January 12, 2017. New Year’s Eve was spent with Bill & Julie and a few of their friends here at their house. Bill built a campfire and ordered BBQ for everyone. We did not stay up with them until the new year but stayed up in the trailer until 2017 and then went to bed.
Started working on removing all the caulk on the trailer. I am taking it off around all of the fans and bathroom skylight, around the refrig vent, up and down both sides and down the middle. I am going down the sides a bit as well. Cleaning it up good and trying to get off all the old caulk. Cannot get it off the middle seam though, which is real hard and impossible. So I will just wipe it down and caulk over it. Also took all the caulk off of the front window and cleaned that up good. Bill ordered us some caulk from 3M, so I am hoping that will last better than the other stuff I used. Also bought some Rustoleum Recolor and put that on the fan covers, skylight, bathroom vent and around the base, and everything else on top of the trailer.
Also started removing the rotted wood and delaminated plywood from under the trailer. Took the flashing back to Home Depot as we are now going to replace the wood, and then I will paint it with gel coat, just like is used on the trailer and boats. That will make it totally waterproof, so we should not have any further problems. I think I still may paint the black portion under the trailer with Rustoleum, but that will be done after everything else is finished.
Jim has not been feeling all that great. He has been helping Bill with the woodwork restoring Jack Culp’s old trailer, and I think the dust got to him. Also, he seems to have pushed some ear wax down into his ear and his ear is plugged and it makes him disoriented.
We have been talking about him getting his cataract removed from his left eye because it’s been getting worse. We can do it down here in Florida for about $2,000 and then wait until Medicare to do the right eye. His health insurance is worthless – need to get a doctor’s referral from his primary care physician and then meet our deductible. So I just need to look for self-pay places. I don’t know if we will since he is under the weather and I think he should get well before surgery.
Julie’s Mom is down here staying with them for a few weeks, so we have been spending some time with her, keeping her company when Bill & Julie go out, and sitting and watching movies with her. She is going to an adult apartment next week, however.
January 16, 2017. Discussing what method to take to repair the bottom of the trailer. There is a lot of delamination of the top layer which I have peeled off. In the front under the garage there is rotted wood, especially on the port side, which I dug out and Bill filled it with Great Foam. We talked about putting the West System on the bare wood, and then gel coating it. Then we also talked about putting a fiberboard all around and caulking the corners. There is still some rotten wood in the back and around the stairs, which I will have to get some of the West epoxy into so it stops the rot from spreading.
Started recaulking the seams this afternoon. Got some of the front seams done and one side on the roof. It’s pretty hard to do. I don’t know if the hole is not big enough, or if the caulk is old, but I was having a real hard time getting the caulk through the tube. My hands are killing me from squeezing the caulk gun to get the caulk through the end of the tube.
Jim’s shoulders and neck are swollen and sore. We put the Tens unit on them tonight, and then discovered that the power source is not with the unit, which means that when he loaned it to Terry, it was not returned with the unit. So now we have to find a new power source.
February 12, 2017. Done with all the caulking – roof, sides and front window. Also finished underneath all around the outsides. That was a chore, but I’m glad it’s done. Also cleaned up the truck pretty good – vacuumed the whole inside, washed around the doors and then gave the truck a bath. She wasn’t real dirty but still it needed to get done. I also washed the front of the trailer since it had streaks on it from when I cleaned off the old caulk.
Jim started going to the chiropractor on February 6, which helped him a lot. He also went the next three days and also started on a thing called a magnesphere, magnets which are supposed to target certain areas of his body. He is supposed to have 12 treatments, but I don’t know that we will be coming back here after the TCT Rally. I had not planned on it, but then with the treatments we were going to for a few days. When I mentioned it to Julie, she very off-handily suggested that we go to the RV park we stayed at last year. So, I don’t know – we’ll see how Jim is doing after the next 6 treatments.
Finished underneath the trailer with the epoxy and then Gel coated, then caulking. Looks real good and I think it will hold up. Only one leak is still there – the vent above the couch is still leaking. I was sure that I got everything caulked real good, but during the last big rain, the water came down onto the couch. Now I have to get back on the roof and look around the vent and see what is going on.
The last thing I worked on was the antenna. Thursday came and I took off the old antenna, and then was working on installing the new one. I had to cut the old connection off of the cable coming up through the roof and put on a new coax connection. I hope that was done right – it took me quite a while to do it although I did not torque it down like Bill said it should have been done. He said that the professionals use some type of tool to snug it tight, which I did not have so I just tightened it finger tight. To put the antenna up, we used one wedge which Bill cut a space in to lay the cable in so it would lay flat on the roof.
