DavidCD

Hi BarbarOK - I received a letter from Tx DPS saying I had to renew my license at one of their offices because I did my last renewal online. Apparently, you can't do consecutive renewals online. But, since I posted my original message, I managed to get in the local DPS office and ask about the document requirements. The guy at the desk said that since I was doing a renewal of an existing license all I needed to bring is a certified copy of my birth certificate in order to verify US citizenship (also called 'Lawful Presence'). So - as you were indicating, I was making this overly complicated. Thanks for you feedback.

We've been traveling / full-timing for almost 5 years now and have been using the Escapees mail service as our home address. It's coming up on time for us to renew out Texas drivers licenses and the DPS wants a variety of documents to prove identity, citizenship, and Texas residency. Does anyone know if Escapees will send us a letter that we can use to show our mailing address is our primary residency address?

Your 1 acre set up is pretty much what we were going to try to do but the coronavirus thing started up and, for a time it appeared that lot sales stopped. Then, there began a land rush where people from out of state (we're in Texas) were buying up (and pricing up) everything available - some of the purchases were done, sight unseen. Now, there are very few lots available in the county - and almost none with any utilities nearby. You certainly bought at the right time.

These recovery stories are really remarkable and I have seen several recent videos about minimally invasive surgical (MIS) techniques to remove the constriction and compression of the cervical nerves. The advances in the understanding of spinal nerves and development of these modern procedures is reassuring. Randy : I hope your MRI results prove to be useful and lead to a quick remedy.

I hope they can do this without a lot of hardware - however; many of the online descriptions and videos show bone shims and metal plates installed on each vertebra pair and if there's a deformed spinal angle (kyphosis) they install what looks like a pair of leaf springs to correct the alignment. Yikes! I'll find out when I see the doc next week .... Thanks for the feedback.

Ooooohhhhh ... Thanx!!

OK - I know I'm going to feel stupid when I hear the answer to this but, what is "S + B" or "S&B" ?

I won't know the extent of surgery that will be done until at least my 1st consultation with the surgeon next week - but, even minimally invasive neck surgery procedures will require wearing a neck brace of one type or another for at least 3-4 weeks (usually, more). That being said, I doubt that I'll be able to focus on anything below the level of my shoulders within 10 feet - I'm thinking I'll probably be making use of small hand mirrors to see what's going on down there. Sandals is a good idea; we're down here in Texas and flip flops are the usual foot wear around the RV park during the summer - I might pick up and extra pair to have in reserve. I'm looking for cheap shower caddies and wire shelves to install at eye height in various strategic spots in the trailer so I'll be able to access frequently used items.

So .... throughout the day I've been trying note when and where I do something that requires me to bend my neck - e.g., dressing, putting on shoes, just about anything in the bathroom, taking care of the dog, etc. I sure do it a lot. If I can't turn my head or bend my neck, I'm wondering if I'm not going to be totally disabled! Has anyone installed a "MirrorEye" or blind spot camera ( https://www.amazon.com/blindspot-camera/s?k=blindspot+camera ) on their truck so you can look at a rear view monitor of the passenger side ? Viewing the driver's side mirror is not too much of a problem but the passenger side mirror would probably require me to turn my whole body to see ...

Thanks for the Amazon product links ! Dave

Hi Rod - Thanks for the info ... as I mentioned above, a former neighbor gave us a nice, heavy set of stairs with a 3'x4' landing at the doorway - I'm glad to have it : Thanks 2gypsies - Where do you get the large bath wipes? Is there a particular brand that is any better than another? I'll make sure to ask about a home aid crew - I'm sure it beats the hell out of trying to drive down to the hospital for PT appointments. DCD

Last year - before any of these neck issues became apparent - our neighbor in the next site, who had been working for an oil service company was leaving because the well workovers were being halted and he gave us his really nice, wide tubular steel and expanded metal set of stairs that he had fabricated. They fit perfectly, just below the threshold of our TT door and have hand rails. It is really heavy and steady so, I'm grateful to have it - I won't have to do a balancing act as I try to climb the fold down stairs that the trailer is equipped with. Now, the bathroom is another issue - ours is one of those tiny - 4' x 5' - spaces with a shower/tub that is better suited for storing cleaning equipment than any use for personal hygiene. I'll probably use the RV park's handicapped shower and, I guess, experiment with various options to use the commode ... hmm . DCD

