The blog about nothing

Posted on November 6, 2021 by Sparky

With apologies to Seinfeld – the “show about nothing.”

Well, a lot of people seemed to like the nothingness of that show, so I will list a few of the “nothing” things that I have done in my first month at my home base in Ft Myers:

  • I got Rusty professionally groomed. He no longer looks like a ragamuffin.
  • I finished scanning the (hopefully) last batch of Jett’s photos – the 1,500 photos that I discovered under the bed.
  • I have tried (without much success so far) to get the truck’s rear quarter-panel damage repaired. Seems that finding parts for a 17-year-old truck is difficult.
  • I have searched for a part-time job. Again, without success. I have applied for two and have received not even the courtesy of a response.
  • I have tried to resurrect Jett’s old laptop. It seems mostly functional (though old) and pretty lightly-used, so if I can get it to work reliably (it is crashing) then I could donate it to a worthy cause. I hate to discard potentially useful electronics.
  • I finished posting, to findagrave.com, the batch of about 100 headstone photos that I took in Athol MA before I headed south.
  • I have given some serious consideration to going to OR for Thanksgiving and TX for Christmas. Right now OR looks unlikely but TX is likely.
  • I am seriously thinking of going on a solo cruise in January. They are cheap – hard to resist.
  • I have started another round of updates on my genealogical research, starting with Jett’s family tree (which is more interesting than mine). I am thinking of producing a series of PDFs documenting her immigrant ancestors. The PDF form is better than the original email form for including supplementary documents – photos, maps, etc. And the PDFs won’t get lost when the disk crashes, as was the fate of my email posts.
  • I have tried to help my son through a rough patch. ‘Nuff said.

There is nothing in that list that, by itself, is blog-worthy. But I haven’t been sitting around eating bon-bons.

Just wanted you to know that.

Categories: Blogging, Family, Genealogy | Leave a comment

One year gone

Posted on October 16, 2021 by Sparky
Jett and me, Puerto Vallarta, 2006

Yesterday was the first anniversary of Jett’s death. I knew it was going to be a difficult day so I didn’t make any plans (except for the 6-month cataract surgery checkup – all good – which happened to fall on the same day). But I wanted to keep busy and, coincidentally, the task next on my To Do list was digitizing the last batch of Jett’s photos, found under my bed this summer.

Another 1,700 photos, raising the total number of Jett’s photos digitized to over 7,500.

Last night, after the digitizing was finished, I called her sons and siblings, to catch up, to commiserate and to get their current addresses. I will send thumb drives with those photos to each of them.

An appropriate, if sad, anniversary.

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My $553 faucet

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Sparky
The expensive faucet

I think I have mentioned that both of my bathroom faucets were useless for the entire 51 days of the TS7. The upper bathroom faucet was useless even longer – it was reduced to a dribble mid-summer. So my first RV maintenance priority when I got to Ft Myers was to fix the faucet problem.

Which I did. For $553.

Yes, that is expensive for replacement of two faucets. And it doesn’t include the cost of the replacement faucets (about $130), so the total cost was close to $700. But it does include a $130 remote service call charge. And the bulk of the 2.5 hours of labor (at $120 per hour) was to get and install in-line cutoff valves on the four faucet lines (2 hot, 2 cold) and the upstairs toilet. I figured that it would be worth the cost to put cutoffs on the lines. I know why they weren’t there when I bought the RV – Heartland wanted to save a few bucks on the construction cost – but needing to shut off the water supply to the entire RV every time some fixture needed to be changed was just stupid.

The cost also included an hour for the repair guy to run to Home Depot to get the right cutoff valves. I had tried to get them myself, based on his description, but utterly failed. I got two different types but they were both wrong. So chalk up $120 to my incompetence.

So, a pricey repair. But it feels damn good to have running water in my bathroom sinks again. I now go into a bathroom occasionally, just to see the water run. A cheap thrill that wasn’t so cheap.

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TS7 wrapup

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Sparky

First, the numbers:

  • 4,188 tow miles (the 4th-longest trip I have taken, after the GTW, STE and STW).
  • 5,911 truck miles
  • 51 nights
  • 20 hops (shortest: 64 miles, longest: 367 miles)
  • $2,453 in campground fees ($48.10 per night)
  • 644.7 gallons of diesel fuel consumed for a total fuel expenditure of $1,989 ($3.09 per gallon average price)
  • Average MPG: 9.2

Highlights:

  • Finding my brother in Ellsworth ME.
  • Seeing high school friends in Madison WI.
  • Viewing the battlefield at Vicksburg MS.
  • The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton OH.
  • The Escapees Chapter 3 rally at Hermon ME.

