Category Archives: Computers

Posts that have something to do with our computers and networking technology.

20240821-22_BdW_projects_friends-for-dinner

NOTE: This is a longish post. It has one (1) photo, with caption, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

WEDNESDAY 21 & THURSDAY 22 August 2024 — BdW; Flooring, furniture, & new UPS; friends for dinner; fixing the garage door

Wednesday 21 … BdW guests sell their MH; Preparing food for dinner with friends

Tammy (RAMTAM19) messaged us to lets us know that they had sold the unit and the new owners would be taking possession of it today, assuming the money transfer occurred without any issues. I visited with Tammy & Randy briefly, and then left them to their tasks as they were in the final stages of emptying out their motorhome and putting things in storage locally. They are closing on a house in a week, and plan to stay in a local suites motel until then. They are from this area, and have adult children who still live within a reasonable distance of Brighton, so our BdW site has been a good, central location for them to deal with the sale of their rig and visit with their children and grandchildren. Their stay request had them leaving on Friday morning, but they will be leaving early, which is never a problem.

I put out food for the wildlife that frequents our property and then returned to inside work. Our first task was to remove the paper we had taped to the floor yesterday to help us visualize a round dining room table of several different diameters, located directly under the existing dining room pendant light fixture.

Linda spent the morning and early afternoon preparing food for this evening and doing some final house cleaning. She also helped me get a few measurements to locate the point on the floor directly under the dining room light fixture. With that information, I added a 54” diameter round table to the QCAD drawing of the hardwood floor area of the main floor of the house. I also drew the table in it’s extended (oval/race-track) configuration, and added the refrigerator, Linda’s desk, and sideboard to give us a visual and measured indication of how the table would fit in the space.

John and Diane arrived around 3:30 for a visit and dinner. They brought a nice wine.

Thursday 22 … Moving the desk; mounting networking and power components on the wall; a BdW guest arrives; and fixing the new/small garage door

With the new UPS in hand, we cleaned off the top of Linda’s desk (computer, printer, adding machine, and Lamp) and moved everything onto our bed. We then emptied Linda’s desk and moved it to our bedroom, which she had previously cleaned and rearranged slightly. The top of the desk was not attached to the base cabinets, but they were joined together by the center drawer assembly. I looked at disconnecting the center drawer assembly and decided it would be more pain than gain. We took out the six (6) drawers, 3 from each base unit, and the center drawer, so we had 10 pieces in all to move and reassemble. Plus the large UPS, of course, but I could not move it until I had mounted the new/small UPS to the wall and moved the power connection for the network switch.

Before we disassembled an moved the desk, I marked out the open space between the drawer boxes and the top/center drawer on the wall with blue painters’ tape. The top, box drawers, and center drawer have been removed and temporarily placed in the bedrooms. The boxes will be moved to our bedroom and the desk reassembled in front of the doorwall opposite the foot of our bed. It will live there until the oak flooring is refinished and then be put back in its normal location next to the refrigerator in the kitchen/dining part of the house.

I selected the new UPS in part because it has keyhole slots on the back to allow wall mounting, or anyplace that supports a VESA 100mm mounting pattern. I mounted it on the wall in the area between the two desk pedestals, which I had marked out with painter’s tape before we moved the desk. I then moved the small network switch into the same area and bundled up the data and power cables to keep them up away from the floor. This area is above and either side of the duplex receptacle and networking outlet box, so a good location for the switch and UPS. This arrangement will remain when we move Linda’s desk back into its permanent position. The small UPS for the network switch will be on at all time, but we can switch off the big one if/when we are away.

Around mid-afternoon, BdW guest Shannen J. arrived with her dog, Jack. ABIR a couple of weeks later, Jack was a spirited yellow Labrador Retriever. They were here for a 1-night stay.

Dan (Everlast Doors) showed up at 16:30 to fix the smaller garage door. This involved several things. First, he unplugged the motor-operator from AC power disconnected the spring-loaded drive shaft (mechanic release), and manually released the deadbolt, allowing him to move the door a bit and see what it was doing. He moved the shaft and got the lift cable on the operator side back on to the pulley. He then reattached the vertical track on the opposite side to the front wall, using molly anchors, and got the twist out of it. This wall is just 1/2″ chip board and the original screws, which were not in 2×4’s underneath, did not hold. He also adjusted the horizontal tracks near the ceiling to remove any twist and make them parallel and the correct distance apart. This required some “adjustment” of the angle irons that protrude from the ceiling drywall, which were left over from the original door installation(s). Operator re-engaged, power ON, raise and lower the door and make any final, minor adjustments.

With the door working correctly, Dan then installed two additional LED light fixtures on the east side of the ceiling for the larger bay. He paired one of them with the operator for the large garage door and the other one with the operator for the small garage door. With the addition of these two lights, which are plugged in to 120VAC power but wirelessly controlled by their respective door operators, whenever either door is opened we now have light between our vehicles and between the truck and the door to the library. He was here for several hours.

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20240820_Can-you-hear-me-now

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NOTE: This is a longer post with one (1) photo, with caption, taken by me using a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

TUESDAY 20 August 2024 — An audiology appointment (Bruce); An RV inspector; flooring, furniture & railing decisions; another UPS; garage doors; a ZOOM call; and the DNC on PBS

The RV inspector arrived before I left for my 10:30 AM audiology appointment at the UofM Health Brighton Center for Specialty Care. The audiologist (Sheri) was great, and it was a pleasant/interesting experience. I’ve had my hearing tested before, but it’s been quite a while, so I no longer recall when or where it was done, or what the results were. Today’s testing included examining the movement of both eardrums before testing my detection thresholds (faintest sound I could detect at various frequencies). It also included a test of bone conduction and my ability to correctly identify spoken words from a recorded male voice. The bone conduction test was interesting to me because Linda had a BAHA (bone anchored hearing apparatus) before she got her Cochlear implant, and I have recently seen ads on Youtube for headsets that rest on the bone in front of the ear rather than in the ear canal.

My hearing in both ears was in the “normal” range up to about 5 or 6 KHz (5,000 to 6,000 cycles per second), and about the same for each ear. I do not know, however, if “normal” was an age-adjusted metric. From 6 KHz – 8 KHz, my threshold increased in volume for both ears, with one of them slightly more affected than the other. A graph of the data was displayed on a monitor in the soundproof booth and Sheri explained what it meant. The upper end of the frequency scale was 12 KHz, but my hearing was only tested up to about 10 KHz. I am not a strong candidate for hearing aids (frequency selective amplification devices) at this point, but might benefit from them in certain circumstances, and might need them all the time in the future.

I was aware that “normal” age-related hearing loss affects the highest frequencies first, so the results were not surprising. When I was a teenager, and probably into my 20’s and 30’s, I was able to hear sounds as high as 20 KHz. This was important for the full enjoyment of music, which was the major focus of my life from ages 10 to 21. Music still sounds fine to me (which is not the case for Linda), but that is no longer a major concern. My hearing is still good in the frequency range for human speech, although the roll-off in higher frequencies would affect my ability to understand females more than males.

Sheri suggested I return in one year and have my hearing tested again. Not that she expects my hearing to change much in just one year (barring an accident or illness), but today’s measurements will only provide a baseline for future data. Two measurements will identify if my hearing is changing and. If so, by how much. When I was doing data analysis work as part of my last employment, conventional wisdom was that it takes a minimum of three data points to establish a trend, and more points are better, so I might go back again in two years, or perhaps skip a couple of years before testing again after next year. But that will also depend on what the audiologist recommends after each visit.

On the way home, it occurred to me that we might want to go ahead and donate our dining room table and (4) chairs, along with the buffet cabinet, to the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore sooner rather than later. We have been discussing this for a while and had already started looking at possible replacement furniture, but the new insight was that donating it now would mean we did not have to find someplace in the house to store it while the oak floor was being refinished (in October). Linda was onboard with the idea, so I called the local HfH office when I got home and left a message. They called back and indicated they were approximately two weeks out for donation pickups, and that someone would call next week to set up a date. I was reminded that all items needed to be in the front of a garage or outside; their employees will not come in the house to collect items.

Keith arrived to mow the property while I was at my appointment. It was a nice day for mowing and, as usual, he did a great job.

Some wonderful fungi growing on the north side of the base of the large oak tree by our first driveway entrance. I’m not sure exactly what they are, so I do not know if they are technically mushrooms.

The new Tripp-lite UPS & surge protector arrived today, several days after Amazon originally said it would be delivered. To be fair, they provided updates on the delivery date. I unboxed it and plugged it in to let the battery fully charge. It is NOT a LFP unit, using an SLA (sealed lead-acid) battery instead. The instructions said it could be mounted vertically on a wall, however, which was our use case. The battery is easy to replace, and are available from EATON, which owns Tripp-lite.

This is a smaller, less powerful, unit than the big ones we have, but will be more than sufficient for running the small network switch that is mounted on the wall by Linda’s desk. That switch is currently powered by the large Tripp-lite UPS that also powers her laptop computer, calculator, and the small canon ink-jet printer that she keeps on her desk. The reason for the new UPS is that we are going to temporarily move her desk into our bedroom while the hardwood floor is being refinished, and the large UPS has to move with it. The small switch will remain by her normal desk location, and needs UPS protection to avoid network interruptions from a loss of utility power. Indeed, all network-related components in our house are plugged into UPS units, as are all computers, monitors, printers, the Synology NAS unit, and most of the media equipment. We also have a whole-house generator, but it takes a few seconds to start and come online once it detects a loss of utility power, so the UPS units fill the gap, and provide power for some amount of time in the event the generator fails to start.

I had the garage doors open for much of the day to air out the space and let it cool off. The high temperature today never reached 70 deg F, and we have a string of 3 to 4 nights coming up with lows in the 40’s. That’s early fall weather for our part of the country, but we’ll take it. We will be well up into the 80’s again by the weekend, so summer is not over yet.

When I closed the small garage door it stopped and went back up. I pushed the button again and it went almost all the way down and then came back up. I tried a 3^rd time to close it and it went most of the way down, stopped, and jammed. Whaaat? I examined it and discovered that the vertical track on one side (opposite the motor operator side) had come loose from the wall and twisted. I also noticed that the lift cable on the end by the motor operator had come out of its pulley wheel and started to wrap around the spring shaft. Nothing for me to do at that point other than text Dan (Everlast Doors) and let him know. He texted me back quickly and said he could be here around 7:30 PM. While I thought it would wait until tomorrow, he was concerned that the garage was not secure as the bottom edge of the door was not touching the floor.

Linda set up a 5:30 PM ZOOM call with Paul & Nancy. We had a good chat, and it was fun, as usual. After dinner we watched the PBS coverage of the Democratic National Convention.

Dan showed up when he said he would. He disconnected the door from the motor operator (there’s a pull cord for this), got the door unjammed, got the lift cable back on its pulley wheel, and got the door all the way up. I then moved Linda’s car outside. He lowered the door onto the floor manually, I set the deadbolt latch manually, and the garage was secure for the night. He offered to return tomorrow to fix everything correctly, but Thursday was better for us, and turned out to be better for him as well. Until then, Linda’s car would live outside, which has for most of the time we’ve owned it.

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20240807-08_Home-&-Travel-Tasks

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NOTE: This post does not have any photos.

WEDNESDAY 07 & THURSDAY 08 August 2024 — Cleaning, cruising, dental, electrical, & flooring/CAD

Wednesday 07 … Cleaning continues and some CAD work for the floors

As usual, we started the day with coffee and breakfast. Around 9:30 AM I started calling the short list of floor refinishing companies Linda had compiled. The father of the father-son team scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, the medium firm for Friday morning, and the larger firm for next week on Wednesday morning. And just like that, our floor refinishing project was moving in the direction of becoming a reality yet this year.

Linda continued her deep-cleaning and reorganization of the kitchen and I worked on the CAD layout of the hardwood floors, which occupied the rest of my day. After dinner we watched the NBC recap of the Paris 2024 summer Olympics.

Thursday 08 … A crowning achievement, cruise finances, and a first look at refinishing hardwood floors

I had an 11 AM dentist appointment to get my new (replacement) crown. I left around 9:45 AM for the estimated 1-hour drive. The drive to the clinic was no worse than I expected, and I arrived a bit early. The appointment lasted about an hour. I decided to stay off the highways on the drive home; it took longer, but at least I was moving most of the time. I do not like sitting in stopped highway traffic.

Our final/full payment was due today for our December 2025 Virgin Voyages cruise to the Windward Islands in the southern Caribbean. Linda also checked to see if we could start booking shore excursions. We could, so it was time to look at what was on offer, make decisions, and then make reservations. Soon, but not today.

I turned my attention to the new electrical circuit for the new heat-pump dryer. I spent some time studying the situation and decided to surface mount a PVC electrical box behind the dryer location and use a piece of PVC electrical conduit to get the new wire from the ceiling to the box, where I would install a 20A duplex GFCI receptacle. Linda helped me use a 100’ tape measure to get an idea of how many feet of wire I needed. It turned out to be more than 50 feet, and since most of it would be run through holes in the joists for the main floor of the house, I would need Romex (non-metallic sheathed multi-conductor cable) rather than the individual insulated conductors I had run through conduit in the barn.

Michael, from Heritage Hardwood Floors (Howell), called to confirm his appointment, and showed up around 2:30 PM. He was on site for about 75 minutes and took the time to understand what we were looking to have done, discussed the details with us at length, and explained how he would approach the job. He was obviously very experienced and knowledgeable, and we were confident he could do the job. The last time we had floors refinished (at our previous house) we used a father-son team, and they did fabulous work, so we were comfortable with this business model.

Michael’s visit had raised questions, but after he left I returned to working on the new electrical circuit. Dinner was followed by watching the Olympics recap on NBC.

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20240806_Cleaning_Floors_Dinner-out

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NOTE: There are no photos in this post.

TUESDAY 06 August 2024 — Continued cleaning, floor measurements and drawings, and dinner out with a friend

Linda continued deep-cleaning the kitchen cabinets but took time out as needed to help me measure the oak floors in the main level of the house. For some time now (years) we have been considering having the oak floors refinished and getting new countertops for the kitchen. More recently we have been discussing the floor refinishing as a “sooner rather than later project.” Linda spent some time looking online for floor refinishing companies and found three that were relatively local and had good reviews. One was a father-son team, another was a somewhat larger firm, and the third one was a bit larger than that. All of them were local businesses, not franchises of larger chains. She gave me their contact information so I could call them to set up appointments, which I deferred until tomorrow.

With our decision to move ahead with the floor refinishing, I wanted to have a fairly accurate understanding of the extent of flooring involved. Our mental project list included replacing the vinyl tile flooring in the kitchen pantries, replace the existing “baseboards,” adding baseboards to the closets, and adding shoe molding to the kitchen base cabinets and island. (The existing “baseboards” are the same 2-1/4” door casing used to frame out all of the doors. We want those replaced with actual baseboard that matches our floor, as best as can be done.) Some trim work was needed along the exposed edges of the floor in the entry/foyer, specifically oak nosing. We also wanted to remove/replace the railing around the staircase to the basement, a potentially major project in itself that we will do ourselves.

Rather than dig in to the electrical work, which was also relatively high priority, I started creating the floor layout in my QCAD software as I wanted to have it done before contractors showed up to look at the job. The front entrance/foyer, hallway, dining room, and kitchen are one odd-shaped, but continuous. flooring surface that extends into three closets, but not the kitchen pantries. After getting reasonably good measurements for the wall lengths and positions, I divided the space up into rectangles so I could calculate square inches and convert it to square feet.

We wrapped up our work a bit earlier in the afternoon so we had time to get showers, put on nicer clothes, and drive to Ypsilanti to have dinner with our friend, Kate. We picked her up and headed down the street to Plant Based Coneys on Cross Street (next to the Side-Track and Frenchie’s restaurants). We had Coney dogs (very good), French fries (really good), and dessert; root beer float for me and enormous brownies with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce for Linda and Kate. All vegan, of course. Not being a bar or a coffee shop, and having somewhat uncomfortable metal furniture, we moved to the Panera on Washtenaw Avenue in Ann Arbor (next to Whole Foods Market) for coffee and continued conversation. We were there until they closed at 10 PM, returned Kate to her house, and drove home. US-23 between Ann Arbor and Brighton is in the middle of a major road construction project, but at that hour of the night, traffic was flowing nicely.

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20240729-30_Penultimate-July

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NOTE: There is one (1) photo with caption in this post, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

MONDAY 29 thru TUESDAY 30 July 2024 — Heat, rain, mosquitoes, and a busy week (BdW guests)

Monday 29 July … An anniversary, more BdW guests, and more rain

Our good friends Paul and Nancy were married on this date in 1989. We didn’t know them back then, but having eventually made their acquaintance (through RVillage), we wish we had. Linda sent them best wishes for a Happy 35^th wedding anniversary.

Our current BdW guests, Ted & Peg H., pulled out around 10:30 AM this morning, but not before taking the time to sit and chat with us a bit. Other than a certain “pay it forward” spirit, we like being Boondockers Welcome (BdW) hosts because we get to meet fellow RVers traveling to/through our home area; we get to hear their stories, and share some of ours. We also get BdW guest privileges in exchange for being hosts, but we have made very limited use of the program as guests since we joined. We are also Harvest Host guest members, but have only used the program a few times. We like both programs, but have found that host sites (that can accommodate us) are often not on our travel routes.

Four hours later, Dan & Marsha T. arrived in their Class A MH with a car in tow using a tow dolly. I met them in the street and directed them into our guest RV site. They were a repeat visitor, last here in 2020 at the beginning of the CoVID-19 pandemic. They were only here for one night, but took the time to chat with us, which we appreciated and enjoyed. We have not had a lot of repeat visitors, nor do we expect very many, but we have been hosting long enough that we are seeing a few of them. We appreciate that folks liked their stays here, for whatever reason, enough to want to come back.

We have been watching the recap of the summer Olympics every night on NBC since the opening ceremony. We have watched most of the Summer and Winter Olympics coverage since we were adolescents. (According to Wikipedia, world-wide TV coverage began in 1956.) It’s been a nice change from all of the shows we have been streaming.

Rain was in the forecast for this evening and overnight into tomorrow. It started raining around 9 PM and was very heavy for quite a while. I’m sure we got at least 2” of rain, but never saw an official measurement for our exact area.

Tuesday 30 July …

Given the rain last night, there was no way Keith would be able to mow our property today. We exchanged text messages, leaving open the possibility of him stopping by and checking the situation. In case he decided to try mowing, I picked up some small branches that had come down in the storm and rearranged a few large branches that were over-hanging the firepit. By early afternoon, however, he waived off on today and eventually texted that he would be here tomorrow. The rain had pushed his schedule for the entire week back by one day.

While picking up sticks, I noticed that most of our resident Wild Turkeys (2 adults and eight jakes, as I think they are now too old and too big to be poults) were roosting in one of the Blue Spruce trees near our north property line, just NW of our firepit. These recently pruned trees are now much more open in their lower portions, and cleared underneath, making it easier (possible?) for the Turkeys to fly up to these branches. Or perhaps they have been doing this for a while now but we just could not see them. Either way, we know that Wild Turkeys roost in trees at night (and on fences, roofs, and anything else they can get to, including the railing of our deck, our grill, and the roof of our house), but this was the first time we had seen this flock of two adults and eight young actually in a tree.

In-between other events, I worked on blog posts, and finally uploaded a few. With as busy as we have been, I am doing well if I can even make notes about our activities and get those written up in at least a draft form in a timely manner. And I have apologized repeatedly for constructing posts my memory long after the fact. Selecting and processing photos, deciding where they go in posts, and then writing captions, all take additional time. The actual uploading/publishing in WordPress is the least time-consuming part of the process, but it can’t happen until everything else is done, checked, and checked again. This is not a complaint—if I didn’t want to do this I would stop—just a statement of fact.

BdW guests, Dan & Marsha T. left mid-late morning after a nice chat, and arriving BdW guest PeachyTravel (Rick & Vivian, and family) messaged me with an ETA for mid-afternoon. They needed to stop and dump, which took extra time, and encountered heavy traffic enroute to us, which pushed their arrival to 3:30 PM. They were schedule to stay four (4) nights, so needed to top up their fresh water tank. I had them stop in front of the house (where the water spigot is located) and take care of that before proceeding into our guest site.

Given the hot, humid weather we have been experiencing we worked inside. I worked at my desk, finalizing and uploading several blog posts, and Linda worked at her desk on bakery-related accounting tasks.

A view of the workshop (in the barn) looking east from near the entry door in the SW corner. One of the two Rockler Rock-Steady Corner Stands is in the SE corner of the shop, with 56” x 20” by 32” Work Stands attached as wings. Another Work Stand (same size) will be attached to the one along the wall on the right (once I have all of the needed components).

Sometime during the day, UPS delivered the one remaining Rock-Steady Leg Set that I needed to assemble the last (for now) Work Stand. It had been mis-routed from the 27 July delivery, but was eventually located and made its way here. Rockler customer support was VERY helpful in resolving this, which I really appreciated. I am certain that their C-S is based in the USA. While talking to them, I also let them know about the bag of missing bolts (qty 32). They forwarded that to their technical support team, and few days later they arrived.

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20240719-21_3-days_lots-of-stuff

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NOTE: This is a longer post that contains one (1) photo with caption, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

FRIDAY 19 thru SUNDAY 21 July 2024 — Vision, cruises, SW licenses, yard work, Boondockers, and a Buck Moon

Friday 19 … More vision, a cruise dream, and a software license

Yesterday was a hard day so today was an easier day, by comparison. Linda had a 1 PM follow-up visit with Dr. V, her ophthalmologist at the KEC-BCSC. She got an excellent report; both of her eyes are healing well. Dr. V tested her vision and gave her a prescription for bi-focal glass lenses. Linda can actually see fairly well now without glasses, both for reading and distance. She is far-sighted in one eye and near-sighted in the other, and Dr. V inserted lenses that work with that difference. But she still does not see quite well enough for extended work at her desk, staring at her laptop computer and working with our personal financial and travel records, or reams of accounting printouts from the bakery. And while her distance vision is okay, the glasses will make it better, especially in her near-sighted eye. This will allow here to see better while in a vehicle, whether driving or as a passenger helping to read road signs.

We got a brochure in the mail today from Oceania Cruise Line (OCL). Oceania is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCL-H). Having sailed twice on NCL, they know who we are and they know where we live. OCL is a luxury cruise line featuring smaller ships than the ones we have been on (so far). Their cruises are commensurately pricey, so not something we have seriously considered. But just like the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs at Christmas (when we were kids), we went through the brochure to see what was on offer. They offer a lot of cruises in the Far East, including Australia and New Zealand, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. But the one that caught our eye departed from Buenos Aires (Argentina) and ended in Santiago de Chile (Chile) with a 2-day stop in Antarctica and a trip around Cape Horn through the Drake Passage. The sailing dates were northern hemisphere winter, so southern hemisphere summer, when the Southern Ocean is not quite as fierce as it is in the southern winter. And it was on sale for what seemed to be a relatively good price. Setting foot on Antarctic continent is a true bucket list item for me, but it won’t happen in 2025 (we already have two big trips planned) and probably not in 2026 (when we plan to RV to Alaska). The 2025 trips are set in stone (as much as any trip can be) but 2026 is still just an unplanned intent.

I have been using the QCAD software package for a few years now. I made extensive use of it to design the barn, but I use it for other things as well. The basic version is open source and free to download and use, but the professional version unlocks some important features and provides access to updated versions as they become available. For $39 a year, having the professional version is a no-brainer for me. My current license expires this coming Sunday, so I went ahead and renewed it tonight. I always use PayPal for things like this, and it will be interesting to see how this hits my credit card. I selected $USD on the website/store but the invoice came up in $EUR. I don’t know if this was related to the worldwide CloudStrike/Windows outage, but the transaction completed successfully using PayPal. While processing this transaction, I discovered that my password app on my phone would not allow me to log in with my fingerprint. Humm; that was strange and annoying as this is how I usually open the app. I got the password from one of our other devices and logged in that way. In the app settings on my phone, the ability to biometrically authenticate (face scan or fingerprint) was turned OFF. I did not turn it off, so it probably got reset as part of an update. I really hate it when that happens.

Last, but not least, UPS delivered most of the Rockler Rock-Steady work stand components and kits. I knew these weighed quit a bit as all the pieces are steel and the driver confirmed this immediately upon arrival. I asked if would deliver them to the barn, and he was more than willing to do so. I helped him unload everything and get it into the barn. The delivery included two (2) Corner Stand kits (complete), and the following components for the five (5) 56” x 20” x32” Work Stands: 5 x 4-packs of 56” Stretchers, 5 x 4-packs of 20” Stretchers, 5 x 2-packs of 32” Center Supports, 5 x 4-packs of Stand Connectors, 10 x 2-packs of Drawer/Shelf Brackets, and 1 x 4-packs of 32” legs. Missing from the delivery were 4 x 4-packs of 32” leg sets for the five (5) 56” x 20” x 32” Work Stands. We checked the order on Rockler’s website and verified that they were still on backorder. Also, that we had only been charged for the pieces that actually shipped.

Saturday 20 … More yard work

I knew the refill date on my blood pressure medication was coming up soon, so I logged into my online pharmacy to check. I quickly discovered that they were going to automatically refill it, so nothing for me to do except wait for it to show up.

After coffee and breakfast, we got dressed to work in the yard. I had previously added enough material to our firepit to justify lighting a fire, and we knew there were enough tree limbs on the ground in the west yard to keep us busy for a few hours. Linda eventually turned her attention to weeding under the large stand of pine, and fir trees just NW of the house, which included cutting out saplings. We worked from 10:00 to 13:00 and put our tools away.

A shower and some lunch and we were good as new. I then settled in to work on blog posts and launder the bed linens while Linda made a new batch of her amazing granola. Our middle grand-daughter was due back today from a two-week stint at the YMCA camp, but we did not get a chance to Facetime with her. Dinner was the second go-around of the Mexican corn salad, and it was just as good as the first time. After dinner we settled in to watch our usual Saturday evening TV programs on our local PBS station.

The “Buck Moon” about 8 hours before it’s precise occurrence. This photo was taken a 10:20 PM, about 20 minutes after moonrise. The view is southeast from the end of our first driveway, the only place on our property that afforded an unobstructed view of the orb, and I had to wait for the disk to be above the tree line of the properties southeast of us. This is a long/night-mode handheld exposure that received more than my usual post-processing. In particular, I tried to make the details on the surface of the moon at least a little bit visible, while also bringing out some details in the surrounding clouds and the trees along the bottom of the image.

I had noticed for the past week that the moon was near full. A news headline popped up this morning about tonight being the “BUCK MOON,” the name given to the full moon in July. Online research indicated that in North America the name is ancient and spiritual, and refers to the time of year that male deer start to grow their antlers. The actual time of the Buck Moon was tomorrow morning, but we had an excellent view of the moon this evening, low in the southeast sky but above the trees. The weather was clear and the moon appeared very large and very bright.

Sunday 21 … Another BdW guest arrives

The exact time for the “Buck Moon” was 6:17 AM EDT, but we did not see it this morning; I was up, but the weather was cloudy. We also have trees in our yard, as do adjacent properties to the east and southeast, that obscure the eastern horizon, so we often cannot see a moonrise.

We continued our work on the property again today. Linda pulled weeds while I cut down one of the four (4) “bushes” that grow in the northeast portion of our yard. They are not attractive, consisting of a tangled mix of samplings, vines, and wild raspberries with plenty of thorns. Even mowing the grass near them requires some care.

When we had a sufficient pile of material in the burn bit I started the fire. I then switched my attention to the stand of large pine trees in the northeast corner of the property. I removed limbs and branches that were already on the ground, and then cleared a path around the east side of the stand. I then pruned a few of the lower/dead branches from the trunk of one of the trees. I hadn’t planned on pruning today, but we needed more/larger wood for the fire, and these were easy to get to and relatively close to the fire pit (compared to material from the western portion of the property.) We worked for about 3 hours and then called it quits.

BdW members Patrick & Ruth W. notified me around 17:30 that they would arrive at 20:30. Our preferred arrival window is between 13:00 and 17:00, but later times are okay as long as we know. Knowing they would not arrive for a while, we opened our BdW Hosting Profile in the HH-BW app and reviewed our information. We confirmed that our profile does state a preferred arrival window of 1 – 5 PM. As long as we were logged in, we made some minor edits to our information. I tend to error on the side of TMI, the error being that the more words you use the less likely most people are to actually read and retain all of them. Still, there are things guests need to know about our site and expectations. Linda then prepared a dinner meal of mushroom root steak, corn, baked sweet potato, and a small green salad with plant-based “blue cheese” dressing. Yum.

After dinner, we watched an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot on PBS at 19:00 and then the latest episode of Martijn Doolard on Youtube at 19:50, which filled the time until 20:30 rather nicely. That meant we missed this week’s episode of Professor T (PBS) but we can stream that sometime this coming week. Our guests arrived on our street right at their ETA and phoned me. Linda came out with me and after I got them parked we had a brief welcoming chat before leaving them to make camp. We returned to our Sunday evening PBS TV programs and watched Grantchester at 21:00 and DI Ray at 22:00, both of which appeared to be the concluding episodes for this season. That might also be true of Professor T, but we won’t know until we watch it.

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20240717-18_Construction_&_Deconstruction

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NOTE: This longer post does not have any photos.

WEDNESDAY 17 and THURSDAY 18 July 2024 — Dental, walking, mowing, and a global IT outage

Wednesday 17 … Highway construction, a motorcade, and dental deconstruction

I had an appointment late morning with our dentist to deal with the right rear-most, lower tooth that had lost its partial crown about two (2) weeks ago. In all the time we have lived in Michigan (since 1976) I have never seen so much road construction as we have at the moment, so I left early to make sure I wasn’t late. Major highways are being widened all over SE lower Michigan, and flex-lanes are being added or extended on the highways to run through our local community area. The amount of equipment I passed today on I-96 was epic. At one point there were 12 gravel haulers lined up nose-to-tail waiting their turn to dump their loads. There were two concrete forming machines in operation, several very large cranes, and all sorts of excavators, cutters, rollers, concrete mixers. My best guess was at least 50 pieces of heavy equipment, much of it specialized to road construction. It was fascinating to see and, fortunately, there were no major traffic backups.

Close to the clinic, I headed west on Michigan Avenue to make the U-turn (Michigan left) back to the clinic. I noticed a LOT of flashing emergency lights, and not long after pulling into the U-turn, a motorcade went by (westbound) probably headed to the Detroit (Wayne County) Metropolitan Airport. I later learned that the motorcade was transporting Vice-President Kamal Harris following a speaking engagement in Detroit.

At the clinic, the dentist made an adjustment to one of my night-time bight guards and then got to work on my tooth. He decided to remove some of the existing tooth to allow the new crown to be thicker on top (that’s were the old one failed) and to come down around the tooth closer to the gum line for a more secure fitment. With the tooth prepared, he used the photo/laser scanning system to “map” the inside of my mouth on my right side. The scans included the upper and lower teeth (mouth open) and the outside of the teeth in the closed position. The new crown will be ceramic (Zirconia) and should be ready in about two weeks.

The dental assistant fitted a temporary crown, which was quite a procedure in its own right. It will protect the tooth until I get the permanent crown, but I was advised to still chew on the left side and avoid hard, crunchy, and gooey/sticky foods. Before leaving the clinic, I made an appointment for August 8^th to have the new crown fitted. The tooth is still “sensitive” when touched in certain ways, so I suspect the temporary crown does not completely protect the lower back side.

Thursday 18 … Walking, mowing, and seeing what’s behind you; and a major computer outage!

Linda met up with our daughter around 9:30 AM to walk a portion or the Mike Levine Lakelands Trail. From the Michigan History Center (Michigan.gov): “The Trail runs 33 miles between Hamburg Township in Livingston County (US-23 and M-36) and Blackman Township in Jackson County (near Stockbridge). Opened to the public in 1994 as the Lakelands Trail State Park, it is a popular destination for people looking to enjoy the outdoors. The trail is also a component of the Great Lake to Lakes Trails Route #1, which extends 275 miles from South Haven (Lake Michigan) to Port Huron (Lake Huron). Local philanthropist, Mike Levine, contributed extensive resources to transform the corridor into an improved trail. In 2018, the DNR changed the trail’s name to the Mike Levine Lakelands Trail State Park in recognition of Mike’s efforts.”

Our property was not completely dry after the rains last night, but I wanted to get the grass cut sooner rather than later so it had time to grow before next Tuesday when Keith would once again be here. I had the lawn tractor out of the shed and ready to go by 10 PM. I decided to set the mowing deck at its highest setting, so the grass would be long enough by next Tuesday to make it worth having Keith show up. I decided to cut the grass on the west half of the property on a SE-NW diagonal and the grass on the east half of the property on a SW-NE diagonal. On the west side, that meant I was cutting across the old furrows left over from when this property was part of farm (many, many years ago). The lawn tractor does not have a suspension, so I got beat up today. Keith usually mows on an E-W orientation, which makes for a smoother experience. Both he and I have to deviate from that, of course, to go around trees, stumps, buildings, the firepit, and along the edges of driveway as well as stands of trees and bushes. But that was the general idea for today. I worked until 1600, with a 30-minute break for lunch around 12:30. I was tired, but it felt good to have this done.

Linda got home around 1300 and had a bite of lunch. She took her car to Serra Honda for a 14:30 appointment to have the glass portion of the driver-side rearview mirror replaced. The labor was more than the part, but it required some special tools and knowledge to remove the old one without breaking plastic retaining tangs or the housing. Besides, if the technician dropped the new mirror, it would be at the dealer’s expense, not ours.

Sometime during the day, or perhaps it was overnight last night, an update of the CrowdStrike security software was pushed to their clients with a bug in it that caused a world-wide outage of computers running the Windows operating system, including Windows Server and Windows Enterprise. The event was well-covered in the media, so I don’t need to repeat it here. We were not doing anything at the time that might have been impacted, so for us it was just an interesting and curious news story. But for many people, especially those traveling, and for many (most?) of the really big corporations around the world, and even governments, it was a major disruptive event.

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20240708-12_illness-dental-optical-Xfin

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NOTE: This is a moderately lengthy post that contains one (1) photo with caption, taken by Linda with a Google Pixel 6.

MONDAY 08 thru FRIDAY 12 July 2024 — A busy week in the context of illness; dental and optical visits, and a rare broadband outage

Monday 08 … More yard work, new glasses, and illness

I got up today not feeling 100%. I actually started coming down with something yesterday, including a mild sore throat (never a good thing) but shrugged it off to just being tired. Linda and I had both been working hard on the property (weeds and trees); we were both tired and needed a rest. Linda was also just getting over what she thought was a bad cold.

Our BdW guests (Mark & Kathy) left around mid-morning for their next destination at Burt Lake. Mark had spent time there at an earlier point in his life and was looking forward to revisiting the area. They said they enjoyed their brief stay and had a very quiet night.

I received a text message around 10:30 (AM) letting me know my new glasses were ready. I decided to pick them up before getting to work on the yard. This was a pair of tri-focals that I intended to use for driving, but the distance (upper) portion of the prescription made my distance vision much worse than my un-aided eyes. Hummm. The reading portion was the same as my reading glasses, and the intermediate portion (intended for the dashboard) seemed to be OK. The optician said they would remake the lenses if needed (within 45 days) for no charge, but they would need a new/different prescription which I would have to obtain from my optometrist. Ugh. That meant trying to get an appointment with our OD at the UofMH KEC at the BCSC within the next 40 days. Double ugh.

Back home, we got to work in the yard, making a pile of dead tree branches in our firepit and lighting it on fire. I continued to prune dead limbs and branches from pine, fir, and spruce trees and Linda helped cut them up into sizes that fit our burn pit.

Tuesday 09 … a “crowning” achievement

When I got up this morning it was obvious that I was really sick. My sore throat had worsened, and I was coughing up quite a bit of phlegm. When this happens, the problem for me is that I cannot tell if the phlegm is the result of nasal drainage or is being produced in my lungs. I wasn’t having any breathing difficulties or pain, other than the coughing itself, but the origin was still undetermined. A trip to the clinic was probably in order, but I did not go, in part because I had a dental appointment this afternoon. I called to let the clinic know I was symptomatic. They said to come in anyway.

Because of the myriad road construction projects in our area, I left about 90 minutes ahead of my 2 PM dental appointment. I arrived early, but not stressed. Dr. G confirmed that a partial crown (or cap) had failed on my right lower rear molar. The hole in the cap, however, was not the result of it having been drilled out in order to do a root canal procedure on that tooth. Indeed, that tooth still had an intact root. I was surprised to hear that, as I have not had any discomfort following the loss of the cap. I will need a new crown, and the appointment to prepare the tooth will take 90 minutes, which their schedule did not allow for today. I made an appointment to return on the 17^th in the late morning and will have another appointment approximately three (3) weeks after that to get the crown installed. So, all told, it will be approximately five (5) weeks from when the crown came off until the new one goes on. I know these things take what they take, but that felt like a really long time. No doubt the 1-week delay waiting for today’s appointment added to my sense of extended time.

There was a major Security and Bug-Fixing Update from Microsoft today, so we made sure our computers were up-to-date. Over 140 security flaws across all MS products were patched and some other “bugs” squashed.

The weather had turned very warm by now, and with my continuing illness I was not up to working in the yard. I used various OTC products to try and ease my “suffering,” including Acetaminophen, DayQuil, NyQuil, MucinexDM (for expectorant), and Unisom (to sleep). Not all at the same time, of course. MucinexDM and Unisom were my main “go-to” products. It was probably around this time that we discussed what to have for dinner, and I suggested that soup would be an excellent choice for the next few days. Linda was willing and able to accommodate that suggestion.

Wednesday 10 … Starve a fever, feed a cold

The day did NOT dawn bright. Rain and wind started overnight and continued through the day, very heavy at times, as the remnants of Hurricane Beryl swept up from Texas and into the Great Lakes region. (We later learned that we got about 3” of rain in 36 hours, but some areas around us got over 6” of the liquid sunshine.)

I called the UofMH KEC at their BCSC and was able to get an appointment with our optometrist (Dr. T) on Monday the 15^th at 4 PM. It was a relief to be able to get an appointment that soon.

The base for the Vitamix small capacity blending container. The Vitamix imprint and part number are on the blade pointing to the right. We had to fiddle with the lighting, and do some post-processing, to get the information to be legible in the photo.

I helped Linda get a photo of the base of the small vessel for her Vitamix. Vitamix recalled this part, but needed a photo as proof that we actually had one. They rejected the first photo she sent has it did not have the company logo and product number clearly visible, and the file was larger than 3 Mb. Both pieces of information were on one of the cutting/chopping blades, and I had to orient the unit very carefully relative the very bright LED lamp on Linda’s desk in order to get the inscribed information to standout from the rest of the blade. (The blades on metal, and highly reflective.) The new photo was also less than 3 Mb so she submitted it. She got a fairly quick reply that they new photo was acceptable! Good job team!

Other that that, I rested most of the day, even to the point of taking at least one nap, which is unusual for me.

Thursday 11 … Picking up sticks

On lawn care guy (Keith) texted me around 8 AM to let me know he would be mowing today, and ask if I wanted him to do our property. In spite of the large amount of recent rain, I said “yes,” but as late in the day as possible. Linda met Diane at KMP at 9:30 AM for their weekly walk. In spite of still not feeling well, I got dressed and picked up all (most) of the tree limbs and branches that had come down in the last 36 hours. As long as I was up and out, and put out corn and refilled the bird feeders.

ABIR, Linda worked at her desk a bit. If she’s not doing accounting work for the bakery, or tax returns for family and friends (late winter and early spring), she is doing routine accounting and finance tasks for us.

At some point during the day, we got another Boondockers Welcome stay request, this one for very late July into early August, which I approved.

Friday 12 … A rare loss of service

I was still feeling poorly today, albeit a bit better, but it was still basically a “do nothing” day for me. ABIR, Linda took it fairly easy too.

Apparently, we lost our Xfinity/Comcast broadband service sometime around 5:30 PM. Linda and I were not aware of this at the time as we were both doing things on our iPads that did not require us to be online. I got a call form our neighbor (Mike G.) around 17:45 checking on whether we had our Internet connection. I checked, and we did not. I called him back to let him know. While chatting, I mentioned that we had both been sick, and described my symptoms. He suggested that we test for COVID-19. Apparently a new strain with milder symptoms like mine has been circulating. We both tested and both results were negative, but it was good to know for sure.

Mike checked to see when service might be restored. He got 10:30 PM SUNDAY NIGHT as an answer and shared that information with us. What?!!! Linda checked, and got 10:30 PM tomorrow (Saturday) as an estimate; better, but still a long way’s off. I eventually got a text message from Xfinity about the outage and signed up for updates. Not long after, I got an update indicating that service should be restored by 10:40 PM THIS EVENING. Well, that’s more like it. Our service was actually restored sometime prior to that. No indication of what had happened, there rarely if ever is, but it was good to have the service back. While it was out we watched OTA TV programs on CBS. These are shows that we used to watch every week but haven’t in quite a while. We don’t miss them.

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20240704-07_Happy-BDay-USA_Aphelion_&_Mead

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NOTE: This post contains one (1) photo with caption, taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

THURSDAY 04 thru SUNDAY 07 July 2024 — The USA has another birthday, celestial motion, & mead

Thursday 04 … Independence Day

We do not have a family tradition of getting together on the 4^th of July for a meal or other activities, and we have never been inclined to buy and use fireworks on this, or any other occasion. When we were younger we would, however, often attend large public fireworks displays. But many people do gather on this holiday, and we have plenty of neighbors who indulge in fireworks, so we were not without a sense of festivity today.

If I understand dates correctly, the Declaration of Independence was unveiled publicly on this date in 1776. Thus, the first anniversary of “Independence Day” was July 4^th, 1777 and today was the 248^th anniversary of this world-changing event. I hadn’t really thought much about it, but July 4^th, 2026 will be the 250^th anniversary of the birth of the nation. I presume there will be lavish celebrations that year.

As for what we did today? I have no idea or, rather, I don’t have any helpful notes. If I have to guess, I suspect we worked in the yard, but it’s also entirely possible that we just took the day off and relaxed. It’s been known to happen.

Friday 05 … Aphelion & Mead

Our new wine refrigerator with the racks pulled part way out. The wall hanging is a hooked rug that I (Bruce) made sometime in the 1976-77 timeframe. It was my own design, based on a pseudo-colored x-ray radio photograph of the Milky Way galaxy. The photo was just of the central portion of what is portrayed in the rug.

Aphelion and mead don’t really have much to do with one another, other than the fact that they both happened today. Aphelion is the point (in space and time) when the earth is the farthest away from the sun during its annual revolution. This is a distance of 1.01 AU (astronomical units), approximately 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. (I think 1 AU is the average/mean distance of the earth from the sun.

Since the earth’s orbit is elliptical, rather than circular, there are only two points in the orbit where it is1 AU from the sun. The rest of the year it is slightly farther away or slightly closer.) Most sources I checked seemed to indicate this occurred today, but some indicated that it actually occurred tomorrow. It’s not so much important as it is interesting, at least to astronomy geeks. Indeed, it’s the hottest time of the year in the northern hemisphere. That’s because the distance from the sun has very little effect on our climate. It’s the 23.5-degree axial-tilt of the earth relative to the plane of its orbit, and how that tilt is oriented to the sun throughout the year, that determines our seasons.

Today was the mead tasting at Schramm’s Mead in Ferndale. We left early enough to have lunch before going to Meadery just ahead of our 1 PM tasting appointment. The tasting was in a small room that could comfortably accommodate 6 – 8 tasters. For our session, there were only three tasters, us and another woman. We had asked for a guided tasting, so our host (Charles, I believe), told us a bit about each mead before and as we tasted it, with some discussion following each one, and comparisons to those previously sampled or tasted elsewhere sometime/someplace in the past.

