A quick trip to North Carolina

Going back a week, after we successfully delivered Dad to the airport in Charleston for his flight back to Michigan, we got back to the Refuge and opened the Visitor Center for the day.

We don’t get a lot of traffic out here, but on Saturday we did have a few birdwatchers come in, as well as two couples from Alberta that we had met at the BBQ restaurant the night before, and a group of scouts.

 

They were checking out the large hornets nest, the items on the touch table, and especially the upstairs viewing area of the Osprey nest.

The alligator head was a pretty big hit, too!

We’ve had some pretty amazing weather here in middle South Carolina for the beginning of November. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, in my opinion, it’s been a little too hot – high 80s – and the mosquitos have been brutal!

The butterflies love the hot weather, though!

 

Not much in the way of fall colors around here yet!

We haven’t been able to do much bike riding lately either – too buggy!  I’m hoping for cooler temperatures to get rid of the mosquitos!

This past weekend, we took a quick little trip into North Carolina. 

When we were at the Monacoers Gathering at LazyDays last winter, Tom met some guys who had developed an improvement to our Roadmaster chassis to help minimize the effects of things like road crown, wind and trucks passing.

Tom has continued to talk to them all this year, and made plans to get the watts link installed when we got down to South Carolina.  Last weekend fit into all of our calendars, and it also happened to be Nicolas’ weekend off, so he went with us.

 

We were going to Van’s house near Pinehurst, NC, which is not too far over the South Carolina border, off I-95.  It was a pretty easy drive for us.  They had another coach to work on first, and told us to arrive in the late afternoon on Saturday.  We only had about a 3 hour drive, but we got on the road by 10:30 anyway.  We stopped for lunch and fuel in Florence, and the truck stop just happened to be right next door to the Young Plantations Pecan Store.  WE just had to stop in for free samples, and take some yummy pecans home with us!  Nicolas even picked a few pecans off a tree in the parking lot!

As we continued north into North Carolina, the drive became more scenic, and we started to see a little evidence a fall colors!

 

Casey went with us, too, and for the first time travelled not in her crate.  It took her a little while to settle down, but she finally found a comfortable spot between the pilot and co-pilot!

Most of the time they kept their eyes on the road!

We arrived at Van’s house, and after meeting us at the end of his driveway, he directed Tom to pull into the covered workshop.

Van and Craig have made this modification to a couple dozen RVs this year, so they already had some of the parts made.  They just had to take some measurements under the chassis and make some brackets for mounting the watts link.  There was going to be some welding involved, too,

Craig showed Tom and Nicolas what needed to be done,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then we just stayed out of the way while they worked.

 

We found a church just down the road, so left for awhile to go to mass, and when we got back, they had all the parts ready to install.

 

Van had made the necessary brackets, and Craig was in the process of welding them in place.  We were in luck that they were no surprises in our installation, and the entire job went smoothly.  After about 4-1/2 hours, they were done, and even helped Tom with a couple of small maintenance projects, as well!

It was dark by then, so we spent the night comfortably under cover before heading out in the morning. 

It was a quick trip for us, but should result in a big improvement in ride and ease of handling for Tom!  We’re really glad we met up with these guys, and are so grateful for the service they offer in developing this system for Monaco owners!

Finally in south Florida, and a new floor!

When we left northern Florida on Monday it was cloudy and humid, and looked like it could rain at any moment.  As we made our way south on I-75, though, the clouds cleared and the temperature continued to rise through the 80s . . . but it was still humid!

It was our last 300-mile day, and we were anxious to arrive at our winter destination.  Even with a 45-minute drive to get to the freeway, we made great time, and arrived at the Cypress Trail RV Resort just before 2pm.

It’s a gated community, and we were arriving a day early, so we had to call the Sales Manager to let us through the gate.  After checking in, we got parked on our site and set up for a long-term stay.

