T minus about 9 hours or so

Today Coastal RV found FROG lost two of her eight house batteries. They had lived a full life but we decided to keep them for now, just disconnect them.  In the future all eight will need replaced at the same time.

They are being filled with distilled water when we fill all the batteries with our pump system so they will not go dry, but we are living on only the remaining six now. Why? Maybe they will be enough for awhile. And before installation each of the eight costs $150.00

Paul, owner of Coastal RV here in Cocoa, Florida, found areas to seal on roof and sides that were letting in the small amounts of water we had problems with two weeks ago.  He feels, and we pray, the problem is solved.  But we did have 9” of rain in 24 hours. Such a storm can find entrances never seen before.  And it did.

A new solenoid on the rear slide has it tight as a drum as well.  And the issue with the house batteries draining the starter batteries has been resolved at Paul’s suggestion easily.  When we dry camp we simply use the full electric shut off switch for the chassis.  Then there is no way the engine-starter batteries can drain.  TY Paul!

While FROG was getting repaired we drove to libraries in Melbourne and Palm Bay, Florida.  It was a beautiful day of sun and 77 but instead of a beach, we wanted to be close in case Paul would call with an issue we had to go back for.

The libraries AND a museum satisfied both of us.  The Museum of the Honor America Society in Melbourne I mean.

In the seventies Bob Hope was so saddened by the way troops coming home from Vietnam were being treated by the public that he started what for a time became a nationwide patriotic movement called HONOR AMERICA.

Today the last chapter of the society operates this museum and veterans park in Melbourne, Florida.  It’s a combination patriotic display and community wide history museum. And its FREE!

Another free experience we found today was at the Turkey Creek Wildlife Refuge.  This is a local set of woods and wetland hiking trails and boardwalks that took us back to the really OLD Florida.  

It would almost not have surprised us if a band of Seminole warriors would have passed us on the trail.  But we only saw squirrels, a woodpecker, a Slink (3” lizard) and some turtles, one of which seemed to be stuck atop a stick!

But at one of the libraries we did see some interesting geese and an Osprey. Such a proud, big bird.  Kin to the bald eagle but found only in seaside wetlands.

We returned to pick up the coach, then took it to a campground to dump and fill tanks. We had to move from North Merritt UMC to First UMC of Cocoa Beach.  NOT because we are now parked one block from the ocean. NOT because we are closer than ever to tomorrows dawn launch of the Orion. 

But because the very lovely site we enjoyed for several nights at North Merritt UMC would have required us to drive through those very low live oak branches twice more.  So we had to choose FROG safety over the peace of a truly quiet and lovely camp site.

TY Pastor Joel and all at North Merritt for your hospitality!!

  

TY Pastor Melissa and Administrator Phyllis at First UMC for yours now.

So we arrived just at dusk on rte A1A in downtown Cocoa Beach, just a couple of blocks from the first RON-JON Surf Shop (think Cabella’s for surfers). We leveled the coach and put out the slides and turned on the water pump.  And the grinding noise from the pump could be heard up in the coach itself.  Yes.  We have a new maintenance issue.

I called and left a message for Paul at Coastal RV, and sent him pics of the pump so he can tell us what to do, but I can only imagine tonight we’ll have to return and replace the pump.  He’s only 15 miles west of us on the Cape Canaveral Causeway.  But we had really hoped we would get some peace from these continuing repairs for a while.

Our maintenance budget was to last for a year and we have maxed it out in six months.

Well, we’re up at 4am to head out to a causeway beach for the launch.  Tourists have filled the campgrounds and hotels here and traffic is heavy.  We expect a zoo tomorrow for miles around.  Prayers will NOT be unappreciated for joy in the experience of seeing and feeling the launch of the heaviest space vehicle ever, and safety in the crowds of tourists, and a simple and inexpensive fix (miracle?) for our pump.

More pics on FACEBOOK

-Ken

Cheap is good, Free is better

Just three miles north of us up rte 3 on Merritt Island is Kennedy Space Center, and the amazing KSC Visitors Center. We toured the Visitors Center and KSC for an entire day in 2009 when our family was with us for two weeks at Disney World. It was, like Disney World, wonderful, and expensive.  And in 2009 the Shuttle Atlantis was not on display in its own huge building as it is now. 

But the cost has gone up in the last five years, not down, so we decided to see one of the other space shuttles, like the Discovery at the Smithsonian Air and Space Annex near Dulles Airport, when we go through that woods neck.  And its free, for now.

But one cannot drive by such a place without at least remembering the experience in electronic pixels. Which includes one of the un-flown Redstone rockets that was built to take our very first astronauts into space.  Essentially a three stage German V-Rocket without a weapon.  Thank God the allies won World War TWO.

There is also the Space Explorers Hall of Fame about a mile west on NASA Blvd from the Visitor’s Center.  This, too, is expensive.  And the facts and mementos exhibited inside are not a priority of ours to see so the price dictated that we photo the somewhat downsized model of a Space Shuttle, called the Inspiration, which sits outside this hall.

  

In the FREE  lobby there is a wonderful model of Alan Sheppard, America’s first astronaut to fly into space. Cheap is good, free is always better.

And across from the Space Hall of Fame is a mismatched but interesting American Police Hall of Fame.  Yes, this too is expensive.  But the admissions clerk allowed me to take a couple of shots of the first display room and that included the ROBOCOP movies first plastic suit prop, and the BLADE RUNNER movies futuristic police car. Free IS good!

Then we drove the couple of miles up US 1 to Titusville, Florida, where you can look across the Indian River at the huge NASA Vehicle Assembly Building and Shuttle launch platforms three miles away on Merritt Island, surrounded by the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge.

The Refuge, and its sister National Seashore Park make seriously good security sense for Kennedy and Cape Canaveral.  No buildings and easy to see swamp and marshland everywhere you look. 

 To get to the beach you drive right by the old Shuttle landing site. Except that it is surrounded by alligator and snake infested canals. A NASA helicopter flew south at about 40’ over Playalinda Beach as I took some photos of (or in) a rain squall that came through this afternoon. No ones getting to the Orion launch without a passcard.

 

The refuge itself is beautiful, even though the rain, and Mona says my talking as we walked, scared all the birds and four footeds far away. But this is Central Florida in December.  There are still gorgeous flowers to photograph!

And the rain did not keep us from visiting several libraries.  That’s a no-brainer wet day activity for us!

On the way home we picked up some very freshly picked oranges (the grove is across the street) for dessert tonight. This farm has been here since 1920.  I doubt there were tourists to buy directly from the groves then.

Tomorrow we rise early to drop the coach at Coastal RV in Cocoa to have the battery auto switches (between the 8 house and 2 starter batts) and those pesky leaks looked at. If rain is still predicted, we go south for more libraries and a couple of Goodwill’s.  You just never know where a good book will be hiding next.

And if it stays dry, the beach is MILES long!

-Ken

A dream is a wish your heart makes

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