Tag Archives: autumnal equinox

2015/09/23 (W) Autumnal Equinox

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We were up at 8 AM, had granola for breakfast, and enjoyed our coffee in the living room by the fireplace.  I like cool mornings.

I spent some time yesterday morning, and again this morning, considering my full-frame DSLR options.  The only 50 MP “35mm” DSLR camera body on the market at this time is the Canon 5Ds/R and there is no indication that Sony plans to introduce a successor to the A99 anytime soon.  The A99 is still available, as is the vertical battery pack/grip and I am at the point where I will probably order one.  It has a 24 MP full-frame CMOS sensor, which is double the resolution of my alpha 100.  More importantly, it will accept all of my old 35mm Minolta A-mount lenses and they will work as designed.

Linda left at 9:40 AM to meet Diane at Kensington Metropark.  I gathered up the laundry, sorted it, and started the first load.  I then settled in at my desk for a while.

I e-mailed Mike (W8XH) to see if he could assist me on Saturday and/or Monday with climbing the tower to do some more antenna work.  I then e-mailed Bill Gerrie to see if he and Karen were in Michigan yet.  I pulled up the initial mockup of the October 2015 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and proofread my article on replacing the speedometer.  Jorge had done a good job of laying it out.  I e-mailed back four minor corrections, one slightly larger one, and a general comment about the lack of space following periods.  I had an e-mail from Steve Smith (N8AR) with contact information for Yaesu Fusion technical support.

The washing machine beeped so I transferred that load to the dryer and started another one.  I noticed that it was after 11:30 AM so I cleaned the cats’ litter tray, grabbed the garbage from under the kitchen island sink, put it in the trash can, and got it to the street.  Alchin’s normally comes “around noon” but I had a feeling they had already driven by.  They were still in our subdivision, however, and stopped on the way out to empty our can.

I had another cup of coffee and updated this post.  By noon Linda had not called yet let me know she was on her way home so I headed to Lowe’s for a roll of plumber’s sandpaper.  I also picked up the paste we need to hang the new wallpaper.  On the way back to the house I stopped at Teeko’s Coffee and Tea to order some Cafe Europe half-caff blend.  Linda was home when I got back and we had a light lunch.  We have both finally taken off some of the weight we put on this past winter.  Long, hard work days with little or no lunch seem to help.

By the time we got back to work on the bus projects it was 3 PM.  It’s hard to make progress when the workday starts in the afternoon.  Today is the autumnal equinox, so it gets dark much earlier in the evening than it did in late May, June, July and even most of August.  Still, as anxious as I am to get the heat exchangers re-installed we have to deal with the wallpaper in that part of the bus first.  Linda helped me assemble the right desk base, repeating what we did yesterday with the left base.

The left pedestal base with the Aqua-Hot fan-coil heat exchanger mounted inside.

The left pedestal base with the Aqua-Hot fan-coil heat exchanger mounted inside.

We installed the metal grates on the air openings (from the inside) and then used doubled-sided tape to affix the plastic mesh to the metal grate.  We put a 1/2″ plywood spacer in the bottom and marked the locations of the mounting bracket holes and the heat exchanger.  We took the exchanger and spacer out, punched the starter holes, and drilled.  Linda cleaned the heat exchanger and used a pair of tweezers to straighten the bent radiator fins, of which there were quite a few.  We cleaned off the two copper pipe stubs that provide the inlet and outlet for the antifreeze and then attached the self-stick 3/8″ X 1/4″ dense foam weather-stripping around the front of the housing.  We mounted the exchanger to the spacer with approximately 1/8″ of the foam weather-stripping beyond the front edge of the spacer.  We put the spacer/exchanger assembly back in the base and I secured it with screws while Linda pulled it into position, compressing the weather-stripping.

Linda cleans and straightens the fins on one of the fan-coil heat exchangers.

Linda cleans and straightens the fins on one of the fan-coil heat exchangers.

I took a few photographs as we worked and took some more of the finished assemblies.  While we were working we got a call from Philip Jarrell of Precision Paving.  Phil was calling to see if we still wanted the French Drain and driveway work done.  He has been busy all summer and even more so coming into fall when folks decide they need stuff done before winter.  He had given us a quote (estimate) back in the spring but could not do the work then because the soil was way too moist.  The property has dried out nicely over the last seven weeks and he wanted to make sure he did the work yet this year if we were still interested.  I told him “yes” and he said he would call “Miss Dig” right away to get the utilities marked and then get started.

