Thanksgiving and Football

Both antennas up and working

Pattie enjoys football season and will watch it and the commentaries all day making me a football widower.  Then she wants to talk about it with me.  So it is important that we have good TV reception this time of year.  We arrived at Uchee Creek Military FAMCAMP in Ft Mitchell, AL a few days before Thanksgiving and the annual Iron Bowl where rivals Auburn and Alabama play.  The campground was very full so we were not able to get one of the sites we prefer that has a clear sky view for satellite TV reception.  Our site had a line of trees close to it blocking the southwest view.  Since we have a permanently installed Winegard Trav’ler on the roof and no portable antenna, we must move The Bus to find a hole around obstacles.  This move/search dance takes about 30 minutes to perform each time.  After two hours searching in the multi-sat mode with no success, I put the antenna in manual mode and directed it to search the DISH Network eastern arc for satellite 61.5.  It locked on quickly and combined with the batwing over-the-air antenna gave us the football critical HD channels that we needed.  I was allowed to sleep inside The Bus.

We invited our sons over to The Bus for Thanksgiving and one accepted while the other celebrated with his girlfriend’s family.  We purchased a cooked turkey and ham from the local Honey Baked Ham Company and Pattie made the side dishes.  We were stuffed and thankful for the blessings God has given us this year. 

Plates loaded and chowing down!

The outside LG TV had a critical failure and I was able to buy a new Samsung during the Black Friday sales.  My son William and I modified the exterior cabinet to accept the Samsung and we were able to watch our Auburn Tigers soundly beat the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl inside and outside The Bus.  My youngest son Chris attended the Iron Bowl and was one of the crazies running on the field after the game.  It was a great day! 

How sweet it is!

More tire problems appeared, this time on our Grand Cherokee.  We installed new Cooper AT3 tires 10 months ago and had it aligned.  Now with 10,000 miles on the tires, they are wearing poorly and making a lot of noise.  When we had the alignment checked all four corners were out of alignment.  I believe the place where we bought the tires did not know that you must put the QuadraLift Air Suspension in “alignment mode” before you do an alignment.  This probably caused the uneven wear.  We had it properly aligned and then had the tires trued (shaved) back to round hoping to get another year out of them.  Shortly after all this, we discovered a cut in one of the tire’s sidewalls that probably occurred during an off-road adventure.  Frustrated, I used the FMCA Michelin Advantage Program to buy a set of BFG All Terrain KO2 tires and had them installed.  I have had good luck with this tire in the past and found them durable enough for off-road travel. 

Next we headed to Lake Guntersville State Park about 45 minutes from Huntsville, AL.  Lake Guntersville is know for its bass fishing with many tournaments held there each year.  I tried my luck and caught a few bass from the pier.  We met some new friends and reunited with some old ones.  My son William came up to see the area and get some tips on jobs in the area. 

From Lake Guntersville, we traveled west to Colbert County Alloys Park on the Tennessee River near Muscle Shoals, AL.  We wanted to explore this area and we were close enough to Red Bay, AL to take a broken cabinet drawer down to Chris Berry’s woodworking for repair.  Chris made a new drawer out of solid wood materials while we waited.  It fit perfectly when we reinstalled it.
 
In the next few days, we will work our way south to Tuscaloosa to celebrate Christmas with my mother and sister.  We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.  
Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!