Willis, TX - TT

Monday - Yesterday, we arrived back in Texas. We stopped at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails for convenience and low cost. The sites aren’t very level, but it does have a pool and hot tub, which, unfortunately, is not open on Mondays. It is hot and muggy. The front of the RV is really high, and the hitch at the rear is only a couple of inches from the ground. We are scheduled to leave on Wednesday. 

We picked up some groceries at H-E-B, and the produce is so much better at H-E-B than at Walmart in Florida. 

Tuesday - No rain this morning, but the humidity does seem very high. I'm waiting for the midday test session, and it's too hot and muggy to do it outside. In fact, I see very little activity outside. Not even people walking their dog.

I checked out the pool this afternoon. The hot tub was half working (no bubbles), and the pool was pretty cold. But between the two of them, it was fine.

Broussard, LA

Friday - A 240 mile travel day from Alabama, through Mississippi, and half way through Louisiana to south of Lafayette. The traffic was a lot heavier as we headed west. Baton Rouge was almost like Florida. We aren at a small RV park for a couple of days as we plan on visiting Avery Island, the home of Tabasco. There were a few complaints about this park on Yelp but it is very nice. Plenty of real, green grass and large, level sites.

Saturday - Up early today for the Saturday, early morning test session. It starts at around 7:30, which is early for me. I think we plan on going to the Tabasco facility on Avery Island this morning. I had heard that the tour is pretty good. Better if you don't mind the smell of Tabasco sauce.

Later - The Tabasco “factory” is in a beautiful area with old oaks and lots of bamboo. The self-guided tour was well done with numerous short videos. The process seems pretty straightforward and hasn’t changed much over the years. Peppers, salt, and vinegar. 

The mash is aged for around three years after being sealed with salt on top of the barrels. 

The aged mash is then mixed with vinegar and stirred for several weeks before being strained and bottled. 

Since we were there on a Saturday, the bottling plant wasn’t running. 

A great place to visit!

Mobile, AL - HH

Thursday - Another 350 mile travel day to a Harvest Host farm southwest of Mobile, AL. I think that this is the first time we are staying in Alabama. We picked up some steaks but we will save them for tomorrow. Not quite enough time to make them tonight. We are plugged into a 20 amp outlet so our batteries will stay charged. Plus, we are parked under a large tree. It’s only 76°F so no A/C needed. 

Live Oak, FL - BW

Wednesday - We are at a Boondockers Welcome location in Live Oak, FL. Yesterday, multiple things went wrong while getting ready to go. The right turn signal on the Jeep wasn’t working when connected to the RV. Bridget ended up driving the Jeep from Fort Myers to here. About 345 miles. And the water heater drain was leaking. When I tried to tighten it, it broke. 

This morning, I was able to fix the cable from the RV to the Jeep. It had sagged and scraped on the road wearing through the cable. I spliced in a new piece of wire. And, I picked up a new plug for the water heater at Tractor Supply so we once again have running water. This location has water and power which is really nice. We are staying a second day due to the repairs. 

Sanibal Island, FL

Monday - At 9 this morning, we headed out with Steve & Cheryl on their boat. It was very calm but wind was in the forecast for the afternoon. 

There were quite a few boats in the channel heading away from Cape Coral towards open water. A lot of slow going due to potential manatees but we did not see any all day.

This narrow canal was one of the more promising areas to spot one but we didn’t see any. 

We stopped at the beach near the lighthouse on the south eastern end of Sanibel Island for lunch. 

This is the lighthouse. It looks like an automated light. Hurricane Ian completely flooded the island destroying most homes, boats, and docks. It is still being rebuilt. 

On the way back, we stopped to watch dolphins but I didn’t get any pictures. 

Slipaway Food Truck Marina

Saturday - We are still in Fort Myers, FL, for a couple more days. On Tuesday, we will start heading back towards TX. I'm not sure how many days we will take, but we aren't in any hurry.

After the mid-day test session, Steve & Cheryl took us out on their boat. We stopped at the Slipaway Food Truck Marina with boat parking and about a dozen food trucks. 

Sunday - Happy Easter! We celebrated Easter with Steve & Cheryl and did a seafood boil. With corn, potatoes, onions, garlic, brussel sprouts, kielbasa, eggs, shrimp, lobster tails, mussels, and lemons. Served with garlic butter. It turned out delicious. Seafood was on sale at Publix. We didn’t initially have enough Old Bay seasoning nor any Cajon seasonings. Next time…

Naples, FL

Friday - This morning, we went to the Bird Gardens of Naples. It is an exotic bird rescue organization with around 200 birds who could no longer survive in the wild due to injury. Or are abandoned or abused. 

It’s a pretty nice facility, all donation and volunteers. They do breed some birds and supply other sanctuaries around the country. Some of the birds can be adopted but they are not sold.

