Today Is The Day - We Leave Sunny Florida

Today is the day. We pack up the "Golden Goose" and start the wending trek northward. On this trip we've enjoyed Texas Hill Country in Fredricksburg and Luckenbach, the surreal surf of Santa Rosa Island and Pensacola Beach, the Thunderbird's putting on an awesome show while practicing over our RV, and the laid back 50's atmosphere of Carrabelle. We learned how to co-habitat in a small space without killing one another and I learned to enjoy reading again. We also dropped our stress levels from about 10 to a 2. Wind, sun and surf have a way of coaxing relaxation out of a person.

Next we head to Rio Vista, Tx. for a late family Christmas and then New Years and back home in time to see our dear friends Tim and Wendy while they are in Fayetteville.

Stay tuned because once we get to reliable internet I will be posting photos from this trip.

Carrabelle, Florida - The Fifties Called And Wants You To Visit

We made it to Carrabelle, Florida on Monday afternoon.  We are staying at Carrabelle Beach RV Resort. $243 for the week, Monthly is much cheaper but we don't have the time to do a month this year.  Sigh.  The Resort is really nice but sadly there isn't a hot tub.

The sun has been missing since last Sunday the eighteenth.  Martha and I both will be glad to see it later today.  We are off to explore the area and to sample craft beers in a pub located in Apalachicola at lunchtime today.  I am looking forward to exploring.  More later.

"And The Minnow Would Be Lost" - Ship/Boat Wreck Washed Ashore On Pensacola Beach

This came ashore about a week ago. No word on the circumstance, and no visible markings on her hull. A ghost ship?  Perhaps.

Seventy Five And Sunny - Need I Say More?

Well today I woke to a brilliant sun showing in a cloudless sky. This my friends is why I wanted an RV.  We plan an afternoon at the beach. Sadly our days in Florida will end a week from this coming Monday.

But for now, I am enjoying this immensely.

No pictures yet this morning but this one was taken yesterday in a sunless sky at 50*.  Somehow it still conveys the serenity and awesome power of the ocean.

And yesterday in 76* weather 

Enjoying Life At The Beach - Wandering "Toes In The Water, Ass In The Sand" - Ain't Life Grand!

We've been adjusting to life in the RV. Living on the road comes with learning to relax into it and doing things our way, on our schedule.

Life is different when you are in a new location. It's sort of like moving someplace permanently but not really.  It's sort of a "gotcha" moment.  When you reside someplace permanently you want to learn about the place, the things it offers, the best and most affordable restaurants, cool things to do and about the people that live there.  But when you are a nomad (we're nomad interns) you know you are going to eventually move on at some point.  When you realize this you find yourself (maybe just I do this?) not wanting the whole story because you want to leave something to discover for the next time you are in that location.

You end up finding yourself doing things in "vacation" mode.  You try to cram in everything you can and want to do in a short period of time. Typically in the past it's been a vacation for "two weeks." 

Hey, we don't have to do that anymore, right?

It's weird but after our first eleven days in the RV I still find myself in "vacation" mode.  I've not yet relaxed into having time on my hands.  I haven't reached the point of being bored enough to find something fun to do. In fairness to myself the RV has had a series of small problems that had to be investigated, repaired or resolved. Each of the eleven days I have tackled one of these problems and have solved many of them.  However I still have a few to go.  My goal is to put them behind me by getting the repairs done so I don't have an excuse not to relax. I'm beginning to wonder if that will ever really happen.

We continue to learn the whole "unwinding" thing.  Martha is better at enjoying life than I am. She has had a daily walk on the beach and has nearly finished a book that she has carried around and not read for nearly a year.



Hey, I read a magazine yesterday and sat still nearly an hour to do it. That's progress right?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As far as RV repairs this is what I have repaired, investigated and solved so far:

1. Freshwater tank wouldn't fill. It fills now albeit slowly. I found one slightly restricted hose.
2. I checked the battery compartment and found all of the house batteries low on electrolyte. While I was at it I took every cable off, cleaned and polished them, replaced them, cleaned the battery surfaces off and topped off each cell.
3. The toilet and the entire toilet room smells of urine. I think the previous owner must have had the "stand closer sweetie, it's shorter than you think" syndrome.  Despite repeated cleanings of the floor, underneath the plastic surround at the base of the toilet the smell remains.  I will pull the toilet next to see how bad the seal is and clean the area thoroughly.
4. Install a Chromecast on the main TV. Sound easy right? Not.  I had to take the overhead TV cabinet apart to gain access to the HDMI ports, snake the power cord through an impossibly full wire chase. and then put things back together.
5. Water pressure/flow was low at all faucets, toilet and shower. This resulted in my chasing the water lines from the city water hookup to each of the water outlets on the coach.  I found a deteriorated black rubber washer in the city water hookup. I was absolutely disintegrated. The pieces were distributed first in the fresh water whole house water filter. I removed the filter and put the housing back on. Next I took the screens off each faucet, and shower and ran water until all of the black washer particles quit coming out of the outlets.  I ran the toilet flushing system to do the same and then cleaned each faucet screen with vinegar to insure they were clean and flowing. That seems to have cured the low water flow issues.
6. The coaches fantastic fan controls are intermittent, I took the controls apart and tried to clean the push pin contactors. I need fine grit sandpaper to do it one more time. However, the controls now work with repeated pushing.
7. I checked all engine and transmissions fluids and found them all fine.
6. I've checked the tire pressure and filled as required.

