Cats in an RV

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Sun! Blue Sky! Amps Coming In!

The day started off really crappy, but the weather couldn’t be any better now! I’ve gained 16AH today and am still getting a good charge, so I will be ahead tonight.

I emailed AM Solar to ask them why my solar control monitor claims that I have a full charge when I know for sure that I do not. I was worried that the batteries would stop charging, but the battery monitor still sees the full amperage going back in, so I probably have a reporting glitch the same way I do with the volts on the battery monitor.

L and I went into town this afternoon to get shrimp for a traditional shrimp boil tonight. Mmmmm… sun, shrimp, beer, and ocean. This is the life!

We also detoured to the H.E.B. grocery store so I could check out their cat food selection since the Walmart didn’t carry Whiskas (!). Thankfully, I found my brood’s favoured food, and in the giant economical size to boot. What I bought them on Monday to tide us over hasn’t sat well with them at all and they were very happy when I opened that bad when I got home!

Finally, L took me to the post office so I could get my general delivery mail. Gina, your package hadn’t arrived yet. 🙁

It sure is nice to have someone else do the driving (and expend the fuel!). 🙂

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A Bang In the Night

Around 2:30 a.m., a loud bang that shook the rig thrust me out of deep sleep. WTF?! I then noticed that the awful winds had returned. I clambered out of the loft to investigate, the noise having been way too loud to ignore.

I stumbled into the kitchen, found a light, and the sight that greeted me was so unexpected that it took a moment for my sleep addled brain to grasp it. My front door had blown open and I had belongings strewn down the stairwell onto the beach. Outside, the winds of Hades whipped about and icy pellets of rain were falling loudly.

After Tabitha’s great escape, I make checking the door the last part of my evening routine. Had I done that before bed? I was so out of my senses that I couldn’t even remember. I picked up everything and tried to close the door. It wouldn’t catch. I tried again.

After a few attempts, I noticed that the deadbolt was on and that it wouldn’t turn off from inside. I tried with a key and succeeded. I still couldn’t close the door. Holy moly, the door had opened so violently that the secondary lock, that I never use, had activated! Where was a key for it? Oh, right.

I grabbed a spare set of keys that had the secondary lock key on it and fumbled to get the dang thing functional. The wind was blowing so hard that I knew I had no hope of getting the door properly shut from inside. I forced it shut from outside and reentered through the cab.

By this time, I was slightly more awake and I realised I had to do a headcount. Tabitha was cowering in the study. Neelix was AWOL.

I went back out into the maelstrom with a flashlight, calling his name quietly, knowing that the sound of my voice wouldn’t carry to the neighbours over the roar of the wind. I started by checking under Miranda and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tail go by.

It was impossible to track the passage of time, but it didn’t seem to take that long to coax him out from under Miranda to under Moya to him finally letting me grab him. But once we were inside and I checked the time, more than an hour had passed since the big bang.

The night that followed was interminable. The cats were jittery. I managed to stab myself in the chin with a nail and had to get back out of bed to find paper towels to stop the bleeding. My dreams were incredibly vivid.

At 7:00, I got up to put the computer on charge in the truck and then decided to try to get another couple hours of sleep. After an hour and a half, I gave up.

The winds are still roaring, but there is quite a bit of blue sky and sun this morning. Perhaps I should give that goat to the wind gods?

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I Don’t Miss that Wind!

Today was a tad chilly, but the wind FINALLY died down to a light breeze! I haven’t done much beyond solve the charging mystery as I had a few projects on my plate.

Mid-afternoon, I checked my voltage while charging the computer (I’ve been doing this long enough already to know that a voltage drop to no less than 12.4V is good and sustainable).

So imagine my SHOCK at this reading!

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I didn’t even know batteries could register that low!

Oh, wait. I’m a moron. Those are the amps coming in. The voltage has actually dropped to this:

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Very well, carry on.

Unrelated, I think you could file this one under C for contentment:

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Rae au pays de l’or noir

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Today’s drive was tricky to plan and I spent hours yesterday with Google Maps, my Texas Shunpiker Guide, and my GPS to find the best route. Both Google Maps and my Garmin wanted to route me straight through Houston while the Shunpiker Guide wanted to send me through Galveston. I finally came up with a route that looked pretty good and planned to solidify it once I got my hands on another Texas road map (having lost mine to a cat and coffee collision).

It was foggy when I woke up at 6:30 this morning and visibility was still poor at 7:20 when I had had my coffee and toast and was packed. I decided to hang out for a bit longer until the visitor centre opened at 8:00 so I could get the map and confirm my route. I entered the coordinates for my destination into the GPS but knew I’d be mostly on my own for this drive.

