Mark and Patty RV Adventures

April 28 – 30, 2014
Travel from Elsa to Ingram, TX to visit a friend and leveling system issues

Monday the 28th was our departure date from Natures Resort where we have been for 4 months.  We got up at our normal 7am and did a quick version of our usual internet news and some Facebook before packing up.  It was going to be another hot day here and it was already 78 by 8 am.  We allotted ourselves double our usual 45 minutes to pack up and be ready to travel.    Well that wasn’t enough time; it took us 2.5 hours to pull out of our site!  

We hit the road at 11 am for our first stop just south of San Antonio at the Braunig Lake RV Resort in Elmendorf TX. Our trip to Elmendorf was 235 miles basically straight North on I-281 to I-37.  That was a long trip for us and our first move this year. We try to stay closer to 200 miles for a day’s travel.  We arrived at the RV Park at 3 pm just a little later than we like too.  We were also only staying for one night.  
We try to follow the 2-2-2 rule when traveling which means 
travel 200 miles, arrive by 2 pm, and stay at least 2 nights.

Falfurrais TX border checkpoint.  We had not seen one of these in Texas but went through a couple in AZ in 2012.  Note the sign says they have confiscated over 60,000 lbs of drugs and 15,000 undocumented aliens.

View going into the check.  On the left is a myriad of high tech cameras that scanned us as we go in.  We barely got stopped and were asked if we were citizens and then told to move on.  The whole thing took about 10 minutes.

The Braunig Lake RV Resort is a large park sitting around a small lake just off the interstate.  It’s an easy on off sort of place for someone like us only staying a short time.  We used Passport America and got a rate of $23.50 for the night.  Our site was very small and we were parked very close to our neighbors.  However, it was for just one night so we really didn’t care too much.

Our tight site at the Braunig Lake Resort.

Closer view of our site at Braunig Lake

View of Braunig Lake and the campground.

Seems people are feeding the ducks here.  So after we are settled in a few came over to ask for food.

One of the reasons we took longer to pack up was that our leveling system is not working right.  We have the 6-point LCI Level-Up system which has been good up to now. When we went to use it at Natures Resort it wouldn’t turn on or so we thought.  After a closer look, the display light came on but the controls wouldn’t work at first.  I had already disconnected from shore power and was running on battery so I thought that maybe the voltage was low.  I connected back to shore power with no luck getting it to work.  Next I disconnected the control board and waited a few minutes thinking this may “reset” the unit.  The display still didn’t turn on but I was able to get the front landing gear to move and then the whole thing started to work with the exception of the display.

This is the part that we need.  Glad I am not paying for it!

When we arrived at the Braunig RV Park we had the same problem again.  Now I have the RV on the truck and can’t get it off.  This has always been a fear of mine, not being able to get the RV off of the truck.  I disconnected and reconnected the board several times and was able to use the system again.  

After we were set up I made a call to the manufacturer (Lippert) of the leveling system and left a message as they were already closed.  The next day I had not gotten a return call so I called them again and got a tech to help.  He told me to make sure that I had a minimum of 12.7 volts and if I did have the correct voltage to disconnect the system from the battery for 15 minutes and see if this solves the problem. I didn’t have time to check the voltage but I did leave the unit unplugged for about half an hour while I went to fill the truck with fuel before packing up to leave.

I reconnected the unit to the battery with the same results, no display and the unit was now beeping at me every few seconds.  I again began disconnecting and reconnecting until the beeping stopped.  Then the unit worked, still with no display though.  We had just 100 miles to go this morning so I decided I would check the voltage after we arrived at Johnson Creek RV Resort in Ingram TX.  

I again had the same issue at our next stop in Ingram TX. After doing the same routine of connections I was again able to get it to work.  I checked the voltage and found it to be fine. The voltage was just over 13 volts on the battery and the charger was putting out 14.44 volts.  So that is not the problem!

I called Lippert again on Wednesday the 30th and was told I need a new control board and that it is not under warranty any more.  We have a 2 year warranty on the RV so I called Eldon, our contact, at Prime Time Manufacturing and they are shipping me a new control board tomorrow via UPS.  We planned to be here until Friday and now we will need to stay a couple more days until the part arrives.  That is not a big deal to stay, we have time built into our schedule and the weather is great here.  The next few days we will have a bright blue sky and in the low 70’s.  It just doesn’t get better than this!

This is our site at Johnson Creek RV Park in Ingram TX.

Our pet plant Rosey in her new Mexican pot.

They have a deer feeder here so there is a heard of deer every evening in the park.

I need to plug our RV Manufacturer again.  We have a 2013 Sanibel 5th wheel built by Prime Time Manufacturing in Wakarusa IN.  We have had issues with the unit but very simple issues to either fix or have Prime Time fix under warranty.   We have had zero issues with the warranty support from Prime Time and they have a 2 year warranty. We have owned the Sanibel for almost 2 years and have pulled it about 15k miles now so I feel we have a pretty good feel for the rig and we still love it.  We would recommend this rig to anybody and we have many times.

We went to Ingram and this RV resort to visit a friend, Janelle, who we met last year in South Florida.  A couple of months ago she and her boyfriend moved to here.  Ingram is just a few miles west of our route going north so we decided to stop by for a visit.

We had a nice first night visit on Tuesday at our RV with a dinner of bacon wrapped cheddar meatloaf.  Yea, it does sound like stuffed arteries but it tastes real good!

Our friend Janelle.

On Wednesday the 30th we went into Kerrville TX to visit the old country store where she works.  We met the owners John and his wife who are very good people.  This store is a quintessential American small town country grocery store. John works the butcher shop in the back and quickly showed us his special pepper hamburger patties.  Patty is not crazy about the pepper so he ground one fresh without the pepper just for us.   They carry a homemade salsa that I had to get.  John asked me if I knew that it was hot salsa and I told him that I like it hot.  He knew we were from New Jersey so he warned me that this salsa is not from New Jersey and that I should try it first.  He went in the back and brought out corn chips and opened up the salsa and invited me to try it.  It was hot but a real nice sort of hot, the kind that made you warm all over without burning your mouth.  
He was a little surprised that I didn’t think it was too hot.  He didn’t know that I have been eating spicy hot food all over the world including this country for many years.  So yes, I was very used to it.

Very nice country store in Kerrville TX.  It has been in operation for over 47 years!

Our fresh made burgers

We had a nice lunch at a restaurant overlooking the Guadeloupe River.  I had catfish with hush puppies and fries.  All of it was fried which I like but my body does not. For the past few years I have a very hard time digesting fried foods.  I know they are not good for you and I rarely eat them but I like them once in a while.  This was one of those once in a while times.  We don’t fry food at home and do not have fries either.  Patty doesn’t care for catfish so this was my time to eat for taste and have an upset stomach.   I survived it though!

Patty and Janelle waiting for me to go to lunch at the Lakehouse.

View of the Guadalupe River from the restaurant.

We went to WalMart after and got some odds and ends and then off to the post office to mail a couple of the cut shirts out.  One went to Rudee, another full-time RV friend, who picked the best name for Patty’s business, "Barely There Wear."  

We also mailed out the last blog post to our parents who are not able to get the blog via the internet.  We write the blog and then print 2 copies which we send to them.  We just started this this year.  We wish we had done this from the start which is over 200 posts now.  We also have had over 45,000 visits to the blog and from all over the world.

Well that’s it for this post.  We are going to have another nice dinner tonight with Janelle and then call it a great day in America!

Stay Tuned!