GULF COAST - FLORIDA

Since I have been lazy, suffering from writers block, or whatever excuse I may come up with, I figure it's time I update Keeping Up With The Counters before I completely forget the past few months.

VENICE, FL
While in the Venice area, we got together for dinner a few times with my childhood friend, Veronica (Ronnie) Carlson Horton and her husband Walt.  One day, Jim and Walt golfed while Ronnie and I shopped.

Lemon Drops for the lovelies.

GETTING A CLEAR VIEW
Some of the windows in the RV were very cloudy because the seals failed.  Especially on sunny days this became a safety issue with the front driver and passenger side windows becoming almost opaque.  After doing some research on the internet, I found rave reviews for a company in Hudson, FL that repaired this common RV problem.  We called and made an appointment with Sun Coast Designers to take care of the problem.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR - OR THOUSAND
Our next move was to Wildwood, FL, located near The Villages where Bob and Donna Gall retired to about 15 years ago.  We planned a visit with the Galls's and also decided we needed to have the refrigerator repaired because it wouldn't work using electric and only ran on propane.  Also, we had it cranked up to the coldest setting and it was barely keeping our food cold.  Alliance Coach Sales and Service was located just down the road from us, so we made an appointment to get the fridge fixed, as well as a few other issues taken care of before we left for home to spend the Holidays back in Wisconsin.

Long story short...what we thought would be a 1 or 2 day stay at the Alliance customer RV park (they provide electric and water hook-ups for service customers) turned into 4 days.  After several unforeseen problems were fixed and a few thousand dollars later, the RV refrigerator was replaced with a residential one.  The new residential fridge won't run off propane so an inverter was installed so it will run off batteries while we were traveling or dry camping.

Look who I ran into at Alliance Coach!
Even Santa needs to get his sleigh tuned up every now and then.

After making sure everything was working, we put the motor home in storage and drove the Jeep back to Wisconsin.

We got back to the harsh cold November weather in Wisconsin, celebrated the Holidays with family and friends, and counted the days until January 25th when we would drive back to FL, get the RV out of storage and in 2 days continue our trip around the Gulf of Mexico to Texas.

JUST CHILL OUT - LESSONS FOR PATIENCE AND FLEXIBILITY After getting the RV out of storage and all set up on our campsite at Three Flags RV Resort in Wildwood on January 27th, we turned on the never been used refrigerator to let it cool before heading to the grocery store.  The air soon turned blue with cussing and swearing because the new fridge didn't work; an urgent call was made to Alliance Coach.  For those of you who know Jim, the following 10 days were a test and lesson in the virtue of patience.

The not so happy camper with the new shiny trouble maker.

After diagnosing the problem, the technician said the inverter was defective; a new one would have to be ordered and would take 5 - 7 business days to arrive.  In the mean time, the fridge was plugged into an extension cord and ran perfectly off electricity.

While waiting for the new inverter to arrive we got together with the Gall's a few times, and drove the Jeep to Jacksonville for a weekend stay at Tom and Pam Schneider's home to visit them and Pam's parents, Don and Ginny Reinertsen.  The weekend was fun and included a Super Bowl party at Casey and Judy's house (friends of Tom and Pam).

Getting wild with Don & Ginny.

Back at Three Flags, we tried to make the best of waiting around for the inverter to arrive.  One evening we decided to go to the Jam Session at the campground clubhouse.  We each filled a big glass with wine, walked to the clubhouse and realized the minute we walked through the door that this was not the typical RV park jam session.  The crowd of people sat in chairs lined up in rows listening to and singing old country gospel hymns along with other  park residents who were playing their guitars, fiddles, and drums.  We felt very uncomfortable sipping our wine while in the midst of a Southern Baptist revival.  I thought we were getting the stink-eye and judgey looks, Jim's perception was they were looking at us and our big glasses of wine with Baptist envy.  As soon as there was a break in the entertainment we made a quick exit with our empty glasses.

Finally, Friday morning Ted from Alliance came to our campsite and installed the new inverter, while we made plans to leave the next morning.  Soon after Ted left, I opened the refrigerator and noticed that the inside temperature was getting warmer.  Another frantic call to Alliance was made, the fridge got plugged back into the extension cord, and we waited for Ted to come back.  Ed and Ted showed up in the afternoon.  After checking this and that, Ed called the inverter company for some trouble shooting tips.  The problem was...the wire distance from the inverter to the battery connection was over the 6 foot maximum.

Saturday morning, Ted and Eric arrived with the required materials and equipment to reposition the inverter about 4 feet away from the batteries.  WHA-LA, it worked!  

After a lesson in patience and RV travel flexibility, we left  Florida on Sunday and didn't stop until we crossed the border into Alabama for a one night stay.

Bye Bye Florida!