Tag Archives: air-conditioning (H3-40)

2016/03/15-17 (T-F) Clermont Orlando Brakes Linner

2016/03/16 (T) Clermont & Orlando

We had coffee, grapefruit, and cinnamon raisin English muffins for breakfast and orange juice to wash down our vitamins. We had not made any specific plans for today but Linda still had her list of six places to visit in Clermont. We decided we would head that way after taking care of several important chores with the bus.

The first chore was checking the water level in the fresh water tank. We still had 1/4 tank so I deferred filling it until tomorrow. The next chore was checking the driver side tag axle/brake. In order to do this I had to start the bus engine, air up the suspension, and lift the tag axles. With the tag tires off the concrete pad (and the tire covers removed) I was able to freely spin the passenger side wheel but the driver side wheel would not budge. I removed the other four tire covers, put the tag axles back down, and moved the coach back and forth about 12 inches a couple of times before returning it to its starting position. I then lifted the tag axles and rechecked the wheel spin. My hope, of course, was that the driver side tag would break free but it didn’t. That strongly suggested that the disc brake was locked up although I won’t know for sure until the wheel is removed and the brake can be inspected. I put the tag axles back down and shut the engine off. After turning off the chassis batteries and engine accessory air supply I put the tire covers back on. I then texted Joe, our mobile mechanic, to let him know what I found and ask him to call me as soon as it was convenient. Joe has been in the Florida Keys for the last month and was planning to move to Ft. Lauderdale today and then move in our direction towards the end of this week, so we were lucky to have him in the area.

The third and last chore was to check the drain lines for the bedroom air-conditioner. I unscrewed the discharge register and removed it, giving me access to the front of the evaporator. The evaporator has an integral drain pan and Royale Coach installed a second one under the unit. The drain line for the integral pan comes straight out the center of the bottom, makes a quick 90 degree bend to the rear, and a couple inches beyond the rear of the extra pan makes another 90 degree bend down. At that point the drain line from the extra pan, which runs out the center rear of the pan, T’s into the down drain, which runs straight down through the cabinet into the driver side of the engine compartment. Just after entering the engine compartment the line turns 90 degrees to the rear until it is close to the rear hatch and then turns down 90 degrees and runs down close to the rear bumper where it ends. If the line is not clogged, condensate from the evaporator drips into the integral pan, flies through the drain lines, and eventually drips onto the ground near the driver side rear corner of the bus.

We grabbed the Kenwood HT ham radios and went outside to open the rear engine hatch so we could inspect the drain line and Linda could observe it. I went back in and poured a little water into the extra pan and noticed that there was some loose debris in the pan. Linda radioed that water was trickling out so I cleaned out the pan and then poured in a larger quantity of water. It came out onto the ground, so I knew the drain line was open at least from the T down. I poured water into the integral pan and Linda reported that it also came out on the ground. Well, alrighty then. I replaced a piece of foam that seals the bottom of the opening and reinstalled the register. I then closed the rear hatch.

The reason for all of this was that we have been running the rear A-C but not seeing any condensate on the ground. I checked the temperature of the evaporator yesterday and it was 10 to 15 degrees below the ambient air temperature so I know the evaporator had to be producing condensate and I was curious about where it was going. Of particular concern was any water overflowing the pans and dripping inside the cabinet as the main AC electrical panel is just below the evaporator and there are AC power relays, DC control switches, and lots of wiring just below that.

With all that taken care of we loaded the camera gear into the car and headed out of the resort and back west on CR-478 towards Webster where we picked up FL-471 south to FL-50 and headed east to Clermont. At US-27 we went north one exit to Citrus Tower Blvd. where the Florida Citrus Tower is located. The Tower was opened in 1956 as a monument (and tourist attraction) to the Florida Citrus industry, which was centered in this area at the time. The citrus groves were decimated by three hard freezes in the 1980’s and the industry in this area never recovered. We rode the elevator to the observation platform which is over 200 feet AGL, and just over 500 feet ASL. It was quite a view even if it wasn’t of citrus groves. The area has, in fact, “recovered” as there are at least 1,442 lakes within view of this tower and the area has become a Mecca for development with Orlando just 15 miles due east and Disney World about 23 miles southeast.

We stopped at Publix across the street for lunch snacks/beverages. Returning to FL-50, we continued east to Orlando to check out the route for Monday. Traffic congestion has us rethinking how we should get to Jetty Park on Cape Canaveral. We stopped at Bed-Bath-&-Beyond, but they do not carry the InstantPot. We picked up FL-408 (Toll Road) back to FL-50 and headed west through Clermont. On the way back to Webster we stopped at the Publix in Groveland. We then continued west on FL-50 to CR-471. I filled the fuel tank at the Shell station, which advertised $1.859 for Regular but had the pump set to $1.999. Arrrgh.