All meads are made with honey as the main source of fermentable sugar, and Schramm’s has a wide range of products based on a careful and skillful selection and blending of both honeys and fruits. The six we tasted today were, in order, Marionberry, Pacific Bramble +, Patty Fay, Apple Crisp, Leatherwood, and Sunflowers. The first three are fruit meads, Patty Fay is made with ginger, while the last two are classic meads. That is to say, they contain nothing but water and honey. These are the meads in which the essential character of the honey is the sole determinant of the taste.

We had a bottle of Patty Fay at home, that I purchased when I visited the meadery some weeks ago to have lunch with Ken (the owner and namesake of the business), but we had not opened it yet, so all six of these meads were knew to us. They were each different from one another, all interesting, and all very much to our taste; really fine examples of the art of mead-making. We bought three (3) bottles, 1 each of Leatherwood, Sunflowers, and Heather. Heather was not part of the tasting but was also a classic mead and was strongly suggested by our fellow taster, who was clearly a regular, and more experienced mead drinker (and customer) than us. As best I recall, we were told it has a strong ginger presence that we would like, given how much we liked the Patty Fay.

Saturday 06 … Why we have desks

Linda had work she needed to do for the bakery, and spent the day at her desk, so I did the same (at my desk). There’s always stuff to do at our desks, especially things that involve our computers rather than our tablets. Besides, we both needed a break from yard work.

Sunday 07 … Off to camp (again), more yard work, and another BdW guest

Madeline took the bus back to Camp Algonquin today, this time for two back-to-back 1-week sessions. I think that one of these sessions included some equestrian experiences. She had already been to “horse camp” (locally) a summer or two ago, and was looking forward to getting back in the saddle.

I resumed my tree pruning work, but wasn’t feeling well. I had a sore throat but no fever. Still, after a few hours I was tired, not feeling the joy of the work, and called it quits for the day.

BdW guest Mark and Kathy L. arrived in the early evening for a 1-night stay. It had been a long day for them, so Linda and I chatted with them briefly and let them settle in. I mentioned that I wasn’t feeling well and kept my distance.

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20240422-30_Spring-is-finally-here-4

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NOTE: There are two (2) photos with captions in this post. Photos taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

MONDAY 22 – TUESDAY 30 April 2024 — The end of April

During the 4^th week of April, we might have started working on pruning trees and bushes, and pulling weeds, but we tend not to record these kinds of work days on our calendar, and I did not capture that information in real time. As of Wednesday, June 5, however, I think the burn pile had been lit at least twice, and maybe three times. We are trying to not accumulate numerous/large piles of stuff for the burn pile, like we have in the past. We do wait, however, until we have enough to justify lighting it, a bit more to add to, and have decided to work in the yard and create even more material to add to it. So far, it seems to be working out for us fairly well. Some highlights of specific days of the week were as follows:

Monday 22 …

Nothing of note, apparently.

Tuesday 23 …

I had a note on the calendar to call the University of Michigan Health (UofMH) Travel Clinic so see about getting additional vaccinations in advance of some of our planned international travel. I was told that the clinic currently only services faculty, staff, and students and was referred to a private clinic in town. I might have called that clinic as well, but I don’t recall specifically. HFHS Columbus Center also has a travel clinic, so I called them. Linda still has here primary care physician there, but I do not. No matter, as it turned out, they will still see me. We will need to send them our itineraries in advance of an appointment, which we have deferred until later in the summer.

The new cat tree, fully assembled and positioned in the library near the doorwall to the living room. Only time will tell if Cabela deems it interesting enough to be worthy of her use.

Wednesday 24 …

Linda had a mid-morning appointment with her ENT, and we both had early afternoon appointments for eye examinations with an optometrist in the Kellogg Eye Institute at the UofMH Brighton Center for Specialty Care. I got a new prescription for glasses, but Linda got a referral to an ophthalmologist at the Institute for possible cataract surgery. We met our friend, Kate, at 17:30 for dinner. We dined somewhere in the Ypsilanti / Ann Arbor area, but I did not record where we went.

Thursday 25 …

Linda met Diane at Kensington Metropark for their weekly walk. Boondockers Welcome guest Woosch32 arrived for a 1-night stay.

Friday 26 …

Sometime earlier in the week I had scheduled a used furniture pickup with the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore for 9 AM this morning. ABIR, they showed up right on time, and shortly thereafter all of the living room furniture that had been in our Rec Room was out of the garage and on its way to the ReStore. This was the second batch of this furniture we have donated. The first batch found a new home (or homes) very quickly (so we were told) so we hoped this batch would as well.

Saturday 27 …

I took a photo of the boxes for the pigment ink refills (that I needed to order) for our Epson EcoTank 16650 multi-function wide-format inkjet printer. The photo was not worth displaying, but apparently I ordered the refills today. This printer uses Epson’s 542 series pigment inks (CMYB) which come in reasonably large volume bottles; 70 ml for C, Y, and M, and 120 ml for B. The special bottles are keyed to match the refill ports on the printer’s built-in ink tanks, making it essentially impossible to put the wrong in a tank. It’s a very economical way to buy ink (thus the ecoTank branding), and the system is very easy and clean to use.

Sunday 28 …

Nothing of note, again.

Monday 29 …

After an exchange of e-mails over the last month or so, I was able to set a date to get together with Ken Schramm, founder of Schramm’s Meadery. Ken and I both worked at Wayne RESA at the same time, and became friends as well as colleagues. Linda and I, with Paul and Nancy, had been to his retail shop and tasting room in Ferndale, Michigan just before the CoVID-19 pandemic, but he wasn’t there that day, and they ultimately had to close the storefront due to the loss of retail business. The meadery, however, survived the economic difficulties of the time. It was located just around the corner, in a housing area just off the main commercial street. I met Ken there and got a personal tour of the operation before we went to a local Thai restaurant for lunch and a prolonged, and much overdue, conversation.

Back at the meadery, I bought bottle several bottles of mead, including a “Patty Fay.” Patrica Faye was Ken’s mother’s name, but Patricia is also my sister’s name, her last name is still “Fay,” and she has always gone by “Patty.” She does not drink alcohol, however (to the best of my knowledge), so the bottle is for us, in her honor. Here’s to you, Sis.

Tuesday 30 …

A picture of the new Hisense wine refrigerator (taken in early July 2024).. I pulled the wine racks out, which is more obvious in the reflection in the door window. The fabric artwork on the wall (partial view) is a hooked rug I made in the late 1970’s. The pattern was inspired by a pseudo-colored X-ray radio telescope image of the Milky Way galaxy. The various colors indicate portions of the galaxy that are moving towards our position or away from it, and how fast. The complete piece is about 4’ x 6’ in size.

Sometime in the past few days I ordered a new Hisense wine refrigerator from the local Lowe’s store. It was delivered today mid-afternoon. They had them in stock at the store, but with delivery and take-away service, it was easier to do it this way. In advance of its arrival, I moved the dining room table to make room, and emptied the old wine fridge, putting the bottles out of the way.

The new wine fridge looked good, although I did have to figure out how to attach handle. I had to partially remove the door gasket to get the holes in the door frame for the handle bolts. One of the things I really liked about this unit at the store was that the bottle racks each slide out, making it much more convenient to access the bottles.

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20240408-14_Spring-is-finally-here-2

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NOTE: This post is mostly narrative, but there are two (2) photos with captions. Photos were taken by me (Bruce) with a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

MONDAY 08 – SUNDAY 14 April 2024 — The second week of April

Monday 08 … A solar eclipse, oh my!

I called Lakeside Service Company to set up an appointment for annual service on the air-conditioner portion of the HVAC unit for our library. The temperature has to be above 45 deg. F for them to test the system, so I made an afternoon appointment for the first week of May.
We observed the solar eclipse from home. It was not total at our location, so not total darkness and no corona or stars, but it was still interesting to see. We thought about driving south, perhaps as far as Bowling Green, Ohio but decided against it. Probably for the best as it turned out, as there were reports of people taking many, many hours to get home from there. We tried to photograph it with our phones using a neutral density filter, but were not really equipped for this and the photos did not turn out very well.

Our new Rec/TV room furniture, minus the cardboard and Styrofoam packaging. (Photo from 05 April.)

Another view of the Rec/TV room furniture and its relationship to the location of the TV/monitor and associated equipment. (Photo from 05 April.)

Tuesday 09 … I took care of a couple of errands and a major task (with Linda’s help).

As I headed out to take care of the errands, I performed my first turtle rescue of the season. I spotted a small turtle on our street just east of our house. It was crossing the road from the small swampy area on the south side to the pond on the north side. I picked it up and placed in on the north side, well away from the edge of the road. I know that one has to exercise great care when doing this on any road, especially with heavier and/or faster traffic, but I am always dismayed by the utter disregard that most drivers seem have for these small, vulnerable creatures, who are not evolved to deal with motor vehicles and roadways.
My first errand was a visit to our local Tractor Supply Company store. I was looking for a tow behind lawn rake with a pin-hitch that would work with our lawn tractor/mower. They had the one I wanted online, and I had seen one in the local store many months ago, so I was hoping they still had one in the store. They did not, so I ordered one for delivery to our house. Delivery was by freight truck, and would take about two weeks to get here. Oh well; there was rain in the forecast for the later part of this week, so I would be lucky if the property is even dry enough to use it when it arrives.
Errand number two was a visit to our local Rural King store for some work clothes. I put on few pounds during 2023 and early 2024, mostly due to dining on cruise ships, and I needed some work trousers with a slightly larger waist size. I ended up buying two pairs of bib overalls; built-in suspenders and no belt. Perfect!
Our major task was to disassemble and clean (wash) all of the bird feeders. I handled the disassembly and brushing out (both done outdoors) and Linda handled the cleaning (inside). When they were dry, I reassembled them and then filled them with the appropriate feed. We did not fill the hummingbird feeder, as Linda’s research indicated that they had only just made it to southern Ohio. We decided that the Oriole feeder needed to be replaced so Linda found one on Amazon and ordered it, along with some kitty litter. Yup, we decided to set up a litter tray for Cabela and see how that goes.
Sometime during the day, I received our first Boondockers Welcome (BdW) stay request for the 2024 season; one-night on Friday 26 April. Our site is typically “blocked out” on our hosting calendar from the beginning of fall until the end of winter, plus any time we are traveling, but the exact dates vary each year. We also block it out if we have projects with workers on site, or have social gatherings. This year, we kept our guest site blocked out through April 15.

Wednesday 10 … early release, vision, streaming.

We received notifications that our vision examinations, set for tomorrow, needed to be rescheduled. Linda called the clinic and got us back-to-back appointments with an optometrist the last full week of the month.
Today was an “early release” day for the Ann Arbor Public Schools, so Linda was on-tap to drive down and retrieve the grand-daughters from their respective buildings. Because she handles child care when needed, she sees the girls more often than I do, so I decided to go along and get some grand-daughter time.
After dinner we were discussing what to watch on TV/streaming and decided to subscribe to Netflix. We watched Netflix a lot during the CoVID-19 pandemic, and have some favorite programs that are only available there. Our profile was part of a friends’ account, however, and Netflix has since clamped down on that arrangement, so we needed our own account. We set up two-factor authentication (2-FA) for the account, something we are gradually doing with most of our online accounts, along with setting up Passkeys to use in place of usernames and passwords.

Thursday 11 … rain, Rx’s, deliveries, and another BdW stay request.

Rain started overnight and continued through the day and evening, so we did not get any outside work done today.
My new blood pressure medication prescription arrived, but it was not exactly what I expected. My new doctor told me during my visit last week that he was raising my dosage from 10 mg per day to 20 mg per day. I watched him type in the new prescription, but I could not see what he was typing. When I looked at the bottle, it was for a 20 mg tablet, but the instructions said to “take 1/2 pill daily.” Oh oh. I checked and, sure enough, the bottle only contained 45 pills and could not be refilled for 90 days. In other words, I had enough medication to take 10 mg per day (my original dosage) for 90 days, but only enough to take 20 mg per day for 45 days. This was not what I expected and not what I needed based on what the doctor told me to my face. I called the number for our mail-order pharmacy (OptumRx) to verify that they had filled the prescription as submitted. They had, and there was nothing they could do other than suggest I contact my doctor. Since this was not an emergency, I messaged him about the situation via UofMH’s version of the EPIC portal. I had still not received a reply to my earlier message from late last week, and I did not expect one right away to this new one, but it would be an understatement to say that I was a bit miffed at this point about the situation, and the lack of a timely response. I decided to wait until next week to follow up with a phone call.
We had an Amazon delivery of coffee pods, Red Lentils, and other such things. Amazon Prime trucks seem to stop at our house a lot.
Sometime during the day, I received our second Boondockers Welcome request for the 2024 season. This one was for one-night on April 16, the first day for which a stay request could be requested.

Friday 12 … More rain, and a walk (but not in the rain).

The rain continued overnight and into today, so Linda met Diane at the mall to get their steps in. She stopped at the grocery store on the way home to re-provision fresh fruits and vegetables. Or vegan (whole-food plant-based) diet require more frequent visits to the store for fresh items.
I hung out at the house and worked on our blog. An Amazon delivery showed up with our kitty litter and new Oriole feeder. Amazon Prime trucks are on our street almost every day, sometimes more than once, and we do not have that many houses in our little subdivision.

Saturday 13 … Nothing of note.

There was nothing of note on our calendar for today. I’m sure we did something, probably many somethings, but whatever we did is lost to the sands of time.

Sunday 14 … A partial family get-together.

Our son and his family were here for brunch/visit, and to pick up a printout of their 2023 tax returns.

…

2016/04/26–30 (T–S) Home Stuff

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[Note: There are no photos for this post compilation.]

2016/04/26 (T) Amazing Amazon

We had lightning and thunder last night starting around 9 PM but the rain held off until bedtime. When it did start it was not heavy and did not last for long, or we were asleep and unaware of it. The Lightning was intense for a while but the storms must have been a good distance to our north as the thunder was never very loud. By morning the cold front had moved well east of us and left thick fog in its wake. We were both finally ready to get up at 8:45 AM, which is a bit later than usual. I made a smaller pot of coffee while Linda showered and got dressed. We usually enjoy our first cup of coffee before having breakfast but she toasted bagels for our breakfast right away. She had an 11 AM dental appointment in Dearborn and needed to be on the road by 9:30 due to road construction projects on I-96 and I-275.

I spent the morning working at my computer. I updated my address book, sent an e-mail to some old friends in Ann Arbor (Mitch and Barb Goodkin), and wrote a draft of a letter to our old friend, Wayne Hopkins, who lives in Maryland just north of Washington D.C. Wayne does not use a computer so he does not do e-mail, which means we have to use vintage methods to communicate with him. I used to write a lot of letters, and in some ways I miss it.

Linda got back from her dental appointment much later than I expected. I thought she was having a crown installed but she was actually getting the tooth prepped and was in the chair for over two hours. She goes back on May 18 to get the crown.

We had vegan hotdogs for lunch. After lunch Linda made a southwestern bean soup in the Instant Pot and then spent a couple of hours studying the question pool for the Amateur Extra Class (ham radio) license exam.

I returned to my desk to research color laser printers. I came to the conclusion that we need to move the HP LaserJet 3600 back to my office and get a smaller/lighter printer with built-in wireless networking capabilities to use in the bus. Smaller/lighter is always good in the bus and the wireless feature will remove constraints on where the other networking technology can be located relative to the printer.

I also researched print server/adapters for connecting our HP LaserJet 4200 to our Ethernet network. The 4200 is a fabulous, 1200 dpi, 28 page per minute, monochrome laser printer but it is old enough that it only has a Centronics parallel printer port. I have had it connected to our network for years through an old LinkSys SCBX3 3-port print-server that is (apparently) too old to work with computers running Windows 10. Or perhaps it just finally failed. Whichever, it no longer works. I found a device on Amazon, made by StarTech, which claimed to do what I need so I ordered one. It remains to be seen if I can find Windows 10 compatible drivers for this printer, but I think it uses PCL6 (like many HP printers) so I am optimistic about my chances. While it is amazing what can be bought through Amazon, and how easy it is to buy it, I also find it discouraging how much time it can take to find and purchase even simple things. And it has certainly been the case that I cannot always find what I am looking for.

I had an exchange of text messages with Chuck Spera about axle seals and brake parts for our Prevost tag axles while Linda prepared dinner. She started with a nice salad of mixed greens and included dried cranberries and walnuts on mine but left them off hers as she has to avoid chewy, sticky, and crunchy things until she gets her permanent crown.

Purple Heart called to let us know they are going to be on our street on Wednesday next week and wanted to see if we might have anything to donate. Linda figured it was a good opportunity to get rid of most of my suits and sports coats and I reluctantly agreed. Not that we need the closet space they occupy for something else, but even I recognize that at some point I need to divest myself of things I no longer use and probably never will again. That prompted her to pull several countertop appliances out of storage for possible donation.

The old Kitchen Aid mixer no longer works but is mostly made of metal so we think it is recyclable. The four-cup coffee maker I had in my office for years works fine but is no longer needed so it will get donated. She also pulled out a tea maker we haven’t used in years but we decided to see if it was still functional by making a pot of tea. It worked, so we will probably keep it, at least for now. Hey, two out of three is pretty good for us (me).

NCIS and NCISNOLA were both repeats but Limitless was a new episode and also the season finale. It was a good one, with a good setup for next season. We watched the weather and then headed to bed where Linda read for few minutes while I watched some more TV and worked on this post before going to sleep.

2016/04/27 (W) A New Mixer

I went to bed last night knowing that I had to get up early this morning and move the trash can to the street. Even without setting an alarm I was suddenly awake just after 7 AM. I put on my sweats, gathered up some last minute trash, put it in the container, and rolled it to the end of the concrete driveway. The morning air was very brisk, the sun was low but very bright, and the grass, which looked like it had grown six inches as a result of the recent rain, was covered in dew. It was a lovely spring morning in the country. I took the mailbox key and retrieved yesterday’s mail.

I started to prepare our morning coffee but took a few minutes to first clean the coffee maker. I then ground up six scoops of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe beans (half caffe) and brewed seven cups of coffee. Linda was up by the time it was ready and we enjoyed our first cup in the living room with Juniper (the cat) on my lap and Jasper (the other cat) next to Linda.

Linda arranged to meet Diane at Kensington Metropark this morning to restart their weekly walks. We were expecting delivery of the new Kitchen Aid mixer today, so I was confined to quarters while she was away. That was fine; I like being here, and I have plenty of computer/Internet based work to keep me occupied.

I wanted to upgrade the WordPress version and plugins on the four websites I manage but decided I should do backups first. All four sites are incrementally backed up automatically every week using the WordPress Backup to Dropbox (WPB2D) plugin but I wanted to do complete backups before initiating these particular upgrades. I have never done a complete manual backup so I started reading about how to do it and quickly realized that it was more complicated than I wanted to deal with at that very moment. The cPanel has backup features so I tried to explore using those but their use wasn’t any clearer. I finally e-mailed support@qth.com for advice/assistance.

I also needed to upgrade the hosting plan for the SLAARC account so I logged in to try and do that. This is not something I do very often so I stumbled around until I finally found what I thought was the right place to be, but again it wasn’t clear exactly what to do. I logged out and e-mailed sales@qth.com for assistance.

I spent more time researching color laser printers on BestBuy.com and found a Samsung SL-C1820W that looked like it would meet our needs in the bus. It’s smaller and lighter than the HP Color LaserJet 3600 but still prints 19 pages per minute at good resolution. Of equal importance, however, were the several different built in wireless networking capabilities along with a USB 2.0 interface and a wired Ethernet network port.

One of the other things I have been researching is a replacement for the three Fan-tastic Vent Fans in the bus. I have pretty much settled on the Airxcel MaxxFan Deluxe 7000K (white dome). I will probably order one initially to replace the one in the bedroom and see how the installation goes. If it goes smoothly, and I like the fan the fan works, I will probably order two more, one for the bathroom and one for the kitchen.

Late yesterday I got the Word doc version of the latest CCO newsletter from Ed Roelle with a request to convert it to PDF. I did that and sent it back with a suggestion that he pick up the info on Donn Barnes’ Bluebird from the recent GLCC Newsletter.

Linda stopped at the Meijer’s supermarket in Brighton on the way home from her walk. When she got home we had vegan hotdogs for lunch and split a very nice pear. Recycle Livingston is open on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings so Linda gathered up our recyclables and drove them over. By the time she returned UPS had delivered her new Kitchen Aid mixer so I helped get it out of the (three) boxes in which it was packed and set in on the kitchen counter. Apparently Alchin’s had also picked up our trash so Linda rolled the empty container back to the garage.

I had a reply from AJ at WiFiRanger (BlueMesh Networks) so I tried once again to get our WiFiRanger Mobile Ti to work. I was able to connect my iPad2 to the WFR, and I was also able to connect the WFR to a couple of different external Wi-Fi (WAN) signals and establish a connection to the Internet, but neither the LAN or WAN connections would stay connected. AJ provided RMA instructions and as soon as I can get on the roof and remove the WFR-MTi from its mount I will mail it back to see if they can figure out what is wrong and repair it, if possible.

I exchanged several e-mails with Gaye Young and Daniel Ball from FMCA regarding the data from the Education Survey. I then got a call from Curtis Coleman of RVillage with an update on his meeting today with the FMCA Executive Board. He said it went well and he was very upbeat about it and the future of RVillage. As minor investors in the project, that is the sort of news we like to hear.

For dinner, Linda made vegan burgers using the leftover mixture that Meghan gave us on Sunday. She grilled them on our outdoor gas grill and served them open-faced on a bed of lettuce. She also sliced 3/4″ thick cross-sections of cauliflower, applied a complex mix of seasonings, and grilled them. What appeared to be a simple meal was actually a subtle but wonderfully complex culinary experience.

I chatted for a while on the phone with Butch about bringing our bus to their place in the second week of May to work on the brakes of both buses, make some repairs to our water bay, and help with other projects. I then called Mike to see if he knew when Sloan’s might have his lawn tractor ready for pickup. He had just found out that it should be ready to pick up tomorrow or Friday. Linda will be at the bakery all day tomorrow and I have to take the cats to a 2:20 PM appointment at Plaza Veterinary Hospital in Farmington. We also have eye exams on Friday at 10 AM, again in Farmington, so my best window for going with him is Friday afternoon, and I shared that information with him via e-mail. I had an e-mail back from Ed regarding Donn’s e-mail address so I called Donn in Alvarado, Texas to confirm his contact information and catch up on things. I then e-mailed Ed and cc:d Scott Bruner, the GLCC newsletter editor, to give him the updated contact info for Donn.

Wednesday night is PBS nature and science night for us. Nature had a wonderful program on owls which was followed by an equally wonderful episode of Ken Burn’s The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. It was PBS at its best.

2016/04/28 (W) P.V.H.

I got up at 7:30 AM, showered, got dressed, and made a pot of Costa Rican Terrazu coffee, noting that there were widely scattered raindrops on our deck. I checked my e-mail for a reply from Mike relative to going to Sloan’s but did not have one. I did have an e-mail from Ed with a revised CCO newsletter, however, so I converted that to PDF and sent it back to him so he could distribute it to the members without further delay. Linda was showered and dressed by 8 AM and toasted bagels for our breakfast. She wanted to be at the bakery by 10 AM, so she packed up her computer and was out the door 8:45 AM. She wanted to go in later as she arranged to have dinner with Kathi Slater after work and didn’t think she had more than 6 – 7 hours of work to do.

I get tired of spinning my wheels, going around in circles without actually accomplishing anything, so I logged in to Amazon.com and ordered the Airxcel MaxxFan Deluxe 7000K White vent fan and the Samsung Xpress C1810W color laser printer along with a 3-year protection plan. The printer is list priced at $300 but Amazon Prime had it for $150 with free shipping. The protection plan was $10. Farmington Vision Clinic called to confirm our appointments for tomorrow morning and get our vision insurance information. I then played a few iPad games while I finished my coffee.

In my office I connected the old Sony Vaio (Windows XP) workstation to the network switch and then downloaded and installed updates for various things, including MS Office and ES|ET NOD32 Anti-Virus. While that was going on I opened the Prevost CatBase Viewer database and started looking up the wheel hub and brake parts I might need to service/repair the other three Meritor Air Disc Brakes on the bus. As I found the parts on different drawings and parts lists I created my own spreadsheet so I could send it to Butch and have him forward it to ABC Bus Arts in Muncie, Indiana to check availability.

I stopped working at 12:30 PM to have lunch. I heated a can of Amy’s lentil vegetable soup and had some sourdough pretzel nibblers dipped in Sabra Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. It was easy but also very good.

The cats had 2:20 PM appointments with Dr. David Carron at Plaza Veterinary Hospital (P.V.H.) in Farmington. I got them in their carriers at 1:10 PM and left at 1:20 for the 30+ mile drive. Traffic was moderate but flowing and we arrived just before 2 PM. I took the cats in and put each one on the scale (in their carriers): 12.3 pounds for Juniper and 13.6 pounds for Jasper (after subtracting the weights of their respective carriers). Molly took us back to an open exam room ahead of our appointment time and got some of the preliminary information from me. After she left the exam room I opened both carriers. Juniper was out of her carrier immediately but Jasper did not come out of his voluntarily. Juniper explored the entire room before settling in a corner behind a rolling stool. That’s pretty typical of these two cats.

When Dr. Carron came in we discussed Jasper’s health issues and treatments during the late winter. He seemed to focus on the sneezing of blood as potentially troubling and indicated that a C.A.T. scan was the only way to definitively determine if there was a problem in the sinuses, but did not recommend one at this time. He also said that it’s a bad sign if blood initially comes out of only one nostril but then starts to come out of both at a later time. Jasper’s wellness exam was otherwise normal, as was his full blood analysis, and Dr. Carron did not recommend any other procedures at this time.

Juniper’s checkup was also good except that she has some minor gum irritation and needs to have her teeth cleaned. She needs a Wednesday morning appointment, which I did not make as I might be out of town and Linda would have to handle it. Juniper got her rabies booster shot but we deferred blood work until the teeth cleaning appointment. I paid the bill and was out the door at 3:15 PM.

Traffic was much heavier on the way home and the rain, while light, was now persistent. On westbound I-96 just before Beck Road there was a loud bang on my roof. I immediately assumed my Diamond SG7900 antenna had come loose but I did not see it in my mirrors so I presumed it was still on top of the car. I exited at Wixom Road, headed north, and then pulled into the Menard’s parking lot to see what was going on. Going around the last turn I heard another noise. The antenna was not on top of my car and I was about to walk back towards Wixom Road to look for it when someone pulled up in their car and handed it to me. Apparently it dislodged from the roof on the last turn into the parking lot and he saw fall off.

The SG7900 is a $100 antenna, so I was glad to have it back. It also appeared to be undamaged so I screwed it back into the four magnet Motorola mount. But mostly I was just glad it had not fallen off the car on the highway and caused damage to a vehicle behind me or triggered an accident from someone trying to avoid it. My concern now is that the threads on the mount and/or antenna may be worn to the point that it will not screw on tight enough to stay. Unless/until I replace one/both I obviously need to secure the antenna with some safety lines, such as monofilament fishing line. That would also reduce substantially the flexing forces at the base threads, which may be at least partly responsible for the fitting working loose (which it has done before). This antenna used to be so tight that I carry an offset slip pliers in the car in case I need to remove it. I recently added a small amount of anti-seize compound to the threads, so it is also possible that the compound reduced the friction enough for it to wiggle lose from bouncing and flexing.

I was still home by 4:15 PM and got the cats inside and out of their carriers. In the course of the day I discovered that both carriers have broken fittings and need to be replaced. Linda called at 4:30 PM to let me know she was leaving the bakery and headed to Kathi’s and then to dinner. I washed some grapes and then turned on the fireplace and settled on the couch to doodle on my iPad. I had a notification from Amazon that the StarTech Ethernet to Centronics parallel print-server/adapter had been delivered. I checked and it wasn’t on the front porch. Since it was a USPS delivery I thought it might be in the mailbox. It was, although I was surprised that a box that size was able to drop into the secure lower portion of the box. I opened it to check the parts and glanced at the installation instructions. I then set it aside for later and returned to the living room sofa where Juniper curled up on my lap and went to sleep.

By 6 PM I was ready for a bite of dinner, and nothing says bachelor dinner like popcorn! I also had some dried fruit. Linda called at 7 PM to say she was heading home. I worked on installing the print server on our HP LaserJet 4200 while she was in transit. Not surprisingly I could not install the software on my ASUS Windows 10 laptop so I installed it on the Sony Vaio workstation instead and then used it to reconfigure the IP settings to use DHCP. Even with that I was not able to install the printer on the ASUS, or even see it on the network.

Linda got home at 7:40 PM so I set aside trying to access the printer through the Sony workstation. Thursday night is CBS comedy night so we watched The Big Bang Theory, Moms, The Odd Couple, Two Broke Girls, and Rush Hour. Somewhere in there we enjoyed small glasses of Moscato wine.

2016/04/29 (F) Eye Can See Clearly Now

We awoke at 7:30 AM to overcast skies and intermittent light drizzle. We were up by 7:45 and after feeding the cats I made a small pot of coffee. We had appointments at the Farmington Vision Clinic this morning at 10 AM so we gathered up all of our glasses (seven pairs) and left around 9:20 for the 30 mile, 30 minute trip. Like the veterinary clinic visit yesterday, the vision clinic is only a little over a mile from our old house, but is now quite a drive for us. We have seen Dr. McGrath for so many years, however, that we have not been inclined to find a new service provider closer to where we now live, especially given that we are only here approximately once every other year.

I had not taken the time to secure the ham radio antenna on my car yet so we took Linda’s car. She drove, so I called Mike to check on the status of our pending trip to Sloan’s in Linden. He expected his lawn tractor to be ready tomorrow but had not heard back from them yet. He was going to be tied up most of today but thought he could go up late this afternoon if they called in time. I said that would work for me if needed.

We were at the vision clinic until noon. Besides thorough checkups, which resulted in clean bills of eye health for both of us, we each ordered a new pair of glasses: reading glasses for me and daily use progressive lenses for Linda. Since we were already in Farmington we headed downtown to Chive restaurant for lunch. Linda had dinner there last night with Kathi Slater and wanted me to try it. We ordered a Jalapeño Burger and a Reuben sandwich, both of which came with seasoned French fries, and split them. I also had a root beer float, a rare treat. Everything was excellent, including our waitress Jennifer; and it was all vegan, naturally.

After lunch we returned home. By the time we got there we were both tired and took naps. I was awakened by a knock at the front door, which is unusual here. The man introduced himself as Larry Jones. He and his wife Sue bought the house just east of ours last fall. They moved in just before we left for the winter so we did not get to meet them at that time. Our mail got delivered to their house today, so someone was obviously substituting for our usual mail carrier, Michelle, and not paying attention to addresses on mailboxes. We had a nice chat with Larry and exchanged phone numbers with him. He and Sue have two children that live in Ypsilanti and a third moving back here from Kansas. Sue is a teacher, and they are recreational boaters, so they tend to be out on the water during the summer.

For dinner, Linda reheated some of the southwestern soup she made the other day and served it with saltine crackers and fruit preserves. I got a call from Mike to let me know his lawn tractor was ready. We decided to go pick it up tomorrow after our ham radio club breakfast. He is going to bring his trailer to our house so we can load our broken lawn tractor on it and take it to Sloan’s.

After dinner I worked for a while at my desk. I had replies from Scott at QTH.com and digested his suggestions relative to backing up my WordPress sites. I managed to connect the Sony Vaio workstation to the HP LaserJet 4200 printer and print a test page but was still not able to connect to the printer from my ASUS (Windows 10) laptop through our network. I shared the printer from the Sony workstation and was subsequently able to find and install drivers that allowed the ASUS to connect to it and print a test page. I then printed a draft of a letter to our friend Wayne and had Linda proofread it. I dealt with an e-mail and then joined Linda in the rec room to watch a PBS program on America’s Top 10 Urban Parks, followed by Episode 5 of Ken Burn’s The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

2016/04/30 (S) Lawn Tractors

I was up at 6:30 AM, Linda was up by 7, and we were on our way to our weekly ham radio breakfast in South Lyon at 7:20. We took Linda’s car as I have not yet had a chance to secure the ham radio antenna on mine. I took my Kenwood TH-F6 handheld and was able to get into the South Lyon 2m repeater on 5 Watts from inside the car. Not bad.

There were 14 people at breakfast and we had a good chat. I took a few minutes at the end to talk to Larry (K8UT) about how to manually back up the WordPress sites. He said a complete backup could be done in four easy steps: 1) Use the cPanel File Manager to create a compressed zip file; 2) Install FileZilla on my computer (free), 3) FTP the zipped file to my computer; and, 4) Use the cPanel Backup Wizard to export the appropriate databases from the web server to my local computer. Larry always makes things sound easy, so I hope it is as easy as described.

We left the restaurant at 9:15 AM and returned home where we uncovered the lawn tractor and rolled it over to the concrete driveway to await Mike’s arrival with his trailer. The left front tractor tire was low on air so I pressurized the small Porter-Cable pancake air-compressor and refilled the tire. It seemed to hold, so hopefully it is OK.

Mike had to stop at the field day site (Lyon Township Atchison Memorial Park) before going home to get his flatbed trailer. When he arrived at our house at 10:45 AM I had him pull into the middle driveway entrance and swing into the new west driveway extension. That allowed us to roll the lawn tractor onto the trailer and allowed him to pull out going forward without having to back up.

The 21 mile drive to Sloan’s in Linden took about 30 minutes. Jeff waited on us and then we unloaded my Cub Cadet 1024 and loaded Mike’s Cub Cadet 1552. Based on my description Jeff thought it probably needed a crankshaft seal, an oil pan gasket, valve adjustment, and perhaps a new voltage regulator. The cost for diagnosis was $37.50 (1/2 their hourly service labor rate of $75). We were there for about 40 minutes and back at my house by 12:30 PM.

Mike stuck around and helped me figure out how to install the HP LaserJet 4200 monochrome printer as a network printer. After scanning our home network with Advanced IP Scanner from my ASUS laptop computer we queried the AT&T gateway/router. This Netgear device serves as the DHCP server for the network and we were able to determine that the range of addresses it generates are from 192.168.1.64 through 192.168.1.250 with the gateway address at 192.168.1.254. We used the current address of the print server, 192.168.1.247, to access the print server administration interface and changed the IP address to 192.168.1.50 (static). We were then able to install the printer and print a test page.

While we were working, Linda heated some leftover western bean soup and made vegan grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches on whole grain bread. She served them with orange segments on the side and a small bowl of loose grapes. Mike and I then installed the printer on Linda’s Samsung laptop computer. Rain was forecast to move into our area starting around 4 PM, and Mike wanted to mow his lawn before it started, so he took off. Linda left at the same time for Meijer’s to get a few grocery items and I took care of several chores. First up was starting a load of laundry.

We had a trash can stored in the small dump trailer all winter to act as a filler under the tarp. It got removed this morning when we uncovered the lawn tractor and trailer, and was sitting in the front yard, so I moved it into the garage. After folding the tarp and recovering the trailer I checked the mail. All of the mail in our box was for our neighbors, so I called Larry to see if they had gotten our mail again. They were away from the house, but he suggested that I walk down and check their mailbox. I did, and they did not have any mail, so the mail in our box was probably from yesterday.

With the outside chores done I returned to my office and checked e-mail. Scott at QTH had looked at our personal account and discovered a 1.9 GB error log file! He deleted it and let me know that it appeared to be coming from a defective backup plugin. We had this same problem a couple of months ago with the SLAARC.com website so WPB2D (WordPress Backup to Dropbox) had to be the culprit. I logged in to all four WordPress installations and deactivated the plugin. That was a shame, as I have counted on this plugin for a long time to keep these sites backed up without my intervention. I will have to find a different one or just do it manually (ugh). I e-mailed Scott back and thanked him for the ‘heads up’ but indicated that I still wanted to upgrade both accounts to his BEST VALUE PLAN.

While I was logged in to our personal site I deleted 276 spam e-mails and marked two others as SPAM that had somehow slipped past the Akismet filter and were being held for moderation. I also discovered that two of the four sites (personal and GLCC) had automatically updated even though I really wanted to do the backups first.

Linda got home at 2:30 PM and the USPS truck showed up about 15 minutes later. Amazon is committed to Prime customers getting their merchandise in two days regardless of when they order. The USPS currently has the contract for weekend delivery, so anything ordered on Thursday or Friday gets delivered on Saturday or Sunday, respectively, by the Post Office. The carrier had both our MaxxFan Deluxe RV vent/fan and our Samsung C1810W color laser printer. I got them inside but did not open them right away.

For dinner, Linda made a very nice salad and an angel hair pasta dish with mushrooms, onions, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and arugula. The arugula was an especially nice touch. After dinner we watched TV, catching another episode of Ken Burn’s The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Linda read and I wrote for a while afterwards before going to sleep.

2016/04/21-25 (R–M) Bad Brakes & More

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2016/04/21 (R) More Bad Brakes

[NOTE: There are no photos for these posts.]

We were up before 8 AM, had coffee in the living room by the warmth and glow of the fireplace, and had fruit for breakfast around 8:45 AM. We left at 9:40 to take my car to Brighton Honda for its 110,000 mile service appointment at 10 AM. Linda followed me in the Civic to drive me back to the house but as long as we were that close to Brighton we decided to go to the Verizon corporate store. To our surprise, the store was permanently closed. We were pretty sure there was still an “authorized retailer” a little farther down on Grand River Avenue (which never made any sense to me) but after the authorized retailer in Arcadia, Florida was unaware of the Mi-Fi device I was interested in (AC791L) I really wanted to talk to someone in a corporate store.

We did not investigate further as to whether the store had been moved and, not having any other business in Brighton, we headed home. On the way I got a phone call from our State Farm insurance agent’s office about a long-term care premium that was due last month. Apparently one of our children did not recognize it was a bill when they checked our mail and did not alert us to its presence. It wasn’t a big deal, and Linda took care of it when we got home.

I started a load of laundry and settled in to work at my desk. I did not have a reply yet to my support ticket for our WiFiRanger. I checked-in to RVillage and saw that our member status had been upgraded to GOLD. I did a search for used tractors and was researching a portable water deionizing system at AutoGeek.com when I got a call from Curtis Coleman of RVillage. While Curtis and I were talking I got a call from Gary at Brighton Honda. He left a message and I called him back. The rear brake rotors and pads on my Element needed to be replaced. It seems we have not been able catch a brake break in the last six weeks.

Linda made a haircut appointment with Renee for tomorrow at 10 AM but got a call back from Renee that she was not working tomorrow. Renee had an opening at 1:15 PM today so Linda took that instead. It was already noon so Linda heated a can of Amy’s Chili and we split that for lunch along with some fresh black grapes. We left at 12:40 PM for the drive to Twelve Oaks Mall. I went along because I wanted to stop at the corporate Verizon store in Novi.

I don’t usually go along with Linda to her haircut appointments since she now cuts my hair at home, but it was good to see Renee again. She did a nice job with Linda’s hair and we were out of there in under 30 minutes. For many years the Verizon store was located on the Twelve Oaks Mall property near Twelve Mile Road but it recently moved, so we put the address in the GPS unit. The new location was nearby on Novi Road just the other side of I-96 from Twelve Oaks and West Oaks Malls.

We were assisted by Christina, who was both knowledgeable and helpful. We went in thinking we might upgrade both of our phones and our Mi-Fi device and increase our data plan. I was interested in the AC791L Mi-Fi device. They did not have one in stock but she knew what it was and said we could have one delivered to our house on Monday via FedEx. We then looked at phones and Christina steered us towards the latest offerings from Motorola. We selected one for pricing purposes and she worked up the costs, including a higher data plan.

The new phones would have each cost $26 a month for 24 months, and the extended warranties would have been another $11 each per month for as long as we cared to pay it. The phones had some nice features—specifically a shatterproof screen, wireless charging, and a screen-facing flash (for those all-important selfies)—but $74/month ($37 x 2) for two years seemed like a lot of money to us, especially given that our Samsung Galaxy S3 phones still work just fine. Another negative for us is that the new phones are also bigger and we like the size of our S3’s. Besides, I have a belt clip flip-top soft case for mine that fits nicely and works well.

Offsetting the increased phone costs was the fact that the line charges for our phones would drop from $40 per month per line to $20 per month per line. Also, the $80 we currently pay for 10 GB of shared data per billing cycle would now buy us 12 GB of data for the same time period. Finally, upgrading the phones would get us an additional 2 GB of data per phone per billing cycle for “life”, so our 12 GB plan would actually be 16 GB. We would lose the bonus data, however, if we ever reduced the monthly gigabytes on our plan.

In looking at the cost worksheet I noticed that for $100 per billing cycle we could get 18 GB of shared data and bump that up or down at will without losing anything. In the end we bought the AC791L Mi-Fi device for $90 ($100 with a $50 rebate and a $40 activation fee), changed the data plan to 18 GB for $100 (per billing cycle), and decided to keep our current phones. Ignoring the one-time charges connected with the new Mi-Fi device we increased our monthly data from 10 GB to 18 GB, got a new/better Mi-Fi device, dropped our monthly cost from $180 to $160 (before taxes), and were not locked in to anything. Christina also said to keep our eyes open for special deals on phones, especially around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Roger that, and will do.

By the time we got back to I-96 and Grand River Avenue (GRA) in Brighton it was 3 PM so we stopped at Brighton Honda to check on my car. While waiting for parts the technician got shifted to another job so my car was not ready yet. Making a left out of the dealership onto GRA is always difficult and can be impossible in heavy traffic. Our solution is often to turn right and go to Panera on GRA just south side of I-96, which is exactly what we did. They did not have any decaf brewed but were happy to make some for us. It had been cool and overcast all day so we sat by the gas fireplace and enjoyed several cups of coffee.

While we were sitting there I took a minute to call Philip Jarrell and let him know we were back in town. We discussed the French drain he installed at the west end of property last fall, which seemed to be working well, and the trenching on the other side of the road, where the culvert empties, which had become a small pond. I mentioned that the new driveway and RV pad looked nice, and that I really wanted to get the ham radio tower erected this year. That project would require his services for a morning. By 4:15 PM I had not heard anything further from Gary at Brighton Honda so we drove home.

Gary called at 5 PM to let me know the car was done and the technician was test driving it to make sure everything was correct. The dealership was open until 8 PM, and we did not want to fight rush hour traffic, so Linda fixed dinner. We had a salad of arugula and Italian kale with slivered almonds and dried cranberries, microwaved sweet potatoes, and vegan Italian sausage. Everything was very tasty and I particularly liked the spices in the mock sausage. Linda tries to make our diet primarily plant-based whole foods, but not having been vegans for most of our lives we find a certain satisfaction (comfort) in the occasional veggie burger, soy hotdog, seitan stroganoff, or other “mock” dish.

After dinner I hung up some laundry and started another load in the washer. I checked e-mail and had one from my niece Amanda. She and Ryan were looking at Wednesday, September 27, 2017 as a wedding date and wanted to know if all of us could make it to Hermann, Missouri for the event. I replied that it would not be a problem for Linda and me and cc:d Brendan and Meghan. I then texted both of them to alert them to the e-mail. I also had an e-mail from Kate de Fuccio wanting to know when we expected to be back in Michigan. I let her know we were back and had gotten preoccupied with opening the house and unloading the bus, but I felt bad that I forgot to text her as soon as we were home.

I also had a reply to my WiFiRanger support ticket requesting that I send screen shots of three of the tabs in the control panel. I replied that I would try but did not mention that I really wasn’t sure how to do that. Linda (the Google Queen) suggested that I “Google that” so I did. It turns out that “alt+prtsc” captures the current window as an image and copies it to the clipboard. From there you can do what you want with it. Easy breezy. (I subsequently ended up with something called “Easy Capture Manager” on my computer that just requires me to push the “prt sc” key and then lets me select what I what to capture.)

By 6:545 PM we were headed back to Brighton Honda to retrieve my car. Linda dropped me off and returned home. I paid the bill and returned home a few minutes later. Thursday night is CBS comedy night and by 8 PM we were ready to just sit and laugh. But first I had to transfer some of the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer. I worked on blog posts while being entertained and hung up the dry laundry before going to bed.

