A quick note

We have completed the reservation process for our campground for next season, and we and all of our friends have been able to renew and stay on their sites if they wanted, and at least one was able to move to another site.  The best news of all is that Jan's sister, Karen managed to snag a site for next season, so we are looking forward to her company next year.

Got a couple little things done on the motorhome, had a few more visits, lunches, fires, dinners, tiki bars, and sunsets at the jetty.  Trying to cram in all the things we enjoy in the time we have left.  This coming week will have many folks moving out and heading back home to the north country, and then we will have another group move in that spent their winter further south or in the Keys as they make their way north with the spring.  

Happy Easter everyone!

Teamwork and friends

I've gotten a little bit of flack from some friends when I indicated that Jan and I were getting antsy to move.  I tried to explain it has nothing to do with getting away from here and our friends, it's just we are happiest when we are moving, exploring, and just traveling in general.  It's quite a contrast between that time and our time here in Florida. We are surrounded here with friends who are ready and willing to help each other at a moment's notice.  It's a true gift.  While we are on the road it is mostly me and the Diesel Mechanic, Jan, to do all our projects.  The camaraderie here is wonderful.  

We have finished up most of our projects, so we helped our friend Harvey when he got his new mirrors, and I have to admit it looked a lot like a roadside DOT crew, lots of watchers and fewer doers:)

My back, then Doug, Jack, and Scott

Now if you look at the very bottom of the motorhome,
you'll glimpse Harvey's leg (he had the worst job)

Harvey contorting himself to put on the washers and nuts

Frank, a new observer and Scott coaching

The mirrors were both installed and adjusted successfully.

Then it was our turn.  We had noticed our passenger side bedroom slide was slightly tilted and causing the seal to distort so we decided to check it out.  First we had to remove the wood and carpet cover to be able to see the rollers.

The shelf that we had to remove

Shelf removed and looking under

We found the two rollers, and thought a small adjustment would take care of it until I managed to snap the adjusting bolt in two.  Oooopps.  Well, that meant I needed to get the roller out to fix the bolt, and that meant we needed to jack up and support the slideout.  This was another example of friends jumping in.  Pat had a bottle jack, we stole Harvey's campsite number post, and together we jacked up the slide.

Pat and I getting ready

Pat running the jack with Scott and I holding the boards in place

Success!

 Scott and Harvey, quality control

I got the roller out, and we found it had broken since it was already at its extreme range, and I had tried to turn it further.  It uses a bolt that has a nut welded on one end, and when turned it moves a wedge back and forth to raise and lower the roller.  Scott observed that if he took some metal off the wedge I may be able to get it to raise the roller a bit more.

The roller in place, the top bolt is what I broke

The roller out and apart, the wedge is right beside the wrench

The new bolt installed

You can see where Jack tack welded the nut to the bolt

It was successful, after a run to the hardware store for a new bolt and locknut, Jack welded the nut on the bolt as it was in the original, the cut down wedge enabled me to raise the roller a bit more.  I got it reinstalled, adjusted, and we removed the support.  I ran it in and out a couple times to be sure, and another project with a lot of teamwork is complete!

Putting it back in

We've had several more visits and meals with friends.  We were lucky to catch Steve and Bobbie before they head out for an amazing cruise, and enjoyed a very nice visit and excellent lunch at Marina Jack right on the water.  We were able to meet several others, Dick and Ann, Bruce and Cathie, and had long time friend, Ray over for a great dinner!

Ray and I toasting Jan's great stuffed shrimp!

Also, if you could, when you need something from Amazon, please use my link.  It costs you nothing more and might get me a few pennies for advertising them on my blog.  Thanks much!!

About a month to go!

We had a great weekend with our son, Jason, after the toilet fiasco, and have been busy making lists of the things we want to do or accomplish before our exit in April.  We have a motorhome list, quite short which is a good thing, a to do stuff list, and a make sure we get together with list.  Since we only spend about 4 months here in Florida it means we are gone from here 8 months which seems a long time now, but sometimes too short while we are in the midst of our travels.

About half of our park leave the 1st of April, so we are already seeing some signs of folks getting ready, even though we are still bursting at the seams.  The reservations for next season have a cutoff date of March 17, so everyone is anxious to see if they are renewed, able to change sites, or whether if on the outside, able to get in for next year.  They say it will be sorted out in just one day, we'll see.

