April 1, 2022 - We Made It Home

We left Roberts RV Park at 7:45 a.m. on the 31st. I was able to get out of the tight lot with the help of George Arnet. He warned us of bad weather ahead on the road but as it turned out we only had a little rain and a little wind, neither of which bothered us at all. We ate supper at the Cracker Barrel in McDonough, Georgia, and stayed on their lot for the night. We both had a good night's sleep after driving all day.

Friday morning we left McDonough at 7:15 a.m. and headed home. While there was traffic in downtown Atlanta, it moved at a regular pace so no problem. We drove through Chattanooga with major traffic but it kept moving slowly as well. Our first traffic problem was road construction traffic just north of Nashville. It took us over one and half hours to go ten miles. Totally unnecessary in my book for the work being done. The truck traffic out there is incredible. They are always talking about needing truck drivers. If they hired all the drivers they wanted the Interstates would be deadlocked!  After Nashville we sailed at the speed limit until we got north of Paducah on I-24 where we once again rain into road construction backups for twenty-five miles. Those delays cost us at least another half hour to hour.

We pulled into the driveway at 6:15 p.m. Central Daylight time. Thus we were on the road for twelve hours instead of the ten hours we planned. Needless to say we did nothing upon getting home except to empty the refrigerator. The house was 55 degrees so it took the heat pump three hours to warm the place up. 

Upon arriving home I found the cover off the gas grill and stuffed behind it. I found damage to the front of the grill in several places. There had been some very high winds on several occasions over the winter and apparently one of the winds blew an iron rocking chair nearby on the deck into the grill. Here is a picture of the dented corner and a picture of the other end to show you what it is supposed to look like.

Also the piece on the front of the cabinet on which the catches for the doors are mounted was completely blown off and laying nearby. This piece was screwed on but apparently was loose and blew off. Two of the mounting screws were missing and one was found in the cabinet.

I fixed the grill as best I could. I'm glad this wasn't a new grill. I am assuming one of my neighbors saw the cover out in the yard and stuffed it behind the grill. I haven't had a chance to check around yet.

Last summer I bought a small used mini fridge for $35.00 to use in Florida. It was working in that it was full of beer when I looked at it. I brought it to Florida and quickly found out that the thermostat didn't work right and the unit ran constantly, freezing everything inside. (Of course it didn't freeze the guy's beer.) To deal with the problem in Florida I put the fridge on a timer so that it ran half time thus not freezing things. A temporary fix. Rather than throw it out I decided to bring it home and see if I could repair it cheaply. I got online this morning and found a replacement thermostat for $9.99 on Amazon. I ordered it. We can't use an outside fridge at our RV resort next year. If I can fix it I will put it in the shed at the lake with beer and water in it for when we go out to mow, etc. If the thermostat doesn't fix it I'll recycle it and chalk it up.

It is good to be home but we are not looking forward to the days it will take to clean the RV inside and out. At Roberts RV park the sand and dirt are awful and permeate everything. Parked under oak trees the RV looks like it hasn't been washed in years as does the truck. (The car we were able to take through the car wash on a regular basis.) Fun jobs to keep me out of the bars! 

We will have a lot less to pack for Florida next year due to the rules at the new park. They do not allow outside appliances so I will not take the mini fridge nor the table it sat on. Each lot has a 10 foot by 50 foot concrete pad and there are no trees so I will not need to take any rugs to keep from dragging dirt and leaves inside. They do not allow anything out front so I gave my small lighted palm tree to David before I left and will put the larger palm tree on our deck at home for ambiance. The new park has lots of activities. I hope they will be as much fun as those at Roberts. I doubt there will ever be another "Audrey Street Vibe" for us. We will miss that for sure.

 

March 29, 2022 - Final Season Social Event - Hamburger Dinner and Dance

The last social event of the season was the "Hamburger Dinner and Dance". Kelly and I did not buy hamburger tickets because we had a couple of steaks that needed to be grilled. After dinner we went up to the pavilion for the dance which started at 7:00 p.m. Here are a couple of pictures of everyone enjoying themselves.

There was free beer as long as it lasted and the Audrey Street table decided to line their empties.

Kelly and I got up to dance to a song I thought I recognized. It ended up not being that song. In fact it was a bad song that no one ever heard of so no one got up to dance but us!

The music for the danced was provided by Wayne, who has the equipment to be a DJ. Wayne and Charlotte are from Newfoundland, are the friendliest people, and do a great job with the music.

