New Fridge & Other Repairs

Rockwall, Texas

Weather Condition; High 99, Low 75, Sunny

We spent 15 days at Beavers Bend State Park at Broken Bow, OK. It was a 176 mile drive for us. We attended the annual BBRT (Beavers Bend Reunion Tour). Every year this group gets together for two weeks at Beavers Bend SP. This is our second year to join the group.

These ladies are from all different areas such as; Oklahoma City, McKinney, TX and Pride, Louisiana. We have a few that were unable to make this year’s trip and we sure do miss them. They are from the San Antonio, TX area.

Everyone arrived safely Sunday. However, there were a few incidents that took place. Ginny & Dena backed up with their rear steps down and bent the steps bad enough that it wouldn’t fold up. I was dumping our black tank before we left Rockwall and the valve cable broke as I was closing it. Now our kitchen and sewer valve cables are broken.  A friend loaned us their Flush King to use as a control valve while we were at the park. 

The weather was hot but bearable. One of the great things about that park is all the wonderful tall shade trees and the cool water in the river.

We had a great time. We arrived back in Rockwall on Monday.

First item on the agenda, find a new refrigerator. We also have to buy an external waste valve. Then I have to crawl under the fiver and open all the valves.

We spent an afternoon looking for a residential apartment size refrigerator. We really wanted the Whirlpool 9.6 cubic foot but the Magic Chef 9.6 was a little cheaper at Home Depot. They come in white and we really wanted black or stainless. Whirlpool come in black but not Magic Chef.  We looked on-line and in stores for a good price. Everywhere we looked we found the prices were pretty much the same ($329.99 to $359.00).

We did get the waste valve for $27.00 and I also bought a water heater tank flushing wand for $2.00! So the day was NOT a total waste!

After much thought, Dawn and I decided we would have to bite the bullet and buy the Whirlpool in white and either paint it black or find something we could live with.

On the way to Home Depot we decided to stop off at Best Buy and see if they had anything on sale. We did well at Best Buy. It just so happens they had a Whirl Pool 9.6. They only had one, the floor model. It had a big red tag on it that stated $239.99. It is white but we can live with it for now at that price!

We bought it with a two year service plan for less than $300.00!!!!!!!!!! We were so excited. We now have a refrigerator again.

We called friends to come by and pick up the fridge for us.  Next we have to remove the RV fridge and trim the cabinet opening enough to accommodate our new fridge.

I spent the first part of the fourth with our friend Mike under the fiver removing the under belly so that we could pull open all the valves. We rolled around under the fiver for a couple of hours but we got that task done.

Now we will use our one external valve to empty our tanks. We chose this route because of the problems we have encountered with our valves and the horror stories we have heard from others.

The second part of the day was spent removing the old fridge and trimming the cabinet opening with a jig saw. All I needed was a half inch. I had to trim down both sides of the cabinet opening in order to get that half inch.  I took my time and it looks pretty good. The next several hours were spent cleaning up all the saw dust that was everywhere! I do mean everywhere!

 Before dinner Mike and his sons helped me install the new fridge. It barely slipped into the cabinet opening. But it did fit and now life is good!

I installed a couple of straps to make sure the fridge doors don’t come open while we are traveling. I will be adding a bracket at the rear of the fridge to keep it in place.

I also had to trim up some of the black plastic trim that was around the old fridge to close up a large opening under the new fridge.

WOW! I’m tired now.

Broken Bow-Beavers Bend

No we did not fall off the face of the earth! We were with friends at Beavers Bend State Park in Broken Bow, Oklahoma for the past 2 weeks and didn't have internet service.

We'll be giving an updated post in the near future. Right now I will leave you with a few pictures because we are on a mission to find a new fridge because our bit the dust.

On the Road with Dead Fridg

Rockwall, Texas

Weather Condition; High 93, Low 72,

We haven’t posted lately due to the fact that I have been fighting with gallstones. That’s right, Gallstones. I’ve had bouts in the past. I’ve probably had three in the past 3 years. Not bad, I can live with that. Last week I had two bouts in one week and it was brutal. Dawn told me if I had another bout she would be driving me to the emergency room.

It has been a week now and I’m feeling much better. Thank goodness, I was afraid she was going to take me to emergency and demand they rip out my gallbladder!

We will be pulling out in the morning heading north. We won’t have phone or internet access for a while.

We did manage to get a few things done while we were on our home turf. We are once again legal to travel the roadways. We paid the state registration fee for the trailer. We had the oil and fuel filter changed. We bought some bad fuel in Rockport.

We washed and conditioned the roof of the trailer. We took a few items to storage. We realized we didn’t need those items and found no need to drag them around anymore. 

We visited with friends and family. Dawn attended a high school graduation and a graduation party. I was too busy fighting gallstones to do any fun stuff!

We have been wrestling with our Norcold refrigerator for quiet awhile and it finally bit the dust. We have replaced the thermistor twice and it just doesn’t want to work. We give up. We will be replacing it with a Maytag residential. We’re not happy with norcold or their products. There have been way too many recalls.

We can replace our Norcold 7.5 cubic foot refrigerator with a Maytag 9.8 cubic foot refrigerator for less than $400.00 and don’t have the fire or ammonia risks.

We won’t have time to replace it until we return from our 2 week planned trip to meet up with friends.

We’ll be returning back here in a couple of weeks to take care of the refrigerator. Our friend Mike said he would cap the propane line and I’m sure my brother will help me remove the Norcold and install the Maytag.

Anyway, that’s all we have for now.

1 Year Anniversary as Full-Timers

Rockwall, Texas

Weather Condition; High 87, Low 62,

We pulled out of Goliad State Park around 8:45 A.M Wednesday, May 16^th. We stayed an additional day due to storms. Anyway, we pulled out with nice weather and the drive wasn’t bad at all. We covered 372 miles getting to Purtis Creek State Park in Eustace, Texas.

We made a couple of stops along the way to stretch our legs and walk the dogs. We stopped outside of Hearne for fuel and we arrived at Purtis Creek SP about 4:15 P.M. It was a long day but we were glad to be that much closer to our next destination.

We have a nice shaded back-in site. These sites are water and electric only. We are only going to be here a few days so we don’t need the sewer.

We were able to visit with Dawn’s sister and brother-in-law while there.

We pulled out of Purtis Creek State Park on Monday, May 21^st around 10:30 A.M and pulled into Rockwall about noon. It was hot and humid.

We’ve been so busy since we arrived in town. We’ve cleaned the roof, washed the exterior, taken our dining table to storage, got oil changed in truck, picked up registration for trailer, did 2 weeks of laundry, visited with friends, bought graduation gifts, steamed cleaned carpet and cleaned up the truck, inside and out.

We’ve been busy!

By the way, today is our 1 year anniversary. That’s right; we’ve been full-timers for one year. It has really gone by fast. We talked about the fact we haven’t traveled very far but we’ve seen a lot and are really enjoying ourselves.

We have not missed living in a big house with an extra big yard. We have plenty of room in our fifth wheel. The only time I’ve even thought about having a stick-n-brick is during the severe stormy weather.

We have enjoyed the traveling and have made a lot of new friends. We feel like we are just getting started. We have so many places to go and so many things to see.

We’ve learned a lot from other RVers.

We are looking forward to many more miles and years of full-timing.