A much deferred task......

6:22 am - Tuesday - February 12th - Wittmann, AZ - 32º F, 62% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north by northwest.....clear today with a forecast high of, get this, 67º F!

By 10 am Monday I was able to walk outside in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops......haven't been able to do that for quite some time.  There was little, or no breeze, and the sun quickly warmed up everything, including the trailer.

My main task for the day was to take care of a long, long delayed project.....add LED outdoor, strip lighting to the rocker panel on the driver side of the Newell.  I bought the lights about 2 years ago, but never got around to installing them.  I installed the same type of LED lights under the passenger side rocker panel 4 years ago, and it was my intent to do the same on the driver side, but just kept procrastinating.  Well, for some reason, Monday seemed to be the day I would finally get off my duff and finish the project.  

There was a lot of preparation for the actual installation, but by early afternoon I was installing the new LED's, and wiring them into the same switch which controls the passenger side lights.  By 2 pm I was done, so all that remained was to wait for darkness to see how effective the new set was.

Another first Monday was sitting outside in the early evening and enjoying a campfire.....we haven't done that since we were in Georgia visiting our friends Roscoe and Genie in early January.  Before that I would have to go all the way back to Southwest Harbor to find our last campfire experience......much too long!

We sipped some Alamos Malbec (I puffed on a cigar) and watched the sun slip over the western horizon one more time......

 My friend Tom always has a pirate flag flying from his flag pole in the front yard, so I raised my pirate flag out of respect

.....the sunset was cloudless, but beautiful nonetheless.  Around 6 pm TLE went inside to prepare for tacos, and I grilled up some pollo asado on the Sea-B-Que........

....about 7 pm it dark enough to check out the new lights on the driver side......they look great!

 The new driver side LED's

The original LED's

.....it's been so long since I installed the originals that I apparently ordered the wrong color....the new ones are a bright white, while the originals are a warmer yellow.  I bought two reels of the strip LED's, so I'll use the extra one to redo the passenger side so they match.

We watched a couple of recorded programs, and were in bed before 10 pm......Tuesday we roll our wheels for the day over to Mesa, AZ to All Aboard America to have the Newell serviced, and then return Tuesday afternoon to Wittmann.

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Cedar Key - Day # 18 - Accents

Wow......18 days already?  It seems much, much longer than that to me.  Monday  broke clear, a little cooler, and a little less humid.  After getting the ball rolling Sunday by finally fixing the loud shower fan I was in a good place mentally to tackle another long delayed repair.  Each of our overhead cabinets has a small light that comes on when the door is opened providing sufficient light, even during the day, to see what is in the cabinet.  All the lights have worked since we bought our coach, except the one in the cabinet over my left shoulder as I drive.  I like things to work, but had let this slide for a long time.  I didn't want to spend $10+ to fix it by replacing the old light, so I decided to use a small strip of LED lights in its place.  There were only 3 lights on this left over strip from another project, but I believed they would be enough to equal the light output of the defunct light.  As it turned out, they were actually a little brighter than the old one.

It is amazing how such a small thing can bring such pleasure to me.  I am glad I waited to fix it because I like my solution better than buying something off the shelf.  When the others start to burn out, and I'm sure at some point they will, I now have an easy fix......took me less than 15 minutes start to finish.

Once I had crossed one more thing off the fixit list, which is not really that long now, I decided tackle a new project I had only just conceived a few days before.  I had spent the last few days figuring out how to do it.   I have wanted to add some accent lighting in the salon area (living room, if you will) that was more indirect than what had been installed.  My friend Chris (Tales from Technomadia) had just installed some LED strip lighting in his kitchen, and living area and was using a 12 volt dimmer switch to control them.  He got the dimmers from Amazon for $8 each, and was ordering some more, so I asked him to include 4 for me....I've got a few more projects for lighting in mind.

Once the dimmers came in Saturday's UPS delivery I was ready to start the project, and Monday was as good a day as any.  Once I gathered all my tools, my supplies together, and with TLE's advice and assistance it was less than two hours until the new lighting was installed, and here is the finished product!

I installed strip lighting between the curtain valance and the curtains by attaching it to a wood strip to which the valance is attached.

Here is the dimmer switch, installed upside down to hide the wires.

Here are the lights with the dimmer at 100%, and below with it at around 50%.

I had an idea this lighting would look good, but the effect, and how this inexpensive lighting changed the feel of the living room area is immeasurable.   Basically I used around 28 feet of LED strip lighting, about 2 feet of 18 gauge stranded wire, a little solder, a few connectors, and one dimmer.  Total cost less than $20.

