Our RV Has Returned Home

Wednesday: (01/11) Our warm weather continues.




I've been intending to update our visited states map and an article by Chris Gould of the GeeksOnTour folks this morning reminded me again. So I took a moment and prepared the two images above. I'm not really satisfied with the images because I'd like one integrated image. Alaska isn't rally an island off the coast of Mexico and there isn't an ocean between the US and Canada. I know this because I had a little geography instruction in high school and because that wasn't our experience on our recent travels. These images were generated by one of the automated generators where you just tick off the states and provinces. Unfortunately there isn't a generator that integrates just the US and Canada or just North America. Maybe someday I might cut and paste or draw a better image but for now this will have to do. Our pin map also does a good job of presenting where we've been.

Cereal for breakfast. Lou and I went to the Sunny Chinese Buffet in Sunnyvale for lunch on our way to San Jose. The RV was ready at Leale's RV Repair so Lou dropped me off. She dropped by a doll shop and picked up a few things then met Dawn. When I got the RV parked at home I started to move stuff back into it. One disadvantage of having the printer instaled on the engine cover is that it need to be removed for services. Leale's has a nice new location in an old cannery building that gives them way so much more room than at the prevous location. The RV was at their shop for over three weeks, more than one during which they were closed for the holidays. Since the RV was inside that long, the solar panels couldn't charge the batteries so they were down a couple of hundred amphours when I picked it up. Hopefully they didn't get below 300 amphours or they could have been damaged a little. I forgot to turn off the UPS inverter which would still be running when the battery disconnect switch disconnects the batteries. I never disconnect the batteries.It's happy now that it's plugged in.

Dinner was macaroni and cheese.

Thursday: (01/12) Cereal for breakfast. Today was another yard cleanup day. It was also a day to fix Ernie's leaking toilet. Chili sizes for lunch. Today was one of Lou's days off. She was enjoying working on her dolls and it also explains the menu of the day since I cooked.


Dawn baked some more bread. Open faced chicken sandwiches with baked potatoes for dinner.

Friday: (01/13) Friday and the thirteenth on the same day. I headed over to the RV show in Pleasanton this morning. On the way I stopped for breakfast at Denny's. I haven't been there for a while. I enjoyed their $4 all you can eat pancakes. I looked around the RV's at the show. The show is much smaller that years past and was mostly weekender travel trailers. Most aren't as nice as our current motorhome even though they're new. Lunch was a couple of egg rolls and a shrimp ball at King Egg Roll in Milpitas. Lou relaxed at home and made a shopping run. For dinner , Ernie made sauerkraut potatoes with pork ribs and hot dogs for dinner.

Some recent photos:

Saturday: (01/14) I fried up the leftover pork, sauerkraut and potatoes and added some fried eggs for breakfast. They may be better for breakfast than dinner. Lou had an appointment to have here hair cut today. She brought home some Mexican pastries for lunch. I worked in my study rearranging stuff and setting up everything that uses electricity to be powered by a convenient switch so everything that needs to be turned off can be and everything, like the modem and phone system stays on. Our kitchen sink faucet needs to be replaced so we spent some time this afternoon looking for the perfect faucet. We couldn't find what we want so the hunt continues. We ended up at the IKEA store so we had dinner there. Ernie met us for dinner. Their meat ball dinner is pretty good.

Sunday: (01/15) We've been busy preparing to leave for a little trip South. We have been home too long and things have wandered so it isn't just a matter of driving off. I worked on the rock screen some more. I've reinforced the bracket and repainted it. The original paint has disappeared. Evidently not very good paint. It's now better that original. I also spent time in my study cleaning out storage boxes and organizing. In the afternoon we went on a little shopping trip to get a new kitchen sink faucet. Not exactly what we want but better than a leaky one. We're finally getting some cooler daytime temperatures.

Caribbean French toast for breakfast with smoked pork chops. Chips and guacamole dip for lunch. Lou made beef enchiladas for dinner.


