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2016/03/12-14 (S-M) Middle of Nowhere Close to Everywhere

2016/03/12 (S) J.A.P.

The temperature had only dropped into the mid-60’s last night and it was foggy when we got up this morning, but we knew the humidity was up because we could feel the dampness. Speaking of dampness, the sprinklers came on last night around 3 AM. We must have both been partly awake as we both heard the sound, which was unusual enough to get our attention. The cats heard it too and were at the driver side bedroom window to check it out. It got my attention because it sounded like rain and we had all three roof vents open, along with most of the windows. Anything that sounds like water will wake me up.

Webster Flea Market and Sumter Co, Florida Farmers Market.

There was a breakfast in the clubhouse at 8 AM this morning, with food being served at 9, but we did not go. It was $5 per person, but that’s a lot to pay for coffee. Speaking of which, I opened new packs of our four coffee beans this morning, transferred them to the metal storage containers, and then brewed a pot of Sweet Seattle Dreams.

We talked over coffee about what to do today while we doodled on our iPads. Linda had a list of six things we could do in Clermont and noted that there was a Farmers’ Market in Webster from 8 AM to 3 PM today. We also had updates pending for our iPads and smartphones so she checked our Verizon data usage. We had used 8 of our 12 GB with eight days left in our billing cycle, so we were on track to stay within our data plan as long as we used the resort Wi-Fi system to do our updates.

Linda served homemade granola with fresh blueberries for breakfast. After breakfast she went for her morning walk and I dealt with a few e-mails. When she returned from her walk we drove to the Walmart in/near Bushnell for a few things. We were going to stop at the Farmers Market in Webster on the way back but there was only one small vendor there. A little farther north on CR-471 we passed the Sumter County Fairgrounds. None of the rides were operating, so we did not know if the fair was open. We were thinking about driving over this evening to see everything lit up at night.

Back at FGMCR Linda made very nice salads for lunch which included asparagus and Cremini mushroom pieces that she cooked briefly. Very tasty. After lunch we packed up our technology and went to the library in the clubhouse to download/install updates.

We each had four phone app updates, four iPad app updates, and one Windows 10 update. I also had an update for the NVIDIA GPU in my computer so that made a total of 19 updates. That was actually a small number compared to the 60+ we installed the other day. Even so, at an average file size of 30 MB that was over 500 MB of data, so I figured we were over 0.5 GB but probably under 1.0 GB. After the updates were done we spent a little time trying to configure our Windows 10 Start Menus. We were annoyed to find that the Start menu configuration tab is missing from the “Task Bar and Start Menu Properties” dialog screen on both of our computers. Arrrrgh. I did, however, get a couple of icons to show up where I wanted them and we learned how to “turn off” the “live tiles” in the metro interface. We wrapped up around 2:45 PM and went back to our rig.

After getting our tech tools peered up and connected to our network I took a nap while Linda stayed up and read. Jasper (the cat) curled up with me on the bed and took a cat nap. I got up at 4:30 PM and joined Linda outside where another beautiful day was in progress with cool breezes and perfect temperatures (in the shade).

For dinner, Linda made a salad with an arugula base, vegan Italian sausage, sun-dried tomatoes, garbanzo beans, onions, and yellow peppers. After dinner we went for our evening stroll around the resort. When we got back to our coach we each had a small glass of Moscato (Barefoot) and fresh strawberries for dessert.

A mobile ATM machine at the famous Webster Flea Market. Webster, FL.

The title of today’s post is not an ethnic slur or reference, it’s just an acknowledgment of our status here at Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort (FGMCR); “Just Another Prevost.” Unlike our minor celebrity status at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort in Arcadia, where we were T.O.P. (“The Only Prevost”), there are quite a few Prevost motorcoach conversions at FGMCR, and most of them are newer, bigger, and nicer than ours. And that is fine with us.

TV stations continued to be a challenge. I moved the antennas to position 16, which is approximately the 8 o’clock position relative to the nose of the bus, and rescanned. The front TV found over 70 signals and the rear TV found 56. As with previous experiments, however, many of the signals were unusable and others were for stations from other directions that we should not even have been detecting.

What we need to do is to move both antennas to each of their 16 positions, rescan, and then check to see which channels are usable and write them down. Signal patterns can be different at night than during the day, so we should repeat this procedure in the evening. That would be 64 separate scans, but in an area such as where we are now, with stations in multiple, opposing directions, it would be the only sure fire way to know what stations are available and where point the antennas to tune them in.

2016/03/13 (N) Saving Daylight

We were being lazier than usual this morning and did get up until 8 o’clock. During the overnight hours the nation switched from ‘standard’ to ‘daylight’ (savings) time. There are a few places, most notably the State of Arizona, that do not change their clocks, but for the rest of us it was an hour later when we got up this morning than our clocks indicated. Unless, of course, they happened to adjust automatically, like our smartphones, iPads, computers, Linda’s FitBit, or our GPS navigation devices. These devices adjust the time based on an internal program, Internet connection, or GPS signal.

As much as I wanted to reset the other clocks in the rig (we have six that do not adjust automatically) Linda insisted that I make the coffee first. I enjoyed most of my first cup while finishing yesterday’s blog post and then reset the manual clocks. We have an analog RV clock (with hour, minute, and second hands) in the living room, the clock in the microwave oven, a digital alarm click in the house systems panel by the refrigerator, and an identical one in the systems panel on my side of the bed. The Magnum 4024 ME-ARC remote has a clock in it, and there is a small digital clock/thermometer stuck on the dashboard. (Which reminds me that I would like to install a round, gauge-style clock in the dashboard someday.)

Linda made a tofu scramble for breakfast with onions, mushrooms, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus pieces, and turmeric. She does not make this dish very often but it always a treat when she does.

Linda went for a walk after breakfast while I checked our driver side tag axle hub. I called our mobile mechanic, Joe Cannarozzi, this past Thursday to discuss the high temperature alarm we got on the bus’s driver side tag tire while driving to Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort (FGMCR) from Big Tree Carefree RV Resort (BTCRVR) on Monday. He suggested I check the back side of the wheel for oil leaks and pull the hub cap off to check the oil level of the axle hub. I checked the back of the wheel the other night after it got dark but did not see any oil residue. Pulling the hub cap was a daytime job, so I finally did that today. What I found was that the oil level was just below the bottom of the fill hole, so the hub was properly lubricated and almost certainly not leaking.

As long as I was at it, I removed the TireTracker temperature/pressure sensor and checked the pressure in the tire with my gauge. It was 85.0 PSI, which was reasonable, given that it was sitting in the sun (with the tire cover on) and I had set it a week ago to 82.5 PSI while it was cooler and in the shade. It’s possible that the battery is almost depleted or that the sensor has malfunctioned, but I doubt it. Since it is easier and cheaper to replace the battery we bought a couple of CR1632 3V batteries at Walmart the other day. I unscrewed the cover, slid the old battery out, slid the new one in, and replaced the cover. I put the sensor back on the valve stem and turned on the receiver but it did not pick up the sensor right away. I will have to check the manual to see if I have to re-associate the sensor with the receiver. I put the tire cover back on, put my tool boxes away, closed up the bays, and went inside to upload posts to the blog.

This guy was actually making ice cream with this old John Deere contraption. Webster Flea Market. Webster, FL.

While I was working, Linda returned part way through her walk to let me know that Nick’s R.V. Detailing & Pressure Washing was in the resort cleaning someone’s rig. We agreed that we should hire them and she continued her walk in that direction. When she returned she said that Nick had us on his schedule for Friday, March 18. He has a regular job on Mondays through Thursdays and only works on RVs on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. We got a business card from him yesterday so I sent him an e-mail confirming the date and giving him our site number and my cell phone number.

Rather than rearrange our shower we went to the clubhouse and used the shower facilities there. A music jam session was scheduled to start at 2 PM but there was also rain in the forecast for that same time. We did not want to close up the coach so we decided to pass on the music jam for this week.

Back at our coach we had some orange and grapefruit segments, a few nuts, and a few pretzels with hummus for a lunch snack. I was checking RVillage and saw that Curtis had posted several items to the RVillage Ambassadors group. I commented on a couple of them and then private messaged him. He and the team are very busy so I try not to bother him, but as often happens my message prompted a phone call. Strangely, my phone did not ring and went straight to voice mail. Perhaps it was because I had the Wi-Fi turned on, but I’m not sure. I called him back and put the call on speaker so Linda could also participate. There are a lot of interesting and exciting things happening with RVillage and we had a nice, long chat.

