Monday, January 06, 2014

Sasquatch in Florida?

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 78, low 60)

 

For as long as I can remember, I have heard about Sasquatch, the abominable snowman,  or Bigfoot. 

Yesterday, I may just have spotted him (or her)!

We were up early as usual having our coffee and computer time and when I looked out my window, this is what I saw.

 

Could it be?

Is this Sasquatch?

In Florida?

 

pat grubb

Sure looks like Sasquatch to me.

pat grubb

 

(just so you know, I got permission from “sasquatch” to use these pictures)    I am not going to identify this person, to protect the innocent.

 

While I was photographing Sasquatch, Al was making our morning green smoothie. 

Baxter loves fresh spinach and always insists on having a few bites.   He ate 5-6 pieces before he was satisfied.  I guess you can tell he’s been raised in a vegan household.  

Baxter eating spinach

Our temps warmed up nicely yesterday, and the park started to come alive again.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see too much sun, but everybody was outside cleaning and polishing the cars and RV’s, and playing corn hole.  

The predicted temperature today is 78 degrees, but then it’s all down hill from there with a predicted low on Tuesday night of 29 with the high only at 52.   Brrrrr.  

 

I read a blog post yesterday about a couple who was at the Tiffin factory at Red Bay, having some body work done on their motorhome.   It seems he took a right turn too sharply and drove over a large boulder.  Then when they were leaving the service bay after having the repairs done, he cut a corner too sharp again, had to brake hard, and ended up knocking her down into the step area.  They decided she will be driving from now on.  I sent her the following link, hoping she wouldn’t be offended.  (she wasn’t and sent me a thank you email)

I was remembering when we bought this motorhome, we took a free driver confidence course at Lazy Days here in Tampa.   The best thing we learned is that for our particular motor home,  before you make a right turn, be sure that the object you need to clear is at least beside the drivers hip.  If you do that, the rest of the motorhome and toad will clear that object when you turn.  Before you rely too heavily on the “hip” method, check out the online videos to make sure it works on your particular coach.  It depends on the “wheel cut” of your particular motorhome.  Some have a 45 degree wheel cut and use the front bumper as a reference.

I think we can all learn something form this course, but if you’re not in Tampa or Arizona (2nd Lazy Days facility), there are online courses that are most helpful.  

Check out this video to learn about the hip method for making right turns. 

Here is the link for the entire online series. They were very well done in my opinion.

 

Yesterday, we learned something interesting about our Norcold refrigerator.   We have the big 4 door Norcold refrigerator with icemaker.  It was installed brand new when we bought our new to us coach from Lazy  Days.  So far (knock on wood), it has run fine and keeps the food cold.

We happened to be talking to a neighbor about our electric bills, and discovered our electric bill  last month bill was double theirs. We couldn’t figure out why since our we are similar in size, facing the same day and run our AC about the same amount.  We started checking our meters and noticed ours was spinning at least twice as fast as theirs.  We compared what electric items we had running, but it was only when we shut off the refrigerator that our meter slowed down.  Pat and Ron have a residential refrigerator, which apparently is much more energy efficient than our Norcold.   We were shocked that our  Norcold refrigerator took so much more power to run.  It’s not as large as their residential refrigerator, but it sure uses more power.

That might be good info for anyone who is on the fence about switching to a residential refrigerator.

We considered going to a residential refrigerator about a year ago, after seeing a motorhome that had caught fire due to a faulty refrigerator.  You can read about it here in a blog post I did last year.

Since our refrigerator is only a couple years old, and works well,  we decided to keep it and add  automatic Halon fire extinguishers.  While residential refrigerators are very nice, they have their own issues if you need to have repairs done.  Blogger Judy can certainly confirm that.

Here is the link where we bought our automatic fire extinguishers.  They are temperature sensitive and will discharge when it senses a temperature of 165 degrees.  I believe we paid $170 for ours.  Expensive, but worth it to me.

SS30 90 hi def

One extinguisher went in the outside compartment behind the refrigerator, and one in the generator compartment.  Of course we have extinguishers inside as well. 

 

 

It’s about 65 degrees this morning as I’m drinking my morning coffee, but the temperature is supposed to drop all day long and get down to 30 degrees tonight, and even colder tomorrow night.  I guess the Farmers Almanac was right when it predicted a colder than average winter.   Love this global warming.

Stay warm everybody.

16 comments:

  1. It is 27 here in Houston, TX. No school for the kiddos.

    I never thought to offer spinach to Bella. I will have to give that a try.

    I don't think we can ever be smart enough about your refrigerator. Great idea with the extinguisher.

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  2. It never hurts to review those motorhome driving skills. Now if I just had a spotter! ;)

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  3. Did you install the extinguisher yourself? Is it difficult? We are not super handy people.

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    1. Easy installation Ruth. Just a couple screws to hold the bracket in place.

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  4. Residential fridges are nice, but when we do a lot of dry camping, don't think they would work well, unless we had major solar power.

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  5. Lots of great info this morning, Karen, including a for real shot of what looked to me like a for real Sasquatch. Definitely!

    But, I'm still reeling from the idea of anyone having spinach for breakfast! Yowza!

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  6. Spinach is good any time, vegan or not. I like it in am omlet or as part of eggs Benidict.

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  7. It's gonna get brrr cold. Take precautions with your water line.
    Syl

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  8. We are amazed at the people in FL who bundle up when it gets to 60 degrees or lower. I guess they become acclimated :-)

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  9. Did you install the fire extinguishers yourself or did you have Sasquatch do it? :c)

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  10. Love the link to the RV driving lessons. I like the 'be sure the object you need to clear is at your hip". I use it all the time. Took the mystery out of making turns.

    We upgraded to a residential fridge about 15 months ago. We've done a little dry camping with no issues. About to spend a week at Quartzite and will do more. We only have 1 solar panel on top of the rig, so we mostly rely on the generator about 3 hours/day to keep everything going.

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  11. Great Post Karen. I'm going to check out all those links. Driving a motor home takes a lot of practice and these tips look very helpful. However, I don't think your Sasquatch is nearly big enough to be the REAL thing. :-))

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  12. Bwaahahahaaa on the sasquatch pics!

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
    Karen and Steve
    (Blog) RVing: The USA Is Our Big Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com
    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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  13. Great information! Sasquatch looks like she is bracing for the cold heading your way. Stay warm and watch your pipes!

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  14. Do you know of any websites I could look on for RV rentals? I found this site: http://www.forsalebyownercompany.com/forsalebyownerusedrvs.html, but I want some more ideas. Any tips?

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