Sharp's Travels

Last night the lights over the table and recliners quit working so that was my project for the day. It took me awhile before I found out what the problem was. The neutral wire had an open in the connector to the light over the table. So I cut out the connector and used a wire nut to make the connection. While I was working on the lights, Bud stopped by to see if we were going for a motorcycle ride today. So at 11:30 am we headed out to New Port Richey and made a stop at Gulf Coast Harley-Davidson. I bought a signal light converter that makes the signal lights into running and brake lights. The one that was in the bike didn’t have the running light feature. On the way home we stopped a Wendy’s for lunch. It was 4:00 pm and 84 miles later when we got home. Cheri was working on a new quilt craft project. It would be way to much work for me to do. When we did our evening walk we see a lot more people came in for the winter. It won’t be long and the park will be full. I know a month ago they only had one site left in January.

It was 35 degrees this morning and warmed to 62 degrees. We had to put on a heaver coat for the morning walk. It looks like we have another week of this cold weather before we get a warm up. Cheri took Grandma for her doctor’s appointment to get her H1N1 flu shot and then to Wal-Mart for groceries. It was 12:30 before Cheri got home. I had just got done mowing and trimming the lawn. I also mowed the neighbor’s lawn. I had some trouble keeping the lawn mower running, had to take the carburetor apart and clean it. As soon as Cheri got home we headed out for Lakeland to do some shopping. We stopped and had Chinese for lunch and then on to Kohl’s to return a couple of Christmas presents. Cheri bought a couple of hoodies. We got home around 4:00 pm and decided to take our evening walk before we got settled in. We see a couple more motor homes came in for the winter. No supper tonight because of the big lunch late this afternoon.

It did warm up today to the low 60’s, better then yesterday, but very windy today. I worked on getting our Christmas decorations lights down. Then I went down to Ken & Eileen’s to take down their Christmas decorations and lights. This afternoon Cheri went shopping back up to the quilt store in Dade City. She got the right day for the 30% off sale. She bought another quilt kit. I did some searching on the internet for a dc voltage monitoring system for the 5th wheel. I couldn’t find what I wanted. We have a problem with the power converter. The lights get pretty dim before the converter kicks in and recharges the batteries. I was looking for something that would record the high and low voltage of the charging system. So I guess I will buy a dc gauge and install it and do my own recording.

It was45 degrees this morning and a high of 55 degrees, overcast and some rain showers, never did see the sun today. We picked Grandma up for church this morning at 9:15 am. After Church we dropped Grandma off at home and then went to Wal-Mart grocery shopping. When we got home I ordered in Pizza for lunch and then the leftovers for supper. I watched the Packer game this afternoon and Cheri read and napped. Today sounds like a repeat of last Sunday and I guess about the only thing different is the Packers won today. They have secured a spot in the play offs.

It was 48 degrees this morning and a high of 63 degrees. I did my Saturday chores around the 5th wheel this morning. Cheri and Bev went shopping in Dade City at the quilt store. Cheri thought today was their end of the year material sale. But she had the wrong day; the sale isn’t until Monday & Tuesday. Of course Cheri still bought some material. I went up to Paul’s and helped him clean off his roof and eves troughs. Being their park model sits under an acorn tree, they get a lot of acorns and leaves in the rain gutters. When I got back to the 5th wheel Cheri was working with the material she just bought. I then spent a good part of the day on the computer searching for a whole house surge protector. After a lot of reading and searching I have settled on EMS-HW50C made by Progressive Industries. Every travel trailer, 5th wheel and motor home should have one. We never know what kind of power we will receive in all the parks we stay at. I am going to wait until we go to the big RV show in Tampa next month. That way I can have hands on and check it out before buying one. Plus sometimes they have some good show special pricing on things. This evening Paul and Bev picked us up and we went down town to the car show. At the time the temperature was 53 degrees out. We were surprised at how many cars were there and the amount of people looking at them. By the time we got back home Cheri and I were both cold. So I made us a couple of big cups of hot chocolate to warm us up. Then we settled in for an evening of TV.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone! We had a little shower while we were on our morning walk, not enough to get wet only a little damp. The first thing after breakfast we went down to Ken & Eileen’s to visit and wish them a Merry Christmas and then up to Grandma’s to wish her a Merry Christmas. Then on the way home we saw Paul and Bev to wish them a Merry Christmas and a happy birthday to Bev. At 12:45 am we headed down to the Rec Hall with Paul & Bev for the Christmas dinner. There were over 150 people for dinner. The Park furnished the ham and scallop potatoes. Then everyone brought a dish to pass. After dinner we went over to Grandma’s to play Five Crown, each of us won a game. This evening we were invited up to Paul & Bev’s to play dominos, which the girls won. It was a great day to spend with family and friends. Kari called us this evening to wish us a Merry Christmas.

