Lovely Florida Weather

 We are enjoying the fantastic Florida "winter" weather as we finish up our service trip in Tampa.  In fact, it looks like we hightailed it out of Texas just in time as the cold weather descended into the Lone Star state shortly after we left.  After a week enjoying Jeffrey's parents in Gainesville (and a Gator football game too), we dropped Max off in Tampa and flew to San Diego for a week to celebrate an early Christmas with my Dad and Sheila.  Our flight west was supposed to stop over in Dallas but, due to ice and snow, it was cancelled and we were rewarded with a direct flight instead (oh darn!).  We would have booked that direct flight originally if it hadn't been so much more expensive! ;-)

Once we got there, San Diego was a real treat.  We've been back in Flroida for 4 days and my feet are just now completely recovering from all the walking we did at the famous San Diego Zoo, the sister safari park, Seaworld, and the Midway carrier museum -- and we barely scratched the surface of things to do in that area.

 

Midway Carrier

Christmas trees at Seaworld

Swimming Hippo at Zoo

Turtles at Seaworld

While we were away, Max stayed at Lazydays Tampa and got some TLC -- new bedroom carpet and a nice smooth satin finish on the Corian kitchen counter.  I had no idea Corian was so sensitive to scratches.  Guess I better be more careful in the future! He also got a new engine air filter and some sealant on the roof, but those are really just general maintenance. We bring him back in mid-January to have Winnebago inspect his roof as we are seeing some odd ridges in the fiberglass.  There is no leaking and it has a 10 year warranty, so we aren't concerned.  Either they'll decide to watch it or replace it -- but neither should cost us any $.

Tomorrow we head over to Florida's lovely east coast -- first stop is Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound! We always think the "next stop" is going to offer us more "down time", but that never seems to happen.  There are just too many family and friends we want to see and fun things to do in the places we visit!

Wrapping up our Texas Visit

On our way back from our west Texas Big Bend trip, we made a successful side trip to get Max his annual fluid/filter service, arriving back in Georgetown with just 2 weeks left before we head east for the winter.  It was enough time to get final dental cleanings, catch a few more Gator games with our beloved Lone Star Gator Club, enjoy a few last meals with close friends, and get Max's new replacement EMS installed. 

We unfortunately endured one final electrical snub when we smelled burning plastic the day after we got back. Thankfully it just turned out to be improper wire caps that were used the last time they fixed our water heater wiring.  Still a bit scary though and we were none too pleased the local service place had goofed up.  Hopefully that is all behind us now!

I write this blog update from Pensacola where we have stopped for a few non-driving days to visit with Jeffrey's oldest brother, John and his wife Susan.  They are always great hosts and treated us to a favorite dinner of salmon fillets with cherry pitachio topping (YUM!).  We also joined them to watch the Gators play Georgia Southern with the NW Florida Gator Club.  Well, turns out that was NOT the best use of 4 hours as the ending was very disappointing, but at least the company was good :-)  ... even got a picture (see below) of us with their mascot.

Tomorrow we move on to the Williston Crossings RV Park that is near Gainesville and will stay there a week while we visit and enjoy Thanksgiving with Jeffrey's parents. A huge cold front is once again chasing us east this year and Austin is enduring a winter storm scare, so our timing was good.  Unluckily, we have been driving into a head wind every day on the road so far -- sure would be nice to have a tail wind tomorrow, but the weather report is not optimistic.

From Gainesville, we will head to the Tampa area to drop off Max at our favorite service place for a few upgrade items (new carpet in the bedroom and polish the corian counters in kitchen) while we fly to San Diego to rendezvous with my parents for a week.  We'll spend the end of 2013 and early 2014 in the Hobe Sound and West Palm Beach areas to enjoy the (hopefully) warm SE Florida sun and our nearby family and friends.

Livin' in the Wild Wild West

Okay... I know west Texas is not necessarily the "wild wild west", but this old song by the band Escape Club was stuck in my head the entire time we were there!

We are on our way home (Georgetown TX) from this over-a-Gator-bye-week Texas side trip.  It was organized by the Escapees -- the group we are members of that helps us with our Texas state residency so we can vote, have an address for insurance purposes, and get our mail forwarded to us.  The itinerary included Ft. Davis, the McDonald Observatory (solar and night viewing), the Marfa lights, the Museum of the Big Bend (in Alpine), the Indian Lodge at Ft. Davis (for a lunch), and the Chihuanhuan Desert Nature Center.

It was really a fascinating area -- so remote, so dry, and with vistas and mountains that were very beautiful.  There were 20 RVs total with all of us parked together at an RV park in the Ft. Davis area. No surprise that we were the youngest couple, but the next oldest was only 5 years more.  It was a mix of full-timers and part-timers.  Escapees had arranged a tour bus to take us to all of the sights we visited, so the "rigs" just stayed parked together all week.  Most of our meals were catered by the RV park staff or we ate at diners and cafes for lunch on the road.  On one afternoon we had a little extra time and mobbed an ice cream shop.

