September 2018 TR- Thunderstorm Dodging, Toy Story Land Visiting

[Teamubr]

jim, we will be available that week, and would love to show you our dairy farm.

Sounds great Barb! I'll give you a call when I get a better idea how the week will go.

Not a lot going on with Fort trip planning. I ordered a new satellite dish last week. Our last camping trip I couldn't get all 3 Direct satellite signals to come in. That usually means a tree or something else blocking part of the signal (DirecTV hits 3 different satellites with one dish). I moved the dish to an open field and same results. Great signal on the "primary satellite" (101) but really weak signals on the other 2. Everything was working fine on our Branson trip a few weeks ago. After I got home the receiver (same one I take in the RV) worked fine, so it has to be a dish problem. I suspect the curve on the actual dish is off. I take it apart and it goes in the RV basement. Either that or a bad LNB (nose cone that contains an electronic switch to blend all 3 signals onto 1 cable).

That also brings me to the dilemma of how do I bring the satellite receivers with me when DW is home until Wednesday and will want to watch TV. She could bring the receivers with her, but she is flying Frontier and a carry on bag is $$$. She had planned on sending everything in the camper and flying without any bags. I may have to show her how to watch internet TV off Direct's web site.

Other than forgetting to put our Mickey neon light back in the camper, I'm as packed as I'll be until I get back from my conference in WI in 10 days. Then it is a weekend of packing, prepping and fueling and we're on our way. 15 more days!

j

 

[bjschil]

Jim, we are excited for your upcoming Fort trip. We will live vicariously through your trip reports. Good luck on the receiver issues! I would need instructions on how to watch Internet TV, but mostly because we do not have great service. Poor service actually.

 

[FtW Mike]

Jim I feel you pain over Sat. Tv Receiver. We are back Atlantic City NJ to see the Beach Boys Tomorrow night and when I tried our set up got nothing but a message that said COMPLETE SIGNAL LOSS. This aft er 2 weeks ago having same problem and bringing into our guys who said it was originally in HDMI system. 4 hours later problem seemed to be resolved. Gave a quick test before we left today and while it started to acquire signal it promptly dropped them. Happily we have a Tailgater as we have Dish Network so into an open it a bit after we got here bay it went. Played around with it a bit before giving in and hooking up Tailgater directly to receiver. Now we have all of our package less some of the HD channels still better than nothing. (Cable here at Shady Pines sucks and if one maint. guy isn't working forget it) Looks like In Motion Dish is going the voyage in favor of Dish Network specific stationary one

 

[tigger92662]

So we've decided to head out around 9am Thursday morning the 13th and find some place around Nashville.
I booked Lake Louisa for Friday night, which will also be convenient as we are picking up golf cart from Kenny's on Saturday morning. We'll head to The Fort and hopefully we can get in early.
Still working on Mickey lamp post. Oddly enough I bought a Musket Mickey Sign on a Facebook Disney selling site. I have removed the previous owners names and am working on a replacement name plate.
Am currently trying to get an appointment as the recall that was done to my fridge a few years back has failed. Hopefully it'll be fairly painless

 

[tigger92662]

Magic Bands arrived yesterday, Gettin close.
DW suggested I replace the old tube TV in the back with a somewhat newer flat screen we weren't using in the house.
Pulled out the old TV and couldn't believe all the wasted space. So I made storage out of it and can set TV on ledge when parked.

Still working on Mickey lamp post, should be done this week. 20 MORE DAYS!!!!!

 

[Teamubr]

Very nice, Joe.

It is amazing how much space the old tv's take up. More storage is always better.

j

 

[Jason York]

Jason,

As Ed said, Welcome to the Fort DIS forum. First timer to the Fort too. We will be there nearly the same time. (4-8 for us.) Let us know what you have planned. I will be trying to post updates on here with where we are (loop/site) and what we are up to. You're more than welcome to stop by and say hi.

j

There are 8 of us also ! 4 adults 4 kids!! I hope to see you down there I'll look for you post on here I'll update when we arrive, and post some pix of our base camp

 

[Teamubr]

Back from the conference in Wisconsin. 3 1/2 days before we leave. Bringing the camper home tomorrow after work to start cooling down the fridge and start packing. I'll have a short $300 visit to Sam's to fill up the tanks on the truck. It's a shock to fill them, but nice to have over 900 mile range. One stop on Monday for the 1000 mile drive down.

j

 

[PaHunter]

Back from the conference in Wisconsin. 3 1/2 days before we leave. Bringing the camper home tomorrow after work to start cooling down the fridge and start packing. I'll have a short $300 visit to Sam's to fill up the tanks on the truck. It's a shock to fill them, but nice to have over 900 mile range. One stop on Monday for the 1000 mile drive down.

j

300 bucks !!!

 

[Teamubr]

300 bucks !!!

Jealous?

It actually only took $214. The main tank was half full. And I filled up at Sam's for $2.74/gallon. Driving back from Wisconsin, diesel was $3.24.

Camper is home in the drive with the A/C and refrigerator on. I'll start putting stuff in tomorrow.

2 more days until we leave!

j

 

[PaHunter]

Jealous?

It actually only took $214. The main tank was half full. And I filled up at Sam's for $2.44/gallon. Driving back from Wisconsin, diesel was $3.24.

Camper is home in the drive with the A/C and refrigerator on. I'll start putting stuff in tomorrow.

