Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Work and More Work

Lavon, Texas
Lavonia Park
Weather Condition; High 56 Low 40, Clear

Well, we’re still taking full advantage of the hyper son’s visit!

He spent an afternoon sanding and repainting the fifth wheel hitch. Looks very nice.

He tore out the interior steps I built this past summer and rebuilt them. I’m not a carpenter by any means, but they have worked well for us until they started squeaking!

He also added foam board insulation in the basement. That has already made a big difference. Over time, the basement doors leak air and there wasn’t any real insulation in the basement area.

We do let him rest occasionally!

Dawn and I also invested in a DISH Tailgater satellite and DISH receiver. We bought them both at Camping World.


I’ve read a lot of reviews on this system and most of them are good ones.

We drove over to Camping World in Denton. The store manager told us they have a hard time keeping the Tailgater satellite in stock. He said that the so far the only ones that have been returned are the ones that were sold on-line and delivered through shipping. He said he believes that he thinks that because the large box is so light weight that the delivery companies chunk the boxes.

The satellite itself is very lightweight. It comes with a fifty foot coax cable.

The setup was very easy. I hooked the DISH receiver up to the TV, connected the coax cable, pointed the tailgater towards the southern sky per instruction and Walla we were ready to call DSH and activate our account.

It took ten minutes to hook everything up and ten minutes on the phone to activate our account. We now have our choice of more channels than we’ll ever be able to watch!

Time to get back to work now

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

House Guest and Water Heater Problems

Lavon, Texas
Lavonia Park
Weather Condition; High 66 Low 42, Clear

Things have been busy around our place lately. My Son is visiting from Phoenix.

His plane came into DFW airport at 5:15 A.M on Thursday morning. Dawn and I left the trailer a little after 4:00 A.M in order to be there when his plane arrived.  His flight was a few minutes late but it all worked out that we arrived at the same time his flight landed.

We left the airport and stopped for breakfast. After breakfast we returned to the trailer where everyone took a short nap.


My son is hyper too. He is very mechanical and I have taken full advantage of it. The windshield washer reservoir on the truck has been leaking for over a year. I could pour washer fluid in it and it would run out almost as quick!

We (HE) removed the reservoir and found the motor located at the bottom had a crack in it. A trip to the auto parts store and a little time later, it was working good-as-new. Thanks son.

He helped me wash the truck and we (HE) detailed all the plastic trim. Thanks so

He must have needed some rest so he went to visit other family members for a few days!!!!!

We’ve had some problems with our water heater and I have spent a few weeks trying to trouble shoot the thing to get it to work. We normally don’t use the propane to heat it. The electric has always worked fine.

When it’s real cold out, we like to use the propane. It just didn’t want to light. I’ve turned in on several times and nothing would happen. It would go through the motion and then it would shut out. I got flustered and just left it alone. Thank-goodness we had electric too.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the regular campers here at the park came over and we took the thing apart and cleaned the orifice and checked the igniter and all looked well. We put it all back together and still it wouldn’t light.

The water was warm but not hot by any means. I decided maybe the heating element was going out on it.

A few days later I decided to try the propane again. I turned the propane switch on and I heard the igniter clicking. I turned it off and right back on again and BOOM, it fired right up. I couldn’t believe it.

It fired up on a regular basis but the water wasn’t getting any warmer.

We drove out to Camping World on Sunday to get a new heating element. I talked with the service tech and he explained that the heating element does gradually go out. He said when it goes out it will be all at once. He suggested I double check the bypass valves on the water heater and make sure everything is where they need to be before replacing the heating element.

When we got home, I looked under the kitchen sink and it appeared all the valves were where the manual said they should be. I don’t know how they would have gotten turned anyway. I’ve never turned them.
I decided to turn one of the three valves that I thought might be the valve that needed to be turned. I had to use a pair of pliers to turn the valve.

I turned it and checked the water. The hot water came out of the faucet steaming! BOOM! I’m on a roll now!

I have thought about it and still don’t know how on earth that valve got turned. It took pliers to get it turned in the right direction.

Anyway, it’s all good now!

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Out and About in Big D

A very good friend of ours agreed to drive us around downtown Dallas yesterday. The weather was warm and we spent the afternoon exploring the Big D.

This is the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
It is one of three Santiago Calatrava-designed bridges being built over the Trinity River in Dallas.  


The historic Front Door of Dallas. The Old Red Courthouse on the right.  
The courthouse was built in 1892 of red sandstone rusticated marble accents

Reunion Tower


The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza 
Dealey Plaza




Chapel of Thanksgiving @ Thanks-Giving Square complex. 


 Inside the chapel, the spiral is topped with stained glass "Glory Window"

 "Eye", a 30-foot-tall sculpture by contemporary artist Tony Tasset

Copyright Notice All text and photos found on cruzin2some.blogspot.com is copyrighted and may not be published, rewritten, distributed or downloaded without permission of the owner of cruzin2some.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved. ©cruzin2some 2010