Saturday, November 26, 2016

GOT A SLEEP NUMBER BED

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 50 Nice with Variable Clouds High 75) 

We are on a quest to find the perfect bed. When we got the Cameo it was a very cheap mattress which we replaced fairly quickly with a Tempurpedic. This was not ideal since when it got cold it got fairly rigid making it difficult to change positions. We like to sleep in a cool environment so the quest continued.

When we got the Lifestyle it had a fairly highly rated Black Label mattress. This did not work for Jo's back so we thought a memory foam pad might work thinking since there was less memory foam than the Tempurpedic that it might work out but we had the same problems. So the quest continued.

We did some research and talked with friends and decided to get a Sleep Number king bed, the R5, specifically adapted for RVs. UPS delivered it yesterday and we began the setup. At first we were very confused. The air chambers had a sticker that said California King and the foam layer had a sticker that said Eastern King. Since these are three different sizes (King, California King and Eastern King) Bob called Sleep Number. Turns out they don't have labels specifically for the R5 so the labeling system kicks out the closest name to the size of the piece. Here is where it gets real strange. Although the label said California King for instance, the barcode was for the air chambers for the R5. Luckily they packed the correct barcoded items and we were good to go for setup.

Here is our new Sleep Number bed with the air chambers filling up for the first time.


After the air chambers filled up we added the foam layer and the cover and we were good to go.


Now what to do with the old mattress and pad until we can get them picked up for donation next week, very challenging in an RV. We did not want to put them outside since there is a threat of rain over the weekend. We placed the mattress in the main living area and leaned it up against the island. Wasn't too long and we had our first ascent to the top. Here is Sandra, queen of the world.


Sandra really enjoyed herself running back and forth, so much we were worried she might fall off.



JJ also had to get into the act.


We cannot wait until the truck comes next week. 

Our review after 1 night is fairly positive. We think we had less back pain and changing positions was a lot easier than with the old memory foam pad. It will take us awhile to get used to it though. One added bonus is that the Sleep Number R5 is lighter than the old mattress/pad combo. The lifters on the bed would not hold the mattress/pad combo up and Bob was contemplating buying better ones. The lifters work just fine on the new mattress.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Saturday, November 19, 2016

TOOLS TO AID IN SATELLITE RECEPTION

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 53 Mostly Sunny and Comfortable High 81) 

We have the best in TV watching, a roof mounted automatic satellite dish from Winegard for high definition DirecTV.  


Plus we have the Genie DVR that we can record 5 shows at once and a Genie client in the bedroom. The challenging part is making sure you have a good line of sight for the best reception. Calling the parks can be part of the challenge. Some parks have a good idea but others do not. We think it should be a requirement if answering the phones that you should at least visit the park once in awhile and know if a particular site has trees or not.

After a few close calls early on we started using Google Earth and that made it better. Traveling across the country can change where the dish is pointed so we needed something better. We are currently using satpointer.com showing here for our park in Goodyear Arizona. The green line shows the line of sight from dish to satellite.




You can switch from map to satellite and check for trees.




You can move the pointer to your actual RV site and zoom in.




Although the line of sight does show some trees we are high enough on the roof to still get a good signal.  If we are heading to a new park to us and we see a lot of trees we use Google Earth and then rotate the image to see the line of sight from the ground. This does not always work since the satellite image may be old and the trees may be taller. We therefore need an aid to help us once we get to the site. We got an app for our smartphone called "satfinder".

Using "satfinder" you can get a sky view and center the circle for the satellite on screen target.




That way you can see if there are trees in the way. In the bright sun this sometimes is hard to see so in these cases the app also has a compass mode using the smartphone getting the direction once the compass reading goes green.



As you can tell we like our television watching.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Thursday, November 17, 2016

CATCHING UP - REVIEW OF AUNE-OSBORN CAMPGROUND IN SAULT STE MARIE MICHIGAN

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 50 Sunny and not as Warm High 72) 

We still have a few blog entries from our travels this summer so we are catching up on a campground review of Aune-Osborn Campground in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan. 

Location, Location, Location, this campground has this going for it. It is located right on the St. Mary's River which is border between the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Canada.

Our GPS devices got us right to the park. The interior park roads are asphalt and easily navigable. The sites are a mixture of gravel and grass. There is a lot of spacing between sites. We had a great line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish. While the electric hookup was convenient and 50amp instead of the 30amp as shown on the website map the rest of the hookups were a challenge. We shared a city water hookup with the site next to us so we need 50' of hose to get connected. As for a sewer hookup, there was none.

Here is the Lifestyle from the front with a view of the river


To the right


To the left


From the rear


Since we are on the river here is a couple of additional photos. The campsite to the right on the river towards the Soo Locks.


Campsite to the left away from the Soo Locks.


