I had no intentions of letting this many days go by without an entry, but it happened anyway. I’ll try to not let this happen again. So here goes the catch-up entry.
We did have a great time at dinner with the Mullicans at the Irish pub. Love those fish and chips, and also the shepards pie.
The next day we traveled to the Savannah, GA area and stayed at the KOA campground. We went out to get some supplies and decided to stop at a Beef-O-Brady’s for dinner. Inside were a bunch of Brits watching a championship soccer match on TV that was taking place in England. What a rowdy bunch. Almost as enthusiastic as Steeler fans!
The next day we moved the coach to Columbia, SC for the night and the next day on to the Johnson City, TN area. We stayed 6 days over the Memorial Day weekend to sit tight during the holiday and to look the area over as a potential place to move our homestead. We liked what we saw, particularly in the Jonesborough City area, and plan to return to stay for a month to get a good feel for the area. This is the first place that we have visited east of the Mississippi that we like enough to take a second look. We lucked out with chamber of commerce weather- 70’s in daytime, 50’s at night and blue sky.
From there we stopped one night in Flatwoods, WV at what was the Days Hotel Campground, but is now the Flatwoods KOA. To you RVers out there, you know what that means- higher prices! $40 a night and no cable TV!
Today we made the trip past Pittsburgh and have stopped at the Mercer KOA for the next 17 days. My mother lives in the area and we will be visiting her as well as helping her clean out the cellar, garage and closets. My father past away this past January and Mom has decided to start cleaning out the house and we are going to help.
The price for this is some of Mom’s home cooked meals, just like I used to get when I was a boy. Linda and I cook many fine meals but they are generally of a different type than what we will get here. Yep, that means more calories!
The next entry will be a rant about fuel prices and how they will affect our contribution to the economy.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Launch- Glad it’s over
Well the last 3 days prior to leaving were very busy. At times it seemed that the travel gods did not want us to go.
Last Thursday we received a call from Independence RV saying that the motorhome was ready for pickup at noon on Friday. That meant a trip to Orlando to pick it up and return home. That also meant that I was going to miss the granddaughters (Morgan) championship playoff softball game. I’m proud to say that Morgan’s team won the game and the league championship! Morgan’s team only lost one ballgame during the season. Way to go Morgan! Unfortunately, I missed the game due to the 420 mile round trip to Orlando.
Saturday morning we pulled the coach up in front of our home to load all our stuff except food. During the loading I noticed oil was dripping from the rear differential of our Jeep. Closer inspection revealed that the leak was coming from the pinion seal where the dive shaft enters the differential. I do a lot of my own mechanic work but this is more than I want to tackle. Off to the Jeep dealer we went. Thankfully, the local dealer, Maroone Jeep, has Saturday service hours. We got the Jeep in about noon hoping they could work on it. The service writer, Dino, was very helpful. It turns out Dino is a Jeep owner and enthusiast and after I explained our trip launch schedule, he kind of pushed through the work on the Jeep. The Jeep was done by 2:30 pm! Thanks Dino!
Saturday evening was my retirement dinner. We spent the evening with friends and had a great time. But that closes the last chapter on that part of our lives and now we are excited about making new chapters, which starts with this journey.
Sunday we pulled the coach back in front the house and finish loading and stocked the frig. I say pulled back in front of the house because we cannot store the coach at our home due to city regulations. We have to keep it in storage facility that is located about 3 miles from home. Not the most convenient setup, but that is the way it is. Sunday afternoon had me out in the hot Florida sun putting up our storm shutters. They will be in place while we are gone.
Monday- launch day! We loaded up our laptops, cameras, some final various items and our 2 cats, LeMeiux and Hurakan. The cats have travel with us for the last 7+ years and travel well. They are Burmese.
We were down to the last 5 minutes prior to driving off, and were in the process of unplugging TV’s, computers, etc, when we discovered a leak in the water hose that leads to our ice maker in the home refrigerator. So that was a 45 minute delay to cleanup that mess. So with that cleaned up, away we went.
Whew, that was easy!
Fortunately, our first days trip was only 180 miles to the Great Outdoors RV Resort in Titusville, Fl. We will stat two days to rest up from launch preparations. Tonight we meet with friends Carolyn and Jim Mullican at the Irish Pub for fish and chips. We have not had the pleasure of their company in a while and look forward to dinner.
