Just another day at the beach – St Augustine, FL ( 81°/62°)

Friday…. let’s see… what to do, what to do?   Oh yeah, WalMart!  Gotta go for groceries and beat the weekend crush!

Dawdling…. dawdling….. dawdling… what?  It’s already 2:30 pm and we haven’t eaten anything, yet?  Ok, OK…  we will stop for something on the way to WalMart.

Leaving…leaving…leaving… What’s that smell?… oh yeah, shrimp shells and “parts” in the garbage from dinner last evening…. gotta get it out of here before we go.  Yep, I will just tie it up and put it in the back of the $prite and drop it off at the dumpster on the way out of the park.

BANG!   CRASH! SQUEEK!… crappy dumpster doors! 

Driving, Driving, Driving….. oh yeah, Sonny’s Barbeque on US 1.  Gotta have that….kinda on the way… if we go out of the way… just a little…

uh… what’s that flashing on the dash?  … looks like a gas pump.  Hmm where are all my bars to show me how much gasoline I have.. er…rather, don’t have.   Pit Stop!  Pronto!  Guess I will have to only imagine the smell of BBQ over the lingering rank shrimp stink in the car and the stinky Shell Gasoline tinkling into its tank.  Ding!, Pay!,  now, Driving…..Driving… Driving….

Sonny’s BBQ!

What’s that squealing racket coming from the music system?.. Jimi Hendrix, you say? More like a tank being drug sideways across a concrete slab coated with broken glass and ball bearings. .. yeah, I know he was an acclaimed guitarist… he also invented obnoxious white noise. How useful has that turned out to be?

Excellent!  Shared a half baked chicken ( no, it really was a half chicken) lunch with 2 sides (make those 2 baked sweet potatoes, please.). Sure, I will have a gallon of iced tea to drink….

Waiting….waiting… waiting….

Drooling….drooling…. drooling  … (I did mention we had not eaten yet, today)

Diet is over!  Food is here! Gimme a drumstick while you sort the parts.  Mmmmmm, nice yams  … (sweet potatoes, you dirty old man) Butter, cinnimon, melting hot. 5 different BBQ sauces you say? decisions… decisions… decision!

Eating… eating…. eating….

Apple cobbler ala-mode?  of course! It’s the exclamation point at the end of the meal. It is absolutely necessary to complete the meal and say “I’m ready for a nap.”

What?… oh yeah, we still need to go to WalMart…. sans nap… it’s just across the street.

Driving…. driving….driving… parking… walking…shopping… shopping…. shopping.  What?  No Joe’s Crabshack Salmon filets?… or any other of “the shack’s” products.  Rats!  I’ll have to make do with a can of starkist!

Checkout time!……. still checkout time….. still checkout time……still checkout time…..   Hey! don’t these people know that today is not Saturday?… and what’s with trying to use a bunch of coupons in the self service checkout lane?  That’s just not fair.   I am on a fastpath to a nap! MoveIt!

Push cart, squeeky wheel, load $prite, close doors.

Driving…. driving….driving …  Home!   Unloading.. unloading…putting away… yeah, that’s frozen… ok, Put away…. put away…. pu away…. done!

Naptime!…. RING…. RING….RING!… grrrr  NOT nap time…. Hello. No, we were not doing anything, what’s up?…..

 

……… All this is our day and now, it’s my blog.  If there is anything you don’t understand, just ask.

ttfn

Budd

Stagecoach RV Park–St Augustine, FL ( 83°/67°)

Stagecoach RV Park:   RVParkReviews  :    Heavy Haulers CG Directory

This is a nice park but not a resort.  It is mostly large pull-thru spaces. Some with concrete patios (for a few $$$ more). No pool, no kids play area, no off leash pet area but it is clean, kept up, mostly open level sites on gravel/grass/packed sand and nicely treed but not dark.

Sprint 4G works in the east end of the park (not where I am, though). 

