Continuing along...

A couple of pictures of a fiery sunset at Rainbow's End on Monday, 2/24:

On Wednesday morning, Carl had an appointment at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in Livingston for his driving test for his Class B non-CDL, required since his rig (and Miss Doozie) are heavier than 26,000 pounds. He had taken the written test last Wednesday and passed it with flying colors. He was taking the driving test in Miss Doozie, and he had not driven her a lot... so he was a little nervous about having his driving skills tested for the first time in almost 50 years - but he also passed it with flying colors!

While he was doing the driving test, I voted in the primary election (there was one local candidate in Polk County that I particularly wanted to vote for), and washed the Jeep in preparation for putting the cover on its nice newly painted hood. We met back at the DPS office when his driving test was completed, and headed east out of town.

We drove to Lafayette, LA and stopped for the night at a Cracker Barrel.

It seems that we can't seem to get away from Penske trucks!!!

Getting things fixed...

Since Miss Doozie has been on full hookups for quite a long time (9 months while I was at the ILC), I have not been using the alternative systems (like the fresh water pumps).

I had a concern that the fresh water pump may not be working well - back in November, we had a time when the temperatures dropped into the low 20s overnight and did not get above freezing during the day for a couple of days. I had disconnected from the "city water" and found that the fresh water pump function was not reliable.

Since we are preparing to head east and plan to spend some time traveling without hookups, we decided that we had better look into the issues...

There are two fresh water pumps on Miss Doozie - one of them was leaking pretty badly, and the other was "iffy" in its performance. So, I had ordered replacement ones, and Carl and I looked at the possibility of replacing them, but... as we evaluated it, we were concerned that we could end up in worse shape than we were already -- having no fresh water pump capability, rather than a leaking one and an iffy one. I suggested that I would recommend calling an RV mobile tech, and, after evaluating it for a while, Carl agreed.

I called the RV mobile tech on Monday morning - his message said that he was out for a long weekend and would return on Tuesday. I thought, "Hmm... this might be a problem as we plan to leave on Wednesday." But, Monday afternoon, the RV mobile tech called me back and said that he was in the RV park and could come by in the next few minutes. He took a look at the job, gave us an estimate of the cost, and said he could do it right then...

Well, as he worked on it, Carl was even happier that I had suggested hiring help - it was a significantly more challenging job than anticipated, and the mobile technician had to use tools from his supply that Carl did not have with him (it is possible that the appropriate tools are in Dwayne's tool supplies stored in Miss Doozie, but we haven't catalogued exactly where all of the tools are located in Miss Doozie...), and the technician had to do quite a few contortions to get everything out and back in again.

Anyway, we now seem to have two working fresh water pumps (though the priming of the pumps after disconnecting the city water seems to be a bit wonky too).

Mobile RV tech working on fresh water pumps Monday evening

Enjoying activities at Rainbow's End

On Friday, we went to CARE (Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees) for their "Big Breakfast". They have a "Big Breakfast" on Friday mornings and "Pancake Breakfast" on Saturday mornings. We sat at a table and were soon joined by a fellow member of the SKP Christian Fellowship group, Marge, who now lives at CARE:

We had not met her before, but knew of her through the Christian Fellowship Facebook group.

It was so neat that she happened to sit at the same table with us!

Carl had intended to take a picture of his Big Breakfast, but, alas, he ate it all before he remembered!

We also attended the Pancake Breakfast on Saturday at CARE.

Sunday evening, we attended Vespers at CARE:

Prayer requests were shared and updated...

... and we heard a message on the "crowns" (rewards) promised in the New Testament.

After Vespers, we walked over to the Activity Center for an Ice Cream social - two big scoops of ice cream for $1!! All new folks were asked to introduce themselves so we were able to introduce ourselves and meet some other folks.

Ice Cream Social Sunday evening

We've enjoyed our time here in Livingston at Rainbow's End!

What do *you* call "@"?

I was telling Carl a string of characters a couple of days ago (a password) and I said "commercial at sign" as one of the characters. He had never heard that term before, just calling it "at sign".

I decided to look up what it was appropriately called and found:

http://www.atsymbol.com/history.htm

If it is true that medieval monks used it to shorten the word "at", Carl and I think they would have done better with a shortened way to write "the", but... what do we know!

It was also interesting to see the names that the symbol is called in other languages.

A repair to the Jee-rage

The Jee-rage (Jeep+garage) had a very odd issue with the clear coat on the hood.

Back in November, I noticed a blister come up on the hood - about 2" in diameter, and raised up about 1/2". Within a day or so, it popped and left a non-clear coated area on the hood. We then had a wet day, and water got under the clear coat, creating a very artistic pattern which may have been pretty if it wasn't on the hood of the Jeep!

The patterns were created by water getting under the clear coat and spreading all across the hood.

I didn't think to take a picture of how bad it looked before I got it into the body shop... much of the bubbled-up clear coat had flaked off and it really looked disreputable.

We picked up the Jeep from the shop a couple of weeks ago, and wow! it looks great!

Now the tree outline on the hood is the reflection of the trees instead of being bubbled-up clear coat!

I'm glad that we've gotten this completed!

Learning at the veterinarian's office

Miss Kitty went in for her annual checkup a few days ago...

"How many calories is a mouse?"

Miss Kitty does a pretty good job of keeping moving and tends to keep her svelte figure!

We've moved

Hurrah! Miss Doozie, Miss Kitty, Carl and Patti moved from Dallas to Livingston, TX today!

We were sad to leave our friends at the International Linguistics Center (ILC), but we were thankful to get on the road again.

Miss Doozie has been pretty stationary since April of last year (she made a trip to Lewisville to the shop in May and to the Texas State Inspection Station in September), so I was a little apprehensive about whether everything would work okay. All-in-all, things went okay - we had a piece of chrome that the "sticky" holding it to the bus came loose - it was still held on by a lock mechanism that went through the chrome, so we didn't lose it completely, but it is pretty bent up and scarred.

Carl with Miss Doozie and the Jeerage at Rainbow's End RV Park in Livingston, TX

Carl did a lot of the driving - I drove until we were out of the DFW metroplex and then we stopped at the same rest area on I-45 where we were accustomed to changing drivers in the Penske truck on the way to Houston (and took care of the loose, bent chrome).

We are in Livingston to get Carl made a Texan - which involves registering his vehicles in Texas and getting a Texas driver's license. Ultimately, he will need to get a Texas Class B non-CDL license since each of our rigs weigh over 26,000 pounds, but he has to start with getting a normal Class C license. He will then need to take a written and driving test -- and if we can get them both scheduled this week, he may take the driving test in Miss Doozie. So... he wanted to get some time behind the wheel of Miss Doozie in case he'll be demonstrating his prowess with her later this week!

So, more "to-do's" to get "to-done" this week... we're hoping to get most, if not all, completed!