Last Thursday we received a call from Independence RV saying that the motorhome was ready for pickup at noon on Friday. That meant a trip to Orlando to pick it up and return home. That also meant that I was going to miss the granddaughters (Morgan) championship playoff softball game. I’m proud to say that Morgan’s team won the game and the league championship! Morgan’s team only lost one ballgame during the season. Way to go Morgan! Unfortunately, I missed the game due to the 420 mile round trip to Orlando.
Saturday morning we pulled the coach up in front of our home to load all our stuff except food. During the loading I noticed oil was dripping from the rear differential of our Jeep. Closer inspection revealed that the leak was coming from the pinion seal where the dive shaft enters the differential. I do a lot of my own mechanic work but this is more than I want to tackle. Off to the Jeep dealer we went. Thankfully, the local dealer, Maroone Jeep, has Saturday service hours. We got the Jeep in about noon hoping they could work on it. The service writer, Dino, was very helpful. It turns out Dino is a Jeep owner and enthusiast and after I explained our trip launch schedule, he kind of pushed through the work on the Jeep. The Jeep was done by 2:30 pm! Thanks Dino!
Saturday evening was my retirement dinner. We spent the evening with friends and had a great time. But that closes the last chapter on that part of our lives and now we are excited about making new chapters, which starts with this journey.
Sunday we pulled the coach back in front the house and finish loading and stocked the frig. I say pulled back in front of the house because we cannot store the coach at our home due to city regulations. We have to keep it in storage facility that is located about 3 miles from home. Not the most convenient setup, but that is the way it is. Sunday afternoon had me out in the hot Florida sun putting up our storm shutters. They will be in place while we are gone.
Monday- launch day! We loaded up our laptops, cameras, some final various items and our 2 cats, LeMeiux and Hurakan. The cats have travel with us for the last 7+ years and travel well. They are Burmese.
We were down to the last 5 minutes prior to driving off, and were in the process of unplugging TV’s, computers, etc, when we discovered a leak in the water hose that leads to our ice maker in the home refrigerator. So that was a 45 minute delay to cleanup that mess. So with that cleaned up, away we went.
Whew, that was easy!
Fortunately, our first days trip was only 180 miles to the Great Outdoors RV Resort in Titusville, Fl. We will stat two days to rest up from launch preparations. Tonight we meet with friends Carolyn and Jim Mullican at the Irish Pub for fish and chips. We have not had the pleasure of their company in a while and look forward to dinner.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Motorhome repairs done!
Independance RV advised by phone that the paint and other items have been completed. The coach will be available for pickup at noon tomorrow. I'll be there at 11 am.
So our new launch day will be Monday the 19th. We are looking forward to heading north, but there will be lots of work to prepare the coach and our house for the extended trip.
One thing that is new for us is a change to on-line bill pay. I know that we have been slow to get with the times and should have done this a long time ago, but we just started last month and it appears to be working smoothly. I'm also having billers eliminate paper bills which will please me to no end. Less paper in my mailbox!!! Yeah!
Last year we joined Life Lock to protect our credit and a side benefit with that is almost no more "pre-approved" credit card offers. We will will not miss Capitol One, Discover, and a couple of others with all of their monthly mailings.
Now if we could just eliminate all of the bills themselves, we would really be on to something.
So our new launch day will be Monday the 19th. We are looking forward to heading north, but there will be lots of work to prepare the coach and our house for the extended trip.
One thing that is new for us is a change to on-line bill pay. I know that we have been slow to get with the times and should have done this a long time ago, but we just started last month and it appears to be working smoothly. I'm also having billers eliminate paper bills which will please me to no end. Less paper in my mailbox!!! Yeah!
Last year we joined Life Lock to protect our credit and a side benefit with that is almost no more "pre-approved" credit card offers. We will will not miss Capitol One, Discover, and a couple of others with all of their monthly mailings.
Now if we could just eliminate all of the bills themselves, we would really be on to something.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The wait for the motorhome gets longer
We have been waiting for the motorhome to have warranty work and body repairs completed. However, as is all too common when dealing with rv dealerships, the work is taking much longer than anticipated. Originally the dealership said one week for the work and it's already going on two weeks. I now habor little hope that we will launch our trip on the 18th of this month. The dealership says they might be done on Friday the 16th- maybe. I'm not counting on it.
However, we continue to get things ready to go, hoping that we will minimize the stress of loading when the time comes. We actually had to take stuff out of the motorhome in order to have the new carpet installed, therefore, the loadup for the trip will be much more involved than normal.
Normally we only have to load food, camaras, and the laptop, (and the cats) to go on a trip. The motorhome is otherwise completely stocked with all utensils, clothes, and all other day to day items. This time we will have to load some furniture, cat stuff and a number of other items in the 90+ degree heat that S. Florida is enjoying now.
