Well BJ & I wish all a Very Merry Christmas and Happy
New Year.
We are enjoying the Season In Jacksonville, FL with mixed
blessings. We are happy to be spending Christmas near our son and
daughter and the granddaughters. Weather
has been nice. We are catching up with
family since it had been a year since we were here.
When we first arrived in very late October we first stayed
at Camp Blanding, a nearby Florida National Guard base on beautiful Lake
Kingsley. The RV park was right on the waterfront. I had a great time playing with the granddaughters
in the water. The lake is spring fed with clear water and white sand bottom. It reminded me of a lake my grandparents
lived on when I was a kid.
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| The waterfront with campground in background! |
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| Playing with the girls! |
That chain of lakes is now mostly part of Disney
World!
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| Our favorite Halloween characters! |
Thanksgiving was especially great as it was a big family
event in a nice RV park on the beach.
Marla, my sister, came up in her RV.
Her son, Russell, and his family came up and stayed in my brothers RV
since he was in Atlanta. My other
sister, CC came up Wednesday.
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| Our two granddaughters on the right and Marla's grand kids on the left! |
On Saturday we fixed a great low country boil and everybody
dove in with a great appetite. Gary
& Floy were back from Atlanta and joined us for another festive meal and a
memorable family event.
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| Roasting some marshmallows after the Low Country Boil! |
I am willing to share this great tried and true Low Country Boil with anybody that will honor it properly, e.g. use it!
However, there have been some downsides, mainly involving problems with the
RV. First was as we returned to NAS Jax FamCamp the RV would not restart as I was preparing to
park in our camping spot. I ended up
getting towed to the Cummins Service Center the next day, Saturday! On Monday they found a blown fuse, replaced
it and all was well so they sent me on my way.
I got back near the base and stopped to fuel up and RV would not restart
with same indications as before. I
replaced the fuze but still no start!
Another tow back to Cummins.
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| Tow # 1 |
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| Another day, another tow! |
A week later they had finished some
rewiring and all was well. We headed over to the beach for T-day and no
problems.
However, as we returned to the Famcamp after T-day I got a
STOP ENGINE light about a half mile from the campground. I stopped and a few minutes later it was no
longer lit so I moved to the camping spot.
For the next week plus I did some trouble shooting and decided to take
it back to Cummins. We drove it up on a Sunday, light traffic,
with no STOP ENGINE light. They worked
on it for 2 days and said all was well so off we went back to NAS Jax. We got
about half way there and the STOP ENGINE light came on. After
I stopped the engine for a few minutes it went away and the tech data is very
clear that if the light is not on, the problem is not present so we managed to
drive it back to Cummins! That was 2+ weeks
ago and here we still sit.
Spartan, the chassis manufacter, has been closely involved with
the Cummins techs. This problem is not
connected to the earlier one which involved the wiring between the transmission
and engine. They have determined this is
an engine wiring harness that connects most of the engine sensors to the ECM
(Electronic Control Module).
The harness is not an off the shelf item and Spartan has to manufacture
one for this particular VIN! Due to the
Holiday Season its exact availability date is still not determined, sometime
after the first of next month, but probably before the end of the month!
So we are disappointed our arrival in Key West is delayed,
but on the other hand we are enjoying some extra time with our
granddaughters. And, BJ has started looking for a house as we
are considering moving from full-time travel to part time travel!
Always at home, no matter where we are!!
