RV Fire Safety. W/H Boom and Soot. Stove-top Toasters. Electrical Problems? Losing Keys. “My House” Song. Hubble Telescope.

 

For “tRaVersing Thursday”, or RV Day:

Fire Safety, In Case You Missed It

“In an RV of any type, safety is paramount; both personal safety and the safe operation of your recreation vehicle. In an earlier RV Doctor Newsletter, we posted 34 fire facts that can save your life while traveling in an RV. In case you missed it, here it is again.”

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Water Heater Mini Explosion

“I have a motorhome with a water heater problem. When I turn on the igniter it explodes when igniting the propane, when it finally does. A loud boom! I can hear the igniter clicking before it does light. Can you give me some suggestions? It seems to be the worst when it is a little cold outside.” Dan, (Tucson, AZ)

RV Doctor: “Dan, it’s my hunch your unit may have a partial blockage in the curved mixing tube. Plus, I would venture your water heater is in need of what is commonly referred to as a "clean and service."”  More at: http://www.rvdoctor.com/2009/10/partial-blockage.html

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Sooty Sidewall

“I have an Atwood water heater in my 1989 rig and I am getting large amounts of soot on the side of the rig above the exhaust vent. I have checked and cleaned the tube for obstructions and I adjusted the air gas ratio to a blue flame. I cannot figure why I am getting incomplete combustion. No changes or maintenance had been done to the heater just prior to the onset of this problem and the heater had been used several times a month prior to the problem. Any ideas?” Garth, (Saratoga, CA)

RV Doctor: “Garth, cleaning the mixing tube and adjusting the air shutter is a good start, but there are a couple of other factors that, in combination, ensure complete combustion. As you know, adjusting the air intake affects the burner flame size and intensity. The delivery pressure of the incoming LP is what draws in that primary air. It must be set to 11.0 inches of water column with the regulator at about a 50% load. A manometer is used to measure LP pressure, so if you don’t have one, make an appointment at your local service center.”  More at: http://www.rvdoctor.com/2009/10/sooty-sidewall.html

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Want toast? Stove-top toasters save the day

“If you camp mostly hooked-up, you probably have an electric toaster which meets your needs. But there are many camp situations where an electric toaster just isn't a viable choice. Maybe you're not hooked up, and perhaps it's quiet-time and you can't run your generator (or maybe you just don't want to listen to it).

Personally, I love a slice of toast in the morning, but I hate starting the day listening to the rumble and roar of my generator. Inverter power is a possible option, but an electric toaster at 900W will draw 80A from an inverter — four slices of toast can use up three to four percent of battery capacity. It's always possible to pan-fry bread, but let's face it, that's fried bread, not toast. Besides, it's just another dirty pan to wash.

Enter a delightful little product, the stove-burner toaster. These inexpensive, compact little tools can cook up a slice of toast in about a minute or so, with no battery impact and only a miniscule consumption of propane. There are multi-slice models from camp-equipment vendors like Coghlan and Coleman, but the best-working unit I've found is the single-slice device (models available from Primus, GSI, Chinook). These take longer to make multiple slices, but the results are very controllable and uniform. Besides, who's in a hurry when camping?

To use one of these, un-fold it and place it over a stove burner. Light the burner, and adjust the flame and toaster position to produce an even dull-red-hot heat in the lower layer of the toaster. Using tongs, place a slice of bread on top of the toaster and count to 30 (maybe more or less, depending on your stove and personal preferences). Flip the slice over, repeat, done.

The one-slice units fold up as thin as a slice of bread, and come with a tidy little storage bag to be cleanly tucked away in the tiniest of RV rigs. And, at $10-$15, they don't dent a wallet. Here's a link to Amazon where you can look for yourself.” By Greg Illes

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From me: I have had different versions of the stove-top toaster for over 40 years, but this one looks better.

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Electrical problems? This tip may save you an RV service call.

“On close to a third of our service calls we find nothing wrong with the RV. The problem is not so much the RV as it is the owner who has either forgotten how to operate something or simply forgotten to turn something on.

