Trouble in Paradise...

Haven't posted much as we haven't really been using the coach this fall.   September we took a trip to Italy and Switzerland and that pretty much tapped out all the fun money for awhile, but the trip was fantastic.  

Didn't see any GMCs in Europe but we did see a few Caravans (Euro for Class C motorhome).   I did get a picture of this one in Bellagio, Italy:

Most of them were about this size although we did see a couple that were a little bigger.

Right when we returned, hurricane Matthew popped up and we had a really close shave and the highly damaging winds only missed us by about 20 miles.   We went through the whole exercise of getting ready for the first time since 2005.    We tucked the GMC and my Cadillac (not in picture) away in our warehouse that houses our Circus School and karate dojo.   We could have probably gotten another 2 cars in there with some effort, but it was fine this way.

Fast forward a month and its early November.  I'm excited to get the coach out on the road to head up to Auburndale, FL to see the NIGHT OF DESTRUCTION  at the Auburndale Speedway.   Figure 8 bus races, demo derby, and my fave the boat and trailer race.   It's complete mayhem and ALOT of entertainment for 20 bucks.  

Had had promised my buddy Dave a trip in the motorhome and being a fellow gearhead, this was the perfect excuse.   Quick trip, one night at a nearby state park and meet friends at the race and use this machine for what it was built for.....a mobile party.

I prep it all up and drive up to Lake Worth (20 min) to pick Dave and his girl up and head out.  Right there was a warning sign as I broke the passenger side mirror loose while trying to adjust it....  We look it over and come up with the easy solution of drilling a hole through the mounting post into the coach side of the post (slips over a stud) and run a sheet metal screw through it.   10 min later and we are on our way.

Running up the Beeline Highway, the coach is humming along nicely and life it good.  We get to Okeechobee, FL and I point out Jeff Sirum's GMC shop right there as you come into town.  It's Saturday and I see one car in front of the office.  As we are pressed for time, we roll on and pull into the Racetrac gas station about 100 years past his shop.    I turn off the motor and gas her up, while the others use the restroom.

5 min later Dave points out I left the lights one while pumping.  No biggie right.  Then I say something really stupid, "Gee I hope it starts."   Well boys and girls, don't EVER say that outloud because right there I destroyed our entire weekend.... I got in the coach and went to start and NOTHING.   Not a click, not a pop, not even a half hearted attempt to engage the starter.   WTH?????

First pull the headlights back on, yep they still work.   Try turning it all off and start over.  Nothing.  Get the multimeter and check the battery.   13 volts....Hmmmmm  maybe the starter switch went bad (my coach is wired with a start button, as the column starter doesn't work right).

After  checking all the obvious stuff, I call Mr. Jim B. at the Co op in Orlando.   He tells me where the starter wire is on top of the engine.  Yep, there it is and look a wire is disconnected.  Hook it up and nothing....There is an Ace Hardware across the street, so off we go and get about 5 feet of 12 gauge wire.   we then run right from the battery to the starter.   It goes click click click from the solenoid.  Still show 13 Volts.   Damn the starter went.   Call the parts store a mile down the road and you know what,   They have a starter for a 1976 Oldsmobile 455 in stock (in a town of 5000).  

Dave volunteers to pull the old one, and then I hike the 2 miles in flip flops with the 50 pound starter.  I learned carrying a load long distance in flippys gives you shin splints....I swap it out and pay the man 80 bucks and hike it back.   It feels heavier on the way back lol.  Unfortunately the store did not have equipment to bench test it for us.   We get the new one in and still click click and not attempt to spin the motor.   At this point I walk down to Jeff's shop, but no one is there (he was at a rally of GMCs and someone sent me a pic of him in a kayak having fun)....

