined how fun it would be to spend some time on Bourbon Street - let me warn you now. It's an "interesting" walk but your best bet is to just keep on walking. The building architecture is "interesting", the smells are "interesting", and the people watching can be very "interesting" ... but just keep on walking.

So we walked to St. Peter street and then turned south and walked to Jackson Square. The mist was turning more to a steady rain about here so we took a few pictures outside the Saint Louis Cathedral - the oldest Cathedral in North America founded as a Catholic Parish in 1720.

We continued our self guided wandering tour of the French Quarter by making our way to Decatur Street as we passed the famous Cafe Du Monde. We passed up the opportunity for cafe' au lait and beignets as we continued down Decatur towards Central Grocery - the home of the Muffuletta Sandwich. Being that is was Sunday Central Grocery was closed so we traveled down a few more doors to Frank's Restaurant. Frank's has been serving it's style of New Orleans cuisine since 1965 and offers a few indoor tables to sit and enjoy your Muffuletta. So we did. We ordered a whole sandwich and split it four ways. Yum-Yum. The olive salad they put on is wonderful ... is made by Frank's ... and now a quart travels with Winne. I'm sure we will find some yummy ways to use it in our travels.

After enjoying our Muffulettas we continued on down Decatur, back to Canal, taking a few pictures along the way. We were all pretty damp and cold by this time so we made our way back to the Ferry terminal to catch our ride back to Algiers, and then back to Bayou Segnette. 

We finished up our day with some "Tea Time" visiting and then called it a day. And a full day it was!!


Today looks like more clouds and more rain. I gotta feeling we are going to just relax and goof off most of the day - leaving more visitation in New Orleans for another (drier) day.


We plan on heading further West tomorrow as we continue our trip. Let's all hope for sunny skies!

Life Aboard Winne

I was wondering this morning - how long have we been gone? As it turns out we have been gone about 59 days. We still have a bit over a month planned for this trip so that will get us to about 90 to 95 days total if we make it home around April 1st as presently guesstimated. I'm pretty sure that will be a new record for us for one trip. We were gone for 79 days last winter and I think that was a record for one trip. 


At times like this I tend to reflect back on our RVing experiences. When we bought this motorhome in 2004, a year before I retired (the first time), we knew we wanted to travel but we really had no clue how often, how long, or how far. When you throw in the fact that I "un-retired" for about a year and a half in the 2006 timeframe and have taken a couple of consulting jobs since then - our travel experiences have been ... let's say ... inconsistent.


We purchased Winne new in May of 2004 and managed to get in 12 RVing nights that calendar year while I was still working. We traveled a whopping 2,000 miles in 2004.


I retired in May of 2005 and we hit the road for our first West Coast trip. We traveled for 53 nights in 2005 logging 10,250 miles.


I was back to work full time in 2006 and we were only able to use Winne for 12 nights and 1,800 miles. That's about the time that I remembered why I retired in the first place!


2007 was a really big travel year. I re-retired in April and we were able to make a few big trips. A winter trip to the Southeast and a Summer trip out to California. We logged 14,300 miles and spent 86 days RV living.


In 2008 we made a another West Coast trip in the Fall for my mom's birthday and a family reunion. All-In-All we spent another 65 days living in Winne and drove another 11,800 miles.


2009 was a record year for miles as we made a winter getaway to the Southeast and then yet another West Coast run to help out the family with our Grandnephew Derek's stay in the Oakland Children's Hospital. Another 14,600 miles and 120 days on the road. Living aboard Winne for extended periods was starting to become a habit!


2010 was waay crazy! We started with a snowbird trip to the Southeast and into Texas, returned to Maine, and then turned around to head to Cali once again - this time to support my Mom while she was undergoing cancer treatments. While on the West Coast I accepted a short term job near Schenectady, NY and spent about 4 months living in Winne and traveling back and forth to Maine on the weekends. Like I said - crazy!! We drove Winne for 14,200 miles in 2010 while spending 139 days traveling ... and I spent another 130 or so days living in Winne while working.


2011 was actually sorta calm. We made our snowbird trip in the Winter traveling across the South from Alabama to Arizona and then winding our way back home. We didn't make it all the way to California for the first time in several years!! We "only" drove about 7,500 miles and "only" spent about 80 days on-the-road.


So here we are in 2012 ... on day 59 of about 90 something ... having driven about 2,200 miles with about 3,100 to go before we get home.


So in the 8 years we have owned Winne we have averaged over 10,000 miles per year seeing the USA (and a tiny bit of Canada) and have "lived aboard" for about 2 years.


Would we do it again? You bet. I can't think of a better way to see this large, diverse, and beautiful county we call the USA. As long as one has the financial means to travel this way - I say it's the only way to go. Neither of us can imagine driving across the country in a car, staying in motels every night, eating out every meal.