They mentioned the need for small openings in the wire cages to keep out the snakes. Cottonmouth viper and Burmese pythons. Neither is protected and one is invasive. The fencing continues into the ground and covers the floor of the cages. 

We stopped at a beach north of Naples after lunch to just walk for a bit. It was not empty but not unreasonably crowded either for a holiday weekend. It is still Spring break after all.

Cape Coral & Hobe Sound, FL

Tuesday - Wow! Fast internet here in Cape Coral at our friends home. There was some issues so we are here watching their dog. Not much, just letting him outside every couple of hours. The RV is approximately 9 miles away. 

Tomorrow, we are planning to travel across the state to Hobe Sound to visit some other friends from Alaska. 

Tuesday - We left around 11am. There was a lot of traffic leaving Fort Myers and no real highways until we were over an hour into our trip. Too many people in FL!

We are visiting Harvey & Nancy. I hadn’t seen them in years since they were still living in Fairbanks. I’ve known Harvey almost as long as I’ve been in Alaska. 

Fort Myers, FL - TT

Saturday - The morning test session ended up being a no-show, but it was nice to sit outside. Only 71°F, though it did start to slowly warm up. By the time of the mid-day session, it was over 80°F. Too hot to sit outside.

We spent the afternoon with friends. I didn’t try the pool yet though it was tempting on this hot, muggy afternoon. 

A brief storm rolled through around dinner time which made for a decent sunset. 

Sunday - °F 

Edison - Ford Winter Estate

Friday - We spent the morning touring the Edison & Ford Winter Estates. This is a banyan tree planted as an experiment in the search for locally grown latex sources. Two thousand plants were tried to see which ones prospered in North America. Rubbers produced from petroleum soon took over the market. 

The model T Ford came with all of the tools needed to maintain and repair the car. It sounds like Ural adopted the same model though the model T came with a much larger toolbox.

The estate had the winter homes/cottages for both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. The Edison’s would spend the winter and the Fords only about three weeks. 

Edison did have a lab set up to study the plants. Very different from his other labs. But there is still a surprising number of machine tools. He did set up a DC generator to provide power but later connected to the AC system set up by the city. 

Fort Myers, FL - TT

Tuesday - Yesterday was a travel day into Fort Myers to an Encore park. More “into” the city than I prefer. We are here partly to visit friends from Fairbanks that have moved here. Temperatures are more moderate than even Orlando probably because we are near the gulf. 

Wednesday - We visited with several friends from Alaska today. One couple from Eagle River and the other from Fort Wayne, IN. We had delicious moose chili.

Thursday - Friends, Steve & Cheryl, took us out on their pontoon boat today. It was a long ride through the waterways to get to the gulf.

We saw some dolphins on the way out and stopped on Sanibel Island for lunch. 

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. The temperature was a perfect 72°F with a light breeze. I didn’t know that a pontoon boat was usable in the ocean. 

Wauchula, FL - HH

Sunday - We left TTO around 10:30am and headed south. After filling up with diesel once we got out of the Orlando area, we continued to our Harvest Host stop south of Wauchula, FL. I guess we could've stopped at the Peace River TT, but that was one of the worst ones we've been to. Another option is the SKP park just a short drive away. 

Charlotte's Web is the Harvest Host stop and is a bar with a food truck. The po' boy sandwich I had here was wonderful. The parking area is a small field next to the building that they use for event parking. No events are going on while we are here, so it has been pretty quiet. 

Monday - The temperature this morning has been wonderful. I'm sitting outside getting ready for a test session, and it is 76°F. We will need to run the generator this afternoon to charge up the batteries, and we'll run the A/C at the same time. I think it's supposed to be 83°F this afternoon.

Our next reservation doesn't start until tomorrow at an Encore park in Fort Myers. It looks like a nice place. We'll be there for a couple of weeks before heading back to TX.

I'm using the outdoor area of the bar for the test session. I am running the generator as the battery SoC is down to 31%. We do seem to run through quite a bit of power at 430aH over the last 12 hours. We are charging at 70 amps so that is still around 6 hours. The solar contribution is minimal compared to how much power we use. I won't bother to charge the batteries up all the way as we only need enough for another night.

I had the blackened grouper sandwich from the food truck along with the fried pickles. I don’t think I’ve had grouper before and it was pretty tasty. I’m not sure whether the grouper or the shrimp sandwich is better. I’d rather not be forced to pick. 

Four Corners, FL - TT

Tuesday - The calendar says that it’s St Patrick’s Day. I had made the traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner a couple of weeks ago. Not in the sous vide but in the Instant Pot. It didn’t turn out anywhere near as tasty. 

The low temperature this morning was 47°F. Quite a change from the past week. The forecast is calling for 44°F tonight. Things should start warming up again after this cold front passes through. 