I had a text message back from Joe with instructions on how to check the driver side tag wheel for a dragging brake. The procedure was simple and easily carried out because the tag axle is: a) free wheeling, and b) can be lifted clear of the ground. That means that all I have to do is start the engine, lift the tag axle, spin the wheels, and compared the drag on the two sides. If the driver side does not spin as freely it means the brakes are rubbing more than they should. (The disc brake pads are always lightly in touch with the surface of the brake rotor which keeps detritus from getting between the rotor and the pads, preheats the pads/rotor for more effective breaking, and shortens the reaction time before braking takes place once it is requested.)

The possibility of rain started rising at 1 PM as the clouds thickened and darkened. It spritzed occasionally throughout the afternoon and into the early evening but never really rained. I managed to upload blog posts for November 18 through 22.

For dinner, Linda made brown rice and broccoli with Dijon mustard. It was simple but slightly creamy, which gave it a subtle quality. It was very yummy. After dinner we went for a walk around the resort. The weather continued overcast with dramatic clouds to the north but all we got was a few raindrops and the temperature was very pleasant if a bit humid. I suggested that we sit outside and have a small glass of wine but Linda informed me that the only wine we had onboard was a bottle of ice wine that we brought along for a special occasion. Ice wines are very sweet and usually served as a dessert wine. Every day is special for us, but this did not seem like the occasion to open a bottle of ice wine. We doodled on our iPads while we watched reruns of a couple of TV programs and then went to bed. There was a small chance of scattered rain showers overnight, but we left the roof vents open and two of the exhaust fans running.

2016/03/14 (M) Webster Flea & Farmers Markets

Linda was up early this morning (6AM) and decided to go for a walk at 7. I got up closer to 8 AM and got dressed. I did not make coffee and we did not eat breakfast. On Friday Linda was reading about the Webster Flea Market and Sumter County Farmers’ Market. The Flea Market is the oldest and largest in Florida which, along with the Farmers Market, occupies a 40 acre site on the west side of CR-471 in downtown Webster. The website said it was one of the “top 10 attractions” in Florida. They are only open on Mondays and they draw a large number of vendors and a very large number of shoppers. Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort (FGMCR) is only a few miles from downtown Webster, and today was the only Monday we would be in the area, so of course we went to check out.

When we arrived at the market site around 8:30 AM there were already a lot of cars and people there. We drove past numerous places selling parking space but we were able to find free parking on the flea market grounds not far from where the food vendors were set up at the Sumter County Farmers Market. I strapped on my camera harness and Linda carried the small camera bag as we ventured forth into the crowd.

The sites on our side of the street looking south from our site at Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort near Webster, FL.

We walked through the Farmers Market area first so Linda could get a sense of what was there. The markets open at 5 AM and close at 3 PM so we were surprised that a lot of vendors were just setting up as we walked through. I took a few pictures, but really interesting photos were few and far between. We wandered through the grounds trying to get a sense of the layout of the place, the stuff for sale, and the people selling/buying it. The Farmers Market was in the northeast corner. Just south of that was a fenced area with vendors under long, open-sided pavilions. Just south of that were long concrete block buildings with stalls secured by overhead garage doors. A sign indicated that this was the area with stores selling antiques, and that there were 66 stalls.

To the west of all of this was the West Webster Market area on the other side of a fence with open gates. This area had a few open-sided pavilions but it was mostly “trunk sales”, at least that’s what we call it at ham radio swap meets. Vendors had a designated area in which to park their vehicle and sell their stuff, some of which was still in the trunk of a car or side door of a van. Some was displayed on tables that the vendors brought, and some was laid out on the ground. Throughout the venue there were lots of food vendors and occasional live music performers.

We are not flea market people and we did not see anything that we had to have. We found a piece of Pyrex that we thought Meghan would like and Linda sent her a picture. It was a 1959 Golden Branch Promotional Hospitality Round Casserole. We did not hear back right away and decided to go ahead and buy it for $20. We found out later that she thought it was worth $5. That is just one of the many reasons we do not shop at flea markets.

We returned to the Farmers Market where Linda bought 1/2 flat of strawberries for $5 along with kale, Swiss chard, green beans, onions, mushrooms, and scallions, all for very good prices. We like farmers markets. We remembered how bad the traffic heading south out of Webster was last Monday at 2 PM as we were coming north so we returned to the car and left the grounds a little before noon.

We took one of the streets through town to have a look at the place. Webster is a small, impoverished town where people appear to live with little or no self-respect or consideration for their neighbors. It is one of the saddest looking places we have ever seen. FGMCR is not actually in the city limits of Webster but has a Webster mailing address. It is far enough away from the actual town, and surrounded by cattle fields, to be a quiet, peaceful place isolated from the poverty of Webster. What makes it an acceptable location for an RV resort is that it is only 10 miles from the Walmart at I-75 in Bushnell, 17 miles to the Publix supermarket in Groveland, 23 miles to Clermont (lots of shopping and a few attractions), 25 miles to The Villages (lots of shopping, restaurants, and medical services), and 50 miles to Brooksville, Ocala, and Orlando. A 90 to 100 mile radius takes in everyplace from Arcadia to Tampa St. Petersburg, up the “Sun Coast” through Weeki Wachi, Homosassa, and Crystal River, and then inland to Gainesville (including Williston) and over to Daytona, Cape Canaveral, and on down the Atlantic coast. FGMCR’s motto is “…in the middle of nowhere, but close to everywhere” and it is a fitting one.

The forecast for the rest of the week is for daily high temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80’s with party cloudy skies and some humidity. A good breeze was blowing from the south today but we judged it to be mild enough that we could deploy our awnings. Linda closed all of the windows and I closed the roof vents and turned on the air-conditioners. Linda got the three silver bubble wrap insulating panels out from under the bed and I installed them in the skylights.

Linda prepared some oranges and strawberries for lunch after which she settled in to work on taxes while I worked on this post. The wind intensified, and less than hour after we put out the awnings we put them back in. I spent the rest of the afternoon uploading the posts for November 23 through 30 (2015) to our blog. That meant I was caught up to the point in time when we left Michigan and arrived in Florida for the winter and was now only 3-1/2 months behind on uploading my posts.

Linda took a short nap from 4:45 to 5 PM, and then started preparing dinner. She made a nice collard greens salad with homemade croutons, homemade vegan “Parmesan” cheese, and a homemade lemon-juice dressing. It was crisp, light, delicious, and ample along with a side of sautéed green beans and carrot rounds. A glass of white wine would have been a nice accompaniment, but we still do not have any on board.

We ate dinner a little earlier than normal and, with the change to daylight savings time, there was still a couple of hours of daylight left before subset. Large, puffy clouds, in shades from bright white to dark gray, dominated the sky and the low angle, early evening sunlight was brilliant, dramatic, and colorful. We went for a walk around the resort and I took the camera along. I paused often to capture images and we stopped occasionally to chat briefly with folks. We were almost back to our coach when we stopped to talk to Dennis.

Dennis and his wife are part of the group of 59 property owners who have a free and clear title to their lot. He knew quite a bit about the history, current status, and future development of the resort. We had heard bits and pieces, so he filled in a few details and clarified a few others.

The hedges that separate and define the lots were all planted as part of the original development, as were the flower beds. Each site has palm trees and they are planted in the very the same locations on each site except at corners and curves in the road where adjustments had to be made. Owners have personalized their choice of flowers over time but the locations of the beds are tightly regulated by the deed restrictions and controlled by the POA architectural review board.

The villas are all identical on the outside and have to stay that way. They are constructed in a large building at the back of the property, trucked to the site on a flatbed trailer, and set in place on their pad with a crane. Once they are strapped down (hurricane code) and the utilities are connected the owners can finish the interiors however they want.

Linda sitting in the corner of the library in the clubhouse at Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort near Webster, FL.

Only recently have owners been allowed to add a pergola at the rear of their villa to shade the portion of the parking pad that wraps around behind the building. The addition of the low stone border walls around the hedges and planting beds is also a recent change. Each layout is unique but must use the same exact stones and the layout must be submitted to the POA architectural committee for approval. Personally, I like the uniformity of materials but appreciate the uniqueness of each design. There are only nine pergolas at this point (according to Dennis) and I estimate no more three dozen sites with stone walls (out of 249 sites) but they look very nice and the resort will look more and more “finished” and interesting as more owners add these personal touches.

As for future development, Dennis said that all of the problems from the past have been taken care of and the current developer (Mr. Smith) has told property owners that he has brought the park out of bankruptcy. The reason that the “group of 99” property owners are going to have to pay $22K (each) to get their free/clear deeds is that they had liens on their lots when the project went into bankruptcy and Mr. Smith had to buy the liens as part of resolving the bankruptcy. He has also told the current owners that he expects fully developing the resort to take 10 more years and that he plans to finish Phase 2 in sections rather than all at once. Dennis seemed to think that was prudent and that Mr. Smith was both an honest and competent businessman.

