We made it!

[Jim]

OMG, what a trip! I figured we could wait in Orlando until the hurricane went back out to sea, and that part of the plan worked fine. We left Orlando yesterday and stayed the night in Homestead after a very windy/rainy day on the road. Somewhere along the line we developed a strange noise that we never could find. So we grit our teeth and tried to ignore it. Then after hitting a HUGE hole in the road (yeah, the toll road that FL makes you pay to drive on) the power vanity shade that extends across the windshield came crashing down. Not surprisingly, the noise that we were wondering about was replaced with my wife's screaming, as well as with a few not to be repeated words of my own.

Made an emergency stop on the side of the road and got the mess cleared up. Mind you, the wind is hitting 60 mph and the rain is sheeting down so bad you can't see 20' in front of you. Got back on the road, both of us in somewhat a diminished state of shock, and continued in a new found silence. Well, until the windshield wiper self-destructed and started flopping around on the windshield. No way to pull over as we were on the Interstate, and things got serious in a hurry. Vision was limited to me seeing a couple of the white dashes on the road, and that vanished whenever a car/truck went by. We were in near panic as we hunted for a side road to get off on. Finally, we found a place to pull over and I fixed the wiper with some zip ties.

So we got back on the road again and started to do battle with the bridges you have to cross to get to the keys. The bridges themselves are not bad but the wind was so violent that I crawled along at 35 mph, promising myself that I would find a bottle of 100 year old scotch when (and if) we ever got to Key West.

We finally got to Bluewater Key, got backed into our lot, and celebrated our survival with a couple of high-fives. And now, I'm off to find that bottle of scotch.

 

[Jim]

Don't kid yourselves, the place looks nice and quiet. But every 20-30 minutes a new band of diminishing hurricane will hit, and the rain/wind is not to be taken lightly.

 

[AbdRahim]

Yikes. would a lighter gasser have survived? Glad you are ok. Mkes me think maybe being packed away for the winter, waiting for snow to be over is not so bad after all.

 

[Jim]

Yikes. would a lighter gasser have survived? Glad you are ok. Mkes me think maybe being packed away for the winter, waiting for snow to be over is not so bad after all.

Drive slow and you would have been fine. It's just a little unnerving to have wind hitting that hard when you're on a bridge with nothing but a 3' wall between you and the ocean below. (One of these bridges is 60' above the water. ) And of course, you're sitting much higher in the coach so you're looking down at the road and the ocean below.

My steering wheel will forever be imprinted from my white-knuckle grip!

 

[Jim]

It's a very busy table. . .

 

[murphysranch]

My heart started pounding when reading what you went thru....sheesh....

 

[Jim]

My heart started pounding when reading what you went thru....sheesh....

lol, you should have been in the drivers seat!

Trish was so scared that she wouldn't sit in the passenger's seat and stayed in the back of the motor home where she couldn't see what was going on around us. Kind of like an ostrich with it's head in the sand. I kept telling her to get the camera and take some pictures so she would have something to remember this with, but she was not coming out.

And now, here we are all safe and sound with no pictures. But as the say in the Jeep world, "we didn't die!"

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Stand by, @Jim; @Neal will be along shortly to sell you a dash cam!

TJ

 

[BGMAC]

Glad you made it safe. Same thing happened to me on the way to Charlotte on our last trip. Rain coming down and the wiper blade assembly unlatched. Duck tape to the rescue. I think the wipers are just too big for the latches. I have an idea for a fix.

 

[Jim]

Stand by, @Jim; @Neal will be along shortly to sell you a dash cam!

TJ

I have one in the Jeep and before we left I was going to move it to the RV. But the window in the RV is almost straight up/down and the suction cup mount wants to be mounted on a window that is sloped. So unfortunately, no dash cam when I needed it.

 

[Neal]

Stand by, @Jim; @Neal will be along shortly to sell you a dash cam!

TJ

 

[Jim]

We wandered around on Duval Street today, going back tomorrow now that we know where to go. Ate where the locals eat, it was good! Took some random pics. Key West is a no-fly zone, so no drone video.

 

[Jim]

Everywhere you go there are chickens walking around! So I asked one of the locals what's up with the chickens? He said (so the story goes) that they were originally brought over from the Caribbean Islands and Cuba to be used for cock fighting. Later, when the practice was outlawed, the chickens/roosters were let go. Also to note, Key West is a bird sanctuary, so it became illegal to hurt the chickens, so they just wandered around and made themselves at home.

Who knew?

 

[Karl Geng]

Jim, are you using Ham Radio in the coach? Just got an Allegro Bus and wondering what to do.
73 Karl N1DL VE7ZDL

 

[Jim]

Jim, are you using Ham Radio in the coach? Just got an Allegro Bus and wondering what to do.
73 Karl N1DL VE7ZDL

Hi Karl, and welcome to the forum.

I've got an ICOM IC-706 MKIIG that I plan to use. That covers 11-meters for CB, 2-meters for the times I"m in the RV park, and all the other HF freqs as well. I have not decided what kind of antenna to use yet so the radio is part of my ever-growing list of things to do!

Check out @JoeHogan's threads, he has some pretty good info in a couple of them.

Question - What Ham equipment do you need in an RV

I have been satisfied with a minimum of Ham equipment to date, basically a very capable 2m/70cm handheld, (D74a)........however....2m/70cm has its limitations without a nearby repeater. Also, I've been exploring Winlink for Ham to email/text. If this recent unrest turns into the Zombie...

rvforums.com

Question - Anyone using 10 meter Ham Radio in RV?

Considering getting a dedicated Ham radio for traveling. Thinking seriously about 10 meter and/or 11 meter radio. A HF radio would be nice, but must be economical. The goal is a useful (Prepper type of useful), monitor travel information (from Truckers), 11 meter (Export mod if needed), and...

rvforums.com

Ham (2m/70cm) + GMRS Antenna for the RV

I am new to ham radio. I have the technician license and plan on staying at that level for a while. My main interest is using the ham while on the trails in my jeep. GMRS is so heavily used, and has other benefits in the fact that all of my family can legally use the GMRS, since I have that...

rvforums.com