Tuesday 30 January 2018: Hamcation Plans

We were disappointed that we could not get into the KOA RV Park in Deland/St. Johns area.  Then we tried the Elks in Deland but they are in only on Wed, Th & Friday.  As a result SAM said why don’t we just stay where we are and save the $35/day?  So I think this is the new plan and we will travel out on the 7th to Apopka Orange Blossom KOA for the 7th -12th.

Monday 29 January 2018: Whimsical Morning

I cdnuolt blveiee 
taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The 
phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at 
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the 
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the 
first and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae.. The rset can be a 
taotl mses and you can still raed it wouthit a porbelm. This 
is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by 
istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? 

Sunday 28 January 2018: overcast, intermittent rain, warm

We went to the the Elks last night for Fish & Shrimp for me and X2 Fish for SAM.  When I got back to the RV I was hyped up and could not relax.  This continued all night and was probably related to an allergy but by 0500 I finally went to sleep.  We did not go to church as we did not want to play Russian Roulette with the bullet being the Flu.  We already lost one classmate this year.  I also had a frightening experience with some type ruptured blood vessel so that kept me up too.

This morning it was breakfast as usual and tea instead of coffee.  SAM slept late and made some coffee when she arose.  I had a drop or two.  I spent my morning planning our move to the Orlando Hamvention.  Right now we are planning on heading to a KOA near Deland on 44 for a few days and then on to the KOA on Orange Blossom NW of Apopka until the 12th of Feb.  After that we are open until Feb 27 when we plan on attending the Steuben County Florida Reunion in Sebring.  We may go to Bradenton/Ruskin area for a couple weeks after the Hamvention.  The rest of the winter is wide open.

At the moment we are listening to a book on CD.  It is called “The Rules of Civility” and almost everyone needs a good dose of that!  Cheers.

The Spin and its tragic consequences.

The tricks propagandists use to beat science

A model of the way opinions spread reveals how propagandists use the scientific process against itself to secretly influence policy makers.

• by Emerging Technology from the arXiv
• January 22, 2018

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610012/the-tricks-propagandists-use-to-beat-science/

Thursday 25 January 2018: Pot Roast lunch

It was a little cold this morning and is getting colder even now. SAM is out for the long walk with Abby while I am getting an update on the Mavic Air drone that I would like to have. It is almost perfect for me but bout $100 high – we shall see what happens over the next weeks. However, this is the third generation or evolution of the DJI products. This is basically a Spark with foldable arms and longer wifi range. A good product for an amateur like me.

As the morning wound up towards the lunch time hour, we decided to go to the Sweet Sensations restaurant we like in Green Cove Springs. Man, did it taste good it is my favorite item on their menu, albeit a bit shy of filling me up fully. Anyway, it continues to be my favorite over the years. Price with tip is about $10.

The picture is from the Top 10 Hasselblad  Masters contest and I thought it was just plain cool so I am including it here.

Net Neutrality

Wednesday 24 January 2018: A walk in the sun

I spent a good portion of the day in the RV but later SAM, Abby and I took a mile or so walk in the sun.  It was fun but I did not get to see the beaver nor the muskrat. In a previous walk they saw the beaver up close about 20′ or less away.  It did not see them at all so SAM clapped and it turned its head dove in the water and slapped.  Pretty cool for them to see this.

I spent a lot of time finding the part number for the vacuum brake in the shower and then calling Winnebago to order it but in the end chickened out when I found out the cost at about $50 for a simple cheap 1/2″ check valve.  I will try to make one myself with less expensive parts.

After that I started looking for the Orlando Hamcation tickets and an RV Park that we would be happy with.  Lots of the options were really mobile home parks that had 3 star ratings.  So I selected a KOA on Orange Blossom Trail that was an expensive $65/day: Gulp.  Well at least my sister had stayed here so I know she says it is ok minus.  Oh well, we will find out when we get there.  It is 30 minutes from Hamcation.

Then I made a few internet searches and finally called Homers in Sebring to find out when the Steuben County Florida Reunion was taking place: It is February 27 at 1100hrs.  This date found it was on to finding a RV Park in which to stay.  I never really committed to one but there was Woody’s and Sebring Grove RV Resort.

Tuesday 23 January 2018

I can’t believe it was last Friday that I posted. Believe it or not we have been working on little projects and nailing one or more per day.  The one remaining biggie is installing the AquaPure filter.  I am a little afraid of tackling this one as the thought of water dripping or squirting everywhere under the sink is less than appealing.

Sunday after church I tackled the accumulator air charge.  It seemed to work pretty well but I wished I had triple the size capacity so the water would run for 30 seconds or so at full opened vanity sink faucet.  Right now it is about 5 seconds.  I set the pressure at 25 psi in the accumulator.

Last night it rained and rained and rained hard but by 0500 it had more or less stopped.  All day today the sun played tag with us and popped in and out of the clouds.  SAM just returned from a longish dog walk and Abby looks tuckered out.

Little by little the RV Park here is filling up, mostly with trailers but we have 3 class A’s so I feel ok.  The guy next door has a Airstream that is beautiful and shiny.  He is a cool guy who left Oregon in a Westsail 43 and saild down the west coast all the way down to Cape Horn, around the Horn and out to The Falklins.  He has a lot of stories to tell and I am jealous to no end.

The sun is shining as I write and feel it is time to end so 73 for now.

Friday 19 December: Sunny, warmer and Sonny’s

A slow lazy morning gave way to a trip to Revels RV in Starke.  The guy who owns the place is a real character and promoter.  We went in because it was recommended and we needed a part to fix the shower feed pipe.  He was not real sure how to fix it but gave us some ideas and a suggestion to go to Ace Hardware for a coupler.  We were handed a RV catalog and departed for Sonny’s just around the corner.  After lunch we headed back to the RV and SAM saw a Rummage Sale in Penny Farms.  Guess what? She went in and I took a nap.  I woke up quite a bit later and SAM was still inside this little building looking for “bargains”:  She found some!

Back at the RV, our afternoon work commenced and I backwashed the black water tank and drained it and backwashed again.  Then came a grey water drain and another backwash.  While I was doing this a couple of the guys stopped by and we chatted for an hour or so.  Now I am writing this and listening to “Without Warning” the last of the j.B.Collins series. Actually, I am listening to disc 1 again.  Talk with you later.

Thursday 18 January 2018: Cold, Sunny

We are still at Clay County Fair RV Park.  We had propane delivered and the RV gauges were accurate.  Now we are listening to Joel Roseberg’s “The third Target” and are on CD 4 of 5.  Very exciting as usual, from one excitement to another with various twists.  We should have listened to this one before the last one called “First Hostage”. I will try to get them in proper sequence next time.

This afternoon we went to the Clay County Library here in GCS and turned in the two books on cd and then went up to Walmart.  I had to return a green hose for a white drinkable water hose.  No problem as Walmart took the return and the price of the “white” was really reasonable at $17.  From there it was to AA Propane to pay a three week bill of $63 and it took  a 16 gallon load.  All this proved the sensors onboard are correct.  Maybe we can push it next time?