Solid Work and Wet Visitor.

Our Location today is Moore Haven, Florida, U.S.A.

You could say that it was a draw between the sun rising and me opening the blinds in the trailer this morning. Once I had that finished I got things ready for our breakfast before heading to do some morning reading on the computer. I had only managed to read two of the morning blogs we follow when I heard and felt Kathy moving about upstairs. I simply walked away from the computer and would not get back to it until well into the afternoon. Watching the local weather channel it repeated what I’d heard yesterday that I had to get busy in order to accomplish what I wanted to do this morning. 

Since our first 5^th wheel we have always had the problem of an unstable trailer even though the corner leveling jacks were solid. We even tried a tripod which did nothing to stabilize the trailer but took up storage space. We noticed a slight improvement when we changed to Chock-X chocks which cause the wheels to become the chocks. My mission today was to install the Strong Arm Jack Stabilizers that we purchased last week at Camping World. 

Since I’d already gathered the tools that I would need and partially sub-assembled some of the parts my job was to drill and mount it all today. What didn’t help was that when our trailer was manufactured they installed our forward leveling jacks off by 90 degrees which meant I had to drill more holes than I should have. Another delay was breaking a drill bit and somehow not having a good cutting edge on the largest bit that I needed. When Kathy came outside in the high humidity and saw me laying on the ground she thought that I’d passed out until she heard the sound of the drill working. 

I barely finished installing the front stabilizers when the rain started so Kathy took advantage of that to serve lunch. As I finished eating the rain again had stopped so outside I went to work on the rear stabilizers. Here the delay was to remove the original bolts on the telescoping pads due to corrosion but I got it done. I was just about to drill the last two sets of holes to complete the rears jacks when the thunder started ahead of the rain which just gave me enough time to get inside before it really started coming down. With the amount of rain that was falling it started making puddles so I knew I was done for the day.   

I was wet and dirty without the rain.

I sat back at the computer to finish reading where I left off this morning and saw this hawk land on and perch itself on a post maybe thirty feet from our trailer. The rain continued for close to an hour and all the while the hawk stayed on that post occasionally spreading its wings in an attempt to dry them. If we got up and moved around in the trailer you could see it watching us through our rear window. Minutes after the rain stopped the hawk took back to the sky in search of its next meal. 

This hawk stayed on that post until it stopped raining.

Since it was too wet to use the Weber Kathy suggested going out for supper and asking Elaine and Rick if they were interested in coming along. They suggested a small bar just up the road that Kathy and I had spotted the other day called the Gator Grill. Looking at it from the outside you’d hardly know it was there. On the inside it was a small grill/bar that served mostly sandwiches and burgers that had a constant flow of customers. It was still a good place to get out and have a nice visit over our meal. 

Small lake on our patio.

If the weather holds out in the morning I’ll finish working on the stabilizers but Kathy has already noticed a big improvement with only the front ones being functional at this time. The rain is falling and the wind is blowing fairly hard but the trailer is not moving. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.

Krackers

You Might Be a Redneck If

You think Netflix is a movie about fishing.