On the Road, Again

YAY! We're on the road, again. This time, we're traveling from Foxboro, MA to Sarasota, FL with stops in Vienna, VA and Richmond, VA and Dothan, AL. Our travels have been going smoothly but, except for the visits at the stops, not too enjoyably due to the deep cold in the deep south. I'll post more in the coming days.

Fridge Continuing Saga, et. al.

When we last left you, we had a non-working refrigerator in our new RV and we were leaving (thank goodness) Bath, NY. Before we left, I did some research and found out there was an RV dealer and repair very close to where we would be attending the FMCA rally near Burlington, VT. I called them and had them order a new cooling unit for our fridge. Unfortunately, we would not be able to get it installed until the Monday after July 4th. So we continued to limp along using a cooler and ice.

On our way to Burlington, we stopped of at Mom’s place in White River Junction, VT. We stayed at the Rest & Nest RV Park in East Thetford for two days and visited with Mom. She is doing much better now that she has gotten over her intestinal problems (TMI). She is getting back into socializing with the other residents again.

The first day there, we hung out in her room for a while and then took her out to the campground to see our new RV. She liked it very much. She agreed it is much more roomy that the Bay Star was. The we went back and Ellyn and Mom got in on the Quiddler game which was in progress. It ran late so they suspended the game with three more rounds to go until the next day.

The next day, we went back to finish up the Quiddler game and then they started another which I joined in on. My first hand was a hoot. I was dealt 3 E’s and, when I was offered the discard from the previous player, I turned it down, since it was yet another E. So I drew one from the deck and, you guessed it, the 5th E. The rest of the game went much better. After Quiddler we played a few rounds of LCR, a game we later played for dimes at the Good Sam Samboree on Prince Edward Island in Canada. We then had lunch with Mom in the Country Kitchen. Delicious and with birthday cake for dessert. It seems it is always someone’s birthday at Valley Terrace.

With said bye to Mom and headed for Essex Junction, VT and the NEA FMCA Rally. We arrived one day early and park in the campground at the fairgrounds for the night. The next afternoon, we met up with the other members of the Chai Chapter and parked our coaches together not too far from where we had camped, so it was a short trip to move the RV. It was rainy that day (of course. It is always raining on the day we arrive at a rally) but the following days were nice. Toward the end of the weekend, it started getting downright hot. But we only had 30 amps, so we had to keep it to just one A/C unit. When we had our potluck dinner one of the days, several coaches popped their circuit breakers when they tried to run their microwaves and A/C units at the same time. Oops!  We had a great parking place, right near a shady park of the park where we could meet and schmooze.

We got a call shortly after the start of the Rally that they wanted us to come in on Friday before the 4th to fix the fridge (yay!). So we did but the warranting RV dealer wanted them to do some checking first to make sure it wasn’t some problem with the installation. So we took it to them and they spent the better part of the day checking. They did find a couple of possible problems but the fridge would still not cool properly. By this time, it was too late in the day to do the cooling unit install so they told us to come back again on Monday and they would install it (ugh). So, one more trip back on Monday.

Four hours later we returned to the dealer to find they were still working on it, and were greeted with the seven words you never want to hear; “I have good news and bad news”. The bad, that they had punctured a cooling coil on the new cooling unit during install and ruined it. The good was that they scavenged a (supposedly) like-new unit from another rig in their lot and installed it instead. We left there figuring all would be well as soon as it had time to stabilize. No such luck.

The next day, not only was the fridge not getting below ambient, but the freezer was not going below freezing. Unbelievable! However, I had been noticing that the fans in the back of the fridge, which need to move air around in the space near the cooling coils because the fridge is in a slide-out and has no natural vent at the top, were not running very often, if at all. So I  jumpered around their thermostat and also did some research to see what the settings on the ‘stat were. It turned out to operate at way too high a temperature. With the fans running fulltime, the fridge had no problem getting down to the right temperature.

We returned to the dealer when we left the rally and got a proper thermostat installed. After that, no problem, even on the warmest setting.

Next stop…Canada.