It was a nice morning for our walk. I got our luminaries out and ready to set them out tonight. Most everybody in the park sets them out for the evening. The temp was quickly warming up so I took the bicycle down to Bud’s to see if he wanted to go for a motorcycle ride today. He was sitting outside when I got to his place. So by 10:30 am we were on the road for a 122 mile ride. We took some back roads and ended up in Wild Wood at the 75 Chrome Shop. It is store that has everything you would ever want or need in chrome, lights and all the other accessories for semi trucks. We stopped at Mc Donald’s for lunch. We were back home by 3:00 pm. Cheri did some stuff on the computer and did some reading. She was doing a web cam with the kids when I got home. It was nice to see and talk to them. We went up to Paul and Bev’s for a short visit and then home for some supper. Cheri and I went to the 6:00 pm Christmas Candle Light service. When we got home we took our walk around the park to see all the Christmas lights and luminaries.

It was 43 degrees this morning and then warmed up to 74 degrees with over cast skies, the first nice day we have had for a while. We went up to Paul & Bev’s this forenoon. Paul was out trying to find the pipe in the yard to put up his clothes line. I helped him look for a good half hour and couldn’t find it. We gave up and Paul decided to put in a new pipe. We went inside and I hooked up their TV and showed them all the different channels they can get. At 11:30 am we went over to get Grandma’s van to use to go to Camping World and then to see Larry and Denise who are now staying at Lazy Days campground for a week. We stopped at Arby’s on the way down for lunch. We had a nice visit with Larry and Denise and then headed back home. Cheri warmed up a couple of bowls of left over chili for supper. Neither one of us felt like walking this evening so that didn’t happen.

It was another very cool morning but not as bad as yesterday. We had a high of 65 degrees. It was another day of being lazy. Cheri made a big crock pot of chili for supper, sure does smell good, and can’t wait for supper time. This afternoon we went over to see Grandma and played a couple of games of Five Crown. It was my lucky day as I won both games. When we walked this evening we could see that a few more people have come in for the winter. Paul and Bev got back late this afternoon from Palm Bay where they were doing some painting and other work for their son. He had bought a condo and needed to have the painting and furnishing done before he could rent it out. They stopped by this evening for a visit.

It was 39 degrees this morning, our coldest morning this winter. I guess I can say that as it is the first day of winter, also the shortest day, for daylight. It did finally get up to 60 degrees, took until late afternoon to get there. Cheri took Grandma for her eye doctor appointment this morning and then to Wal-Mart for groceries and to drop off a prescription. I read and played on the computer. With the weather being what it is, it’s hard for me to be motivated to do anything outside. This evening we stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up Grandma’s medicine and then took a ride up to Dade City for the Christmas walk on Church Street. It was very nice with all the houses decorated with all the lights and trimmings. We watched several bands playing music and singing Christmas songs. We stopped by one of the churches and had some hot chocolate, tasted good on a cold night. It was around 8:30 pm before we got home.

