My gosh, another week!

It's not that we've been doing a lot, it's just that we haven't really stopped doing.  We have made numerous trips to our storage unit, cleaning out a ton of stuff for Goodwill, separating a bunch of stuff that Kelly wants, determining what we want to keep going forward.  Who knows maybe we could get a smaller unit or ssshhhhh, maybe no unit, although that is a total pipe dream.

Also we have been very busy getting together with friends before we leave, lots of lunches, dinners, and visits.  The weather is getting warmer and more humid so we know summer is coming this way, and Jan and I are getting antsy.  We are travelers, period, and even though we look very forward to our time here, 5 months gets a bit too long without rolling the wheels.  We're pretty sure that next year we will only stay 4 months.  We have made a ton of plans for the spring, summer, and fall already.  We think RVing in general is picking up, more and more campgrounds are booked out months in advance, in fact our campground here in Florida is totally booked for the next season and has 5 PAGES of people on the cancellation list!  Pretty soon the only way to be able to get a reservation here will be to inherit it:-)

We're down to two more weeks, and almost everything is done that we wanted to accomplish, still need to move the grill and the scooter back into storage, the kayak is already put to bed, then crank it up and off we go!

Long Time no post...

Hope you didn't think I'd left the building, been quiet and waiting on parts and waiting on parts.  I told you one of the last projects was going to be replacing the peeling chrome mirrors.  So I took a close look at them and decided the heads and the bases were atrocious, but we could get by with the arms for awhile to save a few dollars.  

One of the peeling mirror heads

And the base

I talked with Velvac, the manufacturer on the phone and they agreed.  So I ordered the heads and the bases, asked them if there was anything else they'd recommend getting at the same time, they suggested new plugs for the fasteners to match the new gleaming chrome so I ordered them as well, but we had to wait 2 weeks for them to make up one of the mirrors.  They don't make this mirror style anymore, so they had to manufacture the driver's side, the passenger they had in stock.  Jan and I removed the bad ones, and prepared to pull them apart so as to mount the new pieces, we noticed as we removed them there was a rubber gasket between the base and the coach, hmmmm, I wonder if they'll come with the new heads?

The gasket is in the foreground

The answer was no, so I had to call back and get them to send two new gaskets which held us up for a bit longer.  They did admit their mistake and sent the gaskets gratis!  They came off and apart pretty easily, and we noticed on closer inspection one of he bases was actually pretty good so we held on to that one for a spare.  The next thing I notice is one of the wire connectors will not pass through the base, and I really don't want to splice a 12 wire connector.  I look a little deeper in the instructions and they mention that if you have a Monaco coach, the manufacturer installed modular connectors that come apart and allow you to slip the connector through the base!  Wow, good job, Monaco!  So with a little prodding it slips apart and we get it all disassembled.

Disassembly

Now if you're wondering why there are so many wires, all 3 panes are adjustable, heated, turn signal embedded, and there is a small camera mounted just under each mirror.  Now that camera is mounted on another small piece of metal trim that was in horrible shape as well.  I found a part number on the camera, and crossing our fingers that the company was still in business, I googled and called, and sure enough they are still in business, but they do not make this camera any longer, but if I wanted a new one, they still had a few in stock for $650 each!!!  Wow, our cameras work just fine, so I asked if they thought there was anyway I could get just the mounting brackets?  Sure enough after a bit of checking they agreed to send me two new brackets, so that way all of the mirror assembly will be nice new shiny chrome.

The camera mount

You can see the corrosion on the bracket

So another delay.  But today both the new shiny mounts came and so did the gaskets, so we were able to get them all reassembled and mounted!

Nice new bracket

Another angle

Looking good!

So what else have we been up to?  Not that much, the park is quiet, over half the folks are gone, we've been enjoying some local restaurants without waiting in line, had a nice Easter Dinner with Ray and April, sold my bike and got another that fits me better.  A really good move as we are taking them with us when we leave.  Seems more goodbyes everyday as more friends head north.  Pretty soon it will just be us and Jack and Betty who will finally be all by themselves as they are planning to stay all summer.  

Family time and beach renourishment

Our kids visits overlapped a bit so it was a good time for all, albeit a little tight now and then:-)  It allowed our son, Jason to see his nephew and niece as it doesn't happen too often.  They had a good time in the pool and hanging out before Jay had to head back to work.

Jason, Faith, and Christian taking a walk

Jason and Christian playing in the pool

Just chillin

We were happy to also have Christian's 8th birthday while they were here, so we went out to lunch at Sharky's for birthday lunch before his special dinner of Grandma's ribs that night.  

Walking out the pier at Sharky's

Looking back to shore

And up the beach

They played around on the beach.

Kelly and the kids stayed with us in the motorhome for 4 nights. Our friend Pat who just finished a two week visit from his daughter, son-in-law, and their two kids, warned us that the coach would get smaller and smaller while they were here, and it did:-)  But all in jest, it was great and we really enjoyed it!

So while we were at Sharky's, we had an opportunity to see the Venice beach renourishment up close and personal.  This is a $22 million dollar project to restore about 150' of sand to 3.3 miles of beach.  They use a dredge 12 miles offshore that digs up the sand which is transported to a pump or booster boat about 1 1/2 miles off the coast which pumps the sand through enormous pipes up onto the beach where bulldozers and excavators spread it around.  It is quite something to see.  They are operating 24 hours around the clock to get it done before turtle nesting season which starts April 15th.  About 791,000 cubic yards of sand!

This is the end of the pipe where the sand comes out

Looking up the beach, you can see the part of the pipe on land

Bulldozer spreading sand

They get right out in the surf!

Another angle

Another dozer smoothing the sand

So now peace has returned to the valley, sad to see everyone go, but have to admit we do have a little more room:-)  Half the park has gone, we've said good bye to lots of friends, Jason and I did get the rock guard fixed up and straightened out pretty well.  Working on just a few other little things which I'll tell you about later, so right now we are enjoying the awesome weather and our friends that are still here.  One more month and counting.