Monday: (01/16) Leftover sauerkraut potatoes and sausage for breakfast. First order of business was the kitchen sink faucet. Since we haven't found the perfet faucet yet Lou and i took a quick trip to Barron Park plumbing and Los Altos hardware. We found nothing like we want so the one we bought at OSH will have to do. It went in easily and doesn't look too bad. Grilled olive loaf red pepper and horseradish cheese panini for lunch. I spent the afternoon working on the used motosat dish I got last winter. Since the one on the motorhome is sick I thought I'd see if the used one actually worked. it does. It acquired the satellite but i didn't get it to connect with the satellite but that appears to be a little cabling configuration problem. Not to be unexpected since it's sitting on a cart in the back yard. I had to give up on it when the sun went down since it was freezing outside.   Lou's been busy getting redy to go. Dawn made mushroom, chicken potato and onion soup for dinner served with artichoke bread.

Tuesday: (01/17) Latkas and ham with applesauce for breakfast. I spent the morning getting my spare F1 Motosat dish working. When I was satisfied it was good enough I started to swap out the one on the RV for the spare. Nice to have a spare. A dish weighs about 90 pounds so getting them on and off the roof isn't a simple task. I used my long extension ladder as a ramp to slide the old one down and the new one up. I was on the roof and Ernie assisted on the ground. The swap went well but the transmitter on the spare didn't work. I swapped out the arms with included the LNBs and transmitters. Everything now looks like it's working except that it never completes the link. Even so, it looks like it may eventually actually work. Olive loaf with horseradish cheese quesadillas for lunch. Fried potatoes with pigs in a blanket and Bok choy for dinner. Lou was busy packing today.

Wednesday: (01/18) Leftover latkas and ham with applesauce for breakfast. I spent the morning in the shop putting things away waiting for the frost to melt off the RV roof. When it did, I climbed up and put some covers back on the dish. Much of the rest of the day was cleaning out compartments and organizing. I had a couple of homemade cinnamon rolls for lunch. Dinner was leftover soup.

Warm In January

Saturday: (01/07) Another nice warm day today. I made a run to the recycle electronics store to get ride of old printers, a TV, VCR's etc. I also stopped by Harbor Freight to swap a bad heater and get a tap and die set. When I returned home I did a little welding in the shop  making an adjustment to the RV rock screen. Lou was busy with a flea market and garage sales today. Toasted cranberry bread for breakfast. A Waldorf salad made with pears instead of apples for lunch. Canadian bacon panini sandwich for my dinner. Lou had leftover liver and onions.

Sunday: (01/08) Eggs, potatoes, sausage, and cheese on toast for breakfast.


I took a morning walk to the California Street Farmers Market. Lots of people and a really nice jazz group called Farouche. Then we stopped by Fry's Electronics on the way home. Lou was busy working on her dolls. Chili sizes for lunch. My back has been bothering me so I relaxed the rest of the day. Red pepper soup for dinner.

Monday: (01/09) Irish oatmeal for breakfast. McDonald's Snack Mac's and peppermint mocha's for lunch. I spent the afternoon cleaning out a storage shed. A bag of plastic peanuts had burst. It is kind of difficult to get them to cooperate and get back in a bag. Lou made nacho chips for dinner.

Tuesday: (01/10) A nice warm day. Lou prepared eggs bacon and potatoes for breakfast. A not very busy morning. Costco's best Polish dog for Lou, hot dog for Dawn and chicken baked for me. After lunch we picked up a few things there at Costco. Roast chicken (from Costco) with a green salad and rice for dinner.

Silicon Valley International Auto Show

Friday: (01/06) French toast and ham for breakfast. the French toast was made with come of Dawn;s cranberry bread. Interesting with maple syrup on it. I made a shopping trip to the welding supply house to get my tanks filled. Unusually, both tanks were empty at the same time. Evidently I finished off both tanks just as i finished building the RV rock skirt last May. We were both busy doing some cleanup going trough boxes of this and that, mostly ending in the don't need that pile this morning. At 1pm we went out to lunch at Lou's favorite restaurant, LUU Noodle house. We then headed down to San Jose. we stopped by Leale's RV to see how they re doing on the RV. It looks like they will be finished on Tuesday. Then we finally made it to our destination, the Silicon Valley International Auto Show at the San Jose Convention Center. We looked over all the cars. the show isn't too big but it's still a better place to compare cars that at show rooms. Most of the vehicles don't fit. They are too difficult to get in and out and my head bangs on the door frame going in and head touches the roof when seated in far too many of the cars. Vehicles big enough to enter easily miss a very important goal for our future city car. The gas mileage is far too low. The car we liked the most was the Hyundai Accent. It's a small cheap car that gets 38mpg highway and isn't even a hybrid. Another interesting car was the Smart Car like Scion IQ It's only half a car long but , unlike the Smart Car, has a back seat that allows the car to carry four adults. This car wont be towed by the RV so that requirement is needed. It would be nice to find an SUV that gets 40 mpg and costs less than $20k but we haven't seen that yet and likely won't for a year or two. For dinner Lou had liver and onions and I had leftover beans.

