February 28th Nice fort day......

Beautiful weather day at the fort, sunshine, breezy and 78 degrees.  Did 2 Ranger talks- went well.  Lots of nice visitors-  

Ranger Mike bought lunch at Mary's- yummy!  Had an omelet rather than a hot dog.  

Saw these plates today-  

 

For the month, got all 51 US except DC and North Dakota.  Wound up with 5 Provinces.  

February 27th.. Fort yesterday, chores today...

Did the Fort yesterday, no school kids, easy day, nice weather day.

February 27th..

Bette went to the docs today about her migraines, hope she feels better, at 11, I ran on down to Ray's Tires to address a low front tire, which turned out to have a nail in it, and the fact that they were wearing unevenly.   So, bought 2 new front tires, and had the Fit aligned, which was prudent.  

Saw this plate today:

Tonight is Tuesday night at Osteen's for our routine night out.  Tonight will be a table of 7! Jane Dowling Fender, the Coles, and Lew and Mary Beth will be with us!  Yay!

February 25th, Fort day today....

Full pretty day at the Fort, met a nice family from Utah, and gave them a private tour.  Did 5 safe cannon shots as well.  

Saw these plates today:

Also saw a Hawaii today!  Yay!

Put in my midterm grades tonight as well.  For the first time, I have 12 students with an F.  Ugly!   

Tomorrow, will work on trip planning.  Bette is joining her pal Nancy for birthday lunch, late, and tidy up the coach.  

February 23rd Back at the fort today again.....

Long busy day at the Fort today.  Lots of school kids, 40 groups I think.  Did 5 cannon shots and the 0930 talk.  

Saw these plates today: Plus Utah!

Tomorrow we will have a changing of the guard: I'll report to the fort at 3, then we march down St George St at 6-7.  Bette goes to weight watchers in the morning, and I will be going to Liar's Club at 0700 in the morning.  

February 21st Back at the Fort!

Spent 3 hours down at the Fort.  Concerned that my talk notes are missing.  Maybe time to reprint them anyway.  Lots of school groups, did informal talks in room 5 all day.  
Saw these plates today:

Bette took Kathy Simic to Jax airport today, so we have her car for awhile.  Planning on going to Liar's Club Saturday, and also on Saturday is Changing of the Guard downtown,  and Jane Dowling is in town, so that means Osteen's next Tuesday.  

February 20th On way to St Augustine!

Repairs are done, and we leave shortly for St. Augustine. 110 miles for the trip.  Have to gas up on the way.

We pulled back in by 12:15 or so.  Uneventful trip.  GPS says 107.5 miles, 6.5 mpg fuel consumption, Max speed: 63 mph.  Avg moving 44 mph, overall avg: 36 mph.  Total time for trip, 2:58, had one pit stop and dropped the car at St. Johns.  Ready to head back out to the Fort tomorrow!

February 17th Repairs all done, resting till Tuesday...

It's a lazy Saturday today, and repairs are all done.  We got the accident damage repaired, we got a new residential refrigerator installed, got the leaking toilet fixed, the generator serviced, and a chassis lube all done, as well as replacing a new trim ring for a docking light, which had rusted.  All for $477 dollars and some change!  The long term warranty kicked in for most of the work.  

Sadly, we can't get back in to St John's RV until Tuesday the 19th.  

Bette found a source to get her broken denture repaired, and that will be done by later Tuesday as well.  Happy for that.  

I'll start back at the Fort on Wednesday the 20th.  Yay!

Bill and Porter posted on Facebook that they were in Terlingua Texas,  and had met up with Blogger John, whom I used to follow.  Glad they got to see him.  He's an eccentric sort from New York, who lives off the grid from 7 years ago near Terlingua.  

Did some trip planning and got caught up through April 2019.  Then off to Spring Training Baseball in Phoenix for March 2019. 

February 14th Paint is now done and drying.

Victor from body shop says that the paint job is now drying, and I might could see it in an hour or so.  Also, the bed part came in!  Rick might install that soon.  

And, it's nearly done!  Just have to buff it tomorrow and put in the bed part, and we will be done!

Update 4:47 pm:  The bed part pump and remote were installed!  

Have to decide what to do:  We allegedly can't get in at St. John's RV until Tuesday.   Maybe Alliance will let us stay until then.  

February 13th Painting continues...

Jesse and the gang picked up the coach at 0730 this morning, and painting has begun.  
Also heard that the insurance company solved the missing check issue, and it's "in the mail."

Prior to primer being done on the fender.

Prime coat done.  

Saw this plate today in the campground.

Feb 11th and 12th.. They sent the wrong #@%^ fender!

February 11th  Took Sunday off.  

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February 12th- today, in the shop at 0730, and Brian worked on the trim for the fridge, and added a side piece that had been damaged.  

At about 11, off to Jesse in the body shop to work on the fender and doors.  They sent the wrong fender!  

As you can see from the photo, this is actually the drivers side fender well.  Turns out they had already fabricated another fender, and had to modify the fender that was sent, drilling new holes for the backup light and running light.   Tomorrow, we are scheduled for paint.  