The Good, the Bad, and the Unlucky

Ok, we came to the Southern Tier of New York State to take a look at a new (to us) RV. The 29 footer, although our baby, was getting too crowed to be comfortable. Ellyn had found a 40 foot Dutch Star on the web at Wilkins RV in Bath, NY, so we headed up here after visiting for a couple of days with Ellyn’s cousins in New Jersey.

We got here last Monday and took a look at this 2003 Dutch Star with 3 slides, diesel pusher, lots of storage (we thought. Read on), and a pretty good price. So we started negotiations and trying to get a loan. It took some dickering (Ellyn is good at this. She played dicker in college), but we settled on something we could live with. Meanwhile, we had been parked for a couple of days in front of the dealership. Free water and electric. We also did a bit of site seeing at Watkins Glen and a couple of the Finger Lakes (Keuka and Seneca).

So finally, everything is set, we get the keys to the Dutch Star, turn over the keys to the Bay Star and start moving our stuff. It is unbelievable to us that we were able to carry this much stuff in the 29 foot Bay Star. We have been having a bit of a problem getting everything stored, but we were also rushing against a deadline, because we wanted to leave Bath by Saturday to get to a concert in Boston on Sunday night. We did not get access to the Dutch Star until late on Friday so we were up late working hard. We did not get it all done, but we thought we could get things wrapped up early on Saturday and pull out.

Then the spit hit the pan. During the check out with one of their techs, a cabinet door got crushed by a slide out. One of their techs does wood working and was able to get it all glued and it looks pretty good. Also, there was a little problem with the stabilizing jacks but that got fixed too. But the tech giving us the walkthrough gave me bad info on the operation of the jacks. It was not until I got a look at the operating instructions that I realized how they were really supposed to work.

So all that was not too bad, the really bad thing was, after we got everything moved except the fridge contents, we discovered that the fridge was not getting to operating temperature. We were not going to move our food into a fridge which would not go below the upper 50s. They told us it would take 12-24 hours to get to proper operating temperature, so we were stuck waiting while the fridge was cooling. However, over several hours, the temperature never went down. In fact, it went up some for a while. Each time we talked to the techs, they would indicate that it had to be tested over a long period before they could work on it. Well, we did leave it over night, but the temp was around 60 in the morning. So they tried changing a couple of parts, and then would go back to the long test period. Meanwhile, we want to get out of there so we could get to Boston for a concert of Carol King and James Taylor.

Now we got to Saturday PM and the fridge was still not fixed and the techs had no more tricks, so now it had to wait until Monday AM before they could do anything else. We considered driving in our car to Boston on Sunday, see the concert, stay in a motel, and then drive back on Monday, but we decided the cost of the gas and the motel would be too much. So we ate the tickets and hung out until Monday.

On Monday they replaced the thermistor but it did not have any affect on the refrigerator. Finally they gave up and said if we would locate a dealer for this unit who would replace it, they would handle it under their warranty program (30 days). We later called the manufacturer and found out the cooling unit, although less than 1 year old, was not covered under their warranty because that only covered the original owner. We now have an appointment for July 6th to have a new cooling unit installed. Meanwhile, we are living out of a cooler with ice.

Two Months: Now What?

Our two-month Spring Fling here in Foxboro, MA is nearly over. On Sunday we pull out and get back on the road for a while.  We are going to Danbury, CT for a couple of days to celebrate Memorial Day with our friends there.  We will also be celebrating a friend’s 50 Birthday in Wappinger Falls, NY.  Then we are heading out to Cape Code for a few days of beach dwelling. We hope the stretch of warm weather will continue so we can get lots of beach time in.

So what have we been doing all this time? Well, we have celebrated Brian and Katherine’s engagement, belatedly, our 32nd Wedding Anniversary, Mother’s Day, Brian’s 28th Birthday,Geoff’s 61st Birthday, Passover, Shavuot, and Easter with Geoff’s Mom.  We attended services at our favorite New England Synagogue and Rabbi Gold, and also at the Synagogue of another friend of ours who is getting ordained as a Cantor in June.  We helped Logan and Maureen gut their kitchen so they could install tile and new cabinets and appliances. We are going to see the results tomorrow. We went to one of Brian’s Ultimate Frisbee games. We took Logan, Maureen, Katherine, and Brian to a Boston Red Sox game (which they won spectacularly).  Logan and Brian took Geoff to the auto races in Stafford Springs, CT for his birthday and then all four of them came out to our campsite for a birthday dinner.