Has it been worth the initial investment? Since you can't put a $$ value on enjoyment this is an impossible question to answer. Buying any RV certainly can't be considered an "investment." The depreciation on Winne during the latest recession may have been somewhat less than what many equities returned. That same depreciation number most probably would be less than the loss of value that a vacation home purchased in 2005 would be - depending on where it was purchased.


Is it worth what it costs to operate Winne while on the road? Once again - it's pretty nigh impossible to equate enjoyment to the cost of operation. About the only way I can see to answer that question is to figure out what else would I be doing with that same money. Although I can certainly think of some enjoying things we could have done or could be doing --- they only come to the same level of enjoyment - not higher. And besides - we may do them later!


OK. That's enough pondering for one day. Time to get busy. There are projects to accomplish, muffalettas to eat, and socializing to do. 


Rving is busy work!

The Countdown Begins

Good news! Winne's windshield leak appears to be fixed. After letting the sealant sit overnight to cure I got out the hose yesterday and sprayed down the windshield to check for leaks ... and so far so good. So after the successful leak check I re-installed the outer molding and the interior windshield trim. We'll have to wait and see how it performs after a few thousand miles of driving down the road.


Today, Ash Wednesday, was our first non-Mardi Gras day in several days. The folks here at the Plantation, most of whom are older than Peggy and I, certainly do enjoy this annual celebration. Obviously - age is not a factor when it comes to folks wanting to have a good time. Take my wife for instance:

Does this look like a woman who has forgotten how to have a good time? You'll have to use your imagination to figure out how she got all those beads! 


But today was a relatively quiet day. We did a few chores around the house, took a walk around the park, took a short shopping trip to the mall, and spent some fun time visiting with Darrell and Judy.


We (D and J and Peggy and I) were planning on leaving next Monday - first stop New Orleans - but we are also watching the weather. It looks like the weather will be relatively lousy on Tuesday - and only marginally better on Monday ... so it is now looking like we may leave on Sunday and try to get some touristy stuff in before the weather turns ugly. 


So we only have a few days left here in Alabama. We're planning a lunch out tomorrow with D and J and Paul and Mary Witmer. We met Paul and Mary last spring while we were staying at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort in Kerrville, TX ... and it will be great to meet up with them again. Friday I hope to make it back to Panini Pete's in Fairhope for a Muffaleta. Saturday Darrell is planning a traditional Maine fish chowder meal at their house.


Yup - we only have a few days left - but plenty of visiting and eating to accomplish in the meantime.

Beads, Beads, and "Little Things"

I spent Sunday morning working on Winne's windshield leak repair. After removing the rubber molding strip from above the two front windshields and inspecting the sealing area it became pretty obvious that the leak was being caused by a rust through in an area at the top of the driver's side windshield. That particular windshield was replaced several years ago after it became cracked and apparently the replacement process created a spot where water was allowed to collect and then rust through above the windshield. If I was home and had all the time and equipment I needed I would have completely cleaned out the joint, stabilized the rusty area with some POR-15, and then resealed the area. As a temporary repair - I cleaned up the rusty area as good as possible, dried out the area using compressed air, and then applied some "RV Goop" sealant/adhesive all along the upper windshield joint. I'm hoping I can isolate the rusted out area from water and therefore it shouldn't leak. I let the sealant dry overnight and then applied a little bit more today. After the additional sealant cures tonight I'll spray a bit of water up there tomorrow and see what happens! If all goes well and the leak is stopped - I'll replace the rubber molding and see how it holds up after a few thousand miles of driving.


The Mardi Gras festivities continued yesterday evening with the "normal" Sunday ice cream social, some skits, and more music.

Anybody Want a Moon Pie?

Our Glorious King

A Performance by the Sheneilles

Some Maine Humor compliments of Darrell Patterson

Today's activities included the Rainbow Plantation Parade and another meal for 250 folks. Today's feast featured pulled pork sandwiches, potato wedges, beans, and more ice cream. 

Lots of Beads

More Beads

Red Hat Beads

Then there were the Tractors

and tractor wannabees

What would a parade be without Firetrucks?

More Mardi Gras Food

I don't have the words to describe her performance ... but Patsy Cline would be proud!

Click on the "Little Things" link below to get an idea of Mardi Gras at the Rainbow Plantation!    

Little Things


After the parade and lunch activities Peggy got a few more loads of laundry complete while I continued my work on the windshield leak. Afterwards we hosted Darrell and Judy Patterson for a grilled hot dog dinner and gabfest here at the Maineiacs In Motion Mansion.


Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday ... the culmination of the crazy carnival activities known as Mardi Gras. This means one more day of partying, yet another meal at the clubhouse, and deposing the King and Queen. Boy will I be glad when all this Mardi Gras partying is over so we can get back to the normal partying!

