Star Date: 03242013 Sunday

Home again after a good time in St. Augustine.  Weather was perfect Thursday & Friday.  Trolley tour around the Historic Old City was time well spent.  Visited the Castillo de San Marcos dating to the 16th century.  Walked St Georges street and stocked up at the Pepper Palace which allowed me to receive free hot sauce for my “minimum” purchase.  Visited Flagler College to view the former Flagler Hotel architecture and stained glass windows.  Built by Henry Flagler in latter part of 19th century for the upper crust.  A magnificent structure.  Also spent an afternoon at the Lightner Museum which was designed as an entertainment hotel for the upper crust and anyone else who paid their 25 cents including the largest indoor pool in the US which is now utilized as a café and antique mart.   The Lightner now houses many various “collections” from the guilded age such as self playing musical instruments which were demonstrated, glass, and even toasters.  The toaster collection was of special interest since it was the collection of the late Len Baer and donated by his wife and our good friend and neighbor, Doris Baer.  We had seen the collection when shown to us by Len so it was quite exciting to see it in a museum.   Dinner with the Rebels at Sunset Grill on the beach was so good that whenever we may return to St. Augustine, we will try to eat there.  Saturday was all day rain.  After the morning at the indoor outlet mall, we relaxed for an afternoon of reading in the coach.  Relaxing except for the golf ball size hail storm.  Fortunately, no damage to the coach or dinghy but the noise was akin to a shooting range so long run damage to ears is possible.  We headed for home Sunday and had to pass through another weather front.  Not much rain but plenty wind, gusting up to 50mph.  We thought we would make it home unscathed but it was not to be.  A gust hit us on the interstate and must have torqued the coach resulting in a cracked windshield.  Tomorrow will find out if insurance will cover it.  But regardless, a successful and fun trip.  And the dinghy got washed naturally, without squeegee!  It pays to procrastinate (and watch the weather forecast).

Star Date: 03202013 Wednesday

After a rough couple months with Ro’s thyroid roller coaster and ablation, my Dad’s death and my 2 week cold, we finally get some r&r.  Today we arrived in St. Augustine for the Roll’N Rebels rally.  Arrival time about 4:00 so we were able to make “Happy Hour” with the rebels.  Many positive comments on the Tampa Bay Times article on Dad and much discussion of my folks 30 years of motorhome travels including the 17 footer for the 3 of us in England and Scotland.  The positive memories are beginning to outweigh the loss and lead to good feelings.  We all sang happy birthday to a red-faced Rosemary at the Happy Hour.  For dinner, just the 2 of us to celebrate the big b-day.  Of course, our first choice of restaurant was open every day but Wednesday which today is.  Second choice, La Pentola, was open and was very good.  Ro had duck a l’orange; veal osso buco for me.  Back to the Allegro for Aaron’s home made brownies, yum!  Everything is working fine except the brand new water softener which leaks at the hose in point and thus is unuseable.  Will address that when return to Tampa.  Tomorrow is later start than usual for the rebels (thank you, thank you), 10:00 am to depart for the trolley tour of historic St. Augustine.
We had Rebel rallies in December at LazyDays and in January at Bushnell.  Both were Friday to Sunday and lots of fun.  I did not blog about the shorter trips but, who knew, I have received requests to blog more as apparently I have a following.  Gosh, I guess I will have to be funnier in the future.  Oh no, that usually means mechanical failures!  Well it did rain while at dinner and the dinghy was parked under an oak tree and is now covered in oak tree sperm.  Tomorrow must squeegee the dinghy.

Star Date: 10192012 Thursday

We arrived yesterday at the Sun N Fun RV resort in Sarasota for a rally with the Roll’n Rebels chapter.  But first a stop in Bradenton to try to get our inverter fixed.  When we bought the coach, our inspector indicated that the inverter was putting out 158 volts not the normal 120.  This extra voltage could fry our appliances so we have not been using the inverter.  When we had the coach in the repair shop to install our new wiper arms (See star date 08262012), we had inverter checked and were also told output was 158 volts and that it must be shipped to an authorized Xantrex (manufacturer) dealer in Orlando at $1000 cost to fix.  Well at the Tiffin rally last week we met Bill from Bradenton who informed us there is an authorized Xantrex dealer in Bradenton which is 10 miles from Sun N Fun.  So we took off Thursday early to Jayton Electronics.  Jayton would repair the inverter for $500 but there is a catch.  Jayton will not remove inverter from coach nor reinstall it.  I knew this in advance and brought much lumber to build up to inverter which hangs from the chassis in the basement since it weighs about 50 lbs.  I got the inverter out, gave it to Jayton and went inside the coach to rest.  Jayton came out to us  shortly thereafter and said the good news is there is nothing wrong with our inverter.  The bad news is we took it out for nothing and good luck getting it back in.  I began by emptying the basement completely.  This allowed me to enter the basement to effect the repair laying on my back.  Prior to entering, I had placed the inverter on the top of an inverted recycling bin and raised the inverter one board at a time until it was within 1/2 inch from the bolts hanging down.  With some muscle and a little difficulty getting the nuts on the bolts in the tight space, mission accomplished.  Back on road to Sarasota.