Wifi is limited at 750kbps/ 170kbps

It is TengoInternet delivered through Bellsouth.net and has been pretty solid most of the time but there is a lot of variability based on time of day a lot more than the number of RVs in the campground. I suspect it is due to the two huge outlet malls a couple of blocks away that soak up bandwidth big time during business hours.

The actual local wifi signal strength throughout the park is excellent but with the speed limited delivery, even small included youtube pics on a web page stutter some.  Forget about getting any smooth HQ quality delivery any time of the day or night.

There is no CableTV but I pick up about 20 Digital channels over the air but few of these have I any interest in watching.  If their bandwidth delivery was better, then the lack of cable would not be such a bother.

The main roads are paved and the intermediate roads are packed gravel and kept up pretty well.

 

The layout is comfortable and nice for long walks.

Getting Acclimated to “retired!”

St Augustine, FL - Iso T-Storms 93° / 77°

We spent the day just settling in to what will be daily fare for us for hopefully, a very long time to come.

Merrily’s brother bob came by about 5pm and took us on a mini tour of the St Augustine area.  He showed us where important stuff is, like good seafood restaurants, good beach accesses and more good restaurants.  To bad we are now on the cash and carry plan which does not include much eating out.

Still, a great day. After the tour we went to his house for a great dinner of pulled pork, Bob Evans mashed potatoes, homemade Cole slaw and apple pie. Seriously yummy!

Katie came along and was terrific.  A little curious but no obnoxiously so and she got to meet their dog, Skitch, which is a foot long hairy black 12 volt dog someone put a 36 volt battery into.  Talk about wired! He does not just run from place to place, he teleports! Katie was a little overwhelmed and finally climbed up on the back of the couch behind my head to escape him. I have never seen her retreat quite like that.

I think it spooked her.

Anyway, all is fine, now. We just got back home and are chilling for the evening.  Maybe tomorrow I can find the Digital TV converter so we can watch some over the air broadcast TV since there is no cable in this campground.  So far, Merrily has read books in our down moments and I am still happy with what I can do with the Wi-Fi…. or nap a little, which is something I have not had time for in many moons.

I know this does not sound all that exciting but at this age exciting is less important than regular.

ttfn

Budd

Settled into a spot and had a great evening with our relatives.

(St. Augustine, FL Stagecoach RV)

These are nice accommodations at Stagecoach. We settled on this amenities-sparse park due to no monthly rates at the other parks we were interested in. Wi-Fi is very powerful here but the backhaul limits us to about 700kbps down /  200kbps up best case:

 

Compare that to what I was getting on my Sprint Epic phone 2 days ago:

 

and it can be a little “laggy” sometimes despite only a 15ms ping time.

Right now, at 8:23am on Friday, I can only get:

Slow Wifi Coupled with the lack of cabletv and the digital TV converter for over the air reception has fallen down behind the TV and can’t get out, means we are going to be sans- media for bit.

Still a nice park, though and all too convenient to two outlet malls at this I-95 exit including a Camping World. There goes my upgrade budget for the next year.

We had dinner with Mer’s brother and SIL, Bob and Bette, last night. Excellent pseudo-Mexican fare with a pitcher of lip smacking margaritas for the table. Best Pollo Loco I have ever had and huge portions, too.  We will eat there again before we go.

It was really super to finally get to hug them and just be with them. As usual when we get together, we all talk at once and do a lot of laughing until we are exhausted.

I will say that it is very nice to finally be with them and know that we don’t have to leave next Thursday or …. any particular date or time. We can visit in a much less frenetic mode and really savor the time together for whatever it is.  It always seems that our visits are too short and we all have lists of things to share and do and never can quite get through all that before parting. This time, we are just here until we leave, period.  It is wonderful!

ttfn

Budd

St Augustine. Working out accommodations

Here is my miracle worker!  She does everything for me and I appreciate her more than my own life.