That done, I set off on I-10 westbound, stopping a few miles away at a Conoco pretending to be a Flying J. I missed the first entrance, which wound up being good as entering through the next entrance allowed me an easy exit out of the first and a much easier return to I-10.

From I-10, I took exit 798 and meandered my way down to route 35 by way of route 146. I checked the GPS a couple of times and it finally came up with a route that resembled mine, but with a few more twists.

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The Fred Hartman Bridge was very impressive!

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The first part of my day was in a world of oil refineries, hence the title of this post.

When I started to run out of road, I finally listened to my GPS and turned into… Pasadena.

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I was on Nasa Road and everything was space themed, so I figured I was near the space centre. Yup, I drove right past it! Note to self: you haven’t seen Apollo 13 in a long while.

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At some point, I passed a relic of olden days:

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Entering Bay City, I was overdue for a break, but I had been holding out for a real grocery store, passing only little food stores. So I was quite glad to pass a Walmart, where I was able to stock up on fresh fruits, veggies, meat, and beer before landing at my somewhat remote destination, saving me from having to go out tomorrow.

Port Lavaca was soon upon me:

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Today’s drive was difficult. The roads were in poor shape and I was mostly passing through towns so there was a lot of stopping and going. I really felt the toad today, my gas mileage was the pits, and I could feel both the engine and brakes working hard. It would have probably been easy to just bite the bullet and go through Houston on I-10, but I don’t regret my choice.

Just one damper on the day: I have a nice big crack in my brand new windshield. 🙁 I don’t think a glass place will be willing to fill it. Since it’s well out of my view range, I’m going to get a DIY kit and try to fill it myself before it gets worse.

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Enjoying My Stay At Bayou Segnette State Park

Bayou Segnette State Park really is a jewel of a place to park your RV in the greater New Orleans area. I mean, you get to stay out in the boondocks for $18 a night (off season) and are just 10 minutes from all the services and 40 minutes (including a ferry ride) to touristy New Orleans! And if you don’t have a washing machine, the FREE laundry facilities really offset the cost of the nightly stay!

The state park entrance is located off of a busy express way. You then have a couple of miles to go to get to the RV park area. The area is swampy, so I imagine it gets quite buggy in the summertime!

There isn’t much to the RV park itself, a couple of loops to walk around, plus bathrooms, FREE laundry facilities, and a dump station. All sites are back in and have 20A/30A/50A connections and water. Some sites are ‘doubles’ whereby two rigs have to share a slightly wider pad.

The park is verdant and lovely.

There's a boardwalk leading from the bathrooms/laundry through the swamp to the other side of the loop.

There’s a boardwalk leading from the bathrooms/laundry through the swamp to the other side of the loop.

It was a humid and pleasant stroll!

It was a humid and pleasant stroll!

There is lots and lots and lots of stagnant water in the park.

There is lots and lots and lots of stagnant water in the park.

The boardwalk ends on the other side of the loop.

The boardwalk ends on the other side of the loop.

Coming back, Neelix was watching for me in the rear window.

Coming back, Neelix was watching for me in the rear window.

I am parked in a double. If my site is reserved for one rig, I can't figure out why the other folks can't park beside me.

I am parked in a double. If my site is reserved for one rig, I can’t figure out why the other folks can’t park beside me.

The park is very lush and verdant.

The park is very lush and verdant.

I would not walk off the roads and boardwalk here!

I would not walk off the roads and boardwalk here!

Two things have marred my stay. My first two mornings here, I was awoken before 8AM by lawn care services. Staff was utterly unapologetic, saying that lawn care has to be done and since it might have rained later in the day, it had to be done early. I really don’t see what makes leaf blowing so urgent that you need to wake your guests at oh-dark-thirty.

The second is that when I came in, I asked for five nights with the possibility to renew for more nights. I was told the park was full and that I would have to take a double site with no neighbour at the time. But the site was only renewable for one more night beyond the five and they could not promise there would be space for me for a sixth night.

Well, the park has been mostly empty. I checked online and there is tons of availability in the next few weeks. In fact, I don’t see any reason that I couldn’t have been given a site with open ended availability.

This is a good example of why people who don’t RV shouldn’t manage RV parks and set policies. The girl at the counter can’t understand why I am put upon to move a few sites down on Thursday. Packing and moving an RV represents a couple of hours of work! If I had other options in the area, I would move elsewhere. But since I don’t, I will move should my package not be here on Thursday and I need to stay on.