It was a very nice ending to the snowbird season. Many of our Audrey Street friends are not coming back to this park next year for various reasons, most of which have to do with management. Those not coming back are Don and Brenda from Indiana, Don and Anita from Ohio, Dick and Electa from Ohio, Marianna from Ohio, MJ from Ohio, Tom and Joan from Pennsylvania, Annie from New Jersey, George and Sherrie from Florida, and Mike and Kelly from Missouri. It is sad to think that most of these folks we will never see again after spending the last six winters visiting and partying with them almost daily. Audrey Street will a different place. 

The park we have reserved for next year is Adelaide Shores RV Park in Avon Park, Florida. It will be a completely different experience for us. It is in the middle of the state, thus a two-hour drive in either direction to get to the beach. There are no large towns nearby so the vibe will be quite different from St. Petersburg, which has everything you need and hundreds of restaurants in close proximity. We only know one couple at the new park and they now live in a permanent trailer so they won't be part of the "RV crowd". 

Leaving Roberts RV Park we will particularly miss our wonderful Michigan friends, David and Jean, Chris and Marg, and George and Janet.  We plan on making several trips back to see them next winter.

March 24, 2022 - Derby Day

Yesterday was "Derby Day" at Roberts RV Park. Derby Day is the last race of the season. On Derby Day there are three races with the third race winner being the Derby Winner. There are six horses in each race. Earlier in the season the horses were auctioned off and then named by their owners. Owners also had a chance to write a description of their steeds to entice folks to vote for them. The total amount received at the auction is the purse for the Derby Day winner. The Audrey Street syndicate bought two horses this year. Number One was "Gorgeous George", named after long-time, beloved Audrey Street resident, George Schick. Number Six was "Peckerhead", named in honor of a Canadian who was a former Audrey Street resident, Chris Webb. She called everyone a "Peckerhead". Here are the descriptions of the horses that were put in the program for the derby.

Gorgeous George

A short-legged gelding who runs like the wind. While a very amiable steed, he is a bit hard-headed and runs his own race despite the workings of his jockey. No matter his place at the finish line, he always holds his head up high like the winner he is.

Peckerhead

Originally owned by a Nova Scotian who loves her Rye Whiskey, this mare has come into her own under the leadership of the syndicate. Her original owner considered her a bit dumb and let her know that every time she did poorly on and off the track, which didn’t help her performance or her self-esteem. To keep this filly running at her peak her current jockey has been trained to not call her by name and to promise her a little “arthritis medicine” after the race.

It had been pouring rain all day and it was unknown what type of crowd would attend the derby. As it turned out all the regulars attended and looked forward to great races.

Bets were placed before each race. Sue and Bill took all bets and calculated the payout for each race. They always do a great job.

Don was the race announcer and did an outstanding job keeping the jockeys in line and calling each race.

For the third and final race, George was chosen as the jockey for Gorgeous George (far left) and I was chosen as the jockey for Peckerhead (far right). As the horses lined up at the starting line it was clear that Peckerhead was anxious for a win with this jockey having to hold her back so she didn't jump the line.

Gorgeous George was out of the gate and well ahead of the others for a couple of rolls, then Peckerhead hit her stride, getting a number of rolls in a row. While horses 2, 3, 4, and 5 started to catch up, Gorgeous George and Peckerhead approached the Finish Line well ahead of the pack. With a final roll of the dice, Peckerhead got the win! The horse and her jockey were ecstatic!!! There is nothing like being in the Winner's Circle!

For posterity horse and jockey posed for a picture at the Finish Line. (Which you can see is real close to the food line. LOL)

The payout was $375.00. Each member of the syndicate received $29.00 for a share of the winnings. All of the horse races this year were well-attended and everyone enjoyed each and every race. Those of us in the Winners Circle had a lot to celebrate at the end of this season. We will miss this event.

March 23, 2022 - Another Replacement of Plastic Junk

Several years ago we bought a Oxygenics handheld shower head for the RV. We have had this shower head at home for years and love it because it mixes oxygen with the water to increase the pressure for showers. This shower head is not cheap - close to $50.00. Unfortunately pricey does not mean well-made with good materials. After just a couple of years of part-time use in the RV ours broke off where it is threaded into the shut-off valve. No fixing this.

I get so tired of items being plastic junk that we all pay good money for falling apart after just a few years. I looked at several other shower heads online and on Amazon, some cheaper and some about the same price. I found them all to be made of plastic so I decided to bite the bullet and order another Oxygenics. Here it is installed.

At least the new one comes with a built-in shut-off valve so an extra valve is not needed. We need a shut-off valve in the RV so we can take Navy showers due to limited hot and fresh water. 