2 more days until we leave!

j

Really jealous. Diesel here is $3.79 or so a gallon. I am down to half a tank, but probably not fueling until spring now, as I still have about 120 gallons on board. Spring will be the big fuel up, somewhere around 200 gallons on our first trip of 2019. Then we will fuel on the way to Bama for Memorial Day, fuel on the way back and top off for rest of summer.

 

[Teamubr]

It's September!

Thanks Denise for pinning this. I changed the title a bit. Took off the "pre TR" and it doesn't look like there are any looming hurricanes, but there is a good chance of thunderstorms everyday next week. Looks more like June/July/August pattern is still in place.

Cut the grass today, aired up the tires and started putting things in the camper. It is VERY hot and humid here. About 90 on both temp and humidity. I guess it is trying to get me ready for the next 2 weeks. I may wait until later tonight to load the rest of things.

j

 

[friendofeeyore]

Temubr, So excited for y’all! Have safe & fun trip down. When you have time, pls. Keep the pictures coming We will nor arrive until 11/16

 

[PaHunter]

Remember when you hook up your trailer, tug test. Yep, got to sure of my hook up procedure and dropped the trailer today, how embarrassing while at the dealership with a ton of people around. Appears we luckily did not damage the trailer, it landed on the spare tire, give that engineer a raise. Got trailer back, still have GFCI issue, they broke my over the door 3 mickey head piece I had in the trailer, and we now have mice. So have peppermint oil in various areas trailer gonna smell like a candy cane factory for a bit.

Enjoy Disney, safe travels.

 

[Teamubr]

When you have time, pls. Keep the pictures coming

We will post as we can. I generally try to update in the evening before heading to bed. And November will be here in no time.

Chris,

Doh! My old 5th wheel hitch was a draw bar type (RBW L'il Rocker). It was very obvious if the bar was closed or not. When I bought my 2011 truck, it came with the under bed hitch setup for a goose neck (race car enclosed trailer) or the 4 holes for the Ford hitch (basically a Reese style). I've never been a fan of the Reese style hitches with the jaws. Every truck I've seen that dropped a trailer had one of the Reese "jaw" style hitches. I check mine 3 or 4 times before I close up the tail gate and generally do a test tug, although not every time.

Glad to hear there isn't any damage to the trailer of the truck. And how did the dealer do so much damage?

Another trick for mice if you get sick of smelling like a candy cane... Dryer sheets. Read it on the RV forums. We kept our old 5er at a storage place in the country. The first winter, the mice had a great time with toilet paper, bed spread and anything else they could chew up into a nest to keep warm. Did the dryer sheets after that and no more mouse problem.

j

 

[PaHunter]

We will post as we can. I generally try to update in the evening before heading to bed. And November will be here in no time.

Chris,

Doh! My old 5th wheel hitch was a draw bar type (RBW L'il Rocker). It was very obvious if the bar was closed or not. When I bought my 2011 truck, it came with the under bed hitch setup for a goose neck (race car enclosed trailer) or the 4 holes for the Ford hitch (basically a Reese style). I've never been a fan of the Reese style hitches with the jaws. Every truck I've seen that dropped a trailer had one of the Reese "jaw" style hitches. I check mine 3 or 4 times before I close up the tail gate and generally do a test tug, although not every time.

Glad to hear there isn't any damage to the trailer of the truck. And how did the dealer do so much damage?

Another trick for mice if you get sick of smelling like a candy cane... Dryer sheets. Read it on the RV forums. We kept our old 5er at a storage place in the country. The first winter, the mice had a great time with toilet paper, bed spread and anything else they could chew up into a nest to keep warm. Did the dryer sheets after that and no more mouse problem.

j

The wooden Mickey heads we store on the bed as we did not have a place to mount it in this trailer, they had to change puck lights and stepped on it is all I can guess, broke one of the heads clean off. I should be able to dowel it for a fix, but still.
Wife and I took the dog with us, I think the hitch locking block was still engaged, she visually said I was good. It is a binkley head on our hitch. The mice, just lucky there.....have not had a problem in nearly 18 months, was on dealer lot for about 5 weeks. And yes we have used dryer sheets successfully in the past also, just trying to force the mice out with the peppermint oil first.
The funny thing about the mice is they only ate some of our toilet chemicals that were in foil packets.

 

[Teamubr]

Not a TR yet, but just added a breakfast ADR for TE on the Saturday we head to Gulf Shores. DW flys in on Wednesday evening. I don't think she will have a chance to get dinner, so I'm thinking about heading over to DS to do a late dinner and some really late shopping. Have to see how DW feels when she gets there.

j

 

[cinderellagirl2280]

Not a TR yet, but just added a breakfast ADR for TE on the Saturday we head to Gulf Shores. DW flys in on Wednesday evening. I don't think she will have a chance to get dinner, so I'm thinking about heading over to DS to do a late dinner and some really late shopping. Have to see how DW feels when she gets there.

j

What I wouldn't give to have TE right about now. It'll be 4 years by the time I get down there

 

[PaHunter]

I see there are several disturbances in the tropics.....hope they all stay out to sea for all those headed to the Fort.

 

[Teamubr]

I see there are several disturbances in the tropics.....hope they all stay out to sea for all those headed to the Fort.

I've been keeping an eye on them. Nothing that looks to impact this week at the Fort, but possibly this week at GSP. We'll see. Too early to tell for the 8th-16th when we are at GSP.

Long range for both weeks has a 50-60% chance of scattered thunderstorms almost everyday. Looks like we are in the Summer/Tropical pattern. I have ponchos and last time I checked, none of us melt. Although that may be day to day.

j