2016/04/22 (F) Networking

I was up a little later than usual last night and would have slept in this morning but the cats had other ideas; they always do. We were up by 8 AM and I made a pot of the Costa Rican Terrazu half-caff coffee that we bought yesterday at Teeko’s Coffee and Teas. We were both still a little tired, and the thick fog further subdued our moods. We countered that by treating ourselves to an easy start to our day enjoying our coffee in the living room to the warm glow of the fireplace.

We eventually got dressed, had breakfast, and got on with our day. Linda got a call from Bill, who handles computer and networking technology for the bakery, and he walked her through the VPN setup for the bakery’s upgraded server. She then made a grocery list and went shopping. When she returned I discovered two boxes on the front porch. UPS had obviously been here without my being aware of it. The large box was the Instant Pot Linda ordered the other day and the small box was my prescriptions, which I was not expecting to see for another week.

My main focus for the afternoon was dealing with networking issues. I uncoiled a long Cat 7 Ethernet cable that I found in the ham shack yesterday. I unplugged the network cable for Linda’s computer from our AT&T gateway/router and plugged in one end of the Cat 7 cable in its place. I took the other end of the cable into the bus, plugged it in to the HP Color LaserJet 3600 printer, and turned the printer on. I brought my laptop computer upstairs, connected it wirelessly to the gateway, and tried printing a simple Word document without success. I checked the printer settings and the TCP/IP addressing mode was configured for a manual address that did not match the address range of our home network. I reconfigured it for DHCP and it acquired a new IP address in the correct range. I tried printing again but it still did not work. I reconfigured the address in the printer device properties on my computer and was finally able to print. That was a relief as we would really like to leave this printer on the bus and have it networked rather than operating from a USB cable.

I then turned my attention to the WiFiRanger Mobile Ti (WFR-MTi). I took my computer to the bus so I could use it to control the WFR and capture screen shots. I was able to connect it to the WFR without difficulty but the WFR could not “see” (detect) any external Wi-Fi signals even though it is on the roof outside the bus and my computer could see them from inside the bus. Back in the house I plugged in the Amped|Wireless SR20000G Range Extender / Router and configured it to repeat the AT&T gateway which does not broadcast a very strong signal. Back in the bus my computer could see the strong signals from the Range Extender but the WFR still could not detect any external Wi-Fi signals. I captured the screen shots for the MAIN, WIFI, and SETUP tabs, as requested by technical support at WiFiRanger, and pasted them into Word documents for uploading to their support system.

I took my computer back to my basement office and cabled it in to the network switch. I wrote a reply to the WiFiRanger tech support thread, attached the screen shots, and posted it. Clearly the WFR is not working and I am certain I will end up requesting an RMA and returning it for service, probably sooner than later, but I wanted to start with the online tech support system in case they had any good ideas that had not occurred to me.

Linda spent the afternoon getting acquainted with the Instant Pot and running it through its test procedure. It checked out as fully functional so she used it to prepare seitan stroganoff for dinner. I laid down at 5 PM and napped for an hour, finally getting up at 6 PM when Linda put our dinner salads on the table. She served the stroganoff over brown rice with a side of steamed broccoli and the whole meal was wonderful.

We sat in the living room until 8 PM and then decided to watch Sleepless in Seattle on PBS. I had forgotten what a good movie it is and enjoyed seeing it again. Linda fell asleep right after the movie ended and I watched Episode 6 of Ken Burn’s JAZZ before calling it a night. Like all of Ken Burn’s documentaries, JAZZ is a masterpiece of historical storytelling. At some point I would like to watch all 10 episodes back-to-back.

2016/04/23 (S) Ham & Eggs

Today was our first Saturday back home, and that meant it was also our first opportunity to have breakfast with our fellow amateur radio operators (hams) from the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club (SLAARC). Before going to sleep last night I set wake-up alarms for 7 AM this morning, but I was awake before then and had time to grab a quick shower before getting dressed. I also took a few minutes to reattach the ham radio antenna to the magnetic mount on my car and reinstall the ICOM IC-2820 radio control head and microphone. Even so, we were still on our way by 7:30 AM and arrived at George’s Senate Coney Island on the north edge of South Lyon around 7:50 AM. During the drive I was part of a group chat with Steve (N8AR), Mike (W8XH), and Bill (W8NN), who was on an HT while riding with Larry (K8UT). The Yaesu Fusion repeater sounded good and it was good to be on the air again with friends.

Besides our coffee, dry toast, and dry English muffin, Linda and I split a fresh fruit plate. It was OK at best, but we don’t go for the food. It was good to see and talk to folks in person and to be back into this part of our “at home” routine. Today was testing day so a few people left to run the testing session, but most of the group, which numbered 19 people, stayed until 10 AM.

There was an accident this morning on westbound I-96 just east of the US-23 interchange. It was still being cleared when we drove home so we got stuck in a traffic backup that could easily have been avoided. Fortunately we did not have to be any particular place by any particular time and worked our way slowly through the congestion.

Back at the house I worked at my desk while Linda started cooking black beans in her new Instant Pot as she wanted to use some on a salad for our lunch. Normally she would have to soak dry beans overnight and then cook them for quite a while, but the Instant Pot, which can function as a pressure cooker, took them from bag-to-plate in 45 minutes, during which time Linda went for a walk. Pressure cookers can be very useful.

Once we got back to our house my initial task was to proofread and markup corrections to my article in the latest draft of the June 2016 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. Once that was done I uploaded the PDF to a folder in my Dropbox and e-mailed Gary and Jorge that it was there. Next I checked my WiFiRanger support ticket and discovered that my reply yesterday, with screen shots attached, did not post correctly. I replied again and this time it posted correctly, or at least appeared to. With that task taken care of I copied a few images from the Sony a99v camera to my computer. I then started transferring files from my computer to the NAS that we had with us in the bus. I was about to start copying files for from that NAS to the older one we left at home when Linda called me up to lunch.

She made a large salad for each of us with tomatoes, blueberries, sliced strawberries, black beans, slivered almonds, and dried cranberries with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. She also made some hot tea after lunch which we took to the living room. Both of us were tired and by 2 PM laid down and took naps. It was 68 degrees F in the house but it felt very cool. I think winters in Florida and Arizona have reset my comfort zone from 70 degrees F, plus or minus, to 78 degrees to 80 degrees F. Jasper found a sunny spot on the floor by one of the living room windows and Juniper curled up with me. I got up at 3:15 PM and took my iPad out on the deck to work in the crisp air and warm sun. Linda came out around 3:45 PM but decided it was too cool and went back inside; I did the same around 4 PM.

Linda arranged for us to meet John and Diane Rauch at Camelia’s Mexican Restaurant at 6 PM. Camelia’s is walking distance from our old house, but we never walked there because the route was not pedestrian friendly. It’s a half hour drive from where we live now. I reinstalled the cellular booster in my car and we left at 5:20 PM to leave a little extra time in case we encountered traffic problems. And sure enough, we did. The right lane of eastbound I-96 was closed where it ties in to southbound I-275 as the right lane continued to be closed for a construction project.

Our children’s grade school vocal music teacher, Jennifer Davidson, (who moved here from Tennessee) once remarked that Michigan only has two seasons “winter and road construction.” Truer words were never said. We stayed to the left, because that’s what we had to do to get onto eastbound I-696. Although traffic was slow it was moving, unlike the right hand lanes trying to stay on I-96/I-275. Vehicle speeds returned to “normal” once we got past the split, which around here is 5-to-10 MPH over the maximum posted limit, and a few minutes later we exited the freeway at Orchard Lake Road. This is the same exit we used for 35 years to get to our house, and I have undoubtedly used this exit more than any other Interstate highway exit in country. It was familiar, yet strange, as we rarely get back here anymore except to visit with John and Diane, meet someone at Camelia’s (or one of the other many restaurants that can be accessed from the Orchard Lake Road exit), or go to our optometrist or veterinarian, both of whom are two to three miles south of this exit.

We had our fill of chips and salsa and split an order of vegetarian fajitas. They were OK, and much better than the ones we had a week ago at Mi Camino Real in Logansport, Indiana. After dinner we went to John and Diane’s house, which is very close to the restaurant, and continued a nice conversation in a quieter setting. By 9:30 PM we were all tired and started wrapping up our visit. We left a little before 10 PM, got home at 10:30 PM, and went right to bed on stomachs that were still very full. WTVS (Detroit PBS) was fundraising around an early Rolling Stones performance that did not grab my interest so I watched Lidia’s Kitchen and the beginning of Martha Stewart’s Cooking school. She was filleting fish so I turned the TV off and went to sleep.

2016/04/24 (N) Family

We went to bed on full stomachs last night and I did not sleep well, suffering from indigestion for much of the night. I should have used a second pillow and tried sleeping on my back with my head elevated, but that is not a natural sleeping position for me and I doubt that would have slept any better. To compensate for the poor sleep I stayed in bed and kept falling back to sleep. Linda was up way before me, having apparently slept better than I did, and I finally got up to stay at 9 AM. That was unusually late for me, but at least I felt somewhat rested.

As soon as I got up Linda sliced oranges for our breakfast and prepared to toast bagels while I prepared our morning coffee. We were not quite done with our preparations when I got a phone call. It was from Chuck Spera so I answered it.

Chuck and I talk frequently but not usually at 9:30 AM on a Sunday morning. He and Barbara were on the road and had just crossed into Kentucky on I-75 having left Sevierville, Tennessee early this morning. Before pulling out this morning Chuck had noticed a little oil by the driver side tag axle during his walkaround, specifically in the holes of the Alcoa aluminum wheels. He had removed the decorative hub cap and found an oil film there as well, but did not see any pooling. He assumed that an axle seal was leaking a little but was not sure how to check the oil level in the hub or add oil if needed. Because of both past and recent experiences, Chuck figured I would know the answers to both questions. While that was probably unjustified optimism, in this case I did, and gladly shared what I knew about the sight glass and rubber plug in the wheel hub for the oil reservoir.

We had just finished our bagels and orange slices when Brendan texted Linda to see about plans for today. We had all planned on getting together at Meghan and Chris’ house this afternoon to visit and have dinner but Madeline had come down with Hand, Foot, & Mouth disease (a virus) earlier in the week and Brendan thought he might be getting it too. Given that Linda had not yet fully recovered her hearing we agreed that it would be best to avoid contact until we knew that no one was contagious.

Madeline was understandably disappointed that she would not see us today and, in lieu of that, requested a FaceTime session. We were equally disappointed that we would not get to see her (and her parents) but an hour of FaceTime made up for it a bit. After our FaceTime session we lingered in the living room by the fireplace enjoying our coffee and doodling on our iPads. We finally got dressed at noon and left for Meghan and Chris’ house at 12:30 PM.

We arrived around 1:15 PM and were greeted by our daughter with a paper grocery bag full of some of our mail. We had a long, relaxed afternoon to visit and catch up. Meghan made vegan burgers from scratch and a salad with beans, corn, red bell pepper, and avocado with a lime-based dressing. We brought a bottle of Barefoot Red Moscato and I found it very much to my taste (sweet).

We departed just after 7 PM and stopped at the new Gas 2 Go station at the northwest corner of I-96 and Latson Road. The station was still under construction when we left in November. I was pleased to see that it is a Shell Oil Company station with a Tim Horton’s. I have had a preference for Shell gasoline for most of my adult life and Tim Horton’s has coffee on a par with Dunkin Donuts, although I do not like the lids they use. There is also a traffic signal on Latson at the side road for the station, no doubt because this is also the access road for the Livingston County Road Commission complex. (Leave it to them to take care of themselves while the rest of rest life and limb to get out of the Lowe’s/Walmart center just south of there.) Whatever the reason, it will slow down traffic exiting I-96 and heading south on Latson Road, making it easier to get out of the Lowe’s/Walmart parking lots.

We were home a little after 8 PM and turned on the TV to watch Grantchester on PBS and Elementary on CBS. Around 8:40 PM I realized I had missed the SLAARC Information Net which started at 8 PM. I need to reestablish the habit of tuning in on Sunday evenings, but that time slot competes with some of our favorite programming on PBS.

2016/04/25 (M) Pick Up Sticks

We had a typical start to our day. After catching the weather on channel 10.2 we were up by 8 AM, had coffee and granola with blueberries and bananas, and used our iPads in the living room with the fireplace turned on. Our Kitchen Aid mixer broke last year and today Linda was finally ready to replace it. She decided to get the slightly larger and more powerful model with the crank up mixing bowl as she wants enough power to mix bread dough. She also wanted it in white to match most of the other kitchen appliances. To our surprise the white color was more expensive than red or blue but less expensive than some other colors including copper bronze. She was trying to convince herself that red or blue would be OK but I convinced her to order white. All of our appliances (and cabinet knobs) are white. With Amazon Prime it will be here on Wednesday.

The weather forecast was calling for a cold front to move through our area triggering rain, and possibly thunderstorms, starting late in the afternoon and extending through the evening and into the overnight hours. The grass in most of the yard is not very tall yet, except right in front of the house by the concrete driveway. The yard is also moist, but not soggy, and we do not expect Keith to be here to cut the grass for the first time this season until sometime next week at the earliest. The temperature mid-morning was in the low 60’s and was forecast to reach a high of 72. All-in-all it was an excellent day to pick up sticks around the yard in advance of Keith’s first visit and get the Honda self-propelled lawn mower out and cut the grass in front of the house.

I started my yard cleanup with area around the front berms, raking small branches out of the grass and stacking larger ones on existing brush piles. While I was working out front a UPS truck showed up with our Max Burton Induction Cooktop and our new Verizon Mi-Fi unit. I signed for the Mi-Fi and took the packages inside. Linda used the induction cooker to make some nectar for our hummingbird feeder and also prepared a batch of homemade granola. She eventually came outside and helped me pick up some of the downed tree limbs in the back yard. We got the easternmost two acres (2/5ths of our yard) picked fairly well. We will work on the westernmost three acres another day.

I got the Honda lawnmower out and topped up the tank with fresh fuel. Small engine Honda equipment is known for starting on the first pull, but my experience is that this is only true when they are new. No doubt our lawnmower needs to be cleaned up and tuned up, and would start more easily if it was, but I eventually got it started and once it warmed up it ran fine. I mowed the little bit of the lawn near the house/driveway that looked like it was overdue for a cut. This is also one of the only parts of the yard anyone really sees if they pull into the driveway.

I had just shut the lawnmower off and was putting it in the garage when the U. S. Mail truck pulled into the driveway. It was our mail carrier, Michelle, and she had a very large box for us, along with our typical bundle of Monday junk mail. The box was not very heavy and Linda informed me that it was the 48 rolls of toilet paper she recently ordered. Well, alrighty then.

It was approaching 1 PM so Linda made salads for our lunch with the leftover bean-corn-tomato salad (that Meghan made yesterday) on top of a bed of mixed greens. After lunch Linda took her Amateur Extra flash cards outside to study and I focused on getting the new Verizon Jetpack Mi-Fi (Netgear AC791L) assembled and activated. Assembly consisted of installing the Lithium Ion battery and back cover. I decided to charge it for a bit while I read the user guide and activation procedure.

When I was fairly certain I had all of the information I needed at my fingertips I called the 877 activation number and keyed in the requested information. It took a couple of tries to get it right but I finally did. With the activation completed I turned the device on, looked up the SSID and Password, and connected my iPad to it. I then entered the relevant information in a new entry in Passwords Plus.

I got a phone call from Gaye Young and chatted with her at some length about RVillage and its relevance to FMCA. (Gaye is the FMCA National Secretary and chairperson of the National Education Committee.). She and husband Jerry are at the Rally in the Pasture at FMCA National President Charlie Adcock’s place in Arkansas (or maybe it’s Alabama?) and I knew from talking to Curtis Coleman last week that he was on his way there too. A year and a half ago the NEC researched and recommended that FMCA partner with RVillage and a year ago the FMCA executive board accepted and endorsed that proposal but then nothing happened. The FMCA Executive Director was recently let go and Charlie is now trying to get the RVillage train back on the tracks, along with lots of other things as FMCA continues to loose members at an alarming rate.

I suspect that the loss of members is a combination of several factors. For one, the median age of FMCA members has been in the upper 60’s for quite some time. That means a certain number of members are “aging out” almost daily. For another, the downturn in the economy in 2007 was particular hard on the RV industry. Not only was the industry slow to recover, when it did it was building mostly towables, not motorhomes. In the past many RV dealers basically “included” an FMCA membership with the purchase of a motorhome, or at least provided information about the Association and an application form. Another possible factor is that RVers under 50, including Gen-Xers and Millennials, don’t tend to join things. FMCA is not the only organization suffering membership decline and having difficulty attracting new members, especially younger ones.

Chuck and Barbara got home yesterday and were settled enough for Chuck to call me at 5 PM and update me on their hub oil leak. Linda made salads for dinner and reheated the brown rice and seitan stroganoff. After dinner I replied to an e-mail from Gaye and then settled in to watch TV with Linda. And so it goes.

2016/04/01-05 (F-T) J-P-Shuffle CCAFS Farewell Celebration

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2016/04/01 (F) The J. P. Shuffle

Linda was up before me and got to see one of the cruise ships come in at 6:20 AM. She said it was all lit up and quite a sight. I got out of bed at 8:20 AM and made coffee. Linda prepared toast and jam for breakfast and gave each of us half of an orange.

I finished up my post for yesterday, worked on this one, and then noticed that an iOS 9.3.1 update was available for the Apple iOS 9.3 update that I installed Wednesday evening and Linda installed last night. It was only 18 MB but still took a long time to download and install.

Today was April Fool’s Day and time for us to once again do “the Jetty Park shuffle.” I have checked at least once, and often twice, each day to see if an appropriate full hookup site had become available through cancellation for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, but it had not. Around 10 AM I walked to the office to check one last time. Scott Ward was the JP staff person on duty and was very helpful but a site was just not available. He was able, however, to put us on site #357 for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night’s. I shortened our stay on site #3 to two nights and paid the balance for the one night.

Site #3 is a water only site, no electricity and no sewer connection, and the rules say that NO pets are allowed in that section, which is right along the channel and outside the regular fenced campground. The staff was aware, however, that we have two cats onboard and let us have the site anyway. We do not ever want them to escape, but especially here.

Our generator can produce more power than we can get from a “50 Amp” RV electrical connection, so not having electricity is not really a problem. The only real downsides, other than having to move, are that we can feel, hear, and sometimes smell the generator. We also had a problem with a circuit breaker for its cooling fan last winter. I made a temporary fix to it but have never fixed it permanently. We also do not like to leave the genset running when we are away from the coach, such as will be the case on Saturday morning.

I selected/processed three photos of the manatees we saw on Tuesday at Merritt Island National Wildlife a Refuge and e-mailed them to Pat and Vickie. I then replied to a couple of e-mails from Gary at Bus Conversion Magazine. By this time it was 11 AM so we prepared the bus, inside and out, to be moved. With all of the Windows and roof vents closed it warmed up quickly inside even with a lot of the coach in the shade. When I turned the ignition key the engine turned over but would not catch and my heart just sank.

I really like this bus, but I have grown weary of the uncertainty of whether things will work when needed. I turned the ignition key off and rechecked the transmission selector and parking brake settings. I also switched the suspension out of Level Low to drive mode although that should not have mattered. With the ignition key turned to the ‘ON’ position the 12 V chassis battery seemed a little low and a red light flashed a few times on the transmission selector, so I turned the key off, went to the outside battery disconnect switches, and turned both the 12V and 24V disconnects off and then back on.

Back in the driver’s seat I tried again. Normally the engine only turns over a few times before it fires. This time I let it turn for four or five seconds and it finally started. If I had any sense I would have driven it to the W. W. Williams Detroit Diesel service center in Orlando, but I moved it to site #3 at J. P. instead.

Our coach in Site #3 at Jetty Park & Campground, Cape Canaveral, FL. This is the “water only” camping by the shipping channel. All of these rigs are parked facing north towards the channel. It’s a great spot to watch the ships come and go.

To get from site #358 to site #3 I had to exit the fenced campground and drive around the east end of the park past the beach parking, concession building, and playground and then west along the edge of the shipping channel and around to the back row of the water only sites, all of which face the shipping channel. As such it was a long drive to get to a site we could see from the one we just vacated.

We left the car at site #358 temporarily and Linda rode along in the bus. I made the whole trip in 1st gear, to keep the RPMs up, and turned on the OTR A-C, both to cool the interior of the coach and to put more load on the engine and help get it up temperature. I did not pull the tag axle up as we had walked the park/campground enough to know that I did not need to make any really tight turns. When I was mostly into position on site #3 Linda got out and spotted the final position of the rear end. These channel-side sites slope down towards the channel (facing north) and the back row sites get steeper the farther off the back off the site you go. I wanted to pull forward just enough to get our tow bar clear of the access road behind the site and Linda accomplished that with an inch or two to spare.

I left the engine running and switched it to high idle to run the OTR air-conditioning. While Linda went back to get our car I got out the step stool and awning pole and deployed all four awnings. I then started the Genset to make sure it was going to run and produce electricity. I also thought we might run the residential air-conditioners. When Linda returned with our car she wanted to open up the coach so I shut off the OTR bus A-C, dropped the engine idle to low, and let it idle for a couple of minutes before shutting off the engine. I left the genset on for the time being.

Both of our systems had been reacting to what we had eaten the last few days so we passed on lunch and just hung around our new site which was, in fact, very pleasant with a view of the water in the channel and the high ground of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the opposite bank.

Our driver side neighbors stopped to chat on their way to the beach and let us know that they had just spotted dolphins in the channel. I walked over and caught a glimpse of several arching repeatedly out of the water but by the time Linda got there they had submerged and not resurfaced. Given where we are parked we should have a good chance to see dolphins and view cruise ships coming and going from the Port.

Linda made a cold garbanzo bean salad for dinner last night. After dinner I was trying to get us connected to the park Wi-Fi system but could not maintain the connection or get us logged in. I tried using our Verizon Mi-Fi but could not get the WiFi Ranger to work with it. I tried to reconfigure the Amped|Wireless router to work directly with the Mi-Fi but there were problems with that as well. At one point my ASUS notebook computer decided that it could not detect any Wi-Fi networks even thought it had two of them sitting within a couple feet of it. I got disgusted with the whole situation, shut everything off, and we went for a walk.

Linda waves to the Disney “Magic” cruise ship as it heads out to sea from Port Canaveral, FL. There is always a crowd along the channel to wave the cruise ships in and out.

We walked over to Pat and Vickie’s coach and Vickie joined us. We headed to the beach where we enjoyed a very brisk breeze until lightning to the southwest signaled that it was time to return to the safety of our rigs or one of the park buildings. We headed back past the playground area towards our coach and Vickie split off for the gate in the campground fence that provided the most direct access to her site.

Back at our site we closed up the coach against the humidity and coming storm. I then started the auxiliary powerplant (genset) and turned on the air conditioners. Not long after that it started to rain, lightly at first, but it eventually became very heavy for a while before finally moving offshore.

With the A-C’s running I was reminded that I need to change some of the AC circuits in the main panel. The front and middle air-conditioners are on different legs of the AC power system, front on L1 and middle on L2. That makes sense as we would normally want to run both of them at the same time to cool the front half of the bus (living, cooking, office space) when we are awake and using the bus. The 3rd/bedroom A-C has to go on one of the two legs and either one could create load balancing issues. Unfortunately, the middle A-C unit is not currently producing any cooling.

To make matters worse, the charger section of our Magnum 4024 inverter/charger also draws its power from L1. Again, it had to go somewhere, but the current configuration tends to put too much load on L1 and not enough on L2. Even though the genset is oversized for our electrical needs an imbalance between L1 and L2 is still a problem because it is set up as a 240 VAC unit with a 240 VAC voltage regulator. Although it has an active neutral, allowing it to supply 120 VAC to both L1 and L2 (180 degrees out of phase) the regulator is only concerned with maintaining the 240 VAC between the two legs, not the 120 VAC between each leg to neutral.

If the loads on the two legs are not reasonably balanced, the 240 VAC will “drift” off center from neutral with the voltage on the high load leg dropping and the voltage on the low load leg rising. That, in turn, can/does cause havoc with some of the devices onboard, especially the microwave oven, APC uninterruptible power supply that powers the Amped|Wireless router, and the APC line voltage stabilizer that powers the laser printer.

We were, however, able to watch TV and found Ken Burns’ JAZZ documentary on channel 24.1. By 11 PM we needed to get to bed as we had to be up and ready to go by 7:45 AM tomorrow morning. I turned the genset off around 11:30 PM and let the house electrical system switch to the inverter. I tried to watch the end of JAZZ on the TV in the bedroom but the TV and antenna controller kept losing power. That, in turn, caused the TV to shut off and the controller to reset to position 8. My phone and iPad chargers, both of which were plugged into AC outlets, also kept cutting in and out.

I encountered this same issue when we were boondocking at John Palmer’s place in Mayo, Florida at the end of November 2015. At that time I turned off the SEARCH WATTS feature thinking that it was causing the problem. Apparently that was not the problem. My best guess is that under very low load conditions the inverter is either: a) not inverting at all, or b) producing a voltage and/or current that is not well regulated. In either case, it would play havoc with our entertainment and communications electronics.

Rather than screw around with this anymore tonight I gave up , turned off the TV, unplugged the antenna controller, resolved to ignore the device chargers, figuring they would work when the refrigerator or air compressor ran, and tried to fall asleep. I could have turned on the AC lights in the living room, or our small portable fan, to draw enough AC current to keep the inverter working, but that’s really contrary to the whole notion of minimizing your energy usage to only those things that are absolutely necessary when running on batteries.

2016/04/02 (S) Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Tour

I was awake at 6 AM and we were both up and dressed by 7 AM. I did not make coffee or have breakfast and Linda just had a piece of bread as making toast would have required me to start the genset. The batteries were at roughly 24.6 VDC (and showing 72% SOC) with no load being drawn by the inverter so there was no need to recharge them this morning. We were due at Pat and Vickie’s coach at 8 AM so I gathered up my camera, holster, and extra batteries. We left at 7:40 and took our time walking over to their site.

Pat and Vickie have seating for four in their Jeep Grand Cherokee and have been providing transportation for our group outings. We left just after 8 AM for the short drive to the Exploration Tower at the west end of Port Canaveral. We signed up for a tour of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse that departed from the Tower at 8:30 AM and included admission to the Tower when we returned.

There were only twelve of us on the small tour bus plus a driver (Mike) and two tour guides. The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse is located on the grounds of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). One of the tour guides (Jim) had worked at the Station and was our main guide for information about the Station and the various launch sites we visited; and we visited a number of them. One of the things we learned was that CCAFS is a Station rather than a Base because no one lives there. All of the Air Force personnel working at CCAFS are from Patrick Air Force Base, which is located south of Cocoa Beach. The U. S. Navy also has a presence here with facilities that service ICBM and attack submarines.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse located within the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL.

The Lighthouse had its own cadre of docents, and was very interesting to see and learn about, but only accounted for a little less than an hour of a 3-1/2 hour tour. The other tour guide was Ron and he provided most of the information about Port Canaveral. Just after exiting CCAFS we visited a small museum devoted to the history of the Station. It was located next to the building that now houses the launch control facility for SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight venture of Elon Musk of PayPal. There are other private/commercial companies operating at CCAFS besides SpaceX . One of the largest is United Launch Alliance (ULA), an independent company that was formed by merging the space operations of Boeing (which absorbed McDonnell-Douglass years ago) and Lockheed-Martin.

All that remains of one of the launch pads at CCAFS, FL.

We did not really understand ahead of time what we were going to see and we were surprised by the dilapidated condition of the old launch sites. All that remains at most of them are concrete and brick works. Metal superstructures that were subject to rusting were long ago removed and control centers that were once stuffed full of equipment are now “abandoned in place” or used for storage. It was like visiting an ancient historic site, which in fact it is; the first rocket launched from this site was a German V-2 in 1950 and the Mercury missions occurred in the early 1960’s over 50 years ago.

A continuation of the previous image, this is the command bunker and tunnel. CCAFS, FL.

Back at the Exploration Tower, which is owned and operated by the Canaveral Port Authority (CPA), we got wrist bands good for admission through closing time today. The weather had been overcast all day and a check of the radar on our smartphones showed heavy rain moving our way. Even though we were hungry we decided to experience the Tower before the rain moved in.

This is all that is left of what was once a heavily reinforced HVAC building at the launch pad. The superstructure in the distance is in active use by SpaceX and ULA. CCAFS, FL.

The Exploration Tower has seven floors plus additional structure at the top. We took the elevator to the top floor which features an outdoor observation platform oriented to give a commanding view of Port Canaveral, CCAFS, and the John F. Kennedy Space Center to the north, as well as the Banana River to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. There are also views to the south of the cities of Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. We took the stairs down to each floor in turn. Each floor has a theme with related exhibits and we stopped at each one. The 3rd floor is a small theater that shows a 20 minute film about Port Canaveral and the surrounding area; past, present, and future. The film starts on the hour and half hour so we caught the 1 PM show. The second floor is a balcony that affords a view of art hanging above the 1st floor lobby and gift shop.

The Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral, FL. The top floor includes an outdoor observation deck.

Back on the 1st floor I bought two coffees while Linda and Vickie shopped for gifts. Linda found a stuffed toy of a manatee for our grand-daughter Madeline. When we finally got back to Jetty Park at 2 PM Linda made sandwiches for lunch and I washed off some grapes. I checked the house battery bank voltage and it was still OK. The temperature had cooled off under cloudy skies with a strong southerly breeze, so I did not need to run the air-conditioners.

I took a nap for an hour. Not long after I got up we noticed activity in the shipping channel so I took the camera and we went out to see what was going on. We set up two chairs in front of the bus to watch the action. The blue tug boat was hanging around the entrance to the Trident Turning Basin, which we had not seen it do before. The Brevard County Sheriff boat came out along with one of the harbor pilot boats. A U. S. Coast Guard boat, with a large caliper machine gun on the bow that was manned, headed out the channel towards the ocean at high speed. We thought perhaps we were going to get to see a submarine arrival, which are always unannounced, but the reason for all this activity turned out to be the Carnival Cruise Ship “Valor” coming into port. It was delayed from its scheduled arrival by almost 12 hours but that worked to my advantage as the cloud cover had thinned and provided nice lighting on the bow of the ship as it traveled west into the channel.

A 180 degree panorama, from west through north to east, from the observation deck of the Exploration Tower at Port Canaveral, FL.

A little while later the Norwegian Cruise Line “Spirit” left its dock and headed for the Atlantic Ocean accompanied by the police, Coast Guard, and harbor pilot boats. About 20 minutes behind the NCL Spirit, the Disney “Fantasy” left its dock and started its slow trip down the channel. Vickie showed up before it got to our position and had her iPad with her. As the boat came abreast of our position, Vickie spotted dolphins swimming just in front of the bow.

I got out another chair and we sat in front of the bus and chatted for a while. Vickie eventually returned to her coach to fix dinner and we went inside. I transferred today’s photos to my computer and selected two to process and send to Vickie.

A dolphin swims in front of one of the Disney cruise ships as it heads down the channel from Port Canaveral, FL. towards the sea.

For dinner Linda improvised a potato and broccoli dish with onion, garlic, and couscous. It was light and very tasty. After we were done eating I texted Vickie. They were also done with dinner so we met her at the office and went for a walk. Back at our coach Linda checked online and found a news story about the Carnival Valor. The Valor was delayed due to a medical situation that required them to return to the Turks and Cacos. According to CruiseTimeTables.com, passengers were being advised to embark starting at 9 PM and to be onboard by 11 PM, with departure shortly thereafter.

Back at our coach we watched some TV and waited up for the Carnival Valor to leave as the nighttime departures are rather something to see with the ships all lit up. Linda waited until midnight and then turned in for the night. I stayed up until 1:30 AM but it was still docked at the west end of the port so I gave up and went to bed.

2016/04/03 (N) Bon Voyage

I was waiting for the Carnival Valor to leave Port Canaveral last night but by 1:30 AM it was still at its terminal. It was all lit up but going nowhere, so I finally went to bed. By midnight the skies had begun to clear and the wind, which had been steady all day, became stronger and started shifting around to the northwest and becoming noticeably cooler.

The cruise ships are particularly magical at night and I had hoped to capture some images of them, having set my camera to SCeNe selection mode (SCN) and selected “Night.” In spite of being up late I did not sleep soundly and was aware of headlights around 5 AM. Someone had apparently driven over from the campground to watch ships, or perhaps driven into the park, which opens at 5 AM, for this purpose. I then noticed a ship in the shipping lane heading for the mouth of the channel. Around 5:30 AM another cruise ship came in. I got up, put on my robe, and tried to photograph it from the cockpit of the bus.

The nighttime arrival of the Carnival “Victory” cruise ship at Port Canaveral, FL.

I got up to stay a little after 8 AM and started the genset so I could make coffee and heat water. Linda got up shortly thereafter and prepared our breakfast cereal. We could see cruise ships docked at the west end of Port Canaveral so Linda checked the CruiseTimeTables.com website, and found that there were four cruise ships scheduled to depart today; three at 4 PM (the Carnival Sunshine and Victory, and the Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas) and one at 4:30 PM (the Disney Magic).

The Magnum ME-ARC indicated the house battery bank was at 24.6 VDC and 69% SOC. I turned on the genset and the charger started in Bulk Charging mode drawing 110A at 24VDC, or just over 2,600 Watts, on L1. I turned on the Aqua-Hot electric heating element, which is on L2, to balance the load on the genset a bit. When the battery charger had backed off a bit and switched to Absorption mode I turned on the block heater for the main engine, which is currently on the same leg (L1) as the charger. Balanced loads lead to balanced voltages, but it is also better for the genset mechanically to run under a somewhat heavier load than a light one.

Around 10 AM I walked over to check site #357. It was already vacant so I went to the office to confirm that we still had it reserved for tonight through Tuesday night. We did, so I told the office clerk that I was going to go ahead and move, if I could get the engine started, and would then come in and register. If I couldn’t get it started I would extend our stay on site #3 until we could get the problem resolved or get it towed. The clerk was not particularly sympathetic, but then he was the one who would have to deal with an irate customer who could not have their reserved site, and the people who camp here have very particular preferences about their sites. Fortunately, site #3 was open so we could have stayed there until we needed to dump our holding tanks. We could minimize water usage by using the campground bathrooms, so we could have stretched our dry camping if needed.

Back at our rig we started preparing to move it. I moved the car over near the pedestrian gate that is very close to site #357 and walked back to the coach. Linda had secured the inside enough for the short, slow trip. I checked the maintenance chargers for the chassis batteries and they indicated 100% charge levels. I opened the air supply valve for the engine accessories, engaged the 12 and 24 volt chassis battery disconnect switches, pulled the wheel chocks, and put the entry step stool away. I put the Level Low system in Drive mode, just in case that mattered, and turned the ignition key. The bus motor cranked quickly and fired right up! That was a relief.

The Centurion Battalion of the United States Navy Sea Cadet Corps had arrived at the picnic area sometime before 8 AM with a large contingent of cadets and their adult leaders/chaperones. And they had arrived in a large number of cars that filled the available parking spaces just on the other side of the road that ran behind the back row of RV sites where we were parked. There was still plenty of room to back out, but Linda positioned herself outside to keep an eye on the back end of the rig.

The motorhome on our passenger side was also ready to leave and backed out before I did. I don’t think he would have presented an obstacle, but having him gone was one less thing to have to keep an eye on. I pulled up the tag axle and then pulled forward to the right to position the coach at an angle to the road behind it. I then backed up and cut the steer tires hard left to swing the nose around to the passenger side and guide the rear end cleanly into the road well clear of any other vehicles. Linda climbed on board and I turned on the OTR A-C, partly for comfort and partly to put more load on the engine.

We made the 5 MPH trip around the east end of the park and campground back to the campground entrance on the south side where Linda got out to open the gate. Once I was clear of the gate she got back onboard. We wound our way through the campground, familiar now with the road system. When I got to the 2nd to last turn I saw that the last turn was blocked by a pickup truck pulling a 5th wheel trailer out of its site so I continued straight ahead and went clockwise around Red Knot Circle. By the time I got back to the same intersection the pickup truck and 5th wheel were out of the way and I was able to proceed to site #357.

Linda hopped out to act as spotter. Using what I learned two years ago from Big Bill while getting parked at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, Florida I moved to the right edge of the road as the back-in site was on that side. As I pulled past the site and the rear wheels were by the front of the site I cut the steer tires to the left, positioning the coach at an angle to the site, all the while avoiding trees, RVs, cars, and other obstacles. I backed straight, keeping an eye on Linda in the driver side rear view mirror, and started swinging the nose to the driver side while keeping an eye on the car parked on the other side of the road.

As soon as I was clear of that car I swung the nose hard to the driver side. We were well clear of the Sea Grape trees on the passenger side so I straightened the steer tires and pulled forward until I had a good view of the concrete pad on one side. I backed in following Linda’s hand signals until I could see the pad on both sides, got the rig straight and centered, and backed up until Linda gave me the stop signal (arms crossed at the wrist above her head). We ended up parking with the front tires just off the front edge of the concrete pad as the coach was close to level and we wanted to avoid lower branches at the rear of the site. As it was, I still had to lower the front slightly, but at least the Level Low system worked this time. I also had to adjust the rear on one side, which worked a lot better after I lowered the tag axle.

With the coach neatly tucked in to its site and sitting level Linda walked the short distance back to where the car was parked and drove it around to our site. Once the car was parked I walked to the office and took care of the registration. When I got back I tried to get our network up and running but encountered all sorts of problems. I wasted most of the rest of the afternoon trying to resolve them, to no avail.

While we were camped on site #3 I had to reconfigure the Amped|Wireless router/range-extender to work directly with our Verizon Mi-Fi. That configuration worked OK out there, but was not working here. The Wi-Fi ranger was seeing a number of campground Wi-Fi signals with adequate to very good signal strength, but was having a very difficult time connecting to them. When it did, the connection would drop after a very short time. The Amped|Wireless router/range-extender was having an equally difficult time connecting to the Wi-Fi Ranger and staying connected when it did. I tried connecting the Wi-Ranger to our Verizon Mi-Fi but that did seem to work either. I also noticed that the cellular signal was not as strong as usual. Linda commented that her phone was having trouble connecting. I finally got disgusted with the whole thing and set it aside. Sometimes the best solution is to “just walk away.”

There were four cruise ships starting down the shipping channel roughly on time and in the order specified and Vickie joined us for the ship parade. We were out there waiting for them, camera at the ready, and by the time the last ship was headed out to sea I had shot about 200 images. Vickie had already eaten, and we were not ready for dinner yet, so we walked the campground and park, including the pier.

It was chilly all day yesterday with a high temperature in the low 70’s and a steady breeze from the north that resulted in a hazardous conditions warning for the beach. As the light faded it got colder and we returned to our motorhomes.

Dinner was a nice salad and Amy’s enchiladas. Simple, easy, tasty. It turned colder after sunset under clear skies and a stiff northerly breeze. It was very refreshing, initially, but eventually the coach was a bit too cool so I closed the roof vents and Linda narrowed the window openings to just an inch. We were a little tired, not particularly captivated by what was on TV, and had to be up earlier than usual in the morning, so we were in bed before 11 PM.

2016/04/04 (M) Farewell For Now

It turned chilly after sunset last night under clear skies and a stiff northerly breeze. It was very refreshing, actually, but eventually the coach felt chilly and we closed it up, mostly, and were in bed a bit earlier than usual.

We were up at 7 AM this morning and got dressed right away. I made coffee, which used up our supply of Sweet Seattle Dreams beans, and we headed over to site #303 at 7:30 to see Pat and Vickie off. They have been here since mid-February and today was departure day. The bus motor was already running when we got there and we just watched while they got ready to pull out. We learned long ago not to “chat” with RVers during their final departure preparations. They drove around by the office to hook up their car and we walked over to watch. I took a couple of pictures with my phone and used the “dawn” setting for the first time. Soon enough they were ready to go, so we said our final “farewells for now,” and, just like that, they drove off and were gone. Assuming no mechanical or weather issues they will be home in northern Indiana Wednesday evening.

A group of five brown pelicans coming up the channel just above the water. Jetty Park at Port Canaveral, FL.

We always find that leaving an encampment after we have been there for an extended period of time has a strange feeling and we experienced that vicariously as Pat and Vickie drove away. The strangeness, as best I can describe it, is a combination of a sense of loss—the giving up of a familiar place and the people there—and anticipation of the journey ahead, both positive and negative. The anticipation is positive in the sense of the possibilities of new experiences that come with the adventure of the road while the negative anticipation stems from the potential for mechanical, weather, traffic, or health problems.

With Pat and Vickie out of sight we returned to our coach and had a light breakfast of toast and jam and finished our coffee. Linda then worked on a grocery list while I tackled out networking problems. I gave up in disgust around 10 AM and we drove to Cocoa Beach to do some grocery shopping. We went to the Publix supermarket first and found most of what we needed there. A quick stop at Sunseed Food CO-OP filled in our list with blueberries, coffee, and vegan mayonnaise. I stopped at one of the Shell stations on the way back to J. P. and topped off the fuel in the car so we would not have to deal with that tomorrow morning.

Back at our coach we got the groceries unloaded and put away. Linda then heated some leftovers for lunch and washed some grapes. After lunch I put in a call to Chris Yust, our National General Insurance Agent, to ask her about the letter/form we received regarding Coordination of Medical benefits. She called back a short time later and we discussed it. She logged into her agent support system but there was no indication of the letter/form. Normally she can see anything the insurance company has sent to her customers. She confirmed that we really did need to send the form in with the requested documentation.

Linda had already photographed the fronts and backs of our MPSERS/BCBS cards. When she tried to print them the printer was “offline”. We had this same problem at the beginning of our winter travels and it turned out to be NETWORK related. The fix back then was to use the Advanced IP Scanner to determine what IP address was assigned to the printer and then manually reconfigure the printer to that address. That was under Windows 8.1. Under Windows 10 the IP Scanner didn’t work the same way and the manual reconfiguration didn’t work either. What is particularly puzzling and annoying is that the printer does not appear to be responding correctly when set as a DHCP client. If it was, we would not be having a problem communicating with it.

I seem to have spent a lot of time this past week dealing with network and wireless communications malfunctions, so I did what I often do and we went for a walk at 2:30 PM. We went out on the pier and were just starting back when someone spotted a manatee between the pier and the jetty swimming towards the ocean. The water was clear and we got a good look at it for quite a while. It was large and presumably a full-size adult. They really are gentle giants and it was a thrill to see it.

We walked back to the office for coffee before returning to our rig. As soon as we went in Scott Ward handed Linda a card. She has not been in the office that much but I have, and have often interacted with Scott while checking on, or registering for, sites. Still, I was impressed that he remembered my last name and made the connection to the card. The card was from our younger grand-daughter, Madeline. It was a ‘thank you’ card for Linda for all of the custom photo postcards she has created using the PhotoPostCard app and had printed and mailed to Madeline by the PhotoPostCard service out of San Diego, California. Linda took a picture of the card, texted it to our son, and asked him to tell Madeline “thanks” in return. He texted back a photo of Madeline looking at the most recent postcard, which was a photo of Linda by the channel with one of the Disney cruise ships heading out to sea.

The Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas was due to sail at 3:45 PM followed closely by the Disney Dream at 4 PM. We walked over to the shipping channel at 3:40 PM and by the time we got there the Enchantment was starting to move away from its dock. Something did not look right and then I realized we were looking at the stern of the ship. The cruise ships usually dock facing the ocean, so it needed to turn around to get out of Port Canaveral.

One of the amazing things about these amazing machines is their ability to maneuver in close quarters. When in port, they can independently push the bow and stern to either side, which means they can move sideways or turn the ship around its center (or any other point). In this case they pushed the stern out from the dock on the south side of the channel and into the opening of the middle turning basin on the north side of the channel opposite the dock. They then backed it up slightly into the turning basin, brought the bow around into the channel, pushed the stern out into the channel, and then started moving forward down the channel towards the ocean. It was quite a skillful maneuver and the first time we have seen this in the two weeks we have been here.

