Month: February 2023

Replaced more recessed lights

Back in November 2021 I replaced some malfunctioning recessed LED lights in the kitchen / galley of our coach.

The half bath also had three lights that weren’t working properly, either very dim or flashing. We have a couple of motion-activated lights in there, and generally don’t use the ceiling lights, so it hasn’t been a high priority. But I finally got around to fixing them.

Here’s one of the old lights, with the cover removed:

Old light

A replacement light:

New light

I replaced the first of the three lights with wire nuts, as I had for the previous replacements, but for the second I thought I’d try heat shrink wire connectors, since that is what Tiffin used throughout the coach:

Heat shrink wire connectors

I got a hot air gun to use with those:

Heat gun

The replaced light, using those connectors, before heat shrinking:

Replaced light

Done:

Replaced light

The third light was trickier. The wires were very short; too short to use those connectors:

Short wires

But I came across a cunning technique: putting a wire cap in the end of a drill, to get more reach and leverage in twisting them on:

Wire cap in drill

It wasn’t easy, but I got them connected using that technique:

Wires connected

The replaced light mounted:

Replaced light

And with the cover on:

Replaced lights

All three replaced lights (the ones that are off didn’t need repairing; only the three vanity lights):

Replaced lights

I’m glad to have that repair finally done.

Space Center Houston

A rare excursion in our winter of downtime: while staying at Lake Conroe, we drive 1.5 hours south to Houston to visit the Space Center there.

It was a rainy day up north, but I knew it was dry south of Houston:

Rain

Houston:

Houston

Minute Maid Park:

Minute Maid Park

Houston

A space suit outside a McDonald’s near the Space Center:

McDonald's space suit

Space Center Houston:

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

SpaceX Falcon 9:

SpaceX Falcon 9

Space Shuttle Independence atop a jumbo:

Space Shuttle

Space Center Houston:

Space Center Houston

We had lunch at the Food Lab food court:

Food Lab

Food Lab

Food Lab

Exhibits:

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

Space Center Houston

The Shuttle on a jumbo; the Shuttle is a replica, but the plane is one of two used to transport the Shuttles:

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Exhibits in the plane:

Exhibits in plane

Exhibits in plane

Exhibits in plane

We had wanted to do one of the guided tram tours of the space center, but their reservation system was being dodgy, so we weren’t able to do so, which was a little disappointing:

Tours

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Inside the replica shuttle:

Inside shuttle

Inside shuttle

Inside shuttle

Inside shuttle

Inside shuttle

Inside shuttle

Inside shuttle

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Shuttle on plane

Space Center Houston

Gift store:

Gift store

Selfie:

Selfie

Space Center Houston

A few more pics of downtown Houston on the way home:

Houston

Houston

Houston

Houston

Houston

Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort in Willis, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Another large Thousand Trails campground, also with a nice new area.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2023-01-22
  • Check out: 2023-02-03
  • 12 nights
  • We were going to stay 10 nights, but extended it to avoid bad weather

Weather:

  • Some sunny days, a little drizzle, several days of thunderstorms
  • High temps ranging between 52-69°F, lows around 33-57°F
  • Some wind, up to 30 MPH gusts

Noise:

  • No road noise or train noise
  • A bunch of neighbor kids

Site:

  • #B18, pull-through, concrete
  • Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked beind coach
  • Fairly level
  • Medium site: about 75 feet long by about 40 feet wide
  • Picnic table
  • Fire pit
  • Cement patio
  • Grass

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 55 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Loose sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Starlink: 0.5-6 Mbps down, 0.5-3 Mbps up, 50 ms ping (through modem; much faster directly)
  • AT&T: 15-25 Mbps down, 17 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
  • Verizon: 22-26 Mbps down, 16 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
  • T-Mobile: 2-9 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpster
  • Pool
  • Package delivery to office for $5 each

Our review on Campground Reviews:

New premium sites

They seem to have a focus on selling vacation homes here, but they’re still making an effort to add nicer amenities for camping, too. We stayed in one of the newer sections with concrete pads and 50A connections, which was nice. Some of the sites in section B were a bit steep for a larger class A and we watched more than one large 5th-wheel have a hard time backing up a driveway. Our pull-through site had a short driveway with a hill, but the pad itself was perfectly level. We camped at Lake Conroe RV & Camping Resort in a Motorhome.

An interactive map of the RV park; our site was in the new section to the right of the entrance:

The campground map:

Campground map

Our site was in a new section, with nicely paved roads and concrete sites; we managed to snag one of the best sites, a large pull-through:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Convenient water and power:

Utilities

The sewer connection was threaded, but the thread seemed stripped, so I wasn’t able to screw my sewer pipe into it. So I added a water-filled weight over the top to make sure it didn’t pop out. Spilling sewage wouldn’t be ideal:

Utilities

We used the griddle a few times:

Griddle

Sunset:

Sunset

A griddle kiwiburger (with pickled beets and egg):

Burger

There were several days of thunderstorms; here’s a screenshot from my weather app:

Thunderstorms

A couple of screenshots of the LightningMaps.org site, which shows recent lightning strikes, with circles for the thunder sound wavefronts:

Lightning map

Lightning map

A real-time GIF:

Lightning GIF

Rain:

Rain

A somewhat flooded road:

Flooded road

A fiver (fifth-wheel trailer) being backed into a site, almost scraping the rear and jacks — the sites have steep driveways:

Fiver almost scraping

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

In other sections:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

New sites, not yet open:

Other sites

Very close buddy sites; no thank you:

Other sites

Other sites

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

This Thousand Trails has several communities of permanent tiny homes; here are the Hidden Cove cottages:

Hidden Cove cottages

The Reserve cottages:

The Reserve cabins

New cottages just arrived for another expansion area:

New cabins

Rental cabins:

Cabins

The business office:

Office

That’s were we went several times to pick up packages:

Office packages

A food cart near the office:

Food cart

Car wash and dump station:

Car wash and dump station

Dog park:

Dog park

Courts:

Courts

Lake Conroe boat ramp:

Lake boat ramp

Lake docks:

Lake docks

We lucked out with our site. We’d stay here again, as they continue to expand the sites. Even the older sections weren’t too bad… other than the buddy sites!

