Space Coast and Beyond

Ocala and

Onwards.

Saturday the 1st May 2010

Rocinante, Beepa and I head down to Lady lake to pick up some mail and to touch base with the Ovens at Harbour Hills. Numerous yard sales on the way and a little bit of spontaneous retail therapy!! Bill had some mail for me; my Florida Licence and my Progressive Vehicle Insurance Policy!! Very important documents! Raided Bill’s scrap wood box in his Joinery Workshop!! Very handy for the odd mounting and repairs jobs in Rocinante.

On 441 then onto 42 and east through Sanford towards Osteen on 415. The Fox Head Bar here is famous for its music and cold beer. Found it also had a large parking lot and Rocinante was parked there with about 150 Harleys!! It also has WiFi, a bonus. The Kentucky Derby runs at 6pm on a very wet track. A spontaneous winner takes all sweep is held with no horse names, just the numbers 1 through 20. I had 3 horses for my $15 and did not even rate a place!! But the winner did shout all the losing sweep holder a drink of their choice before he left with his booty! A great bunch of people. Bill is the Owner and fusses over everyone. Tattoos and pony tails proliferate!! The 2 pool tables are never unused and the live band is very good. They are inside tonight, but tomorrow they will be on the stage in the car park!!

Find a quiet spot to park and next day I am back at the Fox Head for the afternoon entertainment. Parked under a tree at the Baptist Church, the services are done for today!

Nascar Ute Racing is on TV in the Bar is popular and someone puts a couple of kilos of cooked Crawdads on the bar!! Smallish yabbies.. Very tasty bar snacks, thanks Bill.

Monday dawned promising to be warm; sure was 39 deg at midday. Had some help and Paddy took me to Sanford to do some electronics shopping.

HHGreigs are the Big Guys of Florida. A 19” and a 22” HD LCD TV are on the list as well as a DVD player. A couple of wall mounts as well! Not a lot of bargaining here, but I did get 7% off! Back to Rocinante and the air-conditioning!!

A little bit of exploring the district a a spot to work in the shade was found and the old the old 15” TVs were removed from their recesses. Adapters were made from Bill’s wood scraps and the new TVs were mounted. The recesses behind are now potential storage areas!! BUT, the signal from my very good!!!! Antenna on the roof is negligible!! A exploration of the roof, shows that the coax is very much degraded; so much so, that the shielding has disintegrated and no 12 volt power can get to the amplifier inside the flying saucer shape antenna. I removed it and dismantled it to find that my activity was indeed the best move!! A lot of delicate cleaning with a toothbrush and 20+ years of corrosion was removed and with a lot of doubt re its serviceability, was reassembled, a temporary repair to the coax and the TVs both worked well, not A1 but working. A shopping list for antenna cable, sealant for the roof and antenna connectors for the hardware shop later on!!

Wednesday is another warm one and a drive up north to De Land and to find the Southern RV Service Centre. Rick is the suspension specialist and Tom; the owner, is the Electrical Specialist. I will be back here next month to have some irregularities in the mains power switching attended to.

The radio in Rocinante is genuine 1986 vintage with cassette player. So it was into Wal-Mart and bought a DUAL unit that has CD, MP3 and Bluetooth for my cell phone for $106!! But it needs a larger hole in the instrument panel. To ACE Hardware and a coping saw is added to the ever increasing tool kit of Rocinante. One hour of delicate cutting of the 2 layers of acrylic sheet that make up the panel and the new entertainment centre fits in; except when the hinged top panel is lowered and there is interference! A little bit of “adjustment” by the wood saw and all fits well. The sound is very good. I bought 12 MP3 CDs from home for my entertainment for the next 3 months!