Not long after the Enchantment cleared the Jetty and turned southeast to stay in the channel, the Disney Dream started moving slowly forward and away from its dock. The Disney terminal/dock is in an alcove (basin) on the north side of the west end of the Port so it has to turn into the straight portion of the channel. Of all the cruise ships we have seen come and go the Disney ships appear to be in the best condition, not that any of them look bad.

We returned to our coach and I transferred photos to my computer from the camera and from my cell phone while Linda started preparing dinner. Dinner consisted of a kale salad followed by a brown rice and kale dish with sautéed carrots, onions, and garlic. Linda has not had any wine in a couple of weeks because of the medications she’s been taking, but I had a glass of the Arbor Mist Raspberry. I find “flavored” wines a questionable choice, although I like Sangria and hot mulled or spiced wine.

We went for a walk after dinner that included some time on the beach. The park and beach were a beehive of activity yesterday but things were quiet all day today and there were only a handful of people on the beach this evening. Both conditions are nice, in their own way. There was, however, some activity in the Trident submarine turning basin today. The big crane was moving and a Coast Guard cutter was in and out of the basin. An attack helicopter from Patrick AFB also made repeated passes over the area and up/down the beach. Our friends told us that when things start getting active around the basin it usually means a submarine is coming in but that did not happen while we were watching.

Back at our coach we turned on the TV but all of the CBS programs were repeats because the NCAA Basketball final game was on cable. I reconfigured the Amped|Wireless router to work directly with our Verizon Mi-Fi and was able to get my computer connected to the Internet and to our NAS, which is critical for backing up photos and documents. I did not, however, mess around further with the printer. My plan is to move it back into my office at home and leave it there. I will find a newer one, with better networking functionality, to put in the bus.

We planned to be on the road in the morning between 8 and 8:30 AM so we went to bed before 11 PM. Linda fell asleep before NCIS-LA ended but I watched the channel 6 news/weather before turning out the lights. The Cleveland Indians baseball home opener was postponed because of snow on the field and the TV weatherman reported that the average last date for snow in Cleveland is April 18, and for Detroit, April 22. In spite of a mild winter and early spring, I knew there was a reason we were not in a hurry to return home. The low at our house was forecast to be 18 degrees F overnight.

2016/04/05 (M) Celebration

We were up at 7 AM, showered, and got dressed. We tended to our cats and prepared the motorcoach for them to be comfortable while we were away for part of the day. We each had a banana, and a little orange juice to wash down our vitamins, but did not have a full breakfast or our usual morning coffee. We gathered up all of the things Linda needed for her doctor’s appointment and were in the car and on our way at 8:10 AM.

Our destination was the office of Dr. Michael Seidman in Celebration, Florida, a trip of 60 to 65 miles from Jetty Park that would take about as many minutes. Most of the route was Toll Road (FL-528 and FL-417) and we did not have to slow down for the toll booths because we have a Florida SunPass transponder that we can move between the bus and the car. We put the address of the clinic, which is attached to Florida Hospital, into the GPS. It accepted Celebration as the city, but the routing showed the destination as Kissimmee. I didn’t care what it called the place as long as it got us to the correct location.

We left earlier than needed in order to arrive earlier than required and allow for traffic and navigational contingencies. Less than a mile from the medical center we spotted a Panera Bread Company store and stopped to have bagels and coffee. While we were there we made use of the free Wi-Fi to update apps on our iPads and smartphones. We left at 10:15 and finished the short trip to the Florida Hospital complex. We found a parking spot, found the clinic building, and found the suite for the Head & Neck Surgery Center of Florida (H&NSCF). Linda had already completed much of the required new patient paperwork so we were there with time to spare.

Sheila, one of the office assistants, got Linda checked in and wanted to know if we had brought copies of her records from Henry Ford Health System, where Dr. Seidman worked for 30 years and treated Linda for the last 20 of those. I had e-mailed Sheila the day after she asked me to get those records to let her know that HFHS would not send them to another hospital or clinic at Linda’s request and that the H&NSCF would have to request them. Sheila said she did not receive that e-mail, even though I replied to one she sent Linda. Oh well, there was nothing to be done at that point.

It was a great relief to Linda to be able to get in to see Dr. Seidman. Dr. S and his PA, Katherine, carefully went over the history of Linda’s illness and treatment of the last three weeks. He indicated that the treatment was what he would have prescribed, which was comforting to know. His routine ENT examination did not reveal any indication of infection or fluid in her “good” (right) ear, which was also good to know. He really wanted to compare the recent audiological results with her last tests from HFHS so he made a call to someone at the HFHS ENT clinic and was able to get them to fax the test results. He chaired the ENT department for much of his time at Henry Ford, and that was apparently still worth something with former colleagues.

Dr. S also inserted a scope through Linda’s right nostril and into her throat to exam the areas that cannot be seen any other way. The scope is a thin, flexible cable with a camera and LED light source at the tip. The image is fed to a monitor, where I got to see it in real time, but was also recorded so Linda got to see it afterwards. Her vocal cords did not close completely and were slightly bowed, which Dr. S thought probably accounted for her weak, slightly horse, voice but there was no sign of infection or other pathology, such as tumors. He noticed that the Eustachian tube opening was “bubbling” which he thought was a good sign. He also examined the left nostril and did not see anything unusual there either.

All of that was good news, of course, but we were both a bit let down that there wasn’t any additional treatment he could provide at this time. Direct injection of steroids into the middle ear was still a possibility but he wanted Linda to wait at least four weeks to see if she improved on her own before going down that path. Equally frustrating was that her hearing, while marginal, was too good for a cochlear implant. Not that she is eager to have one of those, of course, what she wants is the hearing in her right ear restored to what it was before she got sick a month ago.

Our friend, Mara, was moving her motorhome today from Clermont to Winter Haven and her friend, Michael, was driving to Orlando International Airport to drop off a rental car and fly back to Phoenix, Arizona. They had hoped to do all of that by way of Celebration and have lunch, with or without us, at Ari, a Japanese sushi restaurant. We had indicated that it was very doubtful we would make it to lunch, given the timing of Linda’s appointment, but called Mara when we got back to our car to update her. It turned out that when she got ready to leave her motorhome slideout would not slide in. (I think that’s why they are called slide “outs.”) Michael returned home as planned while Mara arranged for a technician to fix her non-sliding slideout.

We needed to fax a few documents to National General Insurance Company, so we went in search of a Staples with a copy center. Having taken care of that we wanted to have lunch before heading back to Cape Canaveral so as not to be eating dinner too late in the day. We found another Panera near FL-417 and Orange Blossom Trail and ate there. The kale-romaine-couscous-almond salad was excellent and the black bean soup was as good as usual. Well fed, we got on the FL-417 Toll Road and headed back towards the FL-528 Toll Road, which we took back to Cape Canaveral.

We were back at Jetty Park before 2:30 PM and just relaxed for a while. Around 4 PM we went outside to take care of a few things in preparation for our departure tomorrow. I got out the waste drain hoses and connected two of them together to reach from the utility bay connection to the sewer connection, which was inconveniently located directly behind the RV pad. We drained the waste tanks, rinsed out the hoses, and returned everything to their storage tub. Using the 3-step stool, I retracted the two awnings on the driver side, which I had previously deployed to shade the Windows from the mid-afternoon sun.

We then emptied out the back of the car so I could add air to the temporary spare, which gave us a low pressure alarm on the drive from Webster to Cape Canaveral. I had turned on the TireTraker TPMS earlier and most of the readings looked OK, but as long as I had the portable air compressor, hose, air chuck, and pressure gauge out I checked the front right (curb, PS) tire as a check on the TPMS. The tire gauge pressure was several pounds lower than the TPMS indicated pressure and was fairly close to where I wanted it so I left it alone.

Our destination tomorrow was Williston Crossings RV Resort in Williston, Florida, a trip of about 140 miles. We had about a half tank of fresh water so I did not get out the softener and add any. Somewhere in the middle of all this work we chatted with several neighbors, but eventually we got the car and bus repacked, including the patio mat and the two bag chairs. At that point we only had the entry mat, entry stool, and power cord to deal with and the outside would be ready for travel.

Before dinner we went for a walk out by the shipping channel, the pier, and the beach. There were people out and about but the park did not feel crowded and was quiet and calm, unlike the festive energy of the weekend with its day visitors, picnickers, and family campers with younger children. It’s as if J. P. has moods, and one has to spend enough time here and experience them to begin to get a sense of the place. We could understand why Pat and Vickie like to come here every year, even if that is not what we would choose to do.

I could not recall what Linda made for dinner because I am trying to finish this post a week later. What I do recall is that the Norwegian Breakaway was scheduled to set sail at 9 PM, well after sunset. It had been a pleasantly cool day with clear skies but turned chilly with the setting of the sun and a noticeable breeze, especially outside the campground by the water. Linda was tired and a little chilled and chose not to walk out and watch the ship leave. At 8:45 PM I got my camera, walked over to the channel, and positioned myself by the “Minimum Wake” sign. I had a good view of the Port to the west and could lean on one of the posts for support if needed. I put my camera in SCN (scene selection) mode, selected the “Night” setting, and waited.

I had not noticed that the ship was docked with its stern facing the ocean until it started to move. Its position at the dock meant it would have to do a 180 degree turn before moving down the channel and into the ocean. And that meant it was going to take longer to exit the port and give me more opportunity to photograph it.

The Norwegian Cruise Lines “Breakaway” doing a 180 degree maneuver in the turning basin. Port Canaveral, FL.

The cruise ships are always brightly illuminated when coming and going in the dark and are quite pretty to see as they glide almost silently by. They are also challenging to photograph as they are often very high contrast (high dynamic range) subjects, especially at night. Ideally I would shoot multiple bracket exposures and combine them using HDR software, but I would have to get the camera on a tripod and even then the exposures would be just long enough that the ship would change position slightly between frames. I did the best I could with single frame, hand-held exposures braced against the sign post. By the time the Breakaway was in open water I was getting chilled and headed back to the warmth of our bus. I transferred the images to my computer and took a quick look at them before settling in to watch a few minutes of TV and then go to bed.

2016/03/29-30 (T-W) Merritt-Island Grills Lionfish

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2016/03/29 (T) Merritt Island NWR

Our day had four distinct parts. Part one was our usual early morning routine which involved coffee, orange juice, homemade granola with fresh blueberries, and iPads. Part 2 involved a trip to the office by me around 10:30 AM to pay the balance (2 nights) of our next three nights at Jetty Park. The reason for this was that we had to move our bus from site #352 to site #358 at noon.

The current occupants of site #358 were packing up as I left for the office and pulled out by a little after 11 AM. We shook out the patio and entry mats and laid them back on the ground. We then removed all of the window/windshield covers and laid them on the patio mat. Once they were stacked Linda rolled them up and put them away in the front bay. While she did that I disconnected the fresh water connections from the supply faucet and coach inlet. I then dumped the back water and gray water waste tanks.

Site #358 is a full hookup site but the waste drain is on the “wrong” (passenger) side of the coach at the back edge of the concrete pad. In that location it would be almost impossible to use, but that would not be a problem as long as I dumped the tanks before we moved. We can go 9 to 10 days before we have to dump but after today’s move we will be moving again in three days and again three days after that. The next move is to a water only site (#3) by the shipping channel but we can stop at the dump station on the way if needed. The last move we will be to site #303 with a sewer connection in the correct location. What this comes down to is that waste management is not going to be a problem as long as the waste tanks are empty before we leave site #352 today.

Site #358 is directly behind site #352 so rather than load everything into the bays, I carried the water softener, fresh water filter, and hoses to the new site and then transferred the waste drain hose and support accordion while Linda carried the patio and entry mats and the entry step stool to the new site. Linda also tidied up the interior enough that I could move the coach without anything getting broken.

At this point we were basically ready to move. I shut off the air-conditioners and electric heating element for the Aqua-Hot, shut the main AC circuit breaker in the utility bay, and disconnected the shorepower cord. I coiled the cord and carried it to the new site. I then turned on the air valve for the engine accessories, connected the chassis batteries, and started the engine.

It took a couple of minutes for the chassis to air up during which time I lifted and dropped the tag axle a couple of times because I wasn’t sure it was responding to the control lever. The people next door to us on the left were away so their pickup truck wasn’t there to impede our departure. Linda moved a bicycle on their site just enough to make sure it was also out of my way. The site was much easier to get out of than it was to get into, in part because there was a pickup truck parked next door when I backed in.

I slowly drove clockwise around Red Knot Circle to enter the northern branch of the loop going the correct direction (east) to be able to back into site #358. There were no obstructions to impede backing into the site and I was able to maneuver the coach using the side mirrors and rear view camera while Linda spotted the rear end. With no obstacles at the rear of the concrete pad we were able to center the tires side-to-side with a few inches to spare and front-to-rear with about a foot to spare fore and aft. I dropped the tag axle and checked the level of the kitchen counter. It looked good so I let the system air up until the air-dryer purged and then shut the engine off.

The back end of the coach was only about 40 feet from where it was 15 minutes earlier but we had to go through the whole departure/arrival process. I disconnected the chassis batteries, closed the engine accessories air valve, connected the shorepower cord, and put AC power to the coach. I then stored the sewer hose as we would not be needing it right away, and put the water softener in the front bay temporarily. While I did that, Linda spread out the patio and entrance mats and set up the entrance step stool. Pat and I were sitting at the picnic table enjoying the shade and the breeze when Vickie called to see if we were ready to go on our afternoon outing. Pat walked back to their site to get the car (and Vickie) and so began Part 3 of our day.

Linda packed a light picnic lunch and I grabbed my small camera bag. Pat and Vickie arrived at our site a few minutes later, picked us up, and we headed out. Our destination was the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge just north of the John F. Kennedy Space Center. The route was FL-A1A/FL-528 west to US-1 north to Titusville and then east on 403 to the NWR Visitor Center.

Linda needed to eat before she could take her next steroid pill so our first order of business was lunch on one of the picnic tables. Once we had eaten we checked out the displays inside and then walked the boardwalk. Vickie had her Senior Access pass and got a holder to hang it from the rearview mirror before we headed deeper into the refuge.

There is a channel that connects the Mosquito Lagoon to the Indian River Lagoon. The channel is part of the Intercostal Waterway and is crossed by a drawbridge on Route 3. The north bank of the channel east of the bridge is a regular hangout for West Indian Manatees and the refuge has a parking lot and viewing platform to safely accommodate visitors. Pat and Vickie had been here before and not always seen manatees but today was our lucky day.

West Indian Manatees in the channel that connects Indian River Lagoon and Mosquito Lagoon. Merritt Island NWR, Florida. The channel is part of the Intercoastal Waterway.

As best we could estimate there were at least a dozen manatees feeding and frolicking along the bank, including at least two juveniles. We spent 30 minutes there, maybe longer, during which time I took about 50 photos. The weather was heavily overcast and the water was a little murky, neither of which was ideal for photography. The added challenge was that manatees usually only bring a small amount of their body out of the water at any one time, typically just their nostrils or tail and only for a short time. The juveniles, however, seemed to be trying to climb onto the backs of what we presumed were their mothers and occasionally were sufficiently above the surface to have a good look at them. Even so, getting a good photo was going be a matter of timing (anticipation) and luck, especially given the limitations on where I could position myself.

We saw a Wild Boar as we pulled out. We still had plenty of hours of daylight and decided to drive the Wildlife Loop Road. We saw lots of birds, a couple of alligators, and a Flamingo on the wing. We then headed back to Titusville where we stopped at a CVS Pharmacy so Linda could restock her OTC medications. Before we got out of Titusville the weather moved in with thunder and lightning. We saw a pair of Flamingos on the wing on the way back to Jetty Park.

We got back to Jetty Park about 5 PM where Part 4 of our day was a quiet evening at home. In spite of somewhat elevated humidity, and the possibility of rain in the forecast, we turned off the air-conditioners and opened the windows and roof vents/fans. Linda was tired and did not want to go for a walk but felt well enough to make nice salads and heat some Amy’s Pad Thai for dinner. We watched NCIS and NCISLA, both of which were reruns, and the James Corden “Car Pool Karaoke” special that was on instead of Limitless. We are rarely up late enough to watch The Late Late Show but I had to admit that Corden is a very funny guy; hyperactive crazy, but very funny. Since Linda could not hear the singing or banter, she did not really experience what was going on.

Once again Linda tried sleeping in bed but lying down was still causing increased pressure in her ears so she moved to the makeshift bed using the two facing captain’s chairs in the living room. I watched the news/weather on the Orlando CBS affiliate and then watched part of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before going to sleep at midnight.

2016/03/30 (T) GRILLS Lionfish

We had some light rain last evening that forced me to close the roof vents. It appeared to be done by bedtime so I opened the vent in the bathroom and set the fan to exhaust on speed 2. By the time we both got up this morning I did not feel like making coffee so we got dressed and walked to the office with our coffee mugs. We watched the Bloomberg financial channel and The Weather Channel on cable/satellite TV in the lounge area and then checked to see if any full hookup sites had opened up for the weekend. They had not, so we walked back to our rig.

I finished up yesterday’s blog post and then checked with Vickie about activities for today. The John F. Kennedy Space Center is now an expensive “entertainment experience” run by a private company. After checking our options we decided to pass. The normal senior adult price for a 1-day pass is $46, $75 for a multi-day pass. Two optional extended tours were $25 per adult per tour, so this would be a $100 to $125 per person, and probably require at least two days to do, if we wanted the full experience. CocoaBeach4Less.com has a special for the general admission of two adults for $19.99 total. The catch? Sitting through a 1-hour presentation on the travel agency’s extensive services. No obligation to buy, of course, but “no thanks” just the same. We got to visit the Space Center as USAF ROTC cadets when it was in active use for the space shuttle program in the late 1970’s, so visiting it as an expensive entertainment experience did not hold much interest for us.

Vickie checked on the Exploration Tower and Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Tour. It was $27 per person and only operated on Fridays and Saturdays. (The Tower is open 7 days a week.) We could not go on Friday because we have to move the bus again (our third Jetty Park Shuffle since we arrived on March 21st). The tour was tentative for Saturday based on insufficient bookings. Vickie explained that there would be four of us and was asked to call back at noon. She did, and the tour was a ‘go’ so they signed up and then I called and signed us up. They needed our full names, driver’s license numbers, and dates of birth as the historic Cape Canaveral Lighthouse is in the USAF Cape Canaveral Air Force Station which is restricted access property that is not open to the public.

I have had a really nice Logitech UltraThin Bluetooth Touch Mouse for a while and it has worked well. It started acting up yesterday, which is to say it quit responding even though Windows 10 indicated it was connected. I restarted my computer and recharged the mouse even though I did not think it needed it and it worked again until today, when it quit responding again. I was not in the humor to waste time with it, and Linda needed some additional medications, so I drove to Cocoa Beach. My first stop was the CVS Pharmacy and my second stop was at Radio Shack, both very conveniently on the right hand (west) side of N. Atlantic Avenue when heading south. When I returned I moved my computer to the portable dining table so Linda could use the desk. She worked on accounting for the bakery while I started editing blog posts from early January 2016.

We checked with Vickie around 1 PM but they were having lunch so we went for a long walk to the beach and pier without her. Back at our coach Linda made nice salads for lunch, which we ate around 2 PM. I then took a nap while she researched restaurant possibilities for dinner tonight. She suggested GRILLS on the shipping channel and Vickie agreed to a 6 PM dinnertime.

When I got up Linda handed me a Livingston County Court Jury Summons for April 4 through 15. Our daughter was checking our mail, saw it, scanned it, and e-mailed it to us. That was obviously not going to work, so I called the phone number in the letter and got rescheduled to the last two weeks of June. It was just dumb luck that the timing worked out as our children only check our mail every other week.

GRILLS is located towards the west end of the shipping channel on the south side near the Exploration Tower, deep sea fishing charters marina, and a number of other restaurants, bars, and shopping. There were a lot of cars and people in the area and when we checked in with the hostess we were told it would be 45 minutes to an hour wait for a table. Ugh. Waiting for a table at a restaurant is not on my “favorite things to do” list.

We walked around a bit and browsed the shop across the street where we looked at Lion Fish in an aquarium and learned about them. They are a highly invasive species with no natural predators in this part of the world. Their spines are extremely venomous but their meat is not. It is apparently incredibly tender and delicious and GRILLS features it on their menu. It only took 30 minutes to get a table and the time passed quickly enough as we had something to occupy us. The restaurant was crowded and noisy with spring break vacationers but Linda did OK. She and I had black bean ‘burgers’ with salsa, Pat had a ‘real’ hamburger, and Vickie had fish tacos. We walked down to the Weyland Gallery after dinner but it was closed. We were all very full and returned to Jetty Park. It was 8 PM when we got back to our rig. For whatever reason we were picking up a lot more OTA TV stations tonight which gave us two PBS affiliate options.

As I wrote in yesterday’s post, we vacated site #352 just before noon and moved to site #358. A smaller class C motorhome occupied site #352 last night but left this morning. As of 5 PM site #352 was still unoccupied, so the park staff could have left us there and put the class C on site #358 last night. As nice as Jetty Park is, and it is a nice place with generally friendly and helpful staff, it is owned and operated by the Canaveral Port Authority. The CPA is a public/government entity and one gets the sense that the policies and procedures here have been developed more for the convenience of the operators than the comfort and convenience of the paying guests. To be fair, we were probably still going to have to move before Friday, but if the park had a 1-night reservation for Tuesday, nothing for Wednesday, and a 1-night reservation for Thursday they could have left us on #352 until Friday when we move to site #3.

I had an iOS update available for my iPad2 and waited until 10 PM to initiate it using the Jetty Park Wi-Fi. It took 30 – 45 minutes to download and install. Once my tablet restarted I immediately had 10 app updates. The smallest was 27 MB and all the others were over 50 MB with the largest being 103 MB. I did the updates one-at-a-time while I watched the news and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Linda went to bed at 11 PM and I finally climbed in at 1 AM after starting the last update. Being on the road with a limited cellular data plan is not like being at home with a DSL connection so we do what we have to do to manage our data usage.

2016/03/04-06 (F–N) BTCRVR Conclusion

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2016/03/04 (F) Pre-departure Prep

I was up much later than normal last night trying to write my blog post for yesterday, get our network back online, and get my computer usable again. I managed to do all of that, and was finally able to check my e-mail and off-load the photos I took earlier in the day to my computer and back them up to our NAS. I saw some late night TV programs along the way and it was 2 AM when I finally got to bed. On the plus side, I was tired, fell asleep right away, and slept well until 6 AM when the rain and the cats woke me up. I got up, closed the roof vents, put a scoop of food in their bowls, and went back to bed.

Linda walks a lot but finds it difficult to just stand, and we did a lot of standing yesterday, both at the Edison Ford Estates and on the drive through the Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, so she was a bit sore and tired from yesterday’s outing. She got up around 7 AM this morning and I got up to stay an hour later. I made coffee and she toasted bagels, which we enjoyed with some of the vegan cream cheese she picked up the other day at Publix.

We only have three nights left for this winter season at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) and we have been trying to prepare for our departure on Monday in small increments. Chores that we accomplished before lunch included:

(B) Checking the bus tire pressures. I had to add 2.5 PSI to the passenger side steer tire. That required me to get the air compressor out, along with the hose and air-chuck, and then put it all away; a lot of work for 2.5 PSI, but it had to be done. It reminded me, however, of how much I would like to have a built-in high pressure air-compressor and tank with distribution lines running to the four corners of the bus and terminating in air hose fittings. That would allow me to just use a short (curly) air-hose that is easily moved to each position and takes very little space to store.
(B) Checking the windshield caulk. It was a mess and had water behind it that apparently kept it from setting up (curing) correctly. I tried to fix it by pressing the water out but that just made a bigger mess. I was going to test it for leaks with a hose but changed my mind after seeing the mess that was already there.
(B) E-mailing Pat and Vickie about the March 11 rocket launch at Cape Canaveral.
(L) Vacuuming the interior of the bus and mopping the floor.
(L) Cutting my hair.
(B) Calling Butch. He and Fonda were still in Quartzsite but planned to leave tomorrow or Sunday and take 3 to 4 weeks to get home. Butch was actually in Phoenix with a ham radio buddy on their way to the Ham Radio Outlet (HRO) store when I called but was able to chat for a while.

Lunch was vegan hot dogs and sliced apples. After lunch Linda got a text from her sister, Sr. Marilyn, informing us that her 50th Jubilee is scheduled for August 6 (this year). That immediately changed our plans for the second half of this coming summer and the first half of the fall. Our plan was to attend two RV rallies in the northeast U.S. and then visit the Prevost Car Inc. factory in Quebec enroute to the Canadian Maritimes, from which we would work our way back through New England in the early fall, arriving home by mid-October in time for Nickolas Guy-Erickson’s wedding on the 21st. I was going to call FMCA today and register for the national rally in Springfield, Massachusetts, but the dates are August 3 – 6, so that clearly was not going to work.

We are committed to attending the Escapees RV Club 56th Escapade in Essex Junction, Vermont, which starts Sunday, July 24th, as we are both working the event as staff. We will have to be there sooner, but do not know the exact date yet. Departure will be on Friday the 29th, which gives us plenty of time to make it to St. Louis, Missouri before the Jubilee. Still, the news suddenly left us with a whole lot of new decisions to make. It will also allow us to attend the August CCO/GLCC Back-to-the-Bricks Rally in Clio, Michigan, and the September GLCC Surplus & Salvage Rally in Elkhart, Indiana. Indeed, it opens up the possibility of building the barn this summer and/or having Daryl Mech, from DCM Heating and Cooling, install a new air-conditioning system for the house. The one thing we knew for sure was that we were not going to travel from Vermont all the way to Missouri and then turn around and head to Quebec or the Maritimes. That will have to wait for some other year.

Our afternoon chores included doing the laundry and updating my iPad, which I did while waiting for the laundry. But first I loaded up a few additional recyclables and drove over to the Turner Center to drop them off. There was some sort of problem at the NW corner of FL-70 and Turner Avenue that involved police, fire, and EMS vehicles and personnel, and had traffic tied up in every direction. I managed to make the turn from westbound FL-70 onto Turner (which only goes north from there) but decided not to return by that route. I headed east from the Turner Center but was not able to cut through Arcadia Village as the north (rear) entrance is gated. The first available north-south road that went through to FL-70 was many miles farther east, but it made for a nice drive in the country. I stopped at Walmart for grapes and bananas before returning to our RV resort.

We had planned to go swimming in the late afternoon and then take showers but it did not work out that way. I would normally dump the two holding tanks before we travel, but I did not want to this time as I want to slosh the ingredients around on the drive from Arcadia to Webster. As such, I am trying to get them reasonably full, but not so full that I have to dump them.

For dinner Linda made nice, large salads. After dinner Linda went down to Mara’s motorhome to take care of her cats. I called Chuck but he did not pick up so I left him a message. Friday night TV is a bit of a wasteland so I edited the last few blog posts for November 2015. I then selected a photo that Linda took of me standing in front of a Mysore Fig tree at the Edison Ford Estates to use in her next PhotoPostCard for Madeline. She also made a post card for our grandniece, Lilly, using the photo of the baby alligators from Everglades National Park. I found a photo of Lilly that her mom, my niece Amanda, had taken and set that to Linda to use to make a “sticker” to put on the photo post card. I decided to purchase a license (lifetime) for the Faststone Image Viewer software and took care of that.

When Linda returned from her cat sitting duties we made the bed, had a few grapes and a small glass of wine (Barefoot Riesling), and turned in for the night.

2016/03/05 (S) Mara & Michael Return

It was pleasantly cool last night, with temperatures in the 60’s at bedtime and headed towards an overnight low in the upper 50’s; in other words, perfect sleeping weather. And sleep we did. Linda got a text message from Mara letting us know that she and Michael were waiting to disembark from the cruise ship and indicating that they had a wonderful time. They were planning on stopping at a Whole Foods Market and wanted to know if Linda needed anything. Linda requested plum vinegar, seitan, and vegan ricotta cheese, items we cannot find in Arcadia.

Linda got up around 8:15 AM and showered. I got up at 8:30 AM, made our coffee, and then took my shower. As a result of these showers, which we were going to take at the shower house, I am going to have to make some decisions today or tomorrow relative to dumping our holding tanks and adding fresh water. We don’t need very much fresh water in the on-board tank for the trip to Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort in Webster on Monday and I would like to dispense with that weight in favor of keeping the black- and gray-water tanks mostly full. The idea is that the motion of the coach will create an agitation effect which will help clean the tanks. (I don’t really expect that it to happen, but it’s worth a shot.)

We had a slow leisurely morning as we lingered over our coffee and had granola with blueberries and bananas for breakfast. Linda and Mara arranged for the four of us to have dinner together this evening so she made a grocery list. I downloaded a new game named Wood Puzzle and tried it. It’s a little bit like Tetris, but without constantly moving pieces, so it was somewhat fun. I was never a big fan of Tetris.

Linda left at 10:30 AM to tend to Mara’s cats and then walk to the Winn-Dixie supermarket. I got dressed, checked my e-mail, got the registration code for Faststone Image Viewer, and entered it into the software. I checked the notifications in RVillage and visited the RVillage Stakeholders Group. Curtis had posted a link to an “explainer video” so I e-mailed the link to our iPads. I then gathered up the bedspread and large bath towels and headed to the laundry room.

While I was waiting for the laundry I finished yesterday’s blog post, uploaded it to our Dropbox, started today’s post, and played a few games. The laundry was finally dry at 1:30 PM and I returned to our coach. Linda had already returned, done some prep work for dinner, and was out walking around the resort when I returned. She wanted to shop at Joshua Citrus one more time before we left so she drove there while I settled in to work on uploading blog posts! My goal was to upload the remaining posts for October 2015, starting with the one for the 21st. I accomplished that goal just before 6 PM.

Mara and Michael got back to Big Tree Carefree RV Resort mid-late afternoon and arrived at our coach for dinner at 6:30 PM. Linda found a recipe for vegan Parmesan cheese and made some earlier in the day. She used it to make a kale salad with almonds and a lemon dressing. It was outstanding. The main course was a quinoa and black beans dish that she has made before. It was served hot and was a good choice for a cool evening. She bought an Alamos Malbec wine (Argentina) and a bottle of Barefoot Moscato, but I was the only one drinking white wine so I finished the Barefoot Riesling we opened earlier this week. Dessert was non-dairy chocolate ice cream with fresh sliced strawberries.

We had a good chat about Mara and Michael’s experience on the Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise. There were a few speakers that we heard on the two cruises we went on, but an equal number of new speakers that we have not had the opportunity to hear in person. Mara bought four cookbooks and left them for Linda to peruse. It was very satisfying for us that that they had such a good experience since we were the ones that got Mara interested in the cruise and she got Michael to come along.

They left a little before 9 PM and walked back to Mara’s rig. We watched an episode of Lucifer and then parts of two different fundraiser concerts on PBS; Brit Floyd and The BeeGees One Night Only.

2016/03/06 (N) Last Day Here

The cats were prowling by 6 AM so I got up, added food to their bowls, plugged in the charging cable for our Verizon Mi-Fi, and went back to bed. It was already getting light and the birds were starting to chirp as if their calls were somehow responsible for the rising of the sun. Squirrels and rabbits were, no doubt, scurrying about on the ground around our rig, as Juniper was taking it all in with her usual morning intensity. Juniper got under the covers between us for a while and we drifted in and out of sleep in rhythm with the cats activities until 7:30 AM when we finally got out of bed to stay.

It was a bit chilly in our motorcoach, so I put on my sweats and slippers. I made our morning coffee and then settled in on the sofa with my iPad and monogrammed throw. I was joined by Jasper and later by Juniper as we listened to the Mockingbirds and Crows and watched the Vultures soar just above the trees as they headed out on their daily search for food. Linda perused the cookbooks that Mara left, looking for recipes, while I put the finishing touches on yesterday’s blog post and started on today’s.

Today was our last full day at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) in Arcadia, Florida and we did not have any big plans other than a trip to one of the local supermarkets and dinner with our friends, Mara and Michael. Mara and Linda definitely wanted to use the swimming pool one last time. We leave tomorrow morning and Mara and Michael are pulling out on Tuesday. We are headed north about 100 miles to Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort near Webster, Florida. Mara and Michael are headed north a much shorter distance to the Thousand Trails Preserve in Wauchula on the Peace River. We plan to meet up with them again in Winter Haven for a quintessentially “old Florida” water skiing show. They might also drive over to Jetty Park while we are there to see a rocket launch, assuming it actually lifts off as scheduled on the 22nd. It is an Atlas 5 resupply mission for the International Space Station, so it would be quite an experience.

BTCRVR has been a nice, comfortable place to spend a couple of months this winter and has provided the base of operations we hoped it would for exploring south and southwest Florida. The resort is a bit older with approximately 80% park model trailers, and I estimate that more than 90% of the units here never move. It is a 55+ community, but most of the residents are quite a bit older than that. It is a clean, well-kept, and attractive park, however, with nice facilities and very friendly people.

Big Tree is also an active park, with regularly scheduled events every day (morning, afternoon, and evening) as well as special events like concerts, dinners, and dances. These activities are well attended from what we saw, and lots of folks walk, ride their bicycles (and tricycles) every day, and use the swimming pool. Many permanent residents have their own washer and dryer so I never had a problem getting our laundry done in the laundry room. Although the park did not have a distributed Wi-Fi system, it did have free Wi-Fi available at the office/activity building and we made use of it for downloading updates for our smartphones, iPads, and notebook computers. Given that we updated both of our computers from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 while we were here, the Wi-Fi was very much appreciated, allowing us to use our 12 GB Verizon data plan for routine tasks such as e-mail, banking, visiting websites, browsing for information, and transferring files, all of which we prefer to do in the comfort of our coach.

I took care of sending an e-mail to a dozen friends and family members and then settled in to upload blog posts starting with November 1, 2015. Linda went to the swimming pool at 12:30 PM and I joined her there at 3 PM. Mara and Linda were sun bathing when I arrived but joined me in the shallow end of the pool where we sloshed around and chatted about the whole-food plant-based approach to human nutrition and our travel plans for the next year or so. We were soaking in the hot tub / whirlpool when Michael arrived and pulled up a chair. We all chatted briefly and then Linda and I took showers and returned to our coach. We called our son-in-law, Chris, to wish him a happy birthday. I then resumed uploading blog posts. By 5:30 PM I had uploaded the posts through November 12, 2105 and stopped. We were due at Mara’s rig at 6:30 PM for dinner so I took a short nap.

Linda gathered up Mara’s WFPB cookbooks and we walked over to her rig at 6:25 PM. Michael served the wine and we chatted for an hour while Mara pulled dinner together. She made a salad of julienned vegetables with a sesame seed dressing. The main dish was quinoa, lentils, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. Dessert was a chocolate mousse made with avocado, banana, and cocoa and served with fresh raspberries and a piece of dark chocolate. Seriously, with food like that why wouldn’t you be a vegan?

It was going on 9 PM by the time we finished dinner so we stayed and watched the final episode of Downton Abbey. All’s well that ends well, I suppose, and the final two hours of the series did, indeed, end well. It was one of the most popular (most viewed?) programs ever to air on PBS, and deservedly so. Fortunately there is a lot of quality programming available on the PBS channels and Masterpiece Theatre, along with Masterpiece Mysteries, will no doubt continue to draw large numbers of viewers in the years to come.

When we walked back to our motorcoach at 10:50 PM the night air was very crisp, the sky dark and clear, and the stars very bright. Orion hung high in the southwest sky and the Big Dipper claimed the northeast quadrant. If not for the light pollution of the RV resort it was the kind of night where we might have seen the Milky Way. Back at the coach we put on a PBS program about the WW II WASPs (Women’s Airforce Service Pilots) and one women in particular who went on to continue flying into her late 80’s and logged over 40,000 hours of flight time before she stopped recording it. We are moving to a new RV resort tomorrow so I had the lights out before midnight and quickly drifted off to sleep.

2016/03/03 (R) Edison Ford Estates

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Our plan for today was to visit two places in southwest Florida that we had not gotten to yet; the Edison Ford Estates in Fort Myers, and Sanibel/Captiva Islands. As usual when we plan to leave early and be away from the coach for the day we did not make coffee or eat breakfast. Linda walked down to Mara’s motorhome to tend to her cats while I took care of ours. I then loaded the camera gear and a few other things in the car and drove down to Mara’s rig to pick up Linda. We stopped at the local Bank of America ATM and then at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a bagel for Linda. (I had my vegan apricot bearclaw pastries from Publix.) Suitably provisioned we headed down FL-31 to Fort Myers.

Linda stands by one of the many magnificent trees at the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Estates. Fort Myers, FL.

The southern terminus of FL-31 is at FL-80. From there it was about five miles (west) to the city limit of Ft. Myers. We continued on FL-80 through downtown, which is an attractive and very upscale part of the city, to where it ends and turns into McGregor Boulevard. Shortly after turning onto McGregor we pulled into the parking lot for the Edison Ford Estates complex at 9:30 AM.

The Edison & Ford Estates abound in botanical delights. Fort Myers, FL.

The Edison Ford Estates is a historical complex that preserves the winter estates of Thomas Alva Edison and Henry Ford on the east bank of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers, Florida. The Edison estate was named Seminole and the adjacent Ford Estate was named The Mangoes. There are two identical houses on the Edison Estate and a more modest house on the Ford Estate. Other buildings and structures include caretaker quarters, garages, a small office for Edison, a swimming pool, a cistern and water system, gardens, and lots of exotic trees. When it was originally developed the Edison Estate included a pier that extended 1,500 feet out into the Caloosahatchee River. It had trains and transport cars and was initially used to bring in all of the materials to build and landscape the Estate as these had to get to the site by ship.

Both men were workaholics and although they only used these estates for a few weeks in the winter they worked as well as socialized while here. Indeed, Edison had a lab on the property where extensive work was done on trying to find a plant source of latex, the key material needed to make rubber, which could be quickly and easily grown in the U.S. Edison and Ford, along with Harvey Firestone, formed a biological research company to finance this research, and presumably profit from any positive outcome. Some 17,000 plants were tested and the one that emerged as most viable was Goldenrod. Ford and Edison had almost 1,300 patents between them, and Edison is still the only person to have been awarded at least one U.S. patent every year for 65 contiguous years. His greatest invention, however, could not be patented; the modern research and development laboratory.

Bruce poses by one of the large trees at the Edison Ford Estates. Linda used this image for one of the weekly postcards she made and had sent to grand-daughter Madeline. Fort Myers, FL.

We wrapped up our visit to the Edison and Ford winter estates at 2 PM and headed on down McGregor Boulevard, the boulevard of Royal Palms, towards Sanibel Island. Our initial destination on the island was an organic vegan cafe named Sanibel Sprouts. We did not have any trouble getting onto the island or getting to the restaurant but the traffic backed up to exit the island reminded us of our recent experience in the Florida Keys and was more than a bit concerning.

For lunch we split the Mexican salad. The salad used a base of arugula, a dark leafy green with its own unique, slightly peppery taste that was very well suited to the dish. A vegan “taco meat” mixed with ground walnuts added depth and texture, and a dressing with cumin tied it all together. We then split an order of waffles which consisted of two waffles topped with strawberries and bananas and served with real maple syrup. Both dishes were excellent and I asked the cook how the waffles were made. She indicated that they used the King Arthur brand gluten-free general purpose baking flour (rice flour based), Earth Balance soy-based vegan butter substitute (5 scoops), almond milk, and vanilla flavored Stevia sweetener. They were fluffy, light, crispy on the outside, and very tasty. Yum.

The two Edison winter homes are mirror images of each other and joined by a covered walkway. Edison Ford Estates, Fort Myers, FL.

After lunch we continued deeper into Sanibel Island. We saw a sign for the J. N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center and pulled in. There was a one-way road through a section of the Refuge but it was a “U. S. Fee Area” ($6 per car). We checked to see if Linda’s Golden Access Pass was valid for entry. It was, so we went in. Although the skies had become overcast the drive through the Refuge was an unplanned event and an unanticipated treat. We got see a variety of birds but the highlight included two different opportunities to see White Pelicans, one of which also included Roseate Spoonbills and other birds. White Pelicans are the second largest bird in the continental U. S. (Behind the California Condor) with a wingspan of nine (9) feet. We also saw a couple of alligators which surprised us as the water here is connected to the Gulf of Mexico. Indeed, the tide was coming in while we were there.

The Edison-Ford-Firestone partnership maintained an active, working laboratory on the Fort Myers estate that had year-round staff. Edison and Ford only spent a few weeks each year at their winter homes, but worked whenever they were here. Fort Myers, FL.

From the end of the drive through the NWR we continued on to the north end of Sanibel Island and drove over the short bridge to Captiva Island. We drove to the end of the road, turned around, and drove back. There is a lot of “island commerce” on Sanibel Island. Captiva Island, by comparison, is mostly residential, vacation rental, and resort properties. Many of the homes were massive, elaborately landscaped costal properties. I estimated that houses of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet were common, 5,000 to 6,000 square feet were numerous, and some of them had to be 10,000 to 15,000 square feet. We tend to think of the really expensive real estate in Florida being in places like Naples, Marco Island, Miami Beach, and West Palm Beach, but it’s hard to imagine that any of them are more expensive than the island mansions we saw on Captiva Island.

Rare White Pelicans at the J. N. “Ding Darling” National Wildlife Refuge & Bird Sanctuary on Sanibel Island in Florida. The White Pelicans are the second largest birds in North America, and the largest members of the pelican family. This photograph does not do justice to their size, which includes a nine foot wingspan. The pink birds (lower right) are Roseate Spoonbills.

The drive back down Captiva and Sanibel was smooth and flowed right along as far as the restaurant. At that point we encountered the traffic backup we had seen coming in. Traffic was not moving at all and people were pulling out of line and turning around. Our map showed that there was an alternate way to get back to the causeway. We suspected that the turn-arounds were locals who were headed that way so we decided to do that as well. The traffic could not be worse and we would get to see a different part of the island.

That proved to be the case and we were only in a stop-and-go back up for about 10 minutes instead of the one-to-two hours I figured it would take if we stayed on Periwinkle Way. We were off the island by 6:45 PM and headed back to the mainland on FL-867. Fairly quickly we were on FL-865 headed more easterly but on a faster road. We eventually got to US-41 (the Tamiami Trail) and headed north. Not too far along I spotted a Panera and we stopped to get coffee. We continued north as far as Colonial where we headed east to I-75. From there it was five miles north to FL-80, three miles east to FL-31, and 36 miles north to our RV resort in Arcadia.

An alligator just shows its head (left center). J. N. “Ding Darling” National Wildlife Refuge & Bird Sanctuary, Sanibel Island, FL

We got back to our coach at 8:10 PM. Linda grabbed a flashlight and the keys for Mara’s rig and walked down to take care of her cats. I unloaded the car and then took care of our cats. I planned to check my e-mail and then settle in to watch our usual Thursday evening TV programs, but my computer and the scheduled programs altered my plan.

This Ibis was a little farther behind this alligator than the photos makes it appear, but not that much. Being behind an alligator is not necessarily any safer than being in front of one. J. N. “Ding Darling” National Wildlife Refuge & Bird Sanctuary, Sanibel Island, FL.

Our e-mail servers were not responding so I shut down my computer and all of our network/comm equipment and restarted everything in a specific order. Disaster! My computer would not log in and claimed to have missing authentication components. This is the second time my ASUS laptop has crapped out since I upgraded it to Windows 10, and I was pretty unhappy about it. At this point I do not have any confidence its stability, especially its update process, and think it was clearly not ready for release. Unfortunately not upgrading really wasn’t an option.

