Go West Young Man, Go West

Yeah, we were sitting around the other day having a drink and a cigar, just Jan and I, and I asked her if she missed the fishing out west like I did.  Her immediate response was oh yes, and the rest is history.  We have been working on plans to go out west again after we hit Maine.  So our plans will still have us in Maine for 10 weeks or so, then out to Montana via Buffalo.  Amazingly, and we are taking it as a sign, we have been able to make reservations where we want, when we want, even down to favorites sites here and there.  We'll spend some time there and in Colorado, stop in Taos, then on to Lubbock before coming back to NC and northern GA before our 3 months in Florida.  We really enjoyed our time in New England last year, and definitely want to go back, but the call of the west is loud:-)  Incredible what a year off does to you.  We're still working on a few other things too.

It's warming up down here, and I know that pleases many people, but it doesn't really include Jan and I.  I don't particularly like coming back from my walks dripping like I fell in a pool somewhere.  The increase in heat is bringing out the tortoises in our refuge here in the park, even the little guys like this.

We're down to 6 weeks left now, so I am finally getting some more things done.  I changed the oil and filter on the generator.

We had a big storm come through with heavy winds which made for an angry Gulf.

Unfortunately it also brought in the red tide for awhile.

Jan is still cooking up a storm, she made a delicious spicy beef and peppers stir fry with noodles.

I learned something about propane tank gauges.  We have a 30 gallon propane tank in our coach, and while we are here in Florida, we use a lot of propane, strictly for pleasure as we light up our fire pit almost every night.  Without the fire pit the only thing that burns propane is our two burner stove top.  We are able to fill up right here in the park without moving as a propane truck comes through every week, very convenient.  Our gauge and the readout inside has been terribly inaccurate, both on the top side as well as nearing empty, but in my ignorance I thought replacing the gauge was a huge deal needing to drain the tank, etc.  Turns out the gauge is actually a magnetic reader that translates the level from the inside float to the analog and electric gauge on the outside, so Amazon to the rescue.  Replaced the gauge, took maybe 3 minutes and it looks like the new one is way more accurate.

The old one right after filling the tank:-(

Jan then made a terrific fried rice.

It also was time for a new air cleaner on the motorhome.

Also in our travels we found a new Thai restaurant that we really liked.

Spicy Thai wings

Spicy delicious seafood Tom Yum

And awesome wonton noodle soup

Jan did another interesting puzzle provided by our friend Ray.

And we capped it all off with another cigar night with Harold and Debbie!

Cheers!

Finally Getting Some Stuff Done

I have to admit we have been slow on completing projects this year, don't know why, it's just the way it is.

Jan has done another couple puzzles, this one was particularly difficult and interesting.

Our travels took us up to Treasure Island, near St Pete Beach, so we had to do another lunch at Taco Bus, delicious as usual.

Then Tom's friends, Rob and Colleen visited for a few days, and they joined our usual cocktail hour circle.

Moi, Rob, Colleen, Tom, Harold, Debbie

Jan and I ran up to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Pho 101 for a delicious lunch and knocked out a few errands at the same time.

A spicy shrimp salad

Awesome pho

And Jan is still kicking out wonderful eats herself, this one seared scallops over a miso corn salad, fresh and spicy!

We had a cigar night with Harold and Debbie.

The moon certainly cooperated

And Harold certainly enjoyed his cigar!

Then speaking of cigars, Jan and I at the last minute decided to run up to Tampa, really Ybor City, cigar capitol and go through the last cigar factory in America, JC Newman.  It was fascinating.  It is in a huge building and employs about 200 people still making about 14 million cigars a year, both with 100 year old machines and by hand rolling premium sticks.  We took a tour and really enjoyed it, learned a lot, and even bought a few of their cigars. Really worth the trip even if you aren't a cigar lover, there is a lot of interesting history.

Look closely, those are cigar molds adorning the wall

This is one of their archive rooms.  These are in some cases very old cigars
that were made here.  In the middle, that burlap sack, is the last bale of tobacco
they received from Cuba before the embargo.

This is the aging room.  The hand rolled cigars age in here for 12-18 months
before being packaged and sold.  They are arranged by colored ribbon.

Different kinds of wrapper

The tobacco leaves come in pretty dry, so they are moistened to
the proper level so they are pliable to be handled

These are those same machines in operation.

And a picture of those same machines being worked long ago

A tobacco leaf looks a lot like a large collard green, a broad two-sided leaf
with a vein up the center.  This lady is cutting the vein out and separating
the leaf into 2 pieces that can be rolled around the cigar.

Lots of wrapper ready to go

Then we went into another room where on this day, only 4 people were hand rolling premium cigars, a few have been doing this for more than 25 years!

A group of hand rolled cigars to be sorted by color,
then taken to the aging room

So now you have learned more than you ever wanted to know about cigars and how they are made:-)

Ybor City is an interesting walk around area, very cigar centric of course, and the home to the oldest restaurant in Florida, and the largest Spanish restaurant in the world, a city block, The Columbia since 1905.  We had heard about their famous 1905 salad, made at your table, and wanted to try it.  And also a cuban sandwich.  It is an oldie style place where the waitstaff are all dressed up and the service is amazing, the surrounding are amazing as well.

It really fit the bill when we saw they offered a half salad, half cuban sandwich.

The salad was amazing, and the cuban was good, we'd go back for the salad.

So enough of the fun and games, now we had to get started on our projects.  We have shown a fault on our middle AC for a few months now, it doesn't interfere with anything but the operation of the heat pump which we almost never use, so other than a blinking in the thermostat we've pretty much ignored it.  But we had the part, just a sensor, so when we went up on the roof for our other project, it was time.

So off with the cover

The sensor, the other end goes into the circuit board, easy.

Then the real reason we went up, we wanted to replace our bathroom vent with a new improved model, time will tell if that is really true.  We had a nice Fantastic Fan unit that had a rain sensor so if it was open and it rained it would automatically close, but it would also close when you didn't want it to.  You could over rule it by turning off the rain sensor, but invariably, after you turned off the rain sensor you would forget you had turned it off and when that huge thunderstorm came through, you'd walk into the bathroom and find an inch of water on the floor.  We decided to replace it with a Maxxair vent, it has a built in cover so it can be open running or not running during a rainstorm, and it still has all the wow factors such as thermostat control of the fan, in or out flow, and a variable speed.  Time will tell, after we live with the new one for a few months, I'll be sure to let you know what we think.

The original

The hardest part of a job like this is getting all the sealant off the original and cleaning up all around the hole for the new sealant.  Thank God, we have a multi-tool, it sure made short work of getting the old sealant up.

Of course having the Diesel Mechanic help really made short work of it:-)

Checking the fit

The new one standing by

The base installed and caulked

All in and done!

We have been talking and making plans for this travel season and next year here in Florida and about all we have accomplished so far is we are only going to stay 3 months maximum in Florida, obviously unless something unforeseen happens.  This year is very long for us, 5 months, and we are feeling it, we just can't sit still this long:-)

More projects and plans to come.