Richard's Page

Santorini, Greece

2026-10-21T09:13:00.000-08:00

Wednesday - An early morning today. A small group met for coffee at 6:30 when we discovered that the coffee place didn’t open until 7. At 7:30, we wandered down to deck 2 to get loaded on tenders for the short ride into Santorini. No boat docks.

This place is very photogenic. All of the buildings are painted white as electricity didn’t arrive until 1967 and the white kept the buildings cooler. The blue trim was mandated by the government for uniform appearance. And is the color of the Greek flag.

We took a cable car to the top of the cliff. The other options were walking and donkeys. The €10 for the cable car seemed like a bargain.

This picture was the start of the tour. The first stop was at a black sand beach (next picture), where we had a mid-morning snack. I had the grilled sardines just because I wanted to try something different.

We had about 1½ hours of free time at the beach.

The next stop was Megalochori or huge village in Greek. Cobblestone streets and lots of hills. We visited a historic cave dwelling.

We then went to Oia, where the stereotypical photos of Santorini are taken. It was extremely crowded and the prices were steep. Lots of people taking selfies.

Our stop here was only about an hour as the tour guides thought that the group would enjoy more free time in the reasonably priced location at the top of the tram.

We were told that real estate prices were completely out of hand here. Some hotel rooms have been known to go for over €10k per night!

We had a very late lunch back in Fira, the village at the top of the tram.

Sea Day

2026-10-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

Tuesday - Just before we returned to the ship, we stopped at a cathedral. B this time, most of the group, including me were pretty tired. The ship time changed at 2am to the time zone of our next stop. We didn’t actually change time zones at that point but more for convenience. There was a meetup this morning with pastries and coffee followed by a group photo. About half of the group showed up initially and we guessed that the other half didn’t get the time zone memo.

I had eggs Benedict and wedge salad for breakfast. The menu was both breakfast and lunch, which was nice. And the bacon was actually crispy, unlike the bacon in Italy. I guess the cruise company caters to Americans. Well, sort of. The couple at the next table complained about everything they brought out to them. Their toast wasn’t freshly toasted, the hash browns were a patty, and the eggs weren’t cooked perfectly. Almost everything was not satisfactory, to them. They were Americans.

Afterwards, I checked out the Solarium up on deck 14 at the front of the ship. Very nice and quiet. At least initially. The hot tubs were pretty empty and the view was nice.

After about an hour, it started to feel more crowded and warm. I turned in my towel and headed back to the room. Our balcony is facing north as we are headed almost due east towards the southern Greek islands. It was nice to be out of the sun for a bit.

We had lunch at the Solarium Bistro. A much smaller selection than the regular buffet but a fraction of the people and no kids. I just had a hot dog, some fries, a small caprese salad, and a bit of penne with a white sauce.

We walked three laps around the running track on deck 15 but it was a zoo as people were watching the belly flop contest while drinking and smoking like there’s no tomorrow. So many more people seem to smoke in Europe. Or at least smoke where there are a lot of other people around.

Tomorrow, we will be in Santorini, one of the iconic locations in Greece. The first time I ever heard of this location was in the movie Tomb Raider. The white buildings all built along a cliff in the initial scene with the earthquake.

Messina (Sicily)

2026-10-19T10:41:00.000-08:00

Monday - This morning, we arrived in Messina located between Sicily and mainland Italy. We have an all-day bus tour scheduled with some free time in the middle for lunch.

Earlier, a subset of us met up for coffee and breakfast at Two70 located at the stern overlooking the water. A pretty nice location for breakfast.

We stopped at a roadside rest stop for a bit for a bio break. It’s a two hour ride to our first stop, Mt Etna.

It was a narrow, curvy road up to 6,100’ on the side of the volcano.

At the stop, we were able to walk up to craters with recent activity.

When we arrived, the clouds opened up a bit showing more of the surrounding landscape.

This is one of the craters that you could walk into. The ground was all packed ash and lava but walking wasn’t difficult though you did need to watch your step.