Here's one simple check you can make that can save you a costly (and needless) service call. If you find your interior lights, refrigerator, water heater and the furnace aren't working and you're not connected to shore power, think battery. The loss of "house" battery power will generally kill all of these systems. All appliances that have computer boards require 12-volt power that comes either from your batteries or the power converter in your RV.

LOOK AROUND. You'll always find a fuse located within 18 inches of your batteries. This is an industry code, so all manufacturers do it. An RV's power converter is fused to protect it in the event your batteries are hooked up incorrectly. Check the fuse first — if it's blown, try replacing it. Check your RV house batteries, too. If they're dead, you can "work around" the problem by hooking up a battery charger to them. If you need to charge your batteries and your power converter has died you can always hook a battery charger to your batteries. Batteries do not care where the power to charge them comes from.

Save your money, and save your technician from having to making an unnecessary call.”   By Steve Savage, Master Certified RV Technician

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Be careful about losing keys in a parking lot

“Chuck Woodbury of RVtravel.com has a tip about something to avoid in parking lots where, if you are not careful, you could lose something very important.”

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Kacey Musgraves, 'My House' (On Wheels)

http://music.aol.com/sessions/kacey-musgraves-my-house-sessions/

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On This Day:

Space telescope in orbit, Apr 25, 1990:

“The crew of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery places the Hubble Space Telescope, a long-term space-based observatory, into a low orbit around Earth.

The space telescope, conceived in the 1940s, designed in the 1970s, and built in the 1980s, was designed to give astronomers an unparalleled view of the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe. Initially, Hubble's operators suffered a setback when a lens aberration was discovered, but a repair mission by space-walking astronauts in December 1993 successfully fixed the problem, and Hubble began sending back its first breathtaking images of the universe.

Free of atmospheric distortions, Hubble has a resolution 10 times that of ground-based observatories. About the size of a bus, the telescope is solar-powered and orbits Earth once every 97 minutes. Among its many astronomical achievements, Hubble has been used to record a comet's collision with Jupiter, provide a direct look at the surface of Pluto, view distant galaxies, gas clouds, and black holes, and see billions of years into the universe's past.”

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Yesterday:

Gumdrop has her own special ways.  She likes to tip over waste paper baskets, pull flowers out of vases, and rearrange the bathroom floor rugs. I found out that her litter brother looked very Siamese, so she has the Siamese traits, too. They are a breed on their own, and more active than some cats. If I could just keep her off the top of the fridge.

After Misty had eaten her breakfast she went back to her bed under my bed.  When I called her to go ‘Walkies”, she didn’t want to get out of her cozy bed.  She stuck her nose out of the front door and came back in again.  When I went in to the hall coat closet to get her a coat, the oval beveled mirror fell down and shattered into many splintery pieces.   I cut myself picking up the big pieces, and it took the shop vac to get up the rest.  It was really chilly, and we both had to wear padded coats, whereas the day before I had been in tank-top and shorts!  Finally, we did get our walk down at Jay’s when we went to pick him up. 

Upon peering inside my roof and looking at the rafters, we had to go to another plan.  The contractors had nailed odd bits of wood crossways in there, and we couldn’t remove them.  They weren’t anything important, like cross braces, so we wondered what they were doing there.  Our hopes of doing a conventional cantilever addition to the roof were dashed.

We tried putting a 2” x 6” x 15’ long board up by ourselves, but I just didn’t feel safe on top of a step ladder with the cold wind blowing the heavy board around.  We drove to another part of the subdivision to get a tall strong guy, and it was easy for him.  One board up, that’s about all we accomplished yesterday.

Nat. Parks. Really Dark Side. Funds for Nat. Parks. 1/11! Cargo Trailer.

“Tomorrow, I’m pleased to announce that the Washington Monument, as well as the entire federal government, will be open for business.”  President Barack Obama   April 8, 2011 at 11:04 p.m.

