Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Off to a Good Start, Orange City Florida

 

This is the start of our tenth straight year of traveling for 6-9 months each year.  Normally by now we would be in either California or along the coast of south-western Oregon.  But this year includes a wedding in Cleveland in late July.  Took a week to load up the motorhome, clean up the condo, get a tooth pulled for Marcia, and get up-to-date shots for Indy.  As for me, well I did all the work while those two had all the fun!  (OUCH!  Marcia just hit me in the arm...forgot just how close she is to my computer inside this here motorhome....LOL)

We got up by 7:30, and we were on the road by 9:00 and by 2:00 we were setup and tired as all could be.  Having slept in the motorhome since Saturday, it gave us a few days to be sure we had everything (and we found a couple things we forgot, and a couple things that went back).  For the first time, the condo is super clean...complete scrub down of the fridge, all of the floors clean and mopped, toilets scrubbed, shower scrubbed and bleached...it will be super nice to come home to a clean house, assuming no hurricanes take it out.

The pictures above and below are of the Orange City RV Resort, 5 miles from Marcia's brother Dean and wife Caryl's house.  Originally we were going to stay for two nights, but there is one more delivery we just have to have...and we hope it will be in by Friday.  Lucky for me I did not realize this was a Passport America park when I made the reservation on-line...so extending to four nights did not cost a thing.  


Like many of these Florida 'resorts', this park is made up of many mobile homes, many 5th wheels and trailers, some which stand empty until winter when the snowbirds come down, and this time of year, many empty spaces.  The park is located between Orlando and Daytona Beach, and with the Passport America price, it comes out to roughly $22 per night.  Not bad at all.  But to call it a 'resort' just because it has a nice pool, rec-center, exercise room ... well, it is a park with many amenities, including these older looking bathrooms / laundry areas.


But the worse thing is this dog park...as they call it on the map.  At first it looks ok, white fence around it...until you realize the white fence is protecting an irrigation pond, and the park is that bit of grass you see in front of the fence.

Around 4:30 the skies opened up, lightening and thunder all around, and we got a good Florida summer drenching...dropping the temps down from 90+ to a cool lower 70's.  It was the first time we have been able to turn off the A/C, open up windows, and enjoy some fresh air.  Looks like we might have this 'summer weather' for the next few days.

So far I like our new GUTA Tire Pressure Monitoring System.  It was easy to program, all of the sensors registered without needing the extender antenna, and it caught the mistake that the oil changing center made when they were suppose to top off each of the tires...but one they let out 10+ pounds.  Thank goodness I found a self fill tire filler less than a mile down the road...but it could only increase it to 70 pounds and not the 78 that I want it to be.

Secondly, we love our new bed topper, it is absolutely wonderful.  Might have to get one for our California King bed at the condo.

Finally, we will have to save Indy a space behind the driver's seat and the wall of the slide-out.  Typically we carry a few gallons of spring water and some sparkling waters.  Her little bed can fit back there if we move the sparkling waters...so that's what we will do.

Friday, June 18, 2021

Getting Ready to Leave for Six Months

 

With my youngest son's wedding in late July in Cleveland, we have hung around HOT and HUMID Florida a bit longer than "I" like.  Tuesday I took the motorhome out of storage, got the oil changed and tires leveled out with air (except for short local drives it has sat since October), and parked in the Holiday Travel Park nearby.  In fact, it is just under a mile driving, and a half of a mile as the crow flies.  It is very convenient for cleaning and packing.  We figured we would move in on Monday, and head for DeLand to visit Marcia's brother Dean and wife Caryl on Tuesday.  Yesterday morning (like around 4 am) I told Marcia that we might want to consider moving in on Friday or Saturday night making it easier to clean the Condo and not have all our stuff split between two locations.  So Thursday we cleaned a bit more, moved the food and other things in, and planned on moving our clothes and toiletries today...BUT...


Someone (not me or Indy) had a tooth that was hurting like heck.  At 4 pm Aspen Dental said they could see Marcia at 7 pm, and today they did a deep cleaning and pulled her tooth, which previously had a root canal, where one of the roots had broken off from the tooth causing pain related to infection setting in.  Could not believe we could get all that done within 18 hours of contacting them.  Of course, could not believe the price either, but that is life...just used Uncle Joe's stimulus money for that one!

Another way we have spent our Stimulus Money was getting a new Tire Pressure Monitoring System.  Our old one was having problems the past couple of years, and after some research I decided on this GUTA System with 12 sensor caps...we only need 10, so this gives us 2 extras.  So far I like how this system is programed, and it comes with an extender antenna if needed...we probably don't need it.  The sensor caps are a bit smaller than our current ones, and none of these are pass-through, so to add air I will need to take each one off like I did with the car.  The battery on the monitor lasts for 10-14 days, with some people reporting even up to few weeks...and you don't have to have it plugged in all the time like our previous one.


Another easy fix was replacing this black tank flush intake valve.  Wish all fixes were this easy...


Unfortunately, it was time to replace the duckbills on our Vacuflush toilet system, and found that the bellows needed replacing too.  Of all the motorhome jobs I have done, messing (no pun intended) with this toilet system is the worse.  Thought I lined up a repair man to do it, my legs are not what they use to be and my arms are big to work in this confined area...but it ended up that the repair guys fell through, and I did get it done.  All I can say is YUCK!  (I wrote in detail about doing this job back in 2018, just click here)

Indy has enjoyed our many weekly trips over to the Doggie Park...until the weather got so hot and humid this past 10+ days.  (Highs in low 90's, Lows in upper 70's, humidity in the thousands range!)  On this day she was one of 14 dogs in the small dog park area...by the time I took this picture all but 3 dogs had left.  She has been the only dog at the park a number of times, and that just is not fun for her.

The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was on last weekend, and she was GLUED to the screen, sitting on my lap just to keep her from attacking the screen when they trotted around the stadium.  We were pulling for this Westie...but Wasabi the Pekingese won best of show.  Indy really enjoyed it, but we did have to take a five minute time out at first because she was just too excited by it all.

On Monday Indy gets her three year rabies vaccine shot and three year license...Tuesday we head out.