The New Smyrna Speedway is about 20 kays down the road and a big night is advertised for Saturday night. On to Daytona Beach and the many kilometres of beach were normal car access is available for $5 for the day. 15 mph speed limit applies. 1000’s of people here. Very poor surf, but still a good swim. Back towards the Daytona Speedway and a check-in to the KOA RV Campground. Connection to power is good, but my first opportunity to do some housekeeping! Empty my Black water and Grey water!! Also to top up my 400 litre water tank. A very comfortable night with aircon without the Kubota rumbling away providing my 110 AC power!~~

Back to Ocala for an evening out on the town at Katie Belle's at The Villages. Great music from a 60’s rock band and Karaoke afterwards. Also great hosts. Back to my home in the Wal-Mart in Ocala. Saturday it was down to do a mail pickup at Harbour Hills and then across to New Smyrna Speedway. A lot of yard sales on the way!!!~

Speedway owners gave me the OK to park overnight in the car park. The nights racing was Mothers Day eve and Mums were free entry and received a carnation. Not a large turn up of cars, but about 40 race cars gave some very good racing. It is a half mile oval with 22 deg end banking and fully sealed. Speeds of 240km in the straights were being done!!~

Next morning was a relaxed start; again!!, and I heaed for Kissimmee, south of Orlando. The Mill RV Resort is near the Disney stuff and I have booked in here for a couple of nights.

Midweek and I am now located on the Space Coast and looking for a campsite to view the Shuttle Launch on Friday. Went to most northern park to view the launch. Jetty Park at Port Canaveral is just 12 Km south of the Launch pad. Managed to get 5 nights here, water and power and dump site, so need nothing else. Headed off to the Kennedy Space centre for a return visit and to get the atmosphere for the launch the next day. 20,000 others had the same idea and a 1 and a half hour queue for the Bus to the NASA launch sight tour was a fact. I took the more expensive tour last time and bypassed the queue. But I had forgotten that small fact!!

The big day; 14^th, arrived and perfect weather was in order. The local TV station had an outside broadcast unit about 100 M. from where Rocinante was parked. About 10,000 spectators started lining the shoreline just outside the RV Park from first light. The traffic jam from Orlando to the Titusville area was at a standstill for 3 hours for 80 km!!!! It was estimated 200,000 people flocked into the area for the 20 seconds of viewing! My plan was to get the photo at the start of this blog!! Plan came together!!

27th April till 1st May

Tuesday the 27th April

First thing I have to attend to is the intermittent starting problem of my 7.5Kw 3 cylinder diesel Kubota / Onan generator. It is located in the below floor area between the 2 front seats. In front of the front axle., really quite accessible, believe it or not!

Found ; eventually, that there is an Onan Service centre in Ocala. The Cummins/Onan Power South is a big organisation that has so many motorhomes come for service of their Cummins main engine and Onan Auxiliaries, they have a 10 site campground with 50 amp power connection and water hookups. Rich, the service manager gave mean 8am appointment for Wednesday and told me to make myself comfortable. There are 2 very good aircons in Rocinante, and a good book and coffee, I surely did that!!

Promptly next morning; my serviceman Jason appeared at my RV. Would you believe the bloody thing started first hit!!!! But A full service was called for as I found that the engine was severely overfilled with oil!! New Air, fuel and oil filters were sourced within the hour, (remember, it is a 23 year old unit!!) and work began. It was surmised that the oil was foaming through overfill and the low oil pressure cut out was causing the “no start”. All finished and the button was hit, NOTHING!!!! No noise. Still a problem. In about 15 minutes he isolated it to an intermittent connection on terminal 3 of the printed circuit board on the generator. I said I would take over from there, as I did not want to buy a complete board. Folks from the RV next to me, took me to Wal-Mart to buy a soldering iron, and after about 2 hours it was all good and as new!!

Back on the road again and it was back to my supermarket overnight and plan my trip to High Springs; about 70 miles to the north, where a large RV wrecking and salvage yard is supposed to be!!

Next morning it was to the Laundromat and then to the Appleton Museum of Art to see the Southern Journeys Exhibition.

Was going through Ocala streets and noticed a Sign shop; Andy’s Signs , So inside and we designed a new Rocinante sign for the front of the RV. Very similar to The script used for the name on Steinbeck’s old camper. The photo above shows it well.

Then on the road to High Springs. The land around this area is horse country and some beautiful properties line each side of the roads.