The two desk bases with the fan-coil heat exchangers installed view from above and behind.

The two desk bases with the fan-coil heat exchangers installed view from above and behind.

I think this annoyed Linda as it will be another significant expenditure, but it’s something I think needs to be done and it is not easy to get a slice of Phil’s time.  (Actually, we have done a lot of difficult work together on the bus this summer and I think she was already annoyed from working with me on the right base.)  Not taking advantage of Phil’s availability would likely mean a two-year delay in getting this work done.

This project is actually a combination of two different projects that happened to make more sense to do at the same than at separate times.  The French drain is intended to dry out the far west end of our property which has standing water in the spring and after heavy rains, and stays moist/soft for the first half of the summer.  There are a lot of trees in that area and we have lost some and are losing others.  The driveway work will give us additional parking for people visiting in their RVs and create the main approach to the location for the bus barn that I hope to eventually build.  The topsoil that Phil pulls out from the driveway will be used to fill in low spots on the west end of the property, further improving the drainage in that area.

The right desk base viewed from above/behind showing the fans mounted on the back side of the heat-exchanger.

The right desk base viewed from above/behind showing the fans mounted on the back side of the heat-exchanger.

Linda returned to stripping wallpaper in the bus while I folded the laundry and put it away.  For dinner we had a salad and more of the soup that Linda made yesterday.  After dinner Linda researched wallpaper installation while I worked at my computer and uploaded eight blog posts from the third week of July.  About the time I finished the last one Brendan called so I went upstairs and Linda put the call on speaker.  He is a couple of weeks into his position at Eastern Michigan University teaching Art History and gave us a status report on how it is going, along with news of how Madeline is doing in her new daycare program University of Michigan.

We watched Dr. Michael Greger’s 2015 nutrition research summary on Linda’s iPad.  This is an annual presentation that he does at the vegan Summerfest in Pennsylvania.  His theme this year was the top health concerns of Americans, based on a major survey that was done by one of the national survey organizations, and what nutrition research has to offer with respect to these.  As we already know, many different diseases, one common answer; whole-food, plant-based, nutrition with no animal products.  We really are what we eat, and Americans are now some of the least healthy people on the planet.  We went to sleep reaffirmed in our dietary choices.

 

2014/09/22 (M) Hot Water

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Linda was up early to beat the morning traffic heading into Detroit from our part of S. E. Michigan.  On days when she has to go to the bakery she likes to get up and go and does not have breakfast at home.  Not that she doesn’t get something to eat; she’s spending the day working at a bakery after all.

I tend to stay up later at night than she does, so I also tend not to spring out of bed at oh-dark-thirty unless I have someplace I have to be at daybreak.  My job is to hear the alarms (we set several) and make sure Linda wakes up.  I am then free to pursue the rest of my day on my own timeline.  Today, however, I wanted to make sure I was up and dressed not later than 8 AM as there was a possibility that TOMTEK would be here to convert the hot-water base-board heating system boiler from propane to natural gas and/or that D. R. Electric Appliance would deliver and install our new natural gas kitchen range.  I did not, however, know if/when either of those things would happen so I was “stuck” at the house all day either waiting for phone calls.

I was dealing with e-mail when Tom called at 9:15 AM to let me know they had the part for our boiler and that he could be at our house around 10 AM if that was OK.   “Absolutely!”  I decided to bleed out whatever propane might be left in the 1/2″ line that feeds the kitchen and outdoor grill connector.  The pipe into the house was open to the outside for a while so I did not know how much propane, if any, even remained in the line.  I opened the shutoff valve in the laundry room for that line and then opened the outside valve for the gas grill.  Nothing.

It turns out that the quick-disconnect is a self-sealing device.  When the mating part is not plugged in, no gas can get out.  I should have known that, and it’s obvious that it should work that way, but I hadn’t really thought about it until that moment.  I closed the outside valve and then closed the shutoff valve in the basement and figured I (or the installer) would deal with that branch of the piping when the new range shows up.  I did not concern myself with the pipe to the furnace, which has its own shutoff valve, as I figured Tom would bleed the line before he started the unit.