We would stay here again. We were able to survive an entire week without a sewer hookup, our longest ever, the location more than makes up for the slight inconvenience.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Monday, November 14, 2016

2017 OBAMACARE UPDATE FOR BOB

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 52 Sunny and Very Warm High 86) 

On the way back from Sunday night Mass we saw the 'SuperMoon'. None of our cameras did a very good job.


That may have been super but what Bob is facing in 2017 is not super. 


He is facing a 62 percent increase plus there are no nationwide plans available, only HMO plans based in Texas. With that in mind we decided we needed to move from our usual winter place in Goodyear Arizona to Texas and establish doctors. We don't know exactly when we will be leaving but it will be mid January at the earliest after we complete all of our checkins with our doctors here. Then we will have to establish new doctors in Texas.

At least that was our plan until we got an email from the RVer Insurance Exchange telling all to not make insurance decisions until December. Apparently there are plans in work to change the 2017 insurance offerings since we have a new President-elect. We are a little skeptical since Inauguration Day is not until January 20th. The last day you can enroll is December 15th so we will probably make a decision around December 10th.


We'll keep you posted.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Friday, November 11, 2016

THANK YOU VETERANS (WE ARE THE HOME OF THE FREE)

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 55 Plenty of Sunshine High 82) 


We are the home of the free, because of the brave.

Both of our fathers served in WWII in the Navy. We have numerous relatives and friends that have served and we'd like to thank them all, and all that have served. We apologize that we haven't done it every day.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Thursday, November 10, 2016

WE SAW "DOCTOR STRANGE"

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 53 Plenty of Sunshine High 82) 

We recently saw the recent addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, 'Doctor Strange'.


Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Steven Strange, a brilliant but arrogant surgeon who gets injured in a car crash. Unable to perform surgeries anymore Doctor Strange starts looking for nontraditional therapies. He tries a mystic approach near Katmandu that leads him into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He is told the Avengers protect against physical dangers and the group that he found protects against the mystical dangers. Of course you knew there had to be a mystical danger to be confronted in this movie :-)

A mystic master goes rogue and wants to connect with another universe in the mystical multi-verse. Doctor Strange leads the effort to stop him. The special effects were amazing, this is a great action movie. The extra material after the credits showed Dr. Strange being part of the future Avenger movies and a movie of his own. It is a great time to be a fan of comic book characters being made into movies, especially on the Marvel side. 

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

WE DIDN'T KNOW JJ HAD A TWIN SISTER

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 55 Sunshine and Patchy Clouds High 91) 

Everybody knows JJ, here as an Olympic Judge


In his den


As a blogger


But what you did not know, and neither did we, that JJ had a twin sister. Bob is walking by the front door and about has a heart attack when he sees JJ on the steps looking in. At least JJ at first glance when he started opening the door and then he started having some doubts and started closing the door. Jo comes down the steps and says to "open the door for JJ, why are you closing it?". Only when we got a good look did we realize it was another cat and not JJ.



They sure do look alike don't they? Now we get worried about a friendly cat wandering around especially with coyotes in the area. We are sitting outside talking to a neighbor and he looks at our front door and sees JJ looking out and asks why his cat is indoors. Then he realizes it is JJ and not Ginger his cat. Still worried about a cat running loose but at least she has owners who feed her. They would like to keep her inside but she has figured out how to open the door and get out.

We have good news on Jo's ballot, they finally found the priority mail envelope and it arrived at the clerk's office yesterday afternoon. So now we know she voted too.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Saturday, November 5, 2016

VOTING THIS YEAR WAS CHALLENGING THEN INTERESTING THEN VERY INTERESTING

Currently in Goodyear AZ (Low 55 Mostly Sunny High 84) 

We have voted absentee before and Bob thought he allowed enough time to get the ballot requests mailed to us. You always have to factor in the mail has to get to Texas. It looks like the ballot requests got there the day after our mail was sent. Then it was another two weeks before the mail was sent out.

Once received the ballot requests have to be mailed back and then wait for the actual ballots to get delivered to Texas. Escapees then sends them to us. Because we were late getting the requests in we had Escapees express the ballots to us.

Then it went from challenging to interesting. Jo's envelope had the ballot but Bob's did not. So Jo filled out her ballot and we mailed it back with tracking. Bob called the county clerk and a new ballot was FedExed which arrived the next day with a FedEx overnight envelope. Bob voted and dropped it off with a FedEx truck he saw  in a parking lot.

Now it becomes very interesting. Both ballots via USPS (Jo) and FedEx (Bob) were supposed to arrive by 12p yesterday. Bob's got there but Jo's is still 'In Transit to Destination'. Probably a metaphor about this election :-)

We are hoping that Jo's ballot gets there by 7p Tuesday so it can be counted. But at least we can tentatively say that we voted.


Till next time,

Bob and Jo