Category: Uncategorized

By: Kevin

Since April 2015 we have been roaming the United States in our fifth wheel RV and racking up states to add to the sticker map on the back of the RV. We have been affectionately referred to as Gypsies or the like, which seems to fit us well enough. Today we received our US passports in the mail, which now allow us to travel internationally. While we do not have any specific plans in place at the moment, we like the option of being able to travel with less than 3 months lead time while we wait for passports to be processed at that time. Today we graduate Gypsy status and have moved up to Potential Globe Trotter status. I am also obligated to say that while most peoples’ government ID pictures are notoriously bad, Miss Kicky Feet has one of the most adorable passport photos I have ever seen.

By: Kevin

This weekend we had the opportunity to witness a N.A.S.A. Atlas V rocket being launched from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL. We could have explored the Kennedy Space Center and watched the launch from a range of 2.5 miles from the launch pad, but with an admission price of $180 for our family of 4 for one day at the Space Center, we could not stomach the price tag just 2 weeks before Christmas (#5, Miss Kicky Feet, would have been free).

Instead we opted to watch the launch from Playalinda beach, which is part of the U. S. National Park Service. Info can be found on it at Canaveral National Seashore. We paid a $5 admission/parking fee for the whole family, which we were happy to pay, especially given the alternatives. The beach was a very short walk across a wooden walkway from the parking lot, and then we elected to walk down the beach to be closer to the launch pad. This placed us just under 5 miles from the launch pad, which was plenty close to have a great view.

The weather was beautiful! It was upper 80s and sunny with a few white puffy clouds in the sky, and even though the water was a little cool, Pie, Bug, and Heather all enjoyed playing in the sand and surf. I went into the water up to my knees, but enjoyed just relaxing in my beach chair and keeping an eye on Miss Kicky Feet, who was napping in Heather’s beach chair as well. Pie and Bug used their life jackets to float in the waves, giving them a surfing-like ride into the beach again.

The rocket actually launched about an hour late, but Kennedy Space Center posts updates on their Twitter feed to let everyone watching know about any delays and the newly projected launch time. Cell service was not great on the beach, but the twitter updates saved us a lot of wondering about what was going on with the launch time. We all loved the launch, and the delayed rocket sounds (remember we were 5 miles away) were kind of neat.

By: Kevin

Above our upper set of cabinets in our RV we have a lot of open space before the ceiling. We have used this space to store kitchen bowls and corningware, but between dust and airborne grease particles we seem to need to rewash clean dishes stored up there before using them. The space is also a bit narrow for some things to really be stored there, and some items must be moved prior to taking the RV out on the road.

Since purchasing our RV we decided that while it is nice, we do not expect to resell it for anything over whatever a dealership offers us for a sight-unseen trade-in for a newer unit (someday, maybe). Therefore, we have felt free to customize, revise, and alter the RV to best suit our needs. We are NOT afraid to drill holes in it.

So, this weekend we purchased the supplies to add an enclosed cabinet above our upper set of cabinets to really maximize the space and keep the dust and grease off our dishes.

To give you an idea of what I am talking about, this is what we started with.

I added a base of grade B plywood on top of the cabinets to span the distance between the L-shaped existing cabinets so we could utilize this empty space. I also did this to give the new cabinet a single, level bottom. I picked out some stain that would at least be close to the original cabinets, even if it did not match exactly.

Then I began building the door frames out of pine boards for strength and aesthetic appeal. The frames are attached to the original cabinets, the wall, the new plywood cabinet floor, and the ceiling to spread the additional weight out and not overload the original cabinets.

I made doors out of the same grade B plywood I used for the base because a 3′ x 2′ single board is insanely expensive and I had to buy a full 8′ x 4′ sheet of plywood, so I might as well use it. I don’t exactly have a garage to stash it in until my next project. A few hinges and handles, and we are all set to use it.

On this cabinet door, if I had made one single door, the swing of the door would have entered the path of the ceiling fan. To avoid fan strikes I made a larger door with a few inches of safety margin that can be opened with the fan running. The smaller door can be opened when the fan is off to allow better access to things inside the cabinet.

To give you an idea of the space inside the new cabinet, this is our 8-quart Instant Pot in its new home.

