Month: January 2020

Donna and I stopped in Old Town Florida to see family. We took the opportunity to pull some needed maintenance on the motor home and towed car. Thanks to Chris, Martha and Speed, for the hospitality and technical expertise to help us keep going. (warning – this post is mostly intended for gear-heads).

On the maintenance side of the house, I probably should bring you up to speed on the work we did before we left the Home Office, and then what we’ve done on the road. Before we left, we changed the spark plugs and wires, distributor cap and rotor, changed the gear oil in the differential and changed the transmission filter and fluid. I had some help with the maintenance from Tom (my brother-in-law’s brother-in-law). I also replaced the rear sway bar bushings, which vastly improved the handling. I knew we were going to need tires, and an engine oil change soon, but didn’t get to that before I left Michigan. Still, I felt like we did quite a bit of preventive maintenance on the rig.

In SC we bought new tires, and I changed the engine oil in Florida, just before we got to the Martha and Chris’s house. We decided to take a stab at renovating the cooling system on the motor home after we changed the oil on the car and inspected the car brakes. We changed the oil and the air filter on the car, and did a rear brake job. This ended up eating three days before we got to the motor home.

We changed the hoses (that we could find) and changed the thermostat and coolant on the motor home. During this task, we noticed the air intake wasn’t properly sealed around the filter, and the breather filter at the back of the air cleaner was clogged. So we changed out the breather and made sure the housing properly sealed. Luckily, Chris is most handy and turned an inset for the air cleaner housing to replace one that had fallen off – that helped make the seal more airtight.

Finally, Chris charged up the A/C – which was MOST appreciated on the trip through Alabama and Louisianna. Let’s just say the system was a tad low and leave it at that.

As we headed out, we experienced some power loss issues, which had begun on our way out of Key Largo. On and off loss of power, idling issues, and some backfiring here and there. We ran some gas treatment in the tank, and it seemed to help. We decided to changed the fuel filter, and the problems disappeared. The fuel that came out of the filter was pretty cruddy, and about 5% water. After the filter change, I decided to fill the tank only with gas promoted on the Top Tier Website ( https://toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/ ). Hopefully, that will be the end of our power loss issues.

The machine is running great for now. But I would recommend the following for anyone trying this trip in the future.

Make sure you have a good spare tire. Especially if you have leveling jacks on your motor home. This could save you hundreds of dollars if you blow out a tire. On tires, there is a ‘hot dog’ on each tire manufactured. It is a date stamp near the rim on one sidewall. Tires are good for about eight years (unless of course you wear them out on tread before hand). Once you get close to eight years, the rubber starts to break down, and unless replaced could lead to a blow out. The blow out will do more damage than just the tire. My blow out in Lansing also wiped out the battery and damaged the automatic step control.

Bring extra fuel filters – these are usually easy to change and can definitely help you out in a pinch. Make sure you have any special tool needed to change it. And don’t leave your six quart drain pan at Chris’s, or you will have to improvise and use a frisbee to catch the fuel and inspect.

Bring extra fluids (coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, engine oil, etc.). Bring a set of tools, if you intend to upkeep your maintenance yourself. In that set, you should have a torque wrench, in case your need to torque your lug nuts. Chris was kind enough to make me a T-stand, which allows you to transfer maximum torque to the lugs.

I also recommend keeping an air compressor with you. It will help to keep all your tire pressures at level.

Finally, do as much prep work as you can before you leave. The more you do in a controlled environment, the less you should have to do on the side of the road, or in your camping spot (which leads to more relaxation)! Sorry….no pics for this post. Donna and Martha were busy exploring while maintenance took place……

We stopped at a KOA on Pine Island, FL, just west Fort Meyer, FL and stayed a couple nights after leaving Key Largo. The weather was beautiful, and the campground was nice enough. They seem to get a lot of snowbirds from up north (something about a pot and a kettle…). But it was crowded…lots of concrete pads crammed in close together…and not really a destination for us.

Donna found the Rainbow Springs State Park and campground and made reservations. We arrived on January 4th and were pleasantly surprised. The campsite is enormous (64 feet deep, 20 feet wide, with picnic table, fire ring, a clothes line for towels, and full hook-ups)! And the price is super reasonable! You also get day access to the headsprings area with your parking pass. The staff was friendly, and the sites were all clean. There is a central public restroom and shower facility for every twenty or so spots. There is also a washer and drier at each of these locations. The campground proper has a 3/4 mile hiking area, and is no more than .3 miles from the Rainbow River. You can rent canoes or kayaks, and there is a swimming area as well. The campground is very nice. We would definitely stay here again – and absolutely recommend it to others.