It's time to head north to find some cooler weather!
However, we continue to get things ready to go, hoping that we will minimize the stress of loading when the time comes. We actually had to take stuff out of the motorhome in order to have the new carpet installed, therefore, the loadup for the trip will be much more involved than normal.
Normally we only have to load food, camaras, and the laptop, (and the cats) to go on a trip. The motorhome is otherwise completely stocked with all utensils, clothes, and all other day to day items. This time we will have to load some furniture, cat stuff and a number of other items in the 90+ degree heat that S. Florida is enjoying now.
It's time to head north to find some cooler weather!
Sunday, May 11, 2008
The Big Trip
We have been lucky to be able to take fairly long trips throughout our working careers. Since the late 90's we have been able to travel in our rv for 5 to 6 weeks on average and actually went for 7 weeks the last couple of years.
Additionally, we traveled by rv somewhere in Florida for a long weekend almost every month for the last 8+ years. This allowed us to average 90 days per year in our rv's. Not bad for working people!
Now we enter a new stage of rv travel. We can go for as long as we want. Our "want" this year is going to be close to 6 months. This is partially a test to see if we want to become full time rvers and live in our MH year around. We will see what we think by the time November rolls around.
So our planned trip this year includes the following.
We are starting out nice and slow and are leaving South Florida (did I mention it's already 90 degrees here in May?) and going north to Titusville (FL) to stay at the Great Outdoors RV Resort. We like it there and we like to get the fish and chips at the Irish Pub in town. Our last trip to Titusville found us attending an airshow at the airport- I'll have a post later about the awesome show the F-15 put on for the crowd.
From Titusville we will spend a couple of days going north thru GA, SC, NC, and landing in the Johnson City, TN area. We will hole up there for a week during the Memorial Day weekend. We will be about 3 miles from the Bristol Motor Speedway- a good thing for us NASCAR fans.
From TN we go to PA to visit my mother, then over to Michigan to see Linda's mother and brother in the Portage, MI area.
Next up to Suttons Bay on the Leelanau Peninsula for 3 weeks. We will be there for the Nation Cherry Festival. There's another airshow featuring the Blue Angles at the Festival. Did I mention that I love high-performance military aircraft?
After Michigan we will spend time in Custer, SD; Cody, WY; eastern Idaho; Ouray, CO for a month; then thru Uath for Bryce Canyon; Las Vegas to visit family; Arizona to visit our son who's in the Army; over to New Mexico in the Ruidoso area for a Newmar Kountry Club rally (for owners of Newmar MH's); a few days near Ft. Davis, TX; Fredericksbrug, TX for a week; a stop in Houston for the International Quilt Show; then we work our way back to Florida for the winter.
Wow, I got tired just writing that!
Additionally, we traveled by rv somewhere in Florida for a long weekend almost every month for the last 8+ years. This allowed us to average 90 days per year in our rv's. Not bad for working people!
Now we enter a new stage of rv travel. We can go for as long as we want. Our "want" this year is going to be close to 6 months. This is partially a test to see if we want to become full time rvers and live in our MH year around. We will see what we think by the time November rolls around.
So our planned trip this year includes the following.
We are starting out nice and slow and are leaving South Florida (did I mention it's already 90 degrees here in May?) and going north to Titusville (FL) to stay at the Great Outdoors RV Resort. We like it there and we like to get the fish and chips at the Irish Pub in town. Our last trip to Titusville found us attending an airshow at the airport- I'll have a post later about the awesome show the F-15 put on for the crowd.
From Titusville we will spend a couple of days going north thru GA, SC, NC, and landing in the Johnson City, TN area. We will hole up there for a week during the Memorial Day weekend. We will be about 3 miles from the Bristol Motor Speedway- a good thing for us NASCAR fans.
From TN we go to PA to visit my mother, then over to Michigan to see Linda's mother and brother in the Portage, MI area.
Next up to Suttons Bay on the Leelanau Peninsula for 3 weeks. We will be there for the Nation Cherry Festival. There's another airshow featuring the Blue Angles at the Festival. Did I mention that I love high-performance military aircraft?
After Michigan we will spend time in Custer, SD; Cody, WY; eastern Idaho; Ouray, CO for a month; then thru Uath for Bryce Canyon; Las Vegas to visit family; Arizona to visit our son who's in the Army; over to New Mexico in the Ruidoso area for a Newmar Kountry Club rally (for owners of Newmar MH's); a few days near Ft. Davis, TX; Fredericksbrug, TX for a week; a stop in Houston for the International Quilt Show; then we work our way back to Florida for the winter.
