Fogged Window Repair

Last winter, the window on our entry door, a dual pane one, lost its seal and became fogged.  Because this window is the main window for Marti to look out, next to the windshield, it was a priority to get it fixed.

                  

We drove across Florida to Hudson, where Suncoast Designers is located.  They are a highly recommended repair facility for RV window problems.

                  

There are over two dozen RVs parked in their lot, which provides free electric and water hookups while repairs are being made.

                 

                 

There are RVs here from just about every brand, from low end entry level RVs to even a Newell and a couple of American Eagles.  Even high end Prevost bus conversions are serviced here. 

Work starts here at 0630 and at 0640 a supervisor met with me to go over my repair needs.  Ten minutes later, a tech came out and removed the door trim and all the screws.

                 

Next up was another tech who removed the glass, it was glued in and required a razor blade to cut through the rubber like glue.

               

               

Because it will take a day or two to split the glass, manufacture a new custom seal, then reassemble the window and allow the glue on the new seal to cure, a cardboard panel was taped over the window opening.

               

Today, while we’re waiting for the repaired glass to hopefully be reinstalled (they recommend allowing 1 to 2 days for a single window repair), I’m going to take the tour of the plant where the windows are reconstructed.  Cameras are allowed, so I’ll be snapping away to show how the windows get fixed better than new.  Suncoast gives a 10 year warranty on their repair, so it should be interesting.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

                    

Cruisin’ Under The Sea

There were a bunch of excursions offered by our cruise line, many things we’ve done before or things we could easily do another time,  but a Submarine Tour?   That’s not something that comes along everyday, so we booked it.

We arrived at Grand Cayman Island and took a tender ashore, there was no pier for the Freedom of the Seas to tie up to.  A 10 minute run and we stepped ashore.  It took a while for our tour to get ready, but once it was announced, we walked a couple of blocks to the building the submarine company operated from.  Another short boat ride was required to get out to where the submarine was waiting.

We pulled up along side the sub, it looked just like a submarine is supposed to look except it was painted white, most every other sub I’ve seen is either dark grey or black.  But then, those subs don’t carry tourists.

              

              

The submarine has two hatches, one forward, one aft.  The group of 48 was split into two sections and sent to the hatches to board.  Once we got inside, everyone was excited to be able to see out of large port holes lining each side.

               

               

We cast off from the tender boat and submerged into the sea for our hour long ride.  Slowly, things began to appear.

               

The sub maneuvered all around the coral reefs that were teeming with fish and other sea life.  As usual, I was too slow to get shots of a couple of large barracudas that swam by.  But looking at the formations of coral and undersea plant life was amazing.

               

               

               

Marti enjoyed the sights as much as I did.

               

Now before you think that I’m a lousy shot with a camera (I usually am) and I goofed because all the pictures are blue, I’m not guilty (for a change).  At a depth of 100 feet, natural light doesn’t penetrate all the way down to that depth and red, orange, yellow and green colors fade away, leaving blue light that can filter down to that depth.  Underwater photographers that take pictures of coral use lights to bring out those colors.  Still, the views were awesome, even in blue.

The submarine was one of eleven built in Canada at a cost of $5 million each.  They are built with positive buoyancy and use electric motors driving propellers to force the sub under the surface.  If electric power was lost, the sub would automatically rise to the surface.  Pretty neat design, with safety in mind. 

It was nice to cross off something from our bucket list that wasn’t even on there in the first place. I guess you could say this excursion was the low high point of our cruise.  :c) 

The cruise also took us to Jamaica and Cozumel, Mexico, where we had more “standard” type tours and enjoyed them, too.  Too soon, the cruise was over and we were back in Florida.  Not to worry, in four months we’re taking another cruise out of NYC to the Caribbean again with my dad and Marti’s sister Gail, both who have never been on a cruise.  We’re going to be their guides, that’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it!

We resolved the tooth issue with a fast appointment with an Aspen Dental visit, which kept us on schedule today to drive across Florida to Suncoast Designers to get our fogged window fixed tomorrow.  There are a couple of dozen motorhomes here, ranging from entry level gas RVs to even a Newell motorhome, all needing window work.  It appears cheap windows are another corner that RV manufacturers cut.  We’re going to get a tour of the repair factory tomorrow to see  how everything is done, should be interesting.  Hope they let me take some pictures!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

                  

Cruisin’ In Style

A seven day “vacation” from our full time traveling “vacation”.  It helps relieve the stress of too many days of doing just what we want.  Tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.  And do it we did, in style.

After our January Disney cruise, we had so much fun, we kept an eye out for a deal on another cruise.  We found an offer on Royal Caribbean we couldn’t refuse.  We boarded the Freedom of the Seas for our trip from Port Canaveral, FL to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. 

Getting familiar with the ship was a challenge, this is one BIG baby.  At the time of its construction in Finland in 2006, it was the world’s largest.  (It has since been eclipsed by even bigger Royal Caribbean ships).  A funny aside, I was in Finland in 2006 and visited the shipyard where it was built and saw it there almost completed.  I remember thinking how cool it would be to sail on it, never guessing that one day I actually would.

              

Along with a nice stateroom which felt quite spacious for us, after living in our RV,

             

we had a balcony with some chairs to enjoy our own little slice of heaven.

             

Running down the center of the ship is what was called “Central Park”, a huge open space lined with stores and restaurants,

              

              

and even an unusual thing to be found on a ship… a British built Morgan sports car!

               

Our dining room was quite spectacular,

               

as well as the theater where we saw a bunch of excellent shows, magicians and other performances.

               

From time to time we’d see characters roaming the ship from many DreamWorks movies.  One time, while on the elevator, the door opened and in stepped Kung Fu Panda, nearly scaring Marti to death!  I took a quick snap of her face.

               

Thank goodness the ship had a nearby medical treatment for people scared out of their wits!

                 

Coming back to our room each night, we never knew what kind of animal we find waiting for us.

               

               

We swam in crystal clear water in Labadee, Haiti, at Royal Caribbean’s private island.

               

The ship put on a backyard barbecue lunch.

                

All too soon, we headed back to the ship to cool off and get out of the hot sun.  Even though we were slathered with sun block, our lily white skin was starting to burn, so we called it a day.

              

Next up, cruising above and below the sea.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.