December 18-21, 2021 - Boat Regatta, Dining Light Repair, and the Henry B. Plant Museum

On Saturday we went over to Celina's park to watch the boat regatta. We drove up to the clubhouse and carried chairs down to the canal to watch. The boats lined up and took off through the canals. There were only fifteen boats so the whole thing was over in just six minutes - less time than it took for us to get here. Here are a couple of pictures. It was darker outside than the pictures reflect.  I liked the one with the full moon in the background.

It seems that there isn't a day when using the RV that there isn't a needed repair or project. When we purchased Marge she had a light fixture over the dining table which made no sense. (I didn't take a picture of it.) It was a nice-looking fixture but had a glass bowl on the bottom which threw all the light upwards. This didn't do much for illuminating the dining table. I purchased a new fixture with two shades facing down. It was better but I wanted to convert the bulbs to LED. I purchased little LED bulbs that fit in the fixture but the amount of light they threw down was pathetic.  This picture shows the problem. You can see all the light going out to the ceiling and walls and not on the table.

Last year I decided to replace the wimpy LED bulbs with under the cabinet puck lights. I had installed a set of these under the cabinets over the sink and they threw light down, where you needed it. They are not cheap, about $11.00 each. LED lights are supposed to last thousands of hours but that has not been my experience with 12-volt LED lights. Our RV is only used part-time and the dining table light is only on a couple hours a day at most. Nonetheless, one of the puck lights went out last week so I ordered a replacement. 

To install the puck lights in this fixture last year I had to fabricate a way of mounting the puck lights in the inverted glass shades. I made a wooden ring that I could screw the puck light to and then siliconed the wooden rings to the fixture. Here is a picture up close of one.

Next is a picture I took of the fixture ready to be re-installed. I was smart enough when I took it down to put a piece of tape on the side which had the bad puck light so I knew which puck to replace once I disconnected the fixture. (In my hast I often forget such simple things.)

Here is a picture of the light reinstalled which, hopefully, will last more than a year or two. You can see that it throws all the light on to the table, unlike the little LED bulbs. Kelly has her Christmas tablecloth on, which is one of the few Christmas decorations we have.

Yesterday we toured the Henry B. Plant Museum in Tampa, Florida. Kelly thought it was a Victorian House to tour. Not so. It is a huge building that originally was the Tampa Hotel built by Henry B. Plant in 1893 at a cost of $3,000,000 and with the skills of five hundred workers over a period of three years. 

Plant owned railroads and steamships and was worth about $30,000,000 at the time. He wanted to bring tourism to Florida so he built hotels near his railroads all over Florida. The Tampa Bay Hotel was the grandest and only one other such hotel survives. Many famous people stayed here until it closed in 1930. The hotel building itself still exists, but the casino, boathouse, and gardens are all gone. The City of Tampa bought the building in 1930 for $105,000 and made it into a museum. It is now part of the University of Florida-Tampa and serves as the Administration Building. Here are a few pictures of the outside. You cannot get it in one picture. It is about two blocks long.

As you enter the main lobby there are long halls going in each direction. Here is a picture of the lobby

Here are pictures of the first floor hall decorated for Christmas going in each direction.

One of the rooms off the main hall is the "Writing Room". Almost everything back then was communicated by written letter. I think this room would be the "business center" we find today off the lobby in modern hotels where computers are available for guest use.

The hotel was four stories and had 500 guest rooms. The higher you went up the cheaper the rooms. Here is a picture of the elevator, which is thought to be the first in Tampa. The inside was all covered with carved Cuban mahogany. Gorgeous.

Here is a picture of the second floor hall. I'm sure back in the day all the wood was stained oak, not painted.

The guest rooms and many other areas of the hotel are now used as offices by the University.

The hotel had a huge ballroom which was used much like a convention center would be today. Unfortunately, it was locked so we couldn't see it. We were able to walk further down the hall to "Fletchers Lounge". It was just that, a lounge that held 500 people. It was impressive with a domed ceiling. Here are a couple of pictures. Today it is used as a conference center.

