April 20, 2013 by malcolmtalley

French and Indian Encampment Day 1

Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama

This weekend is the French and Indian Encampment weekend at Fort Toulouse – Fort Jackson park. Though we are not required to, we are volunteering this weekend, mainly helping collect admission fees at the entrance booth. Val worked the booth today.

Malcolm was running errands this morning, gathering materials to install a new stereo system in the truck. This one is a fancy one that, with the proper cables (which Malcolm needs to order), can use an iPhone running a navigation program and display the navigation map on the stereo screen as well as call out turn directions through the speakers.

It can also connect via Bluetooth to a phone and allow hands-free calling through an external microphone. We will also eventually add a backup camera which will appear on the screen automatically when the truck is put into reverse. The whole thing is pretty fancy. If the phone navigation works out well, we can remove the TomTom GPS we have in the truck now.

The Alabama Dutch Oven Society has been here the past few days and their members cooked up a huge dutch oven meal for the re-enacters and volunteers. It was delicious and there was more than enough food.

Tomorrow, we are both working in the entrance booth collecting money. On Monday, we pack up to head down to Gulf Shores.

With the stereo buttoned up, Malcolm headed over to the park to get some pictures of the British forces “attacking” the French fort. Here are some pictures.

March 15, 2013 by malcolmtalley

Mr. Fixit

Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama

Malcolm got off work a bit early today, at 3:30. He had 40 hours in by then and, since there wasn’t anything critical needing his attention, left the office instead of logging overtime. He stopped by the house earlier in the day to pick up a seat cushion he ordered from The Seat Shop.

While re-upholstering the front seats in the truck a couple months ago, Malcolm noted that the driver’s side seat cushion was not in the best shape. The door side bolster was pretty chewed up underneath from 11 years of drivers getting in and out of the seat. It was more evident over time that the cushion really needed to be replaced, so Malcolm ordered a new cushion on Wednesday and it arrived at the house today.

Once at the trailer, the first order of business was to finish up the “Bird Nest Preventers” that Malcolm had started working on last night. Layers of 3/4″ styrofoam sheet were cut to size and stuck together with the double-sided carpet tape that didn’t work out as a bird deterrent. Duct tape was added once complete to keep the styrofoam from shedding all over the place. Here are the two pieces.

Slide tray bird preventer thingies.

Here is what the area looks like under our slide.

The reason for the tray – a place for the hoses and wires to retract into.

A little closer look at the tray. At the far end of the tray in this picture is where the birds kept wanting to build their nest.

Closeup of under slide tray.

The larger piece goes on the end shown above and fills the space nicely.

Longer slide filler.

And the shorter one was made to fit the space on the other side of the wiring/hose loom.

Shorter piece installed.

We’ll see how that works over time. We’re going to buy another pool noodle and cut it down to put on the corners of this slide to remind us to remove the bird nest preventers before retracting the slide.

With the bird nest prevention activity complete and the remaining pieces of styrofoam properly disposed of, it was time to tear back into the truck seat to replace the old cushion.

Midway through the procedure.

Here is what the side of the new cushion (white) looks like next to the old one (yellow). Doesn’t look like a big difference, but the corner of the old cushion was folding under and allowing the entire seat bottom to twist on the frame. It made it rather uncomfortable for Malcolm when driving for long periods of time.

New (top) and old (bottom) seat cushions.

The entire process took a little over an hour, with a break in the middle for dinner.

While Malcolm was working on preventing bird nests and working on the truck seat, Val moved all the food out of our main refrigerator to the outdoor bistro refrigerator so we could defrost the main unit. It had grown quite a bit of frost on the back of the freezer section. After everything was moved and the truck was back together, we went out to buy groceries. We stopped by the house and picked up our 12V cooler to help store cold foods overnight.

This weekend promises to be another really nice weekend. We’re a bit surprised that more people haven’t filled the campground this weekend. Might be related to spring breaks. Not sure. The French Garrison are in the park this weekend for re-enacting. We might go see what they’re up to tomorrow.

February 20, 2013 by malcolmtalley

Truck and Trailer Gifts

Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama

Today, both the truck and the trailer got little gifts. Malcolm received the custom programmed tuner he ordered for the truck. He had it installed in about an hour. A later test drive verified everything worked well.

The tuner has stock tuning, a 20 HP towing tune, a 60 HP around town tune and an exhaust brake tune for slowing on downhills (the primary reason for the purchase, aside from improved transmission shift points in the towing tune).

The tuner is made by DP Tuner and was purchased through Riffraff Diesel, where Malcolm buys many of the items for the truck that aren’t available at Auto Zone or O’Reilly’s.

Val cleaned the inside of the trailer today in preparation for pulling out this weekend. Other than being in the Gatlinburg area next Wednesday through Saturday, we’re not totally sure of the rest of next week’s plans. We may or may not travel down to Dixie RV in Florida to get our new awning installed (warranty fix), depending on if they receive the awning material from Heartland in time.

The trailer’s gift is a floor lamp we found at WalMart. It’s pretty nice and casts a nice warm glow from the lowest setting on the 3-way bulb. Additional bonus is that the shade is plastic and not glass, so we won’t have to worry about it potentially falling over during travel.

Lamp box.

Lamp in action.

February 7, 2013 by malcolmtalley

Truck Mod and Back to Work

Current Location: Fort Toulouse Campground, Wetumpka, Alabama

Malcolm felt better this morning (we’ve determined it is a good old-fashioned cold, again) and went in to work. On the way, we dropped the truck off at Performance Truck Center to have an electronic gauge thingie installed to keep track of vital operating temperatures (primarily engine exhaust temperatures). This is more for peace of mind, but it never hurts to keep a careful eye on things.

Val did a load of laundry so we’d have pretty much everything clean to pack for our upcoming flight to Seattle. By 4:00, Malcolm was feeling a bit feeble, so Val picked him up at work and we swung by to pick up the truck and head back to the trailer. Our son David stopped by to help us clear out leftovers for dinner. After dinner, we (Val and Malcolm) headed over to Starbucks to grab a warm beverage and do updates on our various iDevices.

Malcolm downed a couple of NyQuil as soon as we got back after coffee (his was decaf) to see if he can get some better sleep tonight. Only one more workday to get through before heading to Seattle for a week.

January 14, 2013 by malcolmtalley

Transmission Rebuilt

Current Location: Ozark View RV Park, Omaha, Arkansas

This morning, Malcolm was up at the crack of dawn to drive the truck the 1/2 hour over to Lead Hill, Arkansas and Brian’s Truck Shop to get the transmission rebuilt. Val stayed at the trailer and relaxed.

Brian had the transmission out at 9:00 AM and had it back in the truck by 3:30 PM. Tuning and test driving took another couple hours and Malcolm was back at the trailer by 6:00 PM for dinner. The truck drives so much better now. In addition to modifying the computer to adjust the transmission shift patterns, an additional 60 HP was added to the engine through more aggressive tuning. The truck drives like a new vehicle now. We can’t wait to see how it does towing the trailer as we head out tomorrow.

Brian lets his customers have full run of the shop, allowing them to view the whole build if desired. Malcolm took quite a few pictures during the process. Everyone is treated like family. Brian took us all out to lunch, his treat. They are great folks to work with. Total bill was right around $5,800, but the transmission should essentially last forever.

Tomorrow, we’re heading due south. Originally we were going to head back the way we came, but we would potentially be driving back into bad weather (sleet, snow, rain, etc.). So we think we will head down US 65 into Mississippi, then east across US 98 towards the RV dealer near Defuniak Springs, FL.

Here are some pictures from today.