February 4, 2015

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015 - Instead of shopping, we went to the Houston RV show.  Yesterday, I got an email from Rob and Helen, saying that they were coming to Houston to visit their son and his family, and would like to spend time with me the next day!  I told them that I would be in Houston, so they met me at the RV show. It was really awesome to see them again and to catch up!! We talked about meeting in November at the Pecan RV Park in Texas, to maybe meet up with a bunch of Canadians who go to Puerto Vallarta every year - safety in numbers.  The owner of the park told me a story she got from one of the Canadians: apparently, one year, someone from one of the drug cartels there in Mexico broke into one of the rvs and stole something; the local business people hunted that person down and hung him!!So . . . I think it could be quite safe to travel with these rvers, protected as they seem to be by the Mexicans . . . 

We did spend some time exploring rvs - Rob and Helen are in the market for an upgrade - and I noticed a lot of induction stovetops - might be the way to go when I take out my oven / stovetop unit and put in drawers with a cooktop just under the counter level.  The idea is to maximize my counter space -and I have literally never, in three years, used the oven - and have used the burners maybe a dozen times in the same period - most of those when Careth was with me, actually cooking . . .  I use the microwave pretty exclusively, with the slow cooker for potlucks and the toaster for toast.  The only drawback to the induction idea would be that it would have to run off electricity - so if I was ever drycamping, I'd have no access to hot food - unless I start actually taking care of my generator, so that it works when I want it to - or put in a second coach battery for the same reason.  I plan to take my rv in to Dues sometime in the next few weeks for a thorough going over - depending on price, I may install another battery - or at least get some professional advice on all this.  I need to post on the Escapees' discussion forum first, though - see what seasoned rvers have to say.

Rob and Helen Getman - aren't they  cute?

Induction cooktop - requires special cookware - you can boil water, take the pot off the stove, and immediately put your hand on the burner and it will be cool!

Interesting drawer arrangement

Rob, proselytizing to a couple of wanna rvers . . .