Dale To The Electronics Rescue!

Wayne and I are almost to the three year anniversary of owning Endie, our Holiday Rambler Endeavor. From the beginning, we've struggled with a chronic but intermittent issue in the mid-coach television. Everything has been replaced, including the set itself and we've wasted thousands of dollars trying to find and correct the problem. Our greatest disappointment was in the visit to Innovative Coachworks in Junction City, Oregon last summer where we had placed greatest trust, hope and confidence in Matt Rossiter to identify and remedy the trouble. Matt failed miserably, charged us over $3,000 and never apologized or even returned our telephone calls For clarity, this is the company of which I speak and it is still in business.  

Matt Rossiter, Owner

Innovative Coachworks

425 West 3rd Avenue

Junction City ,Oregon 97448

Business phone: (541) 998 - 1504

Back to the campground and our problem. Our good friend, neighbor and co-camper, Dale, offered last year to look at our problem and replace the HDMI cable if necessary. We did not accept his kind offer, however, as we find mixing friendship with business can lead to lost friendships. But this year, in exasperation, Wayne asked for Dale's help. 

Now let me say this about Dale: the man can fix just about anything.  He began the process of determining if, indeed, the HDMI cable was bad. In only as long as it took to lay a temporary HDMI cable across the floor to the television set, the suspected problem was confirmed. 

(This was the same trial repair we had asked Matt Rossiter to do but he insisted he found the problem and it was NOT the HDMI cable. It was the television set. So once again, we bought a new television set from him at three times the cost of the set if we had bought it ourselves at Best Buy.  Hindsight is priceless but so is my warning to others.)

The electronics cabinet held hundreds of feet of cable.
In this picture, Dale is taking a much deserved lunch break.
Ozzie on the couch is a bit concerned that someone is wrecking our home. 

A secondary, but contributing problem with television reception lay within the electronics cabinet built into our coach.  It is too small to hold all the components, wiring and outlets. Dale tackled that project too, removing the inner wall, replacing the shelving and organizing the wiring. He is the only person who has ever agreed to remedy the small cabinet dilemma though we asked Shawn Davis at Davis Cabinets, also in Junction City, Oregon to do it. Guess it was just too great a challenge. Really?

And so Dale eagerly took on the project. I remained confident while Wayne, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the project, often looked bewildered. Dale is that good.

Dale, are you sure you can put all that back together?

And of course, in the end, the new HDMI cable was permanently installed down the wall of the coach where it is now easily accessible if it ever goes bad again. The cabinet has been re-engineered and works perfectly.

Dale's promise kept, within a very few hours, spread over a couple of days, our chronic but intermittent electronics problem was resolved We were thrilled. Such is the way with friends.

The electronics cabinet after the wood shelves and a side wall were removed.

It's January And The Gang's All Here! Almost.

Arrivals for Winter...

By the end of the first week in January, almost all of our usual gang had arrived at Seminole Campground and the friendships took up right where they left off last year.  Here's some of what went on during that first month....

Susan and Telephone Bill... among the last to arrive in Januar

Campground Activities...

In early January, I suggested to the activities director that we try to incorporate a pet adoption event into our Saturday morning pancake breakfast and dog parade. She agreed.

Yeah, we have a dog parade.You can get away with a lot of silliness as a senior citizen.

The post-holiday date slipped up on me though and only by the skin of my teeth was I able to secure pets from Gulf Coast Humane Society for introduction to the campers. Neither of the adoptable ones were taken but it was a start and hopefully, the trend will continue.

Betty looks on as Nancy tries to convince her husband to adopt this little fellow. No dice. 

The two Gulf Coast Humane Society volunteers with Petey, an adoptable shiz tzu mix breed. 

Following the delicious pancake breakfast, the adoptable dogs got some oooh's and awwww's and then participated in the January Pet Parade.  Some of the pets dress for the event and awards are given for outrageous categories like being largest and smallest, doing the best trick and so forth. Lexie and Ozzie didn't win any of the categories but they were certainly cute and well behaved riding in their stroller draped in their personalized blankets made by my friend Donna Wisnieski.

Lexie and Ozzie dressed for the Dog Parade

Pastimes...

Our Seminole Campground group is obsessed with eating and we some of us take pictures of food.  This particular evening, eleven of us went to Ciao's, a favorite place in Coral Springs.

My fish dinner

Fran and Mary

Dale is missing from the group this time.

I think he was on an "out of retirement assignment" in Mexico.

