Archives for March 2016

Sunday, Mar. 27, 2016 – Unpack and Rest Day

Hubby had a better night sleep, so he was feeling better today, we managed to get everything unpacked and put away (well, I did, anyway, while Hubby lounged around :-), then we relaxed for the day. We’d been saving up episodes of Black Sails, and decided to run through them today, making for a nice relaxing rest day!

Saturday, Mar. 26, 2016 – Car Return and Shopping Day

Unloaded the rental car in the morning, and took it back early afternoon, then stopped at Walmart on the way back to do our shopping, finally getting back home mid-afternoon, crashing for the rest of the day as exhaustion from our busy week set in.

Friday, Mar. 25, 2016 – Drive Back to Jupiter

After three days of very successful meetings and training, we packed up and headed out just before 9:00, after breakfast on the club floor, late enough to avoid much of the rush hour traffic. Another straight forward drive, though we ran into a lot of rain, and this time my GPS indicated that there was a shutdown of I-75 that required a long detour around Gainesville and suggested an alternate route of I-10 to Jacksonville, then I-95 South. Well, normally that route would be longer, but a shutdown of the highway could last a while, and we were always game for a different route coming and going, so we made the turn off. Don’t know if we saved any time in the long run, but I do know the traffic was much heavier, and the drivers more discourteous, as they kept hovering all at the same speed in all the lanes, making it nearly impossible to pass. That in itself slowed us down a bit, but we also ran into some really heavy rain around the Orlando/Cape Canaveral stretch, which caused a couple of accidents, and further slowed everyone down. We stopped for a quick meal at a little Italian restaurant on Indiantown Rd. my brother had recommended, splitting an entree that was huge and delicious, and made a quick trip into the Publix for a few necessary groceries. Finally arrived home, safe and sound, where we were greeted by wagging tails and friendly nickers from the animals before settling down to a quiet evening, crashing from our busy couple of days!

Monday, Mar. 21, 2016 – Drive Day to Atlanta

Up at the crack of dawn, did our final packing and animal feeding before heading out by 8:00. Stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way out, then hit the turnpike and headed north, only stopping once or twice at rest areas and for fuel, munching on salads I had prepared for the trip, and arriving at the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead around 4:30. Valeted the car, checked in and was settled in the our nicely appointed room in no time. We had access to the club floor, so we went up for tea time for a bit, enjoying the view, and came back again for cocktail hour, munched on a nice spread of hors d’oeuvres for our dinner, since we weren’t that hungry for a full meal, and were in bed by 8:30!

Sunday, Mar. 20, 2016 – Tough Day at the Car Rental

With a job planned in Atlanta this week, Hubby and I decided the best option was to rent a car and drive up, so the morning started out with us packing for the trip, until we had to pick up the contracted car at 2:00. Normally I use Thrifty or Alamo, but since their nearest offices were down at the airport, we found that Budget had an office in Jupiter, so had set the reservation up there. We arrived in the parking lot at 2:02 and I went to the door a minute later. I tried to open it, but it wouldn’t open. I shook it a couple of times, thinking maybe it was jammed or I was pushing the wrong way, and I still couldn’t get it open. Finally I pressed my head to the glass and saw two people inside, apparently the clerk and a customer. The clerk indicated by sliding his finger across his throat that they were closed! I said through the glass that I had a reservation, but he continued to say they were closed. I waited outside because I knew he had to open up to let the other customer out, and when he finally did, I tried to insist that I had a reservation that he had to honor, and he spouted some ridiculous story about the computers “automatically” shutting down at 2:00. If that was the case, then they should have made their last appointment at 1:45, not 2:00. No matter what I did, he was determined to not let me have the car I had reserved, and in the end, he sauntered off mumbling in his foreign language. We had no choice but to drive all the way down to the airport to rent one. We went to Thrifty, and were greeting warmly by the counter man there, and he graciously and happily rented me a car, upgraded to full size, and managed to reduce the price under a corporate account (since it was now Spring Break, the normal price of $25 a day that I had reserved at Budget 3 weeks earlier was now up to $70 for all the car companies), and send me over to the parking area to pick out my car. We had several choices, but opted for the Toyota Camry, after Hubby tried out the passenger seats of them all and decided it was the most comfortable. So we headed back home, now having spent 3 hours on a job that I had only planned an hour for, and were rushing around the rest of the evening, and into the night, to get everything packed and ready to go first thing in the morning. What a pain! You can believe I’m going to be writing a terse complaint to Budget, and most definitely crossing them off my list of future rentals!

Friday, Mar. 18, 2016 – Hubby’s Birthday!