I called Chuck while Linda fixed dinner and we discussed the tag axle brake problem. I then called Butch but did not get an answer. Dinner was salad and open-faced pan-seared BBQ tofu slices with caramelized onions. We had fresh strawberries later for dessert. We eat well regardless of bus problems.

We tried to watch NCIS, NCISNOLA, and Limitless but TV reception was spotty all night. Butch called me back and we chatted about the brakes and battery charging. I needed to be up early to call Prevost and then text Joe the names and phone numbers of RV parks in Webster and Bushnell where he might be able to stay. As the name says, Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort does not accept pull-behinds. For that matter, it does not accept anything other than “Class A” motorhomes. Many of the units here are Prevost conversions, but certainly not all.

Linda checked the weather forecast for overnight and saw that there would be a period of about five hours with 100% humidity so we left the A-C units on all night. We don’t care for the noise but we like high relative humidity even less, especially when it comes to sleeping.

HC View of Minneola Lake from the Florida Citrus Tower looking west.

2016/03/16 (W) Braking News

I did not sleep well last night knowing that I had to be up early to research the parts I needed to order and then call Prevost’s U. S. Parts office in Elgin, Illinois to place the order. I got up at 5:30 AM and opened the Prevost CatBase Viewer software and found the diagrams and parts lists for the tag axles on our bus. I also researched RV parks for Joe. I found two in Webster, less than three miles away, and two in Bushnell, about nine miles away.

I ate one of the apricot bear claws and then called Prevost U. S. Parts and got connected to Gary. He spent an hour and 15 minutes working with me trying to figure out what tag axle we actually had. He also informed me that the disc brake calipers were no longer available; Prevost did not have any in stock and could not get any more as Meritor had discontinued production. That was not what I expected when I got up this morning and set the stage and tone for the rest of the day. I ended up ordering a “Left Side” major rebuild kit, a slide pin kit, and a set of brake pads, but not with complete confidence that they were the correct parts or that we would be able to use them.

I was on the phone when Linda got up so she made our morning coffee. A little while later she blended frozen strawberries, bananas, oatmeal, flax seeds, vanilla almond milk creamer, and a couple of other things into very thick smoothies and put them in the refrigerator.

In the course of the day I spent time online researching possible alternate sources and made phone calls to ABC Bus Co. in Oakland, Florida and American Frame and Axle in Tampa. It was not a positive experience and by late morning decided to shift my attention and effort to other tasks.

First up was filling the fresh water tank. The level appeared to be about 1/8th (15 gallons) and I decided to drain the tank before refilling it. The last time I drained the tank was in November just before we left for the winter. I have usually waited to refill the tank until it was down below the 1/3rd level, and usually down between 1/6th and 1/8th, but that means (hypothetically) that some of the water from the original fill up in November remained in the tank. Being a hot, sunny day, and being parked on a concrete pad, I figured it was a good time/place to dump the tank.

I refilled the fresh water tank to the top with 120 gallons of softened water and checked the hardness of the water coming out of the softener at the end. As best I could read the test strip it was somewhere between 1.5 and 3.0 gpg. That meant it was probably time to recharge the softener. I entered the data into my spreadsheet and it confirmed that I have removed about 8,500 grains on the current charge. The tank claims to be a 10,000 grain device.

Speaking of water softening, Mark Schumaker (from A-1 water Conditioning), was at the Webster Flea Market on Monday. We bought our current portable water softener from him in Gillette, Wyoming in the summer of 2013. I have always found this unit difficult/awkward to recharge, but he now has a newer system that involves a special valve assembly for the softening tank and uses a separate brine tank. That is exactly what I am looking for, so I may have to give Mark a second chance.

My next task was doing the laundry. As long as I had to go to the laundry room we decided to use the showers at the clubhouse. I put in a call to Chuck but caught him on the golf course and we agreed to talk later. I started two loads while Linda showered and then she kept an eye on the machines while I showered. When I returned to the laundry room Linda was using the resort Wi-Fi to Facetime on her iPad with our daughter. I added the towels to a third load of laundry and joined the conversation. When we were done talking Linda walked back to our rig while I stayed to finish drying the laundry. I called Pat Lintner to discuss the best route to get to Jetty Park. He and Vickie suggested FL-91 to FL-528. Both are tollroads, but it’s the easy/breezy route. Joe called me in response to my earlier text messages. He was wondering if the rebuild kit required any special tools and asked me to check on it.