Shelves & cupboard accessibility is a good idea! I'm having neck surgery so I don't know if bending at the waist is a problem but, I'll have to wear a neck brace for quite a while and I understand that bending the neck may not be possible anyway, depending upon how extensive the surgery will be. I've also found a folding desk that I can use to raise my laptop and tilt it so I can see the keyboard and screen without having to bend my neck. Thanks!

Back in 2017 we retired, sold our place, put everything in storage, and hit the road with our 35' travel trailer. The plan was to do some traveling, visit where my ancestors lived, find family graves, etc. and then return back to Texas, buy an acre or two of land and put a manufactured home on the property and settle down. In late 2019 we returned and got a long term site rental at an RV park in the area where we wanted to buy property and started looking around. Well the corona virus started up and things started locking down. Initially, it seemed that all real estate was taken off the market but after a few months into 2020 people from all over the country decided they wanted to leave where they were (e.g., California, New York, etc.) and move to Texas. You also had people living in the city deciding that they wanted out of there and were buying up property as fast as it was being listed. Some of the land/lot purchasing was done sight-unseen and the prices went sky high. So, we haven't been able to find anything that we can afford (or, we haven't been quick enough to beat the sight-unseen buyers) and we are still here at the RV park. It's a nice, clean place with lots of room but the travel trailer is getting a bit tight to be living in. Now, on top of all this, I looks like I'm going to have to have neck surgery (degenerated discs:C4 thru C6). From what I have read on various neck surgery related forums the recovery from this may take some time and special precautions to heal up properly. Is anyone else going through this sort of thing? Have you had to make modifications on your RV or change living style to help with your recovery? Thanx.

Yeah ... I just don't have any idea. I've seen blocks of ice sit in a yard for a couple of days before they completely melted; this stuff is sitting in a tank with no air circulation. The plastic handle on the 1 1/2 inch grey water valve broke off when I tried to open the valve - I've ordered a replacement with a metal handle. Obviously, I need the tank empty in order to swap out the valve - I'm just trying to estimate what day it might be when I can work on the valve. This is all so much fun!

OK - putting the anti-freeze in the sanitation tanks to try to keep the drain valves from freezing didn't pan out ... both, grey & black water tank valves are frozen - I suppose the tank contents are in the same condition. The tanks are both 42 gallon and non-insulated, situated in the open air under the trailer. The most optimistic prediction for temperatures here is that we won't start having 24 hr days above freezing until Saturday and then, it will be in the 50s - 60s. Does anyone know how long it might take for these tanks to thaw? Any tips on speeding up the process?

OK - I've drained the water heater and will wait out the cold weather for the rest of the week. It looks like we won't see an above freezing day until this weekend. In the mean time my water supply hose and, I guess, the trailer's plumbing is in the deep freeze. I did a little looking around under the sinks - the plumbing looks like mostly PEX piping. There are various web sites that say PEX piping can handle freezing because it can expand with the expansion of frozen water. However, there are comments saying the weak point in the PEX installations are cheap plastic fittings that don't expand like the PEX material. Do you have any experience with PEX plumbing? Does it recover OK after a freeze?

Hi Kirk - Our potable water tank is not insulated either - it's just hanging under the trailer, right next to the sanitation tanks - so, I've drained it and put some insulation over the drain valve. This has been my usual routine when the temps get below freezing and, up until now, things have worked out OK - but, we've not been in temps this low. None of the forecasters got these single digit temps right. Last week, we were hearing that the College Station area would get down to 19 F but then, each day, they'd chop off a degree or two - now, there saying 2 F for tonight. The water heater has been operating - we don't have the heat turned on all the time, just when we need hot water, we'll turn on the heater burner a few minutes before we use it; it's only a 6 gallon tank so it gets hot pretty quickly. I was wondering if there was any "official guidance" from the manufacturer about keeping the heat on a full tank even if the water supply is off. I think you are right - 'probably should dump the heater tank water. I'm just not looking forward to freezing fingers and banged up knuckles. Thanx for your feedback.

