Sorry it's been so long since my last post.... not even sure when my last post was, but I believe it was last Thursday, so I'm going to start there and catch up a little bit, because there has actually been a few things happen since then.

  So starting on Friday morning; I was up and eating breakfast like usual when there was a knock on the trailer door. One of the RV campground guys was there telling me that there was water leaking out of the front of the trailer. Stepping out and looking forward I could see that he was indeed correct, but really it was more like 'pouring' out of the front end. Having just gone through this a week or so ago I pretty much knew exactly what was going on and it wasn't good.

  Got the water turned off and then went back inside to lift the end of the bed up and see what the damage there was going to be. Sure enough, the line that had blown out a week ago, and which I had fixed, had blown out once again and managed to drench everything that was stored there under the bed. I started pulling everything in there out again, and spreading it out where ever I could find some space. There was a lot of stuff there, but most of it wasn't a problem even though it was all wet, it was going to just be a matter of drying it all out and then repacking it. There was my whole basket of dirty clothes and a spare blanket that were drenched, but other than needing to wash and then dry them out again, even that wasn't too big of a problem.

    Once everything was out though, I could sorta half crawl in and undo the old line connections and "throw" that piece of line out. You can fool me once.... but I wasn't going to make the same mistake again and reuse that same piece of line for anything. So I pulled out the 10 foot long piece of spare tubing I had bought last week and got ready to cut off a piece of that to use, when I noticed a whole other waterline that was already made up and ready to go back in a far corner. Had to crawl in a bit farther, but did manage to reach it and then actually get it installed. Feeling pretty good about this waterline, but only time will tell if it will hold up any better than the last one.

    All of that took a few hours of my time so it was after noon before I got settled enough to get over to the laundry and get my clothes washed and dried. About an hour and half is all it took to get it all done and it felt good to have it all done and put away. I had put one of my portable heaters inside the bed enclosure before I left and it was pretty much all dried out under there by the time I made it back from the laundry. Some of the stuff that was still damp also got some personnel attention from one of the heaters, but most of that stuff just got put in the back of the truck where a couple of days in the sunshine should dry it all out naturally.

    Also had to take one of the propane tanks off and go get it filled. I have two 30 lb tanks on the front of the trailer and they usually last me a good long time if I am careful with what I use them for. The last time I had filled them was way back in June when I filled both of them while up in Oswego NY. They have a propane service here at the campground so it didn't take long to run over there and get the one filled up. At $25 per tank I figure my gas 'utility' bill for a year is somewhere around $75... so not too bad.

    By this time it was starting to get quite late already. Just had time to shower, get dressed and head out for the first night of contra dancing here in Atlanta. Met up with my friend Rima at the dance. She had driven down with another friend from Virginia and we all arrived within 10 minutes of each other. Had a great time dancing with her and everyone else at the dance that night. The band that night was 'On The Fly' with Susan Taylor calling. A very pleasant evening of dancing, but I knew Saturday and Sunday's dances would be even better.

   An easy morning on Saturday. Rima and I spent a couple of hours hanging out and talking before heading out to explore the area. We settled on a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for a couple of hours. We had a wonderful time wandering around looking at the various plants and sculptures on display. There weren't very many blooming plants to see because of the late season, except for the ones inside the greenhouses but there was still a lot of fun things to see and explore and it was nice to just have some time to walk around outside in the sunshine.

    We had a bit of lunch after the Botanical Gardens at a little eatery right down town. Really nice food and drink in a very pleasant setting. We split an entree of fried chicken with mashed potatoes and collard greens with some added on fried okra, chicken livers and cornbread and biscuits. Yum!

   After food it was time to head over to the dance venue again for Saturday nights dance. The theme for the dance this year was 'The Roaring 20's' so there were some great costumes to look at and admire on some of the dancers. There were a lot of  women dressed as 'flappers' and guys dressed as gangsters, all of it done in good fun.

   The music was spectacular that evening, Lift Ticket was playing with Seth Tepher doing the calling. From the very first dance it was apparent that it was going to be a whole lot of fun.... and it was. The next 3-4 hours just went by in a blur, lot's of fun partners and hot sweaty people having a great time. It was a little sad when it was all over and time to head back home.

    So this morning, Sunday, there is another knock on the door. Opened it up to find this little old lady outside who told me that there was water pouring out the 'back' end of the trailer. First thing through my mind is that one of the water lines had frozen last night, but that went on by in a flash and I settled on the possibility of the T&P valve, temperature and pressure valve, blowing. After putting some shoes on, it was out the back door to find that the leak was indeed coming from the Hot Water Heater compartment and that it was indeed the P&T valve that had let loose. As much of a pain as that was, it was also a relief that it actually worked the way it was suppose to. The valve is there to release excess pressure in case there is more than the standard for water tanks. Not sure why mine was going off, but if it hadn't I probably would of awakened to the back end of the trailer being blown about 500 feet into the air. Not a real pleasant thought. Got the water shut off again and just relaxed, I was pretty sure what would be needed, which is to replace the valve, and that was something that could wait until later. In the meantime Rima and I just used the campground showers and postponed doing the dishes until later.

    Made it into the dance for the last afternoon session around 12:30. There was about 30 minutes of waltzing left and then the last 3 hours of dancing. Like usual the last few hours were so much fun. Hot music, hot calling and hot partners..... no, I really mean hot, as in everyone was quickly a bit sweaty. Being that as it may.... it was a lot of fun and over way to soon. I had the last couple of dances with Rima and then it was all over for the weekend. It has been wonderful dancing again and the best part was having someone to help share the time with me.

   Tonight is going to just be time to relax. I think tomorrow will be soon enough to deal with trailer stuff. Mostly I just want to get the old valve out, I'll check the area to see if there are any 'Camping World' stores nearby. But if not, I can wait until I get down to the Tallahassee area where I know one is located. One more day here in the area and then it is on to Florida.