It took most of the day to set it up; could not match the templet to the holes, so I abandoned that idea. Then I decided to just lay the wedge and antenna base up there and drill the holes. When I finally got it set and finished, we ran a scan and got no channels. Crap – what is going on? I sent Jim into the house to watch the Five at Five and continued working. I took the antenna off and put the old antenna back on and did another scan – still nothing.
Put the new antenna back on and looked at the TV and discovered that I forgot to attach the cable to the amplifier. Duh. Once that was connected, and another scan done, got plenty of channels.
The next day I finished with the caulking and finishing with the antenna.
Bill started in on Jim because of his drinking and was trying to convince me to get him into a rehab center. He even came to the trailer and started in on Jim calling him a drunk and that he needed to go to rehab and stop drinking so much. He kept after me to put him into rehab as well, but I declined to take him there and Jim has agreed to do his best to stop drinking so much. (So far, so good.)
Jacklyn & Joe came the weekend of her birthday – Friday through Monday. Friday we hang around the house; went out for lunch to Squid Lips and then made dinner. Julie was expected that evening back from her trip to London. It was quite late before she got back we did not see her until Saturday.
Saturday, February 18 we went out on the boat to the island and had a fun day. Lisa had come over Friday afternoon and we all went out to the island for the afternoon. As it was Jacklyn’s birthday she was thoroughly enjoying herself; for dinner we ended up with leftovers instead of steak (which she requested for her birthday dinner). But we did get her a cake, card and balloons.
Bill & Julie had to go to a funeral on Sunday and left about 10, which left us alone for the afternoon. We took a short trip to A1A and drove up and down with a stop along the road so we could take a walk up the ocean. The water was real cold so we just walked a little bit, put our feet in the water and took some pictures. We did not stay long and continued to drive south along A1A to Juno Beach, but there was not much to see as there were houses and condos all along the ocean side with nothing to see.
We eventually made our way back to the house and, had some drinks, and then made dinner. Ended up watching a little TV and then off to bed. Monday Jim had another chiropractor appointment and Jacklyn & Joe took off for home.
February 22, 2017. We left for Sertoma Youth Ranch and the TCT rally. Wednesday turned up very rainy and we waited until almost noon before leaving, and finally made it there about 3:30pm.
The rally was fun and we met a lot of people. Bumpy and Mary were there, who we have not seen for about 20 years. They were parked a couple sites down from us, across from Bill & Julie, and we all hung around together. Julie’s friend Mary Ellen from North Palm Beach was there in her new trailer with her two dogs, one of which was a 5 week old puppy with beautiful blue eyes that liked to chew on my nose.
Most everyone left on Sunday but we decided to stay until Monday to leave. We did not have to leave and are taking our time traveling now. Monday we stopped to talk with Cherie and Carl who own the long, long trailer. His family owns a cabin in the Montana mountains and they have invited us to visit while we are in West Yellowstone. The pictures she has taken of the area are so beautiful, and I am looking forward to being in the area.
Jim is feeling much better- his neck is not hurting like it did while we were at Bill & Julie’s, and he has been sleeping without his pillow and using the pool noodle on his back to try to straighten it out. Drinking has slowed down quite a bit but he is still not exercising, or walking.
Today is the last day of February and we left Brooksville yesterday and today are at River Run RV Park in Branford, Florida. Tomorrow, March 1 we will be on our way again.
March 8, 2017. Took a few days but are now at an OCP resort in Langston, Alabama – Mountain Lakes. It’s a pretty big resort on Lake Guntersville. Lots of Canada Geese around and some small ducks that remind me of quail. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere next to Lake Guntersville State Park. The closest town is Guntersville, about 30 minutes away. That’s where the Walmart is located, so that is where we will be shopping.
There was a national monument in the northeast corner of Alabama that we visited called Russell Cave. It was a cave where people actually lived about 10,000 B.C. to 500 B.C.
March 20, 2017. Left Mountain Lakes and stopped at Hidden Cove Thousand Trails in Arley, Alabama for five days. March 25 we arrived at Big Buck, a Coast to Coast park. March 29 we arrived at Cloud 9 Ranch, another Coast to Coast park. While we were at Hidden Cove, we visited the Crooked Creek Civil War Museum where the owner says his property is haunted by the ghosts of people from the Civil War. I also found an "Ave Maria Grotto," which is called the Jerusalem in Miniature, located at the St. Bernard Abbey. We also took a trip to another odd place called "Dismal's Canyon," a National Natural Landmark. It was a trip through a canyon with lots of neat rock formations.