Most of the rest of the time we caught up on doctor and dentist appointments, watched traffic ebb and flow at the campgrounds, where the place would pack up on the weekends, even when the weather was cool or rainy, and then become a ghost town during the week.  We have also been attending Weight Watchers meetings, which we started in Florida, and where Geoff got back to his lifetime weight goal and Ellyn has been making great progress. We have done some sightseeing and bike riding in the area.

We are going to miss Normandy Farms a bit but we are looking forward to seeing our Danbury friends and being on the road again. It will be interesting to see if we have made any improvements in our mobility based on getting rid of some of the stuff we no longer need and lightening our load.

Spring Fling-ing

Well, we did some traveling in March and now we are settling in for Spring to catch up with us in  the Northeast. We have returned to the campground where we did our very first camping in our RV nearly two years ago (April, 2008 for our 30th Anniversary). We are in Foxboro, Mass at Normandy Farms Campground, where they have a special rate for April and May called their “Spring Fling”. The average daily rate comes to about $20.

However, the low rate was not our only reason for coming here. With both Logan and Brian living in Boston, we wanted to be here for Passover at the end of March. When we first arrived here, we went right over to Logan and Maureen’s house to (finally)  celebrate Brian and Katherine’s engagement. We brought the champaign and really enjoyed seeing everyone again, even Gus. We had a wonderful Seder at Brian and Katherine’s apartment in Cambridge. The kids did all the cooking and we brought the Hagadahs. We even got to see Reggie again.

We planned on going up to Vermont to see Mom for Easter but, a series of unfortunate events lead to Mom not feeling well enough that day for visitors. Fortunately, none of the events were life threatening or very serious, but taken all together, we understood but still want to go see her. So this Saturday will be the day.

On our way north, we had our first flat tire on the RV. Luckily, it was not a “blow out” although  we did hear a “pop”, but, when I stopped and got out, the air was still going out of the tire. We had to make a few calls to find out who could help us (we don’t carry a spare), but we were only stopped for about 90 minutes before we were able to get back on the road. It cost a bundle but it was nice that it didn’t slow us down a whole lot.

We did leave for a couple of days to go to Danbury to have doctor appointments. We parked in our friends’ driveway in Bethel. Ellyn got to visit with some of her friends and go play Mahjongg, and Geoff got to fix some computer problems. So now we are hunkered down for a while and, although it is a cool, rainy day, we are hoping for some warmer weather before we leave.

A Momentary Lapse of Blogging

Oops. It looks like, after we got back to the Sun’N’Fun Resort, we totally zoned out. We were so comfortable in our time there and so absorbed in enjoying it, that we could not break out long enough to post an update. Then we left Sun’N’Fun until next December (when we will be zoning for 3 months) and continued to zone. Now we are on our way north and suddenly (*gasp*) realized we have neglected our audience.

We promise an update in the next few days, but, until than, here are a few pictures (worth 100 words each). Enjoy.

Maintenance

As with all motor vehicles, Motor Homes require periodic maintenance. Ours, after approximately 2 years on the road, had just turned over 26,000 miles and we had scheduled to go to Lazy Days RV while in the Tampa area to get that done. In addition, while boondocking in Alexander Springs, our generator started acting up (no power out after running for a couple hours). We had also had a couple of minor problems over the past few months which we wanted them to look into.

We camped in their adjacent campground for the first couple of days, and then put the RV in for maintenance. We were hoping all would get done in one day and then we could move back to the campground for the night and head to Sarasota the next day, after taking their free Driver Confidence Course. Ellyn especially wanted to take this to allow her to be able to share in the driving a bit and to be able to take over in an emergency (G-d forbid).

while waiting for the work to be done, we got to sit in the large waiting area with other people, watch the Olympics, and talk about our experiences with our RVs. Sadly, one couple had a brand-new fifth wheel which was giving them a lot of problems. They had a list of about 90 things that had to be fixed. Ugh. We feel so fortunate that we seem to have a coach with very good workmanship. Most of the problems we have had are very minor and most of them our own fault (like breaking a door off the pantry twice while opening or closing the slide. I was able to fix it both times). As bad as their trouble was, they knew of others who had been there for weeks trying to get things right.

