A Week for Firsts!!

Between all the work we have been doing on the rig and the truck, we still find time to have fun. Wednesday night we went to a hockey game. I have seen the NJ Devils play on TV lots of times, but never been to an actual game. Well, the home team here are the Killer Bees and they were playing the Odessa Jackalopes. The Retama Village entertainment committee ordered the tickets so that the everybody from Retama Village could sit in the same section.

We sat to the left of the goal, protected by a large net. It always amazes me how the game field looks so much bigger on TV than it is in reality. The same thing happened when we went to a football game in the Meadowlands in NJ. The home team mascot was the coolest!

This guy had way to much energy, but was getting the crowd going for the two 1/2 hour game. Unfortunately, in the end our team lost, but it was a high scoring game and we had a good time. We actually got to see ourselves on the big screen thanks to the lady next to me that kept jumping up and down every time a camera looked her way.

Saturday we had our annual Retama Village yard sale. This year was the first year I participated, since we brought our stuff down from Sioux Falls and found out that we saved some things that we really do not ever use.

It was 43 degrees at 8 am when we started the yard sale and we were all bundled up as much as possible. Thank you to one of our neighbors who brought a pot of hot coffee and some delicious muffins to keep our spirits up. I actually sold almost everything that I had put out and by 10 pm the sun had come out and it was not that bitter cold anymore. For that it was my first yard sale I have to say we had a good time standing around talking and waiting for people to come by and buy our junk. One man's junk is an other's treasure!!

I have to say a goodbye and travel safe to our friends Mike and Pat McFall. They left Saturday morning has we were setting up for the yard sale.

I love Happy Hour!!

Do to the lousy weather that we have had here in the last few months, there really have not been to many Happy Hours with the whole group. So it was nice to get an e-mail from Pat McFall inviting us to a Happy Hour/Potluck on Thursday. We had a blast! There was so much good food and great company!!

As usual, all the women folk gathered in the kitchen as the men wondered throughout the club house.

I think this is the first women and men group picture we have of all of us. We sure will miss you guys in the summer, when we are hopefully working.

The Big Job!!!

When we came back to Texas in September, we noticed that the rubber seal on the kitchen slide did not make a good seal when the slide was all the way out. After closer inspection we realized that the metal clip inside the gasket had rusted through and nothing was holding the rubber seal in place. We ordered the replacement seal and then it got cold, so we had to wait for good weather to tackle this job.

These are a picture of the metal clip and what the rubber gasket looks like.

It is a little bit difficult to take a picture close up while holding the material, but I think you can see the V-shaped metal clip on the inside, which gets clipped to the rig in order to create a seal between the rig and the slide. I don't have anymore pictures of us doing this job, since I was busy doing this job!!

Well, last Monday was that day and we figured it would take us about four hours total to get this done. How hard can it be to take the old seal off, clean the area and clip the new seal on?? Well, let me tell you. A huge THANK YOU goes out to Larry Moore for helping us and hanging in there all the way. I really would have not blamed him if he would have bailed after the first hour. Taking off the old seal went pretty fast, except that it apparently had been attached to the rig with an adhesive strip and the rubber and glue in that area did not come off. This was a big bummer, since we are talking 40 feet of about 1/4 inch width rubber and glue stuck to the rig all the way around the opening for the slide.

I went to Home Depot to get some Goop Off and Larry, Doug and I started to get the stuff of the rig at 11 am. By 3 pm Larry had to leave and we still had about 3 feet left to do. We managed to get all the stuff off, wiped the whole opening inside and outside down with Windex and Doug started to attach the new seal. The plan was to start in the middle of the slide and then two people could attach the seal working their way to the outside. Well, plans are a nice thing, however, that does not mean they work. There was not enough of a gap between the slide and the rig to insert the rubber gasket and push it into place. So Doug started on a corner, but that meant that only one person could to the job. It was already getting dark and we decided to call it quits for the night after he had the top half way done.

Larry and Doug finished installing the rubber seal the next day and I used plenty of caulking at all possible point where water could enter the seal, since we don't want the metal rusting again. I sure hope that we don't have to do this again, but at least we got one of the big jobs done. The other one is working on the hydraulic system for the slides, since it is not functioning correctly. That will definitely be a job for the boys and I will stay out of it.