San Francisco Walk-about

Thursday: (01/05) Breakfast was half of one of Dawn's homemade buns toasted with honey. They aren't small buns so I didn't starve. They are much like the hot buns that the Golden Corral Buffet serves except three times bigger. I was off on the train to San Francisco for a walk-about.



I started my walk at China Basin. There is a small marina there with house boats. It seems like a wonderful place to live. There was a park by the marina. I especially liked the plant on the right above. I've never seen it before. Next time maybe I'll snip a start.


I continued through Mission Bay, the Mission District, and through Noe Valley. Then I walked North on Church Street. Just a short ways brought me to Mission Delores Park with it's great view of the city skyline. I enjoyed listening to a couple of people playing their violin and banjo. They played mostly bluegrass and played well. There were also some dogs playing frisbee. The sun was out and it was perfect weather to relax in the sun.


As I approached 15th Street on Church Street I spotted a simple sign across the street that said "Pie". I had to cross the street to see what they were like.


They had both savory and sweet pies. I chose a green chili pork tamale hand pie for my lunch. I'll have to return sometime to try something like their green chili apple pie latter. With chilies here and there it's no wonder the name of the place is The Chili Pie Shop.

 
I continued to Haight Street which I recognized right away due to the aroma in the air. Incense and marijuana. I decided to relax a bit and caught a bus over to the Marina Area to Chestnut Street. After looking around there I caught the bus again to North Beach and China Town where I got a snack of some dim sum. Then I caught the train home.  When I got home Lou had prepared ham and beans and they went well with more of Dawn's buns.

Lou had a dentist appointment in the morning, did some shopping and enjoyed some time working on her dolls today.

I did, finally get a few recent photos up on the blog. Check these posts to see them: Between Holidays, RV Repairs, and Chorizo Week.

Let The Year Begin

Monday: (01/02) The day started with the viewing of the Rose Parade, on TV this year but maybe in person next year. Leftovers for me and grits for Lou for breakfast. More leftovers for lunch, pizza and cheese sticks. The last day of the holiday weeks was spent doing the usual not much. Hamburgers with home made hamburger buns and some okra soup for dinner.

Tuesday: (01/03) Tinkering at home today. Breakfast lunch was a Subway sandwich. Dinner was chicken cordon bleu with rice and brussel sprouts.

Wednesday: (01/04) We were off early to Mountain View where we had pork buns for breakfast. We had a calendar confusion today. i had intended to head up to San Francisco and lou thought she had a dentist appoint. Neither happened. We stopped by the dentist to see if her appointment was today it wasn't, it's tomorrow. I had forgotton a doctors appoint so i didn't make it to SF. We did some shopping near the doctors offices as we waited for my appointment. For lunch we stopped at the Country Inn in Cupertino. I had chicken fried stead and eggs with Swedish pancakes. Lou had their lunch special beef noodles. Dinner was leftover okra soup and a pepper tomato ham salad.

Between Holidays

Monday: (12/26) Granola for breakfast. Pad Thai with egg rolls at LUU Noodle House for lunch. In the afternoon I did venture out to the shop with the intent of doing some welding but found that both my gas tanks were empty. Of course it's a long holiday for my supply house so I guess can take the rest of the week off as well. Leftover cranberry roast with cranberry pistachio rice and broccoli for dinner. Lou was busy sewing and I tinkered on the computer most of the rest of the day.

