Fixing the Refrigerator

So I fixed the generator, Yeahhhhh!  (Unfortunately, we later figured out there is still some sort of kink in the generator process, but I’ll save that for another post.) My next dilemma was the refrigerator. I thought that it was working when we bought the RV. Some RV fridges are 2 way fridges and others are 3 way fridges. What does that really mean? Well, 2 way fridges get power from a 12 volt source (your car battery) OR a 120 volt source(plugged into an electric socket).  3 way fridges will get power from a 12 volt source (your car battery), a 120 volt source (plugged into an electric socket) OR from your propane tank.

We quickly figured out that our fridge was a 3 way fridge, but it was not working. I knew it wasn’t cooling and the display on the door was not changing no matter what button I pushed (temperature, on/off, source). So I asked at the KOA campground in Amarillo, for recommendations of who to have look at it. Luckily, they had the number of someone who could come right out to the campground.  The guy showed up in the morning and within an hour, he told me that I need a new electronic board. He didn’t have one, and didn’t actually fix anything, but he was helpful in diagnosing the issue.  His fee was $125 dollars, what an expensive hour, but at least we knew what the issue was.

Since he did not have that part, he gave me the phone number of a guy that might have it. I spent all morning looking for the address and finally I got there, but that guy didn’t have it either, but he knew another guy who MIGHT have it.  Long story short, the third guy had the part and I got the card for $300, but chose not to pay another $90 for him to put it into place.  Instead, we hit the highway again toward Las Vegas.

Half hour on the US-40 West, I felt that the engine was getting weak and not getting enough power. Oooh no! “What a great adventure today is turning out to be!”- I said to myself. The motor home was running good, but now I was having more problems. I decided to pull over and check that out. So I stopped at a gas station, to let the engine cool down. My spouse starting cooking diner, because it was getting dark, but I started to work on the fridge. I replaced the card and voila, in about 5 minutes the fridge was working!  Saved myself $90, and made me the hero of the family, as we could now buy and store essentials – like butter, cheese and milk without worrying about things going bad or getting soaked in ice water from the cooler.  Way to turn a bad day into a good one!

 

National Parks = Beautiful Pictures and Lots of Learning!

The cameras went overtime this week as we visited three different National Parks. 

We started at the Grand Canyon:

 

Then, we went to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert in Holbrook, Arizona.

  And then we visited the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At each National Park, the kids worked on a new Junior Ranger badge and have been pledging to protect nature, while they learn about earth science and archeology.  They are collecting the badges on their hats and the oldest has decided he wants to visit EVERY National Park – cool goal, huh?

 

 

 

Puddles – the First Raki Brother Experiment

Did you know that a pinecone floats?  Today, the Raki brothers did an experiment on that subject.  Our RV was parked in a forest with big puddles and so we collected five different items:  a pine cone, a rock, a waffle (that our mom was throwing out), a stick and a leaf.  We thought that they would all sink, but we found out that only the stick and the rock sank.  The rest floated.

After that experiment, we started a new one.  It was about ripples and how they were made.  We took the same things as before and threw them into the puddle to make ripples.  We started with the rocks and threw them in the puddle.  We found out that rocks make big ripples and the bigger the rock, the bigger the ripples.  The sticks were about the same as the rocks.  But, the leaf and the waffles barely made any ripples at all. 

Uggh, then Sami threw a really biiiiiig rock into the puddle.  It didn’t make ripples, it only made us all soaked.  Zaiyd screamed an ear piercing screech and Kal stood and giggled so much he felt like he wasn’t breathing.  If it’s raining near you, why don’t you try out an experiment like this today?

 

  

Saving Money on Fixing the Generator.

So we bought the motorhome. The boys were excited but not me, because I was nervous driving this huge vehicle from Douglassville to Cartersville. I guess it was about 30 miles.

Anyway, I did and I was proud of myself. The motorhome is a 1990 Airex (Ford Chasis). It is a clean inside, but needs some TLC. The previous owner told me that the generator was not working and needed a control board. He wrote on a piece of paper all the information of parts that need to be replaced. Once we brought the RV home, I parked the RV at my Mexican “amigo” mechanic, Cerilo, hoping to check the brakes and the accelerator pedal. After 3 days he still had not not looked at the RV because he was swamped. So on Day Four, July 3th, (two days before we were set to leave for Las Vegas), I started freaking out and was especially worried about fixing the generator. So I called Three Way Camping, the local camping store and asked them how much they charged to service a generator. They gave me a phone number for a guy that will come out to you and fix a generator. The price was a $1000 to get the generator running again, so I almost had heart attack and I hung up quick. I went online and looked at the information that the previous owner gave me, there was the control board.  It was $119 for the card, but since I needed it the next day, the total was $192 plus taxes.

