Photos of New LED’s

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida  (high 84, low 60)

 

It looks like our run of warm/hot weather is going to continue a few more days.  I’m not complaining, but I wouldn’t mind a few degrees cooler either.  We had turned off our AC in Georgia quite a while before we left, and it was really hard for me to have to turn it back on. 

 

We have been wanting to find a patio umbrella, but I want a really nice one, that is on sale for next to nothing.  You’d think this would be the time of year to find them on sale, but I guess since it’s Florida, they are still in demand.

I checked on Craig’s List and found a few, but not quite what we wanted, so we headed to Lowe’s and Home Depot.   We have a really nice one up at the lot in Georgia, but unfortunately, it’s still up there.

I wanted one as nice, but didn’t want to spend much.  Good luck, huh?

We also wanted one where we can adjust the angle.   After a few stops, we found one at Home Depot that was on sale for $35.  We opened the box to make sure it was what we wanted. When we went to pay for it, the guy gave us an additional 10% off the price since the box was “ratty.”  The umbrella is black, brown and tan stripe, which would not have been my first choice for color, but it actually matches the coach pretty well, so it will do.  

The way our site is laid out, it appears we are going to have a sunnier site in the winter than it was in the summer.  We have some trees and shed that give us some shade, but the umbrella will allow us to have the shade where we want it.  

 

A few people seemed interested in the LED light strip that we put inside on top of the slide.

Here are a few pictures I took this morning.  The colors look much prettier in person, but this will give you an idea.  The white gives off pretty good light and is energy efficient, so we like that.

There is a remote control and you can change the colors at will .

I put the flash on in the next photo.  It doesn’t quite look like it does in person, but somewhere between the dark photos and the one with the flash is the actual look. It looks very nice though.

As I mentioned on the blog yesterday, when I ordered the lights from Amazon, I intended on buying the coated waterproof ones for underneath the coach.   I chose the wrong ones, and that’s how we ended up with interior lighting.  It turned out well though, because we really like them.

Here is the link for the INTERIOR lights.

and here is the link for the waterproof, exterior lights.  Don’t make the same mistake I did.

If you want to put these underneath the coach,  first take a look underneath and see how you can mount them to the frame.  The lights are a thin (about an inch wide) rubber coated strip.  Our neighbors used zip ties to attach them to the frame underneath.   The way our frame is, I’m not sure we’ll be able to attach them that way. We may have to use Eternabond.   Once they are mounted, they can be left in place, even while traveling.   Just something to think about. 

The interior non waterproof lights are only about 1/4  inch wide and have a glue strip, which seems to holding well..

 

The next pictures are of Pat and Ron’s coach.  They usually make their under coach lights blue (Air Force Blue) to match the star.

They have two sets of lights, one attached to each side of the frame.  I just ordered one set for underneath our coach, and I think it will look fine.   These outdoor lights could be put in various places, not just underneath an RV.  They are pretty cool..

 

Today is football day for Al, so I’m not sure what we will be doing.   It’s lovely outside right now, so I think we’ll head out for our morning coffee and juice.

A 90 Degree Difference in Temperature

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 85, low 60)

 

We called Al’s Aunt Arline the other day to wish her a happy birthday.  She lives in Jamestown, North Dakota, which is where Al was born.   The temperature there was 90 degrees colder than it was here!   Wow, that’s hard to believe.   I am so glad  we’re not there.  I remember how those below zero temperatures felt and I hope never to have to be in those extreme temperatures again.

When Al and I first got married, we were living in Omaha, Nebraska.    We had met on the tropical Island of Guam (Air Force brats)  and after Guam,  both of our fathers got stationed back at Offutt AFB in Nebraska. Al and I didn’t start dating for a few years after that, but we were friends and kept in touch.  That first winter back from Guam was quite a difficult winter for both of us.   Although I had grown up in the Midwest, after 2 years on Guam I realized that people didn’t have to live like that and I made it my goal to get out of Nebraska.  When Al and I started dating a few years later and he asked he asked me to marry him, I said yes if he would get me out of Nebraska.  He agreed, so we started making some plans to move south after we married.   We hadn’t exactly decided where to move, but were thinking of Springfield Missouri.  I don’t know what we were thinking, because it gets pretty cold there as well, but to our young and dumb minds, that seemed like a warmer climate.

Our plans were not firmed up (the beginning of our jello plans, I guess), and I happened to have a dream about an old friend of mine.   That night it was 14 below zero in Omaha.   My dream got me to thinking about my friend, so I called her to see how she was doing.  She had moved to Orlando, Florida, where it was 86 degrees when we spoke.  A 100 degree temperature difference!   By the time Al came home from work, I had made up my mind that I wanted to move to Florida.   All it took was for me to tell him the temperature in Orlando that day, and he was convinced.   So, a few weeks later, off we went to Florida.  It will be 40 years ago next March.  We never regretted our move.  Of course we  are now finding that the summers are too hot for us, but now that we have a home on wheels, we try to go north in the hotter months.

So, while some of the country is suffering form a horrible ice storm and extremely cold temperatures, we’re enjoying summer like weather.  Our time will come for cooler weather, but for now we’re enjoying what we have.

 

This morning, we went next door to Pat and Ron’s for waffles.  We bought some fresh picked oranges, and squeezed some juice to contribute to the meal.

 

Pat and Ron had bought some lights that attach by zip ties to the frame of their coach.  It’s a waterproof LED light, that you can change colors.  It looked pretty cool.  They paid over $200 for them a few years ago.  I wondered if they would be cheaper now (as most electronics are) and so I checked on Amazon.   I found the exact same lights for $31.99.

Here is what the kit looks like.

 

You can set the lights to change colors, flash (annoying), fade, dim or stay one color.  There is a remote control included.  The LED strip is waterproof  from a rubber cover over the thin led strip.   I meant to order the water proof ones, but ended up ordering the wrong ones with no rubber housing, which wouldn’t work well for outside.  We decided to keep them anyway, and install them inside.  The led strip has a glue strip you peel off and stick them wherever you want them.  I attached them on top of the slide.  It’s 16’ 4” long.  You can cut off what you don’t need at every 3” segment.  We just plugged them into an outlet, but I suppose if you were handy, you could wire them directly into your rv lights.

They look pretty cool and give you a nice soft light inside at night.  They are more energy efficient than our other lights, so I even have left them on dim at night.  We find the white light is nice for the morning when we’re reading and computing.  The colors are nice at night when we’re watching Tv.   They look real pretty.  When we sit outside, I put on the bright red or green (after all it’s Christmas). 

Here is the link on Amazon.  You can’t beat the price. We like them so much, that I re-ordered the waterproof ones, and this time I made sure to select the correct ones! We’ll put them underneath the coach. We think they’ll be nice to add a little extra light when you sit outside in the evenings. 

 

I’ll have to try and take some pictures of the lights on the slide out at night.  We really like them.