We then went to the Greek Theater in Taormina. We heard the history from when the Greeks built it and the changes when the Romans politicized it.

From the back of the theater, there was a wonderful view of the town and the beach.

Well?

2026-10-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

Sunday - Another high stress day. We filled out our Royal Caribbean “Health status” questionnaire and reported that I had two of the symptoms listed. Basically, a cold. We’ll see if that gets us dumped to the do-not-allow list. I don’t think I’ll be able to relax until we are onboard.

The included hotel breakfast was decent and included cappuccino, so no complaints. All of the breakfasts in Italy really focus on sweet offerings. The savory options seem limited to eggs and floppy bacon.

Checkout time is 11am and our overpriced shuttle to the ship is scheduled for 11:30.

Later - It turns out that the “Health check” wasn’t very stringent. They asked us a couple of questions and a supervisor came by and said no problem. We were on the ship by noon. Way less stress for me at this point. We are on Odyssey of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, on a 7 day Greek Isles and Italy cruise. This trip was organized by two RV YouTube channels, Less Junk More Journey and Finding Our Someday.

We ran into a couple of the cruise organizers and they mentioned that we could drop our stuff off at the conference room they were setting up for distribution of packets. We then had a light lunch at the buffet before going back, picking up our packets which includes tickets for all of the excursions.

Travel Day to Civitavecchia

2026-10-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

Saturday - That name is a mouthful. We took the public transit bus to the train station, with plenty of time to catch our first train to Pisa. After boarding the train, Bridget got an email saying it was cancelled. We got off the train and sought out customer service who told us to go to another platform and get on that train. The electric status board on the train wasn’t displaying the expected information. Being clueless, I asked the person I was sitting next to and found out that we were headed towards Pisa just later than planned.

We missed our connection to Civitavecchia, so we waited in line to talk to an agent and verified that we just needed to wait for the next train. The train wasn’t crowded at all compared to the one from Florence. Maybe because it’s Saturday afternoon. I’m not complaining. The train was traveling at around 160 mph between stops. Smooth and quiet. We arrived a couple of hours later than planned.

Later - We arrived at our hotel, which was only a short walk from the train station, around 5pm. It is an old building but has some real oddities. Such as, our room has two floors. The bedroom is up a flight of stairs. And the mini split made a horrendous noise when first powered on. But it was set for 16°C and dripped a lot of water initially. Maybe there was ice built up. Anyway, it’s working fine now.

We had dinner at a bistro with outdoor seating. Again, my main complaint is all the cigarette smoke. I have gotten really used to no smoking in most businesses in the U.S..

Florence Rest Day - Day 4

2026-10-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Friday - Today was a rest & recuperation day. Bridget was concerned about my cough and had a doctor come by the hotel room. I guess house calls are still the norm around here. He said I had bronchitis, not contagious, but aggravated by all the smoke in the narrow streets, restaurants, and shops. He prescribed some antibiotics and something for my cough.

Not that I’m getting tired of Italian food, but yesterday, I had a burger and roasted potatoes. Today, we had dinner at a Thai fusion place and I had the ramen and gyoza. The chicken was dry and addition of tomatoes made it “fusion” but it was decent.

Tomorrow, we catch a couple of trains to Civitavecchia, Rome’s seaport. There is a very short stop in Pisa and we need to switch trains there.

Siena & San Gimignano

2026-10-15T22:09:54.454-08:00

Thursday - We met out tour bus near the train station for an all-day road trip south to Siena and San Gimignano. I picked up a cold probably from the never ending crowds here in Italy and on the flight over.

The tour bus was huge relative to size of the streets and the driver didn’t seem to have any issues. It was a couple of hours to Siena and we wandered around the Piazza del Duomo for a bit.

This was the one place I’ve heard about and it was very picturesque. It’s hard to see it in the pictures, but the plaza slopes up all the way around.

It wasn’t too crowded today. The plaza is surrounded by restaurants and tourist souvenir shops like most of these places.