I watched Charlie Rose on PBS followed by Tavis Smiley and a program on Black artists. That was followed by This Old House and Ask TOH. I think I restarted my computer several times before it finally “healed” itself and allowed me to log in. With all of those TV programs as background I finished most of this post, off-loaded photos, and backed them up to the NAS. I tried my e-mail again and was finally able to access it. It was 2 AM when I finally went to bed, which had not been my plan when I got up this morning.

2016/03/01–02 (T–W) Politics and Nutpods

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2016/03/01 (T) Super Tuesday Nutpods

Today was officially our fifth month away from home this winter; not full months, of course, but the fifth month by name nonetheless. I got up briefly at 6:45 AM to add food to the cats’ bowls and went back to bed. With less pestering from the cats we slept in longer than usual and did not get up until just before 8 AM.

The shelf-stable Nutpods non-dairy coffee creamer that we ordered online. We had high hopes for this product based on the reviews, but it disappointed us.

I made coffee and tried the new Nutpods non-dairy coffee creamer that arrived yesterday. To our mutual disappointment, it separated almost immediately. I was able to blend it back in by stirring, but it would just separate again if I let it sit. We were both disappointed. The reviews of this product sang its praises and made special note of it not separating like other non-dairy creamers. We bought four containers of it for $3.50 each, so I will use them up, but we won’t be buying any more of them. What we both find odd is that we do not recall having this problem at home where I have used unflavored soy-based creamers for a long time. The only obvious difference between the bus and the house is that we have a dishwasher (machine) at home, but neither of us think this is related to the mugs not being clean on the bus as they are washed in soapy hot water.

Breakfast was granola with fresh blueberries and a small glass of juice to wash down our vitamins. After breakfast Linda went to Mara’s motorhome to take care of the morning cat chores and I settled in to work at my computer. I dealt with BCM- and SLAARC-related e-mails and investigated why the ES|ET Smart Security 8 software on my ASUS notebook computer was apparently not synchronizing with the Windows 10 update function. I discovered in the process that there was a Smart Security 9 upgrade available so before requesting technical support I installed the upgrade.

While the upgrade was downloading and installing I called Ed and Betty Burns and arranged to meet them for linner at Sweet Tomatoes on University Parkway in Sarasota at 3 PM. We needed to drive to Petco for cat food anyway and the restaurant is just across the street. Since they now live in Florida, no longer work at the Middleton’s berry farm north of Detroit during the summer, and have given up RVing (at least for now), we probably will not see them again any time soon and wanted to visit with them one more time before we left south(west) Florida for the season.

When Linda got back I turned off the outside water and tested the fresh water pump. It appeared to be working normally, so I left the outside water off and we resumed using the pump.

I proofread yet another draft of the April issue of Bus Conversion Magazine and marked up a few final corrections to my featured bus article on Ronnie and Diann Mewbourn’s 1969 Model 07 Eagle conversion. Soon enough it was 1 PM and time to leave.

We stopped at the Shell station on FL-70 in Lakewood Ranch and filled up the tank. Regular gasoline (10% Ethanol) was $1.79 per gallon. A week ago I bought fuel at this same station for $1.56 per gallon. We arrived at the Petco, in the massive University Town Center shopping district, at 2:20 PM. They were out of the exact food we needed (Royal Canin Sensitive Digest Thin Slices) but had the loaf form of the same food so we bought all nine cans of that. That will be enough to get us past Mara and Michael’s return from the Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise.

We were at Sweet Tomatoes by 2:50 PM and had just started to go for a walk when Ed and Betty drove by, so we turned around and met them at the front door. We were at the restaurant for almost two hours and had a good meal and a nice chat. We talked about our upcoming travel plans and Ed and Betty, who have taken care of some important medical issues, indicated that they are thinking about getting a Class B or B+ motorhome or possibly a pull-behind RV. There is an outside possibility that we might cross paths with them in the Canadian Maritime provinces over the summer. Towards the end of our meal Ed and Janet Roelle showed up with Nathan. We chatted briefly with them, said “fair well for now” to everyone, and headed back to Arcadia.

We stopped at the Publix supermarket on FL-70 in Lakewood Ranch for a few grocery items we cannot get in Arcadia. (It should be noted, however, that Publix is building a supermarket in Arcadia.) We got back to our coach just before 6 PM and spent a few minutes with our cats, both of whom were very glad to see us and wanted our attention. At 6:20 Linda walked down to take care of Mara’s cats and I walked down about 30 minutes later. Linda had the TV on and “Super Tuesday,” with 11 states holding presidential primary elections, dominated the news cycle. We walked back to our rig at 7:45 PM under dark, clear skies and bright stars.

We watched NCIS and NCISNOLA but Limitless was preempted by Super Tuesday election coverage so we found a documentary on PBS about the Statue of Liberty and watched that. Linda fell asleep before it was over but it was followed by an equally interesting documentary on the public health hospital on Ellis Island that operated for nearly 30 years in the early 20th Century.

2016/03/02 (W) Windshield Caulk

Our day started, as it usually does, with coffee, breakfast, and iPads. While Linda tended to Mara’s cats I made a few changes to the ES|ET Smart Security 9 settings on my computer. I then selected and processed three possible post card photos from last week and e-mailed them to Linda’s iPad.

When Linda got back from tending to Mara’s cats and motorhome she worked on creating this week’s photo post card for Madeline and uploaded it to the PhotoCardApp service in San Diego, California. She then got to work on tax returns. I finalized the bonus photo captions for the BCM featured bus article on Dave Aungier’s 1977 MCI MC-5C bus conversion, uploaded everything to my Dropbox, and e-mailed the magazine staff to let them know it was there.

The motorhome that was next to us on the passenger side for most of the winter pulled out on Sunday. On Monday the resort put another rig in that site. It stayed for two nights and pulled out this morning. We never even met the people. Early this afternoon the resort brought in another rig, a 42 foot 5th-wheel being pulled by a suitably large pickup truck. Phil, from the resort office, was the escort and parking attendant. I popped out to see if I should move my car and Phil said it would help, so I backed deeper into our site and well out of the way. It took some doing but Phil managed to get the rig backed into the site.

As long as I was outside I had several chores to take care of before we pull out of here on Monday and today seemed like a good day to take care of a couple of them. I found some silicon spray lubricant and managed to pull the emergency breakaway key out of the lock on the front bumper of the car just far enough to spray some in. I let it sit a minute and then wrapped what was left of the tethered cable around my hands and pulled hard enough to finally get it to come out. With the key out I sprayed the inside of the lock and on the key and then inserted and removed the key several times. I sprayed a bit more, put the key back in, and let it sit.

Our new neighbor was outside setting up their rig so we got to meet him. His name was also Phil and his wife’s name was Marylou. Phil was retired from the U. S. Army and they recently became full-time RVers. We chatted briefly and met their two adorable Dachshunds. We let them get back to the task of setting up camp and moved on to my second chore, which required Linda’s assistance.

The other day I pulled the caulking out from between the new passenger side lower windshield and the new windshield gasket. I let it sit a couple days to see if the gasket would reform to the glass as a result of warm temperatures and hot sunshine. It didn’t, so I got the tube of black caulk I found the other day and got it ready to use. I used the small 3-step stool to get high enough to work and Linda prepared several wet paper shop towels. I applied the caulk, which is designed for window trimming and should work with glass, to the gap between the windshield and the gasket. Linda held the windshield wiper out of the way while I worked and handed me the wet paper towels as needed. I did not do a very good job but hopefully it was good enough to keep the windshield from leaking water and prevent wind noise. The caulk was water cleanup, so that made it easy to take care of putting everything away.

By 4 PM the outside air temperature was about 80 degrees F with a nice breeze, scattered clouds, and a hot sun. That made for very pleasant conditions outside in the shade, but inside it was 85 in spite of having the windows open and the exhaust fans running. Linda went outside to read and I was having a problem getting my laptop to connect to the NAS so I shut off my computer and the NAS and went outside to join her.

As we move towards spring we have the sun on our windshields for more of the day and are now getting the late afternoon sun on the passenger side of our motorcoach. Linda commented that if we ever buy an RV lot somewhere she wants it oriented and/or landscaped so the passenger side of the coach is always in shade. Duly noted and agreed.

I worked on this blog post for a while using the new MobiSystems OfficeSuites app. Now that I have figured out how to use it with Dropbox, and have learned how to create folders and move files, I am satisfied with how it works and might go ahead and spend the $19.99 for the full-featured “Premium” version. Not that I am using most of the features of the free version, but why limit myself.

We skipped lunch today and by 4:30 PM Linda was hungry so she went inside to prepare our dinner. I played a few games on my iPad and when the sun dropped below our patio awning and obscured my screen I went inside. Linda had just set our salads on the table so it was good timing. She made large salads with a kale and spinach base and lots of yummy toppings including sliced fresh apples. She put our monthly dose of four Brazil Nuts on the side and served still water with half of a Meyer lemon squeezed into each glass. I eat faster than Linda does so I packed up our computers and iPads and loaded them in the car while she finished her dinner.

When Linda was done eating we grabbed our smartphones and drove over to the activity building. Dominoes and pinochle are scheduled on Wednesdays at 6:30 PM in the main room, but the library was not scheduled for use so we set up our technology in there. We got both computers, both iPads, and both smartphones connected to the resort Wi-Fi system and then connected through to the Internet. I had ~300 MB of app updates for my iPad and Linda had ~425 MB of app updates for hers. I had six app updates on my phone and Linda had three. Those tend to be smaller than the iPad updates but probably totaled another 200 MB combined. We both had critical updates for Windows 10 and have no idea how many MB they were since Windows 10 does not think that is information the end user needs to know. People using limited data plans, however, probably differ with Microsoft on this point.

Folks started showing up for the games at 6 PM and they were underway by 6:30. Linda’s devices were all up-to-date by then so she walked over to Mara’s motorhome for her evening cat chores. I finished up with my updates by 6:45, packed up our tech toys (tools), and drove back to our rig.

Wednesday night is PBS nature and science night for us and the theme this evening was space exploration. But first we had to get tuned in to the results of yesterday’s Super Tuesday primary elections. After three hours of space exploration documentaries Linda went to bed while I watched Charlie Rose. He had four guests, two from each end of the political spectrum, and they provided their analysis of the current presidential candidate race, to the extent that anyone understands what is going on. Reassured that the world really is in chaos, and that the American electorate has crossed the boundary into collective insanity, I went to sleep.

2016/02/25-29 (R – M) Sand Castle Stallions Port

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2016/02/25 (R) Siesta Key

We were up at 6:30 AM this morning and did not have coffee or breakfast. We picked up Mara and Michael at 7 AM and headed west on FL-70 towards Bradenton. Our destination was an endodontic office in Lakewood Ranch were Mara had an 8 AM appointment for a root canal procedure. As we were coming into town Michael spotted a Dunkin Donuts. Location duly noted. I pulled up to the office building at 7:55 and we all went in.

The endodontist said the procedure would take about an hour. Michael stayed to wait for Mara while Linda and I drove back to the DD for coffee and something to eat. The DD was in a small shopping plaza next to a Shell station so I topped off the car’s fuel tank before we topped off ours’. I bought regular gasoline (10% Ethanol) for $1.56 per gallon. We were getting ready to leave DD when Mara texted Linda that she would be longer than originally thought. The tooth needed a filling and the dental practice next door just had a cancellation and could take her right away. That was fortunate for Mara as she and Michael are leaving on Saturday for a week long cruise. She also wasn’t sure she could get in to see her dentist before July, which was much too long of a time to rely on the temporary filling the endodontist had put in place.

With Mara’s dental needs taken care of we headed west on FL-70 to I-75 south to Exit 207 and then west to US-41. A short jog to the right (north) and back to the left and we were on Siesta Key Drive headed west to the island of Siesta Key. We drove through the town, which was very quaint (upscale trendy, actually) and found a place to park with public access to the beach. The Siesta Key beach is very fine white sands, reputed to be the finest and whitest of any beach in Florida. We walked quite a ways south from our entry point past the main public entrance and numerous lifeguard stands, all of which were staffed. The wind was strong and the waves were high and I took a few photos.

A group of Royal Terns face into the wind on Siesta Key Beach. Siesta Key, FL.

When we got back to the car we exited the island via the southern bridge and drove down US-41 to Venice. We found a parking spot, which is not easy in Venice, and walked around the historic downtown area, which is now a mix of quaint and upscale shopping and lots of places to eat. It is a very attractive area but there were a lot of people there.

We were just window shopping when we walked past the TableTop store. As the name suggests, they sell a wide variety of products used to set a dining table. We looked around to see if they had plastic wine glasses but did not see any. We were just about to leave when we spotted one. It was smaller than we wanted so we asked if they had others. They did, we just did not see them! They were not plastic, however, but were made of polycarbonate. That’s the same material used for contact lens blanks and motorcycle visors. It felt heavy duty and had a slight bluish cast. The sales associate assured us that they could be cleaned in a dishwasher and would not discolor, craze, or crack, and will not break even if dropped on concrete (although we do not intend to test that claim). We bought four of them at $15 each.

Mara and Linda play in the fountain in Venice, FL.

When we had seen enough of Venice we returned to the car and drove a short distance to Cafe Evergreen in Nokomis for linner. I had the veggie (vegan) burger and Linda had the vegan beet Rueben. Mara had the stir-fry noodle dish, which both of us have had before, and Michael had the Chana Masala. Our waiter, by his own admission, was having an off day but the food was good and we took our time enjoying it.

When we were done with our meal we were also done exploring for the day and I drove us back to Arcadia. On the drive back we discussed plans for tomorrow, which included Solomon’s Castle in the late morning, Hermann’s Royal Lipizzaner Stallions in the mid-afternoon, some before and after errands, and a picnic lunch. Back at the RV Resort we dropped Michael and Mara at her RV and then returned to ours. We watched our Thursday night CBS TV programs and had some popcorn later in the evening. We headed to bed at 11 PM, watched a few minutes of Charlie Rose, and then went to sleep.

2016/02/26 (F) Castle Stallions

Our two main attractions today were Solomon’s Castle, near Ono, Florida and Hermann’s Royal Lipizzaner Stallions near Myakka City, Florida. Both locations were within 25 miles of Arcadia and each other, so we did not have to endure an excessive amount of car travel.

We picked up Mara and Michael at 10:15 AM, stopped at the local Wells Fargo bank branch, and then headed west out of town. At the edge of town we headed north on FL-661 towards Ono. We turned onto CR-665 and five miles later turned off onto Salomon Road to the parking lot of Solomon’s Castle. We had the address in the GPS, but there were occasional old hand-painted signs confirming the route. We arrived just before 11 AM, when the “castle” opens for tours, but the parking lot was already crowded. We bought our tickets for the 11:30 tour and then strolled around the part of the grounds between the parking lot and the castle while we waited. Horse Creek runs through the property, much of which was wet.

Michael and Mara by the horse statute near the entrance to Solomon’s Castle. Ono, FL.

Solomon’s Castle was built by, and is still the home of, Henry Solomon and his wife. Henry, who is about to turn 81, is an artist who has been creating art objects for 76 years. Much of the main floor of the castle is an art museum, although the walking tour includes the living room and kitchen. Other living spaces are on the second floor and were not part of the tour. There is also a guest bedroom available to rent for $125 per night but I do not recall if an overnight stay included breakfast. There is, however, a scale “replica” of the Santa Maria that houses part of the onsite cafe and is run by Solomon’s daughter and her husband, who live in a separate house on the property.

Solomon’s Castle and his art are quirky. Although we did not get to meet him, we came away with an image of his sense of humor, and caught a glimpse of him in his workshop while we were walking the grounds after the tour. Solomon works in a variety of materials but mostly metal and wood, and mostly with discarded scrap materials including food cans, beer cans, and parts/pieces of automobiles. I took quite a few photos while we were there. I don’t know what our son’s professional opinion of Solomon’s corpus would be, but some of his pieces were interesting and we had to respect the sheer quantity of work he has produced. He seemed to have a particular interest in Picasso, copying several of the master’s works in wood montage.

Mara, Michael, and Linda on the grounds of Solomon’s Castle. Ono, FL.

From the castle we continued north on CR-665 up to FL-64, the Florida Cracker Trail, and then west about five miles to Wauchula Road where we headed south to Myakka City. At FL-70 in Myakka City we headed east about 1/2 mile and pulled in to a local park on the north side of the road that affronted the west bank of the Myakka River. The picnic tables were all bolted to the concrete slabs that served as the floors of the open-sided shelters so we ate our lunch in the shade. The air temperature was in the mid-60’s, and there was a breeze, so we ate with our jackets on.

After lunch we headed west on FL-70 to the other side of Myakka City were we turned south on Singletary Road. About seven miles down we found the entrance to the Hermann’s Royal Lipizzaner Stallions and Spanish American Riding School complex. Hermann’s is the home of a group of Lipizzaner horses that tour North America. The original horses were part of the 500 Austrian Royal Lipizzaner horses rescued by General George Patton at the end of World War II. Gabby Hermann is the matriarch of the current operation and the original horses were brought to the USA by her father. The Lipizzaner horse was first bred in Austria in 1565 from Arabian and Andalusian stock. Six lines were produced and new Arabian and Andalusian stock have been included in the breeding since that time to avoid the negative effects of inbreeding.

Gabby Herman exercises one of the Royal Lipizzaner Stallions in training. Myakka City, FL.

Hermann’s has open rehearsals (performances) every Thursday and Friday at 3 PM and Saturday at 10 AM when they are not touring, weather permitting. These are not “dress rehearsals” as the houses and riders are not fully costumed the way they would be for a show while on tour. They do, however, put the horses through all of their maneuvers. The rehearsals take place in an open air arena connected to the nearby stables with a pair of gated fences. There are bleachers on the two long sides of the arena and visitors also bring lawn chairs and set them up on three sides of the arena. We arrived around 2:15 PM and there were already people there. Admission was a $5 “donation” per person, but it was not optional. It was well worth the price, however, and we made an extra contribution at the end of the show.

We secured good seats in the last row of the one of the bleachers at the top of the stairs with our backs to the sun. That allowed us an unobstructed view for photography with light from a good direction. It was a good thing we got there early. Six fully-loaded tour buses showed up after we got there along with lots of passenger cars. The bleachers were packed and the lawn chairs were at least two deep around the fence. After the show we walked over to see the 17 day old colt and walk through the stables. I took photos and also snapped a few shots of the tour buses after chatting with the driver of a 2016 Prevost H3-45 with a beautiful deep purple paint scheme. I would sure like to have one of those to convert.

Five stallions work in formation at Hermann’s Royal Lipizzaner Stallions and Spanish American Riding School. Myakka City, FL.

When we were done at Hermann’s we drove back to Arcadia and stopped at Walgreens before returning to Big Tree Carefree RV Resort. We spent a little time at Mara’s motorhome so she could walk Linda through the various cat and RV chores that needed to be taken care off during the next week. With that done we stopped at the mail room. We had a slip in our mail slot that there was a package for us in the office but it was after 5 PM and the office was closed. We figured it was the shipment of Nutpods vegan coffee creamer but we would not be able to pick it up until Monday as we would not be around during office hours on Saturday and the office is closed on Sundays.

For dinner Linda made lentil potato burritos using various leftover ingredients that we wanted/needed to use up. I opened the bottle of Barefoot Moscato wine, using the cork puller that Mara gave us the other night, and we had some for dessert. We were both tired so we watched some TV, including the first of three episodes of a new Masterpiece Mystery series named Silk about barristers in England. We did not watch the second episode as we had to be up early in the morning and it was going to end too late.

2016/02/27 (S) Port Miami

We were up at 6:30 AM and left at 7 AM for Dunkin Donuts where we got something to eat and a couple of large half-caffe coffees. As planned, we were back at Mara’s motorhome at 7:30 AM. By 7:45 we had Michael, Mara, and their luggage onboard and were on our way to the cruise ship terminals at the Port of Miami some three plus hours distant.

The GPS wanted us to go south on FL-31 but we had already decided we would take FL-70 east to US-27 and then take that south/southeast as far as I-75. We stopped at a Marathon station in South Bay to use the restrooms and let Mara and Michael get some coffee. We headed east on I-75 to its end point at MM 0 and then followed whatever roads the GPS told us to use to get to Port Miami. When we were almost to the Port we deviated from the GPS and took the tunnel under the water to get to the cruise ship terminals rather than exit the highway and use the bridge. There was some temporary confusion, and minor tension, surrounding this but soon enough we ended up at Terminal F where the MSC Divina was docked.

Traffic was heavy and chaotic, but we found a spot at the curb and got them unloaded. A quick handshake and a hug and we were on our way. I never cease to be appalled at the incredibly pour traffic engineering we encounter at major transportation terminals. We did get a stunning view of the skyscrapers that dominate the downtown Miami skyline, but after a bit of driving around we managed to escape the island via the bridge and I was glad to be clear of the area.

Linda had researched vegan friendly eateries last night and selected one called The Kitchen. It was near Miami International Airport, not too far from Port Miami, and basically in the direction we needed to travel to return to Arcadia. She put the address in the GPS and we enjoyed a slow, late Saturday morning, drive through downtown Miami. We arrived around 11:30 and there were only a couple of other diners there. As is often the case, it was a slightly funky little place, but it had an entirely vegan menu with lots of interesting options.

The Kitchen is, in fact, the prep facility for a chain of local eateries, and plenty of other customers showed up while we were there. We had the tacos, which included plantains, and the nachos. The tacos were good, especially the plantains, but the nachos were outstanding. Both were made with vegan chorizo sausage. The nachos had a base of blue corn chips with beans, tomatoes, salsa, and cashew cream. It was also a big serving. For dessert we each had a coconut date ball and a gobi berry chocolate brownie. Yum. The Kitchen was a bit pricey but most of the ingredients were organic and the food was fresh and very tasty so we felt it was good value for the money.

We left at 12:30 PM and I turned the wrong way leaving the parking lot. It turned out we were on US-27 headed north so we stayed with that choice. The GPS wanted to put us on the Interstate/Tollroads but we knew that eventually it would put us back on US-27. There was a lot of traffic and frequent traffic signals, but we eventually got clear of the developed urban area. Not too far out we stopped at a roadside park with an airboat operation and switched drivers. Linda told me later that I napped for about an hour but my experience of the situation was that I nodded off and woke up repeatedly because of neck discomfort.

We got back to our RV resort around 3:45 PM and stopped at the mail room on the way in where I retrieved a box of magazines from BCM. The 3 PM Mardi Gras parade had just ended but some of the decorated golf carts and masked participants were still hanging around the activity building. I made a mental note that the Mardi Gras dinner started at 7:30 PM and we returned to our rig.

We turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and got our local network online. I opened the box of magazines to see what was inside and e-mailed Gary to let him know what I received. Linda needed to attend to Mara’s cats, Maui and Sabra, and we both had several updates pending on our iPads and smartphones. We packed up the iPads and walked to the activity building where I set up our technology in the library while Linda went on to Mara’s Bounder to tend to her cats.

I got both iPads and both smartphones connected to the Internet via the resort Wi-Fi system, which can only be picked up at/near the activity building (which includes the office, lanai, library, dining room/kitchen, card room, and laundry room). The best reception is outside in front of the building, as the antenna is on the peak of the roof ridge at the front gable, but the reception in the lanai and library is very usable. There was one other person there using the Wi-Fi but she left shortly after I arrived.

The updates for our iPads took 500 MB and the smartphone updates took at least another 250 MB, so it was at least a 0.75 GB update session. Our 12 GB monthly Verizon data plan works out to about 0.4 GB per day, on average, so we are trying to do our updates using the park Wi-Fi and save our data plan for web searches, document/photo uploads/downloads, and other work we want and/or need to do from our motorcoach.

While I was updating our devices Linda got a text message from Mara and I was able to watch the latest OK Go video and play a few games. Kate sent me the link a week ago and I was waiting for a chance to use the resort Wi-Fi when there were few, if any, other users. I also downloaded the latest issue of The Gypsy Journal digital edition.

When I was done I packed up and walked over to Mara’s rig. Linda exchanged text messages with Mara. She and Michael are on the Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise for the first time. They had finished the opening session with Jessica Porter and Neal Barnhard, M.D. and enjoyed it very much. They had just sat down to dinner and we’re excited about that too. We enjoyed their enthusiasm and recalled what it was like for us the first time we went on this cruise. Linda packed up a few things to bring back to our coach. Mara made Broccoli salad last night and there was a lot left over that she wanted us to eat.

It cooled off quickly after the sun set and the overnight low was forecast to be 42 degrees F. We closed up the coach and then had some of Mara’s broccoli salad along with vegan Italian “sausage” for dinner. We finished the Barefoot Moscato wine, had a few grapes for dessert, and settled in to watch some TV programs on the local PBS channels before going to bed. We had spent 7 hours driving/riding in the car today and we were tired.

2016/02/28 (N) Cat Care

It was cool in the coach this morning and I stayed in bed, under the covers, with the electric heating pad on, until after 7:30 AM. The cats were persistent, however, and I finally got up and took care of their needs. I turned on the Aqua-Hot diesel burner and the zone control thermostats for the bathroom and the kitchen/living area and the electric toe-kick heater for the front of the bus. Linda got up at 8 AM as I was making coffee.

We had granola for breakfast, after which Linda packed up her laptop computer and gathered up papers related to work she needed to do. She took the car and drove to Mara’s motorhome to tend to the cats and then work there. She did not need to be online and figured the cats would appreciate the company, or at least get more accepting her presence and attention if she spent some quiet, extended time there. I stayed at our rig to catch up on draft blog posts and attend to our cats.

Last week I downloaded the free version of an app called “OfficeSuite (Free) Mobile + PDF” and have been using it to write the drafts of my recent blog posts. It works at least as well as the native iPad Notes app, better in my opinion (so far), and creates a native docx format Word document. It also works with various cloud services. Hypothetically that should save me the steps of e-mailing it to myself, selecting/copying the text from the e-mail, pasting it into a blank Word doc, and then cleaning up all of the junk caused by the Note app, which is considerable (numerous calendar hyperlinks). I say hypothetically because I have not yet set up or tested the cloud sync feature. That was on my “to do” list for today.

Around 11:30 AM it was getting warm in the coach under mostly sunny skies. I opened windows and roof vents and then put out all of the awnings. I continued working on my blog posts from the last four days and was finally ready to upload one of them via a cloud service. We have a Dropbox account but we also have OneDrive accounts as part of the Windows 10 OS on our notebook computers. I don’t normally use OneDrive but I thought this would be a good opportunity to try it.

I set up the credentials to allow the app to connect to the OneDrive account attached to my OS login. I then tried to move or copy the Word docx file for Wednesday’s blog post from “current files” to the OneDrive under Network locations but the OfficeSuites app would not give me the OneDrive account as an option. I checked the Help screens for information to assist me but could not find anything pertaining to this specific problem. The app has Pro and Premium upgrades available ($ and $$) but the feature chart indicated that interfacing to all five of the different cloud services was included in the Free version. Rather than waste time on this I called David Aungier to let him know there was an updated version of his featured bus article in a folder in my Dropbox and then kept working on draft blog posts.

At 1 PM I was getting ready to walk over to Mara’s rig to get the shower supplies from Linda when she returned in the car. We have been able to avoid removing the cats’ litter box from our shower by using the showers at the building by the swimming pool. That also keeps the shower water out of our grey water tank, allowing us to go more days between dumps. I got my towel and the soap from Linda and walked over to the shower house.

When I got back from my shower I trimmed my beard and shaved. It had probably been at least a month since my last beard trim and I was starting to look a bit scruffy. All cleaned up and feeling refreshed I dealt with a couple of e-mails and then returned to the issue of getting the OfficeSuites app to sync with one of my cloud services. It appeared that Dropbox might be the best choice so I established the connection to that account. Voilà! I was finally able to copy a local Word file to the folder I had previously set up in my Dropbox for blog post documents.

I proceeded to finish each post in turn and copied it to the Dropbox folder which immediately uploaded it to the cloud server. I checked my ASUS notebook computer to make sure the document had made it to the local hard drive. It had, which meant I could move it to where I keep the draft posts and start editing it directly. This was a big deal for me as I expect it to streamline the blogging process.

As I was working on all of this I realized that I had told Gary at BCM that I would review and comment on an article he had received from Lloyd DeGerald and would try to get it back to him by Sunday evening. Lloyd is a highly experienced, factory-trained, Webasto / Aqua-Hot service and repair technician and has worked on our Aqua-Hot in the past. His article was basically a terse service procedure consisting of a numbered list of steps. There were some things that I was not clear about so I added comments and highlighted them in yellow. I got the document e-mailed back to Gary, with answers to several questions he had asked, just as Linda was putting dinner on the table.

Dinner was an improvised dish of red beans and rice with onions, garlic, tomatoes, turmeric, and kale. I added a little extra Tabasco hot sauce to mine and it was a very good dish. After dinner Linda did the dishes and then we walked over to Mara’s motorhome, by way of the garbage trailer, to tend to the evening cat and rig chores. Maui stayed out long enough to get up on the hassock and show some interest in me. I let her smell my hand but when I tried to pet her head she swatted at me. Too much, too soon. She played with a cat toy that Linda shook around, ate her dinner, and disappeared into the bedroom. Sabra stayed out the whole time we were there, ate her dinner, and chased feathers that Linda moved around.

We walked back to our rig before 8 PM and watched a special about the Manners of Downton Abby on PBS. The overnight low was forecast at 54 degrees F so we closed the roof vents but did not close the coach windows all the way before turning in for the night.

2016/02/29 (M) Bonus Day

Last night was the Academy Awards but we did not watch the show. We had not seen any of the films and were more interested in a pair of specials on the Manners of Downton Abby about the role of the show’s historical consultant whose job it has been to make sure all of the actors were as authentic as possible in their speech and mannerisms.

We got up this morning between 7:30 and 8 AM, which seems to have become our norm of late unless we have an outing planned that requires an early departure. We had our usual coffee followed by granola with blueberries for breakfast. We doodled on our iPads for a bit and I finished my blog post for yesterday and uploaded it to our Dropbox. Linda noted that today was February 29th. In a month that is usually two to three days shorter than all the others it was like having a bonus day. I also enjoy the relative rarity of the event.

At 9:30 AM Linda packed up her computer and papers and walked over to Mara’s motorhome to tend to the cats. She planned to stay and work a while and was expecting a call from Dave at the bakery around 10 AM. I finished my coffee, got dressed, and settled in to work at my computer.

When Linda returned we walked to Walmart for a few grocery items before it got too warm outside. When we got back and had the groceries put away, we reconfigured the back of the car. After Mara’s arrival, but prior Michael’s arrival, we had reconfigured the back of the car. We had removed one of the rear seats and put the other rear seat down so Mara could go places with us. Most of the stuff went back in the car but in order to store the removed seat in the front bay of the bus and make room for some of the stuff from the car we had moved the air compressor and two of the four chassis stands to the passenger side engine bay.

Just prior to Michael’s arrival we reconfigured the back of the car again as we now needed four seats. To keep our stuff out of sight and protect it from the weather we bought a small tent, set it up behind the bus, and put everything in it.

When Mara and Michael return from the Holistic Holiday at Sea Cruise on Saturday Michael is going to rent a car to and get them back to Arcadia from Miami. He will be sticking around for another four weeks and they will need a car for most of that time as we are leaving Big Tree Carefree RV Resort a week from today. So today we put both rear seats back up, emptied out the storage tent, reloaded the car, and repacked the front bay of the bus.

As long as we were working outside I stripped out the bad silicone caulk between the new passenger side lower windshield and the gasket. I found a different product in one of our parts and supplies tubs and got it out. I did not apply it, however, as I wanted to let the rubber gasket relax and hopefully reform to the glass. In retrospect, it is painfully obvious that the Safelite installers did not know what they were doing.

It was a sunny day and by early afternoon the air temperature was 80 degrees F, so we put on our swimming suits and walked over to the pool. We stopped at the office to retrieve our package of Nutpods non-dairy coffee creamer and put it in the mail room until later. After a nice soak and vitamin D treatment we showered, changed into dry clothes, and walked back to the mail room to retrieve our Nutpods package and other mail. Being the last day of the month our electric bill was there along with an invitation to the Michigan reunion lunch scheduled for July 14 in Concord, Michigan. The Resort does have a strong sense of community, and people take that back to their home states/provinces when the leave.

I had a text message from Kerry Fear requesting payment for snowplowing services for February. Linda wrote a check and got it ready to mail.

For dinner Linda made stuffed poblano peppers and pan-grilled them. (We do not travel with an outdoor grill, either propane or charcoal.) The stuffing was rice, black beans, tomatoes, scallions, vegan sour cream, cumin seeds, and Daiya vegan cheddar cheese. So good. We had some Barefoot Riesling wine after dinner and fresh mixed fruit salad (bananas, strawberries, and blueberries) for dessert. I really like the way we eat.

After dinner we watched our usual PBS news programs followed by our usual CBS entertainment shows. I stayed up to watch Charlie Rose’s interview with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, Inc. I was getting ready for bed and turned on the fresh water pump. It normally runs briefly to build up pressure and then shuts off. This time it just kept running. That meant one of two things: either there was an opening in the system (faucet or leak), or the demand pressure sensor was not working. I shut it off, put my sweats and Crocs back on, grabbed a flashlight, and went outside to investigate.

It was almost midnight but there was plenty of light from the resort street lamps. I checked both sides of the utility bay and did not see any sign of a leak other than the small drip from the fill valve packing nut. I turned on the shore water supply and opened the valves to allow it to flow through the softener to the coach. Once the lines and softener were filled and pressurized I did not hear any further water flow, so I was somewhat confident that we did not have a leak in the system. I left the outside water turned on so we could flush the toilet and run water to wash our hands.

Back inside I wrote a sticky note not to turn on the water pump and stuck it on the toilet seat. Linda woke up right after I finally got to bed so I was able to tell her in person, but the note was still a good reminder. I watched Tavis Smiley’s interview with Tom Waters of Pink Floyd and then went to sleep. February 2016 had been a very busy, but very satisfying month for us.

2016/02/22-24 (M–W) 1 SP, 2 S-A-H

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2016/02/22 (M) Myakka River State Park

Our destination today was Myakka River State Park (MRSP). We agreed yesterday to pick up Mara and Michael at 10 AM. That allowed us to sleep until 8 AM, have coffee and breakfast at our rig, and take showers before leaving for the day.

MRSP is only 25 miles from Arcadia so we did not stop for fuel or coffee. We stopped at the visitor center near the main entrance to study the maps and displays before heading deeper into the park. As on previous visits, our first stop was the bridge over the stretch of the Myakka River that runs south from Upper Myakka Lake to Lower Myakka Lake. We hiked south along the east edge of the river for quite some distance. Unlike previous visits we did not see the quantity or diversity of wildlife that we expected. Absent from our visit today were Wood Storks and Roseate Spoonbills. We saw alligators, but only one somewhat up close.

We stopped at the Forest Canopy towers and suspension bridge which is one of the special treats of this park. After that stop we drove to the vendor area on the southeast shore of the Upper Lake to have our picnic lunch. The parking lot was full but our timing was lucky and we waited as someone backed out and then took that spot. This area has a boat launch, restaurant, pontoon boat tour, wheeled vehicle train, gift shop, and restrooms. After lunch we walked out to the weir across the outflow of the Upper Lake, which maintains it at a slightly higher level. We saw a few more alligators and birds there.

We drove to the end of the road at the north gate and checked out the other picnic area that someone at lunch told us was there. On the way back we stopped at the Birdwalk, a boardwalk that goes out through a marsh to a point near the eastern edge of the Upper Lake. We saw a few more alligators from a distance and got a close up view of a couple of birds.

By the time we were done at the Birdwalk it was approaching 4 PM. We drove slowly back to the Visitor Center to use the restrooms and then exited the park and headed back to Arcadia. On the way back Linda and Mara decided that, in spite of a nice weather forecast, we would stick around the RV Resort tomorrow and have dinner together. Not only will that give them time to plan/prepare the meal, it will give us time to do laundry and relax at the swimming pool. It will also allow me to finish proofreading and correcting articles for BCM. The forecast for Wednesday has an 80% chance of rain so that was already planned as a stay-at-home day. My hope is that I will be able to upload the rest of my blog posts for October 2015. I do not like being this far behind.

For dinner Linda made a dish with vegan Italian sausage on a bed of angel hair pasta with onion, garlic, and broccoli sautéed in EVOO. Yum, yum. After dinner I off-loaded the photos I took today. We then watched the Nightly Business Report and NewsHour on PBS followed by the X-Files and Lucifer on FOX, NCIS Los Angeles on CBS, a few minutes of news and weather, and then Charlie Rose’s interview with Bill Gates on PBS.

So many shades of green. A view to the south from the observation platform atop the north tower of the Forest Canopy Skywalk. Myakka River SP, FL.

2016/02/23 (T) Green Taco Wraps

It rained briefly last evening and more rain was forecast starting later this afternoon and extending through-tomorrow. Today and-tomorrow were planned as stay-at-home (S-A-H) days so we got up just before 8-AM and had coffee, juice, and granola with bananas. My plan was to take care of our fresh- and waste-water tanks and do the laundry before settling in to work on computer-based tasks. Linda received a package yesterday of year-end accounting documents from the bakery and planned to work on those today.

The skies had clouded up late yesterday and gotten darker and thicker by sunset. We had dark clouds to our west this morning and had just finished breakfast (granola, bananas, fruit juice) when it started to rain lightly. I had no sooner closed the bathroom vent/fan when the rain came down hard. I closed down the awning style windows until they were only open about an inch at the bottom. We planned to roll up the patio awning before the rain came today but now had to wait for it to dry off, assuming the rains let up and the sun came out for a while.

We dropped below 1/3rd tank of fresh water yesterday. When the rain stopped I went out to check the level visually. It was barely below the 1/3rd sensor so I decided to forego dumping and filling for a couple of more days. I might even run off the city water for a day or so to push the whole dump/fill/recharge routine off until the weekend.

I moved my laptop computer to the dining table so Linda could on work at hers on the desk. The accounting work she had to do for the bakery required space to spread out the paperwork she got from Dave (the controller) yesterday. I decided to just keep editing blog posts from November 2015 in preparation for eventually uploading them.

At 12:45 PM I started sorting the soiled clothes and linens. Linda quite working on the accounting and made sandwiches for our lunch. She made a grocery list and then walked to the supermarket. At 1:30 I loaded the laundry and my iPad into the car and drove over to the laundry room. By 1:45 I had four washing machines in operation.

I connected my iPad to the Resort’s public Wi-Fi signal at the activity building and connected through to the Internet, which always takes some doing. The problem is that the various browsers load cached versions of the tabs that are open and I have to go to a new webpage in other to trigger the filter and connect to the Internet. Until I have done that successfully I cannot check e-mail or update apps.

By 2:25 I had transferred all of the wash to three dryers and started them. I had six apps with updates available totaling just over 400 MB (0.4 GB) and initiated those. On our 12 GB Verizon data plan that is more than a whole day’s average data usage for a typical month (0.4 x 30 = 12.0). I also noticed that I had two new updates for apps on my phone but when I looked more carefully I discovered that I had 22 app updates pending. I had been deferring them until I could use the resort (or other) free Wi-Fi. When the last iPad app update downloaded and installed I connected my phone to the Resort Wi-Fi and initiated the app updates.

I worked on the draft of today’s blog post and played a few games until the laundry was dry and then folded it and put it in the car. It was 4 PM at that point and only 10 of the 22 apps had updated, so I pulled the car around in front of the activity building with a clear, short path to the antenna on the roof. I had a much stronger signal in that location and the updates progressed much more quickly. 23 apps were updated and the process finished at 4:18 PM. I noticed that my phone had somehow gotten set to show Homestead, Florida as my “home” location so I enabled Location Services, changed it to Arcadia, Florida, and then disabled Location Services. I checked to see if we had any snail mail and then drove back to our coach and put the clean laundry away.

When I got back to our coach Linda was cooking her part of this evening’s meal. We would be dining with Mara and Michael at Mara’s rig having “green taco wraps.” Linda made a crumbled meat substitute from brown lentils, walnuts, sautéed onions, and peppers. She also supplied the tortillas, lettuce, and vegan sour cream. Mara made salsa and avocado cream and a side salad with cauliflower, tomatoes, and lemon juice. We brought a bottle of Chardonnay and Mara had a bottle of Spanish Rioja, a very dry red wine.

We walked over with our contributions just before 6 PM and were greeted by Michael. Mara had walked to Walmart for some tomatoes and other last minute items and returned not long after we arrived. Good wine, good food, and good friends made for a great meal. We were still there at 8 PM and it turned out that we like to watch the same TV programs, so we all watched NCIS. Linda and I walked back to our coach when the show ended and watched NCISNOLA and Limitless before going to bed. I watched most of Charlie Rose before falling asleep.

An Egret tries to swallow a fish that it caught near the Myakka River. Myakka River SP, FL.

2016/02/24 (W) Another Tornado Warning

Today was planned as a stay-at-home day. The forecast was for wind and rain with a marginal risk of severe weather. I was up a little before 7:30 AM and thought about going to the Wednesday coffee “social” but decided against it. I began preparing our morning coffee but waited until Linda was awake to grind the beans and finish the process. Linda got our Verizon Mi-Fi and Wi-Fi Ranger online and checked the current weather, which we compared to what was being reported on the local TV news. Wind and rain were expected in our part of southwest Florida by 10 AM and the Wundermap app radar showed a large storm front drooped from southwest to northeast in advance of a cold front and moving our way.

I finished my first cup of coffee and then went outside and put up the two window awnings on the driver side of our coach. While I was out there I drained the auxiliary air filter / water separator and stored the two folding bag chairs in the front bay.

We had granola and blueberries for breakfast and it started raining while we finished our coffee. We both had computer-based work to do today but Linda needed to update some things first. The rain stopped, at least temporarily, so we packed up our mobile technology and drove over to the activity building to use the RV resort’s public Wi-Fi system.

We set up our tech toys in the library and connected them to the resort’s public Wi-Fi system; two laptop computers, two iPads, and two smartphones. I had three app updates on my phone and Linda had 14. She had eight app updates on her iPad and I had one OS-related update on my computer. Linda downloaded a new audio book. I downloaded/installed the OfficeSuites Free – Mobile + PDF app on my iPad and the 2016 U. S. RVers Edition (PDF) of The Mobile Internet Handbook by Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard from the Mobile Internet Aficionados membership website. We also checked our e-mail while we were there. Between our six devices we greatly exceeded our average daily data allocation of 0.4 GB that our 10+2 GB Verizon data plan provides. Our normal 10 GB plan averages out to about 0.3 GB per day, and it is not sufficient for our needs when traveling in the motorcoach.

As we were packing up at 1:30 PM to return to our coach the skies opened up and heavy rains poured forth. Moments later both of our phones notified us that a tornado warning was in effect for our location until 2 PM. Our car was parked near the front door of the activity building so we decided not to wait for a lull in the rain. It was raining even harder by the time we got back to our coach but we had our technology in ballistic nylon travel bags and got them inside without getting them wet.

Linda set up her computer on the desk and I set up mine on the dining room table. We did not need to be online so we left the Verizon Mi-Fi turned off. Linda worked on accounting for the bakery while I proofread and annotated corrections for two BCM articles. When she was done for today I moved my computer to the desk, plugged in the power supply, and spent some time reading and responding to e-mails.

By 3 PM the severe weather threat had passed but densely overcast skies continued with occasional lighter rain. All of this was, once again, in advance of a cold front that will bring high temperatures only in the upper 60’s for the next four to five days.

For dinner Linda improvised a sauté of onion, garlic, kale, and turmeric with boiled red potatoes. It was a hardy dish; perfect for a cool, dreary evening. We watched a PBS Nature episode on Emperor Penguins, a Nova episode on rescue robots, and another program on Big Data. We then went to bed as we had to be up early in the morning.

2016/02/16–20 (T–S) Friends, Food, and Good Times

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[ Note: There are no photos as part of this post. ]

2016/03/16 (T) Girls Day Out

Mara needed to get to a medical appointment in the Miami area today and stop at the veterinary clinic where Maui was being treated a few weeks ago. We were going to let her borrow our car but Linda offered to accompany her on the rather long round trip and Mara gladly accepted. She was not going to ask us to go along and thereby possibly inconvenience us, but she was glad to not have to make the trip by herself. They worked out the arrangements yesterday and Linda was up, dressed, and gone this morning before I got up at 7:45 AM.