I took advantage of the cooler temperatures to take a walk. I had an Amazon package come in to a locker about 1¼ mile away. I ordered a gadget that disables the auto start/stop function on the Jeep. There is a button that disables it but you have to press it every time you start the engine. This gadget just automates that. For the last couple of years, I had it disabled by unplugging the hood switch. Now, the hood switch is in place again so the alarm function is working again.

Wednesday - Today’s field trip was to Bok Tower. It is around 40 miles south on Hwy 27. That’s over an hour of Florida driving time without toll roads. Bok Tower is a nature preserve with a bell tower with 60 bells. A keyboard is mechanically linked to the clappers allowing someone to play the bells. 

Today was the opening day of the International Carillon Festival. Carillonist is the term for the musicians playing the bells. 

At 1pm, they started to play but it wasn’t a recognizable tune (to me). There is a very short YouTube video of it playing at the end of this post. I must admit that I was disappointed in the sound. Maybe the performer was playing a complex piece and it was lost on me. 

We also went on a house tour but the house was built by a someone named Bach and not the Bok that built the tower and surrounding garden. This tree was “behind” the house but actually in front of the main entrance. We entered through the pantry and kitchen. 

Repairs - TT

Saturday - Not much went on today. A mid-day test session followed by restringing one of the blinds. The restringing part was simple but reattaching the blind to the hangers buried behind a cabinet was a pain. I have a couple more minor repairs and one semi-major one to do. Maybe I’ll knock out the minor one today or tomorrow. 

Sunday - Fixed a drawer slide. The minor repair of the day. There was heavy rain with lightning in the late afternoon and evening.

Monday - Today’s minor maintenance is regenerating the water softener. It is a manual process that takes two cartons of salt (52oz) and about 35 minutes. A slow stream of water is run through the salt and resin for about 25minutes followed by a 6 minute flush. It needs to be done about once per month. There is another method that I’m still researching 

It’s around 80°F right now (noon) with more rain and lightning in the forecast for this evening. 

Disney Springs

Wednesday - We went to Disney Springs, the retail area for WDW, to meet up with Tim and Sue from Fairbanks. It was in the 80s (°F) for most of the afternoon and, apparently, not very windy as the helium balloon was flying.

We walked through most of Disney Springs, had lunch at Chicken Guy (good Korean chicken sandwich!), and wandered through the shops. 

We then went to the Pop Century resort and took the Disney Skyliner to the Boardwalk. The Skyliner is free as it is just another transportation option around Disney World, like the monorail and buses. Here, we are crossing a small lake heading towards other resorts, where we will switch to another Skyliner towards Epcot.

We had dinner at Blue Ribbon Corndogs, where they had something that I had to try. A dill pickle corndog. The large pickle is hollowed out, and a hot dog is inserted. Then the whole thing is covered with the corn dog batter and deep-fried. It is served with peanut butter, but I don't think it adds much more. The combination works, though I did end up using a knife and fork. The addition of the pickle made it quite heavy.

We hadn't visited the Boardwalk on prior visits, so this was new. We ended up walking over 18k steps. Definitely got in some exercise. It was wonderful to visit with Tim and Sue.

Orlando, FL - TT

Sunday - Today was a very short travel day to TTO. Like usual, it was a long wait at the front gate, but they are pre-assigning sites now, like many other TT parks. It’s not as nice as their old system, but better than driving around hunting for something. 

It took quite a while to set things up, but since we are here for a couple of weeks, it made sense to me to make myself at home. It’s an older part of the park, but it has 50-amp power and is reasonably level. And the refrigerator is not facing south. StarLink isn’t as fast as other locations, probably because we are in a populated area. But we are still getting 114 down and 15 up. Fast enough. 

Monday - It's 79°F at noon. But since I have the awning and the sunscreen set up, it is pretty nice sitting outside at least for the mid-day test session. 

Tonight, grilled vegetables on the Blackstone. Finished off with a balsamic glaze. One of our favorites sides. And I’m trying to make garlic butter shrimp also on the Blackstone. 

We still haven’t decided whether or not to venture into any of the theme parks. Since this is the beginning of Spring Break season, it’ll be crowded. 

Tuesday - First thing this morning, I washed the Jeep. This is the first time I’ve been “allowed” to wash a vehicle in a long time. Everywhere has had water restrictions due to drought. Even northern Florida. We have run it through a couple of touch less car washes but they aren’t as common as the ones with brushes. Since the Jeep is a soft top, car washes are strongly discouraged according to the manufacturer. 

It’s pretty warm today and it feels humid though the Rh is only 50%. The pool was crowded earlier but once evening arrived, it slowed down a lot. There are two pools. This used to be the adult pool but they were sued by a full time family RV group. Now, no more age restrictions at any TT park.