Fortunately, he didn't mind as Ciao's isn't a favorite restaurant of his.  

Dessert at Ciao. Always Dessert.

Tampa RV Show...

As usual, in mid-January, Wayne and I took the coach to Florida State Fairgrounds for the annual RV Show.  We stayed Wednesday, Thursday and most of Friday. We bought our usual array of RV accessories but not a new rig, thank goodness.

On Thursday, Pam and Ernie came from Naples to pick up Charlie and Joyce at Seminole and take in a day of the show with us. Fran and Mary came too. Pam brought delicious fresh vegetables from a farm market she found in Naples. We made sandwiches and fought off the misery of an almost-all-day rain.

Pam

Joyce

The Wayner scoffs up a chocolate drizzled funnel cake. 

More Eating...

More eating occurred throughout the month of January as we had good cooks among us and I am always ready for good food.

Even Lexie and Ozzie get into eating at the campground.
Here, Linda gives them tiny bites of canned cat food! Ahh, they love it! 

Lee County RV Show

In late January, the RV Show came on down to Lee Civic Center in North Fort Myers. Friends we met in Bradenton during January 2012 drove down to visit and take in the show with us. The picture below was taken after a terrific lunch at Horsin' Around Deli, just down the road from the campground.

Friends, Grace and Tom

The Mullet Festival at Stan's in Goodland...

Every year, during the weekend before the NFL Super Bowl, a mullet festival is held in Goodland, Florida -- that's on Marco Island. Goodland is a sparsely populated fishing village that explodes on the day of the grand finale when the Mullet Festival Queen is chosen.

Joyce and Pam

Charlie, Joyce, Wayne and I drove to Naples where we were joined by Pam and Ernie and we all began the day with a smashing good outside lunch at Snook Inn on Marco Island. Pam set the tone of the day with her new cowgirl hat and turquoise accessories. Wouldn't take much to get us all into a fever pitch before going on to Stan's Idle Hour for an afternoon of fun.

Inside the Island Woman boutique, Joyce was encouraged to find just the right cowgirl hat. Pam on the right. 

Pam and Ernie 

Charlie and Joyce 

A couple of unidentified Mullet Festival Queen contestants.
Note: Neither was the winner. 

Good seats alongside (nearly behind) the bandstand.

Charlie, Joyce, Wayne, me, Pam and Ernie

Other January Stuff

The huge bee hive in this picture captured our attention one afternoon when we pulled into a local parking lot to take Lexie and Ozzie for a walk. The tree limb hung directly over the sidewalk but proved to be tough to photograph well. The cluster probably measured 18 - 20 inches across and was strangely shaped like a valentine.

Always a few trips to Bellacinos Pizza
Left to Right: Charlie, Nancy, Wayne, Mary, Dale, Fran (mouth open), Nancy, Joyce and me.
Linda was back in Ohio

Then there's nighttime putt-putt golf.  This particular outing came after the Bellacino's pizza visit.
In this photo, Charlie is giving Joyce a putting lesson. 

Go Joyce. Nothing like having a gallery of onlookers for the big putt.

End Everything With A Trip To DQ

Left to right, Fran, Dale, Mary, Joyce, Charlie, Wayne, Nancy and Ken
This particular stop came after the putt-putt

I should note here that Pam and Ernie hadn't arrived at Seminole Campground yet. They spent January in Naples and joined us in February.

Becoming Floridians

In the fall of 2012 we opted to make South Dakota our official state of residency, becoming "Paper South Dakotans."  There were a whole host of reasons for choosing South Dakota, not the least of which is that it's easy for full-time RV'ers to become residents -- there's no income tax and a bunch of financially benefiting factors that I won't go into here.

We were happy as paper South Dakotans. I even posted about it in September 2012 where I included an image of the state flag and map, a photo of our paper residence and our single paper employee.

But alas...the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare" changed everything for us.

Here's what happened. Wayne is over age 65 and therefore, a recipient of Medicare with a supplement. Not much change for him when Obamacare was passed.  It was my problem.  Not age 65, I must buy private health care which, while expensive, was not hard to obtain in September 2012.  With the change in the healthcare law, though, the residency loopholes available for full-time RV'ers were closed and the insurance companies were required to obtain proof of actual residency in the state. Some companies opted to leave the state, including the one I used.  I spent countless hours researching, telephoning and shopping. If I managed to find a company willing to write my coverage, any claims I might have could very well be denied because we didn't really LIVE in South Dakota.