We then ventured a short distance to the Siena Cathedral. Bridget is off exploring. Being the old guy, I’m sitting down on the steps. Back to the bus for San Gimignano.

Another beautiful town though I needed to find a public bathroom. Hard to find and they charge money to enter.

The historic part of town was located on a hill so you had stunning views of the surrounding area. It’s great for views but made for tough walking.

It was several hours on a very comfortable and quiet tour bus.

Florence - Day 2

2026-10-14T11:57:00.000-08:00

Wednesday - We had breakfast at the hotel as we needed to be back near the train station by 9:45 for our city tour. No backpacks or large bags allowed on this tour. Plus, there is a dress code as we will be touring some churches.

Some stress, for me, this morning as we weren’t sure how the public transit system works. It turns out that we just tap a payment card and we ride the bus. It needs to be a separate card for each person. We made the tour starting point and the walking tour guide, Matt, was great. He walked slowly and was conscious that he had about 15 people behind him. The carousel was just a convenient spot to regroup.

He provided lots of history and insight of the area. This church was, at one time, the largest in the world. We had “skip-the-line” tickets for all of the stops.

The painting was incredibly detailed and the building was in daily use. Not just a monument and tourist attraction.

We made lots of stops and walked around 10k steps in the process. Lots of marble statues, churches, and a few bridges thrown in to keep things interesting.

The last stop was at Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. The lines here were ridiculous. Even with our “skip-the-line” pass, we still waited about 30 minutes. Way better than the several hour queue with day-of tickets.

The iconic statue here was Michaelangelo’s David. They controlled the number of people in the small museum so it wasn’t too crowded. I even found many opportunities to sit down. Arthritis is making it more difficult for me to stand up all day.

The tour was fantastic and recommended. Just realize that a lot of walking is required. We stopped at a random place for lunch before taking the bus back to the hotel. Now that we know how it works, it was easy. My only problem is my phone battery was getting low and I didn’t bring my battery pack.

Florence -Day 1

2026-10-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

Tuesday - After breakfast at the hotel, we took a water taxi to the Santa Lucia Station to catch our train to Florence. The front desk made the reservation for us and the desk clerk led us out and pointed out the pickup location. Very nice hotel.

We were the only ones on the water taxi so we could stand up at the open roof and gawk at the scenery. It wasn’t a really long ride but would’ve been a long walk hauling our luggage.

The Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo was across the canal from the train station, and we had a bit over an hour wait for our train.

There is a long bridge from Venice to the mainland just for the train. The ride is very smooth and quiet. We have our luggage with us in the overhead trays. We have plenty of room though others with much larger suitcases seem to be having difficulty finding space.

Florence is a zoo compared to Venice! It took us a while to find the taxi stand and it was a wild ride to the hotel. Very narrow streets, pedestrians, dogs, horse drawn carriages, people in wheelchairs, bicycles, and scooters. Then add in buses, double parked everything, plus tons of cars, and one way streets. Bridget is upset by the cab ride. She thinks the cab driver added time and distance to the trip.

Venice - Day 3

2026-10-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

Monday - Basically, a free day today. Nothing planned except Bridget’s trip to an Italian yarn shop. We then crossed on the Rialto Bridge to the less touristy part of Venice and gradually worked our way back.

Lots of bell towers, and most of them had a lean to them unless they were attached to another building. One of the surprises was discovering Eduroam WiFi access points. This is a widespread WiFi access utilizing credentials from your “home” institution. In my case, the University of Alaska. Pretty cool (imho)!

The views down the canals are still not getting old. These are all water taxis as the gondolas are more common in the tourist areas. At least that’s what we were told by the extremely helpful hotel reception desk.

We stopped for a snack, double espresso and lemon gelato, and had a great view of all the boat traffic.

Near the University, we passed a gondola repair shop. Along this walk, we also passed hardware stores, grocery shops, and electronics stores. In the tourist areas, it’s all high end fashion brands and souvenir shops.

We crossed the Grand Canal at the Ponte dell'Accademia, a wooden bridge near the university, and headed back towards the hotel. Over 9,000 steps. We are getting our exercise in around here.