Unfortunately, Oxygenics has cheapened up their shower kit. The new kit comes with a stiff, cheap, plastic hose the same as the $10.00 shower head variety. The old one had a nice, stainless steel hose so I re-used it.

Hopefully this replacement will last longer. I have now replaced the showerhead twice, and the bathroom faucet twice. I have also replaced the kitchen faucet, but only once so far. LOL.

March 20, 2022 - Shrimp Boil, Trivia, and Tunes

Yesterday was another first on Audrey Street. We had a Shrimp Boil with people bringing shrimp, sausage, potatoes, green peppers, corn, and crawdads to boil. Our neighbors, Shawn and Jennie, had the equipment to boil and serve it all. Here is a picture of the table set up as Shawn oversees the boil.

It was a beautiful day and everyone donated something for the meal. The unofficial count was forty-seven diners.

The boil was done in two pots, one regular and one spicey. Dave and Debbie bought crawdads the day before and reported that they had a heck of a time keeping them in the Styrofoam container until meal time. They definitely added another dimension to the meal.

At the last minute the crawdads were added.

When the boil was ready it was dumped into two large serving trays. 

When given the word, it didn't take long for a double food line to form. If you left hungry it was your own fault because in addition to the boil there were lots of desserts.

After the meal was cleaned up there was a Trivia Game followed by a "Name That Tune" game, both made up by Kelly. Teams of 2-4 people were picked and everyone was given a score card. The team with the highest score total for both games won. I didn't get any pictures of the event because I was the announcer. The winners were Don and Brenda Courtney and Judd and Jenn Vickers with a score of 32 out of a possible 40. Their prize was a can of nuts for each of them.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the games and thanked Kelly for her hard work in putting them together. After the games were over some played Cornhole and most hung around visiting until dark. I doubt this event will be repeated because Shawn and Jennie will not be at the park next year and they had all the equipment both for the boil and for serving it. 

There is one more food event scheduled on Audrey Street before we leave on the 31st. (Old folks like food.)

March 18, 2022 - Ice Maker Repair Project

Our portable ice maker has been underperforming for the last several weeks. The last few days the ice cubes have only been about 1/4 inch tall and thus they melt quickly. Upon investigating I found the problem. The water tray was cracked and almost all the water ran out each cycle.  Here is a picture with an arrow pointing to the crack, which discolored due to rust running down from the motor gear. In the picture it looks like all the plastic parts are dirty but that is a calcium build up. As part of this repair project I cleaned that all off with vinegar.

I got on YouTube and found a video made by a guy who had the same problem with the same ice maker. What happens is due to stress the plastic water tray cracks where it is keyed for the motor. The crack then spreads downward. The plastic tray was still turning to dump the ice but the crack was letting almost all the water leak out so that the cubes being made were minimal. The video was great for showing how the unit came apart so that I could remove the tray to fix it.  Here are a couple of pictures of the cracked tray.

I cleaned the area all up, sanded it inside and out, then put Super Glue in the crack to hold it together for the epoxy fix. Here it is Super Glued.

While the Super Glue was drying I went to Home Depot and bought some JB Weld Epoxy for Plastic. Here are a couple of pictures of the epoxy as it was drying inside and out. I couldn't put any on the keyed area of the crack because it has to lay in a track to rotate.

Hardening time was a half hour but I let it all sit for well over an hour before putting everything back together. I then waited several more hours before plugging in the unit to make ice. I watched as it filled the tray to the top for large cubes as it should. This morning we have lots of ice!!! Yippee!!!

Plastic parts are such crap. They last a couple of years but as they age they get brittle and crack. At a minimum the geared portion of the plastic tray should have had a metal ring around it to help it take the pressure from the metal gear turning every cycle. That would have cost an extra two cents I guess. Anyway, hopefully, it will last for a couple more years. These things aren't cheap. The ice maker is necessary because the RV refrigerator is small and we never seem to have room in the freezer for ice trays on long stays. I like ice in my drinks. Next year this fix will be even more important because the park we are going to does not allow any outside electric appliances so I can't take the mini-fridge. I will put the ice maker in the front compartment and have my ice.

 

March 17, 2022 - St. Patrick's Day Activities

St. Patrick's Day morning we headed to the Madeira Beach American Legion Hall for a corned beef dinner, view of the water, and live music. Upon arriving we found lots of revelers dressed in green.

Everyone was there to have a good time. Here are Kelly and Marianna in front, and Janet and Jean in the back, posing for a picture with their St. Patrick's Day special drinks. I don't know what the drinks were but none of them ordered a second.