Time to call AAA.   It's now about 4:30 (3 hours later) and I tell them I need a flatbed.  Ok we got someone who will be there in an hour.  Great!   Well not so fast as they sent this guy:

Meanwhile I called Lucy and she drove the 80 miles out to pick up Dave and his girl as they said only 1 in the tow truck.   Well me and the tow truck driver talk, and figure out that if he hooks it up, he'll crush hydraulic lines that run on the frame as the rig pinches the frame rails to hold onto the truck it's pulling.   That and the back end will likely drag damaging my sewer tanks......I appreciate his candor and care about my vehicle.  Unfortunately, his company's truck that would work is having an engine overhaul, so he tosses me back to AAA

As this story is so long already, AAA basically then said I was SOL.  I remained calm and explained that no, I have been paying them for 20 years for a reason and they need to get me a tow.   So at 11:30PM the truck and driver show up (details spared).  We get it hooked up (I had to steer it with not power onto the rollback (2 inches on either side!)  

Got home at 2AM and the driver was a master.  He dropped it right in the driveway with me moving the other cars out of the way.....

While I had hours to wait for the tow by myself, I noticed the house lights dimming in the coach and the front battery (starting battery) was warm.   Finally putting it all together I knew it was the battery.

Turned out the starting battery shorted and took the house batteries down with it.  At this point I tried getting a jump from a few people at the station, but it just wasn't happening as the battery was shorted out (I didn't know this yet).

What threw both of us off was the full voltage while trouble shooting.    The house batteries are SUPPOSED to be separate from the starting battery and only bridged via a dash switch for emergency use.   The PO must have (or had done more likely) bridged it all together as I now know that the starting battery is hooked to the house lights, disconnecting the ground from the starting battery, there is still 12V available.    I haven't figured out yet how it's all tied together to rectify it.

Bottom line was two of the three batteries are done.   For now, I have a new deep cycle starting battery and one of the old Optimas still on the house (we aren't going off grid anytime soon) while I save up some money and go to two 6V AGM batteries for the house, get switches and isolators to assure this doesn't happen again....

http://shop.pkys.com/Blue-Sea-6007-Mini-Battery-Selector-Switch-1-2-BOTH-OFF_p_1623.html

Labor Day 2016 - Highland Hammocks State Park - Fruit Salad edition.

About 2 weeks ago I looked for a campsite for Sat and Sun nights as both the girls had Sat morn activities.  I was able to book one of the last three spots into Highland Hammocks State Park in Sebring, FL.  I have been several times before, however, as a tent camper on the primitive loop.


Saturady morning's sailing lessons should have been the warning, but the radar looked great when we left....

On the drive up, the rain was all close to home and the skies cleared and it was really sunny.  Took about 2:30 to run up to Sebring.  We arrived around 5 PM and headed to our campsite.   Wow, there are alot of trees on this site.  I had to ponder the situation for a minute, then I had a plan.  I showed my plan to Lucy and told her to watch the trees on the starboard side.   Considering I park the coach with about a foot on either side at home, I didn't think it would be too bad, but wasn't sure how far apart the trees were.

I got it backed in, but then the fire ring was right next to the coach, so I had to go even further back.

Now, the big tree was really close to the door, but there was enough room to open it and get in and out..

The site (#70 btw) was very shady and damp.  We got everything hooked up and the bikes off and took a ride around the campground.   We didn't get very far as while I was taking a pic of this cute little trailer the owner emerged.

We start talking and find out it's a 1969 Boler.   She said they made about 10K of them and mostly Canadian built.  She calls it the Mango due to the color and shape.  Our coach was just down the way and we pointed it out.  About then her friend arrived (they have a Coleman Pop Up) and we all chatted and then showed off our coach as they were curious.  Soon after our daughter took off with their kids and we wound up checking out their Pop Up, having some drinks and discussion.

We returned to our coach to cook Chicken Fajitas for dinner and to try out the new salt and pepper shakers that look like air hockey paddles (and came with a puck).

We ended up back over at our new friend's campsite for a fire and conversation.  I brought some logs over with me, but we never really got to them as the rain closed in on us.

