We took Jan's iPhone and my MacBook Pro over to the Apple store's Genius Bar. Jan's home button was intermittent, and although they thought it was software related, gave her a new replacement phone. My computer has acted slow now and then so they ran diagnostics on it and couldn't find anything definitive. I'm not surprised, it's 3 years old now which is about an eternity in computer time. They suggested a MacBook Air, but I think mine's just fine for now. So Jan spent a lot of time getting her phone set back up with all her goodies.
We had a nice visit with Jason and his girlfriend, Jessica. They stopped by on their way back from a weekend in Savannah. We spent a very pleasant several hours with them.
We walked around Lazy Days today looking at a bunch of new coaches, just for fun. Nothing enthused us, and we certainly aren't looking, but it's fun to see the new things they are being equipped with. Seems induction cooktops are the rage now, and it makes a lot of sense.
Doing a lot of walking, I'm trying to get back into exercise and get some weight back off. Nothing as drastic as the last time, just easing into it.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Oh yeah
I forgot to mention we are in Florida now. When we bought our coach in 2008 from Lazy Days in Tampa they gave us a bunch of coupons for free nights at their campground. We've only used a few, so we decided we should use a few more as we go by waiting for our reservation in Nokomis on April 1st. So we are parked at the Lazy Days Rally Park for a couple days. I need to take my computer in for a quick tune up and Jan is having a small problem with her iPhone, so we are going to visit the Genius Bar at the Apple store in Brandon while we are here. It's busy here as usual, attached to one of the biggest RV dealers in the US. Weather's gorgeous, should be a good couple of days.
No Internet!
Yeah, I've been quiet for a few days. The internet at the campground in Alabama provided by Tengo Internet was down for 3 days. Very frustrating. I know I've mentioned the internet providers previously, and a deal like this really prompts us to do something about it, but......
Millenicom is the company I mentioned that has internet service with no contracts, and we were getting closer to getting what they called an Advanced plan, 20 GB/mon for $60, but they just discontinued it. They have an unlimited plan through Sprint, not one of my favorites, for $70/month. A lot of money if the campgrounds provide decent WiFi, you know, retired now, it's a bunch of money if you go several months and not need it. We're contemplating it now. What they need is a plan that allows you to turn it on and off on a monthly basis, listening Millicom???
Good news, my tooth seems fine.
Jan went out the other evening to our freezer in the basement, lucky she did, cause everything was thawing! We bought this freezer just before we went to Alaska in 2005, and it has been fantastic. We caught all the food before it was ruined thankfully. The freezer was made by a company called Engel. The freezer has a 2 year warranty, so we figured we'd be buying a new one. They are almost $1000 now! Called Engel customer service and they had me do several things so they could troubleshoot the problem. It was found to be a faulty cooling unit. They said they would ship the new cooling unit to me and for my trouble, they would reduce the listed $367 for the part to $225! Just like Christmas. It's nice to give a good report on a company instead of the usual. Another superb company related to RV's is Fantastic Fan. You can call them anytime with any kind of issue with one of their exhaust fans, no matter how old, and they send you the part ASAP, no charge!
Trying another new thing for fuel conservation. I have always set the cruise control at 71 mph, cause I've always been in a hurry, even when we haven't been. I'm trying to cruise now at 66 mph and see what it does for our mileage. We get a booming 5.5 to 5.7 normally, so we are anxious to see what we get at the slower speed. Looks promising so far, but we won't know for sure until we run a couple tankfuls.
Millenicom is the company I mentioned that has internet service with no contracts, and we were getting closer to getting what they called an Advanced plan, 20 GB/mon for $60, but they just discontinued it. They have an unlimited plan through Sprint, not one of my favorites, for $70/month. A lot of money if the campgrounds provide decent WiFi, you know, retired now, it's a bunch of money if you go several months and not need it. We're contemplating it now. What they need is a plan that allows you to turn it on and off on a monthly basis, listening Millicom???
Good news, my tooth seems fine.
Jan went out the other evening to our freezer in the basement, lucky she did, cause everything was thawing! We bought this freezer just before we went to Alaska in 2005, and it has been fantastic. We caught all the food before it was ruined thankfully. The freezer was made by a company called Engel. The freezer has a 2 year warranty, so we figured we'd be buying a new one. They are almost $1000 now! Called Engel customer service and they had me do several things so they could troubleshoot the problem. It was found to be a faulty cooling unit. They said they would ship the new cooling unit to me and for my trouble, they would reduce the listed $367 for the part to $225! Just like Christmas. It's nice to give a good report on a company instead of the usual. Another superb company related to RV's is Fantastic Fan. You can call them anytime with any kind of issue with one of their exhaust fans, no matter how old, and they send you the part ASAP, no charge!
Trying another new thing for fuel conservation. I have always set the cruise control at 71 mph, cause I've always been in a hurry, even when we haven't been. I'm trying to cruise now at 66 mph and see what it does for our mileage. We get a booming 5.5 to 5.7 normally, so we are anxious to see what we get at the slower speed. Looks promising so far, but we won't know for sure until we run a couple tankfuls.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
An Unplanned Day
A while ago I was discussing the pluses and minuses of living on the road versus a stick and mortar house. Well, I experienced one of the disadvantages yesterday, but, thankfully it has a happy ending.
While eating dinner Tuesday night, and having very healthful multi-grain bread full of seeds and nuts, I bit down on an exceptionally hard nut and had a crown pop off! Not a good thing. So I'm sitting there with my crown in my hand at 7:30 pm in southern Alabama. I called my great dentist back in Atlanta, and asked him what to do. He said if it just popped off, try to see a dentist locally and they'd just glue it back on, and it could be addressed later. Easier said than done. Thankfully I was having no pain.
I got on the internet and found a site that not only rated dentists in the area, but showed what insurance companies they were affiliated with. But it's still a pig in a poke.
While sitting there on line I felt something move near my tooth and out popped a big piece of filling, not a good thing. I kept thinking I needed to get back to Atlanta to see my dentist (I am a big chicken, you know), but it would really mess with our plans, one visit for a temporary and then another visit for the permanent crown, but......
I called Southern Dentistry, Dr Nebrig, in Daphne and got an appointment at 11am. Quick, huh? Well, not surprisingly with the big piece of filling that broke out, they couldn't just reglue it. I needed a new crown. They have a system called Cerec that can make a new ceramic crown in just one day! It takes very detailed 3D pictures of the prepared tooth, the surrounding teeth, and the opposing tooth, and with a computer designs a crown unique to you. A computerized cutting machine cuts and shapes the crown, it is then baked ta attain full hardness, and into your mouth it goes. Called my dentist, got the go ahead, it turned out they had a cancellation so at 1 pm, I was prepped, and at 4 pm the dentist put on my new permanent crown! Amazing! It was a great office with friendly people, and the dentist even called me that evening to see how I was! Fell into a great experience.
And with gold so high, they said I should sell my old crown. We'll see.
While eating dinner Tuesday night, and having very healthful multi-grain bread full of seeds and nuts, I bit down on an exceptionally hard nut and had a crown pop off! Not a good thing. So I'm sitting there with my crown in my hand at 7:30 pm in southern Alabama. I called my great dentist back in Atlanta, and asked him what to do. He said if it just popped off, try to see a dentist locally and they'd just glue it back on, and it could be addressed later. Easier said than done. Thankfully I was having no pain.
I got on the internet and found a site that not only rated dentists in the area, but showed what insurance companies they were affiliated with. But it's still a pig in a poke.
While sitting there on line I felt something move near my tooth and out popped a big piece of filling, not a good thing. I kept thinking I needed to get back to Atlanta to see my dentist (I am a big chicken, you know), but it would really mess with our plans, one visit for a temporary and then another visit for the permanent crown, but......
I called Southern Dentistry, Dr Nebrig, in Daphne and got an appointment at 11am. Quick, huh? Well, not surprisingly with the big piece of filling that broke out, they couldn't just reglue it. I needed a new crown. They have a system called Cerec that can make a new ceramic crown in just one day! It takes very detailed 3D pictures of the prepared tooth, the surrounding teeth, and the opposing tooth, and with a computer designs a crown unique to you. A computerized cutting machine cuts and shapes the crown, it is then baked ta attain full hardness, and into your mouth it goes. Called my dentist, got the go ahead, it turned out they had a cancellation so at 1 pm, I was prepped, and at 4 pm the dentist put on my new permanent crown! Amazing! It was a great office with friendly people, and the dentist even called me that evening to see how I was! Fell into a great experience.
And with gold so high, they said I should sell my old crown. We'll see.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The Last? Day
Sitting here at 6 am thinking about the fact this was supposed to be my last day at work. Last flying day that is. The way this is working out is peculiar, I'm actually done flying, but I hope to stay employed through June 1st if I can. That way my medical insurance is covered until June 30th. And as any of you who are approaching or into retirement realize, the medical insurance is a biggie. Right now I am good to go through May 31, and on April 1st I have an opportunity to bid for another one of those schedules that pay nothing but cover the medical insurance for May. I'll let you know.
What's different this time around is, instead of being officially retired as soon as I stopped working, this time it is only me who knows I'm retired, at least for the time being.
What's different this time around is, instead of being officially retired as soon as I stopped working, this time it is only me who knows I'm retired, at least for the time being.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Starting to move
I injured my shoulder some years back moving a very heavy desk, and planned on an operation. The surgery was cancelled the day before it was scheduled on the surgeon's opinion. To say I was relieved is an understatement, but he did tell me I would probably experience some pain with it over the years if I overdid it. And it is true. About once a year, after some abuse it causes quite a bit of discomfort. Well, all this stuff we've been doing with the base plate, wiring, and roof rack really did it in. I opted to not go fly Saturday, too hard on the shoulder.
I mentioned that we were getting a lot done and that included some get togethers. We had a great lunch and visit with Brett and Sandra. A nice dinner with John and Diane, and Ted and Patty. It's hard to believe that after talking about this for so long, the time has finally come where we are leaving the area, essentially for good. It was bittersweet, we will miss being so close to special friends.
We drove down to Alabama to the Escapee park for a few weeks, because our reservation in Florida doesn't begin until April 1st. The Escapee's have a policy of not allowing reservations, but they will never turn you away. When we arrived the inn was full! We had to boondock for one night waiting for a site to become available. Boondock means no hook ups of any kind, no electric, water, or sewer. We want to include more and more boondocking in our future, but haven't done much of it. We have spent most of our time in campgrounds, easy and the ability to make reservations on a set vacation made sense. But on the other hand, we have seen some absolutely gorgeous places to boondock, mostly out west, usually out in the middle of nowhere, with incredible views and few if any neighbors. Peace and quiet and beauty.
It was just one night, but it allowed us to work with a, new to us, system on the coach, AGS. AGS stands for automatic generator start. It can be programmed to start the generator to charge the batteries, or to provide AC power to run the air conditioners. We had never used it before. A bit of a learning curve, but we are figuring it out. You set a bottom threshold for your house battery bank that is approximately equivalent to 50% of capacity. We have 4 big 12 volt AGM house batteries, and with AGM's, the 50% mark is about 12.2 volts. So we set the AGS to start the generator when the batteries got to 12.3 volts. Batteries can be drained below 50%, but it cuts into their life. We didn't use the other parameter as the evening was cool and comfortable so we didn't need air conditioning. But you have the ability to set an inside temperature that will start the genny and start the AC's. Pretty cool. Also a lot of parks have a generator quiet time when they don't want any generators running and we also have the ability to set that in as well. We will be using this more and more.
We're excited as we will be on the move more and more as we ease into this new segment of our life.
I mentioned that we were getting a lot done and that included some get togethers. We had a great lunch and visit with Brett and Sandra. A nice dinner with John and Diane, and Ted and Patty. It's hard to believe that after talking about this for so long, the time has finally come where we are leaving the area, essentially for good. It was bittersweet, we will miss being so close to special friends.
We drove down to Alabama to the Escapee park for a few weeks, because our reservation in Florida doesn't begin until April 1st. The Escapee's have a policy of not allowing reservations, but they will never turn you away. When we arrived the inn was full! We had to boondock for one night waiting for a site to become available. Boondock means no hook ups of any kind, no electric, water, or sewer. We want to include more and more boondocking in our future, but haven't done much of it. We have spent most of our time in campgrounds, easy and the ability to make reservations on a set vacation made sense. But on the other hand, we have seen some absolutely gorgeous places to boondock, mostly out west, usually out in the middle of nowhere, with incredible views and few if any neighbors. Peace and quiet and beauty.
It was just one night, but it allowed us to work with a, new to us, system on the coach, AGS. AGS stands for automatic generator start. It can be programmed to start the generator to charge the batteries, or to provide AC power to run the air conditioners. We had never used it before. A bit of a learning curve, but we are figuring it out. You set a bottom threshold for your house battery bank that is approximately equivalent to 50% of capacity. We have 4 big 12 volt AGM house batteries, and with AGM's, the 50% mark is about 12.2 volts. So we set the AGS to start the generator when the batteries got to 12.3 volts. Batteries can be drained below 50%, but it cuts into their life. We didn't use the other parameter as the evening was cool and comfortable so we didn't need air conditioning. But you have the ability to set an inside temperature that will start the genny and start the AC's. Pretty cool. Also a lot of parks have a generator quiet time when they don't want any generators running and we also have the ability to set that in as well. We will be using this more and more.
We're excited as we will be on the move more and more as we ease into this new segment of our life.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
A quick roof rack update
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Busy, busy
It's been awhile since I posted. I've been working again. I did a 4 day trip on Sat that had some scheduling changes so it morphed into 4 long days without enough time to make a post. It turned out to be a very enjoyable trip thanks to who I was flying with, thanks Rick.
I talked about the roof rack and said we were thinking about switching from Thule to Yakima. On further investigation we decided to stay with Thule. I had received some info back from a few retailers that sold both and they seemed to prefer Thule. Well, we exchanged the wrong mounts that I mentioned, cancelled the special order for the fit kit, bought the correct mounts and fit kit, and Friday afternoon we installed the new bars and mounts. Fit great and we were very pleased. Saturday morning we left for the airport, and WOW, was the rack ever loud! It just howled! We looked at each other and knew we could not live with it. So Jan had to go back, yet again to REI, what a great store, and exchange the bars and mounts for their Aero bars that should cut down the noise. But, they didn't have the bars we needed in stock so they should arrive today, and we hope to mount it later and find NO noise.
We told the campground folks we were planning to leave in a week or so after being here for over 6 years. I guess we're regulars. Rick, the manager, who has become a friend, and Andrew had us over for a good bye oyster feast that was fantastic! Andrew is an incredible chef, and we had a great evening.
We are zeroing in on the end, so will be busy this week getting the final items accomplished and seeing some good friends before we cut out of Dodge!
I talked about the roof rack and said we were thinking about switching from Thule to Yakima. On further investigation we decided to stay with Thule. I had received some info back from a few retailers that sold both and they seemed to prefer Thule. Well, we exchanged the wrong mounts that I mentioned, cancelled the special order for the fit kit, bought the correct mounts and fit kit, and Friday afternoon we installed the new bars and mounts. Fit great and we were very pleased. Saturday morning we left for the airport, and WOW, was the rack ever loud! It just howled! We looked at each other and knew we could not live with it. So Jan had to go back, yet again to REI, what a great store, and exchange the bars and mounts for their Aero bars that should cut down the noise. But, they didn't have the bars we needed in stock so they should arrive today, and we hope to mount it later and find NO noise.
We told the campground folks we were planning to leave in a week or so after being here for over 6 years. I guess we're regulars. Rick, the manager, who has become a friend, and Andrew had us over for a good bye oyster feast that was fantastic! Andrew is an incredible chef, and we had a great evening.
We are zeroing in on the end, so will be busy this week getting the final items accomplished and seeing some good friends before we cut out of Dodge!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Some more progress
We worked all day as it turned out to put the base plate on the new Jeep so we can tow it. Looks a bit uncomfortable with the whole front end removed.
But by taking our time, it's not that difficult, and it's sure nice saving the money and knowing it's done correctly. We also got the wiring kit installed. It is an entirely separate system so you don't have to penetrate the wiring system and electronics on the Jeep. Essentially you just run a wire from the front where you mount a plug, then along the frame to the rear of the vehicle then up into the rear light lenses. Then you drill a 1 inch hole in each light module and mount a separate bulb on each side. That way you have turn signals, brake lights, and rear lights totally independent of the Jeep's system.
It did take us a little longer than we estimated, but that was to be expected. Blue Ox makes good stuff with clear instructions. We highly recommend their products.
On another note, we were sitting around yesterday enjoying the weather, so Jan suggested we take a look at the Thule roof rack parts we bought to see how they were going to fit. We only have half of the mount as we had to order the appropriate fit kit. Thank goodness we did! We don't have the correct parts. It came right out of Thule's book, so we are pretty upset. We are sure glad we didn't wait until the last moment before we left to find this out. We have to go back to REI this morning and straighten it out. We are thinking seriously of switching to a Yakima mount and bar system instead of Thule. The round Yakima bars might be quieter than the square Thule ones . We'll see.
On another note, we were sitting around yesterday enjoying the weather, so Jan suggested we take a look at the Thule roof rack parts we bought to see how they were going to fit. We only have half of the mount as we had to order the appropriate fit kit. Thank goodness we did! We don't have the correct parts. It came right out of Thule's book, so we are pretty upset. We are sure glad we didn't wait until the last moment before we left to find this out. We have to go back to REI this morning and straighten it out. We are thinking seriously of switching to a Yakima mount and bar system instead of Thule. The round Yakima bars might be quieter than the square Thule ones . We'll see.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Deflector on
We got the deflector on today. Easy job and fits well.
We spent quite a bit of time trying to learn how to operate all the stuff on the Jeep. Tomorrow the base plate and wiring go on.
On another note, I got that schedule for April that I wanted, the one where I don't work!!!! So we'll be out of here on our way to Florida via Alabama this month. Yehaw!
On another note, I got that schedule for April that I wanted, the one where I don't work!!!! So we'll be out of here on our way to Florida via Alabama this month. Yehaw!
New Jeep
We picked up our new Jeep yesterday afternoon. We are very pleased, although it's going to take some time to figure out all the electronic gobbly-gook on it. It appears more complex than the 737 I fly :)
Now we need some warmer weather to put on the base plate, wiring kit, roof rack, and air deflector. Murphy's law, you know, it's been in the 70's for days, but it's only 29 this morning!
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Another notch
Sold the VW GTI yesterday. Now we are down to one car. Funny,we were talking about this today and realized this is the first time ever that Jan and I have had only one car in the 38 1/2 years we've been married! We've received the base plate, the wiring kit, the air deflector, and the floor and cargo mats. Now all we need is the new Jeep. Hopefully soon. We've got all this stuff jammed in here and there in every little cubby we can find.
I just put in a bid for a schedule that will carry me through April to pull the plug. It is a deal offered by the company when they are temporarily overmanned, you stay as an active employee, don't work, and of course don't get paid, BUT the company pays your medical. It's a good deal and just what we can use right now. It will extend my employment, but not the work. Pretty cool if I can get it.
We are enjoying an absolutely beautiful day today, sunny and in the mid 70's!
I just put in a bid for a schedule that will carry me through April to pull the plug. It is a deal offered by the company when they are temporarily overmanned, you stay as an active employee, don't work, and of course don't get paid, BUT the company pays your medical. It's a good deal and just what we can use right now. It will extend my employment, but not the work. Pretty cool if I can get it.
We are enjoying an absolutely beautiful day today, sunny and in the mid 70's!
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