Would I return to Venice or is it a one and done? It’s a beautiful city though very expensive. I think the property and rent prices drive up the cost for everything. Dinner ranges from €60 to €100 and the breakfast buffet at the hotel was €30. Bridget decided to pass on the ultra-tourist gondola ride. For me, it’s between a one and done and I’ll return. We’ll see at the end of the trip as this is the only part of Italy I’ve seen…

Italy - Day 2 - Murano & Burano

2026-10-11T03:57:02.524-08:00

Sunday - We met this morning for a 25 minute boat ride to Murano, where decorative glass is made. It was another of the older speedboats with a spectacular wooden interior.

There are around a hundred artisans on the island and, we were told, that most of the Murano glass sold to tourists is imported from elsewhere. Why am I not surprised by that.

We were given a demo of a vase and a horse. One blown and the other solid. The ovens are 1200°C, with pools of molten glass at the bottom. After picking up a blob (technical term from me as I wasn’t paying attention), he proceeded to gradually blow it then reheat before creating the vase. The colors are created by rolling the blob in pieces of colored glass then reheating.

The horse starts out the same but no blowing into the blob of glass. A lot of skill was demonstrated even creating these throw-away demonstration pieces. The vase shattered after about three minutes as it wasn’t put into a 600°C oven to cool. After ~8 hours, the ovens are shut off and the pieces cool overnight.

We then took the boat to Burano, another island specializing in lace and cookies.

Here are some of the lace made here. Up to seven individuals are involved with each piece as each artisan specializes in one stitch.

Burano is also known for its colorful buildings. These were shops mixed with homes. The bell tower in the background is leaning due to the unstable soil. The tower next to St Marks basilica does not lean as it was recently rebuilt after being it collapsed in the early 1900s.

Here is a better view of the bell tower showing the lean. It’s quite pronounced.

On the boat trip back, we passed an island with a rocket. I don’t know what that was about.

Venice - Day 1

2026-10-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

Saturday - After breakfast at the hotel, we took off to see Rialto Bridge. A famous landmark that I wanted to see. I guess we rode under it yesterday while on the water taxi, but I missed it. The streets were crowded with tourists wandering aimlessly gawking in the shop windows.

The view from the bridge was nice. Here is the shot that must be on every camera that’s been to Venice.

High tide was at 11:15am and water was part way up the doors in some lower areas. And water was backing up from the storm drains in the middle of St Marks square where we are headed later today.

The area we walked through was the “touristy” part of town, according to the wonderful receptionists at the hotel. One even sat down with us when we checked in with a map explaining how to get around, what to see, where the less crowded areas were, and food recommendations.

Last night, we went to St Marks Square, aka Piazza San Marco, and it was empty. We went through there today and it was packed.

Just to mix something else in, my Apple Watch said that today was World Mental Health Day. Is Apple just making these things up? Anyway, it told me to relax for ten minutes. Who am I to argue with technology? Especially after dealing with crowds of tourists all morning.

After lunch, we had a guided tour of Basilica de San Marcos. It was very crowded inside but the guide did a fantastic job explaining things. I’d recommend a guide. We also walked through the Doge’s Palace next door. The Doge was royalty for Venice. It wasn’t my cup of tea but Bridget thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of huge paintings, government meeting rooms, and huge reception rooms. Plus jail cells and the armory.

Oh yeah, ended the afternoon with pistachio and lemon gelato. Fantastic! Especially the lemon…

Venice, IT - Day 0.5

2026-10-09T09:34:47.563-08:00

Friday - The second leg of the flight was long and tiring. It’s hard to sleep on an airplane. Not as long as other international flights I’ve taken, but I’m feeling my age. We left JFK at around 10:30pm and we should arrive around noon local time.

In this picture, we are over the Alps. We will be in Venice, IT, for about four days before taking a train to Florence on Tuesday morning. Another adventure.

