Living Our Dream

Still Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, Jan. 17 to Friday, Jan 21, 2012

Paul always likes to pull the motor home off the site once or twice during the winter and take it for a drive to get the motor up to operating temperature and to get all the lubrication flowing. We decided to do that last week. Paul does all the motor home driving when we're traveling, but Margery took the opportunity of last week's more leisurely drive to practice her motor home driving skills. She has only driven the motor home a few times, but she really has the hang of it.

Before we left on our short drive, Paul took a few photos in the morning sun of the parerwhite narcissus (or is that narcissi?) that Lora and J. Michael gave him for Christmas. They came as a kit preplanted in a decorative container. All Paul had to do was water them and put them in a bright location to get them going.

Paul used to force several types of spring bulbs to bloom in the dead of winter when we had a stick house up north so it would seem like we were having an earlier spring. Most spring bulbs have to undergo a period of about 90 days at temperatures below 40º in order for them to bloom. Paul used to pot up hyacinth and daffodil bulbs in the fall and put them in the spare refrigerator in our garage. Starting in January, we would take a new pot out of the refrigerator about every two weeks so we would have an almost constant succession of blooms indoors all the way until the spring flowers started blooming outside on their own.

Paperwhites are an exception and don't need the cold period, so they are perfect for us since we have no spare refrigerator and since we spend our winters in Florida where it is warm. The paperwhites Paul got for Christmas bloomed in only about three weeks, and their heady fragrance fills the whole motor home. Leave it to our thoughtful daughter to think of a perfect gift for her dad.

Speaking of Christmas, RVs have been steadily flowing into Blueberry Hill since we returned after spending Christmas in Pittsburgh. There are some empty sites, but the occupancy rate is higher than last year. People may be getting used to the "new normal" of high unemployment rates and are wanting to get on with their lives. Reduction of prices at Blueberry Hill to 2009 levels seems to have helped, too.

When we returned from Pittsburgh, we learned that Blueberry Hill had been sold to new owners, Sun RV Resorts. Although the sale won't be final until sometime around the end of January, the early word is that Sun is not planning any major changes. Sun also operates numerous manufactured home communities, but they reportedly want to increase the number of RV parks they own. It's possible they may bring in a few park model RVs (there already are several of those here), but we think they will keep Blueberry Hill pretty much the way it is. The old owners of Blueberry Hill, Morgan RV Resorts, caused a lot of bad feelings because there were so many inconsistencies in their policies, so we're hoping new ownership will be a change for the better.

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the brake problem we had with our car and about how the brake shop diagnosed a long-time, off-and-on whistling noise we had been hearing from somewhere under the car. The brake shop determined the noise was coming from the carrier bearing for the rear drive shaft for our all-wheel drive. They sprayed lubrication into the bearing, and the noise stopped. As they said it might, the noise came back the very next day, so Paul made an appointment to have the bearing replaced even though the noise quit again the day after that.

Chevrolet is doing the repairs on Saturns now that the GM has discontinued the Saturn line, so Paul called the closest Chevrolet dealer, George Nehaus Chevrolet in Wildwood, FL. Since our Saturn Vue is all-wheel-drive, and since very few of the smaller SUVs sold here in Florida are all-wheel-drive, Paul was surprised they had the bearing in stock. Unfortunately, they had to send the drive shaft out after they took it off the car to have the old bearing removed and the new bearing pressed on, so the repair ended up taking two days.

Paul was pleased to find out Nehaus Chevrolet has a courtesy car and driver who does little else all day but shuttle customers back and forth. The driver took Paul back to the motor home and picked him up again the next day after the car was done. The repair was expensive, but now we don't have to listen to the annoying whistling noise, and we don't have to worry about the bearing seizing up somewhere down the road. Needless to say, two expensive repairs within a few weeks ensures we'll be keeping the Vue a little longer.

We've really enjoyed having Pat and Mike as neighbors at Blueberry Hill this year. This past Friday, we went with them for an early dinner at Catfish Johnny's which is a few miles to the northwest of Bushnell.

Mike and Margery had catfish fingers (strips of fried catfish) while Pat and Paul tried beer batter shrimp, which is a new menu item. We all enjoyed our food. Although the shrimp was good, we thought the batter coating was a just a little too thick. 

We have several irons in the fire. Look for our next post to see which one gets hot first.

Just Hangin' Around

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Jan. 13 to Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012

Since Paul finished repainting the front air conditioner cover, we've just been hangin' around and doing a little bit of this and that.

On the Friday after the RV show, we went for a late lunch with our friends, Pat and Mike, at OakWood Grill near the Villages. They had gone to the Tampa RV show the day after we did, and we were anxious to hear their impressions. They said they had a good time looking at RV accessories, and they had some questions about their rig for the factory reps from Open Range, which is who made their 5th wheel. They also spent time at the Open Range display talking to prospective customers and telling them how much they liked their Open Range 5th wheel.

A warning light came on in their truck on the way back from the Tampa show, and Pat and Mike had dropped the truck off at the nearby GMC dealer while we were at OakWood Grill. After a good meal (Pat and Mike had ribs, Margery had a blackened blue burger, and Paul had a smoked turkey sandwich) and plenty of great conversation, we dropped Pat and Mike off at the GMC dealer. The shop ran a 70-minute diagnostic program and couldn't find anything wrong with the truck, so they just reset the computer and told them to bring the truck back if it happened again.

