December 24, 2021 - Christmas Eve Bonfire

The folks on Audrey Street here in the park are always looking for a reason to get together. Christmas Eve was no different. For those of us who weren't going anywhere for Christmas, wood was gathered and a bonfire was organized on a vacant lot. It was well-attended. Here are a few of pictures.

I had the only fire poker in the group and a couple of the guys had great fun hiding it from me throughout the evening. In the January "Roberts Review" (the park monthly flyer of activities and messages) there was a large notice that bonfires are strictly forbidden throughout the park except for the "sanctioned one" on Friday nights at the large bonfire pit by the pavilion. I don't know if that notice was for our benefit or just a general "reminder". The sanctioned bonfire is around a huge six-foot-wide pit. It is for the benefit of residents of the entire park. You sit so far away from others and from the fire that it is a joke. Hopefully we can have another more intimate campfire or two on Audrey Street without getting in trouble. 

Christmas Day was nice. Kelly and I went to church and later in the day had video calls with the kids and grandkids in California. It appears the grandkids made out like bandits, as expected. The adults this year decided not to buy anything for each other and instead make a donation to a charity. Most of us donated to New Life Mission Inn in Perryville, which provides services for addicted folks and the homeless. We know the money will be put to good use.

Christmas Day and thereafter the weather has been fabulous. In the low 60s at night and up to 80 in the day. Yesterday I did laundry and counted six regular washing machines, one large washing machine, and four dryers "Out of Order". Par for the course at this place. Luckily I go early in the morning so few people are there and there are open machines. Everyone gets going later here in Florida. Many stores and businesses do not open until 10:00 a.m.

There is going to be a New Years Ever party at the clubhouse. This was not planned for ahead because no one stepped up to organize it. It will be a bring your own snacks and drinks, with music provided by a fellow in the park with a sound system. We would like to go but are concerned about Covid and being inside with many others for several hours. All of our activities so far have been outside. 

There is a "Chili Cook-off " on January 6th and Kelly wants me to enter my chili. I guess I will have to decide pretty soon if I am going to enter, or just buy tickets to taste, or neither. I'll keep you posted.

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.