What a difference two weeks makes!

Isn't it amazing how much has changed since my last post two weeks ago?  The whole world is reeling from the virus.  All our lives have been impacted, many sacrifices are being made all in the hopes that our complete change of lifestyle can dull the edges of this sword.  Our little world here in Florida in the winter is usually a bustling center of activity, socializing, camaraderie, crowds around the pool, pockets of people enjoying a drink or a meal together, the pickle ball and tennis courts crowded, events like pot lucks or a show that draw in more than a hundred people, just the noise of lots of folks enjoying themselves.  Now we have tons of vacancies much earlier than anticipated, most of the Canadians have run for home, and who can blame them, their insurance has told them they will not be covered here in the US for the virus, other people, rightly so, feel that if they are going to weather this storm they should be back home.  Most everyone is abiding by social distancing, it would be humorous watching everyone space themselves out at 6', if it wasn't a real deal.  All our amenities have been shut down, the pool, rec hall, events, cards, bocce, on and on.  People are walking and riding bikes like never before, there isn't anything else to do.  You still see an occasional group of people together that either don't care, don't believe, or are just rebels.  At least there is a uniqueness here at our park and I'm sure many others that dot Florida in the winter, the majority of these people come here for the season, stay the whole season, and have basically controlled their environment right here, we mostly all know one another, have respect for one another, and don't create a big threat in our closed little group.  Obviously, as you enjoy the restaurants, bars, beaches, shopping, etc, you open yourself up, but we here in Florida have basically shut down, our restaurants are take out only, and many have just shut their doors as they can't maintain the staff for take out only, the beaches, jetties, seawalls, parks are all closed.  Our grocery stores are still open and it so nice to see them individually sanitize the carts and baskets as you arrive, use care checking you out, see the people maintaining space there as well, bottles of sanitizer in most cars as you get back in your vehicle, yes folks there is something real happening here, and people are taking it seriously.  I pray we can beat this thing, get enough time to flatten the curve, make sure the medical facilities are able to deal with it, allow more time for a treatment or vaccine.  I see the dedication from grocery store workers, pharmacies, first responders, police, etc, that are still going to work to provide for the rest of us that are hunkering down, we owe them our thanks.  There are many, many people that are struggling now as they watch their jobs go away.  But we are resilient and I know we are going to come out the other side of this, hopefully triumphant and victorious.

There has been and continues to be much discussion about RVing at a time like this.  Lots of comments that state we are already pretty much self contained and no threat as we travel, it's not a communal kind of life style, you can stay away from people, etc.  But even so, more and more federal, state, city, and county parks and campgrounds are closed.  Numerous private campgrounds are closed, some have even asked the people there now to get out.  Now if you are a part time Rver, no problem, yes your trip might have to be cancelled, but you can always sit it out at home, but what if you are a full-timer like we are?  This coach is our home, and we can be self contained and shelter in place, or socially distance like anyone else, but where should we do it?  What about the fact that your reservation is running out where you are and your upcoming reservations are now becoming questionable, the state parks where you had reservations and intended to stay for several weeks have closed, where do you go?  I happen to think that traveling in an RV is a very safe way to move about, you can fuel without contact, check in to a park without contact, sites are usually spaced apart from one another, you can stay a safe distance from neighbors, does it really matter where you are?  But on various social media along with the banding together to beat this thing, I am seeing little indications here and there of another sentiment, I hope no one is coming to my state, town, village, area and bringing the virus, maybe we shouldn't allow anyone in?  I read a post where someone had gone for a hike in a national park and was appalled there were out of state plates in the parking lot!  Come on, this we do not what we need right now when we all should be banding together to beat this thing.  So what have we decided to do?