Just getting to the hotel from the airport was a challenge. A water taxi which was an old school speedboat complete with a teak interior and a V8 engine. I asked some other passengers for help with the map they gave us. The hotel had us walking through many streets and alleys before we found it. The hotel “sign” was on the ground in front of a very narrow alley. We walked past it several times.

We had a small lunch at a small place near the hotel I just had a pizza slice and a Diet Coke though it had different labeling here. We were told not to eat the pizza in Venice because it pales compared to the pizza in Naples. I thought it was good with a very thin crust, as is my favorite.

Getting Ready to Go

2026-10-08T13:21:40.086-08:00

Tuesday - Still getting ready for our trip. Packing with suitcases is such a hassle compared to RV travel. Especially if the goal is carry-on only.

Since it was cooler this morning, I changed the tube in the sidecar tire with a new one. I also changed the rim strip. The spare also lost some air but it had gotten too hot and muggy to change another tube.

Wednesday - It was a very nice, 64°F this morning, but heated up to 90°F by late afternoon. I did send out my Winlink Wednesday email this morning but propagation was horrible. I ended up using a local San Antonio server on 40m. Yesterday, I was able to retrieve my email using a Las Vegas server when propagation was better.

Thursday - Thank you to Gary & Lynne for taking us to the airport. It’s about an hour away and we didn’t want to leave the Jeep in long term parking. I turned off the water to the RV, pulled in three of the slides, and set the A/C to 85°F.

The first leg is to JFK (New York). I had never been to that airport. Previous trips to the area went through Newark, NJ, so this will be a first. I think we have a couple of hours before the next flight. Delta offers free WiFi as long as you have a Delta mileage number. Back in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, I flew in Delta often since it was an Alaska mileage partner and they had regular flights out of Alaska. Not the case anymore. I think my last flight was Delta and KLM to Ethiopia. Or was it Japan and Singapore…

Later - We are still ~45 minutes out and the seat feels really hard. I hate flying now. Back 30 or 40 years ago, it was an adventure. Not anymore. I don’t like packing suitcases or all the security and crowds. RV travel is preferable for me. I watched ~2/3 of the first Harry Potter movie and part of Toy Story 5 but starting to feel tired. It’s going to be a long day…

Still near Hondo

2026-10-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

Friday - A little cooler today, but still very muggy. I walked two miles around the park (twice), and I'm soaked. But I need to get some more walking in, as we will be doing a lot of walking about a week from today. Yesterday, I put the Class C back in storage after Bridget lent it out to another member while they were waiting for a repair. They had to replace their entire mini-split system after it stopped working. I think it was only five years old, but A/C units get worked pretty hard around here. Today's high is only forecast to be 82°F. Much better than the mid-to-upper 90s that it has been ever since we arrived back.

I need to order a couple of tubes for the Ural. The tube I found is already flat, and the spare mounted on the sidecar is down 6 psi after only 4 days. It’s hard to find small leaks without a large tub of water.

Saturday - I just happened to get up in time for the early test session, and while I was making coffee, I ended up getting signed up to lead the session. The candidate was on PDT, and I thought that maybe he had signed up for this time slot by accident. But he did call me back in time for the test, and it wasn't an accident. He passed easily. Time to get on with my day…

I started out with a two-mile walk around the park. I figured I needed to take advantage of the 72°F morning. Though it is still humid.

I was the lead for the midday test session as well.

I have been spending some time getting ready for our trib, which begins next week. We are trying to do only carry-on luggage, and that really limits what I'm willing to bring. Just a small-ish roller bag and a backpack. Plus, Bridget picked up some cross-body bags for essentials.

SpaceX & Starlink

2026-09-29T17:25:00.000-08:00

Monday - The two batteries in the Jeep had to be replaced yesterday. The secondary battery is installed under the fuse box and the primary battery. I had to watch a YouTube video to find out how to replace it. After removing the batteries, I put them in the Ural so I could run into town, and discovered that the sidecar tire was flat. Fortunately, a friend here at the park drove me to an auto parts store in Hondo, and they had replacement batteries. They even had the weird secondary battery in stock. That project took all afternoon.

