Final preparation for full time RVing (short term)

This is a late entry. I took Sadie, shortly after the installation of the new satellite antenna, to visit our favorite mechanic. In addition to lube, oil and filter change, I asked John to investigate why, when Sadie sits for a while, it takes a lot of cranking to start the engine.

Well, true to form, John and his colleagues investigated and found that a) it is not a fuel pump problem; b) it is not a fuel pump relay problem, as had been suggested by fellow RVers on an internet forum, because the fuel pump is mechanical, not electrical; c) the 22 year old carburetor had a tiny leak, so the fuel was leaking out of the float chamber. Hence, Sadie would start fine, if she had only sat for a day or two, and she would require extensive cranking if she had sat longer.

After I recovered from the shock of what it costs these days for a carburetor rebuild, I told John to go ahead and fix it. The idea of fuel leaking on the top of Sadie's engine, was not appealing to me. It took 24 hours, but the job is now done, and I look forward to more reliable starting. That is a good thing, because we will be living aboard for about 4 months, while our new home is under construction. So, starting the engine will not happen frequently, as it often does on a road trip.

We are now ready to move aboard, scheduled for June 15th. In the meantime, all we have to do is pack up all our worldly possessions for storage and move them into P.O.D.S. (Portable Onsite Delivery System) so they can be hauled away to a warehouse for safekeeping until our new home is ready.

Stay tuned.

A new crown for our venerable lady

Sadie got a new crown today. The weather was fair. We brought the old girl home yesterday. So, I got up on the roof and removed the old, non-functional satellite dish and replaced it with a newer, better one.

This one is a Dish 1000 model. When it is activated, it automatically searches the sky until it finds a satellite. When it has identified the satellite, it computes the relative position of EchoStar 119W and locks on it. Then it computes the positions of EchoStar 110 and EchoStar 129 and adjusts itself so that it is locked on all three satellites. It took about 5 minutes to accomplish all of this on the first try!

Since we will be living aboard for about 4 to 5 months while our new house is under construction, we thought it a good idea to have TV available. The new installation was not especially difficult. In fact, the hardest part was removing the caulking material that was on and around the old unit. Once that was accomplished, it was a matter of setting the new unit in place, marking the screw holes, applying some caulk to the base of the unit and screwing it down...with self tapping screws: no pilot holes necessary (or advised!).

Since this was a replacement operation, I didn't have to spot and drill a new hole in the roof for the cables. I simply removed the cover plate, removed the old cables, inserted the new ones, applied more caulk to the new cover plate, and screwed it in place.

The lower end of the installation was simply a matter of placing some F fittings on the ends of the coax cables and plugging everything in. There was one other task. It was placing the control unit through the side of the box on which the TV is mounted and which contains the power supply. By situating the new control unit through the side of the cabinet, I obviated the need to open the cabinet and fiddle with the controls when setting up or stowing the dish.

So, Sadie now has a first class satellite TV antenna. I'm jazzed. Tomorrow, I will install the new memory foam mattress. Then it is off to the mechanic for some mechanical tweaking.

And now for something completely different...(with apologies to Monty Python)

I'm missing Sadie tonight. It has been some time since we have been able to get out and use the old girl. There is a reason for that. We have sold our sticks and bricks...no, we are not going full time in Sadie. We are going to build a new home in a different city that is closer to our son Patrick and his wife, Katie.

The upshot of this change is that we will be living aboard Sadie for the duration of the build time. That is likely to be about four months. There are very few RV parks near where we will be building, but we found one about ten miles away that looks suitable. That park will be within a half mile of our kids' house, so it will be fun to be able to see them without an hour and a half of driving involved. They are both school teachers, so they have a lot of time in the summer.

Before we move aboard Sadie, there are a few things we need to do to her. Jill has recently had back pain while sleeping in the RV bed. We have ordered a memory foam mattress, which we hope will alleviate that problem. In addition, our satellite antenna has failed. It is so old that it doesn't recognize all the satellites in the sky and gets so confused that it just gives up. I will be replacing it later this week, I hope, weather permitting.

I also want to have the fuel pump relay checked/replaced and the transmission checked and serviced. Once those things are done, the hard work begins: deciding what we need to live and what stuff is optional. So, there are big doin's afoot for Sadie. We are excited, to say the least. We get to have a taste of full-timing in Sadie, and we get to build our dream home. Did I mention that our new home will have a garage/shop for Sadie?

We are blessed beyond measure (with apologies to Guyanne Valentine).