 

      

 

On July 5th, the package arrived, and it was easy to replace. It took me about 10 minutes to take the old one out and put the new one, and voila! I saved over $800 by doing the work on my own.

This was my first successful self-repair job in the motorhome. When we owned our house in Powder Springs, GA,  I learned to fix a lot of stuff, like plumbing, tiling and electrical work. Now I am learning how to live and repair our home on wheels. My next challenge now is that fridge that is not cooling. Stay tuned for more of our adventure fixing our motorhome during travel with RVing with the Raki’s!

 

Animals Galore!

During this first week of our adventure, we haven’t really had time to “stop and smell the roses” or visit really anything.  We are in a bit of a mad rush to get to Las Vegas, NV for the first annual Teachers Pay Teachers conference.  We have only had a chance to visit campgrounds and gas stations.  However, the kids have found a bunch of animals anyways.  Here are some pictures they took:

 

These ducks came to visit us on our campsite in Alma, Arkansas.  They were VERY friendly, they even followed us on our walk.

This snake was sitting in the middle of the road, until a bird came along, then he slithered away so fast, we almost didn’t get his picture.

This friendly grasshopper hopped right in the window and took a seat on my laptop.  We snapped a quick picture and then returned him to the grass.

 

On the way back from the showers in Amarillo, TX, the boys caught site of this cute little bunny.  They ran back to the campsite to grab a camera and snap his picture.

These large, black crows came by for a visit while we were waiting for the guy to come from AAA and check out our motor home.  They stayed put just long enough for a photo opportunity.

 

Just think of the animals we’ll see when we actually start to “see” the country!

 

Grilling Out at Rest Stops

Before we bought our RV, we did quite a bit of traveling, usually in a mini van with a tent and a cooler in the trunk.  With three growing boys to feed, it’s far too expensive for us to eat out every meal.  In fact, we rarely eat out while we are traveling.  Instead, we cook quite regularly, and don’t choose to live off of sandwiches.  Even though our RV comes completely equipped with a stove and microwave, we are sticking with our roots and using a little propane grill, which sits nicely on the picnic tables at any local rest stop.  Here is one of the grill meals we had this week:

 

We grilled fish, zucchini and summer squash (straight from the farm stand), tomatoes (also from the farm stand) and mushrooms.  Everything got a good shake in a ziploc bag with olive oil, salt and pepper before going onto the grill.   Layer it up on a piece of wheat bread with some cheddar cheese and Khalil’s homemade black bean and corn salsa, and it was delicious!

 

We also had some juicy canteloupe for desert, but the pigs, I mean the boys, scarfed it all down before I could get a picture.

What is your favorite thing to put on the grill?

 

 

An “Adventurous” Day

Today was one of those days that you just have to laugh at.  We woke up at a campground in Amarillo, TX.  Started out relatively simple – laundry, dishes and shower.  Packing up to start out for New Mexico, with our goal destination begin Gallup, NM.  The mister called a repairman to come out and take a look at the refrigerator that still wasn’t working.  Repair guy came a bit later than expected, but was a great guy, told us exactly what had to be done, for only $125.  Unfortunately he didn’t have the part, but he knew a guy that should.  Ok, cool, let’s go get it.

Directions to get to this guy turned out to be kinda tricky, went past it, but that’s okay, we found a Walmart and picked up some sandwich stuff because by now it was getting close to lunchtime and the natives were getting restless.  Also finally got that hose to dump the black tank (I’ll let the mister write a post about that nasty job later!)  Two more wrong turns later and we finally found the guy, but he didn’t have the part either, but he also knew a guy who should have it.  Luckily, the second guy’s place was easier to find and so we picked it up for a whopping $300.

Okay, got the part, the mister decided to put it in when we arrived at our destination, which we now revised to be Albuquerque, NM, since we were getting such a late start.  Head down the road and are barely into New Mexico when the engine starts giving us trouble – not pushing enough power, then slowing until the battery stopped.  Did this twice, the mister got it going again both times.  But the second time we called AAA before it got going again.  Luckily for AAA was still on the way, because a third incidence was soon on it’s way.

Now mind you, we were in the middle of two towns – one 15 miles back, the other 35 miles forward, there were no mechanics to call.  We did however see a gas station and thought – “Hey, they might be able to give us a jump before AAA arrives.”  So, we head off the highway – insert incident # 3.  However, we made it to the gas station, unfortunately there wasn’t really a gas station left – the building had burned down, it was just a pile of metal and rubble.  Oh well, let’s sit here to wait for AAA – oh and it’s getting close to dinner time, so why not cook something?  (This is why I LOVE having a motorhome, I have my whole kitchen with me wherever I go!)