The Tiki Bar at Low Key Hideaway has been closed for a little over a week as the owners had gone on a cruise.....well they are back, and the Tiki Bar 'OPEN' sign was back on the street, so TLE and I headed over around 5:15 to grab a couple of brews, and watch the sun set.  As it turned out, many of our friends had the same idea.  We stood there talking, while snapping pictures of yet another great sunset!  There is such a feeling of serenity, and quiet as the sun dips below the horizon one more time, closing out another great day in Cedar Key.

These soft flowing colors just blow me away.......thanks for stopping by!

Cedar Key - Day # 17 - The Vibrator

It's funny how long I will live with something that isn't working properly.  When we bought our coach on March 1, 2008 the vent fan in the shower had this loud vibration at start up, but would disappear after 30 seconds.....sometimes.  Sometimes it would run fine for weeks at a time, but if we rolled the wheels it would always come on with this loud vibrating noise that would not disappear until the next day, then it would be fine until we moved again.  There was a problem, but it always seemed to go away, but in Campbellsville it started the loud vibration noise again, so I actually went up on the roof, removed the protective cowling, pulled it out and used my 12 volt bench tester to run it with and without the fan blad on.  I applied a little 3 in 1 oil, and that seemed to do the trick....for about 3 days, then it came back again.  If it worked properly I would use it all the time......especially in this more humid clime we find ourselves in.....it's humid enough inside without adding to the moisture level with a long hot shower, so having the vent fan work properly has suddenly taken on a heretofore absent urgency.  These are 30 year old fans, so replacing any of them with an exact match might be difficult.  My solution?  We have four of these units in our coach (bathroom, shower, kitchen and pantry).....we never, ever, use the one in the pantry, and have actually taped off the switch so it cannot even be accidentally turned on....so why not take the one never being used and see if it is in proper working order, and just replace the shower one with that one?  Well, Sunday morning I finally did that, and it works wonderfully!  The "VIBRATOR" has left the building!

The culprit.....one more task crossed off the list

As I was getting ready to climb down the ladder I noticed a woman looking up at me, so I said "Hi!".  She asked "Do you ever receive compliments on the appearance of your Newell?" After a long, pregnant pause I replied "You bet!"   We started to talk, but then I suggested I come down off the roof so we could talk face to face.  By the time I was back on terra firma her husband had walked over and I was introduced to Tori and Bob.  They are just retired, and also just recently married this past October.  They are here in a rented a 31' Class C+ to see if this lifestyle is something they would like to pursue.  Judging by the looks on their faces I would say they like it a lot.  They had questions about our coach, and I am always eager to talk about our Newell with anyone interested.  Eventually TLE came out and joined in the conversation.

After we finished talking I headed in the direction of our trailer to stow the "VIBRATOR" away for future parts needs when I saw Lee walking over to his truck (he and his wife, Beth, also just recently acquired a Sea Eagle).  Lee and Beth have been fulltiming for over 5 years now.  We talked about solar panels, and batteries.....Lee has 4 panels on his roof, and loves to boondock out west on BLM land.  Both Lee and I are very interested in Chris and Cherie's Lithium Ion setup, and are both thinking about converting over to that in the near future.

And to think all this happened before 11:30 in the morning!  Sunday, of course, had two more NFL playoff games, the first beginning at 1 pm, so I was trying to get something accomplished before the first game so I would have time to watch.  The Seahawks lost a heart breaker after coming back from a 20 point deficit in the second half to lead by 1 with 31 seconds to go, and then losing on a last second field goal to the Falcons.  the night cap saw the Patriots dismantle, again, the Texans....it was close for the first half, but the Patriots pulled away and easily won the game.  

Mean while our neighbors on each side of us left.....it was Sunday after all.....so we suddenly have a view on each side of us again!  Every Sunday when the park begins to empty a little we keep saying to ourselves....."isn't it so cool that we are already 'home'?"

While I was outside working on the fan motor swap TLE was busy dong a thorough interior cleaning....she was vacuuming, washing dishes, clothes, bed sheets......I get tired just thinking about all she accomplished while I just replaced one fan motor.....:D

The rest of the day I watched the aforementioned NFL, did some napping, ran over to Chris and Cherie's dock to watch the sun set, and then ate a fabulous stir fry dinner TLE put together using the leftover roasted veggies, and chicken from the other night, which I chased with a delicious Bloody Mary.....haven't had one of those in months!

TLE's sunset picture beat out mine last night.....and thus the end of another island day in Cedar Key.  Tomorrow is another project day....I am going to install some LED accent lighting in the living area, aka: salon, of our coach.  There will be pictures!

Thanks for stopping by!