This morning I woke early, shipped Camping Journal orders, cleaned my office, ran 4 miles ran 3 miles ran 2 miles didn't run a step, whipped-up two different cookies doughs, put them in the fridge, loaded the Honda with stuff for our tailgate Saturday and we headed over to the storage unit to fetch the Magna Peregrinus.
She was so happy to see us!
It's like picking-up your dog from the boarding kennel.
The Honda was hitched behind our bus...
...and we headed south on I-5 to Eugene, a two-hour drive.Please note the beautiful blue skies.
Please note the skies one hour later.Welcome to My World.
In Coburg (exit 199), DT stopped to fuel the Magna Peregrinus. Notice he is not filling the tank, but is unhitching the Honda. Notice the dude in the yellow safety vest filling the tank. In The Great State of Oregon, citizens do not pump their own gas. Or diesel. Instead, we sit in our cars and sip our coffee or check our emails or fix our lipstick while an attendant fills the tank. We don't even have to leave our autos to pay. It is actually illegal to pump your own fuel in Oregon. Is this a fabulous state or what?We don't have sales tax either.
Welcome to My World.
I drove the car to the RV park in Coburg and registered. DT showed up a few minutes later. Dave pulled the RV into the campsite and immediately hopped in the Honda and went over to the University of Oregon where he had meetings all afternoon concerning the 2012 Olympic Track & Field Trials, aka TrackTown12, aka TT12.
Which left me alone all afternoon with this handsome fellow - Brian Van De Walker of Coach Solutions (541-514-9000). Brian is our RV tech. If we need something repaired, added, adjusted, moved or explained on our RV, we call Brian. If you need something repaired, added, adjusted, moved or explained on your RV, I suggest you do the same. Brian is amazing.DT had asked Brian to add a thermometer to our Silverleaf system. With all the bells and whistles included in our fabulous machine, it did not have an outdoor thermometer! Even my little Honda has a thermometer. A driver needs to know the outside temperature - especially when it is really hot or really cold. To install this little bit of equipment, Brian had to pull two panels off of the dash! I swear there is enough wire behind all the fake burl wood for a small apartment building. Where do all those wires go? What do they do? Brian knows.
While Brian was rewiring NASA our dash, I put together our dinner for next Wednesday - a lovely lasagna. Our traditional first-night-on-the-road meal.
Then I "half-baked" the casserole. Half-baking (about 25 minutes at 375 degrees) allows the lasagna (cheese) to be frozen without the cheese becoming yucky when reheated. After baking, I cooled the lasagan, wrapped it well and placed it in the freezer. Dinner - on Wednesday - is served! Where it will be served, I cannot say. Hopefully somewhere south of Eugene!By now, we had a reading on the outside temperature, plus the humidity, altitude, a compass and some other stuff that we will probably never use or know how to work - but we will know the outside temperature while we are driving!
Next I asked Brian to fix an annoying little thing about our RV (and probably your RV). When we tailgate, I often run the generator - especially if it is dark/cold. But we have a zillion batteries and a massive inverter and our coach can go quite a long while without the generator... so when the batteries are charged-up, I turn the generator off.
HOWEVER, when I turn the generator OFF, the satellite receiver box loses power for a 10th of a second or so while switching from generator power to battery power and it RESETS itself. So annoying. It takes over TEN MINUTES for the satellite dish to reset itself... while we have a mob of people crowded around the TV watching a football game! Party killer!
Brian told me I needed an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS). Of course! Today Brian installed the device (about the same size as a DVD player) behind the circuit breaker pad near our bedroom closet. I won't even know it is there until the next time I turn off the generator during a football game and nothing happens to the DirecTV system.
Just about the time Brian was finished, DT returned from his meetings. We said goodbye to Brian and headed home in the Honda, leaving our RV in the campground under the watchful eye of our neighbors.
I told DT that I didn't feel like cooking dinner, so just a few miles from home, we stopped-in to our new favorite neighborhood hang-out, Big Al's. DT caught the Blazer game, we had dinner, and were home by half-time.The "no cooking" thing didn't work out though. Remember the two batches of cookie dough I had prepared this morning?
Welcome to My World.
Spiced Molasses Cookies, rolled in turbinado sugar.
Baked to a soft perfection.
And some Snickerdoodles too.Then, I went to bed.
Until my next update, I remain, your "The Lovely Lisa is coming home tomorrow" correspondent.