Tom arrived about 10:20 AM.  He had the right part and he knew how to replace it.  The part (an orifice plate) was just a thin piece of metal, probably aluminum, with a hole about the size of a quarter in the center of it (the orifice) and several other holes for screws to pass through or other purposes.  I’m always trying to understand our technology and he let me observe and ask questions while he worked.  Tom disconnected a small vacuum hose, removed three or four screws, lowered the blower housing, slid the old propane orifice plate out, slid the new natural gas orifice plate in, reattached the blower housing, and our boiler was converted to natural gas.  Just like that.

Once he had the new natural gas orifice plate installed and everything reassembled he put gas to the furnace and turned on the electrical power.  It took a few seconds to purge the air and residual propane from the gas pipe but the burner lit and stayed lit on the first try.  He checked for gas leaks as it warmed up.  (He used an electronic sniffer rather than soapy water.)  He did not find any gas leaks but I noticed some condensation dripping from the flue pipe onto the top of the unit.  He shut the furnace off and let it cool down enough to handle the flue pipe and found that a joint between two sections was leaking.  He pulled it apart, applied a sealant, and put it back together nice and tight.  He turned the furnace on again and the leak did not reappear.  We did notice, however, that there was a similar leak at the next joint downstream.  I moved a spare macerator pump from under that joint and put a bucket there to catch any drips, although stains on the underside of the flue pipe indicated that this leak had existed for a while and that condensation leaking at that point had run back downhill towards the boiler along the underside of the pipe.  We may need to eventually have all of the joints resealed all the way to the outside.

I turned all of the thermostats on and set the temperatures a few degrees above ambient so they would call for heat and Tom monitored the temperature and pressure of the coolant as the unit heated up.  At 140 degrees F the pressure was between 35 and 40 PSI.  Tom said it should be closer to 20 PSI at that temperature, so he drained some of the coolant out of the system into a bucket.  As water trickled into the bucket the pressure dropped accordingly. The system eventually heated up to just under 180 degrees F, which is where it normally operates, and the pressure stayed below 25 PSI.  He put the covers back on the unit and gathered up his tools while I wrote a check and paid him for the service call. After he left I took a nice hot shower, the first one since last Wednesday morning.  ;-0

While I was doing chores around the house I got a call from Marilyn in the AT&T billing department.  She called to let me know that they were crediting our bill to compensate for the lack of usable service in August.  I got a call later from Shelley from the Office of the President (of AT&T) following up on our MPSC complaint.  I told her that the POTS and DSL had been working just fine since Bill was here to repair our service.  She had requested the billing credit and said she would report back to the commission that everything was repaired to our satisfaction.  I told her I would confirm that if contacted by the MPSC.

Today was shaping up to be a very good day.  It was sunny outside with light winds, puffy clouds, and afternoon high temperatures in the low 60’s; a little brisk, perhaps, but cheerful and very refreshing.  Earlier in the day I noticed the road grader going up and down our street smoothing out the bumps and filling in the holes.  With a forecast of no rain and high temperatures in the mid-to-upper 70’s for the next week the road should be decent to drive on for a while.

Some of the difficulty we have had this summer getting contractors to show up reminded me of a joke that Steven Wright told years ago on an HBO comedy show.  It went something like this:  “I walked up to the deli entrance and the sign said ‘Open 24 Hours’ so I tried the door but it was locked.  While I was standing there the owner walked up and unlocked the door.  I said to him ‘Your sign says ‘Open 24 Hours’.’  He just looked at me and said ‘We are, but not in a row’.”

I’m starting to wonder if the kitchen range is going to turn out to be another example of “tell the customer whatever you think they need to hear to get them to make the purchase.”  The difference in this case is that we have not given D. R. Electric Appliance a deposit or a credit card number, so if delivery is delayed much longer we can walk away from the deal with nothing to lose except time.  We probably won’t, as that would just further delay getting a new NG range, but it’s nice to know that we at least have that option if this drags on any longer.  We were told “three days” and based our decision to order from them in part on that information.

With respect to the conversion or our generator from propane to natural gas, our new NG fireplace logs, and our new NG outdoor grill, our hands are basically tied.  We either have parts on order, for which we have already paid, don’t have a choice of contractor, or have made the choice not to look for another contractor as that would simply involve more delay and the uncertainty of working with someone we have not worked with before.  Still, it’s a little frustrating that we can’t get this stuff taken care of.  The real issue for me is that I need to take our bus to Butch and Fonda’s place to work on it, and I cannot do that until all of the natural gas related work is done.  The other issue is that we do not want to contact Consumer’s Energy (natural gas) and AmeriGas (propane) until all of our gas appliances are switched over.  Consumer’s Energy “requires” us to accomplish this within 30 days of hanging the meter, which occurred one week ago today, so we do not have an unlimited amount of time to get this stuff taken care of.