Good to be back home!

We got back home last Tuesday night thanks to Donna and Grant picking us up at the airport. It was the flight from hell, but you will hear about that in a separate blog. We get in the rig and Doug discovered that we accidentally had left the propane heater on for the last two weeks and both propane tanks were empty. It was in the mid 50's in the rig and the heat pumps just don't do a good job heating up the rig fast, since hot air rises and the heat pumps are in the ceiling. So it is 11 pm, we have been up for about 23 hours and Doug got the good idea of try using the small propane tank from the grill and hooking it up to the rig. So he took the empty big propane tanks out of their compartment while I got the small tank out from underneath the grill. We got everything hooked with only minor complications and in no time we had a nice toasty rig. Very exhausted we had no problem falling asleep and sleeping the whole night through. Our bodies did not care about the 7 hour time difference anymore.

Wednesday was a gorgeous day and I used it to take down all the outside Christmas light on the rig and the big truck and actually got three loads of laundry done. Our friends kept telling us that a cold front was coming in so I wanted to use the warmth to do some things outside. We had a nice "Happy Hour" at Linda and Larry's lot with a whole bunch of people and decided to bring the sweets we had brought from Germany and share them. They were very well received, which made me happy, since not everybody likes marzipan.

The cold came during the afternoon on Thursday and we watched the temperatures dropping in amazement. You have to understand that we are at the most southern corner of Texas, just two miles north of the Mexican border, and even though temperatures are supposed to go down into the 40's at night, they are not supposed to get below freezing. Well, yesterday's high was 40 degrees on the nose. We did get some errands run and quickly went back home. For the first time that I can remember Doug filled the white tank all the way with fresh water and by 9 pm last night he turned off the outside water since we were just above freezing. They told us in the news this morning that it got down to 27 degrees for several hours, which means the outside water lines would have frozen, if we would have left the water on. The last thing we need is water hoses and plumbing freezing up and bursting. So at this point water is being supplied via a pump from our freshwater tank until the temperatures get back above freezing. So I am using this time now to update the blog, sitting on the couch bundled up in my blanket waiting for it to get warm. Keep scrolling down, since there will be at least three more entries by the time I'm actually caught up with everything we did since the last entry.

The trip from Hell!!!

We got up on Tuesday morning and checked the departure of our flight on the Internet. It had a 3 1/2 hour delay, since the flight from Houston to Frankfurt had been late leaving. I called Continental in Frankfurt and even though everybody knew that the flight was late, they insisted that we had to be there for normal check in two hours ahead of normal flight departure or we could loose our seats. We had a connecting flight in Houston to go to McAllen, which at this point we would miss. So I asked the lady on the phone about a hotel voucher, since it was the last flight to McAllen that night and was told I had to talk to somebody at the airport about that.

So we arrived at the airport at around 11 am and checked in. At this point the plane is supposed to leave around 5:30 pm. I spoke to the lady at the counter about our dilemma of most likely missing our connecting plane in Houston and were told that Continental was definitely not giving out hotel vouchers. My blood pressure was rising, but the people in Frankfurt are actually from Star Alliance and not Continental, so I figured I would take that fight up with Continental in Houston. However, we were given a 20 Euro food voucher each and a pass to the Lufthansa lounge, which also serves some food and beverages. Security checks really were not so bad, specially after what had just happened in Detroit and we managed to pass the time until boarding. What a mess that was!! We could have actually left at 5 pm, if the ground crew would have started their security check for the transit passengers a little bit earlier and then it took forever for them to figure out who from standby could actually get on the plane. But eventually, we actually left Frankfurt and were on our way.

The 10 hour flight was pretty much uneventful and we actually made up some time. We were supposed to land at 8:40 pm CST time and our connecting flight was at 9:24 pm. We bolted out of the plane, practically ran to immigration, which seemed to be in the last corner of the airport and got through there fairly fast. Next stop was picking up the luggage and going through customs. At the baggage area was a temporary Continental counter and to our surprise they had already booked us on the first flight out of Houston the next morning, had a hotel voucher for us as well as two $12 food voucher. They totally took the steam out of my sail, but at that point that might not have been a bad thing. We had been up for a about 21 hours, with maybe 2 hours of sleep in the plane. We got our luggage pretty quick and went on to customs with 20 minutes left to our next flight. The lady wanted to chat a bit, but once we explained our dilemma she let us go without checking our luggage. On we went to the Continental transfer counter and dropped our luggage back of.

