Our Atlanta Trip Turned Out to be a Mixed Bag, Oh, and Cold

We tried a new campground on the way north to continue avoiding Atlanta proper and stayed at Madison Golf and RV Resort in Madison, FL.  Very nice park with paved sites, big pull throughs in a pretty place.  It was just warm enough to light the fire and have one drink.  It would have been a wonderful stay except for our neighbor lighting up his rig and ours like a Walmart parking lot ALL NIGHT LONG!

Then when we continued up to Atlanta the next day, we stopped for lunch and started the generator, and noticed our monitor for AC, DC, Batteries, Solar, Temperature, Compass, and tank quantities all read xxxx's.  This is an Aladdin System that was installed on most Monaco Coaches of our vintage, and was proprietary and no longer supported:-(  We need all these values.  We also lost the ability to read if there are any faults in the campground power.  We did not have time to resolve this issue, and with the weather remaining so cold, we are now back in Florida and will have to wait for it to get warmer here before we tackle it.  We are hoping it is just a loose wire somewhere.  If not, this could turn into a big deal, and expensive.  More will follow later.

We both got to the dentist and Jan's work is complete, and mine will be after one more visit in March when we head north.  It rained and was really cold, in the 20's much of the time we were there, so we hunkered down most of the time.

We did take a ride to north Georgia and had some good lunches.  I got the truck tires rotated and balanced.

I mentioned with the install of our new tank monitor system, the SeeLevel, we have a bogus reading on the black tank, the lowest it reads is 71%, but it does seem to indicate properly above that.  I contacted the company and they thought it might just be a junked up tank.  So we bought some Extreme Cleaner and mixed it up and put it in the tank for our drive north to really slosh things up, and........ it still shows a low of 71%.  Now this cleaner comes in a powder that you dissolve in a bucket with hot water before you pour it in the tank.  And also has cautions all over the container, hazardous to breathe, don't allow it to touch your skin, use only in well ventilated spaces, etc.  So we mix up a new batch for our drive south, I grab the bucket, full of the mixture and go to move it out of the shower where we mixed it to pour it down the toilet, and the handle breaks right off, and it ends up pouring 3 gallons of hot toxic fluid all down the hallway and into the galley area!  Jan and I both grab towels from anywhere and start throwing them down to absorb as much as we can, then of course we have to clean the floor 3-4 times, and well we survived.  What a mess.  Now we have to get with the company again and see if our sensor is defective.

Then we had to detour on the way back as you read, and we had an appointment with Detroit Diesel in Ocala for an oil service and chassis lube.  We spent the night at the service center, got some great Chinese food for dinner, and woke up to a temp of 28f.  Thought nothing of it, no precipitation.  We decided we would fire it up and get the slides in at about 7:30am for our 8am appointment, and when we tried to retract the driver's side front slide the awning wouldn't go in!  The roller was frozen.  The other slides thankfully retracted, but we were facing not being able to get the coach in for service until we could get the slide in.  The sun was just coming up over the trees and Jan got the idea if we went forward just a bit and turned sideways to the sun, it would probably thaw, so we did, and sure enough after about 5 minutes, we heard a bang and the awning went in.  Then we found out the service center did not have any of the oil I prefer to use, but we found some at a NAPA nearby.  We learned then that diesel oil is another item in short supply.  We went and picked up the oil, delivered it to the tech working on the coach, were told he'd be done in about an hour, so we ran a few errands and came back.  Working out great, looked like we'd be done and on the road before 10am.  Fantastic, right up until they couldn't get the engine started after replacing the fuel filters.  They had an airlock they just couldn't get out.  Finally after manually priming, and moving the coach to a more level spot, by coasting it, they finally got it started, 1 hour and 45 minutes later!  I paid the bill, and off we went at a little after noon:-(  I never looked the invoice over until we got into our site and got set up and it appeared that they never did the chassis lube!  After a phone call this am, they admitted the tech forgot all about it while he was dealing with the starting issue.  So now we'll have to make another stop there on the way north, but they did concede they would do it for free.

We are here for the next 2 months, and have a lot of items to take care of which I will fill you in as we go.  Hard getting used to no furry company.

A Very Sad Day😭

Our 18 year old furry orange traveling buddy, Bert took his last ride in the motorhome today.  He has traveled every single mile we have driven this coach, 170,000 plus, and was with us for many miles in our previous coach.  It dawned on Jan and I that we have never not had an animal with us as we've traveled our 27 plus years.  Bert and Sadie initially went with us into the motorhome after we rescued them in 2004, and when we started full timing shortly after, this was the only home they knew.  We lost Sadie back in 2011, and Bert has been holding down the fort ever since.  He will be missed.

Pals

Sadie

Quick New Year Update

We have been busy bringing in the new year.  Our new tank monitors are working well with one exception, the black tank's lowest reading is 71%, so we are pretty sure it is gunked up inside, and needs a very thorough cleaning.  We bought some super tank cleaner and will be using it next week when we have to make a trip back up to Atlanta for dentist appointments.  It will finally be the last for Jan who has been waiting 2 years to get her crown, and will be my second to last appointment to get mine.

The tank cleaner works best if you can agitate the tank well with the chemical in it, so the drive to Atlanta should do it, and we have enough that we can do it twice if need be.  If that doesn't solve our problem then we will have to get with the manufacturer to see if we have a bad sensor.

All but our dentist and dermatologist are here in Florida, and since we postponed all doctors last year, this has been the year, we both have gotten a couple appointments out of the way with only a couple more for me later.

We've been visiting with friends, going out to lunch a bunch again, reconnected with friends Bruce and Cathie that we didn't see at all last year, seeing our good friend Ray again after not seeing him last year, working what seems like endlessly on this year's travel reservations, more to follow about that, and made an appointment for an oil change and chassis service on the way back from Atlanta.  

We had our annual New Year's dinner with Tom, braised roast pork, collards, corn bread, and black eyed peas brought by Tom, so we have set ourselves up for good luck in the new year:-)

Tom hamming it up at New Year's dinner

Jan's been playing mah jong again with friends, and I even made a road trip up to Lake Wales to visit a friend from my last airline, Keith, that was there escaping winter where he lives and flying a seaplane around, good times and a great visit.  And Keith, thanks for the Uncle Nearest!  So we are definitely in our winter routine, little projects, lots of walking, visiting, just laying back enjoying the weather and our down time from the road.

I'll leave you a beautiful picture of the seaplane Keith is flying.