Well ... 10 F temp overnight and gale force wind overpowered my water hose insulation and we're frozen solid; we're 'melting snow on the stove for flush water this morning. Does anyone know how well (or badly) a Suburban hot water heater can withstand freezing weather? The weather guys are saying to expect a low temp of 2 F tonight. I'm guessing that I should drain the water heater so it won't get damaged - but I'd like to let it ride if I don't have to get out there and pull the anode/drain plug.

We're sitting in an RV park just south of College Station, Tx with non-insulated tanks! The weather guys are saying it's going to get down to 3-5 F tomorrow night - oh man, this may not be pretty. In the past we managed the tanks in cold weather by emptying them out the day before the cold was going to arrive and then putting a gallon of RV antifreeze in each tank so that the antifreeze would be pooled against the tanks' drain valves. I suppose there was some mixing with the tank contents as they were being used but, we haven't had a tank freeze problem - yet. The supply hose is covered with foam pipe insulation tubes but this was only good for temps down to about 20 F - below that I had to get up in the middle of the night and run the water (usually the commode valve) long enough to break up any ice that was starting to form. But, we haven't been in this low of a temperature before - this might need several middle of the night water runs. 'Keeping my fingers crossed.

I've been connecting to the "Civil War Talk" web site for over a year and no problems but, yesterday I started getting the Message "Access Denied - Error 1020" and some information that Cloudflare is blocking my connection to the site. I'm connecting via my Dell Latitude laptop, using Windows 7, and Firefox browser using the RV park's wifi. This is only happening on the Civil War Talk web site - all the other web sites I use seem to be working OK; I'm not having any problems sending or receiving email. So, I've been fussing with this thing all day - the usual : cleared the cache, zapped all the cookies, re-boot, make sure I have the latest version of my browser, etc. - still getting the Access Denied page. So, i disconnected from the RV park wifi and set up my flip phone's USB tether to connect via the cell phone data connection to the nearest cell tower - and voila, It works! So, RV park wifi - bad / flip phone tethering - good. Has this happened to anybody else ? Any suggestions on how to get the wifi connection to work on the Civil War Talk web site? Thanx, Dave

Thanks for your reply, Kirk. I'm surprised the water heater hasn't jumped off that little cradle that it sits in - I've hit some really major pot holes (I-10 at Orange, Tx ; I-40 in Oklahoma) and had the seat cushions fly.

Hello everybody, I just replaced our 7 year old Suburban SW6DE water heater with a new unit (same model). The old unit was mounted on a cradle of plywood with 2 short lengths of 2x2 screwed onto the plywood as chocks that press on each side of the bottom edge of the water heater. The new unit - also a SW6DE - is slightly smaller in diameter than the original unit. It's the same 6 gallon capacity tank so I'm thinking the foam insulation must be a bit thinner on the new unit. So, there is gap - about 3/8 inch total - between the chocks and side of the new water header which I have shimmed with some scrap wood and the fit is now snug in the cradle. I was surprised that the old heater was not strapped down; it just sat in this cradle. The only structural connection between the heater and the travel trailer were three long screws that passed through brackets on the heater door frame and screwed into the face of the heater's control housing. I was not impressed with the heater just being secured by the three screws but that's the way it has ridden since we've had the trailer. Are everyone's water heaters installed like this or are there some strapping or stronger brackets used?

Parking lot ownership may also be the issue here - when the wrecker service guy pulled the wheels so the Walmart shop could change tires, the Walmart guys wouldn't touch the wheels unless they were carried into their shop.

JRP, Thanx for your reply. Do you know if this has always been a Walmart policy regarding RV/travel trailer tires? I see them working on cars and trucks all the time using a variety of floor jacks, lifts, and jack stands. Needless to say, I was pretty well perplexed that a whole crew of guys, sitting around their shop fan couldn't lift a finger to assist a customer who is trying to buy their stupid tires. Dave