So, the boys’ bikes were pulled down and they set to riding.  Grandma pulled out her lawn chair and sat outside with them, while I started making red beans and rice.  AAA showed up – of course the mister already had the engine turning over again by this point.  The AAA guy checked the battery – yep, it was fine.  He said that his suspicion was a fuel pump or a fuel filter, but that he thought we should be able to make it to Santa Rosa, no problem.  Unfortunately, while the AAA guy was there, the 3 year old decided to poop in his pants and the 6 year old fell on his bike and scraped up his knee – one of those classic mom wants to pull her hair out moments.

  After the AAA guy left, the mister set out to change the control board and yeah!!!  the fridge works!  Another couple pulled into the gas station thinking it was actually a gas station, and the sweet guy looked at it with the mister.  He suggested we check the air filter, so mister (who had just cleaned his hands) dug in there and sure enough – the air filter was full and filthy!  He also saw a hose that wasn’t connected right, so he fixed it.  While he was in there, he saw that there was a belt that looked rough and would probably need replacing soon. 

However, he figured his quick fixes would get it us to the next town at least, so as soon as we were done eating, we set off.  Wow!  It ran so much better, like nothing had ever happened!  So we were excited and ready to push on to Albuquerque or even Gallup.  The kiddos got tired, and I got them ready and settled in to bed, than sat down to chill with my husband, since my laptop battery was dead and I couldn’t do any work.  Suddenly, we heard a rattling sound under my seat – uh oh!  Pulled over at the next exit into a gas station to find that the kinda rough belt was now really rough – undrivable rough.  Time to call the mechanic!  The mister put in the call and he’ll be out in the morning.  For now, we are headed to bed in the parking lot, staying safe, somewhere between Santa Rosa and Albuquerque – chilling on Route 66.

Everyone is safe and sound in their own beds.  Luckily, we built in two extra days to our trip, just in case.  But, man what a day!!

Welcome to our RV (and our new blog!)

It’s official!  We bought our RV and have hit the road on our latest adventure – a grand tour of the USA, Canada, and wherever else the road leads us. First stop? Las Vegas!

We’re the Raki’s – previously from Journey to Morocco and still to be found at Raki’s Rad Resources, Raki’s Rad Language Resources and Traveling from a Kid’s Point of View.  After 3 years in Morocco, we decided to go in another direction.  We want more time with our kids, and more time enjoying our life, so we came back to the US two weeks ago and went in search of a motorhome.  Since I am attending the first ever Teachers Pay Teachers conference in Las Vegas on July 11th, we knew we had to find one quickly!  We started in our favorite marketplace – Craigslist!  Last year, we purchased a minivan from Craigslist and drove it around the US for a month on our summer vacation.  This year we wanted something bigger, and we’re going to be living in this one for much longer than a month!

Here is our RV:

 

We paid $4,000 for this RV.  It is a 30 foot long, 1990 Airex motorhome.  It needs some work – we’ve fixed brakes and generators and we need to get the fridge serviced, but for the price, you can’t beat it!  Now we have a home, and we can travel any time we want to – and do we want to!

Let’s take the grand tour of our new home:

Starting in the back - Here is the bedroom for our two older boys – aged 6 and 10.  Nice, comfy beds and plenty of storage for everybody’s clothes, toys and even some books.

 

While the bathroom is small, it does contain a toilet, sink, shower and additional storage!

 

 

Our fridge – and more storage!  Both hold a surprising amount, I have plenty of room for everything we need.

 

This dinette allows the boys to have breakfast or play a game while we are driving, and also doubles as our youngest son’s bed, AND the drawers underneath is the storage allotted to the boys’ homeschooling materials.

 

Across from the dinette is our kitchenette – functional stove, microwave and sink, plus storage for food and pots.

 

This sofa comes equipped with seatbelts to strap in our youngest son’s car seat, then it folds flat and provides a bed for my husband and I. 

 

 

 

We have additional seating across from the bed, as well as a small desk, perfect for school work or blogging on the go.

 

Of course, we also have to drive this thing, so here is where my husband and I sit while we’re on the road.

 

While we love our new home, the best part is that we also have access to the outside.  Popping up our awning and some lawn chairs and watching the kids take off on their bikes is best part of the day!

 

Thanks for taking a tour of our new home.  Please stop by and visit us again.  We will be posting about our adventures, recipes cooked on the road, and homeschooling lessons too!