Wheel Chocks for the Roo

I decided to splurge and get some better wheel chocks for our Rockwood Roo. One challenge,
the Roo has the axles very close together. I stopped at CW to look at my options (I
need some other small items anyway) and decide get the BAL
Deluxe Locking Chock. It is very nice except that it needs 2.5 inches of clearance...
I knew that it was going to be close... but not that close. I will need to stop by
CW and return it this week since it does not fit.

It should have looked like the picture below except that the picture below has axles
that are 6"+ apart.

I am also considering the Rotochock...
but it is a little more than I really want to spend.

Or maybe I will go the cheap skate route and do
something like this:

RV's in the winter (I thought it was spring)

So, it is April 26th in central Minnesota. Last weekend I brought out Rockwood Roo
23B from from storage. Since spring had arrived and it had been above freezing for
a couple weeks I thought it was time to un-winterize the trailer. I blew out the antifreeze
and then filled the water tank with fresh water and took care of all of the waterlines.

Well this morning it is below freezing with a mild blizzard outside. (It is really
white with blowing snow... some parts of the state not to far aware are under a blizzard
warning.)

Ok... I will start up the electric heater (since the trailer is plugged into shore
power) and drain the water lines. Easier said that done. All of the rain yesterday
iced up the door locks. So I went and found my small propane torch and warmed up the
locks so that I could get the key in. 45 minutes later all of the waterlines and the
water heater are drained and blown out with compressed air. I have a small portable
electric heater running in the camper to keep it about freezing since there still
might be a little water trapped in the lines.

I almost went camping last weekend.... this weekend I need to shovel snow. At least
the snow should be gone by Tuesday with some luck. Now it is time to get back to my
scheduled projects for Saturday that don't involve snow or ice.

Spring Snow

It is April 26, 2008..... we just got a couple of inches of snow overnight. What the heck is that all about?  We had three days of 70'ish weather just a couple of days ago.

Robot Battle for kids

http://www.midwestroboticsleague.org/

Here is a robot battle league geared for high school aged kids. I think that we will
probably go watch on Sunday.

Initial Canon XSi photos and thoughts

I took a few quick photos with the new Canon XSi this afternoon and evening. The initial photos were nothing impressive from a subject point of few.... but the technical image quality was incredible. Moving from an 8 megapixel to a 12 megapixel camera with a newer processor is a huge improvement in the image quality.



I am looking forward to getting into the field for some landscapes and/or lightning
photos. I am really excited about the image quality so far so I want to get some better
examples that stretch the camera a bit.

Lightning strikes

Take a look at all of the lightning strikes just a few miles east of me. It is making
for a nice show while we are cooking dinner and listening to NPR.

The image was lifted from here.

http://www.thebakken.org/electricity/lightning/detector.htm

Spring has finally arrived

We have a little storm headed our way. You know spring has arrived when you need to
disconnect the coax from the patch panel because you are worried about lightning.
Since I live at the top of a hill, in the country, with no large trees, and my radio
towers are the tallest structure around... I disconnect the feed lines from the patch
panel.

The life of an Amateur Radio operator living in Meeker Co, MN.

Seisco SH14 water heater

I have been trying to get warranty parts shipped since 4/11 without success.

• 
  I originally called 5 times on Friday 4/11 before I got a hold of anyone. I was told
  that the parts should be here on Wednesday or Thursday.
  
  


• 
  I got another call from the service department on 4/14. They were confused and did
  not realize that they had already serviced my call. We discovered that they had not
  shipped out the order. They said that they would eat the cost and ship the parts 2
  day to get them to me by Wednesday.
  
  


• 
  I called them back on Friday 4/18 because the parts had still not arrived. They got
  lost in FedEx shipping in my zip code. They said that they would ship them overnight
  with Saturday delivery. The parts arrived around 1pm on Saturday.
  
  


• 
  Sunday morning I crack open the shipping box so that I can start the project. Lucky
  me... they did not ship all of the parts. I need the main circuit board and the temp
  sensors... they did not ship the temp sensors. I called them and left VM again asking
  for someone to contact me to ship me the right parts.

They must be a small mom & pop shop. 10 days from the original call and I still
don't have the right parts for the project. This tankless water heater is NOT that
complex. A couple of big 240vac relays, some temp sensors, a pot for adjusting the
temp, a couple of elements, and the whole thing is being driven by a simple MCU like
a PIC. (The chip is covered with a label so I can't get the exact model... but it
sure looks like a PIC.)

They are really nice people... but I just need the
proper parts to be sent out ASAP.

The 2008 camping/RV season is near

I stopped by my friend's house where our 23'
Rockwood Roo was in winter storage. After a couple of minutes of hook-up
tasks the Roo was on it's way home for the 2008 season.



The trailer seems heavier than I remember as I rolled through the hills of Meeker
county. I think that I am sensitive to the big trailer and my old Tahoe. The Roo
is more than twice the weight of our previous pop-up camper. My Tahoe has
a little over 100,000 miles on it so I am little sensitive... I hear every pop, squeak,
ping, and knock. I probably won't feel better until I have a newer tow vehicle. In
all reality the Tahoe is probably just fine.

The trailer is now parked at our house. The battery has been reconnected and
the shore power is plugged in. If time permits on Sunday I hope drain the anti-freeze
from the water lines. I hope to do some modifications to the cabinets and shelves
this season to increase the amount of usable storage that we have available to us.



So far we have reservations for 4 trips in May and June. The 2008 season will probably
have a lot of weekend trips compared to previous seasons but most of them will be
two and three day weekends. Cristy and I have very different vacation plans through
our employers and this this year they do not sync up very well.



I doubt there will be any week long trips this year. (In 2007 we had two.)

It could be be interesting year based upon the current gas prices. I have noticed
that Minnesota
state parks seem like they are booked with reservations much earlier than normal.
I suspect the economic recession is keeping people closer to home this year instead
of the more expensive trips cross-country.

I would like to try to go out for a weekend in about two weeks someplace relatively
close by like Sibley or Glacial
Lakes. A shake down trip is always a good thing. Typically there are some
small items that we are missing or need to take care of and a simple trip is good
for that. --I am also a little more cautious with the bigger trailer.

Camera Raw - argghhhh

My new camera has a new RAW format... go figure. It looks like I will need to
purchase a Photoshop or Photoshop Elements upgrade before I can use the Canon XSi
with Adobe Camera Raw.




Another forced upgrade to put more money in someone's pocket.

This upsets me enough that I am ready to think about boycotting Adobe products and
going someplace else. Adobe is trying to corner the market on their niche offerings.

I am already planning to leave Microsoft Windows to move to the Mac and
Linux. I need to find a good open source solution to leave Adobe behind as well. --I
sure sounds like an angry person in this post.