The funny part was we were in a hole in the middle with lightning off in the distance for quite awhile.  I kept checking the radar and finally said that it was on us and any moment it would probably start.  Not a second later the first drop hit my leg and within 10 seconds it was pouring!  We ran to our coach with our chairs and left our daughter behind (she was inside playing Uno).  It only lasted 10 or 15 minutes and then we collected her for the night....

Day 2 was a late start with breakfast and we finally got rolling around noon...  We did a bike ride around the loop and walked on a few of the trails.

All these were on the Cypress Swamp trail that was built by the CCC in 1933!  You can see the catwalk part which is what I imagine the whole trail was in the beginning...  Pretty neat.  We could hear gators, but didn't see any.


The next trail was the Ancient Hammock (I think).  Lots of ferns and  what not.  Lucy's phone was left behind, so she asked me to take lots of fungi photos...enjoy

 Butterfly of unknown species

 I didn't even see the slug on the log when I took the photo!

 Closeup of the photo two above.  These were soft and velvety...

After the trails, we checked out the CCC Museum (sorry no pics) and then headed back to the campground.   Our daughter was entertained by playing cornhole with her new friends..

Lucy also called our coach the Pineapple in passing.  I latched on to it immediately!  We have been trying to name the coach for the past year but nothing had stuck so far.  We both liked it and our daughter said it was a cool name, so thanks to meeting Laura and her Mango, we got to name our coach.

Sunday night, we cooked dinner over the fire pit in the site pictured above and when the rain came again (harder and longer than the night before) we all sat under the screen tent trying not to get all wet.  This time the fire didn't pull through the dousing and we called it a night.

Monday, Labor day, we slept in a bit, then ate breakfast and went back to the museum to watch a video as the line to get out of the park was blocked by all the RVs waiting to dump their sewage.  I passed on that and dumped it when we got home.

On the way home we hit more rain and in the GMC the wiper motor is powered by the power steering pump (crazy right?).   Anyway about 60-70 miles from home we hit Indiantown and slowed for the 35mph zone.  I heard a new whine that didn't sound good.   I'm pretty sure the wiper use caused an issue and I'm hearing the PS pump running with no fluid in it.   About to go out and check on it now...

Summer Camping in Florida

As we just got the coach back from being worked on, we were anxious to get out of town and enjoy it, as our last camping in it, was back in February.  

Having grown up a tent camper, the only places I ever camped in the summer in Florida was the keys or the Peace River, both of which had cool water and copious amounts of alcohol (in my younger glory days aka as my 20s lol).

I tried to conscript some of my friends, but none of them would have it in August and honestly, I can't blame them as I would AC and they wouldn't.  Now that, I seemed to get the timing issue resolved with the ignition (won't bore you with the details, but I was getting about 4 mpg), I wanted to stretch her legs a little.  Johnathan Dickenson State Park has been a go to spot of mine since the 1980s (above mentioned glory days) as it's only about 40 minutes away and used to be fairly remote despite it's closeness.  Town has grown around it, but once in the gates, it hasn't changed too much.

The preferred campground is the river loop, but it's been closed for months and will re-open in October.  As a last minute decision, I looked on Wed, and the Pine Grove campground still had about 30 or 40 spots open (roughly half full if even).  The Pine Grove is a bit of a misnomer these days, as it used to be a grove of Australian Pines that was thick and lush.  Unfortunately, they are also an invasive exotic species and after hurricane Wilma tore up the grove pretty good in 2006, the state removed all the exotic trees and as you can see it's pretty wide open space now...

I chose a spot near the bathroom/shower as the black water tank leaks, I'm lazy to walk so far, and campground was pretty empty..  This was the view walking back from the showers.

