Linda Goes To Jacksonville and Electrical Research

DeBary, FL.

59 deg. light fog, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain in the afternoon. High of 88F. Winds from the SSW at 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

Hasn't been a whole lot happening around here lately. Linda has been working on getting the presents ready to send. She had quite a bit more sewing to do than I had thought, but is finally finished with that and has been busy wrapping them up. That is, except yesterday!!

So, "what did she do yesterday", you ask?

Well, after lunch, Laura came by and picked her up and they they drove up to Jacksonville to see Anna!! : )  You see, Laura needed to go up there to take some papers and new license plates to Anna, so she asked Linda if she wanted to ride along. Needless to say, Linda jumped at the chance to see Anna and her apartment.

And besides that, Linda got to ride in Laura's new car!!!!

The trip up there went well, and after visiting for a little while, the 3 of them decided to go to a movie. (I think it was that new Hobbit movie). Then after the movie, they headed to a Pizza place called Al's, where they had a very good pizza and talked some more. Then after taking Anna back to her apartment, Laura and Linda headed back here.

It was about 9:00 when they got back here, so it was a long day, but Linda had a great time. ; )

While Linda was gone, Jim did a little research of my 120 vote electrical system. You see, he's been trying to figure out which outlets are on which circuit breakers. The breakers are vaguely marked and the only real way to find out which breaker controlled which outlet was to shut each individual breaker off and then go around and find the outlets didn't have power.

Well, I suppose that they had a reason to wire the outlets like they did, but many of the outlets that Jim and Linda use the most and have the heaviest loads on them, were all on the same 20 amp breaker, and they're not even in the same area inside of me!!!! So, some of the things that were plugged into those outlets were moved to different ones that are on a different circuit.

Jim says that he's amazed that they weren't tripping that breaker with all the things that were running off of it!!!

Oh, and Jim also found out that every outlet inside of me is hooked up to my inverter. That means that if the power goes off, anything plugged into me will operate off of my batteries. This is a good thing except if a heavy load like a space heater is plugged in, it will drain the power out of my batteries pretty fast.

Jim also took a photo of my little Christmas tree. It's not the best photo in the world, but you can see how it sits on my dash. I also have some wreaths and bows in different places inside of me, so I look pretty festive. :  )

Did you know that on this date in 1817 - Mississippi was admitted to the Union as the 20th American state?

Two Movies, Parts and Dinner For Two.

DeBary, FL.

57 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Partly sunny. Highs in the upper 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph.


Linda called Laura yesterday morning and plans were made to go see that Sherlock Holmes movie that just came out. Then, about 12:30 Laura came by, picked her up and they headed to Sanford to see it.

Linda said that she enjoyed the movie and both she and Laura had a good time. : )

While they were at the movie, Jim took CLT and went to the Deland Truck Center up in Deland, Fl. Jim found them a few years ago when he was looking for some filters for Myrddin and has been going back ever since. They have a fairly large parts department and if they don't have what you need, they'll gladly order it for you if they can. Also their prices are reasonable, compared to other places.

So, why did Jim go there? Well, he wanted to get a price on an air filter for my engine, a 12 volt LED light and some replacement chrome lug nut covers for my wheels.

He found the LED light that he wanted, the lug nut covers for me and got a price for the air filter. However, he didn't buy the air filter. You see, my engine air filter does not have a replacement filter element. You have to buy the whole filter assembly which includes the whole metal canister with the filter inside of it. The canister has large fittings on it for the very large hoses that go to my air intake and to my engine.

When we were at Creative Coach this fall, this filter had to be removed to work on my alternator and it was determined that it was getting close to the time when it needed to be replaced. Jim inquired about the cost and Lester gave him a price of $185.00.

Yep, you read that right. $185.00!!!!!

Well, since Jim and Linda had just spent a bunch of money on me, Jim told Lester that he would put off changing it for awhile.

OK, now I'll bet you're wondering how much they want for the filter at the Deland Truck Center? Well, They didn't have it in stock but Dennis told Jim that he could order it, have it in within a week and the price would be $135.00!!

Wow!! That's a saving of $50.00!!!! And it shouldn't be that hard to replace!!! Jim says that for $50.00 he'll gladly do it himself!! : )  He's going to order it after the first of the year.

After he returned, Jim replaced the missing and cracked lug nut covers on my wheels, (only 3 of them), and then took a nap.

By the time he woke up, Linda was home from the movie. Since there had been no plans for dinner, it was decided that they'd head over to Steak 'n Shake for a nice little dinner for two. ; )

After they got back, they watched the movie, "A Christmas Carol", on TV before going to bed.

Did you know that in 1843, "A Christmas Carol" was written by Charles Dickens in just six weeks?

There's Been A Change In The Weather, More Pictures, A Movie and Shopping

DeBary, FL.

53 deg. overcast, no wind.

Forecast =

Mostly sunny. Highs in the lower 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.

There's definitely been a change in the weather around here. After a cold front with rain came through the other night the temperature has dropped to almost 20 degrees colder than it had been. That's OK though, I just checked the weather up in Rantoul, IL., and it's only 28 deg up there this morning!!!

Brrrrrrr!!!!

Jim took a few more photos of the park so I thought I'd post them this morning.

This first one is of the boat ramp / marina that you see as you come up to the entrance of the park. There's always a lot of activity here as it's one of the nicest ramps in the area.

This next photo is of the swimming pool area. It's all fenced in, the pool has a roof over it and is screened in to help swimmers avoid the bugs during certain times of the year.

This is the fishing lake and they ask that only children fish here, and of course it's catch and release, but the kids seem to have a good time.

This last photo is of a little "island" in the middle of the main road. Jim and Linda say that they put up all kinds of Christmas decorations on this little patch of ground so it should be real pretty. Also, do you see that road running off to the right of the right side of this island? Well, just about 20' down that road is where I'm parked, so I should be able to see all the decorations right from my site. ; )

Linda went to see a movie with Laura and Ashley yesterday afternoon. She said that they had a good time and really enjoyed the movie. (Sorry I don't remember what the name of the movie was) : (

While they were at the movie, Jim took CLT and headed to a new Auto Zone store that is just down the street from here. He did more looking than anything else, but did buy some molding tape to use to attach a piece of gutter, (that he got from Dan at Creative Coach),  over my entrance door.

From there he went to an Ace Hardware store and bought me a new smoke detector. The one that was in me was old and started going off for no reason a few days ago.

When he came back here, he installed the smoke detector and cleaned up the piece of gutter so it would be ready to install when the weather gets warmer.

I have no idea what's happening today. It's supposed to be cool today so Jim probably won' be able to install that gutter. (the directions on the mounting tape say it should be at least 65 degrees). Laura is working so she won't be stopping by, and there's nothing planned here in the park.

Hmmm!! Maybe it's just a "kick back" day!!  ; )

Did you know that the first truly affordable home smoke detector was invented by Duane D. Pearsall in 1965, featuring an individual battery powered unit that could be easily installed and replaced?