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Published: January 19th 2013
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Thursday January 17, 2013 and Friday January 18, 2013, Tampa FL RV show campground.
The One About Looking for a New RV
I am going to treat these 2 days like they were one day, and I hope I don’t get confused, and don’t confuse you.
It rained for about 6 hours Thursday afternoon, turning our grassy parking lot campground into a sea of mud. The good news is, it got very windy, so most of the water went away, just leaving some muddy patches. Nothing new, I am getting used to wiping Winston’s feet every time he goes out.
No water line, no sewer line, just great electric service. 4 days is a long time for me to camp like this. Washing of body and dishes is kept to a minimum, as I don’t want to use up all my fresh water and I don’t want to fill up my holding tanks. Washing dishes gets creative. I only arrived here with 2 gallons of bottled water. I think the water in my fresh water holding tank is pretty stale and won’t use it for drinking or cooking. So, I used my precious bottled water
to boil my pasta for tuna/arugula/capers/red pepper/penne salad. When I drained the pasta, I drained it into the stopper inserted sink, put some soap in and had enough water to wash my dishes. I keep about 3 inches of soapy water in one sink (yes, double in kitchen) and add my dirty dishes to it. When ready to wash I put hot water in and instant dishwater! Clumsy, but it works. Washing the body gets creative as well. As long as I can stand dirty hair, I wash up in the sink. When I think my hair looks like dreadlocks and I can’t wear a hat anymore I opt for the navy shower. It takes a very long time for the hot water to journey from water heater to bathroom area. This early water I use for rinsing off my toothbrush and getting my rag soapy. When the water is comfortably warm I step in the shower and wet entire body and turn the water off. Then I shampoo and apply soap to appropriate areas and turn water back on and rinse off. The soap coming off head and coursing down body does a second wash. I stop up the
More Midway
I actually took all 3 of these pictures so I could find my way back to the pavilion entrance. drain with my rag to let my feet really soak. I think this method uses less than 3 gallons of water. My idiot gauges all read “1/2.” Fresh water half full, black and gray holding tanks half empty. I am encouraged that I will have plenty of both to last until Sunday when I get to a real campground with water, electric, and sewer, and I am going to take the longest shower imaginable.
Up early each morning and walk Winston. He has been waking me up around 6:30. I got smart yesterday, I put the clip and most of his long (attached to the ground) lead right inside the door. Then, when he wakes me up early, I can attach the clip to his harness and shoo him out the door. I need a few minutes to get ready and dressed and shoes on and he is antsy and anxious and paces and noses me as if I didn’t know what he wanted. Only issue with that is, when he sees another dog, he barks. Great idea, poor results. A light breakfast, then off to the Rally pavilion for Krispy Kreme donuts, free paper, and surprisingly great coffee (served from those big multi gallon brown plastic tanks. It really is good coffee!) This pavilion is part of the Bob Thomas Equestrian Center, also part of the FL State Fairgrounds. I can identify about 200 horse stalls, many show and practice rings, and many places for horse vans to park. The show ring looks very nice, beautiful stands, nice dirt. The pavilion must be where honored guests can watch the events, as it has several tiers that appear to be for viewing the rings.
Out the back door of the pavilion puts us into the show area. One of the first vendors we pass thru is one of the many Camping World areas. They sell many different lines of new RVs, and they are lined up and ready for viewing. They also have a store set up that is almost as large as the one I was recently in at Myrtle Beach. Camping World has a contest. Collect 12 different ‘buttons’ from 12 different CW locations and get a prize. Ginnie was all over that and collected for me.
Friday I decided I was going to price a rig.
I looked at the Itasca Navion 24J. The decoded numbers mean 24 feet long, J shaped dinette, I guess they call this a B Plus. It is a Mercedes Sprinter Chassis with a 3.0L 6 cylinder 188 hp turbo diesel engine, 11 feet tall, 7’6” wide, dinette, recliner, and twin beds in the back that can also be made into a queen bed if the supplied cushions are put into place. The bathroom is large. It is a gorgeous rig, just way out of my price range. Can you believe they finance these things for 20years!!!!! Even the show special pricing made it financially unreachable for me. I looked also at the Itasca 26HE, which is a 26 foot long Class A for 30 thousand less. (No idea what HE stands for.) While the price is right, they option you do death, doesn’t come with generator, TV and many other things that are standard on the 24J. I could afford the monthly payments of the stripped down model, and not have the rig I want. So, my quest continues. I really want to RV more, just my current Itasca Spirit is getting old and creaky, like me, and really doesn’t offer enough room for the way I camp.
The Rally offers nightly entertainment. Thursday was The Maltshop Memories, 3 guys from Brooklyn, 1 guy from Charleston WV who met at their retirement homes near Ormond Beach FL and discovered a shared DooWop singing background. They also all have RVs. They entertained us for 1.5 hours with every song from the 50s and 60s that we wanted to hear. Friday night’s entertainment was a comedian. I did not attend as I didn’t want to sit in an uncomfortable chair again for another 1.5 hours. I will go to Saturday’s entertainment, a married couple, singers who RV and tell funny RV stories.
I thought maybe I would try my luck at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, which I can see right behind this campground, across I4, less than .5 mile away, so close yet so far. Ginnie was wonderful enough to let me use her car for my trip. If I took some money, maybe I could parlay it into $20K and then be able to afford the new RV. Laugh. NOT. I had a good time, but quit before I lost too much. Lots of people there, smoky (golly I hate being a complaining non smoker) and I think the clientele has deteriorated since I was there last, lots of very grungy looking people. But, most of all, no games I like to play, and I lost.
I am having difficulty determining if the bark gizmo is working or not. I set it up when I leave the rig. Winston is not barking in his rate when I leave or when I return, but when I get him out, his mat is wet, and today it looks as if his nose is a little sore from rubbing on the bars. I have asked my neighbors, and all deny hearing him. So, if it works even a little bit, I am happy.
My RV salesman, George, has called me again, and he wants to see me in the morning. I can’t imagine he is going to make the Navion affordable, but I will go see what he says. I looked on line for used ones, and this model is so new, of course there are none. I really do want a new RV.
Time to go watch the Series Finale of Fringe. So long old friend. I hope this episode is everything it is reported to be.
Kat Out
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