Repairs, Trees and Halloween

I have to thank Dave over at Flip Flop Vector as he started the whole "dark side" conversation that got flowing here, there, and everywhere :-). I always thought that my posts about the sights we've seen were the most popular, but apparently everyone does like hearing about our issues as well!

Al did find a crack in the galley gray water tank. It's on the top of the tank, and it could have been there for quite awhile and we didn't know it. This is the first time since last fall that we haven't had sewer hookups, and usually he leaves the galley gray tank open. Now that we fill it, up pops the problem. With careful management of the tank, we probably could have left it....we would just have to make sure it didn't fill to the top. But, I do have a handy man here, and he decided to fiberglass the crack to resolve the problem. We had fiberglass supplies leftover from the shower pan repair this summer. I don't think I wrote about that, but during the summer we noticed a crack starting in the bottom of the shower pan near the drain. Does anyone else have one of those shower floors that 'flexes" when you stand on it? That is really annoying, and I believe ultimately led to the pan cracking. Why can't they put adequate support underneath these things? Anyway, he had ordered fiberglass materials for that and fixed that up, so now he did the same thing to the tank. I felt like an operating room nurse, as I stood next to him and handed him the tools and materials as he needed it. It was especially interesting as he was on his back under the tank, and fixing the top where he could only see with the aid of one of those bent mirrors :-).

Meanwhile, while he was underneath the trailer moving things around, another issue cropped up. I noticed the power would blink off now and then. He traced that back to a loose ground wire in the electrical panel, and fixed that. And as I was giving the shower a super scrubbing, some of the silicon caulking was peeling off, so we re-caulked the shower. So the only thing left is the ugly crack on the outside fiberglass, and that will have to wait for professional help in Florida.

We also had a couple of physical things to take care of. Chelsea has developed a hot spot on her leg, and was busy chewing on it, so off to the vet she went. Antibiotics and some prednisone should take care of that.  He did say that she probably has some arthritis and that may have been what she was chewing at, and we noticed while she's on the prednisone she is perkier and her limp isn't as noticeable, so we may have to investigate some arthritis management this winter for the old girl. And I went for an eye exam, and they prescribed GLASSES! Oh no! So I picked those up and have been trying to get used to them. Bifocals. Ugh. I am having a hard time with reading my kindle with them. I can't make the whole page come into focus, and the edges of the page are a bit distorted, like a funhouse mirror. I sure could use some advise on using them!

We did go out geocaching a couple of times as well. We pulled out our SeaEagle Runabout for the first time this year, and went to Sportsman Lake near here. There's a set of geocaches placed around the lake, and you can only retrieve them if you have water access. It was fun, and a nice day, and felt good to be back on the water. We are really looking forward to doing kayaking down in Florida this winter :-).

We also took a day trip to The Bernheim Arboretum in Clermont, about an hour and a half drive from here. The campground is very busy this weekend, it is the "Halloween in the Park" festival taking place, and the campground is full to capacity. It seemed like a good thing to leave for the day :-). Little did I know I was jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as this weekend is "Colorfest" at the Arboretum, and it was jam-packed there as well! It was very pretty, though, but sadly the day never cleared off like the weatherman said it would, and it remained cloudy and chilly all day. The colors were beautiful, and I did take some pictures, although it would have been spectacular with the sun shining.

We did some geocaching around Lake Nevin. There were several caches placed here. There are many trails throughout the arboretum, and we hope to get back to explore some more of them when it is not so crowded.

Pretty colors

I really like these red trees in the lake

Closer look

Chelsea loves the grass!

 

We did a multi-part cache, and the last spot told us to go "20 feet straight from the thing". Well as we were searching for the co-ordinates, we kept wondering, what is the thing we're looking for? Well we knew it when we found it :-).

When we returned to the campground, it was almost dark and trick or treating was in full swing! I went out this morning and took some pictures of the campground and the decorated sites. Some of these folks really go all out.

This is our row this morning. By this afternoon, it will be empty except for 4 of us Amazon people!

Individually decorated sites

I categorize this under "really!!??". Looks sturdy to me, what do you think :-)?

These four pictures are all one site decorated. That's a lot of work for one weekend!

Another row with those beautiful trees at the end. 

Well, there's a mass exodus out of the campground now. The line at the dump station is rather impressive! Glad I'm not waiting in it :-). After this weekend it stays pretty quiet and peaceful here, and after November 1st its pretty much all Amazon workers here. Speaking of which, I go in for paperwork tomorrow, and start on Tuesday. I know I'm working the donut shift to start, Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday. Once peak sets in, we'll see what happens. I'll find out tomorrow which department I'm starting in, although we know from last year that can and probably will change :-). The key here is flexibility, and who knows better about that than RV'ers? 

That's about all from Campbellsville today. I really appreciate all the comments and well wishes from everyone. Mike and Anne, great to hear from you. Please drop us an email, we'll be going through Massachusetts next spring and would be great to meet up with you. Stay tuned for the further Amazon adventures to come!