Wow, I got tired just writing that!
Motorhome work
Friday I called Independence RV to check on the progress of the work being done on our motorhome. The original plan called for the new carpet to be installed over a 3 day period, starting this past Monday. Then on Thursday the MH was to go to the body shop for 2 days for repair and paint. I thought I'd be picking up the MH on this coming Monday so that we could start loading for our 5 month trip that is scheduled to start on May 18th.
Silly me. I had forgotten what it is like to deal with an RV dealers service department. They just finished the carpet install on Friday and plan on starting the body work this coming Monday. If all goes well, they hope I can pick up the MH on Thursday, May 15th. That's going to make for lots of work to get things loaded and ready to go by Sunday!
Right in the middle of this prep for launch is my (Terry) retirement dinner on Saturday night. I'm excited about attending but this will be a very busy week for us to get everthing done.
Silly me. I had forgotten what it is like to deal with an RV dealers service department. They just finished the carpet install on Friday and plan on starting the body work this coming Monday. If all goes well, they hope I can pick up the MH on Thursday, May 15th. That's going to make for lots of work to get things loaded and ready to go by Sunday!
Right in the middle of this prep for launch is my (Terry) retirement dinner on Saturday night. I'm excited about attending but this will be a very busy week for us to get everthing done.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
First Post
Well I finally got around to our first post. I had promised friends that I would start posting in January but life got in the way and there have been big delays.
Unfortunately I (Terry) had my father pass away in January only 10 days after a close friend had passed away. During February and early March we had two close friends that lost parents, also. So we were tied up with funerals for weeks.
That put us weeks behind our preparations for our extended trip that starts May 18th. So I have been getting the motorhome ready by changing the engine oil, hydraulic oil, transmission fluid, rear axle oil, generator oil…
I do these things myself so that I know that they are done correctly. That also lowers the cost by doing the labor myself. Plus I use synthetic products for superior lubrication.
Right now we have the motorhome in Orlando at a Newmar dealer for some warranty work- new carpet, replacement of the living room slide out cover, a new kitchen cabinet door, the frig needs a new control panel, and a couple of other things. Additionally, there will be some bodywork done to fix some damage inflicted on the driver’s side rear corner of the rv when the main pilot (me) rubbed the rv against a guardrail while trying to maneuver into a tight area to get propane.
Now we are tied up preparing the house for our extended absence. So with 11 days to go for launch we have been busy.
Speaking of cats, we took the cats to the vet for their annual physical, shots, etc. While there the vet casually said that the cats were due for a blood test to make sure everything
is working well. We had never had blood tests done on the cats before, so we said sure, why not. Well the why not is $168 per cat! After all was said and done, we were out of $751! Anyone want a free cat?
Well this has not been the better of first posts but at least it gets things rolling. I plan on making a couple of posts per week, which will include pictures as well as commentary, on whatever our trip and life brings.
Unfortunately I (Terry) had my father pass away in January only 10 days after a close friend had passed away. During February and early March we had two close friends that lost parents, also. So we were tied up with funerals for weeks.
That put us weeks behind our preparations for our extended trip that starts May 18th. So I have been getting the motorhome ready by changing the engine oil, hydraulic oil, transmission fluid, rear axle oil, generator oil…
I do these things myself so that I know that they are done correctly. That also lowers the cost by doing the labor myself. Plus I use synthetic products for superior lubrication.
Right now we have the motorhome in Orlando at a Newmar dealer for some warranty work- new carpet, replacement of the living room slide out cover, a new kitchen cabinet door, the frig needs a new control panel, and a couple of other things. Additionally, there will be some bodywork done to fix some damage inflicted on the driver’s side rear corner of the rv when the main pilot (me) rubbed the rv against a guardrail while trying to maneuver into a tight area to get propane.
Now we are tied up preparing the house for our extended absence. So with 11 days to go for launch we have been busy.
Speaking of cats, we took the cats to the vet for their annual physical, shots, etc. While there the vet casually said that the cats were due for a blood test to make sure everything
is working well. We had never had blood tests done on the cats before, so we said sure, why not. Well the why not is $168 per cat! After all was said and done, we were out of $751! Anyone want a free cat?
Well this has not been the better of first posts but at least it gets things rolling. I plan on making a couple of posts per week, which will include pictures as well as commentary, on whatever our trip and life brings.
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