Waiting for the shuttle launch, 4am 02/07/2010

Many of us were down by the water (the Indian River - Inter-coastal Waterway) in the wee hours of Feb 7th waiting for the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor. Unfortunately the launch was scrubbed due to low cloud cover, and postponed for 24 hours. We'll be there at 4am tomorrow to try again!

Arrived in Titusville on February 1st....

Last night out, Super Wal-Mart an hour out from Titusville. Click on snapshot for enlargement

We arrived at Manatee Hammock on February 1st as originally scheduled. The jaunt from Atlanta (Norcross) wasn't without it's share of drama and issues as we experienced more electrical problems. Alice and myself are now quite expert at locating the various fuse boxes and finding access to remove blown fuses. There is a short somewhere that we're going to have to have fixed prior to our return home in April. It's not good form to be going down the bleeding highway and having your brake, signal and running lights mysteriously disappear, especially when you're towing a vehicle.

We're at a temporary site until February 9th due to a booking screw-up. There's a shuttle launch coming up and our site was booked out in error, so we'll end up moving to our "permanent" site on Feb 9th. That site is near our friends from the Seaport Sams Camping Club. The temporary site is a good one and we're not complaining...we're about dead center of the campground so it's only a two minute walk down to the water.
Photo on the upper right is our new temporary diggs....

Hands-on With the Apple iPad

This looks VERY interesting!! I could probably talk myself into being an early adapter...the E-Book and I-Phone app compatibility are very compelling....
Hands-on With the Apple iPad


Check out this video to experience what this new tablet can do..

Arrived in Atlanta on January 25th...

We arrived in Atlanta (Norcross) Ga yesterday, January 25th. The trip was not without incident (are they ever?) but we made it through OK. The first disconcerting incident happened in New Jersey. We stopped to add fuel and someone mentioned that the Jeep was dragging a cable or cord. As it turns out one of the safety cables had unhooked, and when that went down it took the electrical cable for the Jeep's lights with it. It dragged and was totally destroyed. Very luckily we found an RV dealer a few miles away that just happened to have ONE of those cables on hand...so the day was saved. There were a few other minor glitches that were encountered and overcome and we arrived to reasonable weather, a wonderful 4 Seasons ambianced room with Alice's brother and sister in law, and we'll stay here until Sunday. Then, it's on the road to Savannah where we'll spend one night and de-winterize the rig, and plan on arriving in Titusville on Feb 1st.

Trip Update, Thursday January 21st, 2010 4:09p

The motor home should be ready late on Friday the 22nd according to Northeast. We're looking at the submersible fuel pump and the sending unit to same...multiple hours of labor in addition to those parts as the pump is in the fuel tank. Best case scenario: We get the motor home back Friday, and get on the road Saturday.

Not all camping excursions go smoothly.....

We left Preston on schedule on January 17th, heading for Norcross (Atlanta) Ga as a waypoint to our final destination of Titusville Fl. The plan was to stop at first highway rest area in Montville, check the hitch to make sure that was OK and top off the fuel. 50 feet in front of the pumps the rig just stopped. We had to have her towed back to Preston to Spearpoint garage, and from there she was towed to Northeast Diesel in Plainfield as Spearpoint didn't have the lift capacity to raise her and drop the fuel tank. It looks like the fuel pump (which is in the tank) STB. Art at Spearpoint is a true gentleman and as honest as the day is long, and he did the diagnosis of the rig the same day he was scheduled to go into the hospital in New Haven for some personal health issues and tests. Everyone should be fortunate to have a local mechanic of his caliber and character.
Northeast thinks they'll have the rig repaired by this Thursday January 21st, and if that is indeed the case we hope to have her repacked and be on the road by Friday or the weekend at the latest. We had enough flex time in the schedule where we can still visit the relatives in Atlanta on the way to our final destination, so we're hoping all is well that ends well...though we'll be quite a few $$ liter for the experience.
Stay tuned!

We're leaving for the Southland Sunday, January 17th....

We're in serious packing mode and are leaving tomorrow, going to Titusville Fl by way of Atlanta Ga. We're fortunate in that we've just entered a partial January thaw and the weather is very moderate. It's always a worry heading out this time of the year because of the unpredictability of the weather patterns. Click the headline link to transport to the Manatee Hammock Campground in Titusville which will be our digs for the next few months.