Sunday, February 6, 2011

Checking Off Items on the "Honey Do" List and Other Tales

(MacDill AFB, near Tampa)  62 degrees, cloudy and a light  drizzle

John has sure been checking off items on the "honey do" list. He washed and waxed the rig from top to bottom.  He used "The Solution" and it did a really great job.  He has also installed a new water pump. That took some time to install and working in such a small space was a challenge.  But it now works great and seems a little quieter. 

We have enjoyed our neighbors (Jerry & Teresa) at the campground and recently left the base and had a terrific dinner at Bahama Breeze.  We got there in time for sunset and had a great table over looking the bay.  The music was a little loud but the food was very good. 

John, Jerry and Teresa

Bahama Breeze overlooking the bay



Teresa also took me on Thursday to my first Bingo game.  Who knew there were so many ways to play that game.  It was intense.  Teresa won twice and I helped bank roll the event. 

On Wednesday we went to a FMCA rally in Brooksville Florida for the day.  It was enjoyable and we were able to attend three seminars that were very helpful. 

Our motorcoach came with a satellite dish.  However, it was installed in 2002 and has not worked very well for us.  Technology certainly has changed.  The seminar that we attended answered so many of our questions and explained why it had not worked very well.   Our dish only has one channel and Dish has three satellites.  Therefore we were only able to get some stations and usually not the local ones.  It also required that we point the dish each time we moved.  This is not exactly an easy thing to accomplish. It takes a lot of patience.  

In March we are attending the national FMCA rally in Perry Georgia and plan to have a new dish installed that will work much better.  We found out about a program with Dish that allows you to receive local channels as you move.  A waiver is required and an additional cost of $15 is added to your bill.  We really like our DVR and most of the shows we like to tape are local.  Receiving these stations will be great.  The instructor of the seminar suggested getting the East Coast feed.  There is alos sone type of program with Dish where you can turn on and off the satellite as needed.  I'm going to check into this because in Colorado we'll have cable for free during our stay. 

John also attended a seminar on Spartan chassis.  It was taught by the manufacturer and went well past the allotted time.  He said there was a lot  on information  that went over his head but that he thought the seminar was invaluable.  He felt much better when one of the attendees said "I've been to this same class seven time and learn more each time". 

I went to a class on how to use the washer and dryer in our RV and have wrinkle free laundry.  These small washers have the ability to turn your clothes into a wrinkled mess.  The instructor of this class gave lots of great tips.  I was using way too much detergent and not putting enough clothes in the washer.  After getting back I tried some of her methods and it was amazing how much better the clothes came out.  She sells a small booklet for $10 that is a great guide.  I've really liked the convenience of having a washer and dryer and will certainly get better results now. 

There were also lots of vendors at the rally.  We were surprised how many had attended.  They offer things for your RV that you never knew you needed.  We managed not to spend as much in the past mostly due to delaying the purchases of the satellite.  It was fun shopping. Several vendors gave us two or three nights free stays at their resorts  That was a nice perk. 

I've been busy planning where we are going after leaving Tampa on Friday. We have a week before the NOMADS project begins in Eustis Florida. We have decided to check out an Escapee for two nights, Lazy Days Campground for two nights and Ocala area for four nights.  We have not kayaked yet and this area has some amazing rivers to check out.  Be sure to check back.  It is one of the prettiest areas to canoe/kayak in the state

The Super Bowl is today.  The base is setting us a big screen for everyone to be able to watch the game.  I really don't have a team to cheer for since my favorites have been eliminated.  But, I think it will be an exciting game.  Enjoy the game and thanks for stopping by. 

5 comments:

  1. Great post! Those rally's sound like fun, we will have to try one out. And yes, Ocala waters are so gorgeous. I can't wait to see your stories when you kayak the Silver River and Juniper Springs perhaps?

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  2. sounds like you are both enjoying the 'learning curve'!..good for you!!

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  3. I love your header. We just go with whatever the camp has to offer for TV. I don't like paying the extra bill, but everyone to their own thing. Sounds like you will be getting a nice set-up.

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  4. Interesting post, especially about your satellite setup. Hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl, we sure did, it was a good game.

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  5. We use a stand alone dish mount and just set it up wherever we go. One day we'll probably get one installed on the roof. We use Directv and recently signed up for the DNS service. Direct only allow east or west coast feeds now but we find we have been doing fine with just the east coast feeds. We took our Tivo boxes from home. We cannot go back to regular tv after getting used to our Tivo dvr.

    Where did you find "The Solution" ? I looked for it at the Tampa rv show and the Brooksville FMCA rally.

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