RVers and NASCAR

Yes boys and girls, it's Race Week at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR)

The RVing NASCAR fans are staged and ready. They'll be rumblin' in here, gigglin' and laughing come the morning. There's maybe twice as many set and ready as were there for the spring race.

*Screw the Recession! We're goin' NASCAR Racing*

The track has been completely repaved with many changes to the width, layout and banking. The weather is cool and nice... It should be a fine week.

The only grousin' I've heard 'round here is... us Tram Drivers ain't allowed to slam other Tram Drivers into the wall at a hundred and eighty miles an hour, or do that tailgate bumpin' those Other NASCAR drivers do. Heck, we're not even 'lowed to squeal our tires :(  Fact is, they actually expect us to behave in a sociable manner... aw shucks! Somethin' 'bout us having passengers on the trailers or some darn thing ;)

Yeah... OK... I'll play nice. ;)

It should be a good week. Lots more folks will be here for this race than back in the spring. The season is almost done, there's only one race left after this'un and the championship is soon to be decided, so, here we come!

We got pulled out of the "back lot" at my sisters place without trouble (the ground firmed up nice after the big rain of the other night) hauled out to PIR and parked the rig just a mite after noon today. We set up here at what's commonly called; "Tram Corner"... A few of the people are here... and several yet to come.

*Tram Drivers Rigs, the calm before the storm, at PIR*

Ha! and you thought only those fancy boys in the quick cars had rigs... we got us our own lil' "community compound" for NASCAR "roadies" :) ... OK... so what I've got invested won't buy the tires on the Big Boys stuff... but bent, broke and dusty... It got me here! :)

*Still got several Tram drivers to arrive*

How's that for convenience... just walk around the end of that fence in the mornin' to go to work... pretty short commute! and then there's three Free shower setups an' two bars on the place, along with a whole dang grocery store in a circus sized tent... with must be seven semi loads of beer stacked up... Not too shabby.

Something to keep in mind for you more serene sorts of folks... your normal campround "Quiet Hours" of 10pm to 7 a.m. or so in the morning? uhhhhh.... not quite the same here...

... Quiet hours at NASCAR... leastways PIR, are 1 in the A.M. to 6 A.M. :) Can you say PAR-TAY? ... I thought you could... so... If you're a light sleeper? Ya'll might want to get yourself a room down to the Comfort Inn!

A pretty nice sunset tonight... Makes for a good omen for the week don't it?

*Sunset at PIR to Start off the Kobalt Tools 500 Race week!*

Well, good omen or not, I'm ready...

One other thing I'm hopin' will happen earlier in the week, rather than later is to have the Premium Catalog Approval come through at Smashwords for, A Pair of Second Chances. (my newest suspense novel) I'm waitin' on that so I know I've got a clean format on my manuscript, before I can upload it to Amazon, and really kick it in gear and get to work promoting it.

I've got my fingers crossed that will happen Monday some time... but... it'll happen when it happens.

All in all... it should be a fun week on a couple of fronts... and to a modest degree... a profitable one ;) Hawkin' my ebooks/novels, Hauling Race fans for pay twice a year... My version of Workamping is bumpin' along.

See You on the Tram Road!
Brian

Return to the main site of goin' RV Boondocking or Visit my Sister website Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road

More RV Repairs, Dust Storms and Desert Rains

A couple of years ago I did a repair on the tub floor in our Jayco. I was hoping to squeeze a bit more life out of it, before I had to break down and go though the gyrations of a complete RV tub/shower replacement... That's a task I'm not looking forward to.

Well, that repair failed a couple of days ago, with the epoxie I used to seal the crack...Cracking...

... and... you guessed it... I'm still not in a place where I'm ready to do that replacement... too many other irons in the fire and too few pieces of green paper in the wallet... so... another... "service stretching repair". :)

I did it a lil' different this time.First thing I did, after scraping out all the old repair, was open up the cracks with a drill bit, to allow better penetration of the Epoxie putty... and hopefully, an even more durable repair...

*Widen the cracks for a good repair*

Before I put in the new epoxie I went in under the tub with a couple of pieces of 2x4 and braced the floor a bit. A little too much flex in the PVC floor of the tub was where the trouble came from in the first place.

With the floor braced up better I mixed up the putty using a JB Weld product, JB Water Weld, and went to stuffin' epoxie.

Pretty easy stuff to use... just wet your fingers ( I cheated a bit and put on latex gloves, but still wetted them) and fold the stuff over and over until it's one consistent color...

Then, just stuff it into the cracks and shape it up.


You can't see it in the picture, but there were a few cracks developing around the opposite side of the drain, so I just laid a ring of epoxie around and over the whole dang thing...


 Pressed and patted it down so it's reasonable smooth... with any luck at all , it won't leak.


  It ain't pretty... but... it's a lot better than water streamin' down under the shower floor!

