World United States Florida Tampa

Travlin Round the Next Bend with Barb & Bruce

visitin the relatives Mar 11, 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

It was a short, easy drive to my Uncle Bill’s place in Zephyr Hills north of Tampa 20 or so miles. Traffic was surprisingly light as we cruised thru Tampa on I-75. Bill lives in the country on a couple acres with a lot of big live oak trees all around the area. The lots are interesting in that most of them are 1½ to 2 acre squares with dirt roads connecting them. Bill’s got a lot of room to park the trailer and since he has a motorhome there’s a 30 amp hookup. We settled right in. To put it simply, he is a very gracious host.

That evening we went to my Aunt Kitty’s for dinner in northern Tampa. On Tuesday my cousins Kathy and Carol came over and we spent the afternoon visiting. Wednesday we drove to Tarpon Springs, a quaint, small town on the coast with Bill and his friend JJ. This is the sponge diving capital of Florida. B & I had visited here in the 90’s but didn’t recognize the place. It was a fun place to wander the streets. It is a Greek community and that is apparent everywhere you go. We had a nice meal and then drove to Weeki Wachee. Yes there really is such a place. JJ lives there and she had a small job that Bill and I took care of. She lives in a great location with a house built up overlooking a canal that leads to the Weeki Wachee River.

When we arrived here on Monday Bill had noticed something was leaking from the truck engine onto the frame. It appeared to be coming from the master brake cylinder. I took it to a nearby Chev dealer on Thursday and received the news that the hydraulic booster for the brakes was leaking and needed replacement. 800 bucks. Then the next morning they called and said the master cylinder also needed to be replaced. Damn, another 400 bucks. Oh well watcha gonna do. It is nice to stop when the brakes are applied.

On Friday I got real ambitious and washed the trailer top to bottom. That evening we went back to Aunt Kitty’s and met 2 of my cousins I hadn’t seen in many, many years, Colleen and Joe. Had another enjoyable evening of catching up. Saturday was kind of an errand day and wash the truck day in preparation for pulling out Sunday to head for St. Augustine. This morning we were up bright and early (can you believe daylight savings time started already, whatta they crazy?) and packed up to pull out. Well the very last thing we always do before we drive off is to check the trailer lights. And so whattayaknow, no brake lights, on either the trailer or truck. Ok, so what did they do when they had the truck in the garage? Of course the place is closed on Sunday. We tried to call whoever we could think of to find someone from the dealership without success. I checked the fuses and fiddled around under the dash. Nothing was apparent to me where the problem could be. So we unhooked the trailer and set up housekeeping again and will have to go to the dealers tomorrow morning early and raise hell.

Since we were still in town we got invited over to my cousin Colleen’s for dinner. Her husband Chuck grilled up some yummy chicken. Barb had cooked up some genuine Minnesota wild rice which neither Colleen nor Chuck had ever eaten. They thought it was great.

So tomorrow we hope to get over to St. Augustine to see our friends Jan and Al from Brimson who flew in last Friday. Luckily the CG we had reservations at were understanding and said we could extend our stay another day. Hope we make it.