August/September 2015

Werner Boyce Salt Springs State Park

Port Richey, FL

I was a little down these past couple of months because staying in one place for months at a time was not the type of “On the Road” experience I envisioned when we decided to embrace full time living in our RV.  We did have a great first year back in 2012 traveling around out West and a great few months last year traveling around some of the Eastern states.  But, circumstances beyond our control have forced us to remain in the area where we still own a bricks and sticks house. 

I sometimes feel like I am in one of those dreams where you are running but discover you haven’t moved.

 

 

 

We had some visitors near our rig including a snake and a frog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monte worked on several projects during August and September.

 

 

 One project in August involved removing the landing gear that had been improperly installed back in February of 2014 at RV Merchandising in Englewood.  Monte didn’t discover the problem until he wanted to grease the fitting some months later. 

Fixing the problem involved having to jack up the rig-

Removing the landing gear-

In order to fit the landing gear in properly, Monte had to cut away part of the bracket.

 

Rewiring 

Another big project Monte tackled was troubleshooting and fixing our leaky shower. 

Monte took everything out of the basement (a monumental task onto itself)

 to access the shower pipes--

 

No water on the pipes-

He cleaned the drain- 

Monte determined that the leak came from the holes that were drilled in the frame to the tub surface. 

To fix the problem he had to disassemble the entire shower frame.

After filling the holes with silicone he reassembled the shower and NO MORE LEAK!

Monte also flushed out the toilet.

It's a crappy job but someone has to do it. 

Monte’s reward for getting the park’s airboat up and running was taking it out for a test run.

 

Heavy rains brought flooding. 

 The parking lot at Walmart.

We met up with Monte’s daughter, her friend Brandi and our grandson Timmy at The Pizza Chef for their outstanding pizza and garlic bread.

 

The following week they came to visit us at the park for a BBQ

Monte took the group out on the trails-they didn’t want to use our mesh nets but once on the trail they were happy I convinced them to take the nets along-the deer flies were relentless.

When our friends, John & Darlene, came to visit we took them to nearby Robert K Rees Park for a refreshing dip. 

Later on back at the rig we enjoyed ribs that had slow cooked all day in the crock pot.

One of Monte's many maintenance projects was servicing the zero turn mower.--Having a lift sure makes the job easier. 

Monte took advantage of the lift to install new brake pads on our Jeep.

 

 

 

Our cat Anne began leaving little spots of urine around the rig.  She had never exhibited that behavior before so we knew there was some kind of medical issue going on.  We also noticed she hadn’t been drinking as much water as she usually did and that she was visiting her litter box every few minutes.

  We took her to the vet referred by our park manager.  Anne is fifteen years old and had only been to the vet once so she has been a very healthy cat.  I was concerned about how she was going to handle being examined-my fears were unfounded-she was a trooper. 

Twenty-four hours after getting a shot for a UTI she was back to normal.

 In addition to several maintenance projects Monte worked on for the park we also closed the park gates on our assigned nights.  When we first began our closing duties in June sunset wasn’t until close to 9PM.  By the end of August we were closing by 7:52PM. 

In the beginning of September we drove a couple hours south to Englewood for my brother’s birthday.

We also drove up to Dunnellon to visit with friends John and Darlene who were hosting at Rainbow Springs State Park.

The Happy Groom and BrideMonte as the proud daddy walking his little girl down the aisle.

 

 

We did manage to get a long bike ride in at Jay B Starkey Wilderness Park.  The park has a six and a half mile paved bike trail—I thought the trail was a loop-we didn’t find out it wasn’t a loop until around the 5 mile mark which meant having to turn around and travel back 5 miles to our car. 

The trail is mostly in direct sunlight- we foolishly set out during the hottest part of the day right after lunch so it was quite uncomfortable.

The next time we come it will be either earlier or later in the day.

We spent a couple of days at the end of September visiting with my parents, brother and sister-in-law.

 

 

 

By the end of September we were closing the gates at 7:20PM.  While I am looking forward to some cooler temperatures as we head into the fall months, I am not looking forward to it getting dark so early.