Interestingly, I learned at breakfast on Saturday that two of our ham radio club members had contacted Bratcher Electric based on my recommendation.  Mike had already been to one of their houses, quoted them a whole house generator installation, gotten a signed contract and a deposit, and given them an installation date.  The other guy had a scheduled appointment for Mike to come out and give him a quote.  Mike looked at our job five weeks ago and I don’t have a price or a service date scheduled yet.  What’s up with that?!  I did not want to spoil today’s winning streak, however, so I chose not to make follow up phone calls today.  Tomorrow morning, however…

We were both tired and turned in early to watch episode 2 of Ken Burns “The Roosevelts: An Intimate Portrait.”  I was putting the finishing touches on this post afterwards and noted the occurrence of the autumnal equinox at 10:39 PM EDT.

 

2014/06/25 (W) Summer Start

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I am normally aware of the two equinoxes and the two solstices each year and take note of their passing.  I just realized today that the summer solstice happened four days ago (on June 21st).  I checked several online sources and discovered that it occurred at 6:51 AM in the Eastern Time Zone, although it wasn’t clear if that was standard or daylight savings time.  Since that time the hours of daylight have been declining slightly each day.  Perhaps that is why I am not getting as much accomplished as I need to.  Although the summer vacation season begins Memorial Day weekend and runs through the Labor Day weekend, and climatologically “summer” corresponds to this, solar summer runs from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox.

Linda went to the bakery today while I sat at home and waited to see if the landscape contractor would show up.  I left a message for him at 9 AM and had not heard anything by 9:30, so I headed to South Lyon to help move the SLAARC Field Day equipment out of the water tower and into Steve’s (N8AR) trailer.  We were done by 11:15 and I was about to head to Scotty’s (AC8IL) shop to return a couple of chargers when the landscaper called to let me know they would be at the house around noon.

Steve, who owns Village Landscape Development, showed up with four young men who looked up to the initial tasks that needed to be accomplished.  Three of them were not long out of high school, but the forth one, Lucas, was a few years older and more experienced.  He was the crew chief.  I indicated that we wanted to save four hosta plants, a large group of day lilies, and a large decorative grass plant, and had to show Steve where I wanted them re-planted.  I also had to indicate where I wanted the blocks from the existing retaining walls stacked.  Once that was sorted out I went inside and left them alone to do their work.

Mid-afternoon I heard the sound of Keith’s riding lawn mower and went out to check on his progress as well as the landscaping crew.  I had loaned our string trimmer and wheel barrow to the landscaping crew to clear the two slopes above the retaining walls and move the plants they were transplanting, but they needed Keith to mow the flat grass areas where they be working.  I flagged Keith down and got that sorted out with him and then went back inside and left everyone to their work.

I was not as productive during the afternoon as I would have liked to be.  I worked at my desk dealing with e-mails, RVillage groups, and computer apps, but having people at the house working is always somewhat distracting.  Linda eventually got home from the bakery and we settled into conversation about our days that took my mind off of the landscape work and other projects, at least for a while.

Steve had indicated earlier in the day that he would be back in the evening to check on the progress of the work.  His original target was 7 PM but he called around then to say that it would be around 9 PM.  He typically has 3 or 4 crews working, weather permitting.  The persistent rains this spring have carried over into summer and created big challenges for builders and landscapers.  To catch up, he puts in 14 -16 hour days.  When he got to our house at 9:20 PM there was just enough light to see and we made a quick inspection of what had been accomplished during the day.  Considering that the work did not really get underway until 1 PM, he seemed satisfied that the crew had put in a good effort and followed the directions he gave them.  That was good enough for us too.

 

2013_09_21 (Sat) Autumnal Equinox

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Today was the autumnal equinox.  The weather today was chilly early and stayed cool as the cloud cover shifted back and forth between overcast and partly sunny.  We had occasional drizzles early and blustery, fall like conditions later.  So often it seems the autumnal equinox occurs during an Indian summer; but not today.  I have always liked fall.