For Travel Tuesday:  If the Shutdown had progressed, just think what we would have missed.  National Parks, National Historic Sites, etc., would be closed.
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This would have been cancelled:

"Into the Wild’s Jack Hanna to Help Grand Canyon Celebrate Wildlife Day"


NPS Photo by Michael Quinn
Ranger Jessica Collins shares a mountain lion skull with Dante and Jakiah Smith Evans.

"Grand Canyon, Ariz. – Grand Canyon National Park will Celebrate Wildlife Day on Saturday, May 7 this year; and television host Jack Hanna will be joining in the celebration.

Celebrate Wildlife Day is an annual event that provides an opportunity for Grand Canyon National Park visitors to become acquainted with the unique wildlife of Arizona and the Grand Canyon, and to learn about the work of wildlife biologists. During the celebration, the Shrine of the Ages will be transformed into an exhibit hall with posters and interactive exhibits, educational demonstrations and live animals from the Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center in Phoenix, Arizona. This year, there will also be talks and outdoor activities for the entire family on topics including: the endangered humpback chub, ravens, mountain lions, reptiles and amphibians, telemetry, and tracks and scat.

Jack Hanna is currently the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and host of the Emmy Award winning television series Jack Hanna's Into the Wild. He has dedicated his professional career to educating the public about wild animals and the places they live. Previously, he hosted the television series Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures and directed the Columbus and Central Florida Zoos. He has also written numerous children's books. Hanna will be this year's featured presenter at Celebrate Wildlife Day and will provide his program twice in order to assure ample opportunity for everyone to attend.

"We are thrilled that Mr. Hanna will be joining us this year. His enthusiasm and extensive knowledge will add a whole new dimension to our celebration; and we expect his programs to be very popular with our visitors," said Lori Rome, Supervisory Park Ranger and member of the Celebrate Wildlife Day planning committee.
Grand Canyon visitors and residents are invited to join the celebration from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and are encouraged to attend one of Hanna's special programs, offered at 3 p.m. and at 8 p.m. All programs and activities will be free of charge and will take place at the Shrine of the Ages.

To reach the Shrine of the Ages, visitors may walk along the rim from hotels in Grand Canyon Village (about 1.5 miles), take the Blue Route/Village Route shuttle bus, or park in Lot A.

Celebrate Wildlife Day is made possible through a partnership between the National Park Service, the Grand Canyon Association, Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Grand Canyon Unified School District, Leave No Trace Center of Outdoor Ethics, Xanterra Parks And Resorts, Grand Canyon Railway and Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts.
For a copy of the event schedule or to learn more about Celebrate Wildlife Day, please visit the park's website at www.nps.gov/grca/naturescience/wildlife-day.htm

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AND The Shutdown would have really made it:  The Dark Side of National Park Visits.















Visitors listen to a presentation on cultural astronomy prior to looking through Chaco Culture's 25" observatory telescope. NPS photo.

"When you're planning a visit to a national park, don't overlook the dark side. No, we aren't suggesting you join forces with Darth Vader, but many parks offer a great opportunity to enjoy a view that's unfortunately becoming increasingly rare in much of the country—the night sky. An upcoming nationwide event and several other opportunities can help you protect and enjoy the beauty of the night.

Many of us live in or near cities, where the wonders of the night sky are obscured by artificial light. Some the best remaining spots to enjoy celestial views are in parks, prompting the NPS to remind visitors, "On your next national park visit, remember that a spectacular sunset is just the prelude to the wonders of the night sky."

With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. Light pollution is obscuring people’s long-standing natural heritage to view stars. The GLOBE at Night program is an international citizen-science campaign to raise public awareness of the impact of light pollution by encouraging everyone everywhere to measure local levels of night sky brightness and contribute observations online to a world map."
Five Easy Star-Hunting Steps:
1) Find your latitude and longitude.
2) Find Leo or Crux by going outside more than an hour after sunset (about 8-10pm local time).
3) Match your nighttime sky to one of our magnitude charts.
4) Report your observation.
5) Compare your observation to thousands around the world.

