Cleaning up and organizing

---

blog 01-28-17 TT rest day

Friday started out with the sandhill cranes doing a mating dance in the field behind my camper but I missed it. Kat texted to alert me but by the time I got there they had gone. Next time.

After breakfast and a walk I settled in to organize the camper so I could find things, enough time wasted looking for things. I started at one end and left no cub-bard or cabinet unturned. Got rid of most of the dust and dirt and set up Watson's fence in the yard. For hours I had looked for a section of fence while still home to use along the camper and finally decided to just let it go. Well guess where it was, in the trunk of the car. So now I can open the door and let Watson outside so he can watch the world go by. Some dogs stop to say hello, others just keep walking.

Ginnie and Kim were going to a Billy Joel concert in Orlando about 5 so Kat and I decided to see a movie and have dinner. We saw La La Land and we were both disappointed. Not worth all the hype as far as we were concerned. Then we had dinner at Moe's, a Southwest restaurant and headed home.

When I opened the door to my camper the smell almost knocked me over. It smelled like rotten eggs and we couldn't find the source. Thank goodness Kat stayed and helped me tear apart the under compartment, pull out the drawers and empty the food cabinets. We though it could be a dead mouse so with nose and flashlight we soldered on. Kat kneeled on the steps and noticed that the step was hot. The house batteries (2) are housed there so after removing 2 screws we exposed the batteries to find one steaming. This was the source of the odor. The by product of a boiling battery is sulfuric acid so we were careful not to touch it. I turned off the batteries which disconnected the charging process cutting all DC power to the camper. Since I am plugged in here at the campground the camper is still fully functional except for the propane and CO 2 detector whose wire I cut yesterday.

As it turns out maybe the detector was picking up the smell from the batteries before I could smell it. To be determined.

With the smell in the camper there was no way Watson and I could stay the night so Kat put us up. As it turned out our date of a movie and dinner was so good it ended in a sleepover!

Saturday morning I returned to the camper to find the smell was almost gone and the step was cold. I contacted the local rv service but they don't work on weekends. I was assured that the manager would call me first thing Monday morning to get this resolved as soon as possible. I tried to call Pleasureway but they are off for the weekend too. So it's wait til Monday and hope it can be fixed quickly. It could be a complicated process to find out what the cause of all this is. I'm thankful the battery didn't explode.

Saturday morning was cool and cloudy but we went for our walk and ended up at Ginnie's to find Kat there too. We spend a little time planning our activities for the rest of the week and watched the dogs play chase and tug-of -war.

Soon it was time to get ready for our evening. The campground has arranged entertainment for us every other Saturday and this week Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe were our entertainment. First was dinner at one of 5 food trucks that gathered in the rec hall parking lot. There were several choices from Philly cheese steaks to fish and chips to mac and cheese and of course burgers. I had loaded french fries with pulled pork, really delicious.

The show was a hoot. Frank took the stage and after the first song asked if there was an audience out there. Almost all the campers here are retirees from the north, spend their money carefully, and are rather mellow. How old you ask, one couple have been married 62 years and there was a women 94 yrs young. He worked a little harder and got more audience participation so the show got rolling. Marilyn came out and I wondered if there was a man in the group. She had to work it hard too but got the ball rolling and by the end we were all on our feet singing and clapping.

We went home singing and laughing, a good time.

---