Tuesday: (12/27) I cooked eggs, sausage and toasted dinner rolls for breakfast. Leftovers du jour for lunch. Lou had an appointment at Kaiser Santa Clara in the afternoon so I dropped her off and then went to the Cupertino Library nearby. I tried to get a wiring diagram for the old car which was supposed to be available per their Internet site. The service manual couldn't be located, neither one of the two copies that were supposedly in their reference section. They did have some information available online so I'll have to see if the ignition switch diagrams that I got help any. Dinner was baked chicken.

Wednesday: (12/28) Latkas with apple sauce and yogurt and some Canadian bacon for breakfast. After breakfast I tinkered at the computer to link my Facebook and Twitter accounts to this blog. Now when I post a Travel category item to this blog an excerpt and a link will appear on my Facebook wall as well and a tweet will be sent to Twitter. That should make my ignored Facebook and Twitter accounts have more posts from me. we had soup for lunch. Lou went up to Redwood City to the DMV but the crowd was out the door. They must really be putting on a show to try to justify a bigger budget. That or an awful lot of people got new cars for Christmas? I assisted in capturing a little lost dog running around the neighborhood and then took a walk and visited Fry's Electronics store. For dinner I prepared Spanish rice with Italian sausage, an international meal.

Thursday: (12/29) I made Don McMuffins for breakfast. Lou and I read the two local free newspapers out front with Wolfie, Ernie's doggie. He really likes to visit. Dawn and her friend Andrea visited. Lou and I left about noon and headed to San Mateo to the DMV. She had an appointment at 1:35. We were out by 1:40. We stopped in downtown San Mateo for lunch at Poncho Villa's Taqueria. We shared a dinner of chili relleno, enchilada and a flauta and added a fish taco. The food was excellent and we were stuffed. We took a short walk around downtown then headed toward home with the mandatory visit to several thrift stores on the way home. In Redwood City we found a nice futon mattress that we can use to replace the foam in Ernie's dinette cushions. The cotton cushion should hold up better than the foam. For dinner Lou made macaroni and cheese with pineapple rings and some of Dawn's fresh cranberry bread. After dinner I took Dawn and Andrea to the used book store in Mountain View.

Friday: (12/30) Leftover rice with milk for breakfast. Leftover Spanish rice for lunch. I tinkered at home while Lou did the laundry and some shopping. We cut the futon mattress we got the other day into RV dinette sized cushions for Ernie's dinette. The cotton material isn't easy to cut but we rigged up a way to do it. Lots of plywood pieces to clamp it and leave a slot for a bread knife to cut it. It turned out with a nice edge when we were through. Macaroni an cheese leftovers for dinner.

Saturday: (12/31) The last day of the year. How the time flies. I prepared Canadian bacon Don McMuffins for breakfast. For lunch we went down to Mountain View to the Lucky Chinese restaurant and shared a couple of combos. While there, we stopped at Target and bought something I didn't think we'd ever get again, an alarm clock for our bedroom. We haven't had a clock in our bedroom for possibly 20 years. Dawn brought one in while we were gone when she stayed here and it was still there when we returned. We got used to being able to check the time so when Dawn recovered hers, we decided to get one of our own. Lou's been busy working on the cushion replacements.


We video Skyped with Courtney's mom in Massachusetts.

Sunday: (01/01) The Rose Parade should happen on the morning of January first, shouldn't it. It didn't today. It's only happened to me, un-noticed, eight previous times. The parade actually never happens on a Sunday because it might scare the horses in front of the churches. I understand the reason for the official New Year's holiday being on a Monday when it actually falls on a Sunday like today. Who wants to miss out on a day off. This shows how much I pay attention.


Lou fixed cheese omelets for breakfast. We tinkered around all morning. Lunch was leftover pizza. After lunch we headed down to the Great Mall in Milpitas. It was an old Ford Motor Company assembly plant turned discount mall. When we returned home we had chicken with a cucumber salad and corn on the cob for dinner.

Our Pin Map Is Updated

I've been busy posting the GPS coordinates to our map for this past year.  We were too busy traveling to keep up.

There are several ways to see the maps. Most posts with geocoded locations have a link at the bottom of the post which, when clicked, takes you to this page zoomed in to the location for the post. There is also a Location map on the right sidebar that shows the location of geocoded posts on the current page which may be a single post or a list of posts.

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