Jan 8th...
Starting over. I had a post ready to go and lost the internet connection. I hoped my save of the file would make it a draft and i would have it once internet returned. No such luck. So i will start with today and catch up this evening.
We awoke in Fort Myers with a decision to make. We could head south for 5  hours and visit Key West or head north 3 hours and visit Animal Kingdom. We have a Christmas gift for the Kingdom. Deb, checked the weather and the Keys' had a forecast of Thundershowers for the next three days. Not so Orlando.
Due to my infirmity, revealed in the next post, i opted for Orlando and, more importantly, Deb decided Orlando too. I fell asleep in the master bedroom only to wake upon approach to the campgrounds.
Fort Wilderness offers 2600 campsites with electric, water and cable hookups. I did not see but one or two empty sites in our 300 level sit but i did not see any vacant levels.
In our camp level i saw pricey, i mean pricey, motorhomes. I can only guess but we certainly can guess $150K for some of the larger models. They seem permanently placed on their sites. I think that they must purchase the site or at least lease the site for the winter. At $102 a day, i don't see them staying long term. Though if you can afford a $150k motorhome...
We settled in for the night taking comfort in the knowledge that we may have a small home, but we could look down our haughty noses at the ones in tent! ha!
We had dinner at Davey Crockett's place where i had my first meal of substance in three days.It stayed down.
sleep tight.

Jan 2...
Another day of rest but we ain't complaining. Our hostess, Chris, drove us to some of the tourist sites around here. I have pictures but haven't downloaded them to my computer to post here so that will wait another post. I, usually, post the day after, thus today is Sunday...football day. While i watch the Detroit Tigers go down in flames to my Chicago Bears I will post photos. We plan to leave on Tuesday for parts south.
But today...(Sunday) football
D&D

Jan 1, 2016….

At last, a day free from travel. Our hosts. Mark and Christine, started their day by dressing in orange and driving into Tampa to watch Tennessee win… big! Mark hails from Memphis.

We, Nancy, Deb, Don and Brittany walked the white beach and drank beer...

Saw some wondrous creatures...

Let Nancy introduce us to a unique motel. It actually lets weekly efficiency apartments!

Then we drank more beer and watched teams that showed up to play(just sayin')....

D&D

Dec 31….

The day started before day break, 6AM. After the repair we took off to make up for a lost travel day. We hit rain and road flooding and pressed probably too far into the night before we, finally, pulled into a rest area on I10 and packed it in.

During the ride to our rest stop, Deb drove through two(2) states all by herself! She traverse the southern end of Mississippi and Alabama. Make sure you congratulate her on such a masterful feat. She thinks very highly of herself for this accomplishment.

As we passed through Mobile, Alabama we drove through The George Wallace tunnel. Very cool.

This morning off we shot with a goal of Treasure Island, FL. So far so good.

Short story short. We drove I10 to I75 to Treasure Island, encountered traffic as befits a large town, parked at our destination on Treasure Island, drank the offered beer, walked to Wa-ti-ki bar, drank beer, watched the first half of “the game” and never felt my head hit the pillow all before 10:30pm, local.

Happy New Year!

D&D

Dec 29 ---

 Today we awoke in the shed of Skelly’s Auto and truck repair. Our adventure began last night.

We tried to find diamonds to cover the cost of our trip and came up short…way short. When we attempted to leave the parking lot and head for our campsite the Roadtrek(hence named “Thang”) had a hard time starting. Finally, white smoke and a little cajoling, Thang started and we camped.

The next morning Thang started without incident and we motored to Shreveport, La.  Shreveport has nothing of interest if you ask Google but I saw many cool buildings so I asked Deb to drive around town before heading south. During our city tour Thang coughed and wheezed through town. It almost stalled several times and just didn’t “feel” right. We turned on to 47 south and off to Baton Rouge, La.

Thang ran good on the flat road but given a little incline felt like it worked a little too hard. 2 miles north of Opelousas, La we lost power and got off, turned into a parking lot before Thang gave up the ghost. Deb called AAA and two hours later our tow truck arrived.

I have a picture of Thang on the hook but I wish I had a picture of this tow truck interior. The steering wheel had no cover just the metal wheel. The door panels hung on the door… no screws or attachments inside the vehicle and the dashboard had holes where grills, radios and other items should reside. The dash lights didn’t work  so I don’t know if the instruments worked and the headlights glowed like parking lights rather than running lights. However, with all that said, the tow truck dragged Thang and not vice-versa.

20 miles south of Opelousas, in Lafayette, we unhooked and set up camp for the night at Stelley’s truck and auto repair. We had a covered car port with electricity…all the comforts of home. 7am awaits us to determine the damage and repair to get back on the road.

Dec. 30…7:00am. We told our story to the proper personnel and, now, await the verdict. This place has several motorhomes of various descriptions, including one late model Roadtrek.

It took 3 hours to free up a mechanic to work on Thang. I would have preferred an earlier assault on our vehicle but we didn’t have a reservation. Who knew? The mechanic attached a computer to the 23 year old diagnostic port and found nothing! With such an old vehicle he did not expect much. So it came down to knowledge and problem solving. Eventually he found a failed coolant sensor that indicated an operation temp of 33 below zero. To help correct the problem the sensor told the carburetor to dump fuel  to the engine and heat up. When our mechanic pulled the spark plugs they looked as black and sooted as Santa after Christmas deliveries down the chimney.  A total of 8 hours at the shop and $425 later we drove on down the road, cheap if you consider a burned up engine or spending the New Year’s weekend in Lafayette.

Drive on!

More pictures later.

D&D