I want my money back!

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Barry

This may be the best campsite to date, but the weather sucks. Heating is back on, with forecast lows tonight around 5C. This morning was pretty dreary and cool so we headed off shopping for a while. Came back to the trailer and the sun finally showed its face, dragging the temperature up to around 15C in the afternoon.

I went out later in the afternoon on a hunt for the elusive new SIM card for the phone to be used in the States. After finally deciding on the best plan, trying to find the SIM card has proved impossible. I was about to order one from the carriers site for $10 + $5 shipping when I made a quick detour to eBay where the same card is 1$ + $1.50 shipping with a free 50 minutes of air time! All I have to lose is $2.50 if it doesn’t pan out.

Also put more diesel in the truck, the price is now up to $3.70 / gal, has been as high as $3.93. When we set out in October is was around $3.18.

One good bit of news, I checked my bank statement on line after taking out some cash and the amount I took out in US $ was greater than I was charged in CDN $…..

Posted in 2011, Alabama, Trips, Week 1 | 1 Comment

Wet, Windy, Thundery etc

Posted on March 6, 2011 by Barry

Cloudy, wet, windy 68F

Today was a bit of a washout. We went into the local town, Foley to see the Mardi Gras Parade (seems to be a big thing here in the south). Found a parking spot quite easily on the parade route and waited. At the designated start time someone knocked on the truck window to tell us the parade had been cancelled due weather :-(.

On the way back into the campground we dropped into the office to get some books, and one of the campers dropped by to say there was severe weather on the way.

Back at the trailer I checked the weather radar and sure enough New Orleans was getting clobbered and it was heading our way. Shortly after, we heard funny squealing noises on the radio station we were listening to (turned out to be an emergency weather bulletin) announcing that there was a tornado warning in effect, followed by other broadcasts for thunderstorm warning / heavy rainfall / strong winds.

We made sure all was secure outside, then came into watch it all. We got some thunder and lightning plus heavy winds and rain, but nothing like the weather we experience in Florida when we had similar warnings.

The rain has just started again, but the front has pretty well passed through now, so we can look forward to cooler temperatures.

At least I had plenty of time to research new cell phone plans…. unfortunately after much research I am no closer to finding the right one for us!!

 

Posted in 2011, Alabama, Trips, Week 1 | Leave a comment

Exploring

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Barry

Cloudy again with a few spots of rain and up to70F

Today was our first day looking around the area, we went about 8 miles south to the Gulf Coast. The beaches were excellent, fine white sand stretching in excess of 10 miles. We did a little walking on the beach but the strong winds made it a little cool. The winds also whipped up 6-8ft waves along the shore. There were quite a few washed up jelly fish on the beach, mostly clear with a light blue with a light blue colour and a thin red stripe along the back and dark blue tentacles.

We drove along the beach road for a number of miles, there were plenty of beach house built high on stilts, I guess as a precaution against high seas in hurricane season.

We headed back to the campground (Hazel, skip to the next paragraph) when I spotted a store called Sweety Pies. As it was coffee time we decided to pay a visit, as well as coffee there was a fantastic assortment of home made pies, the ones we had unfortunately tasted fantastic so we’ll have to go back and try some of the others!

After dinner we took a quick walk around the campsite and dropped by the rec centre as there was a jam session in progress. We popped in to listen for a couple of minutes and finally left 45 minutes later when they quit. There were 2 keyboards, 2 electric guitars, 2 acoustical guitars, 1 harmonica and a banjo. Quite good entertainment!

Posted in 2011, Alabama, Trips, Week 1 | 1 Comment

Day 1

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Barry

Weather is a lot cooler, topping out at about 70F today.

Pretty much settled in, one more antenna to go up and some tweaking of the stupid Virgin 3G connection for the internet, although the campground WiFi is pretty good here so it is not as important as it was at the last site.

A walk around the park today confirmed our first impressions yesterday that this is a good place to be. There is an outdoor pool, unfortunately unheated, but there is also a hot tub.

The nearest shopping is about 5 minutes away with big box stores, and the beaches are about 15 minutes south of here.

Grocery shopping was the order of the day, and the recommended store was Piggly Wigglys (only in Alabama!!). The store was as large and as well stocked as any large supermarket chain, but their pricing was a little odd. Their slogan is “Our Cost plus 10%”, so the displayed prices look good, but you have to ad 10% to them. Even after the mind numbing calculations, the prices were still better than the other stores we have shopped at.

Posted in 2011, Alabama, Trips, Week 1 | Leave a comment

Home – Sweet Home Alabama

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Barry

Had to throw the state motto in there somehow. After hitting the sack an hour earlier than usual we managed to wake up 40 minutes later than usual!

We headed out after breakfast, the temperatures were noticeably cooler than recent mornings, and joined the interstate for close to 200 miles, then about 30 miles off interstate to the camp site. As we headed further west the Spanish Moss which had been so prevalent in the Florida Peninsular disappeared. The trees are also noticeably later in their development than those in Lake Wales. About halfway into the trip we crossed into the Central Time Zone, which was located about 100 miles from the Alabama border. Once into Alabama the grass seemed a lot greener, and the countryside more open with herds of cows in the fields.

We arrived at the campground around 2PM, first impressions a re very good, large roads around the site, with larger concrete pads for the trailer and patio. The rest of the afternoon was spent setting up the trailer, satellite, Internet and other essentials!

W

Posted in 2011, Alabama, Trips, Week 1 | Leave a comment

Rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Barry

Typical, the day we leave and have to do a lot of outside stuff, the heavens open!!