After another week of not being able to ride because of life’s interruptions and hot and humid weather, today turned out to be a perfect day to celebrate Hubby’s birthday! We decided to do something we seldom do, go to an afternoon matinee at the fancy luxury theater here in Jupiter, and relaxed in their big recliners to watch “Deadpool,” a very snarky Marvel character, and that was full of lots of insider jokes beginning with the opening credits, which had me not so sure about it at the beginning, but grew on me as we got into it. Afterward we did a little clothes shopping, then out to dinner at a fabulous little Thai restaurant for a perfect birthday dinner! It was a great date night! Got back just at dusk, and had to feed the whole menagerie today (goats, pigs dogs, as well as horses), as my brother was taking his annual trip to the Gator Nationals in Gainesville for the weekend. We’ll be passing like ships in the night on Monday, as we leave for a job in Atlanta while he returns home. Settled in for a great old Jimmy Stewart/Audie Murphy movie we somehow had never seen before, a perfect finish to a perfect (non-riding) day!

Sunday, Mar. 13, 2016 – Ride Day at Riverbend with Brother

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Still not sure whether our gray water tank repair is completely finished because Hubby thought he had closed the valve to hold water in, but it was still dripping a little so the tank hasn't been filling up. He closed it off this morning, yesterday morning, so hopefully we'll know for sure in a couple more days, after more showers and laundry! Other than more mundane activities this week, Brother Jeff and I decided to take a ride down at Riverbend, so we headed out around 1:00. There was rain in the forecast starting after 2:00, but was likely to be hit or miss, so we weren't too worried. Besides, we had slickers and ponchos if we needed them. There were half a dozen other trailers in the equestrian area when we arrived, and by the time we were saddled up, most of them had come off the trail. We headed out behind the pavilion and worked our way all the way out to the golf course loop and back. Since Jeff isn't as used to riding, and because he likes to drink his beer along the way, we stopped to take breaks three times, which made it for a long afternoon. We did see a lot of wading birds, a cute squirrel sunning himself in a bush, and even an alligator swimming slowly along the river by the golf course. The sun was hot, but it was cloudy for a good part of the afternoon, and there was a decent breeze that kept it from getting too hot. Just as we got back to the trailer, we felt a few drops of rain and a dark cloud coming in, but we were on our way before it started raining. We stopped at Publix to pick up a few things, and the parking lot was soaked, with lots of puddles, so obviously it had rained heavily there for a few minutes, at least. Hubby called and said it was pouring at the house, but by the time we came out of the store, it had all pretty much passed, so we missed in entirely. The yard was wet again, but just a bit, we had not trouble getting the horses out and the trailer parked, and relaxed for the rest of the evening, which was, of course, an hour longer because of going into Daylight Savings Time last night.

Tuesday, Mar. 8, 2016 – More Work on RV

After running some water in the tank, we discovered that though the leak Hubby had fixed had stopped one leak, there was actually a crack several inches long above that, so he had to slather some more marine glue on the entire length of the crack. Hopefully that will solve the problem, but it’s hard to say until we get the gray water tank full. The rest of the day was just more ordinary activities!

Monday, Mar. 7, 2016 – Start RV Repair

After two months of arguing with the dealer and the manufacturer of our RV about whether a gray water leak we’ve had from Day One was covered under warranty, and the answer, in the end was, No, they wouldn’t cover it, Hubby and I crawled under the RV today to start to make the repair ourselves. This RV has one long “basement” cover, instead of numerous panels like our old RV, so there is actually no way to remove it to get into the pipes, except to actually use a matte knife to cut through the material. Upon the suggestion of the RV service guy, we cut two strips from one side about 2/3 of the way across to expose the area, then went about the job of finding the leaks. Turned out the leaks weren’t from a loose joint at all, as we had supposed, but there was actually a hole in the tank itself! Fortunately we had a really good marine adhesive that works wonders, and Hubby mixed some up and slapped in on there. We’ll check it again tomorrow after it’s cured to see if that solved the problem. Spent the rest of the day mailing off books and doing other computer work.

Sunday, Mar. 6, 2016 – Walkabout Day 2 with Brother

Today, Brother Jeff decided to come along with us to the Clinton Anderson clinic in Okeechobee. We had a great and very informative time, especially Jeff. He had seen some of Clinton’s shows on RFD-TV, but Clinton is quite a bit more explicit, and his language a bit saltier, in person, and his sense of humor was quite a riot. Took a quick ride into town during the lunch break, and got back a bit late for the afternoon session, but enjoyed it thoroughly. Even managed to sell a few books over the weekend! Drove the hour home, where we settled in for the evening.