After the "getaway blues" of previous posts about the tribulations that all happened as we were trying to leave our Stix and Brix, we stopped at the Pilot/Flying J at Dunn, NC to fill up.  170 gallons and $632 later, we pulled out headed south down I-95. We stopped the first night at Bass Lake RV park in Dillon, SC about 120 miles from Raleigh. Yesterday, we drove on down to Walterboro, SC, and spent the night in the New Green Acres RV park.  Quite nice other than being right next to I95 but this is the same as is true of Bass Lake. In both cases, it's OK for a night and though these parks are appealing for longer stays, the highway noise really ruins the rest of the experience.  SC seems to have booming highways. Big trucks going down them seem to keep booming and it sounds a lot like nearby thunder.

This morning, we left Green Acres. I was disappointed that I could never get the cable TV hookup to work but I cannot say it was not my fault after the events of the past week.

We pulled into the Stagecoach RV park in St Augustine, FL a few blocks off of I95. Some road noise if you are outside but not really bad.  I still prefer quiet.

Given our reasons for being near Jacksonville, Stagecoach RV park is the closest of the ones we have seen even close to our price range so we thought we would plan at least a month here.  However, the desk person did not know anything much about the monthly rates and available sites so we have to check back in the morning with the owner to get that worked out.

To be honest, I love the setting, hate the traffic noise and the lack of Cable-TV so we are backpedaling on our plans just a bit. First thing in the morning we will check the monthly rates and availability at St John's RV park about 5 miles farther south on I95 on hi-way 207.  We will also check the same at the Indian Forest CG a couple of miles east of that same intersection. We drove through both parks this afternoon after setting up in Stagecoach and though both have cable and Wi-Fi, Indian Forest has a much better ambiance for us, is closer to the beach, St Augustine old town and a Super Wal-Mart.

If they have reasonable monthly rates available I think we will likely move to Indian Forest, tomorrow. ST. John's RV park is a second choice to Indian Forest, though.  $375/month + Elec is hard to beat around here so Stagecoach may end up being our residence for lack of monthly availability at the other two places.

I will admit that I had my first surprise this evening when we went out for a walk after dark and no mosquitoes flying around!  They are show stoppers for me as I react badly to their bites. Bob,  my BIL, had told me that he could not remember being bitten around here in the past several years of living in the area.  I can handle the humidity and even the gnats. Just not the mosquitoes and chiggers.

Well, Mer has retired and I am on her heels a lot earlier than usual, tonight.  Not a hard day but tomorrow will be a long one.  We finally get to see Merrily's brother Bob and his Chemo-embattled wife after 2 years absence and we can never stop having fun when we get together so bedtime may come really late tomorrow night.

We have all been deep friends since Bob and I were in Middle school in central Florida. No matter what the gaps in time between visits have been, there has never seemed to be any discontinuity in our relationship because of them. I count Bob as one of the very best people I have ever known and always a stellar benchmark for me to grow towards in my life.  I admire his courage and convictions and the incredible stamina that he has shown in carrying some unusually massive and long lived life burdens. This latest goblin which has been thrust upon his shoulders, is certainly the worst I have ever known of..

God Speed, Bob and Bette. We are here for whatever benefit of comfort to you guys that we are able to provide during this sketchy period of your lives and just know that it will be survived.

ttfn, my friends
Budd

N O W !!!!!!!!

This blog has been fulfilled. We are on  the Road...... NOW!

Left the house this afternoon and are now resting nicely in Dillon SC for the evening.  Some slight irks and traumas tried to forestall our departure yet again but thanks to Emery, III stepping in and taking up the slack by removing and replacing the windshield wiper motor that just decided to strip its gears, hauling stuff to Goodwill, cutting the tree up that fell on the van and Smart car during Irene and generally being front and center whenever anything cropped up to stall our departure this time.

He has certainly been the STP (oil treatment) that has kept us from getting bound up by a few dozen more glitches and goblins that have popped up these past few days.

Thank you, Emery. You make me cry for Happy.
ttfn
Budd

Whoops.. there goes another rubber tree plant...

Not what I wanted to wake up to Saturday morning.  Goodnight, Irene! Did you have to do this the day before we were due to leave here?