Well, they got through most of the work on Wednesday but had to do a little more debugging of some of the issues. So we had to stay in the coach in the repair bay overnight. That was ok, except that there were air compressors running in some of the garages around us, so it was kind of a noisy night.

On Thursday morning, we had to get out of the RV by 8:00 (yawn) and then we went to Lazy Days free breakfast. At 9:00 we went to the class and learned some interesting techniques for driving and parking an RV. In the afternoon, after the free lunch, Ellyn went back to do the driving part. I did not, as they were a bit overloaded with drivers.

We finally got out of there around 5:00 PM and headed to Sarasota, reaching Sun ‘N’ Fun by about 7:30 PM, after a (not too) quick stop at Costco. Yay!

2010 Travel Plan Changes

In the past couple weeks, Geoff and I have made big changes to our 2010 travel plans. Here's our current plans (God willing):

Now til early March - Florida with Geoff attending Datona 500 on Sunday Feb 14

Mid-March - Start north! Jekyl Island (hope there isn't a Noreaster this time), Day at NCJW's Washington Institute, Visit Ellyn's Brother and his family, Visit New Jersey Cousins, etc.

End of March - Arrive in Foxboro, MA, Geoff to attend Penny Arcade Expo, Passover Seders with "Kids" & hopefully cousins, too

April and May - Remain in Foxboro (great late spring camping deal at Normandy Farms), Geoff help with Logan's and Maureen's kitchen remodel, catch up on Dr. appts, Mah Jong, visit friends & NCJW in Danbury, Worship/Study at Shir Tikva, Visit Geoff's Mom on Easter and each week or two

June - Go where wind takes us

July 4th Weekend - Camp with FMCA Chai Chapter at Rally in Essex Junction, VT - visit with IBM friends there

July and August - Travel to Maine and Canadian Maritimes

August thru fall - No Plans, yet - perhaps go to Newmar Rally in Indiana

Thanksgiving and Chanukah - In Boston Area with "kids"

Mid Dec 2010 to Mid Mar 2011 - Three months at Sun 'n Fun in Sarasota

April 2011 - Looks like current date for Brian's and Katherine's wedding :-)

Remainder of 2011 - Trip to west and northern half of USA

After that, we may settle down or who knows?

Hope we'll get to see lots of you during our travels.

Resort Living!

I'm going to skip over our time in Venice, FL and our visit with Greg and Janet to do those in a later post so that I can tell everybody about our enjoyment of Sun 'n Fun RV Resort in Sarasota, FL. First, the resort is in a great location - only 10 minutes from Sarasota's cultural venues, shopping and incredible beaches. Plus, it's only 20 minutes from the natural beauty of Myakka River State Park. However, that's only if we want to escape what they call "the bubble".

The bubble is the incredible activity filled life within the Resort that is so busy that it's tempting never to leave the park. There's every activity you could possibly imagine: jewelry, stained glass and wood workshops, every summer sport, a huge gorgeous pool, mah jong and other games, weekly folk music jam session, craft activities, dulcimer lessons, etc. etc. Plus everybody is very friendly.

We're here for 17 nights and trying to take advantage of as much as possible. Yesterday, I was one of 65 at the 10:30 water exercise session. Then I went to a craft session that had a choice of 10 different crafts. In the evening, we first went to an hour of "bar bingo" then we went to the folk music jam session. This morning, I'm up a bit early to one of the two weekly Mah Jongg sessions. This afternoon we're going to check out the Pickle Ball and then we'll probably go to the pool. In addition to all the activities, this is a huge park (800 sites) so just riding our bikes around the park is a nice activity.

The price for all this fun - only $5 more a day than the boring campground we were last at. It's a bit above our average site cost but works out well for the budget because we're not paying for RV gas like we do when we're traveling.

