no drought here!

The last couple of days have been very wet. We have not had any severe weather, just lots of rain. We are parked at Quiet Texas RV Park II in D'Hanis, Texas. The original park is in nearby Hondo. I talked to the owner and he explained he built the original one several years ago and it stayed full with oil field and other traveling workers (like us!). Last year a pipeline company rented out most of his sites and told him they would be back this year and next as well. They also indicated if he had room to expand they could use more sites. He decided to purchase this acreage and another park was born. The downside is the Texas DNR made the pipeline company move their construction to another area due to some kind of endangered lizard in this area so no pipe line workers :-o.
The park is not huge but is nicely laid out. There is a workcamper here that keeps an eye on things and does the landscaping. The majority of the sites are gravel pull through, full hook up sites no cable, but really fast (and free!) WIFI. There is a small amount of grass between sites and each one has a picnic table. The park is a Passport America Park and offers the 50% discount for 3 days. We indicated to the owner we would like to stay for 4 days and he extended the offer an additional day which we appreciated. D'Hanis has a small store, post office and a couple of restaurant/tavern combos. There is also a gas station and small market nearby. Hondo is just a short drive away where you can find a Super Wal Mart and just about any other kind of store or service you may need.

A few days ago I woke up and the rig was a little colder than I thought it should be. I bumped the thermostat up and nothing happened ..... Oh oh! I checked all the fuses which were fine and our propane tank was full so that was the extent of my diagnostic abilities, time to call the professionals. I checked the internet and found Mathew's Mobile RV repair who happened to live in the only other RV park right here in D'Hanis. :-)
We made arrangements for them to come over and check the furnace this morning. They arrived shortly after 9am and started removing panels to get to the "brains" of the furnace. Once all the panels were removed and the technician had access to the circuit board he started testing all the electrical circuits. Power was good into the board but nothing coming out so he replaced the board and "voila" we have heat again. :-)
While I was out with the technician Rudee had the bright idea to call the dealership where we bought the motorhome to see if they would do anything for us. Good thing she did because our salesman said, "no problem" and paid for the repairs directly to the repairman. Cool!

Once the furnace was fixed I got the urge to do a project myself. We need to have some "landing pads" for our hydraulic jacks to "land" on. You can buy some really nice molded plastic ones but I really didn't see the need to spend extra $$ when I could "improvise"! :-)
Here is what I came up with.

The plywood was some scrap I had on hand. The rope handles are from Rudee's clothes line. Shhhhhh, don't tell her! :-)
The plastic pieces are cutting boards purchased at Wal Mart and attached to the plywood with screws. Here they are in action.

We are still waiting on a gate assignment and are not in any real hurry until it dries out some more. Tonight is our last night at this campground and we will be moving to the Escapees Park just up the road tomorrow. They have a special going on right now for 50% off their weekly rate for the first week as long as you are a first time visitor. I figure as long as we stay at least 3 days we wont be losing any $$ if we get called out before our week is up so, right now, we are planning on taking advantage of the special. I'll keep you posted.