When I got back to our coach I called Prevost Parts again and was connected to Eduardo. He took my number, did some digging around, sent me a couple of e-mails, and then called me back. Yes, it appeared that I might need a couple of specialized tools, and no, Prevost did not have them in stock anywhere. He did, however, give me the name of the manufacturer (Kent-Moore) and manufacturer’s part numbers (J-34064-51 & J-34064-52) of the two tools.

I searched online for these tools but mostly found listings for the Kent-Moore J-34064-B Rockwell-Meritor Dura-Master Brake Tool Set – Complete.” Many of the listings were on Ebay, were very used, and prices were all over the map. By this time I was wishing it was Wednesday last week rather than Wednesday this week. I had hoped to upload more blog posts today but that was clearly not going to happen.

I took a break for lunch, which was hummus, pretzels, and carrot slices. We opened the caramelized onion hummus. It reminds me of California Dip made from Lipton’s Onion Soup mix. Yum.

I had a reply from ESET a couple of days ago with some additional suggestions about how to get Smart Security 9 to properly synchronize with Windows 10 Update. We fiddled with ESET Windows 10 update notifications on Linda’s computer and realized that her machine is still running Smart Security 8 and needs to be upgraded.

Joe called back and I brought him up-to-date on what I had (not) accomplished today vis-a-vis the tag axle brake. Chuck called back as well and we spent quite a bit of time going over the brake situation. We did not necessarily resolve anything, but there is great comfort in being able to discuss such issues with friends who are fellow converted bus owners. They get it, and their empathy is genuine and informed.

Around 4 PM I logged in to the FMCA website and went through the registration process for the FMCA GLAMARAMA 2016 rally. At the very end the website said an error had occurred and to call the office. So I did. Bridgett took all of our info and passed it over to accounting for processing. Linda noted a short time later that the credit card charge appeared to be pending twice. Linda won’t know if that is actually the case until it posts to our account. FMCA is a big enough organization that they should not be having these kinds of eCommerce issues with their website.

We got a couple of Yuengling beers out of the refrigerator and went outside to sit in the shade. The midday sun was brutal today but as soon as it got lower in the western sky it was lovely outside with moderate breezes and comfortable humidity. We were just getting ready to relax and enjoy our brew when Joan stopped by with her dog Toby. Toby is a very friendly miniature Schnauzer and we appear to be his new best friends. Joan had barely continued on her walk when a couple stopped at the end of the pad (by the street) and the man held up his right hand, Palm facing us, and pointed to it. That is the universal sign of greeting between Michiganders (or Michiganians) and we was pointing to where they were from in the Lower Peninsula. It took me a moment to realize that I recognized them from Williston Crossings where we were parked next to each other in December. It was Ken and Pam from Grand Rapids. They arrived yesterday after spending the winter at Williston Crossings. We chatted for a while and then they continued their walk. We got the impression from a distance that they were not very friendly and so we did not interact with them much at WCRVR. Our loss; they were perfectly wonderful people. I think Pam was just shy. Shame on us for not reaching out; we certainly know better.

The light was fading and we were not hungry for dinner yet so we drove to the CVS store in Bushnell. We bought a Florida SunPass transponder to use with the bus as our only good route from Webster to Cape Canaveral is via the Florida a Turnpike and another tollroad. The transponder can be moved between vehicles and used with the car in tow behind the bus.

When we got back Linda made vegan grilled cheese sandwiches with deli slices for dinner along with fresh strawberries. We watched a PBS program on WW II British military intelligence. Linda went to bed at 11 PM and I stayed up to watch Charlie Rose. I then went to bed and worked on this blog for a short while before turning out the lights at 12:30 AM. It had not been an easy day and I went to sleep tired and discouraged at the turn of events regarding our rag axle brakes.

The Florida Citrus Tower in Clermont, FL.

2016/03/17 (R) Linner at Papa Joe’s

The last few days have been hot with daytime high temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80’s. The relative humidity has been moderate, leading to clear skies and intense sunshine, but there has been a persistent breeze which has helped keep things comfortable, especially in the shade. The coach is not in the shade, however, and we have kept the awnings in because of the wind, so we have been running our air-conditioners all day. By late afternoon, with the sun lower in the sky, the air temperature moderates just enough, without a significant rise in relative humidity, to be very pleasant; the kind of weather conditions that are perfect for just sitting outside with a cold beverage and relaxing. As the temperature drops after sunset the relative humidity rises and approaches 100% for some period of hours before and during sunrise. That does not make for good sleeping so we have also been keeping the air-conditioners on all night.

With the day I had yesterday I needed a good night’s sleep. Still, I went to bed discouraged and frustrated and did not sleep that well even though I was very tired and fell asleep quickly. I was up this morning at 7:30 AM and made coffee. Linda was up by 8 AM. We had cinnamon raisin English muffins for breakfast. Linda’s focus this morning was tax returns. I had a long list of things I wanted to get done and knew before I started that I would not accomplish all of them.