The water and sewage systems are part of the 400 acre resort property and are sized to handle the eventual 499 sites. Most of the infrastructure is in place for Phase 2 but not the sewage lift pumps or paved roads. He will have the road paved, and the pumps installed and made operational, as he opens each section. The water system is also sized to handle the irrigation and fire suppression needs of the park. Every site has in-ground sprinklers that are activated on a rotating basis over the course of a week. Indeed, all of the grounds maintenance is handled by the resort as part of the currently very modest $500/quarter POA fee, including grass mowing and hedge trimming. The infrastructure here is very impressive.

Dennis was of the opinion that the risks of investing in this park, going forward, were minimal. He also clarified that Mr. Smith’s stated plan is to commence with work on Phase 2 when 90% of the lots in Phase 1 are sold and that the resort is close to that point now. He wasn’t trying to sell us anything, but thought that a few bargains remained if someone wanted to buy out one of the 99 properties, many of which have been for sale. That group of (would be) owners apparently got hurt financially. He also told us the same thing we have heard from others, that they like the quiet and solitude that comes with the resort’s relatively isolated location but access to a great deal within a one hour drive, and access to almost everything within a two hour driving radius. (What he did not say, and no one else has either, is that this would not be a good location in which to have a serious medical emergency.)

Back at our rig we turned off the air-conditioners, opened up the coach, and settled in to watch our Monday evening TV programs on CBS. I off-loaded the photos I took today to my computer and backed them up to the NAS. Linda headed off to bed at 11 PM. I stayed up to watch the news and weather and caught part of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before turning in.

2016/03/07 (M) Arcadia to Webster

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The outside air temperature dropped into the upper 50’s last night but we were toasty in our mobile dwelling. Before turning in we closed the roof vents and windows and put the freshly laundered bedspread back on the bed. I turned on the electric heating pad on my side of the bed and snuggled in.

Linda was up at 7 AM and I got up at 7:30. The temperature in the rig (on the kitchen counter) was 67, which felt slightly cool so I put on my sweats. I ground up six scoops of coffee beans instead of the usual eight and Linda toasted our last bagel, which we split for breakfast. We downloaded e-mails onto phones, iPads, and computers, and settled in to doodle for a while before making our final departure preparations. I saw Ron and Vera getting ready to walk somewhere and popped outside to remind them that we planned to pull out between 10 and 11 AM this morning. Their pickup truck is parked crossways in front of their trailer and they agreed to move it to make it easier for me to pull out. We did not get to know them very well, but they were good, pleasant neighbors the whole time we were here.

We finished our coffee around 9 AM, got dressed, and made the bed. We then got busy getting ready to leave. I turned on the block heater and Aqua-Hot engine preheat pump and then shut down our computer technologies and put them away. Linda took a picture of the electric meter with her phone and walked over to the office to take care of our final electric bill while I started prepping the outside of the bus for travel.

There wasn’t a lot to do; stow the awnings, disconnect and stow the water and sewer hoses, stow the water softener, and put away the two bag chairs and folding plastic table, and fold up entry step and stow it in the front bay. I checked the tire pressures on Friday and the engine oil yesterday. No preparation was needed for the car. I checked that the electrical and safety cables for the tow bar were secured for the trip to the filling station as Linda will drive the car separately and we will hook it up after fueling the bus.

When Linda got back from the office she straightened up the interior. I shut off the engine block heater, Aqua-Hot engine preheat pump, Aqua-Hot electric heating element, and all other AC loads that do not run off of the inverter. I then shut off the shorepower to the coach and stowed the shorepower cable.

Me, Linda, Mara, and Michael in front of our Prevost H3-40 at Big Tree Carefree RV Resort, Arcadia, FL.

Mara and Michael came to visit, get a group photo (which a passerby took for us), and say “farewell for now.” I fired up the bus at 10:30 AM and we did a check of the buses lights. Linda guided me out of the site and then followed in the car as Mara and Michael waved us on our way.

Our initial destination was the Shell station on US-17 just north of where FL-70 crosses through downtown Arcadia. We needed to fuel the bus and had previously scoped out this station (on the advice of Jack Conrad, who lives in the area) as the only viable place in town. We did not want to have the car attached to make it easier to maneuver the bus, especially in case we had to back it up to get into position by the diesel pump.

The station has a good sized lot and I was able to pull in and get clear of US-17 without any difficulty. The diesel pump was at the outside edge of a canopy with an 11 foot clearance so I needed to be beyond the end of canopy but as close to it as possible. There was a vehicle in that location when I arrived so I had to wait, but it moved soon enough and I was able to pull up while Linda watched the passenger side clearance. I usually fill the fuel tank from the driver side, as that is the way truck stops are set up, but in this situation I had to fill from the passenger side as that had us pointed in the right direction to leave headed north on US-17 . It’s nice to have that choice.

Another nice thing about this station is that the diesel pumps have the large nozzles, so we can fill our tank in a reasonable amount of time. Still, it takes a while to pump over 100 gallons of fuel, so while the tank was filling Linda pulled the car around behind the bus and we hooked it up for towing. Once the tank was full Linda went in and paid the bill. We then did a light check on the car and bus and were finally ready to roll. We pulled out at 11:20 AM and headed north on US-17.

View looking northeast at our H3-40 in site #230 at Florida Grande Motorcoach Resort, Webster, FL.

We had a relatively short drive of about 100 miles and the GPS said we would arrive at 1:36 PM. I knew that was optimistic as our route would take us through Lakeland, but we were not in any hurry. There was a welcome reception at 4 PM so our only concern was getting there in time for that.

Somewhere between Arcadia and Bartow US-98 joins US-17. They split again at Bartow, with US-17 heading northeast, and US-98 heading northwest. We took US-98 through Lakeland as far as FL-471 where we headed straight north to Webster. We pulled off there, however, to investigate an over temperature alarm on our driver side tag tire. The reported temperature climbed as high as 190 degrees F but the pressure was still showing 85 PSI. The cold tire pressure was at 82.5 PSI on Friday, so a 2.5 PSI pressure increase did not seem consistent with the indicated temperature. My concern was that we might have a brake dragging, but if so I wasn’t aware of it while driving.

I pulled safely off the road on a wide shoulder that was also being used by several tractor-trailer rigs. I checked the temperature of the tires with our infrared non-contact thermometer. Most of the tires indicated around 125 degrees F and the driver side tag indicated 138. Higher, for sure, but not 190 degrees. I pointed the thermometer through a couple of the holes in the wheel and got temperatures around 390 degrees F. When I checked the front wheels they were at 250 degrees. The steer and tag tires/wheels have disk brakes but the tag tires are located next to the transmission, and close to the rear of the engine, so it was not unreasonable that they would be a little hotter, but not 140 degrees hotter. One of my problems at this point was that I knew brakes rub slightly all the time and can get quite hot in operation, but had no idea what sort of temperatures were normal and what was excessive by comparison.

At FL-50 there was a three mile traffic backup headed southbound. It took us a minute but we eventually realized that it was probably the traffic leaving the Webster Flea Market. Since the traffic was trying to get out of Webster, not in, it did not affect our travels. In Webster we headed due east on SE 1st Ave (FL-478) and a few miles later turned north into the entrance to Florida Grande Motor Coach Resort.

The resort is set way back from the road and the entrance winds between two cattle fields demarcated by very nice white fences and lined with attractive street lamps. It leads up to the gate house with the large clubhouse building just beyond. It is reputed to be the largest clubhouse building of any RV resort in Florida, and the entrance to the resort makes quite an impression. The gate attendant had us on a list of today’s arrivals and directed us to a large staging lot with enough room for four motorhomes to unhitch towed vehicles or trailers at the same time.

The view looking south from the in front of site #230 at Florida Grande Motorcoach Resort, Webster, FL.

Linda checked in at the office while I unhooked the car. I was escorted to site #230 by a volunteer in a golf cart and Linda followed in the car. The streets here are very wide, wide enough for two-way motorhome traffic with room to spare. The sites all have concrete pads that are wide enough to park two motorhomes side-by-side, and long enough for a 45 foot motorhome and a full-size pickup truck to be parked end-to-end with space to spare. The point being that I was able to get parked easily with a little help from Linda and our escort.

I checked the level of the coach and it was spot on so I switched the control to one of the level-low positions and shut down the engine. I deployed the awnings first and then got out the water softener and water hoses and hooked them up. I got the shorepower cord out and connected it but did not turn the power on right away as I wanted to let the coach run off of the house batteries for a while.

The welcoming cocktail party was not until 4 PM in the clubhouse Billiards Room, so we had a little time before we had to leave. I used the time to fill the fresh water tank with about 80 gallons of water and dump the black- and gray-water tanks.