By: Kevin

For the past year and a half we have been using the wrap-around couch and dinette that came pre-installed in the fifth wheel. The couch offered plenty of seating for our family, but like factory RV mattresses, its comfort left much to be desired compared to our residential couch we had prior to moving into the RV. The table was adequate, but whenever we had guests over for a meal the table space became quickly cramped and no place to put any food once everyone’s place settings were on the table. Heather has voiced her dislike of the current setup a few times, but we really didn’t like our options. Typically we could have a small table with 4 chairs and a loveseat, or a wrap-around like we had. The alternative option really didn’t fit the needs of our family, so we left the wrap-around in place. Our current plan is to continue the RV lifestyle for at least a few more years minimum with this fifth wheel, so we would like to have a setup that we enjoy instead of simply tolerating since it will be our home for years to come.

Well, Friday on our way to see the manatees we discovered an IKEA store in Tampa. After viewing the manatees we circled back and browsed the store while the kids played in their free Play Land including a ball pit. We found a third option for our dinette dilemma and after taking some pictures and notes we headed home, escaping the IKEA store with a receipt totaling less than $50. At home we measured, diagramed our space on paper, and discussed the option. Yesterday we returned to the IKEA store, dropped off the kids in the Play Land and headed back to our potential renovation items. After confirming that it would in deed suit our needs for both function and comfort, we made our purchases and picked up the kids.

Back at home we quickly disassembled the dinette, zipping out screws and moving pieces outside. The entire disassembly of the dinette, with the assistance of Pie and Bug who were eager to help, took less than 1 hour from start to finish. The carpet was vacuumed and installation was started. We did lose some under-bench storage space in the process of the renovation, but between our recent underbelly reorganization/clean-out and the recent addition of our Annex, we can afford to lose some storage space under the dinette.

This is what we started with

The result of our renovation is a 3-seat sleeper sectional with chaise and a new table. The chaise lifts up to reveal storage within it, so not all of our prior storage space was lost. The bottom of the sofa pulls out and turns into a sleeper of pretty decent size. The table features 6 drawers (3 on each side) and 2 wings that can be used separately or together to create a table size from the minimum 10.5 x 31″ to a max of 31 x 60″ which gives us a great deal of versatility. It is also not fixed to the floor, so it can be turned and moved around as needed. The sofa is also not quite as long as the dinette was before, so we can actually store the table at the end of it and out of the way. We are very happy with our little conversion. I still need to seal the three exterior cabinet doors along the floor a little better now that there is no buffer between the doors and our living space, but that should be easy enough.

By: Kevin

As the weather starts to turn cooler, Florida Manatees start to congregate at Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station. This is due to the warm water the power station discharges after cooling their power generation station. Since Manatees are warm-blooded mammals, they enjoy the warmer waters found there. This gives people a unique opportunity to view large numbers of manatees consistently in one location over the winter months. Tampa Electric has even built a large wooden boardwalk-type walkway over the water to allow visitors to view the manatees at their Manatee Viewing Center, adjacent to the power station.

While somewhat early in the season, we stopped by the viewing center on a cool morning to see if any manatee were there. We found a decent number of these aquatic animals floating around and enjoying themselves. The kids enjoyed seeing them in the water as well as learning about them from Viewing Center staff that gave our kids coloring pages and explained where in the manatee body the bones on a display cart could be found. While we only spent about an hour at the viewing center, we plan to go back a little later in the season to see how many manatees are there once the water really starts to cool down for the winter.

You can see the snout and front flippers of a manatee on its back in the water

By: Kevin

This post now brings us up to real time. We have recounted our past travels over the past year and a half and have reached our current location and time. We are living in Largo, FL and I am working in Tampa, across the I-275 bridge from us. We are enjoying visiting with my sister and her family who live in Clearwater, about 10 minutes to the north from our current campground. We carved pumpkins with my sister and her family, however unlike when we lived in Ohio and our Halloween pumpkins sometimes lasted a month or more outside, the Florida heat zapped the life from them in a mere 3 days upon which they were retired to the dumpster.

 

We enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast at my sister’s house and watched the OSU Buckeyes beat that team up north a few days later.

In return for inviting ourselves to my sister’s house all the time we were more than happy to host a birthday party for my nephew and a sleep-over at the RV including cookout, swimming in the campground pool, and a movie night for the kids.

We have been taking advantage of the warm sunny weather here in Florida, and have been bicycling sections of the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail, a 44-mile long bike path that spans from St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs before curling back south to East Lake, FL. I would like to cover the entire length of the trail from end-to-end before we leave the area, and we are about 2/3 completed at this time. Miss Kicky Feet even gets to come along in her car seat nestled in the bike trailer behind my bicycle.

