Bob and his Aunt Martha Kate

 Our coach at Coastal RV Resort, Brunswick, GA

We're putting a few pictures in our blog this time.The picture of Bob and his aunt just turned out so good that we had to include it.  She's a wonderful woman!  The picture after that is  of our site while we were in Brunswick, GA.  

This past week and a half has really flown!   We pulled into Myakka River Motorcoach Resort in Port Charlotte, FL on Monday 1/20 and have fallen in love with this place.  Could it be the heated swimming pool, or the workout center, or the water aerobics classes, or the friendly neighbors, or the meet-n-greet last Friday night??   Maybe all of the above.  We've been so busy that we haven't had a chance to do some of the above, but we are enjoying the fact that there are activities available.   We did attend the meet-n-greet with about 60 of our neighbors and a live 2-piece musical group.  The resort has 100 slots for RV's and it's about 60% full.  There's a Super Bowl party scheduled for 2/3 and a big Valentine's party coming up.

During last week, we also made a trip to Sarasota (the closest Lens Crafters) to get Jan's glasses fixed.  Mission accomplished.

Later in the week, we spent a day at the Fort Myers RV Show.  I know..... most of you are wondering why we would go to an RV show when we have an RV, but it's a great place to check out other RV's (i.e. how they're decorated, their floor plans, and some of the latest technology) and get ideas for our own coach.  There are also vendors at the RV shows with gizmos and gadgets that can be useful and interesting.

Here we are at the RV Show in Fort Myers, FL

It's a lot like having a beautiful home, but still going to Open Houses to take a look.

Jan is getting plenty of use out of her washer & dryer and there are always household chores that need attention.  It doesn't take long to vacuum or wash the floor or clean the bathroom, but those things need to be done once in a while.  Bob has tackled a  few projects that are helping make our home more liveable.  The paper towels now have a rack to hang on rather than being moved all over the kitchen counter.  He also built a valance for the kitchen window which looks really nice and he's hooked up a gizmo in the Honda that means we don't have to pull fuses to shut off the navigation every time we tow it.

After some discussion, we have decided to shuffle our schedule a bit and stay longer here at Myakka River.  We'll cancel the week at the Orlando KOA, postpone the week at Fort Wilderness (Walt Disney World) and haven't quite determined yet how to deal with Top Sail State Park (in the Florida panhandle) in late February.  We're still on target to visit Jan's cousin and his wife in Pensacola in early March.  After that, we'll start heading west for a visit with our  "full timing" RV friends in Alabama and a visit with Bob's niece in Houston, Texas.   

On Monday, 1/27, our weather was so beautiful that we decided to drive down to Boca Grande (about 30 minutes from Myakka River).  We've included several pictures of the lighthouse and the neat birds that we saw along the beach.  It was a positively glorious day!  We stopped for lunch at a little place called South Beach Bar & Grill.  The food was absolutely wonderful!!  We were hungry for seafood and weren't the least bit disappointed.  Bob had grouper (which he remembers fondly from when he was growing up in Florida) and Jan had red snapper.   Mmmmm Good!  We actually enjoyed having our big meal of the day at 3 pm, eating next to the sand and the Gulf of Mexico.  We also happened to be seated next to a couple of guys from New York City.   These two guys looked like they were straight out of the Soprano's.   Even though Jan tried really hard not to listen to their conversation, she kept picking up all their talk about bookies and Staten Island and how they were lucky enough to be spending January in Florida while other friends were freezing in NYC. 

 

Map showing Boca Grande

 

 The Boca Grande Lighthouse

 A great white egret and a brown pelican







                                                                                                  A snowy egret

                                                         Two brown pelicans

                                                           A brown pelican in flight

A great blue heron






Bob's feet in the surf... water's great ! 

 

                                                         

An enormous Banyan tree

 

                                            View from our table at the South Beach Bar & Grille
Since leaving home we've been having problems with our city water inlet when we're not connected to a water supply in the campground.  Basically, when we have the inlet set to "City Water", water is coming out of the inlet from the fresh water tank on-board.  When we switch the valve into the "Fill Tank" position, this stops the escape of water from the valve but it also introduces a lot of air into the water system which means we could not use the on-board water since the water heater needs to be filled without air pockets.  After some exploration we discovered that the city water inlet check valve was busted!  It worked fine when we connected to a local water source but otherwise, water was escaping from the on-board fresh water tank when in the City Water position.  

After some Google research we attempted to remove the city water valve by removing the three external screws and disconnecting the hose on the back-side that connects to the on-board water system.  However, when Tiffin built this model motor coach, they did not provide enough clearance for the valve to be pulled out of the water bay housing.  Bob called Tiffin and they indicated the entire panel would have to be removed to disconnect this valve.  This was more work than we felt comfortable doing on our own so we made an appointment for Tuesday (1/28) to take the coach into North Trail RV in Ft. Myers.  They are a Tiffin dealer and would be able to easily handle the fix.

On Tuesday (1/28) we got up early, had a quick breakfast, broke camp here at Myakka River and traveled down to North Trail RV in Ft. Myers.  When we arrived it looked like we would have to wait all day to get the coach serviced.  However, after we turned the coach over to their service and as we were pulling out of their parking lot with the Honda, the RV tech was looking at the problem.  Bob went over and discussed the problem and shortly thereafter they pulled it into a service bay to be worked on.  We left with instructions that they would update us by 1PM. 

We went to AAA and picked up some local FL maps and then onto Camping World to pick up a few supplies that we needed.  Around 11:30AM, we got a call from North Trail RV that the repair was completed and we could pick-up the coach after 12:30PM.  Hooray!  We had a quick lunch in Ft. Myers, picked up the coach and headed back to Myakka River and setup camp again with a city water check valve now working correctly!