On January 5th, we drove to the headsprings area. There is plenty to do at this portion of the park. A large swimming area is situated right at the top of the river, near the welcome center. About 50 yards down the river is a canoe/kayak rental and launch. The Rainbow Springs water is 72F (22.2C) year-round. Did we mention the water is crystal clear?? It is absolutely beautiful!!

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Around the other side of the river, there is a series of man-made waterfalls, which are quite lovely. And if you follow the waterfalls to the top, they lead you to the remnants of the old Rainbow Springs Attractions. This former commercial attraction included a zoo, an aviary, a butterfly garden, and a rodeo barn. If you continue to follow the path away from the headsprings, and through the butterfly garden (past the rodeo barn footings), you eventually find three hiking trails ranging from 3/4 mile to 2 miles in length.

The hiking trails were well maintained, and it was indeed nice to get out and walk for a bit. We followed the longest trail, and aside from one turtle (that a passer-by’s dogs named Maggie spotted), there was not much wildlife. Which was sort of a relief after seeing the ‘how to react to a bear’ sign…

The zoo, butterfly garden, rodeo barn and aviary were puzzling to Donna and me. It was very interesting, but we didn’t really understand why they were in a State Park, or why they were dilapidated. It turns out that the headsprings was a commercial attraction that operated from the 1930’s into the 1970’s (http://springseternalproject.org/springs/rainbow-springs/history-rainbow-springs/ ). After we walked around it, we checked out the welcome center at the campground and found a fun and interesting display of marketing materials from the old attraction.

On January 6th, we rented a canoe and paddled up the river from the campground to the headsprings. The trip was amazing! the water was crystal clear, and we saw so many fish, birds and turtles… and the one alligator that we left quite undisturbed… The birds were fishing, or drying out on riverbank foliage. The turtles were swimming around or sunning themselves on logs. The river bottom ranged from between 6 and 20ft (2m to 6m) deep. There were large swaths of river grass and patches of sandy rock bottom. The sun was out, and it was in the high 60’s as we returned down river from the headsprings. It was a very good day!

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We’ll head out tomorrow. But I am sure we will come back to this beautiful place!

Today Kevin and I left the Keys behind…*sigh*…and drove to a KOA campground near Fort Myers. We will be staying for just a couple nights before heading a little further north to a state campground (and a visit with one of my sisters!). Our scenic route took us through the Big Cypress National Preserve (https://www.nps.gov/bicy/index.htm ), where we stopped at the visitor center and saw lots of alligators and quite a few new birds! The Big Cypress National Preserve was established in 1974 as the first ever national preserve, and came about in response to a proposed jetport development in the area.

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Donna and I ushered in the new year in the Key Largo Kampground ( https://www.keylargokampground.com/ ). The campground is quite nice. The campsites surround a marina, and are nested in the Tradewinds Hammocks. The lush foliage keeps the heat at bay under the canopy. The campground staff was courteous and the security made rounds every hour or so; they even collected garbage from the sites. The pool was excellent, it was never crowded and was open to the beautiful sun. The campground provides shuffleboard, and a basketball court. They also rent kayaks and paddle boards that you can launch from their beaches. Laundry, located in the center of the park, was economically priced. There were plenty of machines and I only saw one washer out of order. The driers worked noticeably better than at your average laundromat. There are also public restrooms, but they seem to need a little update.

Kevin and I found DELICIOUS key lime pie at the Blond Giraffe Key Lime Pie Factory (www.blondgiraffe.com) . Very cute shop with friendly service….and only 10 or so minutes from the campground. They even have an adorable garden dining area with picnic tables right outside. We also treated ourselves to a seafood meal at a local restaurant & bar. Mmmm….conch fritters and hogfish….

We loved our visit to the keys. This part of Florida is full of history, with loads of amazing places to explore. The frequent sightings of lizards and sea birds was amazing and counterpoint to the numerous unexpected sighting of roosters roaming everywhere. The weather was tremendous! Even when it was raining it was a comfortable 75-80 degrees.

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