I got our network technology up and running and got us online with our Verizon Mi-Fi. Linda checked for TV stations via our ZIP code and found that our location is considered part of the Orlando/Daytona market. We are parked facing slightly south of west and Linda was able to pick up CBS and PBS signals out of Tampa on the front TV. I was not able to pick up the same signals on the rear TV so I turned the antenna west towards Orlando. I scanned for stations and found 14, but most of them were too weak to lock onto. The rear antenna has given us problems and needs to be replaced, but it has always been the case that the front and rear antennas do not respond equally unless we are in area of relatively strong signals.

View looking north from in front of site #230 at Florida Grande Motorcoach Resort, Webster, FL.

There were about 24 people at the welcoming party including the resort activity director and a few “ambassadors,” people who own lots here and like the place enough to represent it to visitors like us. We had a little wine and a few snacks, met some nice people, and had some good conversations. This resort has a checkered ownership and financial history but the property owners we met were very open and forthcoming about the past and present, and realistically optimistic about the future.

The original developer is in prison (for fraud, I believe). The people currently developing the resort are the forth group involved with the property, but everyone we talked to thinks they have done a good job. They are bringing the resort out of foreclosure and it looks like a large group of residents will finally get their deeds. Further, the long-term expectation is that the 249 sites in Phase 1 will finally all be sold and the developers will finish the 250 sites in Phase 2. Our first impression of Florida Grande is that is already an attractive, upscale (luxury?), well-maintained, Class A motorcoach resort and that it probably has a promising future but that investing here stills carries a significant degree of risk.

Back at our coach we had a light dinner and watched some TV. CBS had rearranged what shows were on and everything was repeats. I also dealt with a GLCC issue but the thing that really preoccupied me was the inverter. It was operating, but the Fault light on the remote was illuminated and the LCD screen was indicating a high AC input voltage. That made no sense given that there was no AC power applied to the coach.

The house batteries seemed to be discharging at a reasonable rate, so I was not concerned about letting the coach run on batteries overnight. The main problem we had was that the voltage into the UPS and line conditioner was apparently varying, causing the relays in the conditioner and the UPS circuitry to switch to batteries and then quickly back. The regulator relays make an audible clicking noise when switching and the UPS emits a repeated warning beep while inverting from its internal battery. I suspected the problem was the very low current draw on the house batteries and inverter under a very low load condition. The best solution would have been to shut off all of the technology and then shut off the power to the UPS and voltage regulator but I did not want to do that. That was probably a mistake as I found it difficult to ignore the noises after I went to bed.

2015/11/29 (N) Cartersville to Mayo

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I got up at 6 AM, fed the cats, turned on the engine block heater and the Aqua-Hot electric heating element, and then sat on the sofa with the heater pad on my back until 7:20 when I got dressed. Linda was awake at 6 but fell back asleep and did not get up until after 7:30 AM. We had toast and bananas for breakfast but no coffee or tea.

We had 342 miles to travel today to get to John Palmer’s place northeast of Mayo, Florida. He operates Palmer Energy Systems (http://palmerenergysystems.com). We had already driven almost 700 miles, not all of it due south, of course, so we estimated that we were at least 600 miles farther south than our house. It may not seem like that much on a planet with a 24,000 mile circumference but it’s enough to make a big difference in the climate and weather. I was going to check/adjust all of the tires before we left this morning but the temperature was only slightly warmer than when we left home. The TireTraker TPMS seemed to indicate that the tires were OK (although I do not trust the readings I am getting) so I just inspected them visually.

Once again we targeted an 8:30 AM departure time and actually pulled out of our site at 8:35. As soon as we pulled onto I-75 southbound we were in heavier traffic than I expected and it only got worse the farther south we went. It was reasonably smooth sailing all things considered, those things being: construction zones, dense traffic, sunshine (we were driving south, more or less), and drivers who didn’t know how to use an entrance ramp to merge onto a freeway. The last one is one of the banes of my bus driving experience.

We only stopped twice. The first stop was around 11 AM at the rest area near MM179 (south of Atlanta) to use the bathroom and give the cats a chance to do the same. The second stop was at the rest area near MM59 around 12:30 PM. We stopped long enough to have a snack of sliced apples, have something to drink, and use the bathroom. It also gave the cats a chance to eat, drink, and use the litter tray. I called John to get final instructions on how to get into his place. That turned out to be a useful call; he confirmed that we would not have any problem with US-129/FL-51 traffic circle in Live Oak, Florida. He also gave a specific tip to “pull off the road into the ditch (on the right) to swing wide enough to make the turn (to the left) onto his street from the county road.”

Because we were stopping for more than a few minutes I shut off the engine. The Battery Balance light came on as I was pulling into the rest stop. This light does not come on very often and usually only stays on for a few seconds and then goes off and stays off. When I first turned the ignition switch on in Berea it came on and stayed on for several minutes but then turned off and stayed off. It did not come on this morning when I first turned the ignition switch on in Cartersville, so I thought we might be OK (although I did not really believe that). With the engine off (alternator not running), but the ignition switch on, the 24V and 12V gauges indicated less than full charge voltages. I did not recall having ever seen that condition before.

We were back on the road by 1 PM with the OTR A-C turned on. As always the A-C Low Pressure warning light came on occasionally but it always went off after a relatively short time. Of more concern was the Battery Balance light, which went on and off for the next 40 miles. Sometimes it would flicker but other times it would stay on for a long time. Not good.

Caution and warning lights always add an element of stress to driving the bus, but Linda experiences it too from the co-pilot/navigator seat. She knows that it stresses me and she can see the lights from her seat, so she knows what is going on at the same time I do. In spite of the warning light the rest of the trip was smooth and uneventful. We had much less traffic as soon as we exited I-75 onto US-129 in Florida. We encountered a bit more traffic and had a slow roll through Live Oak, Florida. Once we were on FL-51 headed south towards Mayo, Florida we had almost no traffic. We crossed the Suwannee River twice, the second time just north of Mayo, and shortly thereafter made our turn onto CR-354 and headed east parallel to the river.

We found John’s street and followed his advice on how to get the bus in. The problem was that the County Road was not that wide and John’s street was even narrower. It also had signs on posts on each side right at the shoulder of the County Road. That geometry meant that a long vehicle could not cut the corners and had to pass fairly straight between the sign posts. The grassy shoulder was wide enough, before dropping off slightly into a drainage ditch, that I was able to get the passenger side tires well off the road and the driver side tires to the edge of the pavement. It was also firm enough that I was not concerned about the passenger side tires getting stuck in soft soil. I stopped and lifted the tag axles, to shorten the turning radius, and then pulled forward until I was looking down the road out my side window. I then turned the front wheels to the left all the way to the stops and slowly made the turn. I judged it just right, something I have gotten better at doing with experience, and we made it in without difficulty. That was good because we had the car in tow behind the bus and could not back up. If I had not made the turn we would have blocked the County Road for at least 10 minutes while we unhooked the car. We slowly worked our way up to the buildings at the end of the road and I left the bus running while I went to find John.

John was in his trailer but heard me calling and came out. He drove me through the parking approach in his Kubota utility cart and dropped me back at the coach. I got it parked in a spot that had afternoon shade, leveled it, and shut the engine off while Linda opened a couple of windows and a roof vent. John wanted to give us a tour of the property so I did not turn off the chassis batteries or close the air valves the way I normally would on arrival, but took care of that when we got back from our tour.

John is the caretaker for 400 acres of plantation pine woodland with a 25 year lease on 70 of the acres. The owners still live on the property but are in their 80’s and one of their three children has a house on some of the acres. John’s son, Pat, also has a trailer here and works with his dad. There is a third guy here named Terry who works with John and also has a trailer.

Besides taking care of the property John has a solar energy business and a canopy business, all operated out of trailers that can be moved if/when needed. He has been here for six years. In that time he has created over six miles of trails through the woods and along the high south bank of the Suwannee River and cleared small areas for tents and a couple larger areas for RVs. He does not run a campground or charge fees; the space is for friends and customers to use while they are here. It’s a pretty neat place, kind of like a private state park, with access to the Suwannee River.

Back at the coach we talked about a solar installation for the bus and then John gave me a tour of his workshop and inventory trailers. We probably won’t do anything relative to solar while we are here but I wanted to get John’s opinion on some things, which I did. John knows what he knows and doesn’t pull any punches. He has lived an off-grid, solar lifestyle for over a quarter century and he thinks solar systems on bus conversions are a waste of money as buses require substantial AC electrical power from a shoreline or Genset to really function fully and properly. I concede that he is basically correct (unless you spend a lot of time in the southwest) but his utilitarian logic does not place any value on the “I want it because it’s cool” factor.