I made a smaller pot of coffee, had a glass of orange juice to wash down my vitamins, and had toast with apricot preserves for breakfast. I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and e-mailed the postcard photo to Linda’s Gmail account and responded to an e-mail from Butch. I also had a couple of e-mails back from Scott Neader at QTH.com in response to my support requests yesterday for the SLAARC account and WordPress website. I then turned off the Mi-Fi.

Having to manage a limited data plan is a pain but the overage charges are worse. The upside is that it allows (forces) me to do something else. In this instance, I worked the rest of the morning on my iPad catching up on blog posts. Linda texted me relative to the timing of their travels and asked me to send the postcard photo. I already had, but it had obviously not gotten to her yet. She expected to be back around 6 PM and we agreed to go out to dinner once she returned.

I had some hummus, sourdough pretzel nibblers, and grapes around 1:30 PM and then settled in to edit blog posts from the end of October and started working on the ones for November. Linda texted me around 2 PM to let me know they were leaving and would be home around 5 PM. I turned the Mi-Fi on and checked e-mail. Mara had sent me a photo of Linda sitting in front of a very tasty looking plate of food but did not mention what restaurant they were at.

I continued editing blog posts and got a couple days into November (2015) by 4 PM. I quit working and walked over to the swimming pool to use the showers. There are only two stalls and they were both occupied so I had to wait. Even so, I was done, back at the coach, and changed into nicer dinner clothes before Linda arrived. We waited until 5:30 PM to drive to the Magnolia Street Seafood and Grill restaurant in downtown Arcadia.

We arrived at the restaurant early enough to get a good parking place and not have to wait for a table but late enough to be hungry. We both had a large salad, minus the blue cheese crumbles, and shared a basket of French fries. On the way back to our coach we stopped at the mail room and Linda connected her iPad to the resort Wi-Fi system to download e-mail. The e-mail I sent her at 9 this morning had still not arrived.

We were back at our coach by 7 PM and turned on the PBS NewsHour. I sent the post card photo again and it still did not arrive in her inbox. We knew that both e-mails were sent because I cc:d one of our other accounts and received them there. Linda finally checked her Junk folder and found it; twice. She then created a post card for Madeline using the PostCardApp on her iPad.

We watched our usual Tuesday evening CBS TV programs while working puzzles on our iPads. Linda had a long day of driving and riding in the car and was tired. With overnight lows forecast for the mid-50s and no rain (but some early morning fog) we left the windows and bathroom roof vent open. We watched Limitless in bed, caught a little local news and weather, and then went to sleep.

2016/02/17 (W) FMCA NEC Meeting

We did not get up until 8 AM this morning so, once again, we did not go to the weekly coffee/donut meeting at the activity building; not that we usually go anyway. I made coffee and we wiled away the morning playing games and solving puzzles on our iPads. I turned on the Verizon Mi-Fi long enough to check e-mail and send a few replies. We eventually had toast and preserves for breakfast.

Bill and Brenda Phelan’s availability did not coincide with ours so I e-mailed her our shipping address here at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort and then called her with our credit card number. I also arranged for us to meet Ed and Janet Roelle tomorrow afternoon at their winter home in Sarasota and then go to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner.

The weather pattern for the next week was forecast to be dry and sunny with overnight lows in the mid-to-upper 50s and highs in the mid-to-upper 70s F. That’s what I’m talking about! and that is why snowbirds come here in the winter.

Linda went for a morning walk and dropped off the trash. She returned in time for lunch and made vegan grilled cheese sandwiches. We also had some orange juice to wash down our vitamins, which we had not taken at breakfast.

Linda made arrangements to meet Mara at the pool today at 1 PM and then spend time with her afterwards showing her how to set up and use Quicken for her personal financial records. I spent the first half of the afternoon editing blog posts from early November (2015). Just before 3:30 PM I dialed in to the meeting of the FMCA National Education Committee. I was still engaged in that when Linda returned around 4:15 PM. My meeting wrapped up around 4:45 after which Linda and I went for a walk.

We stopped by the activity building where Mara was in the library trying to get her computer online via the resort Wi-Fi and we were able to get her connected. Linda and Mara had agreed to meet at 5:30 PM for a power walk but it was already 5:25 so they pushed the time out to 5:45 and we finished our stroll.

Dinner was an improvisation based on ingredients Linda had on hand. Basically it was a sauté of onions, garlic, mushrooms, bell pepper, and kale, salt, pepper, thyme, and oregano in EVOO and finished with some Egri Merlot. Dessert was fresh strawberries and blueberries. We drank the rest of the bottle of wine before/during/after dinner. Yummy.

Wednesday evening is PBS nature/science night, after which we were quickly to sleep.

2016/02/18 (R) Ed, Janet, & Nathan

We left the coach windows open last night and slept well until around 5:30 AM. By then it was cool enough to need the extra blanket and the cats were fully awake and engaged in their usual morning routine dividing their attention between the sights, sounds, and smells of the outside world and their persistent attempts to get us out of bed to feed them. Our neighbors were also up early to take Ron’s mom to the airport for her flight back to Portage, Indiana. Since the head of our bed is on their side of our coach we were aware of their departure conversation and preparations. Even so, Linda was asleep last night before 11 PM and I was asleep by 11:15 so we got plenty of sleep.

I made our morning coffee while Linda turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and got us connected. We had used 11.2 GB of our 12.0 GB data plan with two days to go in our billing cycle. We will get through the end of the cycle tomorrow at midnight without any overage charges, but the monitoring/management of our data usage for the last couple of weeks has been an unwelcome limitation and nuisance. In particular I have been editing blog posts but not uploading them, which I very much need to do.

I did check my e-mail and respond to ones from Brenda Phelan and Ed Roelle. We are going to Ed and Janet’s winter home in Sarasota this afternoon. It turns out they are just down the road from our friends, Ed and Betty Burns. Brenda had e-mailed us the UPS tracking number for our tire cover shipment. She indicated that they could make/install our windshield covers the morning of March 8th at Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort in Webster and we accepted the appointment.

I had an automated e-mail indicating that one of the websites I manage had been updated to WordPress version 4.4.2. That meant all four websites had been updated and probably had plug-in updates available that needed to be processed. As long as we were online I logged in to each site and initiated the updates. The actual update process occurs between the web server and the WordPress server, so the only data usage for me is sending the update request and receiving back the status messages.

We eventually had our standard breakfast of granola with fresh blueberries and orange/grapefruit juice to wash down our vitamins. I have been having problems with my coffee “creamer.” I know this is not a really big problem in the context of larger world events, but it is a problem nonetheless that is impacting my quality of life. The problem is that my soy creamer has been curdling, and that just does not make for good eats. To make matters worse, it does not happen all the time nor does it happen in a consistent way, at least not that I have been able to figure out.

For my first cup of the day I always add the creamer to the cup first and then swirl in the coffee as I pour. This almost always results in the creamer blending smoothly with the coffee; almost, but not always. Adding more coffee to the cup before it is empty, however, often produces the curdling; often, but not always. Sometimes I can get the creamer to re-blend by adding a little more; sometimes, but not always.

Linda did some quick online research and found information suggesting that I am not the only person suffering this situation and that it might be related to some combination of acidity, temperature (of the creamer and coffee), and procedure. We have two different coffee blends that I alternate between. The one I made this morning, Ethiopian Yirgacheffe half-caffe, is the one that is generally less inclined to curdle and is a slightly “smoother” single bean coffee compared to the Sweet Seattle Dreams half-caffe blend. She suggested I try a different creamer that is not soy-based. I will probably do that, but I have used other creamers in the past and they had a more distinct taste that I did not care for (in my coffee), such as almond or coconut.

We finally got dressed around 10 AM. Linda bundled up the daily bag of kitchen trash and took it with her on her morning walk. I had six iPad apps with updates available so I walked over to the activity building and downloaded/installed them. That took quite a while, but I got to sit outside on the dock in clear view of the Wi-Fi antenna and soak up some rays before returning to our coach.

When Linda returned from her walk we gathered up the plastic recyclables, added them to the ones already in the car, and drove to the Turner Agri-Civic Center to drop them off. As long as we were out, and in that part of town, we drove west on E. Gibson Street to check out the Shell Station on northbound US-17. As Jack Conrad had told us the station has one diesel pump, with a large nozzle, positioned so that a large vehicle can get into position to use it without pulling under the canopy. We will need fuel for the bus when we leave here on March 7 and this is where we will get it. We will then hook up the car here before heading north on US-17.

We stopped at Walmart on our way back to the RV resort to buy a tarp and a few grocery items. We ended up buying a small, inexpensive tent instead of a tarp. The tent has a floor and will provide a rainproof enclosure where we can store all of the stuff that is currently in the car. That will allow us to lower the 4th seat and have room for luggage and other stuff.

Since we would be having dinner earlier than usual today we had a light lunch of hummus, pretzels, and grapes. It was a beautiful day so Linda went outside to read while I worked at my computer editing blog ousts from mid-November (2016).

We picked Mara up at 2:15 PM and headed for Sarasota. The route to Ed and Janet’s place was familiar as it was the same route we take to get to Ed and Betty’s place; FL-70 west past I-75 to Lockwood Ridge Road and then south (which is the only direction Lockwood Ridge goes from there). Ed and Betty live just south of FL-70 while Ed and Janet are about five miles on down the road. We arrived right on time at 3:30 PM.

Ed and Janet bought a house that needed a lot of work but is located on an acre of Iand in a very nice subdivision. They are repairing and remodeling it extensively, both inside and outside, and we got the grand tour. I love seeing projects that are in-process as they are so full of possibilities. Ed and Janet are both very handy, have done this kind of work before, and enjoy it, so the work is both an investment in their future and a labor of love. Janet is also very artistic, so the design and choice of materials and color pallet will be very nice.

At 4:15 PM they got Nathan up and into his wheelchair, out to their car, and strapped in. Nathan is the last of 11 children that Ed and Janet have adopted over the years, all with serious disabilities, in addition to rearing three boys of their own. Their Prevost XL Royale Coach bus conversion is specially modified to accommodate Nathan’s wheelchair and bed and he goes where they go. Although I had seen the modifications to their bus at GLCC rallies we had somehow never met Nathan. He is a sweet young man who was severely brain damaged at birth so he does not really interact with strangers in a meaningful way, but he is clearly responsive to Ed and Janet’s presence and care. They adopted him when he was 3 months old and he is now 14 years of age.

At 4:30 PM we drove to Sweet Tomatoes restaurant for dinner. Sweet Tomatoes is a chain, but we do not have one anywhere near our house back in Michigan. Janet also follows a mostly vegan diet and they selected this restaurant because of its convenient location, excellent salad bar, and ability to accommodate Nathan in his wheelchair. It’s a buffet style (all you can eat) restaurant and the price for seniors, including beverages, was only $8. We were able to stick to vegan choices and still eat too much. We had never really spent any time with Janet prior to today and had a long, wonderful visit. It was after 6:30 PM by the time we left the restaurant.

We headed east on University Boulevard a short distance to one of the countless mega shopping complexes that stretch from St. Petersburg to Naples and found a Petco. Mara needed some special cat food and the Petco had it so she stocked up. We then headed back to Arcadia by way of I-75 north and FL-70 east, stopping at the Publix supermarket in Lakewood Ranch to do some more grocery shopping. We finally arrived back at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort just before 9 PM.

When we opened the door to our coach Juniper was waiting for us on the entry steps. Instead of turning around and moving back into the coach, like she has always done, she made a break for it and got out. Fortunately she did not run off and eventually crawled under the back of the bus on the driver side. Linda was able to coax her out far enough to get hold of her and return her to the bus but it took at least half an hour from the time she escaped to get her safely back inside and she gave us quite a scare. Having your black inside cat escape at night in a strange place is not something you want to have happen.

We missed most of our usual Thursday evening CBS comedy programs but settled in watch Elementary before going to bed.

2016/02/19 (W) Michael Arrives

We got up sometime between 7 and 8 AM. I made coffee and used the Silk brand Almond/Vanilla non-dairy coffee creamer we bought last night at the Publix supermarket in Lakewood Ranch. It did not separate (curdle), like the soy creamer has been doing, but I did not care for the way it tastes. Besides a strong, but very artificial, vanilla flavor I think it may contain sweetener, which I do not care for in my coffee.

I bought a couple of apricot filled bear claw pastry treats at Publix last night and had them for breakfast. They are not necessarily the healthiest treat, but they are vegan. After breakfast I finished up yesterday’s blog post while Linda dealt with some bakery related business. With our inside tasks finished we got dressed and went outside. I drove to the office to get our package with our tire and windshield covers and Linda started unpacking the small tent we bought yesterday at Walmart. Once we had the tent set up behind the motorhome we unloaded all of the stuff from the car and stored it in the tent.

The tent will keep our stuff dry and out of sight for the next week while we use the car to shuttle four people around. With the car emptied out we reinstalled the fourth seat, which has been in the front bay of the bus, and latched both rear seats in the up position. I removed the ham radio antenna from the roof and stored it in the front bay of the bus. We drove to the Turner Agri-Civic Center to drop off some recyclables and stopped at the self-serve car wash on the way back. We washed the outside of the car and then vacuumed out the inside, a task that was long overdue.

Before returning to our RV resort we stopped at the Shell station to top off the tank and then at Dunkin Donuts next door for some frozen coffee. Back at our coach we scrubbed the floor of the car, wiped out and dusted the interior, and cleaned all of the glass. We then returned the seats to their normal “full upright and locked” passenger position. It was nice to finally have the car clean on the inside.

With the car taken care of we brushed off the six tires on the bus that are exposed to direct sunlight and put the new tire covers on. They are very nice; a milk chocolate brown nylon mesh that is similar in color to the brown paint on the upper portion of our coach. They will block a lot of sunlight, reducing UV degradation of the rubber while parked, but will breath, preventing condensation. We also got four windshield wiper covers. I was able to put on the two for the bottom windshield wipers from the ground, or using the small step ladder, but the upper two will require the big ladder and I did feel like getting it out.

With our outside tasks completed I went back inside and updated our passwords program with some information for the SLAARC website. I e-mailed Scott at QTH with an additional support question and then settled in to edit blog posts from mid-late November (2016).

We knew today would be a long day that would extend late into the evening so Linda suggested that we take naps. I set the alarm on my iPad for 4:30 PM and finally laid down on the sofa around 3:30 PM. We were both up by 4:30 and got ready to leave. We picked Mara up at 4:45 and headed for Tampa International Airport to pick up Mara’s friend, Michael Crowley, who was flying in from Phoenix, Arizona by way of Houston, Texas.

Our GPS unit routed us west on FL-70 to I-75 where we went north as far as I-275. The GPS wanted us to stay on I-75 but we chose to take I-275 over Tampa Bay and through St. Petersburg. This stretch of I-275 is part of the Florida Tollroad system but our SunPass let us fly right through the toll plazas. The GPS took us off the Interstate highway before it should have and we had to find our way back on.

We eventually arrived at the airport and found our way to the cell phone parking lot. It was perhaps the nicest cell phone lot any of us had ever seen. It was spacious, with lots of parking spaces, had actual restrooms (not porta-potties), and had two large electronic display boards announcing all of the arriving flights. It was a bit like being at a drive-in movie theater, which all of us were old enough to remember.

About the time the board announced the arrival of Michael’s flight at 6:56 PM he called Mara to let her know they were on the ground and taxiing. He called again 15 minutes later to let us know he was ready to be picked up and a short time later we retrieved him from the arriving flights section of the Blue Terminal.

Linda had researched possible vegan-friendly places to eat near the airport and we collectively settled on an Indian restaurant named Curry Leaves. Linda had me put the address in the GPS and I tried to follow the directions while also watching the road signs but missed the last exit and had to make a short detour to get back to where we needed to be. In my own defense it was dark and the road systems leading in and out of major airports are the most complex ever built and, in my opinion, not always well designed. The road system for Tampa International was as bad as any I had ever encountered.

We found ourselves driving through a district of very upscale hotels and restaurants and finally found the one we were looking for right where the GPS said it should be. We were surprised to find that it was co-located in a building with a BP filling station but on entering the restaurant portion of the building it looked and smelled very nice. We also noticed that the staff was Indian and so were many of the patrons. That has generally been a good sign in our experience where ethnic dining is concerned.

We were seated in a corner booth and the waitstaff was charming and attentive. There was a bit of a language barrier but our waiter understood that Linda was trying to find out which dishes were vegan (no dairy, no meat) and pointed them out. We ordered Samosas and spring rolls as appetizers and two dishes to start for the main course. Mara and Michael had a frozen mango dessert while Linda and I had flour balls in honey sauce. The food was very good and the meal was wonderful in the company of our friends.

We were back in the car with the GPS set for home by about 8:30 PM. We took I-275 to I-4 east to I-275 south to FL-70 and headed east to Arcadia. We dropped Michael and Mara at her motorhome sometime after 10 PM. Back at our coach we stayed up for awhile and interacted with our kitties. We went to bed at 11 PM and turned on the TV to watch Charlie Rose on PBS. It had been a long day with the round trip to/from the airport being almost 200 miles.

2016/02/20 (S) Peace River Woodcarvers

Linda got up first today and I slept in until 8:20 AM. I had used up all but a few scoops of our current batch of coffee beans so I had to wipe out the storage containers, open new bags, and refill them. It was after 9 AM by the time I got the coffee brewed. I definitely do not like the Silk brand Almond/Vanilla coffee creamer but I have a large container of it, as that was all that Publix had, and I will finish it, because I do not like to throw things out that are usable.

Our Verizon billing cycle ended at midnight which meant our data plan had reset. Linda already had our Mi-Fi online and our local network connected. I reattached my computer to our network, updated my ES|ET Smart Security anti-virus software, and downloaded my e-mail. My Dropbox app also started syncing with the cloud server. It was dinging every time a notification popped up, which was bugging Linda, so I turned off the sound.

The tiny ants that have recently appeared in the kitchen had found their way into my last package of apricot-filled bear claw pastries (vegan). I got rid of them and ate the pastries for breakfast. Linda went for a walk but returned more quickly than usual. Mike (W8XH) from our SLAARC ham radio group had called and needed some information. I finished up yesterday’s blog post and e-mailed it to myself. I had an e-mail from Kate with links to YouTube videos of the group “OK Go.” I replied to that and bcc:d our iPads so we could watch them using the Wi-Fi at the resort office.

Linda vacuumed and mopped the floor in the rig. She does not do this very often as it scares the cats, but it has to be done occasionally. It scares the cats at the house, too, but they have a much larger space in which to escape the dreaded mop menace and find a safe place to hide. Juniper hunkered down on the bottom step of the entry, no doubt with thoughts of escape on her mind, while Jasper headed to the bedroom and tried to find a corner to hide in. Both cats like to get in the rear closet so I opened one of the doors and Jasper accepted the invitation.

I logged in to my computer and tried to check for updates but the Windows 10 Updates & Security function was completely non-functional. I fussed with it a bit but to no avail, and decided to deal with it later as everything else appeared to be working. I have had more issues with the Windows 10 upgrade on my ASUS laptop computer than Linda has had on her Samsung computer, but we have no idea why.

Today was the Peace River Woodcarvers show at the Turner Agri-Civic Center. We picked up Mara and Michael at 12:15 PM and drove over. Like the woodcarvers expo we attended in Punta Gorda early last month it was a mix of woodworkers and vendors. The vendors did not interest us as we are not involved in woodcarving or woodburning. Some of the work on display, however, was outstanding.

Our two favorite pieces were on the same table but the artist was not around. One was a knarly, twisted piece of wood that rose up vertically and became a beautifully carved head of a Great Blue Heron. The other piece was a Little Blue Heron carving that was so exquisitely done it looked real. We would have been glad to have either or both in our house, but they did not have price tags and the carver was not around to ask. There were undoubtedly going to be very expensive anyway which would have precluded us buying them.

As we were leaving the show a man was carving a bear out of a large tree trunk using chain saws. We watched him for a while and then left. We stopped at Winn-Dixie for a few grocery items and then drove to Joshua Citrus Company for some oranges, tangelos, and grapefruit. When we got back to the RV Resort we gave Michael a driving tour to orient him to the place and then dropped him and Mara at her motorhome.

I returned to the problem of the non-functional Windows 10 Updates & Security components on my laptop computer. I found a troubleshooter specifically for this problem and ran it. It said it found and repaired problems so I tried checking for Windows Updates but it still did not work. The more I fussed with it the more things seemed to quit working. I restarted it and things got even worse to the point where I could not even shut it down and had to power it off. I then powered it back on and was letting it do its thing when Butch called. We had not talked in a while so I left the computer for later and talked to him. Sometimes it’s better to just step away from a problem, so this was a welcome diversion.

He and Fonda have had a wonderful winter in Quartzsite, Arizona. Besides the rock club (Quartzsite Gem and Mineral Club) they discovered that there is a very active group of amateur radio operators who spend extended winters in Q and the surrounding area. The local hams are involved in a county wide “ham radio for kids” project. Other than Parker, Quartzsite, and Yuma, the population here is sparse and widely spaced. Homes do not have landline telephones and cell service can be spotty depending on where you are relative to the cell towers, which tend to be on top of mountains. The local hams are teaching technician license classes to school age children so they can get their FCC ARO Technician licenses. They are also supply radios that the kids can use to contact their friends and help each other with homework.

Butch and Fonda had also had a job interview for positions as BLM LTVA hosts. Butch said that work on their new house was coming along in their absence, at least that’s what the contractor was telling him. He had to finish rebuilding a Crosley engine when they get home and still had work to do on the interior of their bus. Etc. We may stop at their house on the way home to have Butch look at our house air conditioners, especially the center one, which was not cooling well last month when we used it.

Once we wrapped up our conversation at 5:15 PM I logged in to my computer. It seemed to start up correctly and I opened Outlook 2013 to check my e-mail. It opened correctly and downloaded my e-mails so I closed it. Mara and Bill were due at our coach at 5:30 PM so I did not have the time to check anything else.

Linda was just finishing the main dinner dish, Farro with almonds and dried cranberries, when Bill and Mara arrived. Mara made a kale salad with a soy sauce based dressing and a variety of interesting spices. I put the plastic table cloth on the picnic table and we set the table for dinner. We opened a bottle of the 2013 Egri Merlot and had a wonderful early evening dinner accompanied by a beautiful sunset in the company of good friends.

After dinner we cleared the table and took everything back inside. Mara brought the seminar schedule from the upcoming Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise and went over it with Linda. We finalized plans for visiting Punta Gorda tomorrow and visited until 9 PM when Bill and Mara took their leave and walked back to her rig. After they left Linda put on a 2-part Masterpiece Mystery program and we watched that and then went to bed.

2016/02/12-15 (F–M) Everglades Update

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2016/02/12 (F) Full Circle

We got up, showered, got dressed, and went down to breakfast around 8 AM. We were packed, checked out, and had the car loaded by 9 AM. We headed north on the Ronald Reagan Turnpike, exited at some miles later, and headed west. FL-94 ended at FL-997 where we headed north. In looking at a map later, we would probably have been better off to get on FL-997 right from the hotel. There was major road construction on FL-997 all the way to US-41, but traffic moved along at the 50 MPH posted speed limit.

At US-41 we headed west. This is Miccosukee Indian territory, as indicated by the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming facility (Casino) at the NW corner of Fl-997 and US-41. A short way to the west this stretch of US-41 (the Tamiami Highway between Tampa and Miami) is bordered by Everglades National Park on the south and the Francis S. Taylor Wildlife Management Area on the north. It eventually leaves both of these and runs through the heart of the Big Cypress National Preserve.

We pulled in to the ENP entrance for the Shark Valley Visitor Center and immediately and got stuck in the line of cars waiting to get in. The parking lot had filled a few cars ahead of us and it was now a one car out, one car in situation.

Once we were in we checked out the tram ride to the Shark Valley Observatory Tower seven miles one way due south into the Everglades. It was a two (2) hour narrated round-trip and cost $24 per person ($19 for seniors). You can hike or bike out to the tower for free (after gaining admission to the NP). We did not have that much time so we walked part way down the road along an open channel of water about 15 feet wide and found lots of wildlife photo opportunities, including birds, a large turtle, and alligators. The most interesting thing we saw was a cluster of at least a dozen young alligators, ranging from one to two feet in length, piled up on top of one another.

A little farther west we left US-41 and drove a small 2-lane road for 38 miles. The first half was paved and the second half was good gravel. It was a lovely, slow drive with a maximum speed limit of 30 MPH and a few nature photo opportunities along the way.

A Black Vulture near the Shark Valley Visitor Center, Everglades NP, FL.

After rejoining US-41 we continued west through the Big Cypress National Preserve as far as FL-29 with Everglades NP once again on our left. We then headed south through Everglades City and re-entered the park. The Gulf Coast Visitor Center was very small and did not have the ENP shirts we had seen at the Flamingo Visitor Center and were now hoping to buy. The vendor operated gift store did not have them either. The only things you can do from this point in the park are explore the NW coastal portions by canoe, kayak, or pontoon boat. We did not have time for any of that on this quick visit so we pulled up the address for our RV park in the GPS unit and pushed on.

We had a better look at Everglades City on the way out of town and decided that it was an interesting looking little place. A traveling carnival of some considerable size was setting up in the middle of town, literally.

Back at US-41 we continued west as we were still somewhat east of the north-south line through Arcadia. The only other route home from here would take us north on FL-29 and then back east on I-75 and eventually back through LaBelle and up the west side of Lake Okeechobee. That would be a much longer trip and it was already starting to feel like it had been a long day.

We left US-41 at Collier Blvd. and traveled north about seven miles to I-75 north. Traffic was heavy, congested, and stop-n-go initially but eventually freed up. We traveled about 39 miles to exit 141 at Ft. Myers and headed east a few miles to FL-31. Our final 38 miles were straight north to Arcadia where FL-31 ends at FL-70 just west of our RV resort.

From the Shell station in Arcadia on Tuesday morning to our coach at 5:45 PM today we put 919.4 miles on the car’s trip odometer. The speedometer on the car reads slightly high, probably because the tires are not factory original specifications, so our actual mileage may have been slightly less by about one mile for every 60 miles traveled. That would be approximately 15 miles for our trip, making the actual mileage perhaps 905 for the four days, for an average of 225 to 230 miles per day. That’s a lot of driving, but the purpose of our trip was to get a first glimpse at a lot of south Florida that we had not seen before.

We brought a few things in from the car, spent some time with our cats, and then visited with Ron and Vera (who did not even realize we were gone), before walking over to Mara’ rig for dinner. Mara made a pot of vegan chili and a wonderful salad which we enjoyed with a glass of her favorite Malbec. We talked about our trip, how the kitties did in our absence, and discussed the logistics of Michael’s upcoming visit. We returned to our coach around 9:15 PM, finished unloading the car, unpacked a few things, adored our cats, and relaxed with our iPads for an hour before going to bed.

2016/02/13 (S) Yard Sale

I was up at 7:30 AM, partially prepped the coffee, and then unpacked clothes and hung them up or put them in the laundry hamper. Linda got up sometime after, after which I ground the coffee beans and finished making our morning coffee.

We noticed last night that a few folks had things sitting out in their front yards suggestive of a garage sale. This morning there was quite a bit of commotion outside and we noticed several yards just from our rig with lots of stuff sitting out on tables and/or the ground. Clearly Big Tree Carefree RV Resort was having an official yard sale event today.

We had granola for breakfast and then strolled through the resort. Based on one comment we overheard we got the impression that the yard sale might have started yesterday but there was still lots of stuff available. We are not yard sale people, as a rule, and our real destination was the laundry room. Most of the parking spaces were taken but the room was empty and none of the machines were in use. We walked back to our coach, loaded our laundry, computers, and iPads in the car, and drove over to the laundry room.

I got the laundry into a washing machine while Linda got her computer going and connected to the park Wi-Fi system. I then started my computer and got online. Her computer screen came up dark. It has done this many times in the past, but not recently. We think it may be related to the battery, but we are not sure.

Our main reason for bringing our computers over was to download our e-mails from the last four days. BCM, in particular, has a habit of sending me large files as e-mail attachments or links to large files in a Dropbox, which I prefer. I had at least 118 e-mails but no large attachments. I did not get a count from Linda. Both of our computers are also set up to automatically sync our Dropbox account, and one of the things it does is automatically backup four WordPress websites. We only had 2.5 GB of data left on our Verizon account to get us through February 19th, so we wanted to transfer as much data as possible via the park Wi-Fi system.

Once the laundry was dry, folded, and hung, we returned to our coach where Linda put on her swimsuit and then joined Mara at the pool. After putting the clean clothes away I rebooted and reconnected our computers and iPads to our local network and turned on the NAS. Once everything was up and running I connected the camera and off-loaded all of the photos from the last four days; just over 400 total. I got a bite to eat and then put on my swimsuit, gathered up my towel and a pair of dry shorts, and went over to the pool to join the ladies.

A Purple Gallinule near the Shark Valley Visitors Center, Everglades NP, FL.

When I arrived Linda and Mara were sunbathing. The pool was cool even though it is heated but once I was in and swimming gently I generated enough heat from muscle activity to be comfortable. I swam for about 1/2 hour and then sat in the hot tub with the whirlpool turned on and positioned myself to vigorously message my lower back. Linda had taken the soap when she went so I took that along with my towel and shorts and used to shower to rinse off the chlorine and get cleaned up. I returned the soap to Linda and walked back to our coach.

I doodled on my iPad while Linda read a book when she returned to the coach. She left at 4 PM to walk to the grocery store with Mara while I laid down on the sofa to take a nap and Jasper curled up next to me. I was aware of Linda’s return, gradually woke up, and finally got up.

Linda invited Mara to come for dinner. While she busied herself with the preparations, I went through all of the photos from our trip to Everglades National Park and Key West and backed them up to our NAS.

While I was looking at photos ESET Smart Security kept popping up messages letting me know that it needed my attention. I opened it and it presented me with a loooong list of critical and recommended updates. Given our data situation this month I deferred those until I can take my computer back to the office/laundry/activity building and use the resort Wi-Fi system.

For dinner Linda made a nice green salad and a “pasta” dish using an edamame and mung bean fettuccine style noodle. Mara came to our coach around 6:45 PM and brought a vegan chocolate mousse for dessert. It was based on blended avocados and it was a delicious finale to a scrumptious meal. There was a nice orange glow in the western sky but it was too dark by then to eat outside. It was also getting chilly following sunset so we ate inside and polished off a bottle of Barefoot Pinot Grigio between the three of us.

Mara left a little before 9 PM and we turned on the TV to see if anything interesting was on. One of the PBS stations was showing a three part drama titled Arthur & George based on a true life event in the life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and starting Martin Clunes (Doc Martin) as Doyle. Linda went to bed part way through the third episode but I stayed up to watch it as it was very well done. I flipped channels for a while after that but nothing else held my attention and I finally went to bed sometime after midnight.

2016/02/14 (N) Valentine’s Day

We were still tired from out whirlwind trip to south Florida and slept in this morning. When we finally got up Linda made pancakes for breakfast, this being Sunday and all.

It’s a good thing we have our 2 GB of bonus data for the next couple of billing cycles. Between the Windows 10 upgrade on two computers (most of which we did using the RV resort Wi-Fi), the upgrades to the iOS on both iPads, the inevitable updates to applications on all four devices, and quite a bit of work on BCM articles as well as our personal website/blog, we have had to monitor/manage our data usage very carefully for the January 20 through February 19 billing cycle. Even with being gone for four days to the Everglades and Keys, and taking our devices to the activity building to use the Wi-Fi, we will be very close to our limit by this Friday, which is the 19th.

There are at least eight alligators in this image and several more outside the frame. Shark Valley Visitors Center, Everglades NP, FL.

My computer was indicating that I had 22 updates available which meant that Linda’s computer probably had a similar number. One of them was a Windows 10 cumulative update which I knew would be large so I took both computers to the library and did the updates there. I then spent part of the day processing and backing up photos before turning my attention to blog posts. Even with our data situation I uploaded several from mid-October and prepared several more.

We had a relatively easy day otherwise and I did not record all of the details which are now mostly lost to me. Brenda Phelan called around 5:15 PM to let me know our tire and windshield covers were ready but she and Bill were headed out for a couple of days on windshield cover appointments. They would be back on Wednesday and we deferred dealing with delivery until then.

For dinner Linda made a mushroom bourginione with macaroni. She used a Lindeman’s 2014 Shiraz to make it and we also drank some before/with our meal. She bought a pint of Soy Delicious Cookie Dough non-dairy “ice cream” the other day and we had that for dessert. After dinner we settled in to watch our Sunday evening TV programs, including Downton Abby.

2016/02/15 (M) Ready, Set, No

We had our usual morning of coffee, juice, and granola for breakfast. Our fresh water tank had dropped below the 1/3 level yesterday or the day before. The monitor only indicates Empty, 1/3, 2/3, and Full so once it drops below 1/3rd I have to check it visually. Fortunately the tank is translucent polyethylene and is located behind a door such that I can see the water level when the lighting is right. Given how we are parked, facing southwest, the light is best in the morning as access to the tank is from the driver side of the bay.

The tank was down to the 1/8th level, which is about 15 gallons. We might have gotten one more day’s use but there was no reason to run the tank dry and the pump works better with a full tank. I dumped both waste tanks and refilled the fresh water tank. I checked the hardness of the water coming out of the softener after the tank was full and it was indicating somewhere between 0 and 1.5 gpg. I updated my Excel spreadsheet accordingly.

An Anhinga that just caught something to eat. Shark Valley Visitors Center, Everglades NP, FL.

Linda had work to do today on family tax returns and set up her computer on the temporary dining table while I continued to work at my computer on the desk. I selected and processed a couple of photos from our visit to Everglades National Park for Linda’s weekly postcard to Madeline. I then selected and processed photos to include in the blog posts for the dates of our visit to the Everglades and Keys.

Brenda Phelan had also sent us an e-mail yesterday regarding our tire covers. I replied to that and indicated that we might pick them up on Wednesday when she and Bill are back at their shop in Lakeland. With that done I started preparing for a 3:30 PM telecom meeting of the FMCA National Education Committee. I printed off six documents: meeting notice, agenda/notes, short survey results and sampling information, and the long survey results and sampling information. All told it was 55 sheets of paper, but I wanted/needed to see the survey results printed out.

At 3:29 I dialed in and was the first caller, which I though was odd. I doubled checked the meeting notice and realized the meeting was Wednesday the 17th. I knew that, but historically we have always met on Monday afternoons and I just had it in my head that we were meeting today. The upside us that I have more time to digest the data and think about how I want to handle the fact that the sample/response was too small (in my expert opinion) for the results to be considered representative of the FMCA population.

We had leftovers for dinner, after which we settled in to watch the X-Files and Lucifer on FOX as our usual Monday evening programs on CBS were preempted by the Grammy Awards, which did not interest us. At 10 PM we switched to PBS and watched a documentary on Stephen Hawking, followed Charlie Rose. Rose’s show was focused on Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scilia, who passed away over the weekend.

2016/02/05–09 (F–T) Super Windows Roadtrip

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2016/02/05 (F) Windows 10 Upgrade

We had a long day yesterday and even though we were in bed before 11 PM we still slept in until 8 AM this morning. I did not make coffee and we did not have breakfast as we were picking up Mara at 8:50. We shut down our computers and iPads and packed them for travel. We set the windows in the bus so the cats would be comfortable. At 8:45 AM we loaded the car and drove over to get Mara. We stopped at the Dunkin Donuts in Arcadia for coffee and bagels and then headed west on FL-70 for Ed and Betty Burns’ place in Bradenton.

Everglades National Park entrance sign on the road from Homestead and Florida City, FL.

The main purpose of our visit today was to upgrade Linda’s Samsung laptop computer and my ASUS notebook computer to Windows 10 using Ed and Betty’s unlimited broadband data. A secondary objective was for Linda to purchase/download the latest version of Turbo Tax. Our tertiary goal was to update iPad and smartphone apps.

We got to Ed and Betty’s a little after 10 AM, introduced them to Mara, and got busy setting up our computers. We had a bit of a false start but finally had the Windows 10 installation process launched by 11 AM. After quite a bit of conversation, Linda and Betty busied themselves making lunch and Mara settled in to go through her mail. Once the files for Windows 10 appeared to be downloaded I initiated the update process for eight apps on my iPad2. Betty washed off a bag of red grapes and set them out for all of us to enjoy.

At 12:30 PM we moved our technology to a coffee table in the living room to clear the dining room table for lunch. Betty made a large pot of vegan chili mac and we had sliced avocado, tortillas, and potato chips to go with it, along with grapes and slices of Meyer lemons for our water. Florida really is a good place to be if you want to “eat fresh.”

The ladies left around 1:45 PM to go for a walk while Ed and I stayed behind. I connected my phone to their Wi-Fi and updated a dozen apps. My computer was finally ready to configure Windows 10 at 2 PM and I went through the customized personalization rather than accepting the Express Setup defaults. My iPad was up-to-date so I started working on this post while I waited for the Windows 10 process to finally finish.

It took until 2:30 PM for my computer to be fully booted up and usable. About that same time Linda’s computer was finally ready to configure. I wanted Linda here for the configuration choices so I waited for her return. The ladies got back at 2:45 PM and Linda resumed configuring her machine. We had originally planned to go see the 3 PM practice session of the Royal Lipizzan Stallions in Myakka City, but we would have had to leave at 2 PM to get there. We will definitely go seem them, but for now this was, once again, deferred to a future day.

Linda purchased, downloaded, and installed the latest version of TurboTax and was done installing updates by 4:20 PM. Her update process went smoothly, if slowly, and without any apparent hitches. When the initial Windows 10 upgrade finished on my machine I did not have any of the quick start or system tray icons which concerned me greatly. After rebooting my computer, more than once, the icons eventually returned. I installed an undated driver for the NVIDIA GeForce graphics processing unit (GPU). I also had a problem with the sound but was able to resolve it using the audio troubleshooter.

I rebooted my machine for what I hoped was the last time at 4:45 PM. It took 15 minutes to fully boot up and I made one more check for updates. It appeared that the operating system updates were all done but there were still updates to install for Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, both of which are large and tend to take a long time to download.

By this point Betty had opened a couple of bottles of wine and convinced all of us that the collect best option for dinner was to order pizza and eat at their house. Linda coordinated the pizzas and ordered them from Vertoris’ where we ate last night and which was only seven miles away. While she and Ed were in transit to get the pizza and salad I updated Photoshop and Lightroom. I started each program and Photoshop indicated that it had a problem with the video card driver and had disabled some of its enhancement features. That was not an immediate problem as I do not presently make any use of Photoshop, but the incompatibility was distressing nonetheless.

I had done what I could in the way of updates for today so I shut down my computer and packed it away to clear the table for dinner. Betty set the table and Linda and Ed returned a short time later with the food. We sat down to a wonderful meal with friends that finally concluded around 7:30 PM. It had been a wonderful day with friends and we had gotten a lot accomplished thanks to the use of their technology, but by 7:45 PM we were all tired and the three of us were on our way back to Arcadia. We dropped Mara back at her motorhome at 8:45 PM and were back at our coach by 8:50 PM. We watched the end of an episode of Endeavor and then watched another complete episode. By then we were sleepy tired and went to bed.

2016/02/06 (S) Article Uploads

We slept in this morning until after 8 AM and so did the cats. We lounged around in our sweats drinking coffee and eventually had granola for breakfast. It was cloudy with rain coming and we considered spending the day in the bus in our sweats when we remembered that it was the first Saturday of the month.

The Everglades is vast and low, but is not a swamp. Swamps involve stagnant water. The Everglades is almost entirely shallow, but constantly flowing, water like a river. Everglades NP, FL.

The Arcadia Farmers Market takes place on the first and third Saturday of each month so Linda texted Mara to see if she wanted to go. She did, so we got dressed, picked her up in the car, and drove downtown. To our disappointment there were only four vendors there and only two of them were selling food. One was a local farm that had freshly picked Napa cabbage and locally produced honey. Linda bought a head of the cabbage and Mara bought a cabbage and a jar of honey. We took a short walk around downtown and then drove to Joshua Citrus Co.

At Joshua Citrus we bought a few Ruby Red grapefruit and a few Honeybelle tangelos. Mara also bought a variety of citrus including Meyer lemons. We stopped at Walmart on the way back to our RV resort for cat litter and a few sundry items while Mara picked up some groceries. We dropped her at her motorhome and took a minute to meet another couple from Howell, Michigan who were just getting ready to pull out. We then returned to our rig around 1 PM.

Linda made rollup sandwiches with soft tortillas, Napa cabbage, dark greens, and hummus. At 1:30 PM she phoned Mara to see if she wanted to go for a walk and headed over to rendezvous with her. I had a call earlier from Dave Aungier and called him back. He had downloaded his BCM article from my Dropbox and reviewed it. We went over a few minor changes, which I made to the Word doc, and discussed the process of submitting it to the magazine and working it through to publication.

Dave and I were done talking by 2 PM and it had started to rain lightly. Linda had worn her raincoat but returned around 2:30. By that time I had turned my attention to the three articles that Stacy had finished proofreading and returned to me. I went through each one and accepted most of the changes. I then went through each one and made sure I had all of the image files properly identified and organized. I backed up all of the files, moved them to the READY folder, and then uploaded them to my Dropbox. Once everything had transferred I e-mailed Gary (BCM publisher) and Jorge (layout) and let them know the files were there. I had a few more e-mails back and forth with Gary and had to redo a panoramic photo that had discontinuities in it that I had not noticed.

Mara came to our rig to discuss some logistics related to the Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise that she and her friend, Michael, are going on at the end of the month. As it turns out we will take them to Miami and pick them up when they return and take care of Mara’s two cats while they are away. Mara waited for a lull in the rain and returned to her rig a little before 6 PM. For dinner Linda prepared a salad with diced Napa cabbage and honey roasted peanuts and a homemade dressing made with rice wine vinegar, sesame and vegetable oils, Dijon mustard, fresh grated ginger, salt, and pepper. It was very good. She then reheated the leftover pizza from the last two nights. The pizza was exceptional when it was fresh and, although it lost its crisp crust on reheating, it was still tasty as leftovers.

While Mara was visiting the leak around the bedroom ceiling vent/fan reappeared. The lower outside corner of the lower passenger side windshield also leaked, but we expect that to happen every time until we do something to fix it.

After dinner we watched a couple episodes of Endeavor and then a couple of episodes of As Time Goes By. After that we watched a PBS documentary on Jason Blair, the discredited New York Times reporter. We caught a few minutes of news and weather and went to bed.

2016/02/07 (N) Super Sunday

Today was just one of those days. It also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday, but that’s another story. As we do most days we started our morning with coffee.” As she often does on Sunday mornings, Linda made vegan pancakes for breakfast. We split a ruby red grapefruit as well.

Though much of the Everglades is open, there are stands of trees throughout. This one had a “face.” Everglades NP, FL.

Linda walked to Winn-Dixie with Mara while I settled in to work at my computer. My plan was to edit and upload blog posts but in the end I only got two more posts ready to go and did not get them uploaded. Not that I was goofing off; I was busy all day but ended up taking care of other things.

For starters, I downloaded an updated version of the Logitech SetPoint software for my Logitech UltraThin Touch Mouse and then reconfigured the settings. The mouse is capable of a variety of things with just subtle movements but seemed to be less stable than before the Windows 10 upgrade. I was also having problems with my cursor jumping around while typing. I initially noticed it while typing e-mails but noticed it later while working in Word. Linda had the presence of mind to suggest that it might be the touchpad. Sure enough, the touchpad was active. That had not occurred to me because it wasn’t active under Windows 8.1. Apparently the upgrade to Windows 10 activated it. So much for maintaining my existing settings.