After the organized trip, the RVs scattered in all directions with the two of us driving Max to nearby Marathon so we could leave him parked for two days while we drove the car to see Big Bend National Park. Talk about ANOTHER amazing place! We have already decided two days wasn't enough and we'll have to come back on a future trip so we can do more of the wonderful hikes. Apparently the busy season starts November 1st, so we beat the crowds and were often the only car in sight as we explored the park. Clearly Big Bend is one of the best kept secrets in Texas. On a wildlife note, we managed to hit the tarantula breeding season, so we had to watch the road carefully to make sure we didn't run over any of them as the males were on the march looking for ladies!

Our only mechanical issue on this trip was with the car (Moby). When we tried to drive him after towing him 2 days across the state, we got a brake warning.  We were concerned that this would prevent us from driving him around Big Bend and we would have to cancel that part of our trip, but a local Exxon (the only mechanic in the area) was able to read the computer codes on the car and figured out the problem -- a small vacuum leak in the system that enables the RV to brake the car when we are towing.  When disconnected, this leak affected the car's brakes when it tried to run in hybrid mode.  Anyhow, our new mechanic friend just bypassed the leak temporarily so we could stay on schedule and the company that manufactures the system we installed has already sent us a replacement part that we can install when we get back. Never a dull moment!

Gremlins and Doctor visits

Wow, another month has flown by in Texas!  Thankfully the temperatures have moderated considerably -- in fact, the high today is only 59 degrees but that is an anomaly.  We'll be back into the 70s and 80s tomorrow.  It it perfect weather to do some remaining "outside" Max work, but rain is a deterrent at least for a few days.  Thankfully our "before we hit the road again" TO DO list is finally getting shorter!

One big item accomplished is we have most of the annual doctor visits finished.  This process seemed a little more stressful to me this fall, probably because of the threat of having a medical problem interrupt our travel plans.  But so far so good :-)  We are also making some progress with our golf game and visiting friends in the area.

The best news is that we think we have finally found our electrical "gremlin".  Replacing just the water heater element did not fix things as we managed to throw breakers less than an hour after getting home from that repair -- so we spent a few weeks playing musical chairs with our wiring to try to remove possible causes.  This exercise did not bear fruit, but Jeffrey gently poking a wire behind the water heater caused a big POP, a burning smell, and blown breakers both on the coach and at the outside pedestal.  So back we go to the service place the next day and they pull out a clump of scorched wires that were hidden behind a cover -- all burned and with melted insulation that had clearly been unhappy for quite some time.  Not sure how they missed seeing this at the last service appointment... grrrrrr

At any rate, we are all fixed up and hope this is the final item in the chain of events that caused so much havoc.  Jeffrey is reluctant to install the new EMS until we are "sure", so we'll continue to run with the EMS disabled for a few more weeks and just manage our own power until we get back from west Texas. 

West Texas?  Yup!  We are taking a side trip this weekend and driving Max (pulling Moby the car) to the Fort Davis area.  We'll be part of a 5-day organized RV outing with 20 or so other RVs and will get to see all kinds of sights in that area -- McDonald Observatory, Marfa lights, etc.  We are hoping the U.S. government opens back up by the time it is over as we want to visit Big Bend National Park for a few days before we head back to Georgetown.  I promise my next post will have some pictures of this trip!

A Hot Time in Texas

My, how the last month has flown by.  We mistakenly thought that once we got back to Georgetown things would calm down considerably, but that was not to be!

We decided to dodge the Texas heat for a week and flew up to the nice cool NW to visit my Dad and Sheila in Washington state.  The 4 of us had a grand adventure ferrying over to and enjoying 3 days in the Cape Flattery and Hurricane Ridge areas.. absolutely beautiful parts of the U.S.A.  Also got to see my aunt Pat and Dad's cousin Ray and wife Carolyn.  Can't say enough about the nice weather though!  We always get lucky and have sunshine when we go up there.

Once back at Max, we braved 100+ degree days for the last week of August and successfully kicked off Gator football game watching parties with our Gator Club.  Unfortunately, Max's electrical woes took a new turn and we lost half the brains of our energy management system for some unknown reason.  Though we had plenty of power coming in, this EMS is responsible for making sure we don't overuse it, so part of its job is to monitor what devices are on and selectively turn lower priority things on/off if needed -- like water heater, engine heater, washer/dryer, etc. Generally is doesn't need to do much for us and we rarely notice it cycling things, but running our full compliment of air conditioners in the Texas heat can definitely kick it in.