We are now rapidly approaching Christmas. Our RV is adorned with a 3-foot artificial tree and a few strings of LED outdoor lights on the canopy and exterior of the RV. The church that we have been attending, Harborside, had their Winter picnic a few weeks ago, and since we will not see any natural snow this far south this year they set up a tubing slide with shaved ice to allow members to enjoy winter activities….while wearing shades and shorts of course.

The nights are starting to get cool…meaning that it is dipping below 70 degrees at night, and we will soon be wishing each other a Happy New Year. What will 2017 have in store for us? I don’t know, but am excited to find out, and see what new places we get to explore along the way.

By: Kevin

We are currently in Largo, FL for the winter. There are 3 bridges that crisscross Tampa bay in the area. At the start of each one is a sign that warns “Long bridge, check gas”. We traveled all three today and used the trip odometer to determine the longest of these three bridges is under 9 miles long.

First of all, if you can’t make it another 10 miles you really need to already be looking for a fuel station. 

Secondly, this spring we traveled across the oil fields of Texas where we could go up to 100 miles between towns that offered fuel…without any warning signs at all. “Long” distance is apparently very relative depending on where you are located.

By: Kevin

Over the past year and a half since we left our sticks-and-bricks home and started our RV adventure we have had to deal with laundromats. We have found some to be fairly nice, and some to be not so great. Some of the campgrounds we have stayed in have had laundry rooms, but like laundromats, some are nicer than others. One thing we have not liked is that we have no idea what was in the washer or dryer prior to us using it. We do not use fabric softener because it clogs the pores of fabric and makes towels less absorbent. However, if the last person to use the machine used it, we get a little in our wash anyways. One also must stay at the laundromat to tend to their clothes so they do not end up dumped on a table or floor or, even worse, someone decides they like your clothes better than you do. While we have never lost laundry to our knowledge, we have heard of people loosing nice shirts or expensive workout clothes from laundry rooms.

So, after a year and a half we decided we were done with the laundromat scene and wanted a washer/dryer for ourselves. Now, in an RV you have limited options. You can get a very expensive machine that will do both to save precious space, but you sacrifice the ability to wash and dry at the same time. The other option is to have regular household units, but sacrifice precious RV space…of which we have little to spare. Therefore, we did some searching online and came up with a third option. We could get a small box trailer and make a laundry room on wheels. This would also afford us some extra storage space and an optional place to haul the motorcycle if we do not want to have it in the back of the RV as we have over the past year and a half.

We researched trailers and visited a dealer, American Trailers, in Tampa FL. We decided on a V-nose 6×12-foot box trailer with an internal height of 6 1/2 feet so I can comfortably stand up while inside of it. The trailer has a single axle rated at 3,500 pounds which should be plenty for our use. We opted for two swinging rear doors instead of a ramp door that folds down to make entrance and egress easier on  a daily basis when the motorcycle is not involved.

Now that we had the trailer we had to move the RV forward on our lot about 8 feet and placed the trailer behind the RV. We went to Lowe’s and picked up a washer and dryer matched set. We opted for a gas dryer so we would not require 220 volt electrical service at our site, and if we really wanted to, we could even do laundry via generator. We did have to adjust the dryer to use propane instead of natural gas which only required changing one orifice and turning a knob on the gas regulator…however some disassembly was required to get to the orifice and regulator.

Once the washer and dryer locations were determined it came time to start drilling holes in our trailer that had been purchased just days prior. We would need power, water, and propane inlets, as well as sewer and dryer outlets. A trip to Camping World as well as Lowe’s made the installation possible, and with electric, water, sewer, and propane installed, we were ready for laundry to be washed. We are also appreciative to Heather’s grandparents who, whether they realized it or not, donated the two propane tanks, a water hose, and 2 sewer hoses to our project as we were cleaning out their RV and were preparing it for sale.

We also installed sheet vinyl flooring, electrical outlets, 12 volt lighting,  and shelving to complete the project. To finish off the trailer we placed some reflective striping and custom vinyl lettering on the outside to officially make it our own. Our trailer was now ready for use. To ensure a safe travel all shelving as well as the washer and dryer are secured to the wall/floor so they will not bounce or shift as we move to our next assignment. I am proud of my trailer conversion/installation, and Heather and I both LOVE having our own laundry room.