I had additional e-mails back and forth with Gary and Jorge at BCM, as result of which I updated the BCM page on our website. I also e-mailed Brenda Phelan to check on the status of our tire covers. When I finally got to work on blog posts I selected and processed several photos from our visit on Thursday to the Ringling Estate. I then edited the two posts mentioned previously.

When Linda got back from Winn-Dixie she made rollup sandwiches for lunch with dark leafy greens and garlic hummus in soft tortillas. We had red grapes to go with the sandwiches. After lunch she walked up to the mail room. I got a happy birthday card from our daughter and son-in-law, which was nice. The eight pounds of coffee we ordered from Teeko’s back home had also arrived. I checked the order to make sure it was correct. It was, so I stored the box as we won’t need it for another couple of weeks. I exchanged a couple of text messages with my daughter and decided it would be easier to just call her. We had a nice chat.

Mara walked down to our coach mid-late afternoon and the three of us went for a vigorous walk through the entire RV resort. We all returned to our bus and visited long enough for me to demonstrate the mapped location history feature in RVillage. Mara headed back to her rig around 5:30 PM and Linda started fixing our dinner. She made vegan Sloppy Joe’s with TVP and baked sweet potato fries. Yum.

Eventually it was time for Super Bowl L (50). I had intended to continue working at my computer all evening but my enthusiasm had waned and I found the game distracting. We kept the volume down and played games until 9 PM and then switched the TV to PBS and watched Downton Abbey. When it was over we switched back to the game. It looked like the Denver Broncos were going to beat the Carolina Panthers so we watched a documentary on PBS/World about a family in Japan. Linda went to bed when it was over but I switched to PBS/Create and watched a tribute concert to American film composer John Williams. Jasper curled up with me for a while and then indicated it was time to go to bed.

2016/02/08 (M) Travel Prep

It got down to 40 degrees F outside last night and dropped into the upper 50’s in the coach. Juniper stayed close to us for most of the night and snuggled up next to my head around 4:30 AM. The cats must have eaten most of their food during the night as by 7 AM Juniper was most insistent that I get up. I finally did at 7:15 AM, fed them, turned on the furnace, and made our morning coffee. Linda was up by 7:30, plugged in the charging cable for our Verizon Mi-Fi, and was playing word games by the time the coffee was ready. That girl really likes her word games

An Anhinga pruning its feathers. Everglades NP, FL.

Linda checked our Verizon account via her iPad and we had used 7.03 of our 10 GB of monthly data plus the 2 GB of extra allocation we got for downloading and installing the Verizon go90 app on our phones. The data usage function on the Mi-Fi device (Novatel 5510L) showed 9.03 out of 12 GB as it combines all available data, so they were in agreement. It’s a good thing we have the extra 2 GB each month for the next few billing cycles. This current cycle (January 20 through February 19) has included iOS and app updates for both of our iPads, app updates for our Android phones, uploading of four BCM articles to our Dropbox (with lots of photos), numerous e-mails with large attachments, and upgrades from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 on both of our computers. Even though we made some use of the resort Wi-Fi while at the laundry room, and did the Windows OS and some iPad/smartphone upgrades at Ed and Betty Burns’ place using their unlimited broadband connection, it has been a heavy period of data usage for our Verizon account. Twelve gigabytes is not enough data to get us through a typical month while we are away from home.

We had granola for breakfast with fresh fruit and juice and then settled in to finish our coffee and doodle on our iPads. I e-mailed my blog posts for the last five days to myself and then download/installed the Gmail app on my iPad2. We took showers, got dressed, straightened up the bathroom, and got on with our chores. I turned on the electric block heater for the engine to warm it up for a maintenance start later today.

We are headed to Homestead and the Florida Keys tomorrow for four days so today was, in part, a travel preparation day. Linda’s first task was a trip to the post office to mail the book she bought at The Ringling estate for Madeline’s Valentine’s Day present.

We are taking the car and leaving the cats behind in Mara’s care so Linda wanted to clean up the bus a bit. We also both needed haircuts. Linda made a 1 PM appointment at a place near the Winn-Dixie. One of my tasks was doing laundry which I took care of at 11 AM. Linda finally got hold of a real, live person at the Florida Toll Road Sunpass system but the account is in my name and they would not talk to her. She found me in the laundry room and worked her way through the phone menu until she got back to an actual person and then put me on the phone. The woman was very nice and very efficient and it only took about 10 minutes to get our account reconfigured so we could access it. We logged in and confirmed that we still have a credit balance and updated our credit card information.

When I was done with the laundry I turned on the Aqua-Hot engine preheat loop. When Linda got back from her appointment she cut my hair. Another task was giving Mara a key to our coach and going over the care and feeding of our feline friends. Linda took care of that.

A few days ago our Progressive Industries EMS threw another PE2 error code, which indicates an open ground. The current error code is 0 (zero), indicating that everything is OK, so it is/was obviously a momentary problem. Presumably the problem is in the resort wiring as that is what the PI EMS is designed to monitor and protect against. I wanted to do done things with the bus chassis today so I took care of this at the same time. Unlike last time, I shut off the circuit breaker at the power pole, unplugged the shorepower cable, cycled the breaker a couple of times to wipe the contacts, cleaned the contacts on the plug, inserted and removed it several times to clean the contacts in the outlet, plugged it back in, and turned the breaker back on. All of that was designed to clean electrical contacts and remove a possible marginal connection.

Another thing I did today was start the bus engine, let it warm up, moved the bus aft and for slightly to make sure the brakes were not frozen, and re-leveled the coach before shutting the engine down. I shut of the block heater and Aqua-Hot burner before starting the engine. We are a little over half way through our stay here at Big Tree RV Resort and given the often humid, rainy conditions I wanted to make sure the brakes were not rusted closed. I also wanted to check the fuel gauge as we have been running the Aqua-Hot diesel-fired hydronic heating system on cold mornings and it uses about 1/4 gallon of diesel fuel per hour when operating. When I was done with this process I turned on the fuel polishing pump so it could run while we were away.

We still had enough gallons of fresh water on board that I decided not to dump and fill the tanks today. With the engine/chassis stuff taken care of my main focus today, when not preparing for our trip, doing laundry, eating meals, going for walks, and dealing with e-mails, was working on my blog. It may be the thing I want to do, but it is often not the thing I need to do, or in some cases, the thing I have to do.

I failed to record what we had for dinner but I’m sure it was tasty. We watched TV for a while and then went to bed.

2016/02/09 (T) Road Trip

My night was interrupted around 1:30 AM by very strong wind gusts. All of the awnings were out except the large patio awning and were perfectly capable of being damaged by the gusts. I put on my sweats, slipped into my Crocs, and went outside to stow the awnings. The two bedroom window awnings and the driver side living room awning are held open by straps with a loop on the end that slips over a hook mounted on the side of the coach. The roller tubes are spring loaded and self-retract when the straps are released. While retracting they have to be controlled, using a long metal rod with a right angle bend on one end and a semi-circle handle on the other, but are otherwise easy to deploy and stow. Besides the possibility of the fabric tearing where it mounts to the body or the roller tube, we had the front end of the driver side front awning flipped up by a strong wind gust in Sheridan, Wyoming. I would not have believed that was possible unless I had seen it happen, but we were not about to risk having it happen again.

An Egret stalks its prey. Everglades NP, FL.

I spite of my sleep being interrupted I was up at 7 AM. As we do every morning, we fed the cats, refreshed their water, and cleaned their litter tray. We finished packing, adjusted the windows, loaded the car, pulled out as of our site a little before 8 AM, and stopped at the dumpster to drop off a bag of kitchen trash. We drove to the local Shell station to fill the fuel tank and stopped next door at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and something to eat. We then headed east on FL-70.

Our destination was Homestead, Florida and Everglades National Park. Our route was FL-70 east to US-27 south to FL-821 south (which is part of the Florida Toll Road system) to its terminus at US-1 in Florida City just south of Homestead. From there we headed west through Florida City and on to Everglades National Park. This part of Florida is very flat but it was still an interesting drive. It was cloudy and cool for the whole drive down.

We stopped at the Visitor Center to get a map and stamp our National Parks “Passport.” We entered the park using Linda’s Senior Access Pass and a few miles in stopped at the Anhinga and Limbo Gumbo trails area. We walked both trails, each about 1/2 mile in length, and I took quite a few photos. By the time we got back to our car it was 1:30 PM. We were hungry and wanted to get more information about boat tours so we drove the 34 miles to Flamingo. We had lunch at the Buttonwood Cafe and went over to the Marina to check on buying fuel. They wanted over $5 per gallon so I passed.

We also checked on the pontoon boat tours. Two different tours were available, one into Florida Bay and the other into the Mangroves. Both tours left on the hour starting at 9 AM with the last one departing at 4 PM. The tours lasted just under two hours, and cost $35. They did not take reservations and tickets could only be purchased the same day. We decided to return to the park tomorrow and deferred any decision about the boats until then.

By this time, it was late enough in the day that we decided to start back towards the entrance 34 miles away. We stopped at Pa-Hay-Okee and hiked the boardwalk before leaving the park for the day. On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a Shell station in Florida City and filled the fuel tank for a more reasonable price per gallon. We found the hotel, a Hampton Inn just off exit #2 of the Florida Toll Road between Florida City and Homestead, and checked in. We had lunch rather later and were undecided about what to do for dinner, or when. We drove across the street to the Publix supermarket, bought snacks for tomorrow, and bought red grapes, hummus, and sourdough pretzel nibblers to have for dinner in our room.

We had Direct TV in our room but eventually found PBS and CBS and watched our usual Tuesday night programs. We also found The Weather Channel and Weather Nation and checked the current weather and forecast for the next few days with great interest. Some of the coldest weather of the year was dropping down through the upper Midwest and Great Lakes, affecting the Northeast, mid-South, mid-Atlantic, and Deep South past our location and all the way to Key West. We had brought a variety of clothing, so we were prepared.

2016/02/01 (M) – 2016/02/04 (R) Southwest Florida

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2016/02/01 (M) Tabbed

We had coffee and then granola with blueberries and bananas for breakfast. After breakfast we gave Jasper his nose drops. Linda then went for a walk that took her to Walmart where she picked up a few grocery items. I continued working on photos for Dave Aungier’s BCM article.

When Linda got back I decided to put the new tabs on the license plates (car and bus). We were able to renew the registration/tabs online and have them mailed directly to the RV resort. Putting the new tabs on was a bit more work than just peel and stick as I keep protective plastic covers over the license plates and secure them with “tamper proof” bolts and Nylok nuts. That required special tools which I had to get out.

Once I got the plates off the vehicles and separated from the covers I washed them and stood them up to dry. While they were drying I washed off the areas of the vehicles where the plates mount. I peeled four layers of old tabs off of each plate so I could put the new tabs directly on the plates. I reassembled the protective covers on the plates, mounted them back on the vehicles, and put the tools away. The final step was to remove the expired registrations from our wallets and replace them with the new ones. The whole process took about an hour but it felt good to have it done.

While I was outside I drained the auxiliary air system water separator (which I do every few days). I also opened the drain on the auxiliary air tank but it was dry. That was good, and meant the water separator is doing its job.

Linda made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. She read for a half hour and I continued working on photos while we digested our lunch before changing into our swim suits and walking over to the pool. There were quite a few people in the pool so we stayed in the shallow end, walking and swimming from side to side. When we were done exercising we spent a few minutes in the spa (hot tub / whirlpool) and then showered and changed into dry clothes that we brought with us.

We stopped at the mail room and found our electric bill for January in our mailbox. Linda walked back later and paid the bill and also our rental fee for February but realized later that they did not charge us enough. She thought they might have charged us for someone else’s campsite. When I checked my e-mail I had one from Gary at BCM. He forwarded one from Jorge with a Dropbox link to a draft of the March 2016 issue and a request to proofread both of my articles and provide any needed corrections ASAP. I finished the task before dinner, uploaded the PDF file, and e-mailed them back.

For dinner Linda made Farro with dried cranberries, onions, garlic, greens, and hot pepper flakes. We finally finished the Franzia Crisp White boxed wine, which went well enough with the dish. After dinner I washed some of the grapes that Linda bought today and we settled in to watch the PBS Newshour, the X-Files, Lucifer, and NCIS Los Angeles. We went to bed and tuned in PBS for coverage of the Iowa Caucuses before going to sleep. I don’t recommend political coverage as a way to fall asleep peacefully.

A small piece of the enormous Tibbels miniatures circus model at the Ringling Museum complex, Sarasota, FL.

2016/02/02 (T) Mara Arrives

The humidity rose sharply as the temperature dropped last night. That made for cool, but sticky, conditions at bedtime; the one combination that we do not have a way to counteract. We woke around 7:30 AM to dense fog and were less than fully rested, but a nice pot of coffee at least cleared away the cobwebs. The fog disappeared soon enough to reveal partly cloudy skies. The sun was bright and hot but there was a mild breeze, making the morning feel somewhat tropical. We had toast and jam for breakfast with our usual orange-grapefruit juice.

Linda went for a walk after breakfast and stopped at the office to correct our rental payment for February. While she was walking I resumed my work on Dave Aungier’s article for Bus Conversion Magazine. I finished selecting, processing, and inserting photos for the print version of the article and then set it aside. It had been nine days since I dumped the waste tanks and filled the fresh water tank and we were down to 1/6th of a tank of fresh water. That’s about 20 gallons so we could have gone one more day, but we are not boondocking and do not have any reason to run the tank all the way to empty. Besides, the water pump works a lot better when the tank is full.

Linda stopped at Walmart on her walk and returned carrying four small bags of groceries while I was servicing the tanks. She also got a text from Mara indicating that she was about to pull out and head our way. Once the fresh water tank was full I left the water hose turned on and added the tank treatment to the toilet and sinks while Linda did the dishes. Once we were done I shut off the shore water and we returned to operating off of the fresh water tank using the onboard pump.

As long as I was doing chores I cut the power to the coach, waited 30 seconds, and turned it back on to reset the Progressive Industries EMS Previous Error (PE) Code 2 (open ground). This error occurred during the last storm while we’re away from the coach.

With our chores done Linda thought we should go for a swim so we changed into our suits and walked over to the pool. Some of the Quebec residents were playing Petanque (pronounced “p’tunk”) and there was a shuffleboard tournament about to commence. I gathered from the instructions being given to the teams that Big Tree Carefree RV Resort was hosting teams from another RV park. There was no one else at the pool when we arrived and we had it to ourselves for about 10 minutes. A woman showed up and asked if it was OK with us if she put on her water aerobics music and did her exercises. Sure! Why not. Linda joined in and eventually a third woman joined them. I went to the deeper end of the pool and swam back and forth from side to side.

I got out of the pool while the ladies were still exercising, took a quick dip in the hot tub, and then showered. I changed into my other pair of swim trunks (XXL) and cinched them tight. They make a very comfortable pair of shorts for warm days and it doesn’t matter if they get wet

Massive Banyan Trees at Ca’ D’Zan, John and Mabel Ringling’s former winter estate on Sarasota Bay, now part of the Ringling Museums complex, Sarasota, FL.

We were back at our coach by 2:30 PM and Barb, across the street, invited us to hang our suits and towels on their clothesline, which we did. Linda made roll up sandwiches with garlic hummus, onion, and lots of dark, leafy greens for a later-than-usual lunch. After lunch she sat outside and read while I updated my water usage spreadsheet. Linda got another text from Mara that she had arrived so we moseyed over to her site behind the swimming pool. Mara passed us in her motorhome going the other way as she was being led away from the office to her site. We stopped at the office on the way to make sure they had cleared up our February billing correctly and to check our mailbox. They had; no mail. The Québécois were done playing Petanque for the day but the shuffleboard tournament was in full swing. The parking volunteer was just getting Mara backed in as we arrived at her site. We left her alone while she blocked and leveled her motorhome, extended the slides, shut down the engine, plugged in the shorepower cord, and deployed the awnings and windshield sunshades. Good RV etiquette is to not bother people while they make/break camp.

We visited briefly but did not stay. Mara had stopped at the Walmart for groceries before entering the resort and needed to put them away and then have something to eat. Linda invited her to come down for dinner and she accepted.

When we got back to our coach the inside thermometer read 89 degrees F. That was just a bit too hot for my comfort, and for the cats too. I turned off the electric heating element for the domestic hot water. We closed up the coach and turned on the front and center air-conditioners, but not the one in the bedroom. The front and center units are on separate legs of the 240/120 VAC system. Even before I turned the units on the voltage was 115 VAC on L1 and 112 VAC on L2 with very little current draw. With A-C units on these voltages dropped to 112 and 109 respectively. That is very marginal for our PI EMS, especially the L2 voltage. This was the first situation we have been in where I wished I had a Hughes Autoformer boosting transformer.

I opened the bottle of Beringer Red Moscato that we have had in the refrigerator for a while and Linda and I had a glass while we waited for Mara. Linda called Mara at 7 PM and she was not sure how to find our coach in the dark so I walked over to the activity building at 7 PM to meet her and we walked back together. We gave Mara the grand tour of our remodeling efforts and then poured some more wine. Both cats allowed Mara to interact with them, which was unusual and perhaps a sign that Jasper’s health was finally improving.

For dinner Linda made a salad, seitan stroganoff, and fresh strawberries for dessert. We chatted before, during, and after dinner about where we had each been and what we had been doing since we last crossed paths in July and what our plans were for 2016 and beyond. By 8:45 PM we had covered a lot of ground but had not been for our after dinner walk.

It had been a long day for Mara and she was ready to get back to her cats so we walked back to her rig with her and extended our walk through the Resort before returning to our coach. We watched a fascinating program on the assassination of President James Garfield and then turned off the air-conditioners, opened a couple of bedroom windows, opened the roof vent-fan in the bathroom, and turned the fan on in exhaust mode. We went to bed and watched Charlie Rose before finally turning out the lights and going to sleep.

2016/02/03 (W) Laundry Swimming

Jasper woke me up early with his sniffles and sneezing and I had trouble falling back asleep. Our little guy is obviously uncomfortable with whatever it is that he has and I stroked his back and scratched his chin for quite a while. I finally got up a little after 7 AM and walked over to the Wednesday morning coffee, as much out of curiosity and to have something to do as anything else. I noticed as I was leaving that the gasket in the rear vertical edge of the entry door window was coming out at the top again and made a mental note to fix it later today.

The living room at Ca’ D’Zan, Ringling Museums complex, Sarasota, FL.

While I was gone Linda got up, got dressed, stripped the bed, and decided to go for an early morning walk. I know, because I met her about half way back to our coach. I ground the coffee beans and prepped the coffee pot. When I saw her walking down Front Street towards our site I started brewing the coffee so it would be ready shortly after she arrived. We had granola with blueberries for breakfast but did not have fruit juice or take our pills. Later.

It was already 72 degrees F outside and anywhere from 75 to 79 degrees F inside, depending on which thermometer or thermostat I looked at. I don’t believe any of them anymore but I figured collectively it was somewhere between 74 and 80 degrees F in the coach. The forecasted high for today was 86 degrees F and based on the low level clouds streaming in from the south looked to be a humid day as well. It’s always better to keep a space cool and dry than it is to try to cool it off and dehumidify it after the fact. I turned off the bathroom ceiling exhaust fan and closed the roof vent and closed the two open windows in the bedroom. I noticed that the bottom horizontal gaskets on these windows are not staying in their mounting grooves. Ugh. I love our old bus, but there are some aspects of it that I seem to have to keep fixing, which is not my most favorite thing to do. Oh well, at this point we are definitely “in for a dime, in for a dollar.”

We doodled on our iPads until it was time for Linda to walk to the swimming pool for the 10 AM water aerobics class. While she was exercising I selected and processed a couple of photos for her to use with her weekly postcard to Madeline. She normally takes care of this on Tuesday.

We will be away from the coach and Resort the next two days so I needed to do laundry today. While I was gathering up the soiled clothes and linens I got a call from Dave Aungier. He was following up to see that I got the draft of his article from Bonnie. I brought him up to date on the status of the work, which I hope to have finished before I go to bed this evening.

I also had an e-mail from Jorge with the correct Dropbox link for the final version of the March 2016 issue of BCM. I needed to do a final proofread on my two articles and get back to him by the end of the day.

Linda got back from exercising and swimming just as I was getting ready to leave for the laundry room. The washers and dryers were all in use and I had to wait a while for washing machines to open up. Linda texted to see if I needed help and walked over to assist. I brought my computer and continued working on Dave Aungier’s BCM article while our clothes were being washed and dried. I got all of the digital edition bonus photos selected and processed, so I should be able to wrap the article up tonight and make it available for Dave to proofread. I also got two small Windows 8.1 updates downloaded and installed, but the Internet connection was not fast so that’s all I was able to do.

Exterior detail of Ca’ D’Zan, Ringling Museums complex, Sarasota, FL.

We folded and hung all the dry clothes and loaded them in the car, which I drove back while Linda walked (no room to ride). We were back at our coach by 2:45 PM, three hours and 15 minutes after I left to take care of this chore. After putting the clean clothes away Linda walked back to the pool to look for her Tilley hat. While she was gone I checked the level of the kitchen counter. It was level, so starting the engine and re-leveling the coach was not something I had to do today. Linda returned, hat on head, so we avoided the inevitable sadness of a lost Tilley hat.

The two front air conditioners were not able to keep up with the heat, in large part because the middle unit is not working very well. Presumably it needs to be charged, but Butch has done that before so the root cause has to be something that needs to be repaired, such as a refrigerant leak and/or a bad seal that is reducing the pumping effectiveness of the compressor. A secondary problem is that we cannot run the bedroom A-C unit at the same time as the front one since they are on the same leg (L1) and the voltage at our coach is already too low with just the one unit running.

At 4 PM we walked to the pool for an afternoon swim. When we returned to our coach I retrieved the latest, and hopefully final, draft of the March 2016 issue of BCM and proofread my two articles. I had one minor correction for each article and e-mailed them back to the publisher and layout person. While I was working on this I got an e-mail from Kristine Gullen with a question for Linda which resulted in a group text message conversation. We received a “hold the date” notice at our house, which our daughter let us know about, for the October 22 wedding of Kristine’s son Nickolas. We will make a point of being back by October 15 from our trip to the Canadian Maritimes and New England.

For dinner we had a salad and the left over Farro with cranberries and seitan stroganoff. After dinner we retracted the large patio awning as a precaution in advance of rain and possible thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow in association with a cold front approaching from the northwest. We then emptied out the back of the car and removed the passenger side rear seat and the wooden storage structure to allow the driver side rear seat to be lowered into position and secured. We rearranged the things stored in the front bay of the bus to make room for the car seat, and several other things that were stored in the car, moving a few things to the passenger side engine bay. We should have done this earlier in the day when it was light but doing it in the morning would have been a disaster. We should have done this as soon as we got settled at Big Tree RV Resort but it wasn’t pressing then and we got busy with other things.

We went for a stroll around the resort and dropped off the trash along the way. Back at our coach we had a glass of Beringer Red Moscato wine and watched Nova on PBS. Mara sent Linda a text indicating that Sabra (one of her cats) was still having issues and she had decided not to go with us tomorrow to the Ringling Brothers museum in Sarasota.

After Nova we put the linens back on the bed. I then converted Dave Aungier’s article from Word to PDF, uploaded it to a folder in our Dropbox, and sent him an e-mail with the link. I caught some news, weather, and Charlie Rose and then went to sleep.

2016/02/04 (R) A Ringling Birthday

We were up by 7:15 AM this morning but I did not make coffee and we did not have breakfast. We got dressed for a day away from our coach and I repacked the camera bag. We left at 8:30 AM and stopped at the local Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a bite to eat. We were on our way to Sarasota a little before 9 AM. We took FL-70 west to I-75 and headed south to the University Blvd. exit. We headed west to the end of the road at Bayshore Drive, and arrived at the John and Mabel Ringling Estate at 10 AM. Steve and Karen arrived just ahead of us and we parked right next to them.NOko

Linda and Karen rest on the patio of Ca’ D’Zan and study the map of the Ringling Museums complex, Sarasota, FL.

The 66 acre estate was the location of John and Mabel Ringlings’ winter home, Ca’ D’Zan, starting in 1926 when it was finished. Mabel died three years later and John continued to use the house until 1936 when he passed away. John was one of the seven Ringling brothers of circus fame. In addition to their 36,000 square foot home the estate includes an amazing art museum to house their extensive collection. There is also a circus museum and a building that houses the Tibbels scale model circus that Howard Tibbels spent 60 years creating. John and Mabel did not have any children and the entire estate was left to the people (State) of Florida when John died. The entire estate is now part of The Florida State University and the Ringling Art Museum is the official art museum of the State of Florida.

Ca’ D’Zan sits on Sarasota Bay and is a wonderful home in the Venetian Gothic style. We went on one of the longer, guided tours, so we got to see more of the house than we would have on a self-guided tour but not as much as the even longer (and more expensive) “behind-the-scenes” tour.

The Tibbels circus model is 1/16^th scale, i.e., 3/4″ to the foot. The model covers a large area and illustrates every facet of an early 20th century major circus of the type that traveled from town to town by rail. Not only is the model an amazing thing to see, and an amazing thing for one man to have created, but it gave us an understanding of how a major circus of this period functioned. The logistics involved were impressive to say the least.

We finished our day at the Ringling Museums complex around 4:30 PM with a visit to the gift shop where Linda bought a book for Madeline for Valentine’s Day. Back at our cars we drove north on US-41 (Tamiami Trail) about three miles to Vertoris’ Pizzeria for my birthday dinner. Vertoris’ turned out to be a small, unassuming place with seating for maybe 24 people. They offered quite a variety of pizzas, including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free, but had lots of other Italian dishes. I had vegan butternut squash ravioli, Linda had a vegan pizza, Karen had baked ziti, and Steve had the largest piece of lasagna I have ever seen. Karen and I had a glass of Chianti, and Linda had a different Italian red (but did not recall the name when we got home). The restaurant had vegan cupcakes so Linda, Karen, and I each had one while Steve had a cannoli.

Detail view of one exterior wall of the modern addition to the Ringling Art Museum, Sarasota, FL.

Our son called last night to wish me happy birthday and our daughter texted me at 3:40 PM today to do the same. I saw the text at 5 PM after we were at the restaurant and texted her back. My phone battery was depleted, which is unusual for my phone, so I turned it off.

We were done with our meal by 6:30 PM, made arrangements for our next get-together, and went our separate ways. Steve and Karen headed south on Tamiami Trail 28 miles back to Nokomis and we headed north three miles to FL-70. Three tenths of a mile shy of FL-70 we encountered a serious traffic backup and I could see a large assemblage of emergency vehicles up ahead. We were already in the right hand lane and eventually got to FL-70 (53rd St.) and made the turn. US-41 beyond the intersection was blocked by the police. We did not slow down to gawk, which I find really annoying, and all we saw were emergency vehicles; lots of emergency vehicles.

It was raining when we left Vertoris’ and it got a lot heavier as we traveled east on FL-70. Somewhere east of Myakka City we drove out of the rain and did not encounter any more the rest of the way home. We arrived around 7:45 PM to find the grass at our RV site was wet, so we knew it had rained at some point. After bringing our stuff in from the car we started our Verizon Mi-Fi, started up our various technology devices, and I plugged in my phone to charge. Linda texted Mara to see if she wanted to go with us to Ed and Betty’s tomorrow morning. Mara replied that she did so Linda communicated the plans and timing for the morning.

Linda checked the weather and the rain was moving our way from whence we had just come. It was forecast to arrive around 9 PM, which it did, and be done by 11, which it was. In between in oscillated between heavy and light.

2016/01/16 (S) – 2016/01/20 (W) A Capitol Experience

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2016/01/16 (S) Fort Myers Beach Marilyn

I got up at 8:15 AM, cleaned the cats’ food bowls, fed them, and then made coffee. I replied to an e-mail from BCM publisher Gary Hatt regarding which article he planned to run in March and which one in April. I then downloaded my photos from the last two days from my camera to my computer. Linda slept in and did not get up until 9:10. We both felt like we have had too much less-than-ideal food to eat the last few days and split a grapefruit for breakfast.

Our plans for the day revolved around meeting Linda’s sister, Sr. Marilyn, at noon at the Diamond Head Beach Resort and Spa in Fort Myers Beach where she is attending an educational conference and taking CPE courses to maintain her counseling license. The conference was being put on by her religious community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Corondelet. Marilyn told us the resort parking was outside but the entrance had a relatively low bar over it so I took the ham radio antenna off of our car before we left at 10 AM for the drive to Fort Myers Beach.

Two hours should have been plenty of time to get there but we finally discovered the downstate traffic congestion that many fellow RV/snowbirds have mentioned to us. The trip down FL-31 south was an easy, pleasant drive through citrus groves and ranches. It ended at FL-80 where we headed west towards Ft. Myers. We had the GPS set for “shortest route” so it took us through town instead of putting us on I-75 but it was an interesting route and we got to see different parts of the city including downtown and McGreger Avenue, which is lined with large Royal Palms. It was also the location of the adjacent Henry Ford and Thomas Edison estates. In spite of the traffic we will probably venture back there at some point to see the estates.

Apparently everyone was headed to Ft. Myers Beach today as the last few miles to get onto the island took one hour. It was the worst traffic I seen in years. There is only one bridge connecting the north end of the island to the mainland and there are two lanes of traffic that funnel down into one. The lanes have a divider between them and are controlled by separate stop lights. We had never seen anything like it before. Linda texted Marilyn with a revised ETA.

Marilyn and Linda at the Diamond Head Beach Resort & Spa, Ft. Myers Beach, FL.

When we finally pulled into the parking lot of the hotel at 12:30 PM Marilyn was waiting for us. We paid for parking ($10), parked the car, and went directly to Cabana’s, the hotel’s beachfront bar/restaurant. Linda had a margarita and I had a frozen strawberry daiquiri. What can I say? I like fruit drinks.

For lunch Linda and I both had veggie burgers and Marilyn had the Portobello mushroom burger. The veggie burgers were mushy, as they often are, but the French fries were coated with something before being fried, probably flour, and were excellent. After we were done eating Linda and Marilyn walked out onto the beach where Linda took her shoes off and walked in the ocean. Our $10 parking fee got us a voucher for the same amount which we applied to the lunch bill.

We spent the next 90 minutes strolling a portion of Estero Boulevard, the main/only street that runs the length of the island. I took a few photographs and we wandered into a few shops but did not buy anything. We also walked out on the pier where we got a close up look at two Pelicans and a great view of the very crowded beach to the north and south. This place definitely had that upscale but slightly funky, seaside resort, winter getaway vibe that is one of the reasons people flock to such places.

The Beach at Ft. Myers Beach, FL.

We were back at the hotel at 3:30 PM. Marilyn had something to do at 4 PM so we took our leave and got back into the bumper-to-bumper traffic that was now moving slowly towards the bridge and off the island. But at least it was moving, and once we cleared the bridge traffic moved along much better. I changed the GPS to “fastest route” and it took us over different roads to I-75 and then north five miles to FL-80 where we retraced our earlier route (in reverse) to get back to Arcadia. At the intersection of FL-80 and FL-31 we stopped at a Publix supermarket and bought a couple of bottled drinks.

It had been a long day and I did not feel like working at my computer. We tuned in a program on PBS at 8 PM and doodled on our iPads. Linda was checking the weather and the forecast for overnight was starting to look ominous. When the program ended at 9:30 we went outside to retract our awnings and put our folding chairs and table away. We stowed the big patio awning last and it started to rain lightly as we completed that task. We left the TV on and watched the weather situation closely. I finally went to bed at midnight knowing that we would not got a full, restful night’s sleep.

2016/01/17 (N) Bad Weather

The cold front that swept across the Florida peninsula overnight was draped off of an intense low pressure system that moved from Texas along the Gulf coast shore into the Florida panhandle and eventually along the Florida/Georgia border and off into the Atlantic. The front, combined with a low level jetstream, raced across the area at 50 to 60 miles per hour triggering numerous thunderstorms and spawning a few tornados.

We had followed the development of the system closely before going to bed at midnight as both channel 11 and 20 had continuous storm team coverage. At 4:30 AM we received severe weather alerts on our phones. Linda’s phone has a loud klaxon warning sound associated with these alerts and we were instantly wide awake. We put on our sweats, so that we would at least be dressed in case we had to leave the rig, and turned on the TV.

Arcadia, including our Big Tree Carefree RV Resort, was in the northeast corner of a tornado warning box. It had started raining, off and on, well before midnight but as the storm front moved into our area thunderstorms came with it, one with Doppler radar indicated rotation. There was lightning and thunder, of course, and the rain became steady and very heavy. The wind really picked up but never became tornadic. We stayed up until 5:30 AM by which time the main storm front had passed. There were a few lingering cells behind it but the meteorologists gave the “all clear” for our area and we went back to bed.

The temperature was in the upper 60’s when we got up at 8:30 AM, rose slightly to about 70, and then dropped throughout the day as the front that triggered the storms raced off into the Atlantic opening the door for much colder air to flow in behind it, courtesy of the Polar Vortex that was plunging most of the Eastern U. S. and Canada into a deep freeze.

The rest of the day was uneventful with pleasant weather. My focus was selecting and processing photos from the recent Arcadia Rally 2016 for the bonus content section of the digital edition of the March 2016 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. Linda worked on her counted cross-stitch project and went for several walks. I joined her for brief strolls after lunch and dinner. For dinner Linda made vegan chili from scratch. It was very good. We watched Downton Abbey on PBS after which Linda went to bed while I continued to work on photos.

2016/01/18 (M) The Capitol Steps

The air mass behind the cold front that swept out of the Gulf of Mexico, across Florida, and out into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday was noticeably colder and drier than normal for southwest Florida. The temperature overnight dropped to 47 degrees, so we slept well and woke to clear skies and crisp air.

Our day revolved around the 3 PM performance at the Venice Theater of the political comedy musical group The Capitol Steps. Venice is over an hour’s drive from Arcadia so we arranged with Steve and Karen Limkemann to make a day of it that would include lunch, photography at the Venice Rookery, the show, and dinner.

We skipped breakfast, showered, and dressed up enough to be presentable for the theater. We gathered up several layers of outerwear and I put the 100-300 mm zoom lens on the Sony a99v. We left at 10 AM and stopped at the Shell station in Arcadia to top up the fuel tank. Dunkin Donuts was right next door so we each got coffee and a blueberry bagel to split. I got a frozen coffee drink made with almond milk and mocha. I had never had one of these from DD and it was pretty good.

I had the GPS set for fastest route. It took us out FL-72 towards Myakka State Park, which I expected, but then took us south on County Road 769. Along the way we saw the usual assortment of citrus groves, ranches, and birds but also saw a Bald Eagle. CR-769 turned southwest and eventually intersected I-75 where we headed “north.” Although it was another 25 miles to the Nokomis exit, I-75 ran mostly east-west for this stretch so this route actually made a lot of sense. It was only a couple of miles from the exit to Steve and Karen’s place and there was a Publix supermarket along the way, so we stopped and bought them a bag of M&M’s to replace ones we had eaten on our last visit and were going to eat on this one. Not vegan, but a small indulgence.

We got to Steve and Karen’s place at Bay Lake Estates at 11:30 AM. At 11:45 we walked to Cafe Evergreen about 1.5 miles away, an easy walk on a sidewalk without having to cross any major streets. Cafe Evergreen is a small, all organic, restaurant with a good selection of vegetarian and vegan dishes. We both had salads for lunch and they were very good. Everything we have had to eat here has been excellent and the service has always been on a par with the quality of the food.

We walked back to Steve and Karen’s and visited until we left at 2:15 PM to drive to the Venice Theatre. Parking can be a problem in downtown Venice but Steve found a parking space on a side street near the theatre. We have enjoyed The Capitol Steps every time we have seen them and this show was as good as any. Laughter really is the best medicine.

Herons and Egrets at the Venice Rookery, Venice, FL.

The show was done around 5 PM. By the time we made our way to the restrooms and out of the theatre it was 5:15 PM. Steve drove us to the Venice Rookery where we bundled up against the chilly air and Steve and I got out our cameras. The sky was clear except for some thin clouds to the west and I took quite a few photos in the quickly changing light. Sunset was just before 6 PM and we stayed until 6:30 to watch bats emerge from their purpose-built houses atop tall, slender poles. We headed back to Cafe Evergreen where we had 7 PM dinner reservations.

Linda, Karen, and I drank lots of coffee, which was smooth and warm. Linda and I had stir-fried kelp noodles with vegetables served over a bed of couscous with an Asian style sauce. It was delicious and had a wonderful texture. We each had a vegan indulgence for dessert; cranberry pecan for me and chocolate peanut butter for Linda. It was a very satisfying meal.

We got back to Steve and Karen’s at 8:45 PM and decided to head for home. We reversed our earlier route and were back at our coach before 10 PM. We watched NCIS Los Angeles and went to bed, tired from a long, but very satisfying day.

2016/01/19 (T) VZW Data Usage

We left the windows open about inch yesterday, along with the kitchen ceiling vent (but no fan), so it would not get too warm inside from the sun while we were away. It was cool inside when we got home at 10 PM and we closed up the coach in anticipation of the outside temperature overnight dropping into the low 40’s. Last night was another cool one, literally.

Herons and Cranes at the Venice Rookery, Venice, FL.

There are only a few hot dishes that Linda makes for breakfast and most of them are a lot of work. The one dish that is relatively easy is oatmeal, and it is a great choice for a cool/cold morning. It stays warm long enough to eat it before it gets cold, is a hearty (and heart healthy) dish, and stays with you for quite a while.

Linda stopped at the resort office yesterday to see if they could cut the grass around our site while we were gone for the day. The awnings were up and our chairs/table were still put away from the weekend storms, so the site was clear. The office said they probably would not get to it on Monday as the ground and grass was too wet but when we finally left the coach today we saw that they had, in fact, mowed the area.

We have been on the go more than sitting still for the last week and needed some time at the coach to do things. I needed to wrap up work on two articles for BCM and settled in today to do that. Today (the 19th of the month) is also the end of our Verizon Wireless billing cycle. We do not have park Wi-Fi at our site in Big Tree Carefree RV Resort and have been leaving our Verizon Mi-Fi on continuously. We managed to use almost all of our 11 GB of data during the current billing cycle so I wanted to spend today working on photos for the articles and defer uploading them until tomorrow.

Before getting back into my BCM rally article I copied all of the photos that I took yesterday at the Venice Rookery from the camera to my computer. Linda tries to create a new postcard for Madeline every Tuesday and wanted a picture from the Rookery. My best photos were of individual birds or small groups but she wanted something that would give Madeline a better visual understanding of just what a rookery is.

I finally selected a photo with lots of different birds in lots of different positions, including some in flight. Linda logged into the PhotoCardApp on her iPad and determined that the post cards the company creates and mails out are 8.25″ by 5.5″, which is a 3:2 aspect ratio. That is also the native format of my Sony SLT-a99v. Using Faststone Image Viewer (FIV) I was able to resize the image to the exact size of the postcard. I then e-mailed it to Linda’s Gmail account which, in spite of our local area network in the bus, is the easy (only?) way to get it from my computer to her iPad.

While I was processing the image Linda looked up the term “rookery” and discovered that its meaning is more specific than we thought. While it is, indeed, a place where birds roost and build nests (typically in trees) it is actually specific to rooks, which are a crow-like bird. It has, however, become the generic term for a place where one or more species of bird roost, breed, nest, and raise their young.

Besides the main post card photo the PhotoCardApp allows you to create your own stamps. Creating a stamp costs two credits but once it’s created you can use it over and over for just the cost of the postage. (You get 30 credits for $25 and each card costs 2 credits to create, produce, and mail.) We do not have a lot of photos of the two of us together as one of us (usually me) is typically behind the camera. We have a nice head and shoulders photo that our son took that I use at the end of my BCM articles. I e-mailed that to Linda and she used it to create a personalized stamp. I found a second photo of us that someone took at the 2014 GLAMARAMA Rally so I processed it and e-mailed it to Linda to use for a second stamp if she wanted. We are both wearing our bright yellow GLCC dress shirts, so it is very RV specific.

We tried Facetiming with Brendan, Shawna, and Madeline Sunday evening but the connection was too slow so we talked on the phone. They were in Washington D. C. for a conference related to Shawna’s research and Madeline got to visit the Natural History Museum and see dinosaur skeletons. The PhotoCardApp also has a large collection of “stickers” that can be added to a post card, so Linda added an electronic dinosaur “sticker” to the one she was working on.

A Great Blue Heron at the Venice Rookery, Venice, FL.

The last couple of days there was some confusion between BCM owner/publisher Gary Hatt, the layout person (Jorge Escobar, in Columbia), and myself regarding which article they were running in the March 2016 issue. Gary cleared that up in favor of my article on the Arcadia Rally 2016. That, in turn, allowed me to move ahead with finishing that article today, which I finally did around dinner time. My only breaks were to eat lunch and go for short walks.

Linda worked on her counted cross-stitch project but took time out to go on several longer walks, including one to the local Winn-Dixie supermarket. She planned to make a bean soup for dinner and needed a few ingredients. The soup was based on a package of mixed beans and lentils she bought at a health food store in Frankenmuth, Michigan back in October. She added water, tomato sauce, garlic, onion, greens, chili powder, and turmeric. By the time we sat down to dinner the sun had set and the temperature was dropping so the hot soup was not only delicious but really hit the spot.

We walked over to the mail room after dinner. My new driver’s license had arrived. The registrations and tabs for the bus and car arrived a few days ago so as of now we are not expecting any more mail.

Back at the coach I turned on the electric toe-kick heaters and plugged in the Broan portable cube heater rather than run the Aqua-Hot. We put on our Tuesday evening TV programs but I was in a groove and turned my attention to selecting and processing photos to go with blog posts. I got through my images for November and December and the first few days of January by 11 PM when the last show ended and Linda headed off to bed.

We still had 1.5 GB of data left in our current billing cycle, which ended at midnight, although I was not sure in what time zone. I knew the data for my BCM Arcadia rally article was not more than 0.5 GB so I uploaded it before our data allocation reset. It’s expensive to exceed our allocation but there is also a “cost” associated with not using what we have paid for.

I turned the thermostats on the toe-kick heaters back and turned off the Broan cube heater. I turned on the electric heating pad on my side of the bed, set it to 4, and activated the pre-heat function. I finally got to bed around 12:30 AM and snuggled in under the blankets.

2016/01/20 (W) Cellular Options

I don’t know if the outside temperature got into the upper 30’s last night but even with the coach closed up the temperature inside dropped to 59 degrees F. Linda got up first this morning and turned up the thermostats on the electric toe-kick heaters. I got up a few minutes later and turned on the Aqua-Hot diesel burner and the three thermostats that control the zone pumps and fans on the heat exchangers in the house portion of the bus.

We had slept in a bit and were sitting around in our sweats while the coach warmed up when we realized at 7:55 that the Wednesday coffee was starting in five minutes. We did not feel like going over in our sweats or changing clothes so I made coffee in our coach like I do almost every morning. The problems (for us) with the Wednesday morning coffee, based on having been one time, is that there is no opportunity to socialize and it takes too long. It was well attended the one time we went so it apparently serves the needs of the resort management and most of the residents.

Linda used her iPad2 to check in on the world and I used mine to finish up my blog posts for the last few days. We eventually had granola with blueberries and bananas for breakfast, which is always a treat. Linda walked our kitchen trash over to the dumpster and then continued walking the park for her first walk of the day.

My original objective for today was to upload image and document files for my Arcadia Rally 2016 article to my BCM Dropbox folder, but I got that done before I went to bed last night. Although I have a lot work to do on several websites, including ours, I wanted to put the finishing touches on my featured bus article about Ronnie and Diann Mewbourn’s 1969 Model 07 Eagle bus conversion and move two technical articles from “proofreading” to “ready” status. Gary has not had Kathy proofread/edit any of them yet so that had to wait for another day. I also wanted to continue selecting/processing photos for my January blog posts but got distracted with system updates for my ASUS laptop computer.