The choice bedrooms in the hotel were located in the minaret towers. Here is a picture of one. In addition to a bedroom, it had a sitting room/library, and a bathroom. The windows were eleven feet tall and opened from top and bottom for ventilation. 

Needless to say, the building was quite impressive with a lot of history on display. 

One of the interesting things I learned was that in the 1890s to pass the time upper class women made many things with paper. Here is a picture of a dress made completely out of paper. It took four months to make it.

Here is a picture of the three of us in front of the hall Christmas Tree to prove we were there. 

The tour made for a very enjoyable morning. After completing the tour we headed to "4th Street Shrimp Store" in St. Pete's for lunch. It was fabulous. We will definitely go back. Today I take Celina to the airport, she is flying home for the holidays. 

December 17, 2021 - Loom Project and Sunset on the Water

Last year I installed four blue 12-volt night lights in the bathroom and bedroom area of Marge. Here is a picture of one light.

When I installed the lights I used duct tape to stick the wires to the cabinetry out of the way. Duct tape does not stick well to wood, especially with the drastic temperature changes in an RV. The wires all fell loose in the cabinets. I decided to put plastic loom over the wires and mount the loom in place with clips.

I ordered a package of 1/4 inch loom - 100 feet! I just couldn't pass it up because it was as cheap as 10 feet. Here is what is left.  If you need any loom, let me know. I probably only used about 15 feet.

I soon learned that getting the wire in the loom after the fact is a pain. After fighting it for about a half hour I decided to go online to see if they made a tool which would keep the loom open as I fed in the wire. I quickly found such a tool. It was $10.00 on Amazon for a cheap little plastic tool. I'm a tool guy but I will probably never use it again, so I passed on buying one. I watched a video on how the tool worked and decided to make my own tool out of a piece of baling wire.  After several "modifications" I came up with this design. It worked well enough. When the loom was installed, I just threw the wire away.

Here are a couple of pictures of the loom mounted in place under the floor where I picked up the 12-volt power.

Here is a picture of the loom running through one of the cabinets to connect the lights to the switch.

Now I don't have to be concerned about anything catching on the wires when retrieving items from the cabinets.

Mid-afternoon John came over and asked if we wanted to go with him and Joan to the American Legion Hall to listen to a little music and have a few drinks. This American Legion Hall is located on the water at Medeira Beach. We have been there several times and it is a beautiful setting. It was a warm, sunny afternoon so we agreed immediately to go. Here are a couple of pictures from our table as sundown approached and a picture of my drinking mates.

We left at sundown and headed to Glory Days Restaurant for their Friday Night Fish Special. A wonderful time with wonderful friends. That's why we are here.

December 12, 2021 - Lights of the Lake Park Estates and Other Stuff

The other evening we took a drive to "Lights of Lake Park Estates". Since 1993 almost every house in the subdivision has been lit up with over-the-top Christmas displays. They ask for donations to raise money for a hospice that helped one of their own back then. Since the beginning they have raised over a million dollars. Here is the website to read the whole story:  lightsoflakepark.com.

Here are a few pictures I took. It takes a full 45 minutes of slow driving to see all the decorated houses.

In the RV park we are parked in a section which is full of oak trees. It is fall here in Florida so the leaves and acorns are falling continuously. Here is a picture of our patio about an hour after I blew it off. It is a never-ending process. After the leaves have all fallen the pollen will start to fall. That gets really messy.

This morning I went up to do the laundry. On the way there I noticed this new fifth wheel in the park with no slide outs. I didn't know they made any like that.

I talked to the owner and he said ATC primarily makes all aluminum trailers to haul race cars. Their fifth wheel RV trailers are all made to order and are totally made out of aluminum as well. There is absolutely no wood in it, even on the inside. I'm sure it is a really pricey rig. He is a retired firefighter and he and his wife plan to travel the country in this 36-foot toy hauler.  He hauls his motorcycle and two e-bikes.  Always something new to learn about.

