Hey All,
I bet the title of my blog shocked you all a bit ! If you recall, I was scheduled to depart the RV Part on Patrick AFB in Cocoa Beach on March 23th. I intended to put my RV in storage for about 10 days, then travel via my truck for a 7 hour trip up to Fort Walton Beach to see my younger brother and mother. Then on Wednesday or Thursday of this week I was planning on driving back down to Orlando to stay thru Easter with my older brother and sister-in-law. On April 4th, with the help of my older brother Jan, I was going to move my RV to Tampa and stay on MacDill AFB for the next six months.
Sometimes things just do not go as planned !. On Thursday March 22nd, with the help of one of my RV neighbors, I was trying to get my RV 5th wheel hitched up to my truck so that on Friday morning, I could just move it to the storage lot with assistance of my neighbor. Then after the RV was moved I could be on my way up to Fort Walton Beach for the visit with Mom and my brother Randy. However, all that can go wrong went wrong !!
First I had problems getting my back stabilizer legs in the upward position. I ended up having to use a manual jack as there were problems with that rear electrical switch. Then after doing that work around, I spent about an hour or so with my neighbor Mike trying to get the hitching pin on the RV locked into the hitch mechanism in the back bed of my truck. When trying to do this, I was running into constant problems with my tires digging into the loose gravel that makes up the parking pad. This required my neighbor to carefully move the legs in the front of my RV up and down as needed to help to get the RV into the proper height position so that I could properly hookup. Then wouldn’t you know it, the mechanism that hydraulically allows the legs of the front of my RV to move up and down stopped working and we weren’t sure what was going on.
My brother Jan in Orlando being a former engineer and maintenance test pilot is extremely knowledgeable and mechanically inclined, not like me who knows very little in this area. Thus, I often call my brother Jan with technical or mechanical questions and he usually give me pointers on what to do. I truly respect my brother’s ideas as he usually knows how to resolve mechanical or electrical issues or to find some form of a work around alternative to make things work.


This was such the case. When I spoke to Jan and thru his advice and with the help of my neighbor, we removed some wiring from a the battery in the front compartment of my RV and used a portable battery as a alternative source of power in order to get the front legs to move up and down.

Eventually we got the RV hooked up to the truck, but I still had the issue of having to deal with this issue to get it into the storage lot and then eventually to Tampa. My thoughts at this point due to all the issues I was having was to just get my RV over to Tampa now just to have peace of mind that at least it was safely in place over there.
My brother came to my rescue! On short notice he drove from Orlando to my place in Cocoa Beach late last Thursday evening and then on Friday he devoted his entire day to follow me all the way to Tampa, to ensure that I got there safely. Then thru his work around and a little rewiring, he got my front RV legs back down again, then helped me to level the RV before assisting me to unhitch it from the truck once again. He even was successful in fixing the back switch to my rear stabilizer bar so that it would work again electrically. Then after a little bit of exploring he identified the problem for the front legs not working which appeared to be a hidden fuse near the battery. My brother also confirmed that the front switch mechanism for the legs was faulty and that a replacement part would eventually have to purchased. However for now at least I am safely in place once again on MacDill AFB in Tampa for the next six months!
So my “broken legs” resulted in me having to alter my original travel plans and move over to Tampa 10 days earlier than planned !
In some ways, I’m sad leaving all the friends I had met in Cocoa Beach (especially Beau), but I am excited that once I am completely settled here in the RV park with Cable, Internet, etc, I will begin to venture out and to hopefully make new friends in and around the Tampa / Saint Petersburg area.
Wouldn’t you know it, the spot that was available to me in the RV park was just one parking space to the left of where Terry and I resided last year and where Terry took his last breath on this earth. At times when I look out my window around the grounds where Terry’s left this earth for heaven, it sometimes gives me a moment of sadness as naturally, just the site of this sacred spot make me think back to my time with Terry (and Roxy) and everything we went thru together to try to combat his illness. At other times as I look to the sacred grounds next to me it gives me a feeling of comfort that his spirit feels even that much closer to me and that I know that he is at peace.
I have included a couple of photos. One of my RV in my new parking spot and the other of my neighbors RV in the “sacred” parking pad and grounds. I have not actually met my neighbors as they have apparently been away (I assume). The place next to me have been very quiet ever since I arrived here on the past Friday. However, you will notice in the picture of my neighbors RV spot, a nice planter with beautiful flowers. In many ways it brings me joy that Terry’s sacred spot has beautiful flowers in his area. All weekend, even though I haven’t met these neighbors, I have been proudly keeping their plants watered and alive as I felt it was the right thing to do especially because they are located on “Terry’s Sacred Spot” and he would expect me to keep his gardens in bloom!!


Sorry, you may have to enlarge the right photo to see the nice flowers on my neighbor’s spot.
With Love,
Gary