When I was done talking to John about solar stuff I opened the tray with the battery disconnect switches and the Vanner Equalizers (the coach has two of them operating in parallel) and checked to make sure the circuit breakers had not popped. I had no way of knowing if they were operating correctly but I ruled out their shutting off as the cause of the chassis battery balance situation. There was some corrosion on the terminals but not enough to cause a problem. When I finally started the generator at 4:30 PM the maintenance charger for the upper 12V strand of the 24V chassis battery bank showed 25% SOC. That was definitely not good and suggested that one or both of the upper 12V batteries had failed. They are 5-to-6 years old so that would not come as a surprise.

I texted Chuck, described what I had found, and indicated that I planned to go buy four batteries tomorrow. He asked if I still had my American Independent Trucker Association (AITA) NAPA Discount Card that we got through Prevost Community. I did, and it did not expire until the end of the month, so tomorrow I will see if there is a NAPA store nearby with batteries I need in stock.

I set up the Amped Wireless router, the NAS, and my computer AC power adapter and connected the NAS and computer to the router with network cables. I powered all of them up, turned on the Verizon Mi-Fi, and got the WiFiRanger connected to the Mi-Fi. The Amped Wireless router connected to the WiFiRanger and everything worked as intended. We were online so I checked e-mail.

Linda heated up a can of Amy’s chili for dinner, which we had with Saltine crackers and a little vegan “butter.” I sliced up an apple later for dessert.

I tried calling Butch but did not reach him so I tuned in a TV station and worked on this post. I tried Butch again later and finally got through to him. We had not talked in several weeks so we had a nice chat. Butch thought our batteries should have lasted seven years, given the way I use and maintain them, but conceded that five years is a typical lifespan. He also mentioned that Nick Russell had used the picture I sent of our bus covered in snow in his blog. I have not had a chance to check Nick’s blog in a while so I found the post when I was done talking to Butch.

By now it was 10:30 PM and I needed to get to bed. John was leaving for breakfast at 7:15 AM and I had indicated that I would go with him so I did not want to be up too late and risk oversleeping.

2015/05/31 (N) Age of Disco Camping

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We were up around 8 AM. Linda took a shower after which I started the last load of laundry while she made coffee. We had our usual granola breakfast. When the washer finished I trimmed up my beard and shaved and then took my shower while Linda moved the wash to the clothes dryer. Once we were both dressed we got very busy loading the bus and preparing it for travel.

I put on my work clothes and selected my clothes for the week. Linda took care of loading the bus while I attended to preparing it for travel. The preparations went something like this. First I loaded our GLCC banner, flags, T-shirts, door prizes, tools, and our new 6 gallon pancake style Porter-Cable air compressor into our Honda Element. I turned on our TireTraker TPMS monitor and plugged in the power cord for the TPMS repeater which is installed in the passenger-side rear corner cabinet in the bedroom. I then got out our long fresh-water hose, connected it to the faucet on the front of the house, ran it under the bus, and connected it to the fresh water inlet. I got a mat to put under the fresh water tank drain and emptied about 40 gallons of water that had been in the tank since we got home on Friday, April 24. I closed the drain valve and then opened the fresh water tank fill valve.

At 3.4 gallons per minute the 120 gallon fresh water tank takes about a half hour to fill. While that was happening I got our DeWalt 15 gallon upright tank air compressor out of the garage and rolled it over to the front of the bus (it has wheels). I got our long extension cord out of the front bay and ran it from the front porch outlet to the air compressor. I then got the air hose out of the bay where it was stored along with the air chuck, and digital tire pressure gauge, and retrieved a knee pad and slip pliers from two other bays. I removed the TT TPMS sensor from each wheel in turn, checking and adjusting the pressure as I went. I always do both dual drive tires on each side at the same time to make sure they are the same.

The inside duals have valve stem extensions so I use the pliers to keep them from loosening while I unscrew the sensor. The two front tires were at 111.5 and 112.0 PSI, both above the minimum required 110.0 PSI, but I brought them up to 115.0 PSI. I like to run the tires 5 PSI over the correct pressure to allow for changes in overnight low temperatures and to provide some margin against slow leaks. The two tag axle tires were around 82.5 PSI so I reset them to 85.0 PSI. The four drive tires were around 92.5 PSI so I brought them up to 95.0 PSI.

By the time I was done with the tires the fresh water tank was full so I shut off the water and stored everything back where it came from. I then pulled the Element around behind the bus. Everything was on board by this point except the cats, the cat tree, and us. We hooked up the car for towing and checked all of the lights. I switched on (connected) the chassis batteries, opened all of the air valves, switched off the Aqua-Hot engine preheat pump and diesel burner, started the main engine, and switched the suspension to drive mode. While coach was airing up I pulled the 50 A shorepower cord and stowed it away. Back in the house we put the cats in their carriers and left them in the front hallway while we took their “tree” out to the bus. We then brought them out, locking the house behind us, and put them on board. Both cats immediately went under the front passenger seat which is their “go to” spot while the coach is moving.

All of what I have just described took place with intermittent light rain. We could not recall the last time we had to load the motorcoach, or our previous motorhome, in the rain, but we agreed that having it parked with the entrance door opposite the sidewalk to the front door of the house made it much more convenient. Still, it was reminiscent of the “age of camping,” a time in our lives when we camped frequently in a tent with our pre-teen children. While not a constant companion, rain was a frequent visitor on these outings and yet it never deterred us from going and never lessened our enjoyment. Indeed, we tried to show our children the special beauty of a hike in a Michigan woodland in the rain or the power of standing near the shore of a Great Lake during a storm. Cooking was more of challenge, to be sure, but we had a screen room in addition to our tent and made preparing and eating meals part of the adventure. Our friend Chuck said to me once that we were different from most of the other Prevost owners he and Barbara know because we were “campers.” True enough, although what we do now hardly seems like camping to us. Still, we are quite comfortable with having the furniture and flooring removed from our motorcoach, sitting on lawn chairs instead, and dining at our fold up plastic side table.

We pulled out of our driveway at 12:30 PM and made our way slowly down our muddy, pot marked dirt road to N. Hacker Road. It was nice not having to worry about scratching the side of our rig as a result of our tree trimming raid late last night. Instead of taking our usual route north to M-59 we went south on Hacker which got us on pavement a short distance later. Most of the trees on the west side of S. Hacker Road were trimmed up high enough but just before getting to Grand River Avenue we got clunked. Our front OTR TV antenna is the highest thing on the bus. It is centered side-to-side near the front and probably took the branch. I should check it for damage the next time I am on the roof.

We went south on Grand River Avenue towards Brighton and less than a mile later took the entrance ramp to I-96 west. Twenty-three miles later we took exit 122 and stopped at the Mobil Truck Stop for fuel. We were at 3/8ths of a tank and rather than fill it we only put 80 gallons on board. That was enough added fuel for approximately 480 miles and our round trip to/from the RV rally would be less than that.

We will not be using the coach for a while after this week and it is not clear what the best thing is to do relative to long term storage. Filling the tank with fuel minimizes the air in the tank and thus the opportunity for moisture to condense out. Moisture is a bad thing in diesel fuel as it enables the growth of algae. I use a biocide additive to inhibit that growth, especially at a fill up just before it is going to sit for a while, and we have a fuel polishing pump to slowly circulate the fuel and remove water and other gunk while the coach is sitting. That would seem to solve the problem, except for the fact that it is not ideal to store diesel fuel any longer than necessary before using it. I suspect that we will fill the tank at the Mobil Truck Stop just before returning home, using an extra dose of biocide, and then run the fuel polishing pump all summer.

We continued west on I-96 to the southwest corner of Lansing and then exited onto southbound I-69. It continued to be overcast with a noticeable wind out of the east. We thought we were done with the rain but continued to get an occasional sprinkle. We exited I-69 at US-12 and headed west through Coldwater and the southern tier of Michigan counties. US-12 is a good 2-lane highway with some left and right and some up and down, sometimes at the same time. It is a fun drive with nice scenery and passes through three other small towns: Bronson, Sturgis, and White Pigeon. We eventually left US-12 onto Old 205 (M-205) and a couple of miles later entered Indiana where the road became SR-19 (IN-19). A few more miles and then left (east) on CR-4 and a mile later we pulled into Elkhart campground at 4:10 PM.

Linda checked us in and then we drove to site 738, leveled the coach, and shut down the engine. We went through as much of normal arrival routine as we could, setting up the cat tree, two folding lawn chairs, and our plastic folding side table. Linda got our WiFi Ranger connected to the RV Park WiFi and got online with her iPad while I used mine to write.