This morning, SpaceX successfully launched Starship for the first time into an actual orbit. It carried 26 Starlink V3 satellites and deployed them once orbit was achieved. They opted to end the mission early for technical reasons.

On another note, I received the Starlink Mini this week. I had changed the service plan of our other Starlink to “Residential 100Mb” for substantial savings. Shortly thereafter, I received an email asking if I wanted a Starlink Mini for a no-cost rental for traveling. It just needed a service attached to it. The current service is the $10/month “Standby” since we are not traveling. I set it up and did the software updates before switching it to “Standby”.

We did not have to purchase this dish, and ownership is retained by Starlink. And note that the pole mount is included.

Tuesday - This morning was a few degrees cooler than it has been, so I fixed the Ural sidecar flat tire. I must’ve driven with the tire flat, as the valve stem was pulled out of the tube. I put on the spare tire and worked with the flat wheel/tire on the back of the rig. I replaced the tube with a patched tube from a previous flat. I hope it holds air… The picture is just the broken valve stem sitting on the Blackstone lid.

By the time this task was done, it was up to 88°F already.

The last recurring task was setting up the JPC-12 antenna for 40m to retrieve my winlink email and get ready to send my check-in message tomorrow.

Uneventful Week

2026-09-25T19:55:00.000-08:00

Wednesday - Another hot, muggy day. After early morning coffee, I started to regenerate the water softener. The last time was in Mount Hood, so it's been a while. Even though it's a simple process, it still takes about 45 minutes, and it seems like it uses a lot of water. I just let the salt water run onto the ground, as running all of that salt into the septic system can't be a good thing.

This afternoon, I made grilled vegetables, and I’ll finish them off with a balsamic glaze. I’ve made this numerous times, and the result varies with the vegetables used. This time: sweet potato, carrots, potatoes, onions, beets, asparagus, yellow squash, green beans, mushrooms, and peppers. Should be good…

Thursday - Big surprise: another hot, muggy day. I filled up the fresh water tank on the Class C, as Bridget lent it out to someone in the park who had a dead A/C.

This afternoon, Bridget needed a ride to the airport as she is escaping from hot, muggy Texas to almost freezing Alaska for the weekend. There was a lot of traffic returning from the airport but it wasn’t as bad as I was dreading.

Friday - I rode the Ural into Hondo this morning. It’s been a while as it is still almost too hot and muggy. The mirrors are nicer as they don’t “auto adjust” like the original ones. But the size of the mirror is smaller.

I picked up the ahi tuna poké bowl at HEB. I’ve had it before and it is delicious. A nice, simple treat. I arrived back in time for the mid-day test session but no candidates.

Hanging Around the Park

2026-09-22T04:08:00.000-08:00

Friday - Today's task was spraying for bugs around the foundation of the shed and anywhere the RV touches the ground. While cleaning things up, I saw this praying mantis in the driveway next to our propane hose. I hope I didn't spray it.

I did move the Class C back to the storage area. And left the inverter on, as the battery should be topped up by the solar every day.

It rained several times today, and it helped drop the temperature but raised the humidity. The RV A/C units actually were able to keep up and maintain the temperature in the mid-70s (°F).

Saturday - There was a test session scheduled for early morning, but the candidate changed their mind. So no session. The morning temperature was a moderate 76°F, but with a relative humidity of 91%, I still didn't feel like sitting outside. I did take a short ½ mile walk around the perimeter of the park when it was only 81°F. Still too hot and muggy.

The mid-day test session was also cancelled due to a lack of candidates. Not unusual.

Monday - Finally, a reasonable temperature. At least at 8 in the morning. I’m sure it’ll be unreasonable later on today. I took the Jeep in for an oil change at the local quick lube shop.

Tuesday - We had a mobile RV wash service come in to wash both RVs. The Class C had 8000 miles of bugs, and the Class A hadn't been washed in over a year. They did a good job. They both look a whole lot better than they did before.