It was 43 degrees this morning and we had a high of 56 degrees, too cold for us. We picked up Grandma, Carol, and Ed & Larraine for church this morning. I even warmed up the car before we left. After lunch (ordered in pizza) we went for a short walk around the park and to stop to see how Ken was doing after his fall last night. They weren’t home so figured that he was OK. Cheri and I played some games this afternoon. Then walked back down to Ken & Eileen’s, Ken said he was pretty sore. When we got home I watched the Packers play, they lost a heart breaker. Cheri spent the time reading. We were going to go to Dade City this evening for the Christmas walk on Church St, but Paul & Bev called and said they would be here tomorrow and decided to wait and see if they would want to go tomorrow night with us.

Well the rain is over and it is a cool breezy day. Not really a comparable day to be out and about. So we played lazy this forenoon doing a lot of nothing. This afternoon we went to see a movie. We saw Did You Hear about the Morgan’s? It was a fairly good movie with some humor. This evening we were invited down to Ken & Eileen’s to play cards. Before we started to play cards Ken went to get something and tripped over Eileen’s walker and fell into the heater and knickknack stand. He ended up hurting his shoulder and can’t seem to raise his arm. Plus he got a cut under his chin and a burn from the heater on his neck. Cheri and Eileen put some ice on his shoulder and a band aid on his chin. We still played cards and Ken probably will go to the doctor Monday for his shoulder.


Here is a picture of Cheri’s Christmas project.

It was a miserable rainy wet windy day. I guess that says it all. We did go to Wal-Mart for Groceries. The rest of the day was spent reading and watching TV. We did get a call from Grandma and wanted to know if we wanted to go out for a fish supper. That sounded good so Grandma came over at 4:00 pm to pick us up. This evening Dean & Betty came over to play dominos. The ladies won the first one by a big margin, but we guys won the last one.

It was a cool breezy walk this morning. After breakfast Cheri gave me a much needed haircut. Around 9:30 am we had a visit from the lady that is doing the quilting for Cheri. She wanted to see our 5th wheel. She picked up a piece of backing material for one of the throws she is quilting for Cheri. Cheri finished her Christmas craft that she was working on. Around noon I got a call from Carol and she was having trouble getting her TV to work with the converter box. So I went and got the TV and converter box working and redid the TV lead in cable for her. Later in the afternoon I went for a bicycle ride around the park. After I got back I did some internet searching for a third brake light for the motorcycle. I called and got the measurements of the light. I am not sure there is going to be enough room for it, but I ordered one anyway.

Cheri and I went for a 65 mile motorcycle ride this forenoon. We rode down to Tampa to a Honda dealer. I was looking for a third brake light for our bike. I found them on the internet and this place in Tampa was a dealer for them. Well when we got there they didn’t have any and never stocked them. We still had a nice ride and made some stops on the way home to shop. We bought some more Christmas lights so you know what I did this afternoon. Cheri worked on her craft project this afternoon. After I got the lights up I went for a bicycle ride around the park and stopped to see Lynn and Ivan Greene. They just arrived in the park a couple of days ago and this is the first time I’ve got a chance to see them. When I got home it was time to get the grill out and grill up some brats that Roger and Jean sent to us, they sure were good and still have enough for a couple more meals. On our evening walk we stopped to see Dean & Betty so it was about 7:30 pm before we got home for the evening.

Cheri had an appointment with the quilter this morning. This is a new quilter and for us. So I went with Cheri has she wasn’t sure how to get there and I wanted to see her work. She does all her work free hand and we got to see samples of her work which was beautiful. The quilter saw our truck when we drove in and couldn’t believe we had such a big truck. They also had a very nice 5th wheel and we got the tour through it. It will be mid February before she gets Cheri’s throws done. After lunch we went up to visit with Paul and Bev. Then this evening we went out for supper with them. We started our evening walk around 6:30 pm. When we walked by Paul & Bev’s they asked us to come in as they were having trouble with their cell phone. Then back on our walk we stopped by Ken & Eileen’s as they were sitting outside. We had a nice visit with them and it was 10:00 pm before we got home.