Other Dark Sky Areas:
National Parks: Utah’s Natural Bridges National Monument, recently awarded IDA’s first International Dark Sky Park designation is the only Bortle Class 2 (typically truly dark site) designation in the United States. West of Natural Bridges is Bryce Canyon National Park, which offers star parties.

Other national parks offering memorable dark skies: Arizona's Grand Canyon National Park; California’s Joshua Tree National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park, Mt. Diablo at John Muir National Historic Site, Death Valley, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and Yosemite National Park; and New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park, which offers the Chaco Night Sky Program.

The dark sky residential community of Arizona Sky Village in Portal, Arizona, is “dedicated to the preservation of dark skies.” It has established significant lighting restrictions and architectural review. A community center, a community observatory, and rental telescopes are among planned on-site amenities.

Tonopah, Nevada, 200 miles northwest of Las Vegas, boasts that “the only bright lights you see around Tonopah are the stars.” 

The sustainably planned community of Harmony, Florida, is designed to balance the ecology between humans and native wildlife and is dedicated to dark sky compliant streetlights throughout its properties.

Deerlick Astronomy Village in Sharon, Georgia, is “a unique planned community catering to the specific needs of amateur and professional astronomers.” The area is 96-acres of rural sky (Bortle Class 3) planned with an observing site, two wildlife preserves, and thirty home sites.

Florida’s Chiefland Astronomy Village is an observing/camping site along the Gulf Shore, south of Tallahassee."
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The Shutdown would not have affected these Dark Sky Areas in Canada:
Québec’s Mont-Mégantic National Park and ASTROLab are in the heart of IDA’s newly designated International Dark Sky Reserve [see page 12]. The IDSR encompasses an area of 5,500 km², including the counties of Granit and Haut-Saint- François and the City of Sherbrooke.

Other dark sky parks include the Dark Sky Preserve of Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park in Saskatchewan and Alberta; McDonald Park Dark Sky Preserve in Fraser Valley in British Columbia; Wapusk National Park in Manitoba; and eight parks in Ontario—Beaver Hills Dark Sky Preserve, Elk Island National Park, Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Reserve, Gordon’s Park Wilderness Retreat and Interpretive Center, Echo Valley Observatory, Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve, Northern Bruce Peninsula, and Point Pelee National Park and Dark Sky Preserve.
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“Tomorrow, I’m pleased to announce that the Washington Monument, as well as the entire federal government, will be open for business.”  President Barack Obama   April 8, 2011 at 11:04 p.m.

"Dear Friend of the National Parks,
As we watched Congress and the administration scrambling to avert a government shutdown last week, one thing was clear: Americans care deeply about our national parks.
Scores of news reports examining the potential impacts of a shutdown referenced the fact that our national parks would be closed to the very people for whom they are held in trust. And even President Obama highlighted one of our national monuments as he spoke from the White House late Friday night and then chose to visit another - the Lincoln Memorial - the following day to greet school children and visitors from around the world.

But it shouldn’t take a crisis like the proposed shutdown for our leaders to understand that our national parks are facing a death by a thousand budget cuts.

If anything, the impacts of last week’s budget negotiations, and the upcoming budget debate, could be even more devastating than a temporary shutdown. The maintenance backlog is nearing $11 billion and our parks are operating at an annual shortfall of more than $600 million. Yet, Congress has already slashed the Park Service’s budget by $100 million, with more cuts likely on the way. Our parks simply can’t take any more.

The shutdown crisis may have been averted in the late hours of last week, but our elected leaders are still finalizing the details of the agreement they reached. As I write this, we still do not know the details of the broader negotiations. We do know that the cuts already made to the fiscal year 2011 budget will be painful for the parks. And there are already proposed cuts - deep cuts - to fiscal year 2012 spending that will put our parks in jeopardy.
In the weeks and months ahead, NPCA will be mobilizing partners like you from across the country to send a message. We want our decision-makers to know that national parks are not political playthings. They are a promise to our children, a repository of our heritage, and a down payment on our future. We cannot allow these precious places to languish for lack of funding.
 