Some Changes

2026-09-16T16:25:00.000-08:00

Tuesday - A friend mentioned that the 100Mbps residential plan was $55. Since we aren’t traveling for several months, it made sense to change our plan to a fixed location. At least for now. I did a speed test, and it looks like the change took place. Earlier, the download was over 200Mbps.

The wind seems to pick up every night so I need to roll up the awning every evening. The awning is really needed during the day to shade the southern side of the RV.

We drove halfway into San Antonio this morning and picked up a few more clothes for the upcoming trip. The goal is carry-on only. We don’t plan on renting any vehicles, so there will be a lot of walking and public transit.

I did spend a little time this afternoon retrieving my Winlink email. I only needed to reassemble the antenna and tune it to the RMS frequency. I used the Lubbock RMS, and the throughput was pretty decent at 300 baud.

Wednesday - Thank you, Michael, for helping get the new A/C unit up on the roof of the class A and lowering the old unit to the ground. After a quick trip to the hardware store for some aluminum tape, I finished the wiring and ductwork enough to get the unit powered up. It's working great. The bedroom is probably 15 degrees cooler than the living room/kitchen.

I sent my Winlink check-in email this morning before coffee at around 4:45am. I used the Las Vegas RMS, as it always seems to be available. Most of the other servers seem to be shut off at night. Since it is connected to the Internet, I can understand why some folks would shut it down at night.

This is the ducted unit, so you can either have it push the cold air through the ceiling ducts or dump straight down. All of the ceiling ducts are connected, so either/both units can push air throughout the entire RV.

Keeping Busy

2026-09-14T12:37:02.299-08:00

Wednesday - I rode the Ural into Hondo this morning just to make sure it was running alright. It actually ran better than "alright". No flat spot at 58 mph, and it accelerated all the way to 70mph. It didn't run this well last June. Maybe the ethanol-free gas?

Last night, I sent out the Winlink Wednesday check-in. All of the local RMS stations were pretty busy, so I used the station in eastern Oregon. During our summer travels, it had become my go-to station because it was centrally located in the PNW. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it worked from here. At ~1,800 miles, it's not very local.

Friday - The Winlink Wednesday website shows approximately where participants are located based on their grid square in the software. On the Windows computer, you need to manually enter your location (grid square) every time you move. If I used the phone with a VHF/UHF RMS, the RadioMail app would use the GPS in the phone to determine your location.

There was a midday test session today. By late morning, it was already in the low 90s (°F) and moderately high humidity. I did get a short walk in before 9, but it still felt hot and muggy if there wasn't any shade. The new A/C unit is on the UPS delivery truck right now, and it should be here by this evening. It is an 85# box that needs to get on the roof. Michael from church offered to come out and give me a hand. But our morning schedules don't match until next Wednesday. You don't want to be on the roof of an RV in the afternoon heat. The air distribution box (the inside piece) arrived a couple of days ago.

This weekend, I'll remove the old distribution box and disconnect all of the wires. The Furion Chill Cubes don't use wall-mounted thermostats and I'll need to figure out how to control the rear furnace. Currently, it is controlled by the rear A/C unit and thermostat.

Monday - I don't seem to post very often anymore. Maybe there isn't much to say or going on. It is still miserably hot, with even the low temperatures rarely venturing very far into the 70s. The class C is very slowly getting unpacked, but with the temperatures and only one functional A/C unit, the class A isn't getting much use during the afternoons and evenings. Dinner may be prepared in the class A, but we sit down for dinner in class C.

I guess this may be the entertaining category. Apple came out with a new version of the operating system for the Mac and it started to install. In the past, this would’ve been a long download and install. But over StarLink, the download was about 15min and on the newer laptop, the installation was under 10 minutes.

This, by the way, is my corner in the shed. I have the JPC-12 antenna in the front “yard” and use it generally on 20m and 40m. I have the coax coming into the building in what originally was a small pvc pipe through the wall. There is a Windows tablet behind the Mac which has a USB connection to the HF radio to both control the radio as well as process audio when using digital modes. I have a small TV that I still need to install for the radio display.