I still haven't finished checking systems and will keep tabs as I complete tasks.

Cold Day Today - We Drove To Opal And Navarre Beach

It only got into the mid-fifties today. Not cold you say?  Try 54 degrees with a 22 knot wind. We decided to take a drive to Opal and Navarre Beaches.  Both stunning places to sea watch.

Tonight we are expected to drop below freezing so I have the basement heat on in the RV.  It's only supposed to be below freezing for a couple of hours but, better safe than sorry.

Still Getting Used To New Noises - Hyper-vigilance Is A Curse.

What a night

I slept well initially.  As older folks tend to do, I had get up and use the facilities in the wee hours of the night. Upon returning to bed I dozed off and was just about, to sleep when I heard a "bang." Instead of getting up and checking what it might be, I just laid there wondering in the warmth of the bed. Evidently this is the wrong answer when one is hyper-vigilant.

The result was keeping Martha (and myself) awake until the early morning hours tossing and turning and trying to regain some sense of calm and composure. I think I finally fell asleep around 3:00 am.

When I awoke this morning I found that the bang was a "command hook" that failed under the weight of my wife's purse.

So, now I sit and sip coffee and marvel at how stupid I am and what possesses some of my neighbors to be as stupid as they are, all while nodding off doing so.

This guy sat outside all evening lighting one stinky cheap cigar off the last.  He made my life stinky too. Damn I hate smokers.  And yes, I know he has a right to smoke outside and that it's my problem not his but I sure wish the wind had changed directions and blew the smoke back into his face.

Martha checking emails and making journal entries

Some more photos from yesterdays trip to the beach

We Walked Over To The Beach Today - It's A Wondrous Place

No words required

Sunset on the Dunes of Pensacola Beach

Water Woes - Part Deux

I posted earlier about our fresh water tank not filling. After many Google searches and posting on iRV2 in the Newmar forum and on the Escapees discussion board I decided to start my up close and personal checks of tanks and hoses.  I started on the curbside tanks which are accessed behind the peg board bay.

Once I took all the parts out and checked things I found there are no problems on this side of the coach. I did however find that the all three tanks (fresh, black and grey) had level sensors loose from the tanks. I temporarily repaired them using "fix anything tape."  I will now need to tackle the roadside wet bay to inspect things.  This is going to be a huge pain in the butt. However, it is required to find the leak, kink or missing parts.

In the mean time we are on Santa Rosa Island at Pensacola beach in the Fort Pickens Camground at the Gulf Shores National Seashore.

In a word "beautiful."

Rain, Rain Go Away

Today we made it to Biloxi some eighty three miles from yesterdays stay in Madisionville, La.  Today we had good conditions for travel but it started raining raing about 1pm and still hasn't stopped.  We are at the Boomtown Casino RV Park.

It's a nice place with concrete slabs that are too small width wise. Our RV parked all the way to the driverside for hook ups yielded about a foot of excess slab on the curbside. The plus is that all sites are a full hook ups.  A bonus is that the site we've got is a pull through site, easy peasy.

Tomorrow checkout is 12 pm. We hope to sleep in.  After waking we will be moving to Ft. Pickens, Florida for 14 days on the beach.  I will add photos of Boomtown RV Park tomorrow.

Camping In A Swamp - Or, Rub A Dub, Dub There's An RV In The Tub

Good grief, first water problems in the RV (still not solved). Then water problems at our Louisiana campground.

We stayed in Fairview Riverside State Park, Madisonville, Louisiana for the last two days.  It is one of our favorite places to camp. Live Oaks and River Oaks dripping with Spanish moss, the beautiful Tchefuncte (Cha Funk Ta) River on the West side of the park and running water, everywhere.

The first day and evening were great. We got set up, went for a walk, cooked dinner and made a campfire to have a few drinks by.  About 8:30 I went to stoke the fire and stepped in water that had not been there previously, WTF?

Fairview is built in a low lying area and is surround by swamp that borders the river. About the same time I was discovering the water a ranger stopped by the RV. He told us that the river was backing up because of strong winds at the mouth of it forcing the water back up river. He said it wasn't critical and we would be ok.  Right.

This morning I awoke to a newly formed moat. That's not rainwater folks, that is rising water in a swamp.  The kicker was it was before coffee.

We've Left On Our First Of Many Adventures - On The Way To Ft. Pickens

Well we've done it. We are on the road for a month preparing ourselves and our coach for full timing starting in June of 2017.  We rented a tow dolly to see how it worked with towing Martha's car. So far so good but mounting the car on the dolly is truly a pain in the ass.

Our 9:30 departure from Fayetteville was delayed by nearly an hour by a leveling jack that refused to retract. I had to manually release it using the solenoid valve under the hood.  Once that was solved we got the tow dolly from UHaul and started south.  We are currently in the Harrow's Casino parking lot just across the Mississippi in Greenville, MS.

We had a somewhat dissatisfying dinner and gambled away $20 total but hey, we're boondocking for free. This place has truck parking and a large parking lot that you can pull your coach into. They (security) suggest the truck lot on busy nights.

The next stop for us is at Fairview Riverside Park in Madisonville, Louisiana and our favorite restaurant on the planet "Mortons Seafood" on the Tchefuncte River.  We are there for two nights and then head to Biloxi, Ms.for a night and finally to Ft. Pickens. Florida for two weeks. I will do my best to take some photos tomorrow. Stay tuned.