A little gloomy today with a chance of rain. It can't always be sunny in "The Sunshine State".

December 9th - Party and Christmas Golf Cart Parade

Yesterday the activities for residents began with a gift exchange party at the pavilion followed by the annual Golf Cart Christmas Parade. At the party we had snacks then everyone who brought a gift had a chance to pick a gift from the table of gifts up front. If you didn't like what you picked after you unwrapped it in front of everyone, you could steal from someone who went before you. After a couple of steals Kelly and I ended up with a flour sifter and measuring cup set and a set of kitchen towels and oven mitts. Here is a picture of the group as the prizes being picked.

After the party there was a break before the golf carts lined up. We participated in the parade for the first time. We are using a golf cart that belongs to a friend here at the park until they arrive after the first of the year. We really weren't prepared to be in the parade so a neighbor, John, gave us garland to decorate the cart. You can use Christmas lights on the cart with the help of an inverter. I just happened to have a 300-watt inverter I picked up at a garage sale last year. We didn't have Christmas lights to decorate the cart but we did have chili pepper lights that we use at the camp site, so we used those on the cart. We also have a little camper that my sister, Renee, gave us several years ago that lights up. We duct taped it to the roof. Here is a picture of the cart decorated and ready to roll.

Of course, things don't always go as planned for me. I had been using this golf cart for a couple of days and I needed to charge the batteries before the long ride around the park, particularly with the inverter pulling volts for the lights on the long ride through the park. I plugged in the cart to charge it and nothing happened. The charger did not come on. It will not come on if the batteries are fully charged but they clearly weren't. They were down almost half. I rode over to the next street and asked our resident mechanic, John, (a retired Boeing mechanic) if I was doing something wrong with the charger. I went to him because he had gotten the cart out of storage, charged the batteries, and gave it to us to use. He had it all working a couple of days ago. He put his voltage meter on the batteries at various places, checked the charger plug, etc. It clearly indicated the batteries needed charging. We were at a loss. He then went back and reached to pull the charger out of its cubby hole. He only pulled it out an inch and it came on. Clearly something is bad or loose in the charger. Anyway, it worked so I scuttled back to our site and plugged it in to charge it for the parade. 

In years past we took pictures of the carts as they drove by. Being in the parade you can't do that so here are a few pictures of everyone lined up and waiting for it to get dark to head out.

The parade was fun. Our friend, Celina, who came over from another park, rode on the back with us. Kelly had her Bose speaker blasting Christmas songs and we waved and wished "Merry Christmas" to all of those watching the parade. 

Unfortunately, our chili pepper lights are not LEDs so they draw a lot of current. We had three sets of lights on the cart and after a short time period of time the little inverter couldn't handle the load and would trip off. I then had to reach back and turn it off for a few seconds and then back on. I suppose everybody just thought we had "flashing" lights. We weren't really prepared ahead of time for being in the parade, but it worked out.

November 29th - December 3rd - Florida Bound and Florida Received

For the first time we took three days to drive the RV to Florida. In the past we drove it in two days but Kelly wanted us to take our time and get to our campground resort at an earlier time in the day. I didn't disagree. I had made reservations at two campgrounds on the way down. Here are a couple of pictures of our first campsite in Ringgold, Georgia. As you can tell the site wasn't much. The neighbor's electric box and sewer hookup was right at the bottom of our steps plus I couldn't get Marge leveled from front to back without unhooking, which is the reason we paid $50.00 for this site.

Our second stop at Valdosta, Georgia was better but still unlevel. I had to use the front jacks of the RV to lift the weight of Marge off the truck to get close to level front to back. At least it was paved. Here is a picture.

At each campground we paid $50.00 per night. With 28 degrees at night we froze our fannies off because you can’t warm up RVs in a short period of time and even then they are hard to keep warm because they are so poorly insulated.  A friend shadowed us on the trip down in her car. She stayed in a motel near us for $69.00 per night. I got to thinking that the extra $19 per night would mean a warm bed, a hot shower, TV, and a free breakfast. I know what we are going to do next year on the trip down.