After a few stops at interesting sights, I found the Salvage yard abot 4 miles north of town, it was late in the day and was closed, so I turned on computer to do some writing and free wifi jumped out at me!!!! No need to find an overnight spot now!! I just pulled across to the other side of the small highway up against the State Park fence and called it home for the night, with wifi!!

At 8am next morning, life appeared at the salvage yard. What a revelation behind the high tin fence! About 5 acres of stripped old RVs and caravans. So much firewood!! About 10% had had fires, a grim note about smoking in bed and candles!! Esentially, all the carcases were exactly that, but I was able to buy some small switches; new, plumbing pipes and bends etc, and an LPG detector, new!!

I did some groundwork on buying a bulk quantity of captains and passenger fully adjustable seats as well as hot water heaters. I may make up a container lot to bring home.

Why did I need the plumbing fittings you may ask? Well… the carpet has been a little wet since I started and I bought a couple of noticed that the pressure pump came on more often than was necessary!! A leak in an RV is a real problem. When they are being built, The first thing to go on the floor pan is the piping!! And it is all covered up as the unit is built. Fate shined on me and I was able to find the split 90 deg angle fitting by listening, feeling for water and a long arm. How was it to be fixed, I had prayed for some divine intervention. Tried 2 mix plasticine stuff, but only 90% effective, still leaking. So it was cut the offending corner out and use compression fittings either side of the break. Let me say it is a job best in the past!! Dry floor now!!

Next day was back to Ocala and bought a couple of car speakers to replace dud ones in ceiling over dining area, HiFi in the kitchen now!! The Computer Wizz man in Gainesville also loaded the drivers for my long distance WiFi antenna and now internet connection is a whole lot easier. Can steal WiFi from 500 metres!!

Quiet night in Ocala!! And next morning back to Lady Lake where my Florida Drivers licence had arrived in the mail at bill and Jills. Then on to Seminole City to just cruise around for a day or two.

18th April till the 28th April

Blog from Sunday the 18th April.

Saturday was a run from Plant City where I had overnighted after attending the night airshow at Sun N Fun at the Lakeland Airport. It was a veritable display of precision fly by various flyers. Manfred from Austria did his magnificent gliding display with even moire pyrotechnics than the last time I saw him! At late dusk, the 4 T6’s of the Shell precision flying team made a mockery of normal formation work wit h fractional metre spacing in the minimum light and incredible Lopresti illumination as well as continual sparkler like trails. The smoke was illuminated by spotlights aimed backwards on each aircraft. Must have been hell for the guy flying 6 o’clock!!

Back to a very 60ish motel for the night and next day it was an early start to go to Crystal River to inspect my potential RV purchase. About 6 yard sales interrupted the process and it was 1pm before I arrived at the Jackson’s small acreage about 12 Kim north of Crystal River. The pristine condition of the RV indeed got my attention and a detailed inspection underneath courtesy of Joe’s garage creeper, confirmed good maintenance. All grease points well and truly attended to and new brake linings all round! The Allison Auto trans oil was like new and a recent filter change as was the oil in the big 300HP turbo caterpillar V8 which was at the rear of the Gillig chassis. This chassis is utilised as the base of City buses all over America; the serial of this one is 40,000 something. Very successful rig. I test drove it and the ride was soooo smooth compared to my last one!~ Then a deposit down after a successful negotiation and plan to return with the folding stuff the following Thursday.

Back to a motel at Port Richey and a meal at a Pirates Den and to bed after a very exciting day.

Next morning it was up early and back to Lakeland Airport for the last day of Sun N Fun. But it was immensely heavy rain as I came down 19 and across Highway 60 to get back on 92 to Lakeland. It certainly affected the crowd. Very few people, so it was a good day; if a bit wet underfoot, at the airshow. The US Airforce did an impressive show in the Hornets with a 3000 foot ceiling.

Then with a big bag of pamphlets, it was back to the east coast organise the folding stuff at the local bank of America; very funny!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will not bore anyone with the problems. But 8 separate transactions later it was nearly accumulated.