We were told that we had to go through security again, which means taking of shoes, jackets, taking computers out of the bag and no liquids in the backpack. I of course forgot to take the two bottles of soda out of the backpack, but the lady was nice enough just to take them out and throw them away. I still have to put my shoes back on and we have about 8 minutes left to make it to the gate. Doug started running ahead and I followed as fast as I could. We saw that there was still an attendant at the gate and started waving to make sure that they don't close the door. We made it with one minute to spare until I realized that I lost my purse somewhere after the last security check and I can't get on the plane now. I told Doug to stay put and I started running back the way we just came. By now I am utterly exhausted and about to breakdown and cry. However, adrenaline is flowing and I found by purse fairly fast, ran back, waving my purse above my head to let them know I found it as I am running out of air.

We made the flight, arrived in McAllen one hour later to find out that our luggage had not made it. I am so glad that Donna and Grant picked us up, since by now we have been up for about 23 hours and I would not want to drive anymore. I don't ever want to have to go through a trip like this again!!!!

Koblenz

My dad has worked for the train company all his life, so for him taking a train is just no big deal. A few years ago we all took a train tip from from Bacharach to Mainz, however, it was only a local commuter train and not a very nice one at that.

So Doug and I decided to take a train ride before we go back home. This is what the weather looked like when we got up on Sunday morning.

It looked really pretty, but it also meant it was below freezing. It was really cold, but that would not stop us. So of to the train station we were.

The train went so fast that it did not make sense taking any pictures. The ICE can go up to 190 m/h, however, driving on the windy tracks along the river it "only" managed to go about 100 m/h. The picture below can attest to that.

We saw some beautiful winter scenery along the Rhein, which is one of Germany's main waterways. The trip took about 50 minutes and off we were exploring Koblenz. It was below freezing, which makes it a little bit hard to enjoy the old part of town. We wanted to see an old castle in town to find out that it was closed to the public. So we went on to a beautiful old church and the main attraction in Koblenz, which is the "German Corner". Here two of Germany's major rivers actually meet.

To the right you see the Rhein and to the left is the Mosel. It was bitter cold, but here are some more pictures of the area. As you can see, the Rhein right now is also running a little bit high.


We wondered around the old part of town some more and found a nice place to have lunch and defrost our hands and feet.


Another train ride, this time in the dark, which was pretty neat too, and we were back in Mainz.

Kupferberg - Sekt Producers

Mainz is know for its sparkling wine maker Kupferberg so mom booked us on a tour to check it out. At first I was not convinced that it would be interesting, but I was wrong. The storage cellars go seven levels down, which makes Kuperberg the only winery in the world with that many levels of cellars.

They don't let you go down all the levels, but it sure was an interesting tour below ground.


There were so many tunnels, it would have been very easy to get lost. At the end of the tour was a sparkling wine tasting of three different sparkling wines. You can't call them champagne, since Sekt is not made from grape out of the Champagne region in France. I was glad that mom was the designated driver, since we were all feeling just fine after the tasting :-)

New Year's Day Parade

It is very old tradition in Mainz (my home town) to have a New Year's Day parade, which starts at 11:11 am. This is all part of the pre Mardi Gras festivities, which start every year on November 11th at 11:11 am and last until Ashwednesday the next year. The different marching bands and guards are private clubs who all have their own colors, banners and costumes and participate in all kind of different events leading up to the Monday before Ashwednesday, when the Mardi Gras celebration goes to the street as a really big parade.

It was so cold that we had to keep switching the battery in the camera, since it would die on me within taking a few pictures. I would take pictures while Doug was warming up the other battery to get the charge back.


This is a picture of Doug, my dad and me. Here are some of the guards.





There must have been over 20 different guards. It was a very impressive display. By the time it was over we were all slightly frozen and went for Chinese food for lunch, since this is a new year's day tradition for my parents.