December 1st:

We arrived at Roberts RV Park in St. Petersburg at 1:30 p.m. to find four units checking in before us. We finally got all checked in and we were led to our lot by two young guys in a golf cart. When we arrived at our lot it was clear that someone else was on the lot that we reserved and that they planned on staying there for the winter based on all the plants sitting around, etc. Our escorts went up to check at the office about the situation. Thirty minutes passed and they did not return so we decided to drive up to the office ourselves. On the way to the office we flagged those two guys down as they were leading another unit to a site. They had no response to our problem and told us to go to the office. When we got to the office and told the lady the problem, she had little to say other than she would check on it. The owner then came in. His name is Allen and he is really hard to deal with. I heard he is manic-depressive and I believe it. When I voiced my frustration that our lot was occupied he said it is in the rental agreement that if you are renting for less than six months, and someone wants to stay over on the lot, they can, you are out. I asked what is the point of paying $300 to make a reservation and why would the office staff call me just a week ago to confirm our reservation if the lot wasn’t available? He told me he was tired of my “negativity” and he would give me my money back so I could go somewhere else. I told him I didn’t want to go somewhere else. I came to this park year after year to be with my friends. Additionally, there are few other parks in the area and at this late date the chances of finding a site for the winter would be slim to none. 

After some time looking at the resort map he said we could stay on a lot on the street behind Audrey Street where we have been staying for five years. The lot had previously been "closed". I didn't know why at that time. I agreed to that lot, really having no other options. His crew then led me back to that lot to get parked. They are young kids and have no idea what it takes to back a 5th wheel 90 degrees into a tight spot. With a tree on the front edge of the lot it took about 45 minutes to get Marge parked.  Here is a picture of our lot with the tree in the front and a couple of pictures of the resort equipment storage area behind us. Lovely.

The next problem to address was that we had paid for Premium Mail Forwarding to the old lot number. I got online to see about changing it. I couldn't find an option to change it. A friend stopped by and said that the mail carrier was up at the mail room now. I went up to ask him what to do. He said all we had to do was to contact our home post office to change the lot number. A piece of cake, right? NOT! I got online to look up the phone number for the Perryville Post Office. I quickly learned that now, if you go online to get the phone number for any post office, you get into a long, automated voice menu with no option to connect you to a post office. Of course, I don’t know the Perryville Post Office phone number and had no Perryville phone book with me. I called a friend in Perryville and she was surprised that the number for the Post Office is no longer in the phone book there as well. Somehow, luckily, she did find the number for me. (Thanks a bunch Carlene!)

I then called the Perryville Post Office and was told that they can’t change the lot number. They get stickers from wherever in the US they come from to put on the mail. She suggested I get back online and figure out how to change the lot number. This didn't make sense to me because what they do is gather my mail for a week then forward it in a Priority Mail envelope. But there was no sense arguing the point. The Post Office isn't like it was in the good old days.

An hour online and I found the place in the website where it said I could edit the address but to do so I had to have my confirmation number. Of course, I didn't bring that. I was sure it was on my desk at home. I called a neighbor and asked him to go the house and look. He did and found nothing. In frustration I searched around in old emails and found that they had sent the confirmation number to me in an email a month ago. Great. I now had the confirmation number to put it in the form. I tried to put it in several times and it wouldn’t accept it. My confirmation number started with three letters and it wouldn't accept any letters. So it appeared I couldn't get in to edit the Premium Mail Forwarding address. The website had a spot to "cancel" the service. Believe it or not, it let me cancel the service without a confirmation number. How crazy is that! I cancelled the service. Then I did a temporary change of address until April 1st. We did this in the past and it didn’t work well so we will see how it works this time.