*Epoxie repair curing*

Maybe my newly published lil' suspense novel, A Pair of Second Chances 'll have me takin' lunch with JK Rowling soon, and you'll find me Boondocking in a Five Slide diesel pusher driven by a chauffeur and pullin' a trailer haulin' my Hummer "Back road" car and my motorcycles! ;)

Now wouldn't THAT just twist a knot in the shorts of all the folks that lust after tiny rigs!? :)

Me? I'm doin' what I HOPE is evolving... Look, I've made a lot of comments over the years, that a lot of people could take as me sayin'; "This sort of a rig is good, that sort of a rig is bad"... But here's the deal... The ONLY person I can make any sort of a determination like that for... is ME.

And at this point? I've lost any sort of an idea of what I'll be runnin' the roads with in a years time... so...

For me or anyone else to try and tell you what you're doin' is foolish or wrong is WRONG in itself. Now, maybe sayin' things to try to get ya'll to think for yourself, and step out of the Box that society tries to herd you into... to point out how you might be, being controlled by peer pressures and political correctness is OK... but for me or anyone else to sit and tell you... "This is the sort of rig you should get, or THIS is what you must do... and if you do ANYTHING ELSE, you are foolish or ignorant... would make me or anyone else tellin' such a tale... THE FOOL.

Do what toots YOUR whistle. Hike, Bike, Travel the tourist traps, or the un-occupied back roads. Do what others think foolish. Grin at the things that make YOU Grin. Shake your heads at the people who "Know" what's better for you than YOU do!... and if I or anyone else don't like it? Smile, pat us on our collective, arrogant heads... and say; "It's OK Brian... One day you'll grow up and get a clue!" :)

OK... 'nuff of that for now...

With the repair done... and just barely I closed up all the windows and vents as the expected dust storm come a whuppin' in... Yuck... you could smell it hangin' in the air 'fore the wind really even got here...

It whipped for a few hours... until mid evening a soft rain came on behind it, and settled the dust and freshened the air... Nice...

and then the rain got softer and then it got softer and finally, around midnight... it was so Soft on the roof, I thought the rig was gonna float away. :) yup... it POURED. I looked out the window when it finally shut off 'bout 1 am. We were sitting in a small lake, of 'bout a 1/2 acre.

With any luck, the ground will firm up around us, before we try to drag the rig out tomorrow mid day, to head off for PIR and our NASCAR week. ;)

If there ain't somethin' goin' on... You probably ain't payin' attention
Brian

Return to the main site of goin' RV Boondocking or Visit my Sister website Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road

Been Staying Busy... RV Repairs and Ebook Publishing

Got down to Phoenix without any new parts falling off... well... not big ones any way. The cap on the fresh water fill tube went AWOL somewhere twixt where we were... and where we are.

Now, THAT is a business we should invest in! $8.69 for a plastic cap maybe an inch and a half in diameter? Wow... that makes 'em more valuable than Gold! ;)

Also got a repair done on the water heater. It went south, some time back. Wouldn't ignite without help. You pushed the switch to turn her on, then jumped out the door and ran like hell, slippin' an' trippin' to get around to the other side of the rig and stick the long nosed lighter into the burner tube and touch off the fire... before the dang thing shut off the propane.

Well now, she lights up all by herself... THAT lil' computer board/box sets a fella back $180 bucks... oooofffff.

Now, If I was one of those Norwegian fellas that likes to go snow drift divin' in his skivies, I'd just wash up with cold water and save the $180 for imported beer... but... bein' the weak ol' grumpy geezer I am... it wouldn't be fair to the world around me... to be makin' the noises that would occur of an early morning... when that cold water hit my tender kiester.... eeeeeeeeeooooooowwwwwwwEEEEEEEEEEEE! ...

... Talk about blue smoke, bad words and dirty names! ... Yeah... it's better for all of ya that I've got the hot water heater functioning proper again.

And, the Big news is...  my second Novel, A Pair of Second Chances is up and published... sort of. I'm hesitating pulling the trigger on it completely. I uploaded the files to Smashwords, my distributor, early this morning. While the ebook is available on my Smashwords page... It'll be several days/a couple weeks or so before it makes it through the system and out to all the retail distributors like Barnes and Noble, Apple, Amazon, etc. The book is waiting on a manual, human "Eyes On" review before it can go into the Premium Catalog and be shipped to those stores.

In the meantime, I sit squirming like a cut worm... waiting anxiously!

Anyhoo... as soon as that review is completed I'll be screechin' an' bawlin' Get 'er While It's Hot! ... and... Hopin' like the devil that folks like it... and it Gets Hot! :)

Have a few more chores to do this week... and a third book to get stated on :) while I wait for the NASCAR race at PIR next week. We'll be moving over to the track Sunday sometime. and I'll be starting to work, hauling race crazy NASCAR fans around come Friday of next week.

Now that I've got my editing done, I think I may just take a day or two "off"... 'cause you know, this living full time on the road... with nothin' to do but spin new yarns... is Hard Work!!! :)

Relaxifyin' on the Arizona Desert
Brian

Return to the main site of goin' RV Boondocking or Visit my Sister website Motorcycle Touring on Freedom Road