More Mardi Gras Mischief and Rain

The Mardi Gras festival here at Rainbow Plantation got kicked off on Friday night with the traditional dinner, crowning of the King and Queen, and Music/Dancing. The clubhouse was full with a record crowd of right about 250 attendees. Peggy and I helped out with the dinner as "salad makers" and we all enjoyed our baked spaghetti and garlic bread.

Saturday is breakfast day here at the Plantation and Mardi Gras Saturday was no exception. Even Peggy arose and joined the crowd, including the King and Queen, for pancakes and sausage/bacon.

In between Mardis Gras stuff we have stayed busy with small chores around the house, reading, and generally goofing off. Yesterday we had some major rain storms move through and we even had a tornado watch for a few hours in the evening. All we ended up receiving was lots of rain but the weather added to our interesting evening joining Darrell and Judy and new friends Allan and Jeanne for some yummy Chili over at D and J's place.


The rain did bring one unwanted visitor into my life. Winne has developed a water leak from the windshield area. The leak may be from the windshield seal itself or perhaps the marker lights up above. I'll have to check it out further today as things dry up. Yessiree - never a dull day in the life of an RVer (or any homeowner for that matter!).


We plan on leaving the Plantation a week from tomorrow for our trip to the hill country of Texas. That being the case --- it's time I started thinking about getting Winne ready for travel. I shouldn't have much to do but I need to check oil levels, tire pressures and that sort of stuff as well as start getting the storage bins reorganized. 


So ... that's the story from here on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. A bit more Mardi Gras celebrating to do and then time to get these Maineiacs back in Motion - this time traveling with Darrell and Judy while they Wander America.

Motorhome Mods and Mardi Gras

After returning from breakfast yesterday Peggy left to do a bit of laundry leaving me a few alone hours to complete my inverter installation project.


I started by removing the inverter I had temporarily installed the day before and then moved on to installing a new 3-way switch. A 3-way switch is normally used in house circuits for controlling a load (usually a ceiling light) from two locations (like the bottom and top of a stairwell). In my use - I am controlling the power supply to one of Winne's electrical circuits from either the "normal" source (shore power or generator) or the "alternate" source - the inverter. I found a convenient location for the new switch right below an existing outlet but I had to first raise the outlet about an inch. Enlarging the hole for the existing outlet and then cutting a hole for the new switch mounting box was no problem for my handy Dremel tool!


The next step was to disconnect Winne's shore power, open the AC distribution panel, and connect the new switch to the breaker and circuit inside that I wanted to power from the inverter. The final step was to wire in a short cord with an AC plug on the end for bringing power from the inverter to the new switch.


After closing everything back up, plugging Winne back in to shore power, and re-installing the inverter it was time for testing. 


With the new switch in the "down" position everything works like it did before - with all AC circuits being supplied by shore power - or the generator if it is running.


With the new switch in the "up" position power to "Recepticle Circuit #3" is supplied from the inverter. I chose this particular circuit for inverter supply capability since it routed power to the overhead entertainment center "stuff", the one outlet in the front where I normally plug in my computer, and all the bedroom outlets. 

Once I had the inverter on I started adding loads and monitoring the power draw. Fortunately the new inverter reads out the load (In Killowatts) being supplied and the battery voltage. Unfortunately in the mounting position I chose - the readout is sorta upside down. Here the inverter is reading the battery voltage as 13.3 Volts and is showing a load of 0.15 Killowatts or 150 Watts. 

I turned on all the entertainment center loads and ended up with about 210 watts including the rear TV. Then I started adding loads like my computer, the printer in the bedroom, the clocks in the bedroom, and finally the electric mattress pad ... both sides on high. With all this stuff running the load was only around 250 watts! Perfect! Well within the capability of the inverter with plenty of reserve to spare. We won't be powering the coffee pot, a hair dryer, the microwave oven, or the air conditioners with this inverter but we can surely supply the majority of our AC powered equipment off of battery power if and when we need or want to.


I still need to change the plug that plugs into the inverter to a grounded type plug - but other than that -- another successful project complete here at Mikees Motorhome Modification Center.


Just in time for all the Mardi Gras merriment that starts tonight at the Rainbow Plantation! A nice dinner with 250 of our closest friends, eating of the traditional "King Cake", crowning of the Mardi Gras King and Queen, music, dancing, and all other sorts of carrying on.


I better get a nap this afternoon.

It's All Darrell's Fault III

Yesterday was Motorhome Modification Day for me. Well it was except for the times I was driving to the local hardware store for parts, joining the Patterson's again for lunch (sounds like a habit?), going with Peggy to her monthly massage treatment, and driving again for more parts in the afternoon.