We snacked on pretzels while we were traveling and by 5:30 PM we were ready for dinner. Linda made a simple salad and then cooked a couple of vegan “burgers” and served them with the remainder of the potato salad she made the other day. We went for a walk around the campground after dinner and thought we spotted Nick and Terry Russell’s Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome but did not see any sign of them. The rig had Florida plates but there was a new Honda SUV parked in front. The last time we saw them they had a Ford Explorer but I have not been keeping up with Nick’s blog so they could have gotten a new car without us knowing about it.

When we finished our walk we unhooked the car. I forgot to pack my toothbrush so we drove back to the intersection of CR-4 and SR-19 where there is a CVS, a Walgreen’s, and a Martin’s supermarket. The CVS was the most convenient, and we have a discount card there, so we bought my toothbrush and picked up some pistachios and almonds on sale. Back at the coach we had small glasses of Moscato and some red grapes. It’s been a very physical week for us and by 8:30 PM Linda was ready to lie down and watch a little TV.

The TV stations here serve the area surrounding South Bend and Elkhart including the area of Michigan along the Indiana border. It took me a while to figure out where to point the antennas but I eventually remembered that there a quite a few very tall towers on the south side of US-20 about half way between Elkhart and South Bend. That was roughly southwest of our location and we were parked facing southwest so it was a simple matter to point the antennas straight forward. Bingo! (I should have remembered that the AntennaPoint.com website will give you the bearing and distance to all of the broadcast TV towers with a certain radius of a specified location, but I didn’t at the time.)

The local PBS station was in the middle of a fund raiser (they probably all were nationwide). That usually means vintage (nostalgic) musical performances and tonight was no exception with a reunion concert by the BeeGees (Brothers Gibb). Although best known (to my generation) as the “sound of disco,” personified in the movie Saturday Night Fever, the BeeGees performed actively for many years and have a very deep catalog of surprisingly familiar songs. This concert was filmed in Las Vegas in 1997 and several of the brothers have since passed away.

Good music is good music but popular music tends to take on significance for individuals based on where they were and what they were doing at the time it became popular. The BeeGees, like Ernest Hemingway, we’re so popular that it became popular to put down the music of the disco era. Thankfully that time has passed (in both cases) and we can remember fondly “the age of disco” and enjoy the art and artists for what they are, enjoyable and talented.

The BeeGees concert was followed by Motown 25. I was 12 in 1964 and although I studied and played classical music I was definitely listening to popular music on the radio and that included the new Motown sound. I was enjoying this concert as well but it was late and even I get tired and sleepy so I turned it off and went to bed.

20150411-15 (S-W) NM, TX, OK, AR, MO

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[Note: There are no photos for the five days covered in this post.]

2015/04/11 (S) Relaxing Chores

We like to get up and go do things, but we also like not having to get up and do things. Today we got up when we were ready to. I used up the last four scoops of coffee beans from our first three pounds and opened the next/last three pounds; one each of Sweet Seattle Dreams, Cafe Europe, and Ethiopian Yirgacheffe. Each of these is a half regular, half decaffeinated custom blend that Jeff at Teeko’s Coffee and Tea in Howell, MI makes for us. Linda installed iOS 8.3 on her iPad while I made the coffee.

We had toast and jam for breakfast using some more of the English toasting bread we bought at Smith’s the other day. After breakfast Linda played several of her word games, including Words with Friends, online with Karen. I installed iOS 8.3 on my iPad and then worked on yesterday’s blog post and e-mailed it to myself. (It is still the easiest way for me to get it from my iPad to my laptop, which somehow just does not seem right.)

Mid-morning Linda started cleaning the coach. We have been in dusty environments for a lot of the winter, especially the last few weeks, and the coach needed a good vacuuming. We don’t vacuum as often as we would if we did not have the cats with us as the vacuum is rather loud and they are afraid of it. They do not like the vacuum cleaner at home either but they can get a lot farther away from it and have a lot more places to hide in the house than they do in the bus.

While Linda worked on the interior of the bus I got out the water softener, pre-filter, and hoses. I first connected everything so I could run water through the pre-filter to remove any sediment and then backwards through the softener to back flush the resin bed. I then connected the hoses in the normal forward flow direction and added 26 ounces of non-iodized table salt to the captive filter housing on the inlet side of the softener tank. I no longer use this housing for a filter. Its sole purpose is to hold salt for regenerating the softener. That way I do not have handle a wet filter while trying to keep it clean so I can reinstall it.

The regeneration procedure was the same ordeal it has been all winter, taking a few minutes of my time spread out over several hours. Most of that time I worked on blog posts and photos, but my work was interrupted every 20 to 30 minutes to attend to the softener. I did, however, manage to get the water coming out of the softener to finally test at 1.5 gpg TH. That should be enough softening capacity to get us home without having to regenerate the water softener again.

For dinner Linda made a barley, split pea, and lentil dish with sautéed vegetables and a hint of soy sauce. It was very tasty. We had the TV on the local PBS station and I finished my consolidated blog post and image gallery post for the week of the Escapade rally and uploaded them to our website/blog.

2015/04/12 (N) Edgewood, NM to Amarillo, TX

Today was a travel day and we normally skip breakfast and coffee on such days, but not today. I was up a little after 7 AM and we did not plan to leave until 9 AM so we had time to make, consume, and digest some coffee and toast. I turned off the electric heating element for the Aqua-Hot and turned on the diesel burner and engine pre-heat coolant circulating pump.

When we were done with breakfast we got the Dewalt air compressor out of the car and checked all of the tires on the bus and the toad. It turned out that all of the pressures were slightly higher than where I normally set them, due in part to our altitude of 6,700 feet ASL, and that was want I wanted. In driving from the Route 66 RV Park in Edgewood, New Mexico to the Overnite RV Park in Amarillo, Texas we will drop just over 3,000 feet in elevation. That, in turn, will cause the cold pressures in the tires to drop. The current cold pressures in the tires should be sufficient to allow for that, but I will check the TireTraker monitor in the morning to be sure.

By the time I finished checking the tires Linda had the interior ready for travel. We hooked up the car, set the car to be towed, switched on the bus chassis batteries and engine accessories air supply, checked the lights, turned off the Aqua-Hot burner and engine pre-heat coolant circulating pump, started the bus engine, and switched the Level Low system to drive mode. A few minutes later the chassis air system was fully pressurized and the coach suspension was at ride height. We exited our site easily, pulled out of the RV Park onto Historic Route 66 westbound, and a mile later made two right turns and accelerated onto I-40 eastbound.

Once we were underway Linda called the Overnight RV Park in Amarillo, Texas to make sure they had open sites. They did, but not many so she gave them our name to hold a pull-through site that would accommodate our bus with the car attached. Since we are just staying one night we do not plan to not unhook the car.

We knew from our maps and what we could not see to the east that we were done with the Rocky Mountains. We were now in the Great Plains and would be from here all the way through Oklahoma. Not that the terrain was flat; eastern New Mexico was rolling terrain, occasionally steep, with mesas. Not surprisingly the terrain did not change abruptly as we crossed into Texas, although the road surface and time zone did. For lack of a better, or more official, line of demarcation I consider the central time zone as the boundary of the middle-west.

While not as dramatic as the mountain west the Great Plains are a place where grasses and low brush dominate a natural landscape that is largely devoid of trees and that have a beauty all their own. The other thing we noticed as we moved east was the thickening cloud cover and occasional storm clouds and virga. Linda had checked the weather forecast so we knew there was a low, but non-zero, chance we would encounter rain while driving and/or after we got parked for the evening. We did, in fact, drive through a couple of miles of very light rain somewhere near the New Mexico / Texas border.

We only stopped once for a bathroom/stretch break and made very good time. The posted (maximum) speed limit for most of I-40 in both states is 75 MPH. Back east I typically limit my speed to 62 MPH or less if the speed limit is lower. What I have discovered out west is that the bus really likes to travel at 68 MPH turning just under 2,000 RPM and so do I, at least out here in the wide open spaces.

Linda had selected the Overnight RV Park in Amarillo for several reasons. For one, the name and description strongly suggested that this park was set up to accommodate overnight visitors passing through the area in their RVs and looking for a place to spend the night. For another, it was on the east edge of Amarillo, so we will not have to drive through town in the morning when we pull out. Finally, it was right across the street from a Pilot Truck Stop, so we did not have to make a separate stop for fuel.

We pulled of I-40 at exit 75 around 2:30 PM CDT and pulled in to the truck stop. The place was crowded with trucks but we got lucky and pulled in behind a semi that was done fueling and pulled out shortly thereafter. There was some confusion regarding the pump number so it took a bit longer than usual to top off the tank, but we were not pressed for time as our RV park for the night was right across the street. Linda settled the charge and we followed several tractor-trailers to the exit, back to the main road, and then turned north and drove the short distance up to the entrance to the RV Park. We turned in and stopped by the office where Linda got us registered. As is the case in most RV Parks we got a map of the campground with our site and entrance path marked, the login for the Wi-Fi, and the combination lock for the bathrooms. We also received information about where to go and what to do in the event of violent weather. Welcome to the Midwest and Tornado Alley.