Lowlights:

  • The two truck breakdowns (Hermon ME and Lowman NY. Both turned out to be minor problems but they caused me a lot of stress. The Lowman breakdown, which was at the end of a very stressful hop where I encountered a closed road and had to scramble to find a 25-mile detour) was particularly stressful. Arguably the worst day of RV travel that I have experienced in my 9 years on the road.
  • Hurricane Henri in New York.
  • PetSmart’s refusal to groom Rusty in Iowa.

But, overall, not a bad trip. Other than the hurricane the weather was good and, other than the tows, the truck ran great. I suppose both of those fall into the “Besides that, Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?” category. But the possibility of making the grand tour of all 30 MLB parks next summer remains alive.

Plan vs actual maps:

TS7-1 plan
TS7-1 actual

The only major change in TS7-1 was dropping the Vermont stop.

TS7-2 plan
TS7-2 actual

There were a lot of changes to campgrounds in TS7-2 but the only major route change was dropping Omaha.

TS7-3 plan
TS7-3 actual

Again, there were a lot of campground changes and two major route changes: dropping the stops near New Orleans due to the area still cleaning up from Hurricane Ida and adding an Ocala stop to deal with some family matters.

Categories: Routes, TS7 | 2 Comments

TS7 Hop 20 – Ocala FL to Fort Myers FL

Posted on October 2, 2021 by Sparky
TS7 Hop 20

210 miles via US 27, FL-64, US 17, FL-70, FL-31 and FL-80. Cumulative tow miles: 4188, Truck miles: 381. Cumulative truck miles: 5911. The extra truck miles were due to refueling and chores in the Ocala area.

I opted to take some back roads rather than the longer-but-faster (usually) I-75 route. I don’t like I-75 on weekends (today was a Saturday) as it tends to be very crowded. As it turned out, US 27 was pretty crowded too, so I am not sure it was a good route choice. But the hop was completed in about 4.5 hours, without incident (and the refrigerator stayed on).

Thus ends the TS7.

I booked the Wild Frontier RV Resort for a full week but left after 6 days – not because I didn’t like the resort but because I had done what I needed to do in Ocala (primarily family issues that I won’t be documenting here). I actually liked this resort a lot. The sites are spacious, with macadam surfaces and a lot of space between sites. The pool was small, which didn’t matter to me because I didn’t use it. I didn’t use the laundry, either, but it was very nice. The electric service was 50A and the cable TV was superb – over 100 channels.

Well, the cable TV would have been superb if I had been able to obtain a free decoder box, but the office ran out. So that is one complaint: if you are going to use a cable TV system that requires a decoder box, you should have enough boxes to give one to everyone. My other complaint is that the sites, though spacious, have very short and narrow macadam patches. Fitting my truck onto the site was difficult.

But, overall, a very nice, pleasant RV park.

Next: the TS7 wrapup.

Categories: FL, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TS7 | Leave a comment

TS7 Hop 19 – Dade City FL to Ocala FL

Posted on September 26, 2021 by Sparky
TS7 Hop 19

64 miles, almost all on US 301. Cumulative tow miles: 3978. Truck miles: 127. Cumulative truck miles: 5530. The extra truck miles were due to refueling and a bit of touring of central Florida.

This was a short hop. So short, in fact, that I had to kill some time in the parking lot of the South Sumter High School so that I didn’t arrive in Ocala before 1pm.

This was a trivial hop. For the record, the truck ran fine and the refrigerator stayed on. As if it mattered.

My home in Dade City was the Town & Country RV Resort. This is mostly a seasonal campground – lots of park models with just a few transient sites. It reminded me of my seasonal site in Naples in 2018, which I didn’t like very much. But, in truth, I didn’t really give it a fair shot. I felt a bit under the weather and basically didn’t leave the RV for the first 2 days.

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TS7 Hop 18 – Tallahassee FL to Dade City FL

Posted on September 23, 2021 by Sparky
TS7 Hop 18

226 miles via I-10, US 19, US 98, US 27, I-10 and US 98 (again). Cumulative tow miles: 3914. Truck miles: 235. Cumulative truck miles: 5403. The extra truck miles were to refuel.

The RV GPS was pretty annoyed with me on this hop. Rather than taking the longer-but-faster route (I-10 to I-75) I opted to cut off a few miles by using US 19/98/27. I like US 98. It is flat and has very little traffic while I-75 is like driving an LA freeway. But the GPS, after I exited I-10 onto US 19, was insistent for about 30 minutes that I get my butt back to I-10.

But I outlasted it.

Good weather, flat roads, little traffic (except for I-75), the truck ran fine and the refrigerator stayed on. A good travel day.

And I am just one travel day from Fort Myers. But I am going to Ocala first. Family.

My one-night stay in Tallahassee was at the Tallahassee RV Park. This is a very nice overnight park. Almost all sites are pull-throughs and it is less than a mile from an exit off of I-10. The sites are large and the utilities are in good repair. But the roads – especially the entrance – are narrow with tight curves.

