Since returning to OKC from our getaway to Bull Shoals Lake, we have actually been staying rather busy, over and above the normal day to day life. First it was off to the foot doctor to get the "Ok" for Sheryl to return to Cardiac Rehab and her final few appointments there. Cardiac Rehab has been going very well and as of today she only has a couple of more sessions to go, Woo Hoo!!! She is doing much better and we fill in just how good after completion. Next, her Cardiologist gave her the thumbs up for at least a year before he'd like to see her back (usually it's every 6 months), so that was also great news!!! As for staying busy, we are finally Marrying off our last daughter and Sheryl decided she was going to make the little girls dresses for the wedding, one is 9 and the other 2 1/2.
We think they turned out really nice and both the kids as well as the parents loved them. the kids loved them so much that they asked grandma if she could make them play dresses?? Of course Sheryl being the good grandma she is, just couldn't refuse.
So with the extra material and leftovers, she whipped together one play dress for the littlest one (she wanted to be a princess0 and the older one a tutu as requested. Again they turned out so cute!
Of course Sheryl's not wasn't the only one staying busy, I had a couple of projects I wanted to complete myself. First thing was the water pressure valve. Now for us RV'ers we know we need to have one and usually we pick up the small ones that fit on the end of the hose. These work well, for about a month or so, then get dirty, clog up or just seem to stop working, all, resulting in really poor water pressure. Then of course it's off to the store to pick up another one. Well of course this happened again, so I did a little research to see if there was a better way. What I found was, many RV'ers are going to the whole house residential style valves, adjustable, cleanable and much better flowing. They are a bit more expense than the $8.00 RV ones, but the same price as the little fancy ones at Camping World with the little pressure gauge $53.00. So, off to Home Depot I went, they had several in stock and the additional fittings needed to connect to the water hose fittings on both ends.
Just a few minutes of putting the pieces together and installation, it works like a charm. It is preset to 50 psi so there was no need to adjust it. You can also see in the top picture how much bigger it is and really allows for a good flow rate.
Next up was finding a place to store the fresh water hose when traveling. For as big as our new home is, outside storage is really at a premium and the hose needed to be stored in the main cargo bay. As I was looking at our wet bay, I thought, why not a couple of hooks to hang the hose on?? Again off to Lowe's to see what I could find. I was able to come up with 2 wooden fence brackets, I placed one in each upper corner of the wet bay and now the fresh water hose can live there when not hooked up!!! I placed the black hose there just to show how it works.
Oh you may also notice the "Y" connector, just in case you were wondering why? it's placed so I don't have to hook up a second hose to flush the black tank and is routed so we are not using filtered water to flush the tank either. I'm all about simplicity when traveling.
Next simple but effective mod, was to pick up a 10' plastic house gutter to help contain the sewer hose. If you don't have this, you know how the hose can jump off the plastic risers when you pull the tank handle. This keeps everything neat and flowing down hill. Highly recommend picking one up if you are not using one. Just cut it in half so it is adjustable for most any run length and storage.
My last project for now, well, more of a purchase, was to pick up a much heavier duty electric extension cord for mooch docking (plugging in at a friend or family's home). Now we have mooch docked several times over the years and have been just using your standard outdoor extension cord. Doing this we have noticed the cord gets pretty warm and we have been very lucky not to have melted it or caught fire, just something that never dawned on us. Well the light bulb finally came one as I was thinking, we are headed to the family farm for a couple of weeks and will be plugging into a 20 amp house plug in the barn. So again after a little research it was off to Lowe's to pick up a 100' 10 gauge extension cord rated for 20 amps. We now feel much safer, you can see the difference between the new cord and our old 16 gauge one.
I know most of these mods are minor and many of you may /are already using them but just in case your not, they are pretty good ideas and are working well for us,
That's really all the news that's fit to print for now. We will be leaving OKC next Sunday and heading to SW Kansas for a couple of weeks to spend time at the farm and celebrate Sheryl and her twin sisters birthday. From there we are thinking of attending a Good Sam RV Rally in Shawnee Oklahoma, just east of OKC. We have never been to a rally and thought it would be fun and interesting as long as we have to stay in the area anyway. After that a couple weeks back in OKC to get our daughter married off, then it's south bound and down for the winter!!! Ok, that's really it this time. Thanks for following along, I know post are fewer while we sit here, but that will change as we begin traveling again, so until next time.............................