It was a warm muggy day with a high of 84 degrees; in fact it was 62 degrees when we got up. It was a day of play for me. At 9:30 am Bud and I went for a 118 mile motorcycle ride. We stopped in Lakeland at the Harley dealer to look around. Bud bought a Harley hat. We rode on down to Winter Haven for lunch and then worked our way back to Zephyrhills. We got back around 3:30 pm. Cheri went shopping and worked on her craft project. Paul & Bev Webb got here from the North Country around 5:00 pm. We talked with them for a little bit and then went on our evening walk. They still had to open up their trailer and get their truck unloaded. We will visit with them tomorrow.

We picked up Ed & Lorraine for church this morning. Grandma didn’t go with us this morning as she went to church in the park with Carol. After lunch Cheri worked on her craft project and I watched the Packer game. The Packers won again and if they can keep it going they should be in the play off with a wild card. After the Packer game we took Grandma’s van and went shopping over to Wesley Chapel. Cheri wanted to go to Target as they had king size flannel sheets and she needed them for the backing on her quilted throws. On the way home we stopped at the Wire Grass Shops to see the Symphony in Lights. They have one huge Christmas tree and a smaller one on each side of the big tree. They were lit with one quarter of a million LED lights, 1000 watts of sound, and ten tons of holiday décor combine to create an unbelievable holiday experience. What a site it was to see and hear. We got home around 7:00 pm.

It was much warmer this morning around 57 degrees and overcast, took awhile before the sun came out, then warmed to a high of 78 degrees. Perfect for our morning and evening walks today. Cheri is working on some kind of new project. Something for Christmas, I don’t know what it is but she is cutting things out of material. I did some more maintenance on the 5th wheel. At 2:00 pm we went down to the Rec Hall to get things set up for the monthly potluck supper. At 4:30 pm we headed back to the Rec Hall for the potluck supper, everything was so good. After everything was cleaned up we headed home for a night of TV.

It was another cool and windy day with a high of 60 degrees. Not really a bad day, just the wind made it unpleasant to be out and about. Our neighbor Merle & Barb Wagner, were having trouble with their TV. They could only get two channels. So I checked things out and found that they had a bad matching transformer on the antenna plus some bad connections. When I got done, they now get 23 channels. This afternoon Cheri and I went to Wal-Mart. That was a mistake as the place was packed with people, didn’t think we would ever get out of there. Cheri finished getting her quilt throws sewed and now is ready to take them to be quilted. She has put away the sewing machine until after Christmas. This evening Merle and Barb took us out to eat for the work I did on their TV antenna. We went to Dade City to a new pizza place, it was pretty good.

It was 74 degrees when I got up this morning and that was the high for the day. At 2:00 pm it was down to 60 degrees. Plus we had rain all day. At 1:00 pm we took the truck (because of rain) down to Larry & Denise’s to return his motorcycle seat. I think we will be ordering a seat like theirs. We visited for a while and made plans to take the motorcycles and leave at 6:00 pm to go down to Brandon Harley dealer for a free drawing on a new Harley. But because of the rain we took Grandma’s van. It was fun looking at all the new motorcycles. They canceled the drawing for the motorcycle because of the rain, not very many people there. The new date for the drawing will be 1-14-09. We got back to Larry & Denise’s around 8:30 pm. We visited for a while and then headed home. It finally quit raining around 7:30 pm.

