One year Anniversary update!

Per a memory post that popped up on my FB feed, I realized that July 19, 2015 was the day I met Keri Jo and put a deposit down on our coach (I completed the sale a week later).

Life has been REALLY busy the last few months, and we had dropped the Saffron Schooner (we are still looking for an official name for the coach)  off at Cooperative Motor Works to get the roof rails resealed. After 40 years, the material at the seams where the sides and roof meet had long since dried up and cracked allowing several leaks in the coach.

Jim at the Co-op is a great guy and entertains his friends and clients with a daily stream of consciousness blog that is usually complete with lots of great photos.   He did a write up on the roof repairs to our coach Here.

Here is our baby inside getting worked on (click the link above for the full story).

She is getting a few other things taken care of as well while there.  On the way up to Orlando to drop it off, I was humming along US 192 around 60-65 mph when she started missing, bucking, backfiring, and ultimately stalling leaving me to coast off the road.   I checked out the carb and she was getting fuel from the float bowl ok, So after a minute I cranked her and she started right up.  Throw the air cleaner back on the Let's GO!   About 10 miles later a repeat performance, but this time we were getting closer to town which was nice.  After consulting with Jim (who was waiting for us at the Co-op) I stuck a piece of wood under the engine cover to allow the hot air out.  Apparently after 40 years, the Ignition module (only electronic part on the engine) was breaking down under heat duress.

It seemed to work as the next 40 miles went by without incident...Time to buy a spare to carry on board!

We will be picking her up this weekend, so we are excited to get her back and go camping!

Taking it for roof leak repairs!

We've had roof leaks since we got it, but it's been dry season, so we haven't had to worry about it. But we are driving it back to Orlando so the roof can be professionally sealed at the Coop. Plus we had other business up there too, so two birds with one stone and all that....

So we've never dumped the black tank yet. Here's the first time - at the Coop too with advice from the fountain of knowledge - Jim Bounds. We found that there's a leak. It dribbles,

 Our other business - we bought a trailer and dragged some mats home for our new gym.

Locks for a birthday trip

Winter is a beautiful time in Florida, but it makes it really hard to get camping spots. Someone wanted to use the coach and his birthday was this weekend, so after searching all over the state we found a spot available at Phipps Park. Even the guy at check-in was impressed, since the place had been full for weeks and was booked full for the rest of the season. We've always been lucky with these last minute things. Anyway, it's right next to the St Lucie Locks, and there's a Army Corp of Engineers campground there too. Which are apparently even harder to get into, since there's only 9 rv sites, 3 tent sites and 8 boat campsites.

Behind us is a river

Ready to burn tonight!

Polished on the one side

The outside decals have all been removed, and cleaned, and slowly being polished(by hand!). This picture shows the difference between the side, which has been polished, and the roof, which hasn't. That's not a white roof! It's about the only change being made on this vehicle. Too many other things going on to work on anything major. Also, we got  a pirate tire cover, to commemorate its first gig.

Holiday camping with the family

My dad was in town, so we got him, his sister and her son and grandchildren to all go to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve state park for a weekend of camping. Here I thought I would let the elders have the coach beds, but they both chose to sleep in the tents. Our tent is the bigger one on the left. This is the equestrian loop, so there's only a composting toilet and no showers. They were not impressed until we told them to go to the main bathhouse. We used the bikes to get there. Nobody seemed to even want to set foot in our coach. But the sky was nice and clear, and we all spent time laying on the ground looking at the stars. We actually were in the road, the campsites had so much tree cover that we had to walk to the other side and laid tarps down. My cousin brought a bottle of wine, the kids had blankets and saw fireflies and so many stars.

This time of year is nice with the windows open.

Coach is full of wood for burning...

Pyroman - can't camp without a fire!

Kids in trees at night

Kids in trees in daytime

Sunset over the trees

My outdoor washing station had a visitor. I'm not sure how I'm even going to be able the wash that cutting board inside, I guess I'll have to use the tub.


We were able to go on the buggy ride, which gives you a tour of the preserve. The ground was wet, the buggy had some deep puddles to go through, but it was interesting. Especially considering there was a part of a Military Trail there, thinking about the poor men slogging through the wet marshes in the late 1800s. If you want to see a bit of old Florida, there's also land for sale nearby, reminding us of the old Florida swamp land sales. Still going on. Anyway, this park is also the only Florida habitat for the Crested Caracara bird, which normally is more in S and Central America. Definitely a cool bird.

Pair of Crested Caracara birds

Jonathan Dickenson State Park

JD - southern pine snake

We were only able to get wednesday and thursday nights at Fort Wilderness, so we moved on to Jonathan Dickenson State Park for Friday night. It's not our favorite, mainly because the trees shading the Pine Grove campground are all gone, but other parks were full. We rode our bikes to the lookout tower at night, and also went to the visitor center where we met JD out for a slither in the grass. He was recovering from an accident and it was the first time he had been outside in 6 weeks! Apparently someone dropped the cage top on his tail and broke something so they were being extra careful.

Outdoor kitchen

Pine Grove campground is no longer piney

Me driving curvy roads!

Use it while under construction...

Someone told us that many people buy one of these and gut it to fix it up and then for whatever reason, years may go by before it is usable again. So we cut out a plywood countertop and headed to Fort Wilderness for our somewhat annual Halloween camping trip. So not that things are hooked up in the kitchen or anything like that, but a countertop is good for putting stuff on. And Fort Wilderness is hard to get into, so we're technically at a tent site. John was a bit concerned, but it fit perfectly on the driveway. Our daughter said it's a lot like a rolling tent right now. We still have not gotten to the toilet, bathtub, shower , basically anything doing with the plumbing. Or the generator. Anyway, more fun, less work. We got lots of complements on our rig. The cast member at the checkin was quite impressed at how quickly John was able to back up to change lanes.

Tiki drinks at the Polynesian watching the fireworks at Magic Kingdom

Our site is positively minimalistic!

It's Halloween at Fort Wilderness. So many decorations!

Backside of our tent site. Could have brought our tent and more friends!

Monorails are cool!

View from Swiss Family Tree house!

Contemporary Resort at night

We are kind of minimalistic about the trip, we only go to the Magic Kingdom for the Not so Scary Halloween Party, and spend most of the time around the rest of the resort area. Bicycling, the pool, riding the monorail to the other resorts. Plus the Fort has so many decorated sites, there's contests for best decorated site, best decorated golf cart and so many other things to do. This was the one across the street from us.

Coach at work...

So in order to promote my school, we are participating in the Boynton Beach Haunted Pirates and Mermaids festival. It got used as a dressing room for my students and myself.

Parked on the other side of the tent