We signed up earlier in the week to drive golf cart shuttles on the early shift this morning from 7:30 to 10:30 AM.  That meant we would miss the pancake breakfast, which ran from 8:00 to 9:30 AM, but that was OK as we would not choose to eat what they were serving anyway (buttermilk pancakes and breakfast sausage.)  We both bundled up against the chill and zoomed around the fairgrounds for three hours giving rides to folks.  We saw lots of people walking this week, which was nice, but the golf carts were there for those who wanted/needed to ride.  We were glad to volunteer for this duty as we get to meet a lot of people in a short time, and folks are always appreciative of the service.

The pancake breakfast has to serve a lot of pancakes to a lot of people in relatively small time window.  To accomplish this, they hired a company who brought in two conveyor/depositor systems.  I got the following photographs from Vicky Lintner:

The pancake depositor at work. That’s a lot of pancakes!

The pancake depositor at work. That’s a lot of pancakes!

A happy customer.

A happy customer.

Two pancake machines in action.

Two pancake machines in action.

A “smokin’ hot short stack.

A “smokin’ hot short stack.

Flippin’ ‘n’ catchin’.

Flippin’ ‘n’ catchin’.

The rest of the fixins’.

The rest of the fixins’.

A nice place to sit with friends and eat breakfast.

A nice place to sit with friends and eat breakfast.

The GLCC chapter area.

The GLCC chapter area.

We chose not to eat breakfast before our shuttle shift, so we had a late breakfast / early lunch in our coach around 11 AM.  We planned to attend the noon tour of the ABC Bus repair facility in Nappanee, and needed to be on the road by 11:30 AM.  We were a few minutes late leaving, and the trip took a few minutes longer than our mapping software said it would, so we did not get to the ABC facility until 12:08 PM.  The entrance wasn’t obvious to us, and although we eventually spotted cars that we recognized, they were behind closed gates that we did not see how to get through or around.  We drove around for a half hour looking for an entrance before we ended up back where we started only to discover that the gates were now open.

The ABC Bus Nappanee facility.

The ABC Bus Nappanee facility.

But all’s well that ends well, I suppose.  When plant manager Mike Papp finished the initial tour (with almost 60 people) he took Linda and I and one other guy (who had been following us in his SUV) through the facility.  We probably got a shorter tour, but we did not have to compete with other people to ask our questions.

 

The ABC Bus Nappanee “Van Hool” operation.

The ABC Bus Nappanee “Van Hool” operation.

ABC Bus operates two different programs at this Nappanee location, a former Gulfstream RV facility.  The operation they are best known for is re-manufacturing of Greyhound buses.  This work takes place it its own building and is a very tight, exclusive relationship with Greyhound.  We did not get to tour that building, but the work they are doing is very similar for both programs.

The ABC Bus Nappanee Greyhound operation.

The ABC Bus Nappanee Greyhound operation.

I think they are just finishing a run of some 800 MCI 102D3 or 102DL3 buses for Greyhound.  They are replacing the original engines and transmissions with Detroit Diesel Series 60s and Allison automatics.  This requires all new wiring harnesses and a rebuilt dashboard.  They are also rebuilding the entire underside of the bus (suspension, brakes, and axles if they are needed).  They are gutting the interiors and putting in new seating with 3-point restraints and updated electronics.  Finally, they are repainting the exterior a dark blue color with the iconic Greyhound logo down the side.  We were told that if you see a Greyhound bus painted this color, it came from the ABC refurbishing program.

Van Hool operations manager Mike Papp talking to Linda and another FMCAer.

Van Hool operations manager Mike Papp talking to Linda and another FMCAer.

The operation we toured was basically doing the same kind of work as the Greyhound operation, only for Van Hool and other buses.  ABC Bus is the exclusive North American dealer for Van Hool.  They have sold a lot them and they have taken a lot of them back in on trade.  A primary function of this second operation is to rebuild these “stock” coaches for resale.  They are also doing this work, however, for coaches that are already owned and they are looking to expand into doing motorhome work; hence the tour.  They had several MCIs there, and Mike Papp, the Operations Manager, told us they can/will work on Prevost coaches as well.  Basically, if you own a bus, they will work on it, whatever it needs.

A DD Series 60 engine and Allison transmission. Sweet.