Around 10:00 am we walked down to see Larry & Denise Loeffen. They are couple that came into the park a couple of weeks ago and they both ride Harleys. We had only got to know them a day before they had to move out of the park. Well they are back for another week. We had a nice visit with them and are going to leave at 5:00 pm with the motorcycles and ride to Lakeland for Chinese. It is our favorite Chinese restaurant and they have never been there. Larry has a different seat on his Road King then we have. So we swapped seats to see if Cheri liked there seat better than ours. So this afternoon Cheri and took a 45 mile ride to check it out. Cheri said it was definitely better than ours. So we will have to check on maybe getting a different seat for our Road King. We had a nice ride down and back with Larry & Denise; the food was good as always. We got home around 8:00 pm and Larry & Denise made a stop at Wal-Mart. Our Bedroom TV arrived late this afternoon. I did get it put up to see if it works now and seems OK. I will finish the install tomorrow.

Cheri left early to take Grandma for her doctor’s appointment at 9:00 am. Later in the day Cheri went shopping. Bud and I left at 9:30 am for our motorcycle ride. We rode 148 miles and end up in Leesburg at the Harley dealer. Just as we were coming into Leesburg there was a big traffic backup, so we pulled into a boat landing by the lake and waited for about 45 minutes for it to clear out. There had been a bad accident with a car and big truck. I got a call from the RV dealer telling me that our TV was repaired and that there was a $115.00 charge for the repair. They said that a diode in the power supply was bad. They said that there had been a power surge and that it wasn’t cover under the warranty. Strange that the TV was the only thing that didn’t work, if it was a power surge we should have had a lot of things that didn’t work. Sometimes I think companies will do anything to get out of taking care of their customers. Now that it has been six weeks without the TV the RV dealer said they would eat the charges and it will be another week before we get TV. They are trying to cover their tracks for not taking care of us. I bet they will charge the cost back to Excel. I guess I will be talking to Excel. This evening we were invited over to Dean & Betty’s to play dominos. It was around 11:30 pm before we got home.

We had rain again this morning and wasn’t able to take our morning walk, although it had quit by 9:00 am. The rest of the day was warm, overcast and gloomy. We made a trip to Wal-Mart this morning for groceries and to CVS for some pain rub that they still don’t have in stock. Cheri worked on writing our Christmas letter and doing Christmas cards. I on the other hand didn’t do anything until very late this afternoon when UPS drop of my package of motorcycle parts. I had ordered a tail trunk for the bike. So it was after dark before I got that installed, wanted to get it done as Bud and I are going for a motorcycle ride tomorrow. It was after 6:00 pm before we did our evening walk. Tonight we watched Monday Night Football. The Packers were playing and won! It was just after midnight before the game got over.

I was up early this morning, didn’t sleep very well last night. It was only 40 degrees this morning. It was cool and windy for a high of 62 degrees for the day. We picked up Grandma and Ed & Lorraine at 9:15 am and headed for church. After church I planned on going for a motorcycle ride with Bud to Webster for the big motorcycle swap meet. On the way back from church we stopped by Bud & Joyce’s and we decided to cancel the bike ride because of the weather. After lunch we picked up Grandma and headed for Apollo Beach power plant to see the manatees. When we get some cold weather they swim in from the golf up near the power plant where the water is warm from cooling the power plant. There must have been at least30 or more of them. It was neat to see them. It was 3:00 pm by the time we got home. So we decided to take our evening walk early. On the way we stopped and talked with Fern & Sharon so it was almost 4:30 pm before we got home. Then we ordered in Papa John’s Pizza for supper.

I have uploaded pictures of the Manatees. See Album Manatees.

It was still raining when we got up this morning. It didn’t stop until noon and we didn’t see any sun until 3:00 pm. It only got up to 55 degrees for the day and was windy. Today was the city and park wide garage sale day. With all the rain it was a wash out. It was also the craft sale at the Rec Hall. Grandma called and wanted to know if we wanted a ride down to the craft sale and for lunch at the Rec Hall. She picked us up at 11:30 am. There were quite a few people there for lunch. They had turkey and vegetable soup and hotdogs and pulled pork sandwiches, also a bake sale with lots of desserts. After lunch we stopped back at Grandma’s to play dominos and Five Crown. Then we took our evening walk late in the afternoon. We stopped by Ken and Eileen’s. Eileen said she was happy with the wireless phone, so I got that mounted on the wall for her. We visited for a while and then finished our walk. The evening was spent reading and watching TV.