Check in was at 3, but we arrived around 2 and were able to get on the spot as it was vacant.  You can see my new 13x13 foot pop up tent.  It was the debut of the tent and it offers a nice amount of shade.  It does go higher, but I left it on the lower height setting.  It was about 93F out and not having working AC while driving, I arrived, plugged in, put up the tent and hooked up the water, and retreated into the AC to cool down.  Lucy wanted a nap as she hadn't slept well, so I busied myself setting up things and relaxing a bit.

We got the bikes unloaded and started out on a ride around 4PM.  Just down the road we found Mr. Gopher Tortoise who was quite animated and chased a rock dove around the scrub.  We had hoped to ride about a mile over to Hobe Mountain, but Mamma Nature had other plans.....

Not wanting to have my new pop up tent fly away like Mary Poppins, I decided we should peddle back and take it down (not to mention distant rumblings of the thunder gods).

While waiting for the rain to blow in, we amused ourselves with a ride around the campground and were impressed that there were at least 8 or 9 sites with tent campers on them!  The majority of the rest were 3 pop ups, 2 Air Streams,  and the rest were travel trailers, fifth wheels, or motorhomes.  As usual, we were the only GMC in sight.  Although there was a nice vintage 70s small trailer about 20 feet long (no one was around it though :( ).  We didn't have to wait long and shortly after the above photo was snapped, a bolt hit less than a second away, so in we went.

The repairs to the roof are resounding success as it POURED and we were dry as a bone inside.  We played cards and a board game until it let up about an hour or so later.  As we had taken just about everything out of the coach while it was away, alot of stuff hadn't got put back in.....like the gas grill.

The stove is still disconnected as the counter isn't completed yet either.  

So once the rain stopped, I was out there pretty quick lighting a fire so we could get some coals to cook our delicious shrimp over.

As you can see in the background it looked like more rain coming.

 Naya develops her remote control shrimp cooker as this one got peeled

We ended up cooking the potatoes in the microwave due to the weather (was going to wrap in foil and cook in the fire),  but despite the rain the dinner was very tasty.

After dinner fun was putting the top back on the pop up and watch the fire with a backdrop of lighting off in the distance.  Unfortunately, the wind direction had the smoke blowing straight at us (and into the AC of the coach we found out when we went back in lol).   We kept this up until it got dark and then the thrill of sitting in the rain tending a weak fire lost its thrill and we retired to the coach for the remainder of the evening.

As I went to bed pretty darn early, I was also up pretty early.  Daybreak to be exact!

 You can see how humid it is out at first light as the coach was about 75 degrees inside and the whole thing was wet with condensation.

She looks good in the golden morning light :)

I ended up taking a short walk around the campground looking for wildlife, then went back to bed for another hour and a half until others started to wake up.   After breakfast it was good and hot, so of course lets take a bike ride!

On our travels we saw another gopher tortoise who was even bigger than the one from yesterday.  This guy was in a hurry and made off pretty quickly into the scrub.

 Once up at Hobe Mountain (86 ft above sea level and the highest point south of Lake Okeechobee) it was all about the shade as by 10 AM it was over 90 already.  

 There was a nice breeze up here blowing in off the ocean, I didn't want to leave.

 It's amazing how clean the Intracoastal Waterway is up here, it's the same color as the ocean.

 Back down on the ground and in the sun, the girls take in the view of the park looking west.

On the left you can see Hobe Mountain and the lookout tower.  On the right you can see some of the ruins of Camp Murphy.  During the war, it was quite a complex here!

Lucy got her second driving lesson in the coach.  To date she has only driven it in this park. Got get her out on the road in it.

 Nice comparison with a SOB (some other brand).  Usually our coach looks little in comparison.

This guy is a Red Rat Snake that they took outside, but I missed the photo op (see our earlier posting with JD the snake in it).  He was pretty cool and quite a nice specimen.

After the nature center we took a dip in the river, and stopped by DQ on the way home for a snack.  We arrived home just in time to meet the afternoon rain (with lightning), so I didn't get a chance to wash her off yet...Until next time.