Every 2-3 years we do maintenance on our Sani-Con system, it's our macerator for our black and gray waste tanks.  Sounds worse than it really is.  A couple of hoses get replaced, the pump and impeller are looked over and the impeller is changed out for a new one, and all is cleaned up and good to go for another 2-3 years.  We still have to get our Aqua-Hot hot water and heating system's annual maintenance done, which will be the first for our new unit.  Basically it is simple, a change of the fuel filter, cleaning of the combustion chamber, and a new nozzle, a couple hours at most.  After that we have about 5 other items to accomplish on the coach.

We want to make sure to hit several favorite restaurants, visit with friends, and make sure to do those things we haven't gotten around to yet or want to be sure we do again before we leave.  

I want to include a picture of our "Tiki Bar" friends having a good time!

The weather is gorgeous now, warm, sunny, and just how everyone who comes to Florida is hoping for, and after our somewhat cool and wet winter, it is very welcome, but it makes us want to go play instead of get our list done, but there's still lots of time.  Famous last words, huh?

  

A "Crappy" job, disaster, and recovery!

Let me start off by saying RV toilets are unique, at least compared to household residential toilets, and expensive, probably because of sheer numbers, there just aren't that many of them built.  But similar to both you give very little thought to them until there is a problem.

Now RV toilets all have a secure closing device in the bottom of the toilet to prevent gases or worse from sloshing up as you bump down the road.  Some have horizontal plates that slide in and out and some like ours have a half ball that rotates to open and close the bottom of the toilet.  One area of maintenance that affects RV toilets is the water holding  integrity of that closure.  It needs to be kept clean and even then with the wear of the valve going back and forth, every 2-4 years the ball and the seals need to be replaced.  No big deal.  We have a porcelain stool, in fact until you raise the lid on ours you'd never know it was any different from a residential toilet.  So ours was losing water, therefore telling us we needed to do the maintenance, no big deal, we'd done it before, the hardest part was picking it up from the floor and rolling it on its side to get at the mechanism.

So Jan and I pick a day to do it and start into the process by dumping the waste or black tank, helps keep any unwanted aromas from seeping up through the hole in the floor:)  We pop the toilet off, roll it over, and remove the faulty seals and half ball.  Then clean everything up and install the new half ball and then the seals.

Rolled over, getting things replaced

A good view of the half ball

Trim ring back on

And the seals going on

Well, the mechanism connects to the porcelain bowl with 3 J bolts that slip into holes in flanges, and with many, many warnings to be extra careful and use little torque when tightening the nuts, as the porcelain is fragile.........and I guess you know what's coming.

The arrow points to one of the holes in the flange

Yup, I snapped the porcelain off, and in so doing made the toilet a piece of junk!  Now a couple things here are pertinent and important.  Our toilet is no longer being made, and some parts are essentially impossible to find, and we only have one toilet in our coach, and our son, Jason is enroute to spend a long weekend with us.  After an appropriate time for crying, whimpering, and perhaps a bit of swearing, we get on the internet to see if we can find a replacement porcelain or a new toilet.  With absolutely no luck we decide to epoxy the broken piece back in, and maybe we can use it if we can tighten it up against the epoxy temporarily.  We glue it on, and have no idea if it will hold, and understand if you can't apply pressure between the mechanism and the porcelain, it will leak like a sieve, and not the stuff you want leaking.  I try one more thing, I call the manufacturer, and see what they have to say.  They confirm the toilet is no longer made, no they don't have any porcelains, if we have to replace, suggest the new replacement toilet, but ask why do I need this info?  I tell them our story of woe, there is a quiet hesitation on the line and he asks for my name and number and says he will do some checking and call me back, hmmmm.  In the meantime we check our repair, look at each other knowing full well we have no idea if it will hold and neither of us is confident at all, so we look into getting a new replacement toilet, and find out it will take days if not a full week!!  Unbelievably, my phone rings and it's Robert from Marine Plumbing in West Palm Beach, says the manufacturer had called him, and then he tells me he has ONE porcelain available!  Now it is already after 1 o' clock, we look at each other, jump in the shower, and leap into the truck to drive 180 miles one way to get the porcelain.  We get back at 9:30pm, work on the project for about an hour, Jason arrives, and we are SO, SO, SO careful attaching the mechanism to the "new" porcelain, and voila, we have a working toilet.

Another fun day in the life of full-timing motorhome nomads!