New Rv Lot in the Making

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 91, low 72)  thunderstorms

Florida certainly hasn’t been having any drought issues this summer.  We’re in our typical summer rainy season, which means thunderstorms every afternoon.  Some of these thunderstorms have brought 6000-7000 lightning strikes per hour….according to the weathermen.  We are the lightning capitol of the country, so this is normal, but it’s way too much lightning for me.  I have started drinking a glass of wine during these storms and that seems to help my nerves.  Most of these storm are in the afternoon, but if the winds shift, then we get morning storms….and yes, I drink my wine in the morning if there is a storm.  Hey, it’s for medicinal purposes!

Al is continuing to ride with the various technicians who will be taking over his pest control accounts.  They have assigned areas, so it’s not the same person for all of the accounts.  It’s been a bit of a hassle working around everybody's schedules, but little by little he’s getting it done.  We hope to be able to get out of town next week.

I have spent several days in the company of Tim and Ken from Stratton Mobile Rv Repair, with the leaking washing machine.   We finally determined that we not only had a leaking water pump in the washing machine, but we had a leaky hose.  We thought there was a bad cold water valve, but it appears to be okay now, so hopefully that ends the saga of the leaking washing machine.

We also had them look at our inverter.  Since we’re at a site with electricity and in the summer we travel with the generator on, it took us a while to realize our inverter wasn’t working properly. The batteries were kept charged, but it wouldn’t invert when we we had a power outage or if we were disconnected from the generator and shore power.  Tim checked it out and did a “hard reset” on it several times and for now at least, it’s working properly.   We tried the hard reset ourselves following the instructions in the manual, but it didn’t work.  He found no other issues with the inverter.

 

Now that those two projects are done, Al just needs to do his normal pre-trip check of the fluids and we’ll be good to go.

 

Thanks for all the comments from my previous post about how to avoid Atlanta.   Going straight through Atlanta would definitely be the most direct route, but most everyone seems to avoid it if at all possible, unless you can go through on a Sunday.  Jeff and Jan both suggested another route which will take us up on the east side of Atlanta, via highways 129, 441, and 76.  I was a little concerned about highway 76, but per Jeff, it’s easily do-able in a motor home. I also did some checking on Google Earth, and I didn’t see any issues.  Until recently, I had never done much route planning with Google Earth, because I didn’t really know how to use it.  I’ve learned more now, and it’s really a wonderful tool to check out both campgrounds and the roads you are planning on taking.   Thanks Google!   We may have no privacy anymore, but I still like the benefits of all this technology!

 

The excitement today around Quail Run Rv Park is a new concrete rv slab being poured.  Another one of my exciting posts was the day they removed a Park Model home from the site next door. 

 

The mobile home had been gone since late May, and they are just now getting the concrete laid for a RV site.  We have a birds eye view, since the site is next door.   I like seeing how things are made, so I’ve been watching the concrete pour through the living room window.

It’s interesting seeing how nicely they are able to smooth the blob of concrete.

 

So far, they have made two loads, but that wasn’t quite enough to finish, so they will be bringing another truck for the remaining section.

You can tell we haven’t done anything exciting lately, can’t you?

Atlanta Traffic and Never Wet

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida

Somehow, we have messed up our sleep schedule.  We’ve been waking up about 4 am every morning, ready to get up and start our day. Of course, when you get up that early, we have been having trouble staying awake until it gets dark in the evening!  Al might be breaking the pattern as it’s almost 7 am and he’s still in bed, but I was wide awake again this morning at 4 am.   I think it started when we were in Georgia because we were so excited to start our day there.

Things have been going a little better regarding the sale of the business.  The new company has quite a few tech’s and they all seem to be much better than the first one that rode with Al.   A guy named Miguel was with Al yesterday and Al really liked him because he did the jobs like Al would have.  He’s hoping he will get most of the accounts.  We’re going to put in a good word for him with George, the owner of the company. Most of the customers seem to be okay with the transition, so hopefully they will stick with the new company.

We’re hopeful that we might be able to get out of town by next week-end.

Speaking of getting out of town.  Does anyone have any advice for driving through Atlanta?  Other than, don’t do it!  I know Jeanne and Eldy go out of their way to avoid Atlanta, and since Eldy is a “driving machine” it has me a bit concerned.

We’ve been told to go through on a Sunday morning if possible, and that’s what we hope to do, but that really limits your travel days, doesn’t it?

I also did a little checking on Streets and Trips and our Truckers Atlas, and found a truckers route around the west side of Atlanta.  It will be further, which doesn’t bother us, but there are a lot of road changes and turns which always gives the possibility of missing a turn and ending up somewhere a big rig shouldn’t be.  

Any suggestions would sure be appreciated.

 

Rustoleum Never Wet

A few days ago I ran across an interesting video on Facebook.

It was about this new product being sold at Home Depot, called Never Wet, and made by Rust-Oleum.

 

It’s a 2 step spray that will prevent water from adhering to surfaces.  Actually, it does much more than that, because it repels water.  Wow, what an amazing product (at least from the video).

You really need to click on the link and watch the video to see how cool this product is, but as Rv’ers, I’ll bet we can come up with some good uses for this type of product.  I wonder if it would keep your fiberglass roof from getting dirty?

One of the things in the video, showed them spraying a toilet brush with the product.  That way when you removed the brush from the toilet bowl, it is dry and not dripping on the floor or leaving water in the bottom of the brush container. I haven’t tried it yet, but I will.

Some of the things they suggested was on gloves and shoes to make them waterproof.  I am thinking it might be nice to use on my wood dish drain, and in the kitty pan to prevent any wet clumps from sticking to the bottom and sides.

At first glance, it looked like it would be the greatest product ever, but after reading a few reviews, there are a couple of issues.  One, unfortunately, is that it doesn’t dry clear, but to a frosty white.  Another is that is doesn’t have any UV protection, so I wonder how long it would last outside?   I  thought about using it on our canvas awning toppers, but I don’t think the frosty white color would look good.

Other than than those two things, I think this could be a really great product. 

Al picked some up at Home Depot the other day for under $20.  It’s a two step process.    In the video they sprayed an i-Phone and then submerged it in water.   Don’t think I’ll be doing that, but what about your camera bag?  How about your outdoor rug that always gets wet and gushy?

Any other ideas?

Go ahead….take a few minutes to watch the video.  It’s really cool the way liquids just run off surfaces after using the product.  Might be a good thing to do to the front of white shirts!   You know how you always spill something on a brand new white shirt!