After the Storm

Sunday, Monday,Tuesday
March 1-3, 2015
Lithia Springs Park
Lithia, Florida

 

SUNDAY March 1

 

I ended the last post (find it here) talking about the big storm that came on Saturday afternoon and stayed around all Saturday night dumping buckets of rain on us.  At one point during the night it sounded like a bomb dropped on our roof. I jumped out of bed at the noise.  First thought,  solar panels on the roof.  There was nothing I could do at that point but I go out with a flashlight anyway to see if I can tell what has happened.  I shine it up from every angle but I can’t tell a thing without getting up on the roof which in the dark and with all the water, I think is not a good idea.   It will have to wait until tomorrow morning. But I toss and turn worrying about what has happened.   Why can’t you just tell your mind to shut up when it is being such a bother?  Any tricks in that department would be greatly appreciated. 

About 45 minutes later, BOOM, another one, though not as loud.  My heart is racing again.

I wait until 7:00 which is as long as I can stand it so Mr. Calm could sleep.  Then I go out and up on the roof.  Sure enough two big pieces of limb with heavy epiphytes have fallen square on top of the rear solar panel.  I throw them down on the ground and clean off the panel.   Greg told me the panels could take a beating and it looks  like they did.  I don’t see any clear damage but I’m not an expert. 

The expert decides my word is good enough and he’ll check more closely tomorrow the day we are leaving.  What can I say?

 

Here are the bombs, set up on the picnic table for a picture.   The wood is rotten, the epiphytes heavy.

 

 

 

We spend the morning cleaning up the mess from the storm and boy was it.  No pictures of that.  Who wants to remember having to sweep and brush and shake everything off.

 

Our neighbor in his big diesel moved out today and had some trouble apparently which left quite a mess.   I hope the campground will fix it before someone else moves into the site but as of Monday when we pulled out, it looked just like this still.

 

 

 

 

It is very hot and humid today, a high of 88.  Lots of sweating going on during my walk around the Royal Hammock Trail a lot of which was muddy and under water.  I take some last pictures of the boat basin with its clean newly washed beautiful sky.   Today would have been a great day for a swim in that river but not allowed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MONDAY March 2

Today is moving day.  We are going 177 miles north where hopefully it will be a bit cooler.  We have an appointment at Lazydays to get a hydraulic slide hose replaced.  We’ve learned it’s best to go in with one or two finite repair requests so that you can follow up and they can get it done in a day.   Or at least that’s our plan.

We have departure lists that, even after 5 years, we use every single time we pack up just to make sure we don’t forget anything.  One of our last things is to put the tow dolly on the car.  David had moved the motor home and I was going out to take the lock off the dolly when this bandit strolled out of the woods in broad daylight and proceeded to look around to see if anything struck his fancy.  In doing so, he walked right up to me.

Now when that happens with a wild animal I’m always a little concerned that they don’t have appropriate fear and perhaps I need to have some.  But this guy just wasn’t paying attention.   He ignored me totally, walked up under Winnona and then scampered across the road.  I suspect he knows the location of the dumpster.   Or maybe he was just sent out to tell us so long and good riddance since we left nothing remotely like food outside for little beggars.

 

 

 

 

 

I could hear our hawk keer keering but I didn’t seem him land today.  I might have been too busy putting things away.  But after hooking up the dolly I did hear the chucking of the red bellied woodpecker who is also a resident in the trees around the site.   So I went looking for him and sure enough I got some pictures just before we pulled away on the way to the dump station.

 

 

 

 

 

All along Route 41 going North until we got past Punta Gorda the ditches were filled with water.  Can you see it out the window to the right??   With the new mid summer weather temperatures the mosquitoes are sure to love it.  We may be escaping at just the right time.

 

 

 

 

It’s an all interstate trip North on  I-75 and East on I-4.   177 miles seems very long to me so I am glad to be pulled into a spot in Lazydays parking lot for an overnight to get going on the repair first thing in the morning.   Unfortunately we didn’t buy our rig at Lazydays and even if we had Winnona wouldn’t qualify for the nice resort accommodations of the Crown Club.  So we’re going to be listening to the melodic sounds of I-4 which is spitting distance out our back window.   Being a light sleeper, I’m not looking forward to this.

But we’ve got the jacks down, the slides out, the solar panels are making power and we’re settled in for the night getting some dinner on the table.

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY March 3

 

Our appointment is for 9:00.  About 9:30 or so our Service Advisor Neil Gillette shows up and David crawls under the living room slide to show him exactly what the problem is and where it is.   It’s right here at the green arrow.

We have a hose with a bubble so David previously talked to HWH in detail about it and got them to send us the part.  But he didn’t want to tackle this job by himself.  He determined this was work for an expert and HWH said Lazydays had the trained technicians.  SO here we are. 

When David called ahead to make the appointment he talked to Lazydays about what sort of tech he wanted doing the job.  He reiterates this to Neil who doesn’t really know much about RVs, he’s the middle man.  But he does set David up to go out to the bay and talk with Vince who is going to do the work.

 

 

He comes back satisfied that Vince is well enough trained and settles in to wait.   That’s my queue to take Ruby and drive over to Whole Foods Tampa and do the grocery shopping.   The traffic around here is NUTS.  

When I return, the work is all finished but we can’t find Neil to pay the bill for another 90 minutes.  We are very happy with Vince and his knowledge and efficiency.  The bill is reasonable.  We’d just like to pay it and get off down the road since we have no reservation for tonight.   It’s after 3:00, 6 hours after our appointment for a job that took the tech 2 hours, when our Service Advisor Neil finally comes with the bill and we finally are able to walk out the door.

 

 

We’ve made some phone calls this morning and determined that only one of the 3 Hillsborough County parks is going to have any open sites tonight and that’s Lithia Springs.   We spent a lot of time there in 2012 since it is where we stayed for months during the induction preparation stage for David’s stem cell transplant.

We are very familiar with it although they have made some nice upgrades to the electric.   They have a number of sites available but none of our favorites.

 

 

 

 

We trust we’re going to have a quiet night here among the trees and far away from the highway. Tomorrow is blood draw day again. We’ll see what else happens.

Lastly, have any of you ever stayed on Sanibel Island at Periwinkle RV Park?   It’s the only park there and when I called today to try to get reservations for February 2016 I was told they have no reservations in February and won’t know what they might have at all for next year until April since their regular guests usually return.  I know I’ve read on several blogs about this park which was why I was willing to pay $55 a night so I guess I need to know how do you get them to book you at that rate.  LOL!   Is it an exclusive club?   Do I need a recommendation?  Good grief!