Anyway, we got everything packed and pulled out of the campsite safely, if a little wet. The rear view camera didn’t work as advertised, the distance from the back of the trailer to the front of the truck was a little too much. Some re-wiring is needed!

After about 45 minutes I noticed the brake controller had failed (no brake controller  no working brakes on a 10000 pound trailer…. not good). We pulled into a Wal-Mart parking lot, and luckily it was a simple fix, some water had got into the plug at the back of the truck that the trailer connects to.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful, we drove out of the rain, and the temperature dropped about 6 degrees as we move north. The grass also changed from a straggly brown to a lush green.

Posted in 2011, Florida, Lake Wales, Trips, Week 4 | Leave a comment

Too Hot to Handle

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Barry

Yet another hot sunny day in the mid 80’s. I think we’re both looking forward to slightly cooler temperatures in Alabama!!

Today the antennas were dismantled and packed and all the outside stuff packed away ready for our departure tomorrow.

The distance to go to the new site is 525 miles which is right on the limit for a days travel when towing as we don’t want to arrive at a new site in the dark. When we found out we would have to go into a temporary site for the first night and then move the next day to our permanent site, we decided to over night in a motel. That will give us two 6 hour days including breaks.

Posted in 2011, Florida, Lake Wales, Trips, Week 4 | Leave a comment

The Conquest of Iron Mountain

Posted on February 27, 2011 by Barry

Hot, Sunny and dry!

Had a couple of odd jobs to do this morning. Lyn bought a quilt rack the other day which is a little large for travelling. Luckily it was screwed together, and came apart easily to pack flat.

Having done that it was time to change the igniter on the BBQ. When the original one died I replaced it with an el-cheapo ebay one. This one still sparked but the rubber push button had cracked. The warranty replacement one I received was the wrong type, but I figured I could make it work. While sorting through the parts I put a battery in the old igniter, pushed the button and was greeted with 22,000 volts across my finger! Reinstalled the old one and tried to fire up the BBQ. Now the gas wouldn’t turn on. The valve had been stiff the last few evenings, now it had seized! Off with the valve, unscrew every screw I could find, put it back together, check there were no parts left over and check it out, we now have a spark and we have gas, put them both together and we now have a working BBQ

After lunch we headed north a few miles to a place we had been planning to visit since we arrived, Bok Garden. It is situated atop Iron Mountain, one of the highest points in Florida and THE highest point between Washington DC and the Rio Grande! The garden is just that, a garden spread over one square km, built in the 1920’s by Edward Bok – a publishing guy with way too much money!

The flower gardens were amazing, and by keep putting off the trip we arrived at what appeared to be peak bloom time.

The other item of interest in the garden is the”Singing Tower” This is a 205ft tall tower with a 60 bell carillon at the top. While we were there, there was a live concert of the bells. Each week-end an expert carillonist (a new word meaning one who plays the carillon) plays for an hour or so. On one side of the tower was a huge sun dial, nothing too unusual in that other than it was the first one I had seen with graphs underneath to convert the sundial time to standard time, i.e. accounting for the fact that each revolution of the earth is not exactly 24 hours.

After wandering around the gardens we headed back down the road to the base of the mountain and headed home via the gas station. Thanks to Col G in Libya diesel has gone from 3.36 to 3.66 a gallon over the last 3 weeks…… not impressed.

For those interested Iron Mountain is a staggering 291ft (two hundred and ninety one) above sea level !!!!!!

Posted in 2011, Florida, Lake Wales, Trips, Week 4 | 1 Comment

Sultry Saturday

Posted on February 26, 2011 by Barry

Do I need to say it? Another hot sunny day in Florida!

Time to do some work on the truck. It has got a little insubordinate recently in that it will occasionally answers back when I use the remote to lock the doors; about 30 seconds after they have locked there may be 5 beeps of the horn. Finally manage to track down the user manual and it means that the hood (bonnet for those across the pond) is open. Well, knowing full well that the hood is NOT open, I tracked down the open close switch. After removing it, cleaning it and reinstalling it the beast no longer answered back.

Next job on the truck was to install the mini TV screen for the rear view camera. Trouble is I am running out of places to put toys and not affect vision. Finally opted to put it just below the radio, the job itself was simple enough, but with the high temperature and sun streaming into the truck it was pretty uncomfortable.

Tonight was Mardi Gras night at the campsite. A motley crew of the more permanent residents dressed up (or down) and paraded shamelessly around the campground throwing beads to those who stood on the sidelines, thankfully we were on the sidelines!

Posted in 2011, Florida, Lake Wales, Trips, Week 4 | Leave a comment

TGIF

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Barry

I am (obviously) running out of titles!

The weather here is way too predictable, another hot sunny 80F day …… yawn!!

It was laundry / crafts morning for Lyn. While she was doing that I tried to tweak the satellite antenna a little as there had been some interference recently. I figured with the satellite tuning meter I had this would be a simple task. Got everything connected up, and lo and behold the antenna was slightly off so I spent quite a while getting the best signal I could on the meter. These satellite dishes have to be aligned in three dimensions left / right, up/down and twist left / right and the difference between no signal and full signal is only a couple of mm. When I was satisfied I had the best possible signal I went inside to check the picture —– blank!!!!

Went back out, played around some more, same result. Now what…. waited for Lyn to come back and then went through the standard procedure of me moving the antenna, and Lyn shouting of the numbers from the TV screen. All the time I checked the tuning meter, as the signal on it was going down, so the signal on  the TV was going up. Finally got it tuned in, but still confused as to what the signal meter was doing.

Posted in 2011, Florida, Lake Wales, Trips, Week 4 | Leave a comment