Of course this issue happens over the Labor Day holiday weekend when we can't get to the service place in a timely fashion, so we have a few days to put our former-engineering heads together and diagnose what might be going on.  We are able to limp on one A/C in a VERY warm coach and to our great surprise, the company that makes the EMS is actually answering phones on Labor Day!  We come up with some ideas and get Max to service the next day where they confirm the problem and order a part that seems to fix us right up -- hooray!  (and hooray for extended warranties)

Deep breath of relief ensues as Jeffrey has decided he wants to celebrate his upcoming 50th birthday with a Carnival cruise out of Galveston over the Gator football "bye" week and Max is fixed just in time.  So Key West and the Bahamas, here we come!  It is always nice to just drive to a cruise ship and not have to deal with airline flights in and out. The cruise is terrific and we valiantly try not to over eat and try to get some exercise every day.  We return to only mid-90 degree heat in Texas, so the fall is starting to cool things down a little at least.

We are thrilled to find Max seemingly happy and with no obvious electrical issues when we get back -- and that lasts for only 2 days.  We wake up on Jeffrey's birthday expecting to give him a day of rest and relaxation and no errands :-)  and whammo... we have the same EMS problem again on the new part.  Sigh.  More research and several phone calls later and Jeffrey is getting more and more educated about how things work.  He is able to rig a way to temporarily bypass the EMS -- which means we just need to manage the power levels ourselves.  We also have a new clue as we heard the water heater breaker flip right before the problem.  In hindsight, this was happening "before" too.  So as I write this, we are sitting in service having the heater element replaced and hope we have finally tracked down our little electrical gremlin. 

Is this making us question full-time life in a motorhome?  Nope!  But it is definitely mentally challenging us more than we ever expected and keeping life exciting!

Completing trip #1!

Well, we survived the drive through Shreveport, LA, and the roads were no problem at all. Sure wish they would fix I-10 on their south edge though -- at least before we drive it again this December!  We even survived our first drive past the Dallas area, though we did cheat a little and pick roads that skirted east of the city so we could miss the worst of the traffic.  We have also learned to avoid rush hour.

We next enjoyed a fabulous 3+ day visit with friends, Mike & Lori Brindle, who live in Lake Kiowa, TX, which is just south of the Oklahoma border.  Their gated neighborhood even had a small campground with full hookups for Max, so we weren't too far away from them. Unfortunately, we were now fully engulfed in the dry Texas heat, so enjoying their golf course was not a good option.  We did, however, venture away from their little paradise to check out a nearby zoo and amazing casino right over the Oklahoma border.

Unfortunately, Max took issue with the heat (or maybe it was the huge power requirements to almost constantly run his 3 air conditioners) and started to suffer some mysterious power outages. It didn't take long to spot an unhappy breaker in his power panel.  The bad luck is that it was one of the uncommon ones and had to be ordered, so we were forced to limp back to our Georgetown RV park with only 1 A/C in order to get to a service place that could patch us up. We will now add an extra $40 breaker to our "spare parts" box :-)

In the end, we got back and organized in time for the annual SEC Picnic where our beloved Lone Star Gator Club gathers with the other alumni clubs to kick off the upcoming college football season (in the picture below, we are the ones in the funny tan hats on the right next to the blow-up "Albert" mascot). We sure had a lot to share and catch up on with them! It was great being back to our "Fall" home where we can enjoy our Austin friends and eat some truly wonderful BBQ and Tex-mex food for a few months!

Westward bound

After spending a final week near Gainesville seeing Jeffrey's parents, we began our trek westbound -- the goal being  to get back to Texas in time for the SEC picnic mid-August with our beloved Lone Star Gator Club.  Lucky for us, Jeffrey's brother and sis-in-law Susan live in Pensacola FL, so they are a very nice place to stop and hang out for a few days.  On our drive over, we stopped at a Pilot to fill Max with diesel and found ourselves the lucky recipients of a freezer full of Haagen-Daz ice cream from a trucker who was going to have to throw it away because the outside box was damaged.  Lucky for us, the single-serving containers of chocolate fudge brownie were totally fine!

We also enjoyed our final days on the nice Florida highways as we have found the southern states further west to be BUMPY... at least in a motorhome.  We have learned to "batten down the hatches" on rough roads, including putting rubber bands around the silverware so they don't clink-clink-clink.  As a result of our bumpy trip over I-10 when we came east last December, we decided to detour up to I-20 and see if it was any smoother.  It also gave us a perfect opportunity to visit my cousin Peyton and her family who had just moved to Jackson, Mississippi.  Jackson also has a zoo (see pictures below) and, while it was so-so, we pretty much had it all to ourselves (as well as the planetarium in town).  Found a few more folks in the local art museum, but the real crowds were at one of the local indoor malls keeping cool!

As I write this update, we have plodded further west to Mindon, Louisiana just for a night stop and will do another 1-day drive to Terrell, Texas tomorrow.  As it turns out, the worst of I-20 was at Jackson and it has been better as we go west -- though we have been warned that the road out of Shreveport may be bumpy too.  Guess I better keep the rubber bands on!