Yes, we watched out for hurricane Irene and knew when the winds in our area would start placing us at risk. What I forgot (happens too often, now) was that I always park all the vehicles in a parking deck or out on the open street where big stuff can't fall on them. I did not consider that my neighbor had a defective tree that would break off at the spot. It could have fallen in any of the other 358 degrees of direction and would not have bothered anything but these 3 degrees.. crap!

I guess this is what you call a sacrificial Van.  The '93 Aerostar took all of the hit from the tree and the Smart was just trapped by the branches until I cut them off.  No damage to it.

The dent in the van's windshield frame and the bullseye pattern in the driver's side of the glass is surprising little damage given the size of the tree.  The bad news is.. no comprehensive insurance due to the age.

This, plus the windshield wiper motor stripping its gears on the Truck as I started to move the RV, has delayed our departure yet another day or so.

But no one was injured by Irene and no serious damage so.. there is the lemonade.

ttfn
Budd

Under the weather

The rain we are finally getting has been wonderful. It has been desperately needed around here. But Mer and I have gotten some sort of stomach bug. Hers has now taken her voice and we are pretty drained at the moment but still kicking.

Other than this news of dubious importance, not much else has been going on. I am still waiting to hear back from the insurance guy about the rest of the claims for damages from the tornado. So far, I have fronted about $2k towards repairs with another few hundred to go.

We are still aiming to leave here around the 17th of August and heading down to visit with Mer’s brother, Bob, his wife and family.  After that, the plans are pretty open until Dec 1.

Here’s hoping that all this rain means more civilized temperatures.

ttfn,

Budd

Sweltering!

Ok I said it!  That should be enough! It can stop anytime, now.

This oppressive heat here in central North Carolina is just reminding me of too many summer days as a kid in Central Alabama and Central Florida, BC (Before Conditioning (air, that is)). The phrase that I remember the most was, “It’s a nice day, go out and play.”….. NOW!

Bacd then, I thought it was mean.  Now, I am sure it was just the adults resenting the huge amount of heat generated by 3 kids bodies indoors.  We were dulling their cool space.

This is not Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana or Mississippi.  After all, it “IS” NORTH Carolina and that should count for something at least a little less tropical.

 

My Dad used to say that it was all just in my mind and that it really wasn’t all that hot. These are not my numbers but I will play along and pretend I am in, oh, let’s say, Port Orford, Oregon.

There!  Now I feel so much better…… not!

Maybe I just need some visual aids to help me chill out….

Ahhhh… Now That’s what I’m talking about!

ttfn

Budd

The night was...... Sultry.

Not much is happening around here because it is just too hot and humid.  Our plans were to just not be here during this typical summer weather..... well, so much for plans.

Being here is accomplishing some important things, though.  The 15k A/C - Heat pump on the roof has been replaced by insurance. It was damaged in that tornado we were in on 4/16/2011 in the Smithfield KOA along with the thermostat.

Still a few little things, like the rear ladder, needed to be dealt with but I have managed to get a few coats of Red Max Pro on the front fiberglass end cap of DaKotR and 1 coat on the rear. This certainly makes it look better, is easier to clean and that should help us with the 10 year age limit on an RV that some parks capriciously enforce. I if an RV looks "spent" it might not be allowed to stay there.  I, also, still need to fill some cracks  that are developing in the caulked seams on the roof but they are not close to leaking and that can be done whenever weather permits. This time, I am going to redo them from scratch and then cover the seams with EternaBond seam tape. From what others have said, this should stop the bi-annual reworking of these seams on the end caps.

The other really big issue has been the generator exhaust coupling leak that has refused, for 7 years, to stay fixed.  Now that we are planning to spend more time off the grid and have a residential refrigerator that will need shore power to cool, we need a dependable generator that will not kill us.

To this end, I pulled the generator out, one more time, and took the offending piece of the exhaust pipe to a welder... and he fixed it, permanently! Fixed in this way will make getting the generator in and out of the RV a bit more difficult but not impossible and now, we should be able to trust the generator when it is running. I am now waiting on some better weather to install it, again.

