Travels With Miranda

I just renewed for a third night here at Dakota Magic. If I really just wasn’t in the mood to drive, I would have gone anyway because I know that that’s just an excuse for not wanting to face the border crossing.

But I’m being really productive and making good use of my FHU, so I can justify another night. This morning, I defrosted the freezer and washed it and the fridge, then made an inventory of the food on board. I found bacon! It will be demolished shortly when I go make lunch.

It looks like it might rain, but if it doesn’t, the next project is the cab.

Besides that, I need to put away yesterday’s laundry (almost dry, YAY), wash out Neelix’s litter box, and then I’ll be good to go. There’s really nothing to do now to prepare for the border besides making sure I don’t have any illegal food on board, have a full alcohol inventory (one Texas beer that I am saving for the first crazy hot summer day), and that I know how much I need to declare.

I hope internet in Saskatchewan will be decent (although I will settle for existent). I get a very low signal in North Dakota, so I keep getting disconnected. I might not have found the connection in San Antonio to be so bad had I remembered my online experience in North Dakota last spring.

Since leaving the beach, I had problems with my fridge set to the AC (shore/120V power), both on 30A at an RV park and 15A in a driveway.

I was really short on propane in Shawnee and was growing weary of just how quickly I go through the gas when the fridge is running off it, so I decided it was time to do something about it.

I started by going back over some of my electrical posts from the beach because I had a niggle at the back of my mind. And then I found my post about the salt water corrosion on my battery terminals.

Doh. I went out and cleaned the fridge terminals and connections with a scrubbie pad and an eraser, then turned the fridge on to shore power. No problem in Shawnee on 30A. And no problem in Wichita on 15A. My fridge is also running colder on a lower setting than it was before.

Salt water is evil!

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!