Overnight RV Park is an older park with a lot of long-term residents, but it was not run down and had some nice, mature trees and plants. I was momentarily concerned about low overhanging branches and tight turns when we pulled in but the gravel interior roads were wide enough, and the trees trimmed enough, to make access to our assigned pull-through site very easy. I did, however, lift the tag axle to allow for the tighter turns.

We went through our normal arrival routine, got connected to the Internet, and started looking at our RV park options in the greater Oklahoma City area. We plan to stay two nights and take part of our one full day to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen who live in Norman just south of OKC. I had not contacted them, however, as our travel plans have been very fluid. Now that we were a day’s drive away I called to let them know we would be in the area. I was a bit surprised that Helen answered the phone and even more surprised to learn that Bob was in “rehab” although Helen did not say why. She did say that we could visit him so we arranged to go to their house on Tuesday morning at 10 AM, get the address/directions to the rehab facility, and possibly take Helen with us to go visit him.

I texted my sister and niece to let them know that Friday from lunchtime to dinnertime would work well for us and accommodate their availability. Linda texted our children to let them know we had landed safely in Amarillo and then texted Marilyn to share the same information. Marilyn called back a bit later and Linda filled in the details.

The RV Park options around OKC were limited, which seems to be typical of urban areas including St. Louis, Missouri. The options also seemed to be less than ideal based on reviews and expensive by our standards. In the end we decided to try the Cleveland County Fairgrounds in Norman. We sent a message via RVillage to someone who is currently there in a 42′ motorhome and inquired about the place. They wrote back and said it was fine but was near full, does not take reservations, and only has 30A electrical service. All of that was fine by us. The pluses are that it is only a few minutes from my Aunt and Uncle’s house and it is only $20 per night, so we are going to leave early tomorrow and see if we can snag a spot.

inda re-heated some leftovers for dinner, after which we went for a stroll around the RV park. We had just exited our coach and got into a conversation with our neighbors to the north. They were working on errands so after a good chat we left them to their work and went on our walk. Getting out and moving around in the cool, fresh air was just what we needed after a long day of sitting and driving and invigorated us enough to stay up until 9 PM.

2015/04/13 (M) Amarillo, TX to Norman, OK

The weather forecast did not favor travel during any particular part of the day; it was going to be rainy and windy regardless of when we left. Getting a spot at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, however, might depend on getting there early. We targeted an 8 AM departure for our 4.5 hour, 270 mile trip. We were up at 7 AM and each had a cup of tea and a banana. We did not unhook the car last night, so all we had to do was run it through the towing procedure and it was ready to go. We pulled out of our site at 8:20 AM.

Our route today was I-40 east to I-35 south to US-77 south to East Robinson Street. All but the last 20 miles was on I-40 which mostly ran east to northeast. Winds were 15 – 20 MPH and gusty out of the northeast the whole way. That meant I almost always had a headwind component and often had a crosswind component. The headwind requires the engine to work harder so I set the cruise control at 64 MPH instead of the 68 MPH I ran most of yesterday. The crosswind component meant I had to actively work the steering and the lower speed made that more comfortable as well.

Most of the trip was through rural countryside with good road surface and light traffic. We encountered a few construction zones but there was no work being done due to the weather. As we approached the Oklahoma City metropolitan area traffic became much heavier, as expected, but the highways had more lanes and everything seemed to move along just fine. In particular I-40 and I-35 always had at least three lanes allowing me to stay in the center, away from entering traffic, and move to the left or right as needed for an exit ramp. The whole drive would have been easier without the rain and constant fiddling with windshield wipers, but I was always able to see well enough to maneuver safely, it was just more work and bit more stressful than normal. I seem to handle urban road systems OK; it’s just not my favorite thing to do.

The Cleveland County Fairgrounds was easy to find and easy to access. As soon as we pulled in we could see where the RVs were parked. I pulled up out of the way while Linda called the Fairgrounds office. She was told to go ahead a find a place to park and then register at the kiosk or in Building G. I pulled up into the gravel parking area that had the RVs backed along two sides, like an “L.” One leg of the L was paved and the other was grass/gravel. We noticed one empty site in the paved area so I pulled around in front of it (so no one else could take it) while we unhooked the car. (When camping in a no-reservations, first come, first served campground you have to stake your claim to an empty site.) Linda moved the car out of the way and then spotted the rear end of the bus while I repositioned it and then backed it into site #9. We have been towed out of two fairgrounds at the end of rallies where it rained so we were glad to get this paved site.

The sites here are all full hookup with 30 A electric and include usable Wi-Fi for $20/night. That is a much better deal than anything else we could find in the OKC area, and is also the closest place to where my aunt and uncle live, so it was a great find. We probably won’t use the fresh water or sewer connections and the 30 A service will be OK. Apparently there are also some 50 A sites but we did not need that much power and did not want to take the time to see if one of them was open. Given forecasted high temperatures that will barely reach 60 degrees F we will not need our air-conditioners. As for heat, we will use our Aqua-Hot in diesel-fired mode for domestic hot water and space heating, if needed.

Once we had the power connected and got settled in I made a pot of coffee while Linda made roll-up sandwiches for lunch. She then checked us in to the Fairgrounds on RVillage and made our reservation for the Red Barn Rendezvous RV Park near Edwardsville, Illinois starting on Thursday. We will be in the St. Louis, Missouri area for four or five nights visiting family before pushing on to Twelve Mile, Indiana. She then researched places to stay near Joplin and Springfield, Missouri for Wednesday evening.

While Linda was doing all of that I finished up yesterday’s blog post and started working on this one. I then logged-in to RVillage. There are three other RVillagers checked in to the CCFG so I posted to the home feed and to the park feed to see if I could make contact with any of them. One of them (Hollywood Bob) is also a member of the SKP Photographers BOF which Linda and I help run. (I am the owner/leader of the RVillage Group.) I sent him a friend request and then a personal message.

The rain let up not long after we arrived at the Fairgrounds but the wind continued, with gusts occasionally rocking the bus. The bus is fairly massive but also has a lot of surface area and sits on air springs. We do not have leveling jacks, so strong/gusty winds can, and do, rock the bus.

Hollywood Bob and his girlfriend Barb walked by so I went outside to chat with them briefly and we arranged to walk over to a local coffee shop at 8 AM tomorrow. I then spent the late afternoon and early evening editing the text for my March 13th blog post on our visit to the Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson and then worked on selecting photos for the post. Somewhere in there we took a break and went for walk around the Fairgrounds. It is not a large facility but has nice buildings and grounds.

Linda heated up the last of the barley and vegetable leftovers and steamed some halved Brussels sprouts and finished them with a White Peach Balsamic Vinegar Glaze from the Queen Creek Olive Mill near Arizona City, Arizona. Yum. After dinner we turned on the front TV and tuned in PBS to watch Antiques Roadshow. I finished selecting and processing photos for the March 13th post around 11:30 PM but did not upload it

2015/04/14 (T) Bob and Helen

I was up at 6:30 AM and uploaded my blog post for March 13th. We had spent that day at the Sonoran Desert Museum west of Tucson, Arizona and photographed the sunset from nearby Gates Pass. The post was brief (by my standards) but I put over 30 photos in an image gallery.

At 8 AM we walked over to Hollywood Bob and Barb’s rigs, met up with them, and then walked the short distance to the Dora Marie Bakery and Coffee Shop just across Porter Avenue from the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. We sat there conversing over coffee until 9:45 AM, mostly about RVs and RVing as that is generally the first and easiest conversation to have with new friends. I already knew from a brief chat with Bob yesterday that both of them are members of the Escapees RV Club and that Bob is a member of the SKP Photographers BOF. Bob is also a Freethinker and knew that we were as well from our RVillage Profile. We found out over coffee that they are both members of the WINs (Wandering Individuals Network) and LoWs (Loners on Wheels) which are independent groups for single RVers. As we were walking back to our rigs we agreed to get together for SKP happy hour at 4 PM.

Our main reason for being in Norman, Oklahoma was to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen. Uncle Bob earned a Ph.D. in micropaleontology over 60 years ago when Ph.Ds. were less common than they are now. He moved to Oklahoma after finishing his degree and did extensive work on the Arbuckle Mountains. A Google search on “Robert O. Fay” produced a lot of hits referencing his published work. He was attached to the University of Oklahoma at one time and that is what brought them to Norman.