Still Getting Set Up

2026-09-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

Saturday - We found a few issues with the class A upon returning. The rear A/C no longer puts out cold air. I ordered a Furion Chill Cube with heat pump to replace the Dometic unit but it won’t be here for a week. The class A will struggle with the heat.

We had a similar issue back in May and it was a failed thermal overload. I had an extra one and tried replacing it but it didn’t resolve the issue.

Tuesday - It’s another hot day with today’s high predicted to be 97°F! Being Tuesday, I set up the JPC-12 in the front yard for the Winlink Wednesday check-in. It’s a very easy setup since I have an antenna cable passthru in the wall.

I tried starting the Ural. Put the petcock to the prime position, waited a couple of seconds and it fired up after only a couple of revolutions. And idled great. I’ll credit it to the ethanol free gas I filled the tank with back in June.

Now to get it on the road…

That, BTW, is my new helmet that I picked up in Salem, OR, during our summer travels.

Arriving back to Hondo

2026-09-05T09:05:30.515-08:00

Friday - A modest travel through Texas. It’s not as hot as it has been the last couple of days but at 94°F, it’s still hot. The generator will, again, be running most of the day. Besides he A/C, it is also powering both refrigerators and the converter to charge the AGM battery. Even though the A/C will run off of the batteries, the refrigerator will need to be switched to propane. We prefer to have the propane shut off while traveling just for safety.

The Garmin always tries to route us through San Antonio so we have Google Maps running as well. Eventually, the Garmin will start matching Google but not until we turn south at Kerrville. The San Antonio route is longer but maybe Garmin doesn’t like secondary roads.

Wichita Falls, TX

2026-09-04T04:28:09.138-08:00

Thursday - A long travel day from Kansas to Texas. About 470 miles and over eight hours. We arrived with the temperature at 100°F. The roof A/C was running all day long with the generator except for gas stops. But we finally made it into Texas.

The RV park is fine though the showers seemed old. The pool closed at 8 pm, which I didn’t learn until 7:55 pm. Oh well.

Our next travel day is about 100 miles shorter and ends in Hondo. I’m not sure of the state of the class A as the Internet stopped working a while back so I haven’t been able to log into HomeAssistant. This is the second time the AT&T hotspot has quit in the middle of the summer.

Minneapolis, KS

2026-09-02T16:14:59.456-08:00

Wednesday - It’s a hot one today. A 428 mile travel day to Minneapolis, KS. A small town that doesn’t seem to resemble the more well known version. But it’s nice enough for an overnight stop. Power for the A/C is all we really need. And it is only $15 at this city campground.

Tomorrow is another long-ish travel day to Wichita Falls, TX. It’s just across the border with Oklahoma. We had a head wind for most of today’s drive which drove up gas consumption. The class C did fine. I checked the oil level this morning and it was still full after about 2,300 miles. I can’t complain about that. The generator was run since about noon to run the roof A/C on high. The dash A/C sort of worked but it seemed to have difficulty with the triple digit temperatures. But when it was running good, the outlet air temperature was 49°F.

Dinner is pulled pork! Thank you Annie and Kevin.

Sioux Falls, SD

2026-08-31T16:36:00.000-08:00

Friday - We saw a couple of bighorn sheep, or that’s what I think they are, just across the street from where we were parked last night.

Another travel day today. Around 300 miles to a state park north of Sioux Falls, SD. Also by the way, we stopped at a welcome center/restaurant area. There was a fabulous statue called Dignity with the Missouri River in the background.

We are staying at the Big Sioux Recreation Area in an electric only campsite. Water and a dump station are available. We needed to purchase the annual state park pass for South Dakota to stay here. The sites are large and, so far, very quiet.

Most of our stay in Sioux Falls was spent looking at condos.

Monday - Wednesday drove an hour west to Mitchell, SD, to see the corn palace. The murals decorating the building are made from ears of corn and the current murals are commemorating the 250th anniversary.

This is just one of many murals. They are redone every year and are different. I remember stopping here in the past but don’t remember when. Maybe back in the 90s.