I’ll do a full post on the resort later, with lots of pictures, but for now I just have a couple of the area we are in.  It’s a really beautiful resort . . .

Monday afternoon is “Happy Hour” and Tuesday morning is “Coffee & Donuts”.  We went to both, and met the other workamping couple and several campers.  There aren’t too many people here yet, but we’re told they are fully booked for January and February.

Here comes the Maintenance Supervisor on his cart . . .

 

Oh, it’s Tom!! 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we’ve been here, we’ve gotten caught up on laundry, stocked up on groceries, and tackled a “home improvement” project.

We’ve always had a carpet remnant that we roll out in the garage area when we’re parked, but in the last year or so, the backing has been disintegrating and leaves a powder all over the floor when we roll it up.  We threw it out before we left Michigan, and have been looking for something to replace it.  Tom had seen some other toy haulers that use 2’ x 2’ foam interlocking squares on the garage floor, so that’s what he been focusing on.  He found some on craigslist here in Ft. Myers that look like a wood floor, rather than just black, which most of them are.

We took a drive over to look at them today, and bought them – $75 for about 150 sq. ft. – not a bad deal!

It was more than we needed, but it worked out good because we used the extra pieces as an additional layer between the tie-down rails, so that the finished layer would lie flat across the whole floor . . . and it added a little extra cushion!

Tom and Bryce came up with the perfect layout . . .

and did all the measuring and cutting.

It came out really good!

 

Casey gave it her stamp of approval!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and the resort is having a catered/potluck celebration . . . I made sweet potatoes and mini cheesecakes . . . two of Tom and Bryce’s favorites!  It’s nice to have that done already – tomorrow all we have to do is show up for a delicious dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Where did January go?

Here in the valley, we enjoyed amazing weather during January.  It was so nice, with temperatures in the upper 70s, that the guys took advantage of the great weather to wash and polish the RV!

It was a BIG job, and took them several days to complete, but it looked really good when they were done!

 

The steep drop-off at the back of our site made the back door the most challenging area . . . I think I would have just skipped it, but that’s me . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the guys were busy with the RV, I was busy setting up a sewing room for myself in our volunteer laundry room.

The laundry room itself is pretty basic, but we do have 2 washers and 2 dryers, so laundry day goes fairly quickly – even for me!  We do have to be careful to stagger loads, though, since the drain can only handle one washer draining at a time, as is evidenced by the stains on the floor!

 

There’s another room in the laundry building, with several lockable cabinets and lockers that we can use.  I claimed one of the cabinets for storing my sewing machine and tools, along with my laundry supplies.  It’s much more convenient to just leave it there, rather than carrying it back and forth every week!

Each volunteer gets an assigned morning or afternoon for laundry.  Mine is Thursday afternoon, so now that’s my designated sewing time too!

 

There’s a table for my sewing machine and cutting board,

and even an available ironing board!

Last week I dug out a quilt project that I haven’t worked on for over a year and a half!  Two more squares finished!

As we turned the calendar to February, the bottom fell out of our temperatures!  OK, not really, but we are only in the 60s now, and we’ve had clouds!  We’ve even had to turn the heat pump back on at night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We even almost had some rain . . . it evaporated before it reached the ground, but it made for an interesting pink mist in the air over the campground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, Tom and I took Nicolas to meet with a Navy recruiter and set up a time for him to take the ASVAB test.  We’re doing a little investigation in that area before he makes a final decision on college. 

On the way back, we stopped at a vehicle consignment shop that caught Tom’s eye.

They had a little bit of everything – cars, RVs, boats, motorcycles,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

even a couple tractors,

and an adorable truck and camper for our sister-in-law, Denise!

It was a fun place to look around!  We stopped for a quick dinner at Chick-fil-A (one of our favorites!), and got back home in time for another beautiful sunset.  Unfortunately, I only had my phone with us as we walked the dog, and it doesn’t take great sunset photos . . . oh well, I’ll probably have another chance tomorrow!