I started by putting a call in to Billy at American Frame and Axle regarding the brake caliper rebuild but had to leave my name and number. I got a text from Joe and replied to it. I heard back from Billy a short time later. He does not have a mechanic working on Saturday mornings so the earliest he could rebuild the tag axle brake calipers would be Monday morning. He seemed to think, however, that we would not have a problem doing the work ourselves. I texted that information to Joe and then turned my attention to other things.

Linda texted Linda Whitney (K4YL) regarding getting together for dinner. Linda W suggested we meet for linner (a late lunch / early dinner) at Papa Joe’s which is in between their house and our resort. They agreed on 2:30 PM as the time, which avoids the lunch and dinner crowds.

The wind was light-to-calm today so we deployed the awnings on the coach to shade the windows. We configured the water softener for a brief backflush and then set it up for recharging. With that process underway, Linda went into work on tax returns while I dumped the waste tanks. Once the waste tanks were drained I added TechRx to the toilet and sinks and updated the spreadsheet I use to track water usage and softener capacity. I then settled in to work on updating the MS Outlook 2013 address book entries for our FMCA GLCC chapter.

Updating records like that is slow, tedious work. I set a timer on my phone for 20 minutes to check on the water softening process. I did that repeatedly over a two hour period, so that further slowed my updating work. The softening process was all done by 1:15 PM and I checked the hardness coming out of the softener. It was higher than 1.5 gpg but closer to that number than to 3.0 gpg which is the next color patch on the scale. That reading was both annoying and discouraging as it was essentially the same reading I had before I started the regeneration. That is not the first time this has happened and it may be the case that the salt brine was not completely flushed out of the softener. I will check it again after the next fresh water tank fill.

At 1:30 PM we started getting ready to go to linner at Papa Joe’s in Brooksville. It was an easy 30 mile drive to the restaurant, which is just north of FL-50 (Cortez Blvd) on Spring Hill Highway. We were there at 2:20 PM and got a table. Bruce (W8RA) and Linda (K4YL) Whitney arrived a few minutes later. The food was good and we all ate too much. We lingered past 4:30 and finally went our separate ways.

We were back by 5:15 PM and decided to go for a walk. It turned out to be a long one as we followed the paved road that runs through the Phase 2 part of the property to the maintenance and construction building way back in the woods. In sight of the building we followed a wide path to the left that had been mowed through the grass. It turned out to follow the road system for Phase 2 with all of the infrastructure clearly visible. We were almost around the last dry “pond” when the mowed path ended. Since we were wearing shorts and sandals we chose not to hike through the brush and had to turn around and walk back the way we came.

A fairly dense cloud cover had developed and the wind had come up from the NNW so when we got back to our coach we put all of the awnings back in. Nick’s R.V. Detailing is supposed to be here tomorrow so Linda pulled all of the tire covers off, folded them up, and stored them in the car. We will remove the new windshield covers tomorrow morning.

I had hoped to update my e-mail addresses for current GLCC members and create a set of new, smaller e-mail groups but I did not get that far. (I also need to investigate creating an e-mail group in QTH cPanel.) I need to have an efficient and accurate way to send information to the chapter members and my immediate need is to notify GLCC members to register through FMCA for GLAMARAMA16 and then let me know if they want to park with the chapter.

I had also hoped to take care of some computer update issues today but did not get them done. These included upgrading ESET SS8 to SS9 on Linda’s computer and resolving update notification synchronization issues between ESET SS and the Windows 10 Update service on both of our laptops. It’s also possible that we might have to manually update drivers on both computers. I did manage to edit another blog post from December 2015 but did not get any posts uploaded.

Linda thinks she is coming down with a cold and but is running a fever and developed chills. That did not sound like a cold to me. She put on her denim shirt/jacket and got Juniper on her lap. I put on the PBS NewsHour but she fell asleep before it ended. She woke up later and stayed up until 10 PM to take more Tylenol and then went to bed. I stayed up and watched a program on PBS about the Battle of Gettysburg followed by Charlie Rose and then went to bed. I did not have any more communication with Joe this afternoon or evening so I presume he will not be here first thing in the morning. Nick’s R.V. Detailing and Pressure Washing is scheduled to be here tomorrow, however, so we will have to be up and ready to go before they arrive.

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

Leave a reply

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.

2015/12/15 (T) Blog Uploads (finally)

The Phase Place

Welcome to the next phase (hosted by QTH.com)

Tag Archives: air-conditioning (H3-40)

2016/03/15-17 (T-F) Clermont Orlando Brakes Linner

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

2015/12/15 (T) Blog Uploads (finally)