We began the month in Clewiston, Florida, by Lake Okeechobee, where we met friends Frank and Joanne Caldarola. Last April we visited them at their home near Austin, Texas. They are among the many friends we have met on the internet and later in person. Frank retired from IBM and they bought a Dutch Star motorhome (similar to ours), sold their house and hit the road fulltime about a month ago. It was nice to see them again and spend time talking. One day we went to Sanibel Island for a picnic lunch on the beach. Central to southern Florida has an interesting landscape. This is the real Florida and not the highly populated coastal cities or the resort areas. Central Florida is orange trees as far as the eye can see in many places. Heading further south one sees a spider web of canals emitting from Lake Okeechobee. The large canals feed smaller canals which in turn feed even smaller canals that furnish water to sugar cane fields that cover much of the area. After the cane matures and turns brown the shucks are burned off and the stalks are harvested. The burning shucks rise in clouds and travel sometimes long distances before falling and covering everything black. If you see this "black rain" falling run for cover and don't try to wash it off anything because water will cause black stains. Try to blow it away.

(This was election month and we cast our votes by absentee ballots in our home state of Texas. Election night, November 7, we watched television until 3:00 a.m. to see who would be our next President and as the month ended we still did not know. The day before the election we visited Palm Beach and Broward counties and never knew those counties would be in the world news. The day of the election we drove up through central Florida and passed many polling places. If we had stopped and voted at each one the outcome may not have been challenged. Then to top it off we drove through Tallahassee when the Florida Supreme Court held their hearing.)

As we were leaving Clewiston we noticed our Heart Inverter / Charger was not working on charge. This meant we could not keep the batteries charged for the 12 volts lights and circuits in the motorhome. We drove to Clermont, Florida and checked into a Coast to Coast park. Independence RV in Winter Garden, Florida gave us an appointment for a week later so we decided to stay in Clermont and do some repairs to the Dutch Star. Norm disconnected the Heart Charger and hooked up a small battery charger we carry for emergencies. That supplied enough charge to keep the batteries up. Norm also replaced a broken rear clearance light and a defective side light. Our water heater had not been working on 110 volt electric so Norm tackled that problem. After checking the circuits he found a wire inside the water heater assembly that had shorted out burning up some wiring, a connector and part of the thermostat. After procuring the part Norm had the water heater running again.

The next week Independence RV determined the Heart Inverter / Charger was defective. They removed it from the motorhome and took it to Buddy Gregg Motor Homes in Lakeland, Florida for repair. After two days the repairs had been made and we were ready to roll. We thought the inverter / charger was covered under warranty. We found out removing and replacing the part from the motorhome was covered. The defective part was covered, but the actual installation of the defective part was not covered. Buddy Gregg charged $159 for labor - a job that took about fifteen minutes. We have protested to Newmar, the maker of our motorhome, but our complaint will probably do no good. Independence RV was great. Service Manager, Vince Cannizzaro, and service technician, Wes Stevens, went out of their way to help us. They allowed us to stay in the Dutch Star in their service facility two nights, gave us 30 amp electric, offered a water connection, and let us use their telephone line for e-mail. They also made three trips to Lakeland to drop off and pick up our inverter / charger. After all of that, they charged only one hour of labor which was paid by the warranty. We highly recommend Independence RV in Winter Garden, Florida for anyone needing service. We also highly recommend you bypass Buddy Gregg Motor Homes in Lakeland unless you want to get ripped off. (Note: Norm filed a complaint with Newmar and they reimbursed us the $159.)

Our friends Rich and Diane Emond were heading to Ocala, Florida to visit his mother. We decided to stop in nearby Silver Springs so we could meet them for dinner. They brought Rich's mother Helen and his brother Charlie. We had a nice visit and dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Our next meeting with Rich and Diane will be March 2001 in Arizona. The entire nation was experiencing cold weather, freezing rain and snow. Luckily we were in the warmest place in the country. It's nice to enjoy sunshine wearing shorts while the rest of the nation is shoveling snow. Of course, that is one of the reasons we travel fulltime - always seeking perfect weather.

Leaving Silver Springs we noticed the "check" light was lit on the refrigerator. Oh no, another problem. Keeping everything in prospective, we do own a house on wheels that bounces down the road on a computer controlled chassis shoved by a diesel engine. Things are bound to break. Our refrigerator worked only when the motorhome was connected to electric or the generator was running. We decided to make the 412 mile drive to Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama, in one day and get hooked up to electric. Arriving just before dark we found the park full with five rigs on the waiting list for full hookup sites. We explained our refrigerator problem to the park managers and somehow they found a site for us.

The next day we moved to the private lot of our good friends Tom and Tinka Dooley. We had met the Dooleys at the Plantation last year, visited them in Florida later last year and met them again at the Escapade in Goshen, Indiana in September. They are a very nice couple and welcome all their friends to stop for a hug. Dick and Phyllis Davis, friends we had met on the internet but not in person, drove down from Montgomery in their Allegro motorhome and the Dooleys invited them to stay beside us. The Davises live fulltime in their motorhome but are still working. As soon as they can retire they will join us as fulltime travelers. We enjoyed spending time with them and hope to see them many more times down the road.

Thanksgiving is a big day at the Plantation. Volunteers cooked turkey, made gravy, and fixed coffee and iced tea - all for one dollar a person. Two hundred - fifty people attended the Thanksgiving dinner and were seated twelve to a table. Each table had a host (Tinka Dooley was ours) and was responsible for telling everyone what dish to bring. Our table had a great feast followed by four types of pie. We all stuffed ourselves and had a great time.

We took the motorhome to Leisure Tyme RV in Pensacola to get the refrigerator fixed. After dropping it off we ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel and returned to find the motorhome was already repaired and waiting for us. They replaced a thermocouple. Hopefully, we won't need service for a long time.

Click here to see some of our friends from this month.