Winter RVing. Mexico RV Insurance. Easy Clothes Folding. Apollo 12. Marshall University's Tragedy. Ava Arrives.

 

For "tRaVersing Thursday", or RV Day:

Winterizing Your RV Made Easy (or at least Easier!)

"The first step to winterizing any RV is to completely drain the water system. A handy tool to help clear the water lines is the Camco RV Blowout Plug with Brass Quick Connect (http://goo.gl/Z8aD0H). This little solid piece of brass helps the removal of water from your RV water lines.

Screw this blowout plug into your RV's city water inlet connection, and then attach an air compressor. Open your RV water lines, turn on the air, and voila! Water is pushed out of the lines.

How does it work? You simply screw the plug into your RV’s city water inlet, open all drains and faucets, and then connect an air compressor (http://goo.gl/eS8iho) quick connect hose.

The blowout plug leaves your hands free to open faucets and flush out water lines without assistance. It allows you to completely clear your water lines. Simply flip on the compressor and air will begin pushing excess water through your open lines.

Sometimes small gadgets like the Camco RV blowout plug make a big difference when working on an RV." by C.S. (Sean) Michael

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How to unfreeze a frozen black water tank

"Oh, this does not sound like a good situation. But the RV Doctor, Gary Bunzer, has a solution (doesn't he always?). Read his advice to an RVer who is in need of help."

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Is your RV furnace cranky?

"Before running your RV into the shop when the furnace is not operating properly, try these easy checks first. There might be an easy fix, and you'll save money."

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Lower costs on Mexico RV insurance?

"Many RVers are already making plans for their winter escape. Some will drive their RVs to Mexico for the season. For those heading to Manaña Land for the first time, remember your US RV insurance won't cover you south of the border. Liability insurance must be issued by a Mexico-based company to be valid, and traveling "bare" is to risk having your vehicle confiscated if you're involved in an accident and found to be at fault.

A look at the cost of RV insurance in Mexico can be eye opening--often double the cost one pays for an entire year in the States. Many in the past have flocked to RV clubs that have partnered with Mexican insurers to get group rates to drive down the cost. According to Derek Kartchner of the International Insurance Group, there better ways to get RV insurance for Mexico.

RVers can actually get much better coverage and a much cheaper price by purchasing RV insurance from a specialty RV insurance carrier in  the USA, which provides a Mexico Physical Damage Endorsement, and coupling it with a liability policy from a Mexican Carrier," says Kartchner The total cost of the endorsement is between $5 and $30 per year on a US policy (depending on the carrier) and the cost of a liability only policy can run around E150, depending on the amount of liability selected.

US companies offering this coverage are well known in the industry and include companies like Progressive, Blue Sky Insurance, National Interstate Insurance, and GMAC (in some states). The key said Kartchner, "is to work with an RV insurance specialist. There are a number of insurance agencies and companies that know the ins and outs of RV insurance in the states and in Mexico, and help you literally get better coverage at a much better price."

With snowbird season on the horizon, snowbirds are encouraged to visit an RV specialty agent or IIG's website for more details both Mexico and USA RV Insurance coverage. Quotes from a number of carriers are available online at www.iigins.com/rv-insurance or by calling 888-467-4639.
Source: International Insurance Group, Inc. and rvtravel.com  Posted by Russ and Tiña De Maris

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Winter camping? Don’t forget your hose! 

"If you stay in your RV in a campground or otherwise have it hooked to water during freezing weather, you need to be aware of the possibility that the water hose that feeds your unit is susceptible to freezing unless you provide some protection. It makes no difference if you are freeze protected inside if you can’t get any water TO the unit.

I went to a big box store and bought a hose fitting so that I could shorten my hose. No need to try to freeze protect 25 feet of hose if all I need to reach my unit is 12 feet! Next in the plumbing section I found 110-volt heat tape in various lengths. It comes equipped with a built-in thermostat that makes the tape begin heating around 32 degrees Fahrenheit. I bought a 12-foot roll.