March 31, 2017. The last day of March and we are at a Coast to Coast park called Cloud 9 Ranch in Caulfield, Missouri. Jack came to visit us while we were at Mountain Lakes. We went shooting, but it was so cold that our fingers about froze off. We had a good two day visit despite the weather.
March 25-29, 2017. We then stopped at a Coast to Coast called Big Buck Ranch in Hornsby, Tennessee. This was a hunting, shooting, ATV ranch, but there was hardly anyone there. The weather is still cold and damp with lots of rain coming through. We did have a nice day and went shooting at the rifle range. Met a young couple staying in a cabin across from our site and he helped Jim site my 1022 in, and now it shoots great. I am very pleased. We had purchased a scope while we were in Grant, New Mexico and it works really good. There were lots of ATV trails which I was able to walk the dogs on and luckily we were not there during hunting season.
March 29 – April 4, 2017. From Big Buck we made a one night stop before heading to another Coast to Coast called Cloud 9 Ranch in Caulfield, Missouri. This place is so huge, I think we were told it’s about 64,000 acres. There are about six separate campgrounds, six compounds for storage, numerous large pastures with horses, goats and a llama, and about 150 miles of ATV trails. There are also 2 swimming pools, a huge youth center, church, shuffleboard courts in pristine condition, mini golf, club house, restaurant, gift shop. It is a membership park costing $1,000 for a lifetime membership, but then must pay for the slab where you park your trailer.
It’s hard to find a good place to let the dogs loose because the ATV trails are not level – they go up and down some really huge hills. I walked down and up one the first day we got here, and will not do that again. They are very rocky and I could fall and really hurt myself. I think I found a good place to walk this morning – around one of the horse pastures and storage places, but no one walks there and I can let the dogs loose. I don’t know how far it is – I need to turn on Map my Walk and find out how long it is.
The weather sucks though; it rained when we got here and now it’s only in the mid-50’s, cold and damp. There is not much around the area to go see; I checked on some places and they are all about an hour drive from us. We’ll just wait until we hit Branson next week before we get out and see the sights.
Back to Daily Journal 2017
Started working on removing all the caulk on the trailer. I am taking it off around all of the fans and bathroom skylight, around the refrig vent, up and down both sides and down the middle. I am going down the sides a bit as well. Cleaning it up good and trying to get off all the old caulk. Cannot get it off the middle seam though, which is real hard and impossible. So I will just wipe it down and caulk over it. Also took all the caulk off of the front window and cleaned that up good. Bill ordered us some caulk from 3M, so I am hoping that will last better than the other stuff I used. Also bought some Rustoleum Recolor and put that on the fan covers, skylight, bathroom vent and around the base, and everything else on top of the trailer.
Also started removing the rotted wood and delaminated plywood from under the trailer. Took the flashing back to Home Depot as we are now going to replace the wood, and then I will paint it with gel coat, just like is used on the trailer and boats. That will make it totally waterproof, so we should not have any further problems. I think I still may paint the black portion under the trailer with Rustoleum, but that will be done after everything else is finished.
Jim has not been feeling all that great. He has been helping Bill with the woodwork restoring Jack Culp’s old trailer, and I think the dust got to him. Also, he seems to have pushed some ear wax down into his ear and his ear is plugged and it makes him disoriented.
We have been talking about him getting his cataract removed from his left eye because it’s been getting worse. We can do it down here in Florida for about $2,000 and then wait until Medicare to do the right eye. His health insurance is worthless – need to get a doctor’s referral from his primary care physician and then meet our deductible. So I just need to look for self-pay places. I don’t know if we will since he is under the weather and I think he should get well before surgery.
Julie’s Mom is down here staying with them for a few weeks, so we have been spending some time with her, keeping her company when Bill & Julie go out, and sitting and watching movies with her. She is going to an adult apartment next week, however.
January 16, 2017. Discussing what method to take to repair the bottom of the trailer. There is a lot of delamination of the top layer which I have peeled off. In the front under the garage there is rotted wood, especially on the port side, which I dug out and Bill filled it with Great Foam. We talked about putting the West System on the bare wood, and then gel coating it. Then we also talked about putting a fiberboard all around and caulking the corners. There is still some rotten wood in the back and around the stairs, which I will have to get some of the West epoxy into so it stops the rot from spreading.