Only Marianna ordered the corned beef dinner. She reported it was cold and wasn't very good. The rest of us ordered the corned beef Rueben. It was plain to see it wasn't made with fresh corned beef but with some kind of processed (and sliced like bologna) corned beef. It tasted all right but wasn't what we expected. We were all disappointed. The Legion food is usually quite good.

After a couple of hours at the Legion we decided to go to Mahoffer's, a bar that takes great pride in being the rattiest, nastiest bar near the beach. Kelly, Marianna, and I had never been there before. It definitely lived up to its reputation. Thousands of people have stapled dollar bills to the walls and ceiling, and many donated bras and underwear to be hung up as well. You have to see it to appreciate how bad it is. We elected to sit outside.

Of course, we had to write our name on a dollar bill and staple it to the wall, as did Jean and David, and Marianna. Tradition must be respected! A close-up view then one further back.

If we ever come back, we will see if our bill is still there. David and Jean stapled one up last year and it is still hanging there. The inside of the place is worse than the outside and George said it has been greatly cleaned up since he first came here (probably by order of the city). David, Jean, and Kelly stop for a picture inside.

David and I are waiting for our drinks at the bar under the underwear. Lovely.

Kelly and I ordered Bloody Marys. They were more like a lunch with multiple meats, cheese, and veggies on top.

We got back to the park in time to watch the St. Patrick's Day Golf Cart Parade, which was followed by a dinner of "Shepards' Pie", and disc jockey music. We skipped the dinner but David and Jean went up and danced to the music.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves.

 

March 11-14, 2022 - Annie and Violet in Florida for a Quick Visit

On the 11th daughter, Annie, and granddaughter, Violet, flew in from California for a visit with us here in Florida. It was a quick trip, but grandma planned a lot of activities for a five-year-old to enjoy. Also, David had told us about the bird sanctuary in Clearwater which is fun to visit. 

The weather did not cooperate at all for their visit but we made the best of it. Saturday we first headed to the bird sanctuary in Clearwater. It was really great place for a five-year-old with the rescued birds in cages and other birds just walking around among us. This guy was sitting on a post as I walked up. I thought he was a statue at first because he didn't move. He was a beauty.

It was hard to take pictures of the rescue birds because they were behind chain-link fences and often in dark cages. Here is a picture of a couple of pelicans. The hump on their peak is to keep other birds from poking their eyes out and for courting purposes. They are big birds.

This handsome guy was just sitting there watching my every move. He didn't mind having his picture taken. He was about eighteen inches tall and didn't make a sound.

The place had an observation deck overlooking the gulf. I took this picture of Alexa and Violet checking out the beach and also to show the rollers on the gulf that day.

After the bird sanctuary we had a nice lunch and headed back to the campground where Violet got in the pool despite the cold, windy afternoon weather. The pool was heated but it was only sixty degrees out. Needless to say, Violet was the only one in the pool. 

The next day we had tickets to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. It isn't a normal aquarium but more of a rescue operation with some marine exhibits. All of the animals there are rescued animals and cannot be returned to the wild. There are large dolphin tanks and the dolphins were trained to do tricks to entertain folks.

Dolphins use sound to find food. As they age they loose their sense of hearing and can no longer find food and thus die off. I thought this exhibit was fascinating. It is a model of a whale heart. It is about three feet around and four feet tall. Amazing to think about.

There were pelicans here as well. Violet enjoyed getting up close and personal with them behind glass. They clearly reacted to her being there.

After lunch we headed to the beach. It was a cold, blustery day. As you can see in this picture we are all bundled up. I would not even have considered going to the beach on such a day but it was one of the reasons Violet came to Florida.

I couldn't even think about getting in the water but Violet and Annie got their feet wet to make the most

of the experience. The rollers were about six foot high the entire time.

After playing in the water Violet dried off the best she could and went shell hunting and played in the sand.

Upon getting back to the campsite Violet painted her shells and I strung them on a necklace for her. Here we are working on that project at the picnic table. It still wasn't very warm.

While the paint on the necklace was drying we took a golf cart ride around the park on George's golf cart. I let Violet steer a little on our back street. 

It was a short but great visit. Violet thought it was great fun sleeping on the "bouncy" mattress on the floor in the camper. Early Monday morning it was to the airport in Tampa for their six hour trip home.  We will see them again in October when the whole family comes to Missouri for a wedding. We will look forward to it. It's a bummer to have all your grandkids in California, 2000 miles away.