Our nation needs to get its fiscal house in order, but national parks are national assets.

Cutting them further, even eliminating them altogether, would have minimal impact in the larger configuration of the federal budget. We should not cut further something that does so much good and costs so little.
Please help us show Congress and the administration that Americans care about our national parks – and want them protected for us and future generations.

While this letter is still on your screen, make the most generous possible contribution to NPCA’s park protection efforts. With your help, we can turn this terrible situation into an opportunity to foster even greater support for our national parks.

Many thanks for your stewardship, Thomas C. Kiernan, President
P.S.  You can also help our national parks by contacting your Members of Congress (202.224.3121), and telling them that you’re glad the parks are open, and Congress needs to adequately fund them.   "And No More Cuts."
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This year we will experience 4 unusual dates...
1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11...
NOW figure this out...
take the last 2 digits of the year you were born plus
the age you will be THIS year and it WILL BE EQUAL TO 111.
Except, if the person was born on or after 2000, then it will be 11
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Today:

I didn't call Jay this morning to see when he would be ready to be picked up, but he called me.  I told him I hadn't planned on him working today.  I know he needs this money for beer, but I get tired of it.  I just needed a break from his 'not thinking straight'.  I have to watch every move he makes, as he can seem to pick the right side of a board or panel.  That stinkin' drinkin' thinkin' !

Ray and I tried to fit the panels that Jay had cut for the sides of the cargo trailer's closet, before Ray painted them, as we needed to know which are the important 'showing' areas.  I don't know what Jay was thinking, as one of them is 3" too short, and 1-1/2" too narrow.  I was going to cut another one, but we don't have any more of that material,... well we do, but it is 1/2" too short, so we are going to make do best we can, and we will have to to inset it.  Hopefully, I will be the only one who notices it.

Ray primed and painted the panels on this beautiful sunny day.

Don’t Have GPS, then Benchmark.

Geocaching is a very popular hobby with a lot of RVers, but what if you don’t have a GPS?   Then “benchmark”, it will take you to lots of interesting places that you would never had known about, just like geocaching.

“Do I need to have a GPS receiver to find benchmarks?
No. A GPS makes getting to the right area easier, but when you're there, you will (generally) be better off if you use the details of the benchmark's location description to locate it. Because most of these benchmarks were installed prior to the existence of GPS, the benchmark database is geared toward finding benchmarks from the descriptions, not the coordinates. “ http://www.geocaching.com/mark/gallery.aspx
Here is where you can find them in your area: http://www.geocaching.com/mark/default.aspx
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Jay and I spent most of the day shopping.  We went to our local Justice of the Peace to see about paperwork so that I can sue two people who owe me money.  Then on to four thrift shops, plus  HEB, Home Depot, Lowes, Petco, Krogers, Tobacco Barn and Dollar Tree.  Whew!!   And we didn’t even stop for lunch.  All the samples in the stores were our lunch.  At the last store I tried some Crab and Spinach dip, but within five minutes my eyes were watering, my nose ran, and I got itchy places on my left arm and side.  And I only had a bit on a cracker!

I latched on to a matching royal blue set of non-stick Farberware cookware with glass lids, for $7.50.   Also a little coffee maker for $2 and some T-shirts, etc.  Jay bought some T-shirts and a telescope.  Neither of us had ever been to the Dollar Tree, we usually go to the 99c. Store.  We each got bargains there, including a strength of reading glasses that the 99c. Store doesn’t carry any more.  I had to buy a new AC for the grooming room, the old one didn’t even come on when I tried to use it.  And I bought more fence boards for the fence.   It had warmed up, so I had been removing layers of clothing, but we had to run the AC on the way home.
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Quotes:
“Just because you don’t take an interest in politics, doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.”  Pericles (430 B.C)

“Talk is cheap….except when Congress does it”.  Anon.

“If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.”    Mark Twain
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A busy day.