Our old crane friend.
After Pine Island, we returned to the Orlando Thousand Trails park for another 10 days. This was our third time here. Large RV parks aren’t my favorite places to camp, but with our zone pass, we can stay at Thousand Trails resorts for $3/night for up to two weeks at a time. And the Orlando Thousand Trails park is our hands-down favorite of the TT parks we’ve visited so far. This was a good place for us to slow down and take care of some business. We had to get an RV repair done. I lost myself in TurboTax for several days. Kate started a new quilt. And we reconnected with a few of our RVing friends.
Electrical Repair
When we were staying at Sugarloaf Women’s Village, our electricity went out. We still had battery power, and there was electricity coming from the post we were plugged into, but not into the coach. We’d had the power cut in and out several times before, but now nothing. I tracked the problem to the automatic transfer switch, which regulates incoming power. It reeked of smoke, and when I opened it up there were several burned wires. We wouldn’t be in one place long enough to get it fixed till Orlando. When I called an RV repair place there, it was going to be $240 just for the part, but I found it on Amazon for $75 and had it shipped to the RV park, and lined up a mobile RV repair guy to come replace it.
For a week and a half, we skated on battery power, using fans instead of air conditioning when it got hot. In Orlando, Patrick Monahan’s RV Repair came right to us and cheerfully replaced the ATS in under an hour for $85. Turns out the problem was low voltage, which can blow out an ATS just as quickly as high voltage. That explains why the surge protector we had on the post wasn’t impacted. It only protects against surges. Patrick suggested we buy a basic voltage meter and keep it plugged into a coach outlet and keep an eye on it when we’re plugged in to make sure we’re not dipping below or above normal voltage.
One more lesson learned the hard way.
Reconnections
Andrea and her cat, Barney.
Fun as it is to travel to new places all year long, it feels so good to see familiar faces. This is the go-to park for wintering TT members, so rovers usually stay their allotted two-week stint, move out for a week, then come back in. We were happy to see both our friend Andrea, whom we’d met in a D.C. campground, and our friends Dee and Michael, whom we’d met here, then saw again at a different park. It makes such a difference to be somewhere where people you really like drop by for a chat, a dog walk, a bike ride.
We had Dee and Michael over to dinner one night, Andrea another. Hale and Ruth, who we’d met earlier through Dee and Michael, had us all over for a barbecue once. On Saturday Dee drove in with us to Winter Park and we walked around the Saturday Market, watched kids play in the park, and went on a shopping excursion to Costco.
Dee, Michael and Timmy.
When we said goodbye this time, we knew we wouldn’t be reconnecting any time soon. Dee and Michael hope to tour the northwest in 2017, and they will surely stop in and see us. And Andrea and I have a someday-date to go to the Oregon Country Fair together. But we won’t be running into them in another RV park. This is the hard reality of full-timing… you meet people you absolutely click with, and just as you’re really starting to get to know each other, it’s time to say goodbye. At least with Facebook, we’ll get to follow along on each other’s travels, whatever roads we choose.
Bingo!
Bingo’s a big deal in RV resorts. They all seem to have at least one Bingo night in the rec center, and I’m always surprised at the crowds coming and going for the event. Somehow I don’t think my RVing year would be complete without participating in a game. So when Andrea suggested we go, I jumped at it. She’d never bingoed before either, but she has a friend who’s a serious player and she saved us seats, which was a good thing, because there wasn’t an empty seat in the rec hall when we arrived half hour before game time.
Ready to BINGO!
We introduced ourselves to our table as “bingo virgins,” and those around us immediately took us under wing. Explained the cards and the different patterns required for a bingo each game. They pointed out the large electronic screens on opposite walls that show the numbers called, and the TVs that zoom in on the caller’s hand presenting the chosen ball. They loaned us bingo “daubers” for marking our cards. And away we went.
Andrea and I were both giddy with excitement as we stepped into this odd world of senior gambling. A king and queen were chosen by random drawing and crowned. Whenever the number of their choosing was picked, they tooted horns and were given a dollar. Some people had 12 or 15 cards laid out before them, daubing squares with hen-pecking speed. The first prize was $250. After that, each game brought $50. And every time “Bingo!” rang, the room heaved with disappointed sighs.
Ready, set, GO!
I was surprised by how much money was exchanged. I’d spent $7 to start, and that included cards for both Andrea and me. At least 200 people packed the room and most of them probably spend at least $10. There were a dozen or more games, two with $250 prizes, and the rest with $50. And all these years, I’d thought Bingo was just for pocket change.
I hadn’t realized that Bingo night went on for hours. I’d arrived at six, leaving a pot of chili and Kate (who was in the midst of a sewing project) back in Bessie. When intermission came at 8:00, I called it a night, pushed my cards over to Andrea and suggested she stop by afterwards for a bowl of chili. When she came over at 9:30, she was exhilarated. No one at our table had won a bingo, but my entry ticket had won a door prize: a $50 Walmart card. She was ready to hand it over, but I wouldn’t think of it. I just wish I’d seen her face when she claimed it.
Paddling Along
Gators!
We hadn’t taken our inflatable canoe out since the Adirondacks in September. It was too cold after that, and then down in Florida, there are alligators. There’s a nice little lake at this Thousand Trails park, and not a man-made one like so many other parks have. The alligator warning sign at the launch beach kept me from exploring it before, and I’d never seen anyone take out the free-to-borrow paddle boats or kayaks. There are two small alligators that frequent a mud island by the dock. But everyone I talked to assured me there had never been an incident, that being in a boat would be safe, especially out in the middle of the lake. Just don’t bring the dog. Dogs are especially tempting to gators.
Back on the boat.
So I blew up our canoe and talked Andrea into going out with me. It was wonderful out there, just listening to birds and looking up at the open sky. We paddled and talked and relaxed, and only once, when we heard the low thrum-thrum of a gator off in the reeds did we get nervous.
Kate went out with me that afternoon, and again the next morning. A storm was gathering in the distance that second day, but overhead, there were bright cumulous clouds and blue sky. In the middle of the lake, we reclined in our seats, watched the clouds charge across the sky, colliding and reshaping, and reveled in the fact that we were lolling about in the warm sun in February.