The misadventures of Commander Merlin and the crew of RV-103
Monday December 30th 2013

‘Ship Processing and Launch Preps’ Archives

In the RV Processing Facility

Yesterday I took RV-103 to Preventive Maintenance Service of Florida for her oil change and to have our damaged door panels looked at.  The owner, Al Cruz, came out and looked at the damaged door panels.  I told him that along with the oil change and safety check, I [Read More]

Comtemplation

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11-29 to 12-19-2009 Back in the RV Processing Facility

RV-103 is back and being readied for her next mission.  This is the time to go over “lessons learned” from the shakedown, take off supplies we realized we didn’t need and take on supplies we found we did need. We also needed to get routine maintenance done.  Up to [Read More]

Satellite TV: Dish Network or Direct TV?

RV-103 is blessed with a satellite dish and had an old Dish Network receiver.  It took me awhile, but eventually I learned how to manually point the dish in the right direction and choose the correct azimuth.  Once I was able to lock into a satellite, that’s when we [Read More]

Fall 2009 To Present Let’s Go Clubbing!

We have found with our research, if you are going to do any serious RVing, then you should have a club membership to get discounts at the RV parks.  There appear to be many RV clubs, both big and small, and many of them require some sort of yearly dues.  We ended up [Read More]

10-16-2009 But Can You Color Inside The Lines?

The last major item that needed to be taken cared of was the carpet.  RV-103 used to have a light brown/golden colored carpet that really didn’t match the rest of the décor very well.  It appears that sometime in the past, someone had tried to clean the carpet with a [Read More]

Are We Having Fun Yet? September – October 2009

As with any home, wheels or no wheels, when you purchase it used, you end up spending a lot of money and time “making it your own.”  The same goes for us and RV-103.  Though the RV was in great shape overall, much work had to be done to turn her into our home. Systems [Read More]

09-10/2009 Closing Out Old Lives.

One of the tasks that is always required when starting a new life is the sometimes messy business of closing out the old lives.  Accounts need paid off, closed, notices given, moving and storage done, etc. I know there is a poor economy, but I was surprised at how some of [Read More]

09-20-09 Picking up RV-103

Gypsy found a 2004 Coachman Santara 37 ft long for sale in TN.  She found it through the RV Dreams site which connects you with private sellers.  The price was right, the downpayment was right, and the terms right.  What was left was knowing if the RV was right or not. [Read More]

Finding the right RV: July – August 2009

When I first decided to take an early retirement from KSC, Gypsy and I quickly realized we had an opportunity to follow our dream of traveling the country in an RV.  Neither one of us had ever done something like that before and had many questions. Determining what type of [Read More]

Latest Topics

Goodbye and GodSpeed Discovery RV-103.

Goodbye and GodSpeed Discovery RV-103.

What can I say, but that it is an end to a major chapter in our lives.  Today I turned over the keys to our great and [Read More]

CollisionTEC: A Review

CollisionTEC: A Review

Towards the end of Mission #2, RV-103 had a mishap with a pole, as detailed here.  Last month, I finally got an [Read More]

Breaking News: Obama proposes an end to NASA’s Planetary Science Program

Breaking News: Obama proposes an end to NASA’s Planetary Science Program

“Word has leaked out that in its new budget, the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA’s planetary [Read More]

Mismatched Models

Mismatched Models

Most advocates of Human Space Flight programs always model HSF with the airplane model.  Government subsidized at [Read More]

Human Space Flight Trivia Week 7

Human Space Flight Trivia Week 7

First of all my apologies.  I had to take care of some duties at home that prevented me from posting the newest [Read More]

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