Travel from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas

We drove our coach 132 miles, about three hours of driving, from Columbus to Lake Conroe, Texas.

Here’s the map route, heading east then north — the route was a bit wacky as we saw that an accident had closed a portion of the freeway we were on, so we took a detour to avoid that:

Map route

Leaving the campground:

Leaving campground

For the first part of the trip, Paladin sat on the steps, looking out the window:

Paladin on steps

Looking back across the pond towards the site we had:

Pond

A herd of deer:

Deer

Onramp to I-10:

Onramp to I-10

Passing the town of Columbus:

Passing Columbus

We stopped for fuel at a brand-new Road Ranger station:

Road Ranger

Road Ranger

Due to roadworks, we had to drive on a frontage road for a few miles, before we found an ramp back onto I-10:

Onramp to I-10

Oil containers:

Oil containers

We still haven’t checked out the super-popular and massive Buc-ees gas station:

Buc-ees

Exit to TX-99:

Exit to TX-99

A high overpass:

Overpass

This is a toll road, but we have the “Freedom Pass” transponder in our coach via TSD Open Roads, so we should be covered — but this was the first time using it, so we’ll see!

Toll road

We saw that an accident had occurred ahead on TX-99, so we took the exit to 290 to bypass it:

Exit to 290

Exit to Sam Houston Tollway north:

Sam Houston Tollway

Another high overpass:

Overpass

A glimpse of downtown Houston in the distance:

Houston downtown in the distance

Toll lanes:

Toll lanes

Toll transponder readers; here’s hoping it works:

Toll transponder readers

A third overpass:

Overpass

Exit to FM-830:

Exit to FM-830

The entrance to our destination, Thousand Trails Lake Conroe:

Thousand Trails Lake Conroe

Back from USVI

We’re back from the US Virgin Islands. It was a super-enjoyable trip, and we were sad to leave (it didn’t help that it’s freezing overnight where we are now in Texas). We want to spend more time in the Caribbean in the future.

We now resume our regularly scheduled posts of our travels before our vacation; I’ll do some posts about USVI when we get to them in the chronological sequence.

But in the meantime, a few highlights:

Sailboat excursion

Pelican

Blue water

Fish

Turtle

Stay tuned for more in due course….

Taking a break: heading to the US Virgin Islands

I won’t be posting on this blog for a week or so, as Jenn and I will be dropping off our coach for servicing, Paladin for boarding, and will be catching flights for the first time in years, heading to the US Virgin Islands to celebrate Jenn’s milestone birthday.

Paladin

No doubt I’ll take lots of photos and will do some blog posts once we’re back, so you can look forward to that.

Next post on the 17th. See you then!

Govee smart thermometers

It can be nice to know what the temperature and humidity is around us, so I added some smart thermometer/hygrometer units to our coach.

To see the current and historical temperature and humidity outside, I added a sensor unit under a slide-out, attached via Command Strips:

Thermometer

I also wanted to monitor the temperature in the wet bay; it has a heater to prevent it getting too cold, since having our plumbing freeze up would be bad, but I wanted to keep an eye on it, just in case:

Wet bay sensor

Those sensors don’t have displays, but for inside I wanted units that not only have sensors, but also display the current values. So I got a couple of units with e-ink displays; here’s the one in the living room, below the smoke detector:

Living room sensor

And the one in the bedroom, between the smoke detector and thermostat (the big temperature on the thermostat is the set level):

Bedroom thermometer

All of these sensors feed data into the Govee Home app, which can show the current values on its home page (along with ugly seasonal graphics):

App

The same screen after the holiday season:

Govee Home screenshot

Tapping on one of the thermometers shows historical data, so I can see how the temperature and humidity have changed over time:

App

Fun fact: that higher humidity was when we were on the coast at Corpus Christi, and the lower humidity was inland at Lockhart; makes quite a difference. And yes, the temperature inside can vary greatly throughout the day; we tend not to run the AC or heaters except for uncomfortably hot or cold weather, preferring to open windows for fresh air when feasible. (Not a cost thing, since we typically don’t pay for electricity at campsites, but it’s quieter, and fresh air is nice.)

The two most frequently asked questions

In the various Tiffin motorhome online communities to which I belong, there are two questions that get asked pretty much weekly.

The first is: what is this unmarked red switch to the left of the driver seat?

Switches

Obviously it is the self destruct button. Or is it the passenger ejection seat switch?

No, seriously, the answer is that it is the switch for the mirror heaters. The side mirrors of the coach are heated, to clear them in cold weather. Something that we’ve never needed, since we try to stick with warm weather as much as possible.

Here’s a peek at the heater, from when I replaced the mirror glass on the driver-side mirror:

Mirror

The second most frequently asked question is: what is this little thing on the ceiling?

Sensor

Is it a microphone to spy on you?

No, the answer is: it is a temperature sensor for a thermostat. There are three of them inside the coach, which are each connected to a thermostat. That enables the thermostats to be positioned inside cupboards or on walls, but still sense the temperature in their respective regions.

The wet bay also has a sensor, but it is a bit different — a copper probe connected to the temperature dial, used to control the heating of the wet bay (frozen pipes would be bad):

Wet bay

Hopefully this helps some people who had wondered about those.