Tuesday, it was north to Lady lake via Kissimmee. Arrived at the Ovens is afternoon and it was very good to be back to such lovely people. They had just returned from a holiday in Brazil a few days before and had a bit of air travel wog and that matched my lingering jet lag. A fair bit of anxiety as well had contributed!!

Wednesday was a boat trip over the Lake Harris lake system wit5h bill and Jill and 3 other couples from the harbour Hills community. It is called the harbour Hills mariners and they do monthly outings. About 10 boats in the flotilla for the 30 mile trip to Mission Hills Resort to the east. A lovely buffet lunch and an educated 45 minute talk by a very senior researcher from Florida water on the background to the aquifer and the lake system in the area. She also outlined the measures being taken to keep it and improve it after industry in the early part of the 20^th century damaged it!!

It was while I was there that the RV vendor called and said he had to go away urgently for 5 days, could I come straight away!! About a 1and a half hour boat trip and then 80 miles!! We got back to Bill’s bout 4pm; and thanks to daylight saving, we were able to head off to the west coast of Florida in my rental car. But I had to make one more daily withdrawal from a bank to get the final amount. We managed!! The trip took about 90 minutes and the deal was done. The whole of their dining table was covered in 100’s and 50’s as it was tallied up!!! The important unencumbered title was appropriately signed and it was of to the local Wal-Mart to get fuel. Switches EVERYWHERE and very small labels. So lots of help from my torch and the initial drive home was in the dark!!! Bill followed to cover the fact that only one taillight worked. The high clearance lights did work!! The speedo light did not work. It absolutely flys. It can go to 70mph sooo easily!! We got back to harbour Hills by 9.30pm in one piece and managed to reverse all 38 feet and 15 tonne of it into a driveway of a home that was donated for my use!! Thanks folks!!

Next day it was down to start on the many small jobs, lights first. 2 combination turn / tail had been miswired since 1986!! No wonder the lamps continually expired prematurely!!

Then down to the County office to get the Tags. Rego plate with a small sticker on it showing expiry date. Thank goodness I had my Florida Licence, soo easy; except for the payment of 7% sales tax, I paid it in $20 bills straight from the ATM’s daily spew!! 2 people had to count it. They don’t deal in cash tax payments often they said, but they were very efficient and caring, thanks Marion.

Back to Harbour hills and fit the “Tag”. To find that starting the engine is a little difficult; sorry impossible./ So 2 new GFIANT 12 volt batteries had to be found on Saturday. NAPA auto spares carried them. 50cm long, 24 cm wide and 28cm high, they weigh 45kg each!! But only cost $178US each. IT REALLY spins the Cat now!! Best move I have made to date. No more problems.

Then in Rental car to Orlando where the all important GPS was bought on special at Wal-Mart Kissimmee. The top of line Garmin for AU$200. Car taken back and the small bus service from a9irport back to my door at Harbour Hills and now I am ready to hit the road tomorrow.

Sunday 25^th, ANZAC Day, is a little overcast and clear. Up highway 27 towards Ocala and try to get some Propane at the U Haul there. Found it and now I can have a cup of tea without having to start the microwave. A large Wal-mart beckoned and it allowed more shopping and a quiet night. My fridge would not work on propane!!! So I went to see the experts.

I went to the big RV Service Centre, and they told me it would be nearly 500 bucks to fix, But they did point out the circuit board!!! to me. I went to a parking lot in the shade at Macca’s and cleaned it all and connected power and gas, voila works perfectly and gas starts instantly and automatically~!!!! The big Gas / 12 V and 110 volt refrigerator and freezer now works perfectly. Cold beer and milk.

Went north to Waldo where a large Flea Market operates; but only on Friday thru Sunday!! There is a marvellous “collective” of antique outlets in a very big multilevel old factory. So that occupied the balance of the day. I was also on the search for a small scooter and a carry to fit in the 2 inch tow fitting on the back of the RV. I found both, but I will look further. Scooters can be had from $699 new. 110cc four-stroke and look real good, even have red ones!~