We're seriously considering coming here for 3 months next winter. Oh yes - another advantage is that we're only two hours from Disney World so we could meet friends there!

Yikes time to have breakfast and get to Mah Jongg.

The Florida Everglades

We only had two days in and around the Everglades but they were pretty good ones. Our main objective was to see some alligators. We had been promised some at a couple other places we visited down here but we had not had any luck. It seems most of them are hibernating this time of year when the weather is cool and the water is warm down deep.

The first day, we went right into Everglades National Park and made our way to the Royal Palm area. There they have some boardwalks which go out over the swamps and you can see many birds and alligators. However, before we even got there, we ran into a very large number of small birds, some sort of swallows, I believe, but they were moving very fast and in a huge swarm. I got out to take some pictures and discovered they seemed to be swirling around a water hole and taking turns diving down into it. I think they were just getting a drink of water.

As turned out, the alligators were out in force. Along the water they were up on the grass getting as much warmth as they could, although there was not much that we could feel. I guess it must have been better than being in the water. As we went along, we saw more and more, some in the water and some on the land. In one place there were 5 or 6 big (about 20 ft) ones stacked up on some logs. About that time the sun was beginning to peek through the overcast.

As many alligators as there were, there were many many more birds. Egrets, storks, ibises, cranes and lots of Black Vultures. In fact, they had had trouble with the vultures damaging cars in the parking lot to the point that they had hung a couple of dead ones up as a deterrent. I am surprised that the others did not just eat them. I mean, that’s their job, isn’t it?

The second day, we moved on the Shark Valley. Here they have a tram that runs through the park or you can walk or bicycle. We opted for our bikes but only went a couple of miles in one direction before turning back. It was really quite uninteresting. We did see one alligator and lots of birds, but they were mostly off the road and frankly, we were getting somewhat “birded-out”. We went back and down the other loop, where we saw more alligators including some youngsters, only about 1-2 feet long. Very cute.  All in all, it was a very good time, although still a bit cooler than we would like in Florida.

‘09 Close Out in the Keys

It is a dream place to finish out the year, the Florida Keys. We cruised into the Grassy Keys RV Resort on December 23rd for a two week stay. It is very nice, right on the Gulf side, only two years old after an old trailer park was gutted and refurbished. They have a nice little club house, a swimming pool, and docks on the water’s edge for all the fisher’s with their boats.

We found out as soon as we arrived that they were going to have a potluck dinner on the 25th, with the park managers providing a deep fried turkey and everyone else bringing other dishes to share. It was a delicious affair and we met a very nice couple from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Laurel and Michael. We hit it off right away and ended up playing the game of Sequence with them. Ellyn and I had played this same game in Michigan with our “next door” neighbors. We had so much fun, we went back the next evening for a rematch after we went out for a nice dinner with them.

On the 28th, Ellyn and I went to Key West to take a sunset sail that Logan and Maureen had gifted to us for Chanukah. It turned out to be a real adventure as it was a pretty windy day, which is a good thing if you are on a sail boat. They took us out and sailed for about an hour before sunset. They us help with the sails, if we wished to, which I did. They even brought out some little canons and fired on one of the other sailing boats, which fired back.

The next day, we traveled in the other direction on the Keys to Key Largo to meet up with our friends Lynn and Rob from Alabama, who were down to visit with their son, Dan, who works as a dive instructor. We had a great time with them, got to see Dan’s work place, went to a bird sanctuary where we got to feed the pelicans, and had a couple of great meals.

On New Years Eve Day, we took to the water at Curry Hammock State Park. It turned out to be a perfect day for it. The sun was out, it was warm enough for swimming suits and getting mildly wet, and it was one of the last calm days we had. After that day, it got very windy, especially at night. We had some nights that the RV would rock from the wind and the slideout covers would be rattling in the wind. I had to tie down the flag on the back of the RV to get some sleep. We had a couple of days lazing on the beach, riding our bikes on the bridges, and walking on a nature trail. We collected lots of little shells, but not too many larger ones. We saw dolphins, crabs, a sea hare, many birds, a dead Portuguese Man-Of-War, other jelly fish possibly alive and spiders. It was a relaxing time for us.