We dried off nicely as we drove back to Tampa for a scheduled week-long visit. In addition to visiting our FL west coast family and a surprize visit with the Best Man from our wedding (who is visiting from New Zealand with is family), Max got his bi-annual full body wash and hand wax -- well worth the $280 cost believe me! We also timed this visit so we could go to the huge Tampa RV show that happens every January. We were more interested in seeing all of the "stuff" vendors, not really the RVs -- and we were rewarded with discovering that Blue Ox had a crew on hand to "tune up" their tow bars for only $25 (this is the tow bar that lets us tow our car behind us). This is a great deal and one we had been looking for as we don't have some of the tools needed to do this ourselves.
Our other "finds" at the show were new wallets (makes sense to find these at an RV show, right?), a cool little LED puck (for fun), and a stand for our portable satellite dish (which gets used when our roof-mounted one is blocked by trees). Lastly we collected a pile of brochures and discounts for RV parks around the country, so hopefully we'll get some good deals as we continue our adventure.
For those of you following the repair/maintenance storyline of living in a motorhome, Max finally got his roof inspected by the Winnebago rep. There are a few ridges forming in his one-sheet fiberglass top and one of them was authorized to be repaired with a patch. It isn't leaking, but there is clearly some delamination going on between the fiberglass and whatever lies beneath it. Since we have seen this get worse over the last 12 months, we have opted to continue to watch it and defer the repair. I personally suspect that the other minor ridges will proceed to get worse as the one has, and that could change what is ultimately done to correct the issue. We also had the springs on our jacks replaced with a new-and-improved design so they will retract better -- luckily all covered by our extended warranty -- along with a gasket on one of our A/C units (our thanks to the heavy rain in Jupiter for pointing out that problem).
Unfortunately our attraction to hot climates like Texas is probably a contributing factor to some of the issues we have... especially since Max sat on a dealer's lot in Texas for over a year before we bought him. That dry heat can wreak havoc on seals/sealants, plastics, fiberglass rooftops, etc., so we are very careful to keep these things maintained now.
As I write this update we are parked at Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont, FL (near Orlando). The picture below was a lovely sunset, but if you look closely you can see our Max in the foreground. Though some nights are dipping into the 30s, the days are lovely in the 60-70 degree range. The park has some great walking trails to explore and we are also getting to see some of Jeffrey's cousins plus an Aunt/Uncle who live near. Of course, there is always a small list of Max to-do items to tackle... top of which is to polish Max's aluminum wheels and headlights so they'll be shiny, clean and handsome like the rest of him!
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