I also bought 12 feet of 1-inch ID foam pipe insulation. I wrapped the heat tape around my hose, securing with tie wraps or zip ties, and then wrapped the hose in the pipe insulation. I left enough heat tape exposed at the faucet end that I could wrap the exposed faucet, too. Voila! Bring it on!"  Courtesy Motorhomes of Texas

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Shirt folder

  

Here is how to make your own folder:

 

 

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On This Day:

Apollo 12 lifts off, Nov 14, 1969:

"Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the moon, is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr.; Richard F. Gordon, Jr.; and Alan L. Bean aboard. President Richard Nixon viewed the liftoff from Pad A at Cape Canaveral. He was the first president to attend the liftoff of a manned space flight.

Thirty-six seconds after takeoff, lightning struck the ascending Saturn 5 launch rocket, which tripped the circuit breakers in the command module and caused a power failure. Fortunately, the launching rocket continued up normally, and within a few minutes power was restored in the spacecraft.

On November 19, the landing module Intrepid made a precision landing on the northwest rim of the moon's Ocean of Storms. About five hours later, astronauts Conrad and Bean became the third and fourth humans to walk on the surface of the moon. During the next 32 hours, the two astronauts made two lunar walks, where they collected lunar samples and investigated the Surveyor 3 spacecraft, an unmanned U.S. probe that soft-landed on the moon in 1967. On November 24, Apollo 12 successfully returned to Earth, splashing down only three miles from one of its retrieval ships, the USS Hornet."

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Plane crash devastates Marshall University, Nov 14, 1970:

"On November 14, 1970, a chartered jet carrying most of the Marshall University football team clips a stand of trees and crashes into a hillside just two miles from the Tri-State Airport in Kenova, West Virginia. The team was returning from that day’s game, a 17-14 loss to East Carolina University. Thirty-seven Marshall football players were aboard the plane, along with the team’s coach, its doctors, the university athletic director and 25 team boosters--some of Huntington, West Virginia’s most prominent citizens--who had traveled to North Carolina to cheer on the Thundering Herd. 

All seventy-five people on the flight were killed, including the entire flight crew.  "The whole fabric," a citizen of Huntington wrote later, "the whole heart of the town was aboard."  For Huntington, the plane crash was "like the Kennedy assassination," one citizen remembers. "Everybody knows where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.""

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Yesterday:

Jay wanted to use some tools and parts in my workshop and trade out for some odd jobs here.  Misty and I went to get him, and had our walk down there.

It was time to prepare for Ava's arrival.  Cats are better off being by themselves for a couple of days to get used to a new household, so my bathroom became the designated place.  We vacuumed and disinfected the kitty condo, window seat and floors.  I changed the blankies, dishes, and litter box up on the window seat.  They have to be high up, or Misty will get into them.

Nala usually eats in my bathroom, so we set up another cage in the Grooming Room.  If I don't keep Nala and Peekers apart when they have food, Nala will eat all his dry food, and Peekers will eat her wet food after he has finished his own. Nala takes her own sweet time to eat her canned food as she prefers dry, unfortunately.

Then we installed a momentary switch on Jay's ATV to make the starter work. Why this was necessary, I don't know, but I had the right spade connectors and crimpers to do it, and it worked.

This early cold weather upset a lot of plans, as we still don't have the greenhouse built, so Ray and I looked online at those for sale.  Then I found out that most of the cheaper ones won't protect the plants from freezing, and I'm not prepared to spend a thousand or two for a glass one.  Especially when I have all the lumber, roofing, windows and old patio doors to build one.  We will just have to keep covering up the plants on the few nights that it goes below freezing.

Other years, we have stapled clear vinyl up over the screen on my porch which kept them safe, but I wanted to keep the plants, and all the shelves, off the porch while I am getting the house ready to sell.  It makes it look less cluttered, and more like a sitting, eating and BBQing area.

Ava's foster mom arrived and we talked quite a bit.  She thought that Ava remembers me as she wasn't usually this friendly to strangers.  She is so sweet, but still too skinny for my liking.  She was all set up in my bathroom, and immediately took to the window seat, ate some food, so she is settling down.

For the first time in a while, Nala my foster cat, had to sleep in the Grooming Room with Peekers, as I left my bathroom door open so that Ava could get on my bed if she wished.  She didn't.  She knew Misty was in her bed under my bed, and might have been scared of a strange dog.  She felt safer up on the window seat.  I hope that she will discover that Misty is no threat, today.