About 2 Weeks To Go

The heat returned to Florida, 80's most days, but it's been really nice in the evenings.  Jan and I got another doctor done with good reports and another year, leaves me 1 more next week.  

We did get a few projects done in between eating lunch out:-)  First on the list was replacing our water accumulator tank, it takes the bumps and cycling out of the system particularly when we are using our on board pump.  And looking back in our records the tanks seem to only last about 4 years, maybe it's because we hook up to so many different sources for water across the country.  The bladder inside fails and the tank just fills with water.

The new tank ready to go in

And the heavy, filled with water, tank coming out

Then the biggy, our coolant leak.  It is one of the few times we have ever called in an outside mechanic but we just couldn't get to with enough strength to turn the fitting.  Turned out it was a good thing as it turned out one fitting actually had cracked.  After a bit of a communication challenge, Ty came over right at dark to get in there and see what was what and drain off 2 five gallon buckets of coolant, 40 quarts or so, of course because of where the fitting was way over his head, he also had to wear about a gallon or so himself.

The broken fitting on top

The new part

He brought the new part back the next night, got it installed, quite a job, then he needed to pump the drained coolant back into the coach which worked really well until the battery for pump died with no spare.  We took it from there, and the next day Jan and I using our pump put the rest of the coolant in along with another gallon, remember the coolant he was wearing?  We did get enough in to start it up and check for leaks, none so far.

Checking the level

His cool pump

We made a stop at one of our favorite Thai places for lunch, Thai Seed, and had something new.

Jan had Tom Yum noodle soup

I had duck noodle soup,
both were delicious!

We came down to Venice for lunch with Ray and Linda again and on the way back stopped at a great Italian market and restaurant, Angelo's, and picked up a new to us, Braciole.  After researching many recipes for this rolled and stuffed beef, we chose one and gave it a go.  Wonderful!

Braising in tomato sauce

Sliced

Served

One more project was completed.  I had years ago made a plywood box to hold our folding chairs, it looks a little funny, but it needed to have a removable top for things to ride on, and it needed to breathe so if the chairs were put away wet they would dry.  We had been using it for a long time, well, we had one of 4 chairs break, it happens from time to time, and when we reordered it, we found that the manufacturer made the chair wider.  Well that meant I had to modify the box which I did.

We had several highlights to our time recently, firstly we had great lunch and visit with dear friends from RCR where we stayed for so long, Debbie and Harold.  While we like where we are staying now, it is pretty far away from where we were.

Then another highlight was to see our old friend Harvey, we had a great time catching up with him.

So now we have just over two weeks to go, we have renewed our reservation for next winter at only 2 months, and have one big project to go.  We have to install the baseplate on the new truck so we can tow it.  Much more on that later.  So lots more lunches, lots more visits, several errands, and we'll be off.