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.