Along with this, I want to add one of those Generator exhaust extensions that take the exhaust up above the RV.  I played with this for a little bit with a make shift arrangement and it was very nice. It made the generator even a lot quieter when outside and we never smelled any exhaust while it was running this way. That was always an irritating thing to keep getting whiffs of exhaust, especially when outside the RV.

We have always been concerned about leaving our dog, Katie, in the RV for hours and having the A/C go out.  The replacement thermostat I got for the A/C unit has a Wifi remote access capability.  As long as we have access to the RV's Wifi system we can monitor the temperature (and control it) in the RV from our Android Phones wherever we might be.  Eventually, I plan to add a webcam link to watch over her, too.   That would be nice and then, maybe we can figure out why she has to go around when we are away and tip over all the trash cans in the place. She rarely bothers anything in them but just goes over and tips them over and then walks away.

The garbage can is another matter, though, and is usually raided if we don't remember to put it up where she cannot get to it. A different fix is needed for that problem.

ttfn
Budd

Not a happy camper at the moment

We just got word that a close relative has been diagnosed with "C".  Prayers are helpful and encouraged.

Compared to this news, I don't really have much to say, for now.  Please ck Back in a day or so.

Ahhhhh. Cool at last!!!

Hawley’s Camping Center in Garner, NC has been extremely helpful in getting my A/C replaced that was killed in the tornado of 4/16/2011.  The A/C came in on tuesday evening and I got a call Wednesday morning about it. Although their service dept is scheduling about 3 weeks out, they were very accommodating given it’s July and we live in the RV.

The service Manager, Wayne, really bent over backwards to work us in and Robert, a great RV tech, did the same to get it swapped out and running.

In two hours, exactly, from when I pulled on Thursday Morning, I was driving out of their driveway, once again, a cool and happy camper.

Kudos, Hawley’s.

I still have to get settled with the insurance folks but that is just paper work, now. I still have to fix the rear ladder but that ,also, can be worked out…. now that we can get up and move about the RV without slipping in our own sweat.

The waiting game… Again

Tuesday, I went to Hawley’s Camping in Garner, NC to see about a few things including scheduling the AC replacement.

When we were hit by the tornado on 4/16, it is likely that some electrical surge that was not completely handled by my surge equipment managed to get through to my AC, my UPS on the computer, my cordless phone and the thermostat on the AC.  Unfortunately, proving this was the cause is limited to the simultaneous timing of the failures of these separate items.

It took 3 days for us to get power back but a small generator kept our refrigerator cold.  The rest of the electrical stuff was off until full power returned. Even then, I only noticed the UPS was bad when the power dropped a day later for a few minutes.

The cordless phones, while powered on are only used when I have a good enough broadband connection to run my Magic Jack and the Wi-Fi service in the Smithfield KOA was just not solid enough to make that usable.  I did not try to use it until we were in the Zooland Family Campground in Asheboro, NC some weeks later.  It turns out that the base unit is now dead.

As for the thermostat and AC, those were not discovered until a few weeks later than the tornado and we needed the heat pump up in West Virginia and all it would do is hum for a couple of seconds and then shut off.  I figured that the compressor is frozen, maybe due to the hole in the condensing coils on the roof from some flying debris during the tornado.

So, I need a new AC, Thermostat, UPS and Cordless phone.  I have contacted Progressive Insurance and though it has already gotten complicated, I am still trying to arrange a meet with the appraiser and the Hawley’s service tech later this week (I hope).

I am certain that the AC is not repairable and in a leap of faith, I already ordered a replacement 15k heat pump ($1000 – prepay) so it will hopefully be here be installed before the weekend.  I hope the Progressive guy comes through so we can get back on the road next week.

Meanwhile, I need to focus on fixing the exhaust connection on the generator and cleaning and glossing the rear fiberglass end cap of DaKotR.

ttfn

Budd