Jan and I, with a lot of discussion with her sister Karen and Tom, our neighbor here, and planned caravan partner up through Maine this year, have decided to pause our count down clock for up to 30 extra days.  We have extended here in Florida and are very confident that with this pause it will give us enough time to see where this is going one way or another.  That way we will be here in a known environment, surrounded by people we know, our doctors, should it come down to that, are here, it seems to be a pretty safe area as to the virus, we can maintain our distancing, and it gives us the luxury of time.  We have cancelled most of our plans in the Atlanta area, medical items that aren't absolutely necessary, so are still very hopeful with a good outcome we will still be able to resume our plans of heading to Maine for 6-8 weeks.  We'll see.

So now that I have bored you to tears with all my pontificating about a subject you are probably already sick of, I'll move on to more mundane stuff.

Just so I don't disappoint you I'll start with food, little did we know it was essentially our last lunch out.

Delicious fried clam strips and shrimp!

We were able to have a nice dinner get-together before all this crested with Debbie and Harold, Doug and Nancy, and Tom.  We had a good time, all while maintaining our distancing, and as it turned out it was also goodbye, as Debbie and Harold took off for Canada the next morning and Doug and Nancy back to Maine soon after.  We also had a last time dinner get together with long time friend Ray and Linda knowing it would be the last time before a resolution to this situation appears.  It's so hard not having your hugs as you say goodbye for the season.  It is so surreal, it's like, and I am stealing another friend's description now, being immersed in a sci-fi movie.  Jan has finished Mah jong and I have finished bocce.

If you remember last year our awning over the front passenger side slide had a problem.  When a service center adjusted the fabric they inadvertently broke the extrusion and with the wind and wear it released the fabric on the end.

The broken end

You can see how the extrusion slides in,
and the fabric slides into the extrusion

I called the manufacturer to see about getting a new extrusion and although the part wan't expensive, $40, the freight from California was $200 plus!  After all the entire piece is more than 15' long.  Well that didn't cut it, so I compromised, I bought the whole part and had them cut it to several reasonable lengths and then send it.  I resigned myself to only replacing a piece of it.  What I did was pull the fabric out of the extrusion about 2 feet from the end, cut the piece off, and then inserted a 2 foot piece instead.  It is black, and where it is can barely be seen in or out.  It was a successful repair.

My custom tool to hold the awning fabric while doing the repair

You can see where I cut it

Slipping the new piece in

Jan doing her best to show the repair before I secured it in place

Another project we had been putting off was pressure washing our roof after the oak leaves do a number on it, then washing and waxing the coach.  We still thought we'd be leaving soon so we picked 2 days to do it and got er done.

Before, yuck!

Jan starting the job

After

It is gleaming now with its new wax job!  And to celebrate a tough job well done, happy hour, while maintaining safe distances:-)

My expression reflects the bug trying to drink my bourbon:-)

Our companion in solving the issues of the world, BIL Tom

Then of course we had to have a couple unexpected issues.  We have over 100 recessed puck lights in our ceiling and under our cabinets.  They have a frosted glass lens that are a real bugger to remove to change the bulb.  We have slowly replaced all with LED's, and we had 2 acting up.  I tried and tried using all the tricks I could think of to get the lens off, to no avail so had to end up replacing the entire fixture.  Very frustrating.

One of the new fixtures going in

Then we go back into the bedroom and turn on the vanity light, and find out we can't turn it off!  Our coach has all its lighting done through a multiplex system, basically a computer system where every switch in the coach can be programmed from anywhere to do anything, a great system when it works.  I tried the few things I could think of and finally had to call for help.  The tech had me troubleshoot the system and said we had a bad module, after ordering it, it thankfully came quickly, we got it installed and all is well now.

The lit switch is the culprit

The brains of the system in our back closet

The bad module

New one going in

So that has wrapped up all our projects for the season, not to say more won't pop up.  Now we wait, just like everyone else, praying for a welcome resolution.  Be well.

The countdown has started

We are now less than 3 weeks from departure.  Chores are being taken care of, and most things are being checked off our list.  I serviced our AquaHot, basically a clean up of the burner compartment, filter replacement and a new nozzle.  Only takes about an hour, good for another year at least.

