Preparing to leave

Sparky's escapades

He ran off and this is where he turned up.

We were gone for a day getting new tires

and Sparky was gone.

Needed a bigger chain

In Storage

Red Snapper fishing

Me with our catch

We went Red Snapper fishing again this year and while fishing was not nearly as good as the last couple of years, Don and I each came home with some nice size snapper. The crew on the boat speculated that we have had such warm winters that the Snapper may be going to deeper water earlier. This is always one of my favorite experiences in the winter so I hope they figure it out. We were luckier than the group that went out the week before we did because their whole boat came home empty handed.

Ray and Cyndi came back

Ray and Cyndi came back to Palmdale at the beginning of March so we had a few weeks to enjoy their company. Cyndi’s surgery didn’t help her that much but she is a trooper and we made a trip to the flea market and to Mexico so she could so some shopping. Probably our most memorable excursion was a Tuesday trip to get the wings special at Arnie’s Winghouse. Ray has a minivan so he can comfortably seat 6 older adults. Don and I took the way back seat. Lee and Max the middle seats with Ray and Cyndi in the front. We didn’t have too much to drink but on the way home, Ray was in a hurry so when he took the turn on Hwy. 101, he accelerated and we headed back to Palmdale. You have to know that the Los Fresnos police are always on the lookout for speeding Winter Texans so it wasn’t long until the blue and red lights came on behind Ray. He looked in his mirror and said a bad word. Don, who was conditioned at a very young age to correct whatever law he is breaking when the police arrive, grabbed the first seat belt he say and hooked it up. I grabbed my seat belt and couldn’t buckle it because Don had used my buckle so I held the seat belt with my left hand down by my side. Lee, who was in the seat in front of Don was trying to find his seat belt but couldn’t because Don had grabbed his seat belt. Everyone else was already wearing theirs. When the cop came to the window, he shined his light at the back seat and asked Don why he was putting his seat belt on when we were pulled over. Don, of course just said, “What?” Everyone chimed in that Don can’t hear very well. At that point Don decided that was his best option. The cop tried a couple of more times with that question but gave up. I was sitting there holding my seat belt and looking at Don’s seat belt that was angled from up behind Lee’s seat and diagonally across Don from about 2 feet in front of him to his right side thinking that looks pretty dangerous. The Cop gave up on Don ever hearing him and asked all the men for their ids so Don and Lee provided them with their drivers licenses. We were like a representative sample of Winter Texans… from Missouri, South Dakota and Nebraska. When the licenses were returned, Ray was informed that he was getting a warning and never to be speeding in Los Fresnos again. As we left we were all laughing and now we have a story to remember and laugh about for as long as we live.

Fun with Edie – I took a trip to Minneapolis in March

A new refrigerator – Our old Dometic RV refrigerator quit working after I defrosted it. So when I came home from Minnesota we shopped for a new refrigerator. The F-Street RV Service in Harlingen were very helpful in diagnosing the problem with the old refrigerator and sait that it could be removed through the front door. We figured if that one could come out, we buy a residential one that fit the refrigerator cabinet and it could come the same way. So we took careful meas

Out with the old in with the new

urements and armed with our measuring tape headed out to the appliance stores. Lowes had a black GE that fit and could be delivered in 2 days. So on April 3 the day before our departure the F-Street guys came and removed the old refrigerator. Getting the new one in wasn’t so easy.


We had removed the passenger seat but much more needed to be done. It took a couple of hours and about 5 or 6 attempts and by the time they were able to get it in the camper, they had removed parts of the camper ceiling over the dash and much of the dash. They cut an aluminum brace around the tv opening above the dash and were finally able to get the new refrigerator in. They used screws to repair the cut and replaced all the dash parts and there is no evidence that any of that took place. We did the installation. Don put some screws in the bottom of the refrigerator and put in some O-hooks which we put a tie strap that is holding the refrigerator in place. There is about a 3” opening on the left side and on top of the refrigerator and when we get to Minnesota where we have tools we will fix the cabinetry.

RV refrigerators are made with access panels with ventilation on the outside of the camper to dissipate heat from the propane burner. The front of the cabinet was sealed around the old refrigerator to prevent air from coming into the camper from the outside. Now, we can see the daylight coming in behind the refrigerator. When we parked at Galveston Island State Park we had a stiff wind blowing straight in from the gulf and that night I woke up feeling the humid cool air filling the camper and thinking about the corrosive salty air blowing on the back of my new refrigerator. So I worried about that for a while. We stuffed some blankets around the refrigerator along with a couple of towels to block the air from coming into the camper.  We took off the panel on the back and covered the vent part with some cardboard. That still left some parts open and we used duct tape to cover that. We still had wind coming in on the top vent but it was better. That is how we are traveling now.

We are in disagreement about the best way to make a permanent fix since this is clearly not satisfactory. My thinking is that we need to insulate the space and make it interior space. When we fix the cabinet we will leave air flow space around the refrigerator so heat from the motor can dissipate into the camper. I think the residential refrigerator was designed to be in the interior of a building and that letting the back side be exposed to the elements and the outside temperature fluctuations is probably not good for it.L