I can’t remember what I have said, written, video’d in my past posts /vlogs and so some of this may be a repeat. But that’s why there is trouble in paradise.  Is this a sign of an old man and his developing dementia?  I don’t think so, I think its more that I have too many things on my brain.  The Aliner Rally and the wedding are behind us.  The last of the Videos are still being edited and posted.  It really does take about 4 days to get everything cut to size, ordered to make sense, and then edited up to a nice (usually) 15-30minute video that might actually say something.

Since the wedding I have been working around the house (not very interesting for a video).  I have a full size dump truck load  pile of dirt in my side yard that I need to carry around to other parts of the property where dirt is missing.  Specifically the front of the house where my border plantings are trying to survive and the rain is trying to get into my basement.  In the current heat situation, (95 deg days) I can work on the pile about an hour a day.  Either throwing the dirt to an area next to the pile that needs filling in, or filling buckets and pulling them in my garden wagon to the front of the house.  Currently I have an agreement with the weather gods that I will place the dirt and they will level it out and pack it down.  But I think they have gone to the northeast for the month.  My Personal Weather Station  (At my House and on the Weather Underground) indicates we have only had 1.24 inches of rain this month.  Not good for spreading dirt, or growing grass.  So the dirt pile dwindles slowly. It may still be there next summer!

As you may have heard, my son, who doesn’t seem to understand you can do too much, got married, changed to a new job in a new state, and bought a huge monster house for way more than houses should sell for.  It is 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms (1 half bath), 3 sun rooms, and a large treed back yard. It was owned by an older couple who died a few years apart and the remaining person let it go a bit.  All the faucets and water fixtures leak (We got that mostly fixed).  The shrubbery was way over grown (Akela and I took care of that).  Appliances needed to be purchased and installed(I Helped with that).  And the 300 windows will need attention someday. Along with this huge deck that goes all along the back and then continues upstairs and hasn’t been treated in at least 10 years.  So we spent a small amount of time, along with his new in-laws, helping get things done and straightened out.  I’m semi-local and have tons of tools and a good knowledge of plumbing and electrical. His in-laws are in NY, but were nice enough to fly down to help with the packing, moving, and unpacking.

And the last thing on my mind is my poor Wolf Pup (camper).  You might know it had a little incursion with a tractor trailer on the way north for the wedding.  From what I have figured out, while climbing the windy Appalachian mtns on I-77,  I was passing trucks that were going 40mph while I could still get up to 50mph.  With the wind and the grooved road, we were all swerving a bit. Nothing really seemed to happen while driving, I didn’t hear any smashing or crashing.  Anyway, when I got to camp and saw the damage,  I figured the mirror on a truck must have swerved over and scraped my Awning.  This collapsed the thin aluminum tube the awning rolls up on and ripped through the awning material.  Originally it looked like some animal had clawed it as the rips were 3 long rips through 3 layers of awning cloth. So now I am waiting for a new tube to come from E-trailer($350) which is estimated to be delivered around July 18th. In the mean time the trailer is in dry dock as the roller tube and awning hold the awning arms in against the trailer side.  With no awning cloth or roller they spring out about 9ft from the side of the trailer.  Currently I have them tied up but I don’t want to go for a drive like that.

So while the Wolf Pup is waiting for parts, we are working on it. We did a cleanup of the inside, and some hosing and soaping the outside. We are doing the usual inspections and repairs (Tires, Bearings, roof, windows, paint, propane, A/C, and solar). We did notice while in the campground that had no hookups, the same time we noticed the awning damage, our solar wasn’t working. I do carry a collapsible ladder in the trailer.  So we climbed up on the roof and figured out what was wrong.  One of the panels is not reliably producing. Since they are set up in a serial format, that meant the entire array can not get any power down to the controller and battery. So we had to change them to running parallel, which isn’t quite as good for collecting early morning power.

We did call Renogy Solar and discussed it with them. They were really helpful with support and are going to send me a new panel.  I think the issue is the wire connection at the panel is poor, as voltage from the panel seems to come and go. I really like my mounting system as I have been able to take the panel down and test it on the ground and re-mount it and even just half mount it and lift it up in the air while testing it.  Its a great mounting system. So we are waiting on that part replacement also.

The other semi-minor thing is, that as I traveled up to the wedding my bank called me and asked if I had purchased some items for $1000 and sent them to some strange address.  I had not!  And so they locked up my credit card and declined the strange charges. But then my best credit card was no longer any good.  I do carry an extra and a debit card in addition, but I don’t like using them as that is directly emptying my bank account. So I had them send my new card to my son in Syracuse and I had it in 3 days. So not too much trouble, except now I have a dead card to pay this month, a new card to pay this month, and a debit card that sucked my account dry. So money is a little screwed up.

Oh, and talking about money, Google (YouTube) sent me a email saying they were “adjusting my YouTube earnings” because I had invalid activity on my channel.  They describe this as “someone running playlists non-stop for an extended time, using a advertising click bot to click advertising while watching videos,  Running more than one video on the same computer to increase view rates”, and a few more I don’t remember. Anyway, they are reducing my payout by roughly $43 for the month.  They say they do this every month and their system looks for invalid activity all the time and since this is my first experience, there is nothing I need to do except stop it.   So if anyone it doing those things, please stop!!  I really don’t need the help with my view counts and stuff.  I just enjoy travel and the YouTube videos force me to plan fun travel!

And Lastly, I am pretty much stalled out on fixing up the Aliner. It is just so hot and it is not a top priority.  So it sits on the trailer pad and waits patiently!  Its a good little trailer.  Akela likes to lie under it when waiting for me to come out and play.  I almost took it out camping, but it is pretty empty inside. The National Aliner Rally is in Branson MO next May.  Maybe I will clean it up and take it there! 

So many other things to do, I want to update the Map on the website here.  I have not entered the new campgrounds and places in over a year.  With the amount of travel I do that adds up pretty fast with a pile of work.  So I want to do that while hiding away in the A/C at home!  It’s this little fuzzy thing that insists on going for walks or throwing the ball that keeps that from getting done.  He is working on a video.  We’ll have to try to et that out before we go to Michigan.

Anyway, I do seem to be able to blabber for a long time!  Dang, this was supposed to be a short note!  Anyway, we are spending a lot of time planning Next January-March out west.  Hopefully in decent weather.  If you have any ideas where we should go, drop me a comment or an Email. 

We better get to bed, it’s really getting late.  Or there will be more trouble in paradise.  Stay Safe Everyone!  Keep smiling, and get camping ! 

Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast