We've been and are busy with family. Jason came down for a few days, and we were surprised to see Kelly and our grandkids arrive last night unexpectedly. A very nice surprise! Also our friends, Bruce and Cathie arrived from the cold north to start their new life being Florida residents. We were able to give them a hand unloading some of their stuff.
So a busy week awaits. Jason is going to help me with a quick project today straightening our rock guard, but I think most of our time will be just spending time with everyone, going to the beach, the pool, and maybe some bike rides.
We have solidified more of our summer plans, and happily will be joined for at least part of the time with Karen and her coach.
So we are down to a month left, are going to have to say goodbye to lots of friends as they all start to head north, and some that are staying here, until we see them again next season.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Winding down already, are you kidding?
Here we are in the 3rd week of March and yes, things are already winding down. There are two mass snow bird exoduses from Florida, the first on April 1st, and the second on May 1st. In fact while I was taking my morning walk the other day, I counted over 50 units that will be leaving on April 1st! And I think that is a woefully low number, I would guess closer to 40% of the park will leave then. So there is a sense of a rush to get everything done, see everyone you want one last time, hit those several restaurants you've missed so far, in our case see good friends that live here and we won't see until next winter most likely, hope that we will be able to get together with family that haven't been able to squeeze us in yet in their busy schedules, fit in a visit from our daughter and our grandkids over spring break, have our son stop down for a few days, finally finish the last of the projects we've planned for the season, do our planning for the spring, summer, and fall. You get the idea.
We've been riding our bikes more often lately and have decided to take them with us this year instead of leaving them in storage. One of the factors is that we are going to be in Durango for 5 full weeks this fall, and they have a superb bike path along the river we want to ride.
We've completed all of our Doctor appointments, had some excellent meals out, been to two birthday get-togethers, celebrated some incredible news with Ray and April, plan to go down to Gasparilla Island next week, had the truck in for a small repair going on 3 times now, but that's another story, Jan's been playing Mah Jongg, and we are waiting for the parts for our almost last project to show up.
Our last significant project involves replacing our rear view mirrors that are losing their chrome. We plan to replace the mirror heads and the bases, but retain the arms which have fared much better. The shell of the mirrors is plastic, and with wear and tear, and I think not the best job in manufacturing at the time they were made, the chrome is coming off and they look horrendous!
That leaves only two small projects that I want to complete before leaving. One is a rewiring of our towing harness. Right now we connect an umbilical electrical cord between the motorhome and the truck that contains the wiring for the turn signals, brake lights, and parking lights, and then I connect another smaller wire to provide an indication at the driver's seat when the truck brakes come on through our braking system. It is a bit of a pain to connect this small spindly wire to provide that indication, so my plan is to replace our present 4 wire cable with a 6 wire cable and incorporate the signal wire in the main cable. That way with one connection I will have all the indicator and running lights in one easy to fasten cable.
The last one is I want to straighten our rock guard in the rear of the coach. When we climbed and descended that incredible hill to Mama Gertie's Campground in NC, I mentioned that we drug the coach several times, well it put a bend, almost a crease in our up to then, pristine rock guard. So with Jason's help, we will pull it off and try to straighten it out.
Of course I don't want to make too much of this idea that we only have 3 more projects, as Murphy may get the idea that things are running a bit too smoothly:-)
We've been riding our bikes more often lately and have decided to take them with us this year instead of leaving them in storage. One of the factors is that we are going to be in Durango for 5 full weeks this fall, and they have a superb bike path along the river we want to ride.
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| Along the beautiful bike path in Venice |
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| A quick break on one of the bridges |
Our last significant project involves replacing our rear view mirrors that are losing their chrome. We plan to replace the mirror heads and the bases, but retain the arms which have fared much better. The shell of the mirrors is plastic, and with wear and tear, and I think not the best job in manufacturing at the time they were made, the chrome is coming off and they look horrendous!
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| It's hard to show how bad they look in this photo, but look carefully and you will see where the chrome is bubbling up and peeling off |
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| In this photo you can see the base and arm. The square unit hanging down from the arm is one of the side cameras We will replace the head and the base keeping the arm. |
The last one is I want to straighten our rock guard in the rear of the coach. When we climbed and descended that incredible hill to Mama Gertie's Campground in NC, I mentioned that we drug the coach several times, well it put a bend, almost a crease in our up to then, pristine rock guard. So with Jason's help, we will pull it off and try to straighten it out.
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| The offending crease is right between the "Holiday" and "Rambler" |
Of course I don't want to make too much of this idea that we only have 3 more projects, as Murphy may get the idea that things are running a bit too smoothly:-)
Friday, March 13, 2015
Pretty quiet on the Florida front
Been a quiet week made a bit quieter by Jan flying out to Albuquerque to visit her mom, Viv, and her 2 sisters, Nancy and Karen, and, of course CT. Meanwhile I decided to do a few little items on the coach, what else, right? Well, the first chore was an utter failure.
I wanted to put in a AC outlet in the dash on the right side in front of the passenger seat, so we would have a more convenient place to plug in the laptop when going down the road. As I've said in the past, I am a GPS nut. I have a Garmin RV 760 set up in front of me, and Jan double-checks and confirms as we move along with a MacBook Pro running Street Atlas by Delorme. This works well for us, and it definitely keeps us out of trouble MOST of the time. So anyway we wanted a more convenient plug for the laptop. So I dug into the cabinet overhead to find a AC source, no luck, then removed the trim work along both sides of the windshield to see if I could find a AC wire in there, no luck, then decided to go behind a panel outboard of the driver's seat to see if I could hook in there, no luck, okay one more, tore apart the electronics cabinet, I could find an AC outlet, but no good way to find enough wire to splice into, so at least for the time being we will live without a new outlet. 2 1/2 hours of frustration, but what else did I have to do? And then Jan sends a picture of their lunch in Santa Fe, and ooh, I feel even worse:-)
Then I tackled another little project, and with some help got that one done successfully. We have a coolant reservoir for the engine where you can add coolant and check to see if the coolant level is correct. Now this tank is all aluminum, mounted high up in the engine compartment, and has a sight glass so you can see the level of the coolant. Well I haven't been able to see through it for some time. Just like a leaking roof that only leaks when it rains, I only notice the obscured sight glass when I check the coolant level every month or so. I though wrong that the material was plastic and had just gotten opaque with age, turns out the sight is tempered glass. So I pull it out and try my best to clean it with soap and Q-tips, no luck, run down to NAPA to see if I can just replace it, they don't have one and can't get one, so I ask Jack what he thinks? He pulls out a Dremel, modifies an attachment and proceeds to polish and grind away on it for several minutes and gets it so we can see through the glass once again! So that gets reinstalled, coolant level adjusted, and one more project successfully completed.
I'll sign off now with just a few more odds and ends.
We got the redone armrests back and they look good!
Our tomatoes that we planted in December are ripening nicely!
We saw this very pretty bird at our neighbor's feeder the other day.
I wanted to put in a AC outlet in the dash on the right side in front of the passenger seat, so we would have a more convenient place to plug in the laptop when going down the road. As I've said in the past, I am a GPS nut. I have a Garmin RV 760 set up in front of me, and Jan double-checks and confirms as we move along with a MacBook Pro running Street Atlas by Delorme. This works well for us, and it definitely keeps us out of trouble MOST of the time. So anyway we wanted a more convenient plug for the laptop. So I dug into the cabinet overhead to find a AC source, no luck, then removed the trim work along both sides of the windshield to see if I could find a AC wire in there, no luck, then decided to go behind a panel outboard of the driver's seat to see if I could hook in there, no luck, okay one more, tore apart the electronics cabinet, I could find an AC outlet, but no good way to find enough wire to splice into, so at least for the time being we will live without a new outlet. 2 1/2 hours of frustration, but what else did I have to do? And then Jan sends a picture of their lunch in Santa Fe, and ooh, I feel even worse:-)
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| Santa Fe Bite The greatest green chili cheeseburger in the WORLD! |
Then I tackled another little project, and with some help got that one done successfully. We have a coolant reservoir for the engine where you can add coolant and check to see if the coolant level is correct. Now this tank is all aluminum, mounted high up in the engine compartment, and has a sight glass so you can see the level of the coolant. Well I haven't been able to see through it for some time. Just like a leaking roof that only leaks when it rains, I only notice the obscured sight glass when I check the coolant level every month or so. I though wrong that the material was plastic and had just gotten opaque with age, turns out the sight is tempered glass. So I pull it out and try my best to clean it with soap and Q-tips, no luck, run down to NAPA to see if I can just replace it, they don't have one and can't get one, so I ask Jack what he thinks? He pulls out a Dremel, modifies an attachment and proceeds to polish and grind away on it for several minutes and gets it so we can see through the glass once again! So that gets reinstalled, coolant level adjusted, and one more project successfully completed.
I'll sign off now with just a few more odds and ends.
We got the redone armrests back and they look good!
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| Complete! |
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| The new arm rest the way it should have been done in the first place |
Our tomatoes that we planted in December are ripening nicely!
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| Coming along |
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| Nice, huh? |
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| Any one know what it is? |
We found perhaps the best fish taco in Florida, maybe the world, at a little tiny joint in Venice, The Lucky Dog.
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| You get 3 of these beauties, but I couldn't stop eating the first 2 before I thought to take the picture:-) |
Then I'll close this with a few pictures of the jetties in Venice, both north and south. We go over to watch the sunset a lot, but it's also pretty to visit most anytime.
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| The path out to the north jetty That's the south jetty in the distance |
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| Looking north at part of Nokomis beach |
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| Have you ever seen pelicans sitting in a tree?? |
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| South jetty waiting for sunset |
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Our plans they are a'changing
I wrote a post back in January about our tentative plans for this year. Some major things have happened since. Kelly, Todd, and our grandkids are going to be moving from KY back to Texas! Todd got a brand new job in Lubbock, and is ecstatic to be back to his home state, although this time they will be in west Texas as opposed to east Texas. So our rendezvous with them will hopefully be in Lubbock after their house sells and they get all moved. Otherwise we will see Kelly and the kids while we are up in KY after our time in Atlanta.
We had an opportunity come up to spend 4th of July in New Hampshire with our dear friends, Ray and April, and Mark and Ginger made the generous offer to park in their driveway where R&A will be house sitting. We weren't planning on another New England trip so soon, but we really want to take advantage of this opportunity to be with them. So then we figured since we were already that far north, lobster roll heaven wasn't that much further, right? We decided to make a little loop as far downeast as Harrington, ME, about 35 miles farther east than Bar Harbor. When we were in Maine two years ago we tried to stay in this little campground on the water, but it books full very quickly. Could we squeeze in this year? It turns out yes, but the full hookup sites are already gone! Then we thought wow, if those sites are already booked this far out maybe we ought to take a look at the other places we want to go. So sure enough we were just able to make reservations at most of the places we wanted to go, several were already booked for the entire season. We don't prefer to have our plans this set so far out, but in the east, especially in New England there are fewer campgrounds, most are on the smaller size, and their summer season is very short, so it can be a challenge. We are hoping Karen will join us for most of this loop. We will follow the coast north, and then loop back through Augusta to try to see friends there, and beat feet for Buffalo, WY. We want to spend some time exploring in the Bighorn Mountains. One of our favorite authors, CJ Box sets many of his books in this area of the country with his featured character, Joe Pickett who is a game warden in the county, and although it is definitely fiction he sets a lot of stories accurately in these mountains and the tiny town of Saddlestring, WY. Much like James Lee Burke sets his fictional character, Dave Robicheaux in New Iberia, LA, and his character Billie Bob Holland in Missoula, MT, both places we've visited because of the appealing description by the author. We even many years ago searched in vain for the town of Twenty Mile, WY the setting of Trevanian's Incident at Twenty Mile, a fascinating read by the way.
But I digress, then we will head south to Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Gunnison, and Montrose for pizza, before our 5 weeks in Durango. So quite out of character for us our plans have become quite firm.
Then just to be sure you know Murphy is still with us every once in a while. I mentioned that I needed to replace a chattering water solenoid valve on our washer, a simple fix. The parts came, I tore into the washer, swapped out the valves, put it back together, decided to run it through its cycle before buttoning it up and.... leaked like a sieve!! Aww, come on. It was leaking from the new valves where they met their fittings, and then it was leaking profusely from a plastic "tray" that channels the water into the drum and on closer scrutiny it looked like it had been leaking a little bit for some time, and when did this occur, oh yeah, on Friday. So ordered more parts, had to tell Jan the washer was dead until yesterday, Wednesday, but all is well now, no leaks, no chattering, and running well.
Also, in a blast from the past, had an old Delta friend contact me, so Doug, Jan and I had a pleasant catchup lunch and visit, and hope to get together again while he is down this way. Amazing that we each looked exactly the same after 15+ years! Jan is heading to Albuquerque to visit her mom and Nancy and CT on Sunday, so I am hoping to complete a few little projects in her absence, mainly to stay out of the bars:-)
We had an opportunity come up to spend 4th of July in New Hampshire with our dear friends, Ray and April, and Mark and Ginger made the generous offer to park in their driveway where R&A will be house sitting. We weren't planning on another New England trip so soon, but we really want to take advantage of this opportunity to be with them. So then we figured since we were already that far north, lobster roll heaven wasn't that much further, right? We decided to make a little loop as far downeast as Harrington, ME, about 35 miles farther east than Bar Harbor. When we were in Maine two years ago we tried to stay in this little campground on the water, but it books full very quickly. Could we squeeze in this year? It turns out yes, but the full hookup sites are already gone! Then we thought wow, if those sites are already booked this far out maybe we ought to take a look at the other places we want to go. So sure enough we were just able to make reservations at most of the places we wanted to go, several were already booked for the entire season. We don't prefer to have our plans this set so far out, but in the east, especially in New England there are fewer campgrounds, most are on the smaller size, and their summer season is very short, so it can be a challenge. We are hoping Karen will join us for most of this loop. We will follow the coast north, and then loop back through Augusta to try to see friends there, and beat feet for Buffalo, WY. We want to spend some time exploring in the Bighorn Mountains. One of our favorite authors, CJ Box sets many of his books in this area of the country with his featured character, Joe Pickett who is a game warden in the county, and although it is definitely fiction he sets a lot of stories accurately in these mountains and the tiny town of Saddlestring, WY. Much like James Lee Burke sets his fictional character, Dave Robicheaux in New Iberia, LA, and his character Billie Bob Holland in Missoula, MT, both places we've visited because of the appealing description by the author. We even many years ago searched in vain for the town of Twenty Mile, WY the setting of Trevanian's Incident at Twenty Mile, a fascinating read by the way.
But I digress, then we will head south to Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Gunnison, and Montrose for pizza, before our 5 weeks in Durango. So quite out of character for us our plans have become quite firm.
Then just to be sure you know Murphy is still with us every once in a while. I mentioned that I needed to replace a chattering water solenoid valve on our washer, a simple fix. The parts came, I tore into the washer, swapped out the valves, put it back together, decided to run it through its cycle before buttoning it up and.... leaked like a sieve!! Aww, come on. It was leaking from the new valves where they met their fittings, and then it was leaking profusely from a plastic "tray" that channels the water into the drum and on closer scrutiny it looked like it had been leaking a little bit for some time, and when did this occur, oh yeah, on Friday. So ordered more parts, had to tell Jan the washer was dead until yesterday, Wednesday, but all is well now, no leaks, no chattering, and running well.
Also, in a blast from the past, had an old Delta friend contact me, so Doug, Jan and I had a pleasant catchup lunch and visit, and hope to get together again while he is down this way. Amazing that we each looked exactly the same after 15+ years! Jan is heading to Albuquerque to visit her mom and Nancy and CT on Sunday, so I am hoping to complete a few little projects in her absence, mainly to stay out of the bars:-)
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