Categories: FL, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TS7 | Leave a comment

TS7 Hop 17 – Robertsdale AL to Tallahassee FL

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Sparky
TS7 Hop 17

224 miles, all on I-10 except for a few miles at either end. Cumulative tow miles: 3688. Truck miles: 332. Cumulative truck miles: 5168. The extra truck miles were due to a sightseeing trip north of Robertsdale and a refueling stop at Buc-ees.

It terms of navigation it doesn’t get any easier than this. Traffic wasn’t bad, the weather was good, the truck ran fine and the refrigerator stayed on.

The Styx River
Cheap ice

My two nights in Robertsdale were at the Riverside RV Resort. This is, overall, a very nice campground which is tainted in my view by the signs containing scripture quotes that are sprinkled around the property. I don’t get why campgrounds feel a need to evangelize. In this case it is a bit ironic as the campground is bordered by the Styx River which in Greek mythology is a harbinger of death.

I did one sightseeing trip to the north and west of Robertsdale. It didn’t produce much except a fairly nice sunset photo.

I stopped at Buc-ee’s to refuel on my way back to the RV. This was a revelation. Think 7-11 on steroids. The gas was relatively inexpensive, which was great, but the number of pumps – at least 60 – was about 4 times greater than any other convenience store I have ever seen. It also had some interesting fast food (I picked up a chopped brisket sandwich and freshly fried potato chips. Pretty good. Perhaps the strangest thing was an entire deli section devoted exclusively to… jerky. About 100 different kinds of jerky, all apparently made right there.

And the ice cubes – a 20 lb bag for 99 cents. If I had had room in my freezer I would have gotten a bag.

Sunset north of Robertsdale
Buc-ee’s gas pumps
Buc-ee’s mega convenience store
Ant bites

One nasty surprise that I discovered at Riverside: my injured foot. It was covered with fire ant bites, obviously from when I was tearing down at my previous stay in Vicksburg. I felt the bites but was very quick to get them off my feet (and very quick to spray my sandals with insect killer). I thought it was nothing, but those little ants pack a punch. My foot looked like it had a bad case of measles. Note to self: wear sneakers when tearing down the utilities.

I also thought: if this had been Jett’s foot she would have been in the ER. She was very allergic to all kinds of insect bites.

Categories: AL, FL, Food, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TS7 | Leave a comment

“The October List” by Jeffery Deaver

Posted on September 22, 2021 by Sparky

Copyright 2013 by Gunner Publications LLC. Published by Grand Central Publishing, New York.

I think Jeffery Deaver is a very talented author. Some of his plots – particularly the ones involving Lincoln Rhyme – are among the most complex and deviant ones I have encountered. I was really looking forward to reading The October List.

But I couldn’t finish it.

This is a book written in reverse – last chapter first, first chapter last. Even the title page and credits are at the back of the book. Why? All I can posit is that Deaver got bored writing in the conventional first-chapter-first style and decided to shake things up. But the result is that there is no groundwork laid. The reader is forced to jump into a plot involving a bunch of characters that have not been properly introduced and into a plot rife with mysterious references to events that have already occurred – but haven’t yet appeared in the book.

I was tempted to start at the back and read the chapters in numerical order, but that seemed like cheating. But to do it the way Deaver wanted me to do it was too much work.

I have set it aside. Maybe I will go back to it, maybe I won’t.

Incomplete.

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TS7 Hop 16 – Vicksburg MS to Robertsdale AL

Posted on September 21, 2021 by Sparky
TS7 Hop 16

264 miles via I-20, US 49, I-59 through Hattiesburg, US 98, a zig-zag route through Mobile (I-65 and I-165 plus some local streets) and I-10. Cumulative tow miles: 3464. Truck miles: 297. Cumulative truck miles: 4836. The extra truck miles were due to the tour of the Vicksburg battlefield, but also trips to the casino, Walmart and a laundromat.

Ameristar casino

Other than a heavy shower west of Jackson, it was a nice day on mostly flat roads. I did a refueling stop just south of Hattiesburg. The GPS route through Mobile was nasty, but I didn’t get lost. The truck ran fine and the refrigerator stayed on.

So other trips (besides the battleground visit) in Vicksburg:

  • A short trip to the Ameristar casino where, once again, I walked out a winner. This time 10 cents to the good. The casino was small and I didn’t like it much so it was easy to walk out with my winnings.
  • A shopping trip to Walmart. All food this time.
  • A trip to the laundromat. I was running short of socks.

My home for 3 nights in Vicksburg was the Magnolia RV Park Resort. This is a fairly small park with the balance between transients and long-term (some VERY long-term) residents was about 50/50. The long-term RVs were pretty trashy, but the utilities were good, the dog park was great and the pool (which I didn’t use) looked very nice. And a convenient location with very good OTA television reception. So, overall, not bad.

My site at Magnolia

Categories: AL, MS, Places, Routes, RV Parks, TS7 | Leave a comment