As I mentioned in my last post, I've decided that installing the new inverter in the original location just wasn't going to work. When the Winnebago folks installed the original 300 Watt capacity inverter they installed it in an overhead cabinet above the passenger seat next to the television. This made sense since the inverter was only designed to power the front and rear TVs, the satellite receiver, and the DVD player. All of these loads running at the same time draw less than 200 watts. Where the Winne folks fell down in design was supplying the DC power to this location through a run of about 30 feet of about 10 Gage wire. Even with only 200 watts being drawn at 12 volts this ends up drawing about 20 Amps through that relatively small diameter wire. The new inverter can supply up to about 600 watts so the small diameter wire certainly wasn't going to allow me to take full advantage of the inverter's capability!


One possible solution was to run heavy gauge DC cables from my battery compartment up to the inverter's original location. I dismissed this idea when I looked at how difficult it was going to be to run those cables where they needed to go - and when I calculated the cost of running those expensive cables that far!


What was needed was a solution that involved a short run of DC cables and a convenient tie-in to the existing AC power distribution system. Since our AC distribution panel is located in a small cabinet right near our entrance steps and since our battery compartment is located underneath our entrance steps - that looked like a logical location. Fortunately there is a space in the same cabinet as the AC panel that Winnebago had originally installed a battery powered dust buster and rechargeable flashlight. These were a good idea - but they quit working after about 2 years and we replaced them with items that were too big to store in the same spot.


After a successful trial fit of the new inverter  - I had the beginnings of a plan. 


Yesterday's work involved drilling a few holes and routing the DC supply cables from the battery compartment to the new inverter location. Since the cable run is only about 3 feet for both cables I used #4 gage battery hook up cable for this installation. You can see the inverter connection ends of the cables in the pictures below and you will have to trust me that they are connected to the batteries located under the steps. The positive supply cable was connected through a 60 Amp fuse and was connected so that power can be removed by operation of the DC disconnect switch located near the entrance door. Those big storage batteries can supply a lot of current and thus produce a lot of heat in the event of a short circuit - a safe installation is a good installation!

Right about here I was going to say that I hoped to finish the installation today by wiring the AC side. I was going to have plenty of time since no food outings were planned for today. But I failed to take into consideration that incorrigible Darrell Patterson. He just called and wanted to know if we wanted to go out to breakfast. So that's my story - Darrell is incorrigible and I'm corruptible. It truly is "all Darrell's fault."


OK - we're back from breakfast. Now I can get back to work. I better hurry before Darrell decides it's "Tea Time."

Muffaletta's and More Motorhome Modifications

OK - enough of the cold weather already. The Canadian air that was forecast for this weekend arrived on schedule on Saturday and lasted pretty much through the weekend with lows below freezing the last two nights. Fortunately it looks likes things will be warming up over the next few days.


Today's treat was lunch out with Terry and Randy Guiler and Darrell and Judy Patterson. We met up around 12:30 PM and drove over to Fairhope to their version of the French Quarter and found Panini Pete's. 


Way back last month when we were visiting with those NJ Evringhams I found myself watching Guy Fieri and "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on the Food Network. It just so happened that Guy was visiting Panini Pete's and sampling some of their delicious sandwiches. Right about then I decided that I needed to try the place while we were here in Lower Alabama.

After arriving at Panini Pete's and viewing the menu it became clear that there were lots of items I wanted to try but I settled on the Spicy Roast Beef with some yummy veggies including a few fresh jalapenos. The rest of our crew all had muffaletta sandwiches - a specialty of the New Orleans area made with Italian meats and and some wonderful olive spread. A

ll of our sandwiches were served on some sort of fresh bread toasted in Panini fashion. I am pretty sure we will be back at least once before we leave! I really enjoyed my sandwich but those muffalettas looked pretty good!

After returning from lunch we found that the UPS delivery truck had been by while were gone and left a few gifts. Peggy got a prescription that she had ordered and I received a replacement for Winne's non-functioning inverter. For you non-RVers - an inverter is an electronic device that turns the 12 Volt DC power from storage batteries into 120 Volt AC power. We really don't run into that many situations where we need the inverter but it has been nice to have it on those few occasions when we are without "shore power" and want to watch TV and have power for a few other 120 volt AC loads. 


I fiddled around with the new inverter for a few hours this afternoon and found that I am going to have to make a few modifications to Winne to have things work the way that I want. Never a dull moment at Mikees Motorhome Modification Center!


Tomorrow we have yet another lunch date with D&J ... this time with other RV folks we met a few days ago. We look forward to talking more with Jim and Linda ... especially while eating more shrimp at Big Daddy's Grill!


That's pretty much our life here at the plantation in pre-Mardi Gras mode. Visit with friends while eating some great food and accomplish a few RV projects in between. Now that I think about it - that's pretty much what we will be doing when the Mardi Gras festivities really get rolling next week!


I know - I know -- It's a tough job ... but somebody's got to do it ... and it might as well be me!