I ran the CCleaner program and then ran the Windows 8.1 disk check utility. I ran it because MS Outlook keeps “encountering a problem and has to close” or stops responding. The check disk utility did not find any errors so I downloaded a new version of Defraggler and started it. I probably should have run it overnight as it ran all day and through the evening. I think I could have worked while it was running but I have always preferred to let disk defragmenters run without anything else tasking the system.

With my computer tied up and my blog post drafts up-to-date I had a little time on my hands. Linda is always up for another walk so we walked over to the CellularSales store, an Authorized Verizon Retailer located on an out lot of the Walmart shopping center. The shopping center is on the other side of Highway 70 so we used the crosswalk at the traffic signal for the shopping center entrance. This stoplight also serves the entrance to the 55+ community immediately to the east of our RV resort and is where we make our U-turn when headed east to head back west to the entrance to our resort.

The reason for our visit was that we became eligible for device upgrades back in April and wanted to check out what was available in smartphones and data plans. We were also looking for a new Mi-Fi device that Chris and Cherie (Technomadia) reported on in their Mobile Internet Aficionados (MIA) site. We usually work with Verizon corporate stores but there isn’t one in Arcadia. The store was large, spacious, very nice, and not busy so Toby was able to spend some relaxed time answering our questions.

The Mi-Fi device we wanted to see was the new Netgear AC791L but CellularSales did not have one and Toby was not familiar with it. They did not even have the Novatel 6620L and were still selling the Novatel 5510L which is what we have now and want to replace. We got our 5510L in June 2013 from a Verizon retailer in Gillette, Wyoming and our friends at the RV Mobile Internet Resource Center (MIA) consider it obsolete and no longer even report on it.

We also looked at new phones and learned that the Samsung Note 4 and Note 5, along with the Galaxy VI smartphone, do not have removable batteries. Toby viewed that as a negative and we agreed. The Galaxy V smartphone, which does have a removable battery, would still be an upgrade over our Galaxy III phones. It has a larger screen but not as large as the Note devices, which are almost too large to hold up to your ear. Toby also showed us the new LG phone which was very nice but again did not have a removable battery. It’s the newest competitor to the Samsung Galaxy S VI. We will do more research before deciding what, if anything, to do. The AC791L, in particular, appears to be available online without a contract and at a better price than in a retail outlet.

As long as we were on the other side of the highway we stopped at Walmart and bought a loaf of Italian bread to go with our soup for dinner. When we got back to our coach the disk defragmenter on my computer was still only part way through the disk and indicating the time remaining as “> 1 day.” The temperature outside was near perfect, not too warm or cool, so Linda got out one of our chairs and sat outside reading while I stayed inside and took a nap.

I got up a couple of hours later and wiled away what was left of the afternoon. We have been keeping an eye on our male cat, Jasper, who has lost little patches of fur from several spots on his back, and finally decided that we should get him in to see a vet. The closest one is on FL-31 less than a mile from our RV resort and is the one that folks in the resort recommended. Linda was looking for reviews online but could not find the clinic so she drove over in the car to get the name and phone number. It turned out that she had found the veterinarian’s name but he used to work out of his house at a different location. We plan to drive out towards Lake Okeechobee tomorrow but will call the veterinary clinic first and make an appointment for Friday.

The Venice Rookery at sunset, Venice, FL.

As the sun sank in the western sky the temperature cooled off quickly and we closed up the coach. Linda heated the rest of the soup she made yesterday and we sat down at 7 PM to a simple but delicious dinner of soup and bread. We turned on the TV after dinner, watched Jeopardy, and then switched to PBS to watch the Wednesday night nature/science programs.

The last 10 days have been very busy and somewhat intense for us. We had been to the woodcarvers expo in Punta Gorda, visited with Steve and Karen, met Ron and Mary at Myakka State Park, visited with them again at our RV resort, attended the Tampa RV Supershow in conjunction with strong weather, visited Marilyn in Fort Myers Beach, dealt with severe weather again, followed by a long day of working on photos for my BCM rally article, had a long day visiting Steve and Karen in Nokomis again and seeing The Capitol Steps at the Venice Theatre, eating at Cafe Evergreen twice and then visiting the Venice Rookery to take photographs before returning home, had finally had another really long day yesterday selecting/processing photos and placing them in my BCM article. Looking back at all of that we were probably due for an easy, low activity day, and one of the nice things about retirement is that we can usually have “do nothing” days whenever we want.

When I checked my computer it was still showing 17 hours to complete the defragmentation so I went to bed.

2016/01/06 (W) -10 (N) Websites, Woodwork, and Wildlife

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2016/01/06 (W) Filtered Article

The temperature dropped into the mid-50s last night and made for excellent sleeping conditions. Never-the-less, Linda was up at 6:30 AM and read quietly until I got up at 8 AM. I used the last of the current batch of coffee beans yesterday so I opened four fresh bags this morning, a half-pound each of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (regular and decaffeinated), Seattle Blend (regular), and Sweet Dreams Blend (decaffeinated). Teeko’s Coffee and Teas back home roasted and vacuum packed the beans for us in 1/2 pound amounts so they would stay fresh through the winter. I made a full pot of the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe (half-caffe) and Linda prepared toast and grapefruit for breakfast. One of the things we bought yesterday at Joshua Citrus was orange marmalade so Linda opened it and we had some on our toast. It was not as bitter as most orange marmalades I have tried and I liked it.

Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center, Punta Gorda, FL.

Tonight was the weekly Powerball lottery drawing and the amount was approaching 400 million dollars so we agreed that we should buy a few tickets. Since there was a possibility of rain this afternoon Linda wanted to get her walk in early so she walked to the Winn-Dixie supermarket in search of lottery tickets. The Winn- Dixie is in a shopping plaza with other stores on the same (south) side of US-70 as the Carefree Big Tree RV Resort about 1/2 mile west towards downtown. There is a very wide sidewalk along the south side of US-70 that is used by walkers, bicyclists, and folks in golf carts, from our resort and the much larger adult community just to our east, to get to the shopping area just west of us. The Walmart is immediately across the street, with a stop light and crosswalk, but golf carts cannot go there as far as we know.

I’ve needed to change the water filter under the kitchen sink for a while so today I finally did. I installed the GX1S01R GE Drinking Water Filter housing in fall 2014 to replace the Everpure unit that gave me no end of difficulty whenever I tried to change the filter cartridge. It turned out that neither of our two filter wrenches fit the housing and I had to get my large slip pliers out to get it off. The inside of the housing was dirty so I boiled some water in the microwave, added a small amount of dish soap, cleaned it thoroughly, and rinsed it out.

The GE drinking water filter element is a Class I media (0.5 – 1.0 micron) that reduces or removes more things than most filters, including: MTBE, VOCs, Chlorine (taste and odor), Lead, Cysts, Mercury, Turbidity, and Asbestos. The capacity of the element is listed as 500 gallons* (*depending on water conditions) and the useful life is listed as 6 months. The filter feeds a special drinking water faucet in the kitchen sink that is only used for cleaning food and cooking so I doubt that we run anywhere near 500 gallons of water through it in 6 months, or even in a year. Given how we use our motorcoach, and the cost of the filter elements, I will probably change the filter once a year. To that end I wrote the date on a piece of Frog Tape and attached it to the housing.

I continued to focus on my article for BCM about Ronnie and Diann Mewbourns’ 1969 Model 07 Eagle bus conversion. I thought I might get it done by lunch but I did not get back to work on it until after 11 AM. I worked on it most of the rest of the day and into the evening and still did not get it finished. By 9 PM I had the photos selected and processed but deferred integrating them into the article until tomorrow. I will then upload it to our Dropbox and e-mail Diann that it is available for review.

Lunch was left over black-eyed peas, fresh fruit, and hummus with sourdough pretzels for dipping. Dinner was salad and pan-seared tofu with caramelized onions in BBQ sauce with fresh strawberries for dessert. We went for walks after both meals and Linda got in 10 miles today.

If we watch TV at all on Wednesday evening it is usually PBS and so it was tonight. Nature was on cross-species animal bonding, Nova was on an archeological investigation of WWI trenches and tunnels, followed by a two hour program on the CERN LHC (Large Hadron Collider) and the search for the Higgs bozon particle and other, possibly more elementary ones. It was after midnight by the time I got bed.

2016/01/07 (R) Jam Session

We were both awake around 7 AM. Linda read for a while and got up around 7:45. I drifted back to a light sleep and finally got up at 8:15. By the time the coffee was ready to drink it was 8:45 AM. Linda washed off some blueberries and poured our cups of Joe.

Linda bought 10 tickets yesterday for the Powerball lottery. Our $20 investment returned $4. The good news was that no one won and Saturday’s drawing will likely approach $700 million. I know the odds of winning are astronomically small, but any non-zero chance to win even a piece of that pot seems worth another $20. After all, you can’t win if you don’t play.

Linda by the signposts at the Charlotte Harbor Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Punta Gorda, FL.

We had granola with fresh berries for breakfast. I then e-mailed the Geeks on Tour to see if we could arrange a meetup. That’s the name of Jim and Chris Guld’s business and they are currently just up the road at the Thousand Trails Preserve (RV park) in Zolfo Springs. They are full-time RVers who do seminars and in-depth training classes on a wide range of technologies at RV rallies, parks, and other venues. You can find them here: http://www.geeksontour.com. They also do a weekly podcast and have an extensive catalog of video tutorials.

I spent the morning and early afternoon finishing my BCM article on Ronnie and Diann Mewbourn’s 1969 Model 07 Eagle bus conversion. I uploaded it to a folder in our Dropbox for them e-mailed them the link and some instructions. I also sent the link to BCM publisher Gary Hatt.

We had hummus with sourdough pretzel nibblers and fresh fruit for lunch around 1 PM. Our plan for the afternoon was to go watch a practice session of the Royal Lipizzan Stallions. The U.S.-based stallions’ facility is just up the road in Myakka City and they have practice sessions open to the public at 3 PM on Thursdays and Fridays, and 10 AM on Saturdays. They ask (charge) a $5 donation per person. The facility has bleachers but you can bring your own chair. We had planned to go today because the forecast for this afternoon was pleasant.

We want to order some fresh citrus fruit from Joshua Citrus here in Arcadia and have it shipped to our children in Michigan. It will be much more economical for us to have it shipped to one place and Meghan agreed to receive it and distribute it. We were going to stop there on our way to see the Lipizzaners but at 1:15 PM it was still overcast. I wanted to take photographs so we decided not to go and will visit the facility another time.

With the change in our plans we took a long walk around the resort. I then had to figure out something else to do. I was tired and decided to take a nap. The sofa was not available as Linda was working on her counted cross-stitch project so I curled up on the bed next to Jasper (the cat) and dozed for a couple of hours.

For dinner Linda fixed a side of mixed grains, steamed some broccoli, and sautéed a package of Gardein Orange “Chicken.” The orange chicken is a soy-based dish and it is very tasty.

After dinner we turned on the TV and I worked on the bonus content photographs for my article on the recent Arcadia converted bus rally. Perhaps because of the distraction from the boob tube, was trying to clean up a slightly complicated situation I had created for myself, was just not in the humor, or some combination of the three, I found the work a bit tedious. I stuck with it long enough to get it better organized and then stopped at a somewhat logical point and watched TV.

2016/01/08 (F) Touring Geeks

There was rain in the forecast for overnight and I heard the first few drops before I went to bed just before midnight. The rains came in earnest sometime between 4 and 5 AM and it rained hard around 7 AM. I was awake at that point and decided to get up and check for leaks. Fortunately there was no sign of the leaks we had during the last rain event. I fed the cats, plugged in the charger for our Verizon Mi-Fi, and made the coffee.

Bruce by the signposts at the Charlotte Harbor Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Punta Gorda, FL.

After checking the user manual we determined that it is OK for the Mi-Fi to be plugged in and charging while it is turned on and operating. The issue with the device is that it really wants to be unplugged from the charger once the battery is fully charged and can overheat if left connected. Since we do not have a usable RV park Wi-Fi signal at our site it simplifies our online life if we can just leave the Mi-Fi on with the Wi-Fi Ranger connected to it. The Mi-Fi battery is very slow to charge, especially when the device is turned on, but it eventually reaches full charge. The battery will not even operate the device for 12 hours but it will operate long enough to get through the night. What I am still trying to figure out is when to plug it in during the evening so that it is fully charged just before we go to bed. That is a trial and process. Once I have it figured out I need to make a habit of plugging it in when I get up in the morning and again at the right time during the evening.

After a little more discussion I e-mailed Jim Guld to confirm plans for a visit and dinner this afternoon. We settled in with our coffee and iPads for a while and finally had breakfast at 9 AM. Linda had two frozen toaster waffles she wanted to use up so we had those with peanut butter. I also add a little apricot preserves on mine. We split one of the Ruby Red grapefruits we bought at Joshua Citrus the other day. Yum.

With company coming later today we took showers. While Linda was getting her shower I copied recent photos from the Sony SLT- a99v to my ASUS laptop. An updated version of the Play Memories Home software was available, so I downloaded and installed it. After I showered, shaved, and got dressed Linda cut my hair. We then cleaned the coach, putting away things that did not need to be out and sweeping/mopping the floor.

With the cleaning of ourselves and the coach completed, we went on an errand run. After dropping off a small bag of trash our first stop was the Winn-Dixie supermarket. We then drove to the Turner Agri-Civic Center to drop off recyclable plastic. We swung by El Pirata Mexican restaurant to check out the menu and then drove to Joshua Citrus Company. While I picked out some Sugarbelle oranges and Ruby Red grapefruit Linda ordered a three tray box of mixed citrus fruit that included Honeybelle tangelos, Meyer lemons, Navel oranges, and Ruby Red grapefruit. The box will be shipped to our daughter and she will divide up the fruit with our son. That arrangement allowed us to send more fruit at a lower cost than shipping to two addresses. Our final stop was at Walmart for a few food items we did not find at Winn-Dixie.

Back at our coach I spent some time updating the Participants Database for our FMCA Freethinkers chapter (FTH) website. I also spent some more time trying to recall just how I set up the WP-Members plugin for the SLAARC website so I can recreate it for the FTH website. I was not able to do that in the time I had available and I think that might be due, in part, to changes that have been made in newer versions of the plugin. I set up a WordPress User for Linda using the WP-Members registration form and it did not work the way I remembered it in the SLAARC website. Apparently I am going to have study the user manual in detail.

Christine Guld called at 2:30 PM to let me know that she and Jim were on their way to our resort. They arrived around 3 PM and we quickly settled into an easy conversation covering a wide range of topics. Jim and Chris are the “Geeks on Tour” and do technology training (edutainment) at RV rallies and other venues. They have seen and done a lot of things and are interesting, fun folks with whom to share time.

At 4:30 PM Jim drove us to dinner at Magnolia Seafood and Grill in downtown Arcadia. The restaurant was almost empty when we arrived and we got a nice corner table by the front picture windows. Today was Jim’s birthday and we enjoyed sharing it with him and Chris. We lingered over dinner for almost two hours and by the time we left people were waiting in the lobby for a table. I don’t like to wait for tables, but it’s usually a good sign when a restaurant is that popular. Everyone said their meal was excellent. Jim drove us back to our coach and dropped us off. There was a music jam back at the Thousand Trails Peace River Preserve in Zolfo Springs starting at 7 PM. They wanted to cap off their evening there and we certainly understood.

We walked over to the resort office and picked up our mail. My driver license renewal paperwork was there but nothing else. Back at our coach we turned on the TV. PBS/Create was airing the Las Vegas BeeGees concert from 20 years ago (again). With that as background we doodled on our iPads and eventually went to bed.

2016/01/09 (S) FTH Website Work

Our plan for today was once again to go watch the Royal Lipizzan Stallions practice session at their facility in Myakka City. Fog moved in last night and was still thick by the time we finished breakfast at 9 AM. That was when we needed to leave in order to get there and set up our chairs in time for the start of the session at 10 AM. For the second time this week we decided to defer this event to a future date with better weather.

Black Crested Night Heron at the Peace River Wildlife Center, south of Punta Gorda, FL.

Linda resumed work on her counted cross-stitch project and I worked for a while on photos for the BCM article on the Arcadia Rally 2016. No one won the Powerball lottery on Wednesday and by this morning the top prize had exceeded 800 million dollars, an all-time record for any lottery in the U. S. Linda needed a few grocery items for our dinner and we wanted to buy a few more lottery tickets so we walked to the local Winn-Dixie supermarket to take care of those errands. It was approximately a one mile round trip and on the walk back the cloud cover broke up into partly sunny skies. Back at the coach we opened all three roof vents, turned on the exhaust fans, and opened the windows wider.

Linda settled back into her counted cross-stitch project and I turned my attention to our FMCA Freethinkers website. I checked the SLAARC website (WordPress) to see how I set up the quick registration page through the WP-Members plug-in and then set up a similar (hidden) page for the FTH website. I cleaned up a lot of other things on the website as well, including the member directory. This work occupied the rest of the afternoon except for a lunch break and a brief walk.

Lunch was grilled “cheese” (non-dairy) and tomato sandwiches–very messy but very good–with grapes and orange slices. The walk was brief because we stopped to visit with a couple from Ithaca, Michigan. While we were chatting we watched low, thick white clouds moving towards us from the southwest against a dense, dark gray sky. A couple of drops of rain was our early warning to return to the coach.

We got back before the rain started but once it did we closed the roof vents and reduced the window openings. The forecast a few hours earlier had a chance of a thunderstorm at 9:15 PM but by 2 PM it was raining hard and an old leak around the bedroom exhaust vent/fan reappeared. I also found a small leak at the lower outside corner of the new lower passenger side windshield. We were both pretty discouraged at these continued leaks having hired people to fix them. The heavy rain continued off and on for hours prompting Linda to track it in her iPad and eventually turn on the TV. Lee County, which includes Fort Meyers about 45 miles due south of us, was under a tornado warning. Arcadia is in Desoto County, which is the next one north, but the weather here was not severe, just wet.

While Linda was preparing dinner I e-mailed the members of our FMCA Freethinkers chapter to let them know that the public portions of the chapter website were now open for viewing and that I would be e-mailing each of them a unique username and password for the Members Only area in the near future.

For dinner Linda made a quinoa dish with julienned carrots, diced green onions, grated ginger, edamame, diced cucumber, and diced bell pepper. She served it at room temperature and it was another fabulous dish.

After dinner Linda put on the Bengals-Steelers NFL playoff game while I started generating the usernames and passwords for the Freethinkers website. I finished that work in about 90 minutes with the process of creating users automatically sending an e-mail to each member with their login information. With that done I settled on the sofa with my iPad to finish up blog posts while we continued to track the weather. The frontal system responsible for the wet/severe weather stretched from out in the Gulf of Mexico ENE across the Florida peninsula and was drifting to the east as storm cells raced along it. Fort Meyers got 3″ of rain and sustained some wind damage from a rare January tornado. The system was due to pass over Naples between 9 and 9:30 PM. Our friends, Barb and Chuck, are there so hopefully they will just get rain like we did.

We did not have any more rain after dinner so we opened the roof vents and turned the exhaust fans on. The forecast for Arcadia kept changing through the evening with the probability of rain around midnight bouncing up and down. By the time we went to bed it looked like we might be done with precipitation for the night.

2016/01/10 (N) Wood Art

We made it through the night without any further rain or threatening storms and got up around 7:30 AM this morning. We got dressed right away but I did not make coffee. Our main objective for today was a visit to the Florida Winter National Wood Art Expo and Competition (FWNWAEC) in Punta Gorda. We gathered up raincoats, camera gear, and a list of addresses for places we might visit, and headed out around 8:15 AM. We stopped at the Dunkin’ Donuts in Arcadia for coffee and bagels and then continued west into downtown where we picked up US-17 and headed south to Punta Gorda.

The island at the Venice Rookery, Venice, FL.

We had a pleasant drive down and arrived at the Charlotte Harbor Event and Conference Center in Punta Gorda just after 9 AM. The FWNWAEC opened at 9 AM so our timing was good. The parking lot was mostly empty so I got a spot near the building and we finished our coffee before going inside. Admission was $7 each and we got wristbands that allowed us to come and go all day if we wanted to.

We spent a couple of hours looking at all of the wood carvings on display and I photographed a few of them. There were also lots of vendors selling tools, materials, supplies, and finished products. At one of those tables we met John, who heads the woodcarving group at our RV resort, and learned that there will be woodcarving classes at the Turner Center February 8-11 and another exhibition there on February 20. He invited us to stop by when the woodcarving group meets at the resort on Thursday mornings.

By 11 AM we had seen everything we wanted to see. On our way out of the building the ladies at the entrance table were explaining to someone else some of the other things to do nearby and I heard mention of a Farmers Market. I asked about its location and got directions. Before leaving the event center area we walked the grounds around the Convention Center and Tiki Bar that is part of the Sheraton Four Points hotel next door. We then headed south on Retta Esplanade through a nice area of wonderful homes on our left and waterfront parklands on our right. There was a very large craft fair in progress but we passed it by in favor of finding the Farmers Market.

The market was inland a few blocks and was located in a smaller, but lovely, park where the vendor canopies were spread out along a winding pathway that led to a historic house which was open for visitors. There was also a group of about eight musicians with guitars, fiddles, and such. Linda bought a large Miatake mushroom after we sampled some and decided it was one of the best mushrooms we had ever tasted. We found another vendor selling turmeric in root form. She said it would keep for months so Linda bought a large piece. At another vendor she bought sesame seeds and flax seeds, so the market turned out to be a good stop.

From the market we continued south in search of the Peace River Wildlife Center. It was a small, private facility but had quite a collection of animals, mostly birds, that were being rehabilitated (if possible) for release back into the wild or living out their lives’ (if release was not possible). A small donation was requested on entrance and willingly paid. Most of the birds were in enclosures that made them difficult to photograph but the pelican area was open, and wild birds came and went, so I was able to get a few photos there.

From the Wildlife Center we drove back north into downtown Punta Gorda and the headed northwest on the Tamiami Trail across Charlotte Harbor towards Port Charlotte. Our destination was the Earth Origins market in Port Charlotte which was, conveniently, located on the east side of the Tamiami Trail. I say conveniently because the Trail was basically a 20 mile long strip mall. It was six lanes divided plus left and right turn lanes, and choked with cars, so having the store on the side of the road we were already on was definitely convenient.

We were done with our shopping by 2:30 PM and realized that we were only 36 miles from Steve and Karen Limkemanns’ place in Nokomis (near Venice). We called and got Karen on the phone. Steve was out riding his bike but was due back soon. They had no plans for the rest of the day so we headed their way. We had been to their mobile home park (Bay Lake Estates) two years ago but had not been there since they bought their own place this past March. It took about 45 minutes to get there, by which time Steve had returned from his bike ride. We got a tour of their new place, which was one of the newer units in the complex and very nice. We also walked up to see a unit that had caught fire and completely burned. It was stunning to see how little of it was left. The unit next door did not burn but the vinyl siding facing the fire melted and sagged. Most RVs are built much the same way as mobile homes and park model trailers and they do not do well in fire situations.

Before going to dinner we decided to drive to the Venice Rookery. We saw a sign for it driving up and wondered just what it was. It turned out to be a large pond with an island that was a favorite resting and nesting area for egrets, herons, Anhingas, and other birds. The island provide natural protection from land-based predators and locals told us that a large alligator protected them from any threat that might try to swim across. I took what photos I could but had not planned on doing wildlife photography and did not have the correct lens(es) with me.

The temperature had been moderate during the day and our shorts had been appropriate clothing. The best time to view the birds is apparently at sunset when large numbers of them return to the rookery. As the sun sank towards the tree tops it got decidedly chilly and we finally had to call it a day. We will be back on the 18th to see The Capitol Steps at the Venice Theater and made plans to return to the rookery with appropriate clothing and photo equipment.

From the Rookery we drove directly to Cafe Evergreen for dinner, an organic restaurant not far from Steve and Karen’s winter home. The Café is not specifically vegan but always has some nice vegan selections. Linda and I both had roasted beet Reuben sandwiches. She had an edamame salad as a side and I had baked sweet potato “fries.” We both had lots of decaffeinated coffee but no dessert as we were quite full by the time we finished our meals.

We went back to Steve and Karen’s place and visited a while longer before finally leaving a little before 8 PM. Linda wanted to see Downton Abbey at 9 PM and we figured we had an hour drive to get back to our RV park in Arcadia. The GPS wanted to take us south on I-75 but we went north 10 miles and took FL-70 due east through Myakka River State Park. About half way to Arcadia we encountered an accident scene and had to wait for 15 minutes before we could continue our trip. We got home a few minutes after 9 PM so we were still able to watch the show. The Abominable Bride episode of Sherlock was rebroadcast following Downton Abbey so we watched it again.

The weather had cleared out behind the strong cold front that pushed through the area yesterday and temperatures overnight were forecast to drop into the upper 40’s. We closed down all the windows before we went to bed. I turned on the electric heater pad on my side of the bed before climbing in. It had been a long day and neither of us felt like reading or writing so I turned off the lights and we went to sleep.

2015/12/18 (F) MEF3 @ 3

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It rained off and on all night with a heavy downpour around 5:30 AM. Once again we did not close up the coach and run the air-conditioners so the bedding was a bit damp, but we slept through the night and did not get up until after 8 AM.

I took care of the cat chores and then made a full pot of coffee. We used our iPads, as we do almost every morning, while we enjoyed our morning brew and finally had half of a grapefruit (each) for breakfast around 9:30. It was in the upper 60’s when I got up but was forecast to drop to 55 degrees F by dinner time and into the upper 30’s overnight. Burrr.

I took a few pictures yesterday at the Breezy Oaks Music Jam so my first task today was to copy those to my computer and back them up to the NAS. I then continued working on selecting and processing photos for blog posts and spent most of the rest of the day doing just that except for some time out for lunch, a mid-afternoon stroll, and dinner.

Today was our younger grand-daughter’s third birthday. Our daughter and son-in-law went to our son and daughter-in-law’s house this evening for Madeline’s birthday and Linda arranged for us to Facetime while they were all there. We initiated the call at 6:35 PM and Facetimed for almost 30 minutes. We got to see Madeline open the gifts we bought for her and interact with her and everyone else.

We had closed up the windows and changed into warmer clothes for the fire circle before we made the Facetime call so as soon as we were done with “happy birthday” we got our sweatshirts and wine supplies and headed for the firepit. There were already folks there but there were also empty seats, the cooler weather keeping some folks away (which made no sense to us; it’s a FIREpit after all). John was tending the fire but Ali was not there yet. Tom and Cindy were there and I took the open chair next to Tom.

We were at the campfire until 10 PM when John had to go lock up and Ali was ready to go in for the night. I spread out the remaining fire logs and then we walked back to our bus in the cool night air. The temperature in the coach was 74 when we left and had dropped to 70 by the time we returned. We both changed into our warmer lounging clothes (sweats), turned on the TV, and nibbled on pretzels and hummus. Linda trundled off to bed around 11:30 PM but I stayed up a bit longer.

I checked e-mail and had one from Technomadia about their latest Mobile Internet Aficionados report on mobile cellular boosters. I logged in to read it and discovered that our MIA membership had expired in August so I renewed it online. I read the report and then went to bed where I wrote briefly on my iPad.

The outside temperature had already dropped to 45 degrees F but Linda had turned on the electric heater pad on my side of the bed before going to sleep so it was nice and toasty. The overnight low was forecast to drop to 36 degrees which meant the inside temperature would drop to around 60; not freezing cold, but chilly enough that we would need the furnace for a while in the morning. I went to sleep around 12:30 AM.

2015/12/16 (W) More Blog Stuff

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I was awake before 7 AM but did not get up until 7:15. I removed and cleaned my nighttime bite guard, as I do every morning. I then cleaned the cats’ food bowls and filled them with fresh food. Linda was still sound asleep so I worked at my computer for a while selecting and processing photographs for blog posts. I finished my selections for August and was part way through September when Linda got up so I put that work aside and made our morning coffee.

We both worked on our iPads for an hour doing our usual morning things. Linda texted John (Smitty) regarding going to Satchel’s this evening for dinner and I messaged our daughter regarding Facetiming with everyone on Friday, which is grand-daughter Madeline’s 3rd birthday. Linda proofread our 2015 Year in Review holiday letter and found a few things that needed to be corrected.

For breakfast we had granola with fresh blueberries, orange/grapefruit juice, and split a banana. After breakfast Linda got dressed and I took a quick shower (she took one yesterday.) I was going to use the bathhouse but decided to shower in our coach to use up more of the remaining fresh water and get it into our gray tank. The fresh water level dropped below 1/3rd yesterday which meant we still had 40 gallons, easily enough for two more days with a little reserve. I got dressed and we dealt with a few chores. Linda vacuumed the inside of the coach, which she had not done since we left Michigan. I dumped our holding tanks and filled our fresh water tank and updated our water usage spreadsheet.

I calculated our fresh water usage and waste water generation for this past winter. Over 128 days we averaged just over 13 gallons of fresh water per day and over 120 days generated an average of just over 15 gallons per day of waste. Those numbers suggest that a 130 gallon fresh water tank and a single 150 gallon waste tank would be well balanced and allow us to boondock for 10 days with some reserve. That’s only 280 gallons total, 40 gallons less than the 320 gallons (approximately) of the three tanks currently in the bus, so tanks that size would create the space I need in the bay for a water softener, filters, and fresh hose reel, and possibly a shorepower cord reel. When we pay more careful attention to water management and conservation we can reduce our fresh water usage to 10 gallons per day with a corresponding reduction in waste generation. That would allow us to boondock for 13 days. With slightly larger tanks we could stay out 14 days and still have room for the things I want to get into the bay. Final decisions will depend on more precise calculations and the actual dimensions of possible equipment.

With the chores done (for now) Linda started addressing envelopes and putting postage on them while I made final changes to our holiday letter and started printing copies. She folded the letters, stuffed them into the envelopes, and sealed them. It took about two hours to get 34 letters ready to mail. We skipped lunch and just had a few pretzels. We wanted to stop at Walmart on our way to Satchel’s so we left at 2:45 PM and drove to the Williston post office, sent the letters on their way, and headed to Gainesville. John and Ali followed later in their own car.

At Walmart we found Christmas cards for mailing checks to immediate family members. I got two pairs of shorts, as I forgot to pack mine when we left home, and we picked up two bags of Snyder`s sourdough pretzel nibblers. I also got a call from Pat Lintner. We chatted briefly and I said I would call him back when we got hone after dinner.

We were at Satchel’s by 5 PM and sat inside. We had the same selections as last time: small salad and medium pizza with Daiya mozzarella cheese, onions, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes. We only ate half the pizza and brought the rest home. This pizza is soooo good. It’s one of the best we have ever had, including all of the non-vegan pizzas we have eaten over our lifetime. Only the original Luigi’s Pizza from St. Louis in the 1960’s stands taller in our memories, although the current Imo’s chain makes a similar and very good pizza.

We were back at our coach by 6:45 PM and went for an evening stroll to help settle our dinner. It was cool but humid and the clouds had cleared out so a pleasant enough evening for a walk. When we got back to our coach I called Pat and we talked for about 40 minutes with Vickie occasionally joining in on the other end of the call. They are not leaving Indiana until after Christmas and will spend New Year’s Eve at an RV park near Ocala, Florida as they have every year for many years. They will be less than 40 miles from Williston at that point but we will already be in Arcadia by then. Timing is everything.

Some nights I just do not feel like working at my computer, or iPad, or reading, and tonight was one of those nights. Unfortunately Wednesday evening is a bit of a TV wasteland, even on PBS, which is to say there wasn’t anything on that interested me. The best thing on was a Big Band retrospective on PBS but it was also part of the 24/7 fundraising that has become the network’s defining characteristic. Whatever the reason, the music did not grab me the way it normally would. CBS had a 3-hour Survivor finale. Nope, not going to watch that. Linda read and I scrolled through channels hoping something interesting would pop up but eventually I zoned out. Even Ask This Old House (AskTOH) was less interesting than usual. I guess I just wasn’t in the mood. It happens sometimes.

2015/12/14 (M) Christmas Stocking

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I was up just before 7 AM to feed the cats, who were crying rather than using their usual technique of circling the mattress, and decided to just stay up. I tried connecting my iPad to one of the nearby RV resort Wi-Fi access points but was still unable to connect to the Internet. I tried to connect our WiFi Ranger to the access point but it was unable to acquire an IP address. I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi, connected the Wi-Fi Ranger to it, and started up my computer. Linda was also up by this time and played a few word games on her iPad while I made coffee.

It was heavily overcast, but not foggy, and the sky glowed briefly with the rising sun before turning to a muted gray. It was 71 degrees F outside, as dense cloud cover had prevented the temperature from dropping overnight, and 78 inside. We left windows and the roof vents open last night with the bathroom exhaust fan on, so we had airflow but the humidity was higher than we like. Still, we slept OK.

We had granola for breakfast. After breakfast Linda drove to the Publix at the southwest corner of Gainesville to buy groceries. I updated the other three WordPress websites that I manage and then got back to work on the HFH article for BCM which I did not finish yesterday.

I finished selecting and inserting photos for Part 2 of the article. I then selected and organized the remaining photos for the digital edition Bonus Content sections for Part 1 and Part 2. The penultimate step was to upload all of this to our Dropbox in a way that reflected the two-part organization of the article. The final step was to e-mail Gary and let him know it was done. Unfortunately this is at least the third time I have been “done” with this article so I won’t know if I am really, finally done until I see it in print.

We had a mock turkey sandwich for lunch and split an apple. After lunch I sent e-mails to three friends who live south of our RV resort to try and arrange get-togethers before we leave at the end of the month. I heard back from Bruce and Linda Whitney (really) right away. They are members of our ham radio club back home and are in the process of relocating to their new home near Brooksville, Florida. We agreed to get together this coming Sunday. I eventually heard back from John and Marian Hogan and they were also interested in getting together. By dinner time I had not heard back from Al Hesselbart, but I will.

Linda finished the needlepoint part of her project and walked to the sewing room by the office where she was able to use one of the sewing machines to attach the needlepoint matrix to a piece of white felt to make Madeline’s holiday stocking. Our Verizon Mi-Fi had shut down when the battery drained so I plugged it in to recharge it. I tried connecting our WiFi Ranger to the RV resort Wi-Fi and this time it worked. There was obviously a problem with the system and it took until this afternoon for the office to get a technician out to fix it.

Gary Hatt at BCM had Kathy proofread the draft of my article on servicing the Webasto burner in our Aqua-Hot and sent it back to me. I accepted all of her edits except one and then reformatted the article in two columns with the photos for the print edition inserted in-line. I uploaded it to our Dropbox and e-mailed Gary.

We had both spent a long day mostly sitting so we went for a long stroll around the RV resort. When we got back to the coach Linda started preparing dinner. She added Halo orange slices to the salad, which included dried cranberries, walnuts, and sun-dried tomato dressing. Yum. The main course was couscous and black beans with corn, onion, and garlic. Double yum. We went for another walk after dinner.

When we got back we settled in to watch our usual Monday night TV programs and had a small glass of wine.

2015/12/13 (N) Test Print

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We were up at 7:45 AM this morning. We were still unable to acquire the Internet via the resort Wi-Fi system so I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and got our Wi-Fi Ranger connected to it. I made the coffee and fed the cats while Linda cleaned the litter tray.

Sunday is pancakes-for-breakfast day but we had some coffee first. Linda played word games while I put the finishing touches on yesterday’s blog post and started today’s post. The pancakes were yummy if a bit too much quantity wise. Linda said I complain if she makes a smaller batch, which is probably true. I suggested that we should have grapefruit with our pancakes to make up the difference.

At the fire circle last night we met Tom and Cindy. We have seen them there the last three times but not had a chance to introduce ourselves. Tom sat down next to me so we finally had a chance to chat. They are newly retired and less than one year into their RVing adventure. Like us, they are only here for the month but expressed an interest in getting together to discuss motorhomes and RVing. Absolutely!

My main focus today was finishing our 2015 Year in Review holiday letter, which is actually a photo essay. I spent some time looking for a few additional photos that met my criteria and constraints and found one to fill available spaces. I also replaced several images with better (sharper) versions. By noon I was finally ready to print a test copy but had to mess around with printer settings for half an hour to get it to print. It finally did, and looked good, so I should not have to make any further adjustments unless Linda finds something when she proofreads it. Linda won’t have time to address envelopes until the middle of next week so there was no need to print them at this time. We will print, fold, address, stamp, and stuff them in one continuous process and then get them out of the rig and to the post office the same day. Space is at a premium in an RV, even a 40 foot converted highway coach.

With the holiday letter done I decided to make some minor updates to our website having to do with Bus Conversion Magazine. WordPress 4.4 was available so I installed it. There were eight updates—three plugins and five themes—so I installed those too. I did not take the time to update the other three WordPress sites but I need to do that and thought I might get to it after dinner.

We were both focused on our work and decided to skip lunch save for a few pretzels dipped in hummus. At 1 PM I decided to it was finally time to install the window. It was a warm, sunny day, which was fine for a short, light-duty maintenance task. Linda informed me that the weather forecast for the upcoming week had a significant chance of rain, so getting the window reinstalled today was probably a good thing.

It was a simple enough thing to install but I had to get out the Little Giant stepladder and a tool box for a pair of needle-nose pliers. I cleaned the hinge part of the frame and sprayed it with a dry lube. With me outside on the ladder and Linda inside I got the window hung and she got the lever mechanism adjusted so we could get the lever pins inserted in the correct direction. I then installed the E-clips on the ends of the pins. I noticed that the front pin on the other driver side living room window was missing its E-clip so we installed one there. At that point we checked the other six windows for missing clips. They were all good. I was going to change the pins around on the other three windows that had them in backwards but it was warm with a hot sun on the driver’s side of the bus so I deferred this minor project to another time.

Not having the window in place was starting to bug me so it was good to have it done. With that minor weight off my shoulders I returned to working on the Habitat For Humanity article for Bus Conversion Magazine. Although Part 1 will run in February and Part 2 in March I really want to put it to bed in the next 48 hours. As with Part 1, I reformatted Part 2 in two columns and started selecting and inserting photos in-line with the text for the print edition. With Jorge doing the magazine layout, and not being a bus person, placing the photos approximately where I think they should go seems to streamline the process.

By 4 PM we were both ready to go for a walk. We were back before 5 PM and sat outside for 45 minutes using our iPads until we felt a few rain drops and then a few more. The day had started with fog which gave way to mostly sunny skies that were gradually replaced with clouds and became a dense overcast by the time we went for our walk. The winds were out of the SSE and darker ones moved in just ahead of the rain drops. I put our outdoor chairs away and went inside just in case we had an unexpected downpour.

For dinner Linda heated up a couple of cans of Amy’s vegan chili with saltine crackers on the side and the last of the broccoli Cole slaw. After dinner we tuned in PBS and watched the 1981 Simon and Garfunkel Central Park reunion concert followed by a documentary on The Carpenters. The resort Wi-Fi was still not providing Internet access so I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and spent the better part of the evening copying blog posts from e-mails into Word docs. Linda played word games and eventually went to bed to read. I switched to my iPad to finish up this post and turned in for the evening at midnight.

2015/12/07 (M) Not on Vacation

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I set my iPad alarm clock last night for 5:30 AM. As soon as the alarm went off Jasper got up next to me on the outside edge of my side of the bed, snuggled in by chest, and wanted to be petted at great length. I obliged him for as long as I could and was rewarded with his loud, resonant purring, which I could feel as much as hear. I still managed to get out of bed by 5:45, feed the cats, get dressed, and be on my way by 6:08.

It’s only 75 miles from Williston to Suncoast Designers in Hudson, but the first few miles were a slow roll through the RV resort to the front gate followed by the short trip through downtown with a 35 MPH speed limit and several stop lights. After a short distance on US-41 south I picked up FL-115 heading west. A few miles past the airport it made a large sweeping turn to the south and continued on that heading for about 17 miles at 60 MPH until it joined up with to US-19. I continued south on US-19 at 65 MPH for another 20 miles. At that point it felt like I was making good time but I knew what was ahead as I had driven this route several times when we were here in 2014.

US-19 gets closer to the Gulf of Mexico the farther south you go, and with that closeness comes an increasing presence of people. The first population center I came to was the charming little “Suncoast” town of Crystal River, followed by Ingless, Homosassa Springs, Weeki Wachi, and then finally Hudson. These towns all have much lower speed limits and stop lights, and they get larger and closer together the farther south you go. The side of the road changes from forest and farm to intermittent small businesses, then continuous shall businesses, and then suburban commerce that extends back from the main road until you reach Hudson which is a far northern suburb in the greater Tampa / St. Petersburg metropolitan area. From Weeki Wachi on south US-19 is six lanes with a median, is lined with commercial properties, and has lots of traffic.

I arrived at Suncoast Designers a little before 8 AM so the trip took about an hour and 45 minutes. I checked in at the office and they had someone meet me at the factory door to take the window and label it with my name. We had this thermopane window repaired in April 2014 but the new seal did not hold. Getting it repaired was one of our reasons for returning to Florida this winter. Not the main reason, of course, but a factor in our decision. I was back in my car and on the way home by 8:20 AM. I will have to come back tomorrow to pick it up.

On the drive down I spotted a Dunkin Donuts about 10 miles north of Hudson on the west side of US-19 so I stopped there on the way back for a large coffee. I had also seen quite a few filling stations between Crystal River and Hudson, many of them Shell stations, so I picked one that had easy access and regular gasoline (10% Ethanol) for $2.03 per gallon, cash or credit.

I remembered seeing an Office Max and pulled in when I spotted it. By now it was well after 9 AM and businesses were open. They had several different weights of expensive color laser photo paper but nothing like that in 8.5×14 (legal) size. I did not need to have the paper today so I did not buy any. I really do not want to redo our Holiday Letter for 8.5×11 paper so I will check online and see what I can get. There was a Rural King at the same mall complex as the Office Max so I bought two bags of Spectracide Fire Ant Killer. I also got a bag of free popcorn, which is available at all Rural King stores. More places should do that, I think.

It was going on 11 AM by the time I got back to the coach. Linda had been up since 7 AM and was ready to set her cross-stitch project aside and go for a walk. I had been sitting for the better part of five hours so that sounded good to me. We went for a vigorous stroll through the resort and arrived back at our coach ready for lunch. Linda heated up a couple of vegan hot dogs and served them on the large whole wheat buns with mustard and relish.

After lunch I installed updates on the FMCA Freethinkers chapter website, the FMCA GLCC chapter website, and our personal website. I then took snapshots in Adobe Reader CC of the covers of the BCM issues for July through December 2015, post-processed the covers, and uploaded them to the BCM page on our website along with brief descriptions of my articles that appeared in each issue. I finished inserting photos into the OASIS Combi article I’ve been working on for BCM and will upload it to our Dropbox and e-mail Butch this evening.

It was a gorgeous day so we sat outside for a while and I worked on this post. That is one of the things I really like about my iPad. An earlier e-mail from Gary indicated that my package was out for delivery today. I was about to get in my car and drive to the office when Joe and Teresa from Brighton, Michigan stopped in their golf cart to chat. When they went on their way I dropped off the recyclables on my way to the office, picked up the box of magazines (which was heavy), and returned to the coach.

I worked some more on this post on my iPad but by 5:30 PM I had been up for 12 hours on too little sleep so I took a nap until 6:15 PM when Linda woke me up to have dinner. For dinner Linda made a green salad with fresh blueberries and strawberries and made black bean smothered sweet potatoes. Besides the black beans, the topping had tomatoes, scallions, cumin, and coriander and was finished off with a dollop of vegan sour cream. Yum, yum, yum.

We watched the PBS NewsHour, another thing we typically never do, but then we do a lot of things differently when we are away from home. We then watched our usual Monday night TV programs on CBS. Even when we are away some things don’t change. We are not “on vacation” after all. We don’t go on vacation to get bus windows repaired. In fact, we no longer go on vacation, we simply blend new experiences into our everyday lives. Such is the nature of retirement as extended-time RVers in a converted bus.

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2015/12/18 (F) MEF3 @ 3

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