What a boring day. It started raining at 5:45 am and was still raining when we went to bed tonight. No morning walk and no evening walk. Cheri did do a couple loads of laundry. We played some games of Five Crown and the dice game. We decided to take in a movie this afternoon. So on the way to the movie we stopped by the post office to mail a Christmas package to Cece. Then to the movie which started at 2:00 pm (so I thought). We had left early for the post office as you never know how long it’s going to take there. Well be got to the movie at 1:30 pm, not too bad only have to wait 30 minutes. We wanted to be early as it was a first showing of a new movie and it was raining so we thought the theater would be packed for the movie. Well we were the only ones there until 1:55 pm and then a guy came in. I told him that we thought we were going to have a private showing. He laughed and said that more people would be coming as the movie doesn’t start until 2:20 pm. So we were plenty early, as it turned out there were only eleven of us watching the movie. The movie was called Armored. It was a fair movie, if you like cops and robbers movies. The rest of the evening was spent watching TV and reading.

This morning Cheri and I headed out to the new flea market on the south side of the airport. Not a lot of vendors but more than the one at the community center. I think as time goes on there will be many more. This afternoon we went to pick up a tank of LP, the last tank we got was in Maine. I dropped Cheri off at Big Lot’s while I got the LP tank filled. When we got home Cheri wrapped Cece’s Christmas presents and got them ready to mail out tomorrow. I spent my time on the computer and reading. We both took a late afternoon nap, not planned. A cold front passed through late this afternoon and had to have a jacket on when we did our evening walk. We were surprised how cool it was when we went outside.

The first thing this morning Cheri and I made a trip to Wal-Mart to pickup medicine for Grandma. After we got back we walked down to see Ken & Eileen. Eileen had a wireless telephone she wanted me to check out and see if it would work in the kitchen. It had been stored for a year so I plugged it in so the battery could charge. While that was charging I helped Ken trim the shrubs and put up Christmas lights and decorations. After that was done the phone was charged enough to see that it worked. Eileen wanted mounted on the wall and I told her to use it for a few days to see that it worked OK. After lunch we went over to Grandma’s to play dominos and Five Crown. This evening when we started our walk, we hadn’t gone very far and it started to rain, so we headed back home. They have predicted high winds and lots of rain for this afternoon and evening. Later in the evening they had a tornado watch posted. Will it never really started to rain hard until around 10:00 pm. The rain only lasted about an hour and the wind wasn’t that bad.

Today was another perfect day with a high temp of 79 degrees. We put up some Christmas lights around the front of the 5th wheel and also put up our large wreath on the front. Cheri spent the day working on her sewing project. I did some general maintenance on the 5th wheel. Checking screws and replacing broken ones. This turned out to be an all day job. As we did our evening walk we see each day more people are coming in and more Christmas decoration being put up. All the lights are so pretty.

Cheri spent most of the day with Grandma, took her for her eye doctor appointment, then to Wal-Mart to get groceries and drop off a prescription for Grandma. Later Cheri went back to Wal-Mart to pick up Grandma’s medicine. I on the other hand played all day. Bud and I went for a 143 mile motorcycle ride. We rode north to Crystal River near the Golf Coast. We made a stop at the Harley Dealer in Crystal River. It’s always fun to look around and I needed some screws for Cheri’s helmet. On the way back we stopped in Dade City to look at a used van. I was thinking about buying to use while we are here in Florida for the winter. After checking it out I decided to wait. When I got home Cheri said that Grandma’s TV wasn’t working. So we went over to check it out. It turned out to be the cable on the back of the TV came off. The fitting on the back of the TV was broke and I had a hard time getting it reattached.