Next Issue:

Upon arriving at the lot I plugged in my surge protector for electric power and it only showed power on one leg, meaning we were getting 30 amp service rather than 50 amp service. I went to the office to report the problem. I will say that in a short time they had an electrician here who put in a new breaker. My surge protector still only lit up one side, meaning 30 amp. He checked and I had 50 amp at the box and 50 amp coming out of the surge protector. Apparently one set of status lights on the surge protector have gone bad. I thought the surge protector had a lifetime warranty so I looked it up online. It does but to make a claim I have to have the original receipt and the warranty only covers parts, not labor. What a crock. I can’t do anything with it until I get home and hopefully find the receipt. A $350.00 piece of junk. Can you tell I'm a little frustrated?

Our current lot is covered in trees. It was pretty obvious to me immediately upon arrival that we may not be able to get a clear shot to the Dish satellite for TV. If that was the case Kelly wanted to leave. The issue is: To go where? Home?

As you can tell it is not going well so far.

December 2nd:

The first thing Thursday morning we went to Spectrum to get internet at our site because I had a Zoom meeting scheduled on Friday at noon. We got all the equipment and after hooking everything up at the RV we had no cable signal. I called Spectrum and they verified no signal and stated they would send out a tech on Friday at noon to fix the problem. Quick enough service I thought. Nothing was mentioned about this service call costing me money. Usually right off the bat they tell you this is going to cost.

Since the internet issue was in limbo the afternoon project was getting the Dish TV set up. This is a process I absolutely despise every year. No matter what I do this always becomes an ordeal. Despite the trees across the road, I was able to get the satellite finder to scream, indicating that the dish was aligned with the satellites. Great. I got online with Dish because the receiver had to be updated after not using it for six months, I had to agree to pay an additional $7.00 per month, and they had to determine why there was no signal on the receiver. After three hours on and off the phone with Dish we were able to get the receiver and the satellite dish in sync. Mama was happy so I moved on to the next issue. 

Each year I set up the tabletop ice maker and mini refrigerator outside under the fifth wheel on a table.

This saves a lot of running in and out of the RV for drinks. Here is a picture of the setup. 

The refrigerator came right on but the ice maker did not. The unit was getting power, but the ice maker dump tray was making all kinds of gyrations. The compressor wasn’t kicking on to make ice. I got on YouTube and a guy talked about taking it apart and adjusting two micro switches. I thought about it and that didn’t seem to be my problem. I unplugged the unit and plugged it back in. As the dump tray and water fill tray we’re moving around I held the fill tray in the fill position with my hand until everything quit moving.

December 3rd:

Friday morning I came out and I had ice from top to bottom. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to put the ice bin back in. Here is a picture of the entire area filled with ice and no water left. 

The Spectrum tech arrive right on time Friday at noon and got to work. He soon found that the underground line to our site cable box was bad. He went to the cable box for the site next to ours. There was a good signal at it so he just laid a new line across the lot. Here is a picture of the orange cable laying on the ground. It will never be buried. Luckily it is in the back of our lot so it shouldn't be a trip hazard since I don't go back there much.

Before leaving he said he could charge us for a service call because the problem wasn't their fault but the park's poor maintenance. Luckily, he didn't charge us. That would have been rubbing salt in the wound. I will say that we have a very fast internet connection now so my Zoom meeting on Saturday should go fine.

After the cable guy left, I rode my bike up to the office and asked for a new picnic table because one bench on ours had rotted away. Within an hour two guys came by and put on a new board. Nice. I sat out there and worked on this blog in my shorts on a 75-degree, sunny day. This is why we are here.

I scheduled Kelly’s car for its 5000-mile oil change next week at the Acura dealer and then turned the car computer on for a needed software upgrade. It took 30 minutes to download and install the software.

I think all of the issues with the lot change have been addressed, although I haven't hooked up the sewer yet. We can start just “hanging out” with those here and wait for more friends to arrive. Saturday there is a park-wide garage sale so I'll ride my bike around and look for bargains. If I buy something I have to get rid of something - a new rule. I have gotten some good tool bargains down here in the past. I'll keep you posted.