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?