Case open, ready for service

After the grueling task of the AquaHot, friends Harold and Debbie invited us over for a nice evening with drinks and dinner!  Delicious, thank you.  

I did get my tooth taken care of, it did need a crown after all.  I drove a rental car 540 miles each way to Atlanta, spent an enjoyable evening with John and Diane, then drove back in heavy traffic, taking about 2 extra hours on the way back.  All worth it by the way:-)

Soon after getting back we had a nice invite for a surprise dinner at Doug and Nancy's, a real Maine feast, haddock chowder and lobster rolls!  Superb. Wow!  Thank you.

Add in tons of lunches, happy hours, breakfasts, and visits with lots of friends.  We have a gentleman here at our park that plays Taps most evenings at sunset.  He does it at random spots all over the park and one night when we were over at Harold and Debbie's, we had the distinct pleasure of having him play there!

Other odds and ends, puzzles, oysters, and even spent 2 days tying flies, getting ready for the summer!

One of the hardest Liberty puzzles we have ever done
Thanks Ray!

Nice day by the Myakka River

With delicious oysters!

Some of the flies I tied

Last season while on the road I started using an additive to our diesel fuel.  If you remember, I had discussed the possibility with the increased number of stations that have added Bio-diesel to their pumps.  It is anywhere from 5-20%, and decreases the potential energy and lubricity as compared to regular low sulfur diesel.  I went back in all my spreadsheets and calculated my average fill up was 80 gallons, so I planned to use 1 oz of Biobor algicide along with 4 oz of Opti-Lube Summer blend for each fill up.  It seemed to help my mileage a tiny amount, so after noting almost every truck stop has at least 5% bio-diesel now, decided to continue using it.  I bought a neat container that holds 8 small containers from Opti-Lube, and I premix those small containers making it very easy to pour it in before I fuel.  So another order from Amazon:-)
  

We enjoyed a great party at Harold and Debbie's!

Excellent entertainment from Phil later on!

We always stock up on booze here in Florida, it is cheaper by far, up to $25/bottle if we catch a sale, which we did, so managed to wipe out Total Wine's entire supply of bourbon, just kidding......  But we do buy enough for hopefully the entire time we are away.

Jan had been noticing our Splendide combo washer and dryer didn't seem to be drying very well.  She did a super cleaning of the vent in addition to the unpublished procedure to clean the drum and it didn't help.  Then she noticed that at the very start of the dry cycle when the machine puts in a little water, to fill the trap as it turns out, it didn't shut off, and managed to put enough water in the drum to make the clothes wet.  In fact we were terrified it wouldn't shut off the water at all.  We have an extended warranty on the machine so I called their technical support and after a bunch of questions, they determined the main circuit board was bad.  Good news is they would send it free, bad news is, the washer would have to be pulled out, laid on its side, and accessed through the bottom to replace the board.

Our washer/dryer

So with BIL Tom's help, he and I pulled the unit out.  It weighs about 100 pounds, but it is very unwieldy with not a lot of room to deal with. 

Out

The new circuit board

Where it sits in the machine

It was a fairly easy replacement other than having to move the machine.

Buttoning it back up

Then again with Tom's help, we put it back in, hooked it all up, and........ it did the exact same thing!  The water kept running?!?  Back on the phone, this time they feel if it wasn't the board then it has to be the cold water solenoid, and oh by the way, they aren't covered by warranty:-(  So we order a new cold water solenoid and wait awhile longer without a washer/dryer.  So after only two days our part arrives.  Good news this time, it can be changed right where it sits, the solenoid is accessible through the top of the machine!  

Solenoid

Top removed, the marking is its location

This job was easy, only about 30 minutes, and thankfully, all works perfect now!  Back in business.  We still have to fit in washing and waxing the motorhome, including a pressure wash of our very stained roof.  A yearly event exacerbated by sitting under pretty live oak trees that drop a serious number of leaves, how can it be that much?