Travels With Miranda

Ah, FHU! They are wonderful. They mean I can keep my fresh water tank filled, use my hot water heater, and take showers at home! I should be a content RVer this week.

Well, except that the hot water has been tepid at best. I’ve still had to heat water on the stove to do dishes. Dang, why can’t things work?! I’ve already replaced the circuit board on my water heater. What more does it want?!

I was very warm last night, so I decided that a tepid shower at home would suit me just fine. I went to turn on the water only to discover that both knobs were fully open.

Yup, I did what so many people warned me about, ‘turned off’ my shower using the cut off in my new shower head rather than using the knobs! This meant the hot water was getting sent to the wrong location!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with my water heater and I am going to look for a waterproof, “Hey, idiot! I know you had a nice massage, but have you REALLY turned off the water?!” sign for my shower door.

Last night, I managed to blow the breaker in the house. I was barely using any power. I had tested the outlet prior to plugging in and knew Ms. Cinnamon never had any trouble with it when her rig was plugged in.

All I had done was switch the fridge to AC. So it looks like my fridge woes while on FHU at Hidden Valley were not a one-time thing. My fridge is no longer happy about running on AC.

I’m so tired of troubleshooting that I’m tempted to just ignore this problem. But if I’m having trouble on AC, trouble on propane is sure to follow…. I’ll wait until I have easy access to the a breaker before I start doing a bunch of tests. I did pull out my manual and none of the troubleshooting tips look too promising. I’m seeing a lot of ‘not user serviceable’ mentions…

Croft emailed this morning to ask if I wanted to join them for breakfast before going to Camping World. He had Googled best breakfast in San Antonio, or something along those lines, and got the Magnolia Pancake Haus. It was out in the middle of seemingly nowhere and half of San Antonio was waiting for a table. We had to wait just over an hour to be seated!

Norma went to the spa next door to try to get her eyebrows done, but others had had the same idea and that place was packed, too!

We ended up sitting outside and chatted with the other people waiting. Everyone said that we were lucky to have found the restaurant and that it would totally be worth the wait.

When we finally got a seat, I was pleased that it wasn’t in a super crowded and boisterous dining room. We started off with absolutely delicious coffee, which is always a good sign at a breakfast joint.

Since this was a German restaurant, I made sure to try their sausage, and wasn’t disappointed! My ‘short stack’ of pancakes was light and fluffy. Yum!

Norma had the bananas foster French toast, which ended up being dense slices of banana bread served French toast-style with strawberries and black berries. I had a bite and it was really good! The portion was ridiculous, though, so she brought a lot home. She also enjoyed her two poached eggs on the side.

Croft ordered the specialty, which I will not attempt to spell. It’s a thin pancake stuffed with apples and spices. Really good too (yes, I sampled some of his also!), but there’s no way I could have eaten all that. I’ve really cut back on how much sugar I eat and one bite was more than enough for me.

If you’re into breakfast food, you really need to try Magnolia Pancake Haus in San Antonio!

We headed to the Camping World after. It’s in New Braunfels, north of San Antonio. I have been looking for knobs for my Atwood stove for years and keep striking out. This parts guy was at least able to get me a SKU # for Camping World so I can try to find some at another store along my route. Every other Camping World I’ve stopped at I’ve been told that they don’t have those knobs and good luck finding them.

With breakfast taking so long, we only just got in, at 4PM! I don’t think any of us are going to be eating tonight!

I’m paid up here at the RV park up to and including tonight. I’m pulling out late morning and am expected in Dallas dinnertimeish.

I’ve enjoyed my stay in San Antonio except for one irksome detail that never ceases to surprise me: the internet connection SUCKS. I’ve got full bars on my phone and I have slower than dial up internet! This is surprising considering how close I am to a major city. I had high speed internet on the beach! The other night, I had to download a 200MB file and ended up having to try four McDonalds and a Starbucks in between them to find a connection stable enough to let me download the file, and it still took two hours! I’m trying to do some research right now and sites keep timing out. I am really tired of losing so much time because of a crappy internet connection. Hopefully Dallas will be better!

I spent the afternoon with Croft and Norma catching up on everything that doesn’t get discussed on our blogs. They might be staying a second night. If so, we are going on a field trip to Camping World tomorrow.

I can’t help but marvel at the magic of this nomadic life that makes it such that you not only never know when you will next see friends, but also where you will meet again. It is a very long way from Campbell River to San Antonio, and I don’t just mean in terms of distance.

Norma wanted a Cracker Barrel dinner to celebrate their 44th wedding anniversary (wow!), so I was invited to come along (thank you!). I had the sugar cured ham for the first time (YUM) and took home a lemonade (not overly sweet and made with real lemons, a real treat!).

We had sun this afternoon again (YAY) so I made sure to unplug everything before heading over to Croft and Norma’s. I did that yesterday before going on my walk and came in almost 30AH up. I left at about 58AH down today and came home to a FULL reading. I would be frustrated with my badly working monitor if reader airmon hadn’t posted an explanation for that bizarre phenomenon. Instead, I am doing a happy dance!

Wow, I really didn’t expect the mail to get here this week. I’m a little thrown off my kilter right now.

I’m too busy to leave tomorrow, so I’ll definitely be renewing to Friday noonish. I need to call Teri to see if she can set up that guided walk she suggested in a comment.

With the days being as long as they are now, I could easily leave mid-day and arrive in Dallas with daylight to spare. Google Maps puts the trip at being 4.25 hours. I think I could do it within 6, depending on traffic. It’s 288mi (464KM), so it’s definitely doable in one shot.

We just got tons more rain here, but Teri had nothing to say about the weather when she dropped off mail, so now that the sky is FINALLY clearing, I can relax about having to move to higher ground.

I’m down almost 60AH now, the lowest I have ever gone since getting the battery monitor calibrated. Knowing that I’ll have power in Dallas, I’m not concerned. Plus, I’ll get some charge in on the drive there.