Started recaulking the seams this afternoon. Got some of the front seams done and one side on the roof. It’s pretty hard to do. I don’t know if the hole is not big enough, or if the caulk is old, but I was having a real hard time getting the caulk through the tube. My hands are killing me from squeezing the caulk gun to get the caulk through the end of the tube.
Jim’s shoulders and neck are swollen and sore. We put the Tens unit on them tonight, and then discovered that the power source is not with the unit, which means that when he loaned it to Terry, it was not returned with the unit. So now we have to find a new power source.
February 12, 2017. Done with all the caulking – roof, sides and front window. Also finished underneath all around the outsides. That was a chore, but I’m glad it’s done. Also cleaned up the truck pretty good – vacuumed the whole inside, washed around the doors and then gave the truck a bath. She wasn’t real dirty but still it needed to get done. I also washed the front of the trailer since it had streaks on it from when I cleaned off the old caulk.
Jim started going to the chiropractor on February 6, which helped him a lot. He also went the next three days and also started on a thing called a magnesphere, magnets which are supposed to target certain areas of his body. He is supposed to have 12 treatments, but I don’t know that we will be coming back here after the TCT Rally. I had not planned on it, but then with the treatments we were going to for a few days. When I mentioned it to Julie, she very off-handily suggested that we go to the RV park we stayed at last year. So, I don’t know – we’ll see how Jim is doing after the next 6 treatments.
Finished underneath the trailer with the epoxy and then Gel coated, then caulking. Looks real good and I think it will hold up. Only one leak is still there – the vent above the couch is still leaking. I was sure that I got everything caulked real good, but during the last big rain, the water came down onto the couch. Now I have to get back on the roof and look around the vent and see what is going on.
The last thing I worked on was the antenna. Thursday came and I took off the old antenna, and then was working on installing the new one. I had to cut the old connection off of the cable coming up through the roof and put on a new coax connection. I hope that was done right – it took me quite a while to do it although I did not torque it down like Bill said it should have been done. He said that the professionals use some type of tool to snug it tight, which I did not have so I just tightened it finger tight. To put the antenna up, we used one wedge which Bill cut a space in to lay the cable in so it would lay flat on the roof.
It took most of the day to set it up; could not match the templet to the holes, so I abandoned that idea. Then I decided to just lay the wedge and antenna base up there and drill the holes. When I finally got it set and finished, we ran a scan and got no channels. Crap – what is going on? I sent Jim into the house to watch the Five at Five and continued working. I took the antenna off and put the old antenna back on and did another scan – still nothing.
Put the new antenna back on and looked at the TV and discovered that I forgot to attach the cable to the amplifier. Duh. Once that was connected, and another scan done, got plenty of channels.
The next day I finished with the caulking and finishing with the antenna.
Bill started in on Jim because of his drinking and was trying to convince me to get him into a rehab center. He even came to the trailer and started in on Jim calling him a drunk and that he needed to go to rehab and stop drinking so much. He kept after me to put him into rehab as well, but I declined to take him there and Jim has agreed to do his best to stop drinking so much. (So far, so good.)
Jacklyn & Joe came the weekend of her birthday – Friday through Monday. Friday we hang around the house; went out for lunch to Squid Lips and then made dinner. Julie was expected that evening back from her trip to London. It was quite late before she got back we did not see her until Saturday.
Saturday, February 18 we went out on the boat to the island and had a fun day. Lisa had come over Friday afternoon and we all went out to the island for the afternoon. As it was Jacklyn’s birthday she was thoroughly enjoying herself; for dinner we ended up with leftovers instead of steak (which she requested for her birthday dinner). But we did get her a cake, card and balloons.
Bill & Julie had to go to a funeral on Sunday and left about 10, which left us alone for the afternoon. We took a short trip to A1A and drove up and down with a stop along the road so we could take a walk up the ocean. The water was real cold so we just walked a little bit, put our feet in the water and took some pictures. We did not stay long and continued to drive south along A1A to Juno Beach, but there was not much to see as there were houses and condos all along the ocean side with nothing to see.
We eventually made our way back to the house and, had some drinks, and then made dinner. Ended up watching a little TV and then off to bed. Monday Jim had another chiropractor appointment and Jacklyn & Joe took off for home.
February 22, 2017. We left for Sertoma Youth Ranch and the TCT rally. Wednesday turned up very rainy and we waited until almost noon before leaving, and finally made it there about 3:30pm.
