Tampa 2014 Trip: Enjoying the oasis (Day 7, 1/10/2014)

Eating at Café Croissant

We start the morning with a senior yoga class in the campground and then bike down to Café Croissant where we enjoy cappuccino and a delicious spinach quiche. We take a two-hour bike ride on the Pinellas Trail, along with other bikers and walkers.  The smell of the bougainvillea overhanging the trail is delightful. We pack up and leave this oasis, heading to meet friends for lunch in Sarasota and move out of the camper into their home until we head to Tampa on Tuesday for the RV show.  

Tampa 2014 Trip: Rain, rain, go away (Day 6, 1/9/2014)

Lots of counter space!

It is raining so we sleep in. Mid-morning, we go for an easy run/walk on the Pinellas County Fitness Trail and stop in Anytime Fitness for an hour workout. In the strip mall next door we discover Café Croissant, a tiny French cafe where we have homemade soup and delicious French rolls. Finally, it has stopped raining and it has warmed up. We swim at the campground pool and bask in their hot tub. For dinner I microwave soup and make a salad, enjoying the long countertop in the camper, without the stovetop chopping up the space.

Tampa 2014 Trip: Exploring St. Petersburg, Florida (Day 5, 1/8/2014)

At the Dali museum in St. Petersburg, Florida

It is still only 40 degrees, windy and grey. We stay cozy in our camper in the morning and then meet a friend and his wife for lunch in downtown St. Petersburg. They give us a quick tour of the downtown. We enjoy the Dali museum, discovering that the wife of the couple who founded this museum was from Cleveland and they saw their first Dali painting at the Cleveland Museum of Art. We walk around the harbor and duck into the beautiful Vinoy RenaissanceResort for a drink. We stay for dinner, enjoying the “early bird special.” 

Tampa 2014 Trip: Practically balmy (Day 4, 1/7/2014)

Our motor home

We linger at our friends’ home, catching up on emails, and set out about 11:00 am. We head for St. Petersburg, where the temperature is only 45 degrees—but still the warmest location within a few hour’s drive. We settle into the St. Petersburg/Madeira Beach KOA and hike on the Pinellas County Fitness Trail, built over an old railroad bed. We get four miles in, but it is still cold and windy.

Tampa 2014 Trip: In out of the cold (Day 3, 1/6/2014)

From the road, we call friends near Gainesville, Florida and are invited to spend the night there. It is good to get out of the cold. We enjoy spreading out in their beautiful home, sharing a leisurely dinner, and watching the Florida State vs. Auburn football game. 

Tampa 2014 Trip: Not so warm in the south (Day 2, 1/5/2014)

Selfie: reflection on side of the RV

For breakfast, we microwave our leftover enchiladas from yesterday’s lunch, add hard boiled eggs, and set out about 8:00am Central Time. We meet a potential client and enjoy talking with him about the new features of the 2014 Advanced RV.

 

We then head for Chattanooga to visit my nephew, his wife Lynda, and their four kids. Lynda texts us that the temperature in Chattanooga is predicted to drop to 0 Fahrenheit with three inches of snow. We decide to meet them for lunch and keep moving south. We stop for the night at a KOA in Forsyth, Georgia, north of Macon. We walk, all bundled up, through the camp under the pine and pecan trees. It gets down to freezing overnight.

Tampa 2014 Trip: The Big Freeze-up (Day 1, 1/4/2014)

Last night the Advanced RV team completed the 2014 model that we have been calling “Mzungu,” the Swahili word for one who wanders aimlessly, originally referring to the white explorers searching for the source of the Nile. Our aim is to head south, out of the Cleveland cold, ending up at the Florida RV SuperShow in Tampa, which starts January 14.



This exposed outlet pipe from fresh water
tank is possibly where the system froze up

This morning, as we pack up and head out at 6:30am, it is 12 degrees Fahrenheit with a stiff wind. We think the motor home is sufficiently insulated to keep the water system from freezing up before we get to warmer temperatures. But, two hours into the trip, with temperatures still in the teens, we realize that water won’t come out of either the kitchen or bathroom faucets. Another hour later, I see that the rugs are soaked and our toiletry bags, stored on the floor of the bathroom, are floating in four inches of water. The water is sloshing over the lip of the bathroom floor into the hall, while the bathroom faucet is dripping slowly. Apparently, I left the faucet on when I checked it the first time; when the water thawed, our 40 gallons of fresh water overflowed the grey tanks, which then backed up to flood the RV. 

Mike pulls over quickly and tries to open the grey water tank, but the valve is frozen. We frantically grab the plastic waste-basket, and I start I bailing out the, passing the bucket outside to him. After a few quick relays, we start laughing. We sponge the water out of the hall rugs with our bathroom rug and paper towels. The floor underneath is fine. 

Warm running lights on a cold night for camping

About 1:00pm., we meet Mike Wendland—a prolific Class B RV lifestyle writer and blogger—and his wife, Jennifer, for lunch at a good Mexican restaurant off I-75 south of Lexington, Kentucky. I think my Mike is not going to tell him about the flood, but well into lunch, he gets Mike W. to swear not to blog this story. They discuss all the factors that might have contributed to this problem: not enough heat in the back of the coach (the heat was cranked up in the front), the wind chill factor on the pipes and tanks underneath, not enough antifreeze in the tanks, the outlet valves being wet from testing and then freezing. Thankfully, they gloss over my leaving the bathroom faucet on. 

We camp just over the Kentucky border into Tennessee at Standing StoneState Park.  It is late and we are tired. We eat crackers and cheese and a couple beers.  We have no water, but the campground bathroom is fine and well heated.  We stay warm and comfortable all night.