Jesse is a master body man!

The say we may be out by Wednesday, which is an opportunity, since we can't get in at St John's RV until the 19th.   

February 10th Off for the weekend....

Fridge is all installed, and Bette is over the moon happy with it.  We ran out and got some ice cream, and it was frozen in 10 minutes!   

Saw these plates yesterday:

Went to Wal mart for provisions, and supplies.  

For coach things, they are supposed to pull us in Monday morning, and work on the cabinet work, and perhaps to begin the body work as well.  May be on our way by Friday next.  

February 9th The Fridge is going in!

Dave came and picked up the coach promptly at 0700 this morning, and got started right away on the residential fridge install.  

The new fridge

They took out the drivers side window to push in the new fridge!

Almost in....

Rick almost got squished.

The old fridge headed to the junk pile.

Where the empty fridge used to live.  

Dave working on the install

Dave reinstalling the Carbon monoxide smeller.

The new fridge- cabinet maker will trim on Monday.

February 8th Repairs update

For today, our update is, toilet was repaired, residential fridge arrived, and will be installed starting at 0700 in the morning.  Bed pump was ordered, from Minnesota, and we should hear back on that by this afternoon.  Fridge install should take most of the day tomorrow- they have to take out the driver's side window to bring it into the coach.  Big job!  

Probably headed off to Wal Mart soon to go shopping-  Need a new toaster oven as well as provisions.  Bette can't eat anything but soup because of her denture being broken.  

Tomorrow we will dump our tanks, on the way to the installation.  Tomorrow will be our 5th day.  At the limit.  

February 7th Moving along....

Rick came and picked up the coach this morning at 0715.  Said he would work on the genny oil/filter change, and the chassis lube job, and prep work for the other things on the list.  

Probably have to go to Wal Mart today.  

Update on repairs:  Toilet and fireplace issues have been addressed.  Still a leak in the toilet, part being overnighted in.  Fridge issue still open, may try to install residential, have to wait and see what the extended warranty people say on that.  Bed issue is a bad pump, waiting on warranty people for that.  fuel door screws have been re-installed.  Door latch has been repaired.  Hoping to get into the body shop perhaps on Friday.  So, we wait.  Generator service is complete, and chassis lube is done.  

While here, Bette broke her denture, snapped it in two!  Have to get that replaced when we get back to St. Augustine.   Poop.  Bad deal for her.  

6:09 PM:  Good news, bad news!

Good news is truly good news.  Justin talked to the warranty company, and all 3 of the major repairs were approved by the warranty company, without the need for an inspection!  That means that we will get a new residential fridge, a Samsung, the sleep number bed will be repaired, and the toilet leak will be fixed.  Since we prepaid for the fender ($1300+) it will be about a wash for the entire job.  Bad news is we won't start the fridge installation until Friday, which means we will have to delay the bodywork until next week.  Justin will go shopping for the fridge tomorrow at Lowe's.  

February 6th Still waiting.....

Still waiting to get in at Alliance.  At least Justin came in today, he had been ill.  Rob had worked up the work order for us, and Justin went over it.  Looks like most of the work will be covered by warranty-  we may have to settle for the fridge being repaired, rather than install a residential unit- due to costs, and the other things will be worked on. We will have to wait on the body shop, but we knew that going in.   

Waiting on Rick to come fetch us to start.  Maybe he will do the generator service today.  

More we get done, earlier we leave.  

Saw these plates in last week:

Motorcycle

Also worked on the summer/2019 trip.  

Also got to see the Elon Musk ship blast off from Canaveral:

February 4th On to Wildwood and Alliance in the rain!

Worked our way down to Wildwood Fl and Alliance Coach, Used 15 gals of fuel, avg. consumption was 6.9 gals.  106.8 miles total, Max 62, moving avg. 44 mph, overall avg. 31.
Total time, 3:26.  

It held off raining for most of the trip, and now is raining pretty good.  

Alliance said they were full, but trying to work us in.  We have a long list, accident repairs, fridge/freezer is on the fritz, bed controls need repair, the toilet is leaking, and we need the generator serviced, and a chassis lube job.  Hopefully, most of the repairs will be covered by our extended warranty.

February 3rd Resting up before trip to Wildwood.

Resting up today before the trip to Wildwood and Alliance for the next phase of repairs and accident damage.  We may be there up to three weeks, long list of repairs needed, hopefully the extended warranty will cover the costs.  

Also today, heading to Flagler to watch the women's and men's basketball teams play.  

Saw these plates at the Fort yesterday, breezy and cold day, lots of school kids.  

February 1st Good plate month!

Had a good plate month this month, not so good for Canadian plates:

For US, all but Utah and Hawaii: plus Diplomat, DC, Puerto Rico and US Govt.  

Canadian Provinces, only 4 this month....

Bette is getting her brain scanned, checking for her migraines.  I'll be working on trip planning today, already into May 2019.