A DD Series 60 engine and Allison transmission. Sweet.

Note: I presume they are looking to work on diesel pushers, but they may be willing to work on anything.  Anyone interested in their services should contact Mike Papp, Operations Manager, at 574.773.4277 Ext 103 or 407.340.0108 (cell) to discuss their needs.

The business end of a bus being reworked. (Linda wondering if that would fit in our coach.)

The business end of a bus being reworked. (Linda wondering if that would fit in our coach.)

I’ve been thinking about pulling the radiator on our coach and having it cleaned or re-cored and replacing all of the coolant lines with new, high-temperature silicon ones.  I asked if they could do that work and the answer was “yes, we can do that.”  They also have access to an alignment shop in South Bend that does all-wheel alignments on buses.  Apparently they were expecting a handful of people, so they were a bit surprise, but pleased, when 60 of us showed up to see the place.

 

It’s not just an engine, it’s industrial art, and has a beauty all its own.

It’s not just an engine, it’s industrial art, and has a beauty all its own.

(BTW:  The cost to pull an engine and transmission and replace it with a brand new DD Series 60 and Allison automatic, including the wiring and dashboard work, is $60K – $75K depending on the bus.  Depending on what kind of conversion project someone wants to take on, ABC Bus has lots of used buses for sale in the $50K range.  That means someone could have a 45 foot coach with a brand new engine and tranny for $110K – $120K as the starting point for a conversion project.

More buses being worked on.

More buses being worked on.

Mike told us that he has approximately 500 daily person-hours that he can assign to projects.  Hypothetically (but not practically) he could assign them all one bus for a day.  Ignoring the fact that the workers would be inefficiently getting in each others’ way, an enormous amount of work could be accomplish in a very short time.  He did not mention their labor rate, but that would probably be a $50,000 day for that coach.

DD Series 60 engines all in a row.

DD Series 60 engines all in a row.

Because ABC is purchasing in volume from Detroit Diesel Allison, and because they want to be able to turn around buses somewhat quickly, they keep a lot of DD Series 60 engines and Allison transmissions in stock.

When we got back from the ABC Bus tour we went to a seminar on Places To Take Your Grandchildren RVing.  The presenter had a nice slide show that highlighted places children might enjoy, but did not differentiate places and activities by age range, which would have been helpful.  The presenter was also the vendor for SkyMed, so we ended up sitting through a presentation on that as well.

SkyMed is an insurance program that will cover the cost of medical transportation by ground or air for a variety of situations.  Like all insurance, it is more expensive than you would like for something you hope you never have to use, but if you ever need the kind of coverage they provide, you will wish you had it.  (A typical helicopter med-i-vac flight runs about $25,000 and probably isn’t covered by your existing health, auto, or RV insurance.)  There are many nice features to SkyMed, including a Global plan, which I won’t mention here other than this one: you do not have to call SkyMed first.  First you call 9-1-1, then you call SkyMed, and as part of your coverage, they will handle almost everything from there.  We’ve listened to SkyMed presentations before.  We didn’t sign up, but we always leaving thinking about it seriously.

After the seminar we went back to the vendor building to purchase a windshield mounted camera/DVR device, but got there after the vendor area had closed.  This seems to happen to us a lot; we delay making a decision to buy something until it is too late.  But hey, it’s an effective way to stay within budget.  This device will record up to 10 hours of video on a 32 GB memory card.  It can be pointed out the window while driving, or at the cabin while parked and away from the coach, to provide video evidence of events that may occur (such as an accident or break-in).

Saturday evening Dane Bailey (The Singing Auctioneer) did a warm-up performance followed by the Harbor Lights focal quintet.  Harbor Lights is an a cappella group that specializes in “doo-wop”.  They sang for almost an hour and a half without an intermission.  Many of their songs were authentic doo-wop toons, and some were doo-wop rearrangements of songs from the 1950’s and 60’s.  The members of Harbor Lights are local to north central and northwest Indiana.  They brought a lot of energy to their show, and it was a trip down memory lane for many of us.  Some of us noticed that they seemed to have trouble holding pitch on the tight doo-wop harmonies, which detracted from an otherwise good show.  I suspect it was due to an inadequate monitor speaker system or the lack of wireless headphones, making it difficult for them to really hear each other.

We walked back to our coach under an almost full autumnal equinox moon.  Rving is a good life.