On Saturday, Blueberry Hill RV Park had its annual yard sale. Anyone who has any items they want to get rid of can set up a table in front their site. We usually don't participate in the yard sale, but this year, we had a couple of larger items we wanted to get rid of plus a bunch of small items we had cleaned out of our cupboards and storage bays. We tend to accumulate way too much stuff, and it was time to eliminate some excess weight. The next photo shows Paul with our sale table.

It was a cool morning, but the sun was warm. There was a fairly good turnout, including several people who stopped who were from other campgrounds. We sold one of our large items (a propane heater) and quite a few of our smaller ones for a grand total of $39. That's not a lot of money, but it's not bad for things we would have given away anyway.

We have been having a lot of fun with our new puppy, Freeway. He is rambunctious as puppies usually are, and we have had to "puppy proof" the motor home.

He was 8 weeks old when we first picked him up, and we were very excited that he could make it to the bottom step of the motor home the first day. By 9 weeks of age, he was able to go up ALL the steps.

Freeway's favorite toy this week is his knotted rope. He likes to chew on the soft ends, and he also likes to play fetch. If we throw it down the hallway of the motor home, he will go get it and bring it back. He is fun to watch because the rope is almost as big as he is. If he grabs it near one end, he has to hold his head as high as he can so he doesn't trip over the other end of the rope.

A nap almost always follows Freeway's play time.

Freeway went to the vet a few days before we picked him up from the Royal Puppy Palace, so he was all up to date on his immunizations. However, we wanted to take him to the vet ourselves to get a baseline exam of our own. We also had a few questions about feeding, training, future immunizations and neutering, so we made an appointment for Sunday after church. Since the weather was perfect (not too hot and not too cold), we were able to leave Freeway in his canvas carrier in the car while we were at church.

When we had our previous dog, Molly, we discovered Banfield Pet Hospitals. Banfield has facilities all over the country (located mostly in PetSmart stores), and they can transfer records electronically between locations. This is ideal for full-time RVers like us, so we are going to take Freeway to Banfield as well. They also have wellness plans that are like pet health insurance that not only cover office visits, but also include things like immunizations for puppies and neutering, which we will be doing in a few months.

The closest Banfield to Bushnell is in the PetSmart in The Villages. The vet pronounced Freeway to be in good health, and he also answered our questions. We made an appointment for his next round of immunizations, then we looked around the PetSmart store.

Poor little Freeway has been shivering on cool mornings and evenings when we take him outside to go potty, so we wanted to get him a sweater or doggie coat. We tried on a sweater, but decided it would too hard to get it onto a squirming puppy if we were in a hurry to get him outside, so we ended up with a doggie coat with Velco on the straps. As with most males, Freeway wasn't too happy about trying on clothes.

The next photo shows gives you a better look at the coat.

The coat fits Freeway perfectly now; but at the rate he is growing, it will probably only last a month or so. He gained over 3/4 pound his first week. Unfortunately, the next larger size was way too big, so we're hoping there will be an end to the cool nights and mornings by the time he outgrows the coat.

We spent the rest of Sunday relaxing, at least what passes for relaxing for us now that we have a new puppy. Stay tuned for more from Bushnell.

Motor Home Project: Repainting the Air Conditioner Covers

Bushnell, FL - Events of Thursday, Jan. 13, 2012

When we were in Summerdale, AL back in October and November, Paul repainted the radii at the edges of our roof due to peeling clear coat. Unfortunately, we had the same problem with our air conditioner covers. Like the roof edges, the clear coat was probably not applied heavily enough or wet enough, so the clear coat on the top surfaces of the air conditioner covers also began to peel after several years of exposure to the weather.

The covers were originally painted a tan color that blended with several Tiffin paint colors rather than a color that was an exact match for our motor home. Paul thought the covers would look better if they were painted to match our coach, so when he bought paint for the edges of the roof, he bought extra to be able to repaint the AC covers as well.

The process for repainting was similar to that for the roof edges. However, since the tops of the AC covers where the paint was peeling was relatively flat, Paul was able to use his Porter Cable palm sander to remove the peeling clear coat more quickly.

After sanding with 220 grit on the palm sander, he sanded the top with 400 grit sandpaper, then scuffed the side surfaces with a 3M abrasive pad to provide good adhesion for the paint. The next photo shows the front cover with the sanding completed.

Rather than take the cover down to the ground for painting and risk damaging the new paint taking the cover back up, Paul removed the screws that held the cover in place, draped a plastic drop cloth over the internal workings of the air conditioner, and sat the cover back into place on top of the drop cloth.

Since the AC covers are textured, some of the sanding went through the paint at the high points of the texture all the way to the base plastic. Therefore, Paul bought a spray can of primer for plastic to use before applying the color.

After the primer dried, Paul applied the base coat of color using a Preval sprayer as he did for the roof edges. The Preval sprayer is capable of spraying many different types of paint, including the catalyzed urethane paints used for most modern automotive finishes.

The next photo shows the finished base coat on the front cover.

The base coat dries to a satin finish, and the shine comes from the clear coat, so the next step was to apply two coats of clear. The photo below shows the finished cover for the front air conditioner after the clear coat had dried and Paul had removed the plastic drop cloth.

The weather forecast was calling for several cooler days, so Paul will finish the rear cover sometime in the future whe the weather warms up. Stay tuned for more from Bushnell, FL.