Bob just turned 88. He and Helen have been married for 49 years but never had children. Helen had one son, Scott, from a previous marriage. Scott married Linda and they had two children, Tiffany and Philip. Scott passed away a while back but Linda still lives in Norman and teaches in OKC. Tiffany and Philip and their families also still live in Norman.

I last saw Bob and Helen four years ago on the drive back to Michigan from Livingston, Texas where I had picked up our Honda Element from Dennis and Carol Hill. Helen was having problems with her back at the time but Bob was as sharp as I remembered the last time I saw him 26 years earlier while returning from a trip out west with Brendan. All of our memories of that visit were a bit vague but my recollection is that Meghan and my sister, Patty, met us there so Patty must have driven Meghan to OKC from St. Louis, Missouri.

When I called on Sunday to let Bob and Helen know we would be in the area I talked to Helen and found out that my uncle was in a rehabilitation facility not far from the house but she did not say why. When we arrived at their house at 10 AM this morning we were greeted by Tiffany, Brandy (Philip’s wife), and Helen who was up walking around and sharp as ever. We visited briefly and then followed Tiffany and Helen over to the rehab facility.

Uncle Bob is in the facility recovering from a persistent pneumonia, which was treated with an antibiotic to which he was allergic, but he also has Parkinson’s. He is still coherent but the decline in both his physical and mental condition was striking. I was not shocked by that, however, and only briefly surprised by virtue of not being fully prepared. We had a conversation nonetheless, and Bob asked, and talked, about family and genealogy which became his research passion along with geology. Tiffany took a cell phone picture of Linda and me with Bob. She had to get back to work so she took Helen home while Linda and I stayed a bit longer to chat with my uncle.

Bob was tired, dozing on and off, and it was getting close to lunchtime. Staff also needed to check on Bob so we took our leave. Although we will be back this way in future years I had the strong sense that Uncle Bob is not going to improve going forward and this may be the last time I get to see him. It was not quite the meeting I had envisioned, but I was glad for what we had. My dad will be 90 in June and cannot travel very far from his home so I don’t see any way he and his brother will ever meet again. There is always a final everything but it is usually only clear in retrospect. Such is life.

Before Tiffany and Helen left Tiffany called her mom (Linda) to see if she could be available to get together after work this evening. Linda said she could rearrange some things with her brother and would love to meet for dinner. We discussed meeting at the house and going out to dinner from there.

Tiffany invited us to stop by her school, which is just down the street from the Fairgrounds, so we did that right after lunch, which consisted of a couple of tofu hotdogs wrapped up in soft tortillas with mustard and relish. Not WFPB but definitely vegan and definitely tasty. Tiffany gave us a tour of her school and we got to meet Cody, her significant other, who also works at the school. She had talked to her mom (Linda) and Helen and they decided that we would all be more comfortable and better able to converse at the house. We explained how we eat and Tiffany said she and Brandi (Philip’s wife) would take care of bringing in food and make sure there were items for us.

I spent most of the afternoon working on blog posts but took time out to check the pressures of the two front bus tires. I thought I would have to adjust all of them now that we have descended to 1,200 feet ASL, but the front tires were still close to one another and above the minimum required pressure, so I did not get out the compressor. By 3 PM I was feeling the need for a nap and snoozed for an hour.

We walked over to Barb and Hollywood Bob’s rigs at 4:30 PM. We were going to do SKP happy hour at 4 PM but we were not sure we could carry glasses of wine around the Fairgrounds so we went empty handed. The Farmers Market opened at 4 PM so Bob, Linda, and I walked over to check it out while Barb started preparing their dinner. They had to be at a dance event at 6 PM and we needed to be at Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen’s house around the same time.

Brandi has been Uncle Bob’s primary caregiver when he is at home and she brought him from the rehab facility to the house for the evening. There was a houseful of people with laughter and energy and it was nice to see Uncle Bob and Aunt Helen surrounded by so many people who obviously love them and care about them. Dinner was salad greens, vegetables, fresh fruit, sandwich fixings, and deserts and there was plenty for us to choose from. Here’s how the family fits together:

Bob is my father’s younger/only brother (by two years).
Helen had one son, Scott Pelton, from a previous marriage.
Scott married Linda and they had two children; Tiffany and Philip.
(Scott passed away some years ago.)
Tiffany has three girls (young ladies); Alexis, Brianna, and Caitlin.
Brianna has a son, Liam, who is Bob and Helen’s great-great-grandson.
Philip married Brandi and they have three children; Cassidy, Cheyenne, and Danika.

We stayed until almost 9:30 PM and had a great visit that ended with a discussion about Linda and her three grand-daughters coming to Michigan for a visit sometime. Tiffany texted me the cellphone photo she took of Linda, me, and Uncle Bob at the rehab facility this morning. Caitlin set up a camera and took photos of the entire group. When we got back to our rig I replied to text messages and provided our e-mail address and home phone number to Helen and Tiffany.

2015/04/15 (W) Norman, OK to Carthage, MO

There is always way more to do in any given area than there is time to do it, and the greater Oklahoma City area, including Norman, is no exception to that. But our presence here proved to be the catalyst for a large gathering of people to whom we are related by marriage through Helen, my only Aunt, and only by virtue of her being married to my only uncle, Bob. While it would have been nice to visit longer after last night’s gathering it would have been anti-climactic.

Through the serendipity that RVillage makes possible we also made the acquaintance of Barb and Hollywood Bob at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds. As much as we would have liked to have coffee with them again this morning, we don’t usually have our morning coffee on travel days and wanted to be on the road by 9 AM.

Linda had been checking the weight restrictions on the roads in our home county and noted yesterday that they will be lifted on the 16th. That means we have a green light to return to our house whenever we want to. We already have plans to spend four nights near St. Louis, Missouri and visit family, and at least a couple of nights in Twelve Mile, Indiana visiting Butch and Fonda with whom we started this southwestern adventure on November 30th, 2014. We will spend our final night at the Camp Turkeyville RV Park so we can dump our holding tanks before arriving home.

All of which is to say we had over 600 miles to travel from Norman to St. Louis, which is two day trip for us, with a reservation at an RV Park in Edwardsville, Illinois starting Thursday afternoon and arrangements to visit with family on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Linda researched possible intermediate locations to split the distance roughly in half and found the Coachlight RV Park on I-49 one mile north of I-40 near Carthage, Missouri.

We did not take the time to buy an Oklahoma Turnpike pass and decided not to take I-44 northeast out of OKC. From the CCFG we headed west on Robinson Street back to US-77 north, merged onto I-35 north, and then exited onto I-240 east. Somewhere east of OKC I-240 ended and merged into I-40. As urban highways go it was an easy exit from the greater OKC area. We stopped at a rest area just before crossing the Oklahoma/Arkansas border and took a short lunch break, having vegan cold cut rollup sandwiches.

We continued east on I-40 to Fort Smith, Arkansas and then headed north on I-540, which has been re-signed I-49, through the Boston Mountains toward Fayetteville and Bentonville, the corporate home of Wal-Mart. I-49 did not continue all the way into Missouri and became US-77 as it passed through a narrow valley and small towns. A few miles into Missouri the road became I-49 again. We stayed with I-49 up to where it joins with I-44 east near Joplin, Missouri. About 10 miles later I-49/US-77 split off to the north and one mile later we exited, crossed over the Interstate, and pulled into the Coachlight RV Park.

The weather was overcast with occasional drizzle for the entire trip but it was a beautiful drive nonetheless. Eastern Oklahoma is green and rolling and northwest Arkansas adds small mountains to that topography. The bus ran well all day including the steepest grades.

The Coachlight RV Park is located behind the Coachlight RV Dealership with very easy access. Linda got us registered but then we had to wait quite a while for someone to move the motorhome in front of us. Again, we were given instructions on where to go and what to do in the event of extreme/violent weather. The Park is built into a north-facing slope with wide paved roads behind an RV dealership of the same same. The RV dealership was the emergency shelter. Most of the sites are pull-through except along the two outside edges. All of the sites are wide, long, and level gravel with full hookups including cable TV and Wi-Fi. The Park has its own well with a water softener so the water at the sites is very soft. The Park allows customers to wash their rigs so we got out the hose, spray nozzle, and long-handled soft brush and rinsed off the car and the bus as best we could.

We went for a walk around the Park to stretch our legs and stopped by the office to check out the meeting room. There is a small RV rally here and we got to see the meeting room which was very nice. For dinner Linda made a macaroni and mushroom dish with onions, garlic, and kale followed by red grapes. Very tasty. We watched a few TV shows and called it a day.

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2016/03/12-14 (S-M) Middle of Nowhere Close to Everywhere

2016/03/07 (M) Arcadia to Webster

2015/11/29 (N) Cartersville to Mayo

2015/05/31 (N) Age of Disco Camping

20150411-15 (S-W) NM, TX, OK, AR, MO