The rally was fun and we met a lot of people. Bumpy and Mary were there, who we have not seen for about 20 years. They were parked a couple sites down from us, across from Bill & Julie, and we all hung around together. Julie’s friend Mary Ellen from North Palm Beach was there in her new trailer with her two dogs, one of which was a 5 week old puppy with beautiful blue eyes that liked to chew on my nose.
Most everyone left on Sunday but we decided to stay until Monday to leave. We did not have to leave and are taking our time traveling now. Monday we stopped to talk with Cherie and Carl who own the long, long trailer. His family owns a cabin in the Montana mountains and they have invited us to visit while we are in West Yellowstone. The pictures she has taken of the area are so beautiful, and I am looking forward to being in the area.
Jim is feeling much better- his neck is not hurting like it did while we were at Bill & Julie’s, and he has been sleeping without his pillow and using the pool noodle on his back to try to straighten it out. Drinking has slowed down quite a bit but he is still not exercising, or walking.
Today is the last day of February and we left Brooksville yesterday and today are at River Run RV Park in Branford, Florida. Tomorrow, March 1 we will be on our way again.
March 8, 2017. Took a few days but are now at an OCP resort in Langston, Alabama – Mountain Lakes. It’s a pretty big resort on Lake Guntersville. Lots of Canada Geese around and some small ducks that remind me of quail. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere next to Lake Guntersville State Park. The closest town is Guntersville, about 30 minutes away. That’s where the Walmart is located, so that is where we will be shopping.
There was a national monument in the northeast corner of Alabama that we visited called Russell Cave. It was a cave where people actually lived about 10,000 B.C. to 500 B.C.
March 20, 2017. Left Mountain Lakes and stopped at Hidden Cove Thousand Trails in Arley, Alabama for five days. March 25 we arrived at Big Buck, a Coast to Coast park. March 29 we arrived at Cloud 9 Ranch, another Coast to Coast park. While we were at Hidden Cove, we visited the Crooked Creek Civil War Museum where the owner says his property is haunted by the ghosts of people from the Civil War. I also found an "Ave Maria Grotto," which is called the Jerusalem in Miniature, located at the St. Bernard Abbey. We also took a trip to another odd place called "Dismal's Canyon," a National Natural Landmark. It was a trip through a canyon with lots of neat rock formations.
March 31, 2017. The last day of March and we are at a Coast to Coast park called Cloud 9 Ranch in Caulfield, Missouri. Jack came to visit us while we were at Mountain Lakes. We went shooting, but it was so cold that our fingers about froze off. We had a good two day visit despite the weather.
March 25-29, 2017. We then stopped at a Coast to Coast called Big Buck Ranch in Hornsby, Tennessee. This was a hunting, shooting, ATV ranch, but there was hardly anyone there. The weather is still cold and damp with lots of rain coming through. We did have a nice day and went shooting at the rifle range. Met a young couple staying in a cabin across from our site and he helped Jim site my 1022 in, and now it shoots great. I am very pleased. We had purchased a scope while we were in Grant, New Mexico and it works really good. There were lots of ATV trails which I was able to walk the dogs on and luckily we were not there during hunting season.
March 29 – April 4, 2017. From Big Buck we made a one night stop before heading to another Coast to Coast called Cloud 9 Ranch in Caulfield, Missouri. This place is so huge, I think we were told it’s about 64,000 acres. There are about six separate campgrounds, six compounds for storage, numerous large pastures with horses, goats and a llama, and about 150 miles of ATV trails. There are also 2 swimming pools, a huge youth center, church, shuffleboard courts in pristine condition, mini golf, club house, restaurant, gift shop. It is a membership park costing $1,000 for a lifetime membership, but then must pay for the slab where you park your trailer.
It’s hard to find a good place to let the dogs loose because the ATV trails are not level – they go up and down some really huge hills. I walked down and up one the first day we got here, and will not do that again. They are very rocky and I could fall and really hurt myself. I think I found a good place to walk this morning – around one of the horse pastures and storage places, but no one walks there and I can let the dogs loose. I don’t know how far it is – I need to turn on Map my Walk and find out how long it is.
The weather sucks though; it rained when we got here and now it’s only in the mid-50’s, cold and damp. There is not much around the area to go see; I checked on some places and they are all about an hour drive from us. We’ll just wait until we hit Branson next week before we get out and see the sights.
Back to Daily Journal 2017