We looked at our options and restudied the choices, finally choosing to become Floridians. That means a new mail agent which, in turn, meant change of addresses on everything, right down to the cute little personal cards we hand out to people we meet.  We got new Florida drivers licenses, new license plates for the car and the coach, had the insurance changed on both vehicles, changed Wayne insurance and prescription drug addresses, which meant at least one change in company.  It wasn't cheap or easy, but we did it.

Welcome to Florida.

DJ and Tom Visit for Christmas at Seminole

In December 2014, of our usual Seminole Campground troop, just Charlie and Joyce and Linda and Dale, and Wayne and I were here. That's plenty of folks to have a good time though and we enjoyed being together immensely -- eating, visiting, nesting, planning to eat and then eating all over again. 

Joyce, Linda and I walked lots mornings and enjoyed having the campground's newly created lake beach walking area added to our route.  It was on one of these morning walks through a nearby neighborhood that we found a home for the kittens I wrote about earlier.  Added benefit of walking! 

The lake at Seminole Campground Beach.
No swimming, no fishing and feeding the alligators.

I was ready with the camera to snap
a campground Christmas tree decorating moment with Linda. 

The winter was fraught with unusual happenings in addition to the kitten adoptions to keep us busy. Linda had a couple of sick days, certainly out of the ordinary for her, including a week of flu which none of us caught, I'm happy to say. She made several trips home to take care of family matters and I missed her something awful when she was gone.  She is my hairdresser, after all.. Ha ha.







Wayne and I took our time settling in at our campsite, unloading the car and storing our bicycles, dog wagon, grooming table and other stuffs in the little shed we're renting from the campground. Life here was good, even though the weather was nasty hot and humid for a long while.  I suffer in humidity. I'm from the deep south and never, ever, could stand high humidity.

Wayne resting at the campsite on a hot December afternoon. 

Our friends DJ and Tom, who live in Panama City, Florida, finally found a 2004 Dutch Star that met their lengthy list of criteria and made arrangements to buy it from a dealer somewhere in Texas.

Tom and DJ
Their new Dutch Star in the background.

The purchase of the coach seemed to have taken a really long time but I think it just felt that way because I was excited they were coming to North Fort Myers to join us for Christmas.

DJ trying, again, to steal Lexie. No such luck, DJ. 

DJ and Tom arrived the week before Christmas and the banquet hall got into full swing with DJ's delicious shrimp linguine, venison spaghetti and fried fish dinners. Banquet hall breakfasts became another meal to look forward to and love, with bacon, sausage, gravy, pancakes and bacon.

"The Banquet Hall" is a name given to the large
area at the back of our campsite where
we string two or three picnic tables together.

Dale the bacon-ater

There's a huge Fleamasters flea market in North Fort Myers where we visited several times, buying odds and ends -- some of which we needed and some we didn't.  It's another great place for us because we can take the dogs in their stroller.

DJ found lots of stuff she liked.

Christmas decorations were in place at the campground and we anxiously awaited the Christmas activities that included food.

Me with Lexie and Ozzie 

DJ belongs to an international walking association, http://clubs.ava.org/. One day, she walked a route at Sanibel Island. Joyce and I tagged along to shop while she walked. Afterward, we reconvened to enjoy a delicious, albeit long awaited, lunch at Island Cow.

A tired and hungry DJ peruses the Island Cow menu while we wait, and wait, and wait to be seated. 

Island Cow Christmas decorations 

DJ, Joyce, Lexie and Ozzie at our Island Cow patio table. 

On Christmas Eve, DJ and I endured high temperatures and sweltering humidity to walk the slough at Six Mile Cypress Preserve in Fort Myers where we took a couple of hundred pictures. These are my favorites.

DJ shooting a Mother Alligator 

One of the alligator babies 

A very well hidden cotton mouth.
I zoomed in real close but he was only about 2 foot below and 2 foot out from the boardwalk.

Diane is an AVA walk pal of Diane's. We met her in November at our Panama City stop to see Tom and DJ. She's a retiree living full-time in a 17' Casita with her cat Houtie. She is in our area, camping at a nearby Corp of Engineer Campground. She joined us for several outings, campground meals and activities.

Left to right: Charlie, DJ, Joyce, Tom and Wayne.
Notice the fish frying in the skillet in the lower right... Yum. 

Diane, Tom and DJ, whose new coach is parked behind them. 

Diane and DJ in the foreground. Background is Tom, Joyce, Wayne and Charlie.
Just after that scrumptious fried fish feast.