October 2016 - MO and Away We Go

Oct 2^nd finds us leaving the homeland of Oklahoma and headed north to Susan's homeland and beyond on what we have decided to fondly refer to as our “maintenance trip” http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5860707770302464. Susan and I sat down prior to beginning this adventure and came up with a list of nice to haves and must haves for our new home. And this leg of the trip addresses mostly must haves. But first we must stop in Missouri and visit family.

After a short 9 hours we arrived at our Missouri destination, Long Branch State Park. This park means something to Susan as she grew up at this park and on this lake. It is also a park we have called home for a week every year since we have been married..BUT more importantly it is important to both Susan and I as this is the park we were married in back in 2005.

We honeymooned in her dad's camper - knew she was a keeper

We were lucky enough this time to be able to get the “old camp host” site at Long Branch which comes with full hookups and a bigger patio area. This helps as we almost always have many family members over to visit and eat. We stayed in Missouri for 14 days for relaxation and family time. The park was unusually full for this time of year and we found little time of just being alone…lol but it is always fun watching the campers come in and out. Our camp host this year was a blast. I think she had a crush on me but don’t tell Susan…lol

Dominick and Susan

Missouri was less hectic and a bit more relaxing than some of our previous trips. It is the first time we have had more than 5-7 days since probably 2006 - and we still did not have enough time to see everyone we wanted to see. However, we decided before arriving that we would not try to run all over to see everyone but rather we would remain more stationary, let family know where we were and let them come to see us. There were a few exceptions of course as Susan's uncle Squeek and her brother Richard were unable to travel much due to health - so of course we went to see them. Squeek did surprise us with a visit to the campsite, he had to make sure we didn't trade in and get a new rig again.

The weather was great for having company, walks around the lake, evening campfires and spending quality time with Susan's son Dominick. Jeff Kjellsen, (retired Coast Guard and friend), even took off early on a Friday to make the trip three hour drive from St. Louis to Macon just so we could catch up! It was a great weekend with lots of stories, laughter, good food and maybe a few sips of alcohol.  

We did experience one slight disaster on this leg of our journey…..I had gotten tired of continually buying new sewer hoses after only a couple months use so while we were in Oklahoma I ordered a new “expensive”  Waste Master Sewer Mgt System….. http://www.lci1.com/waste-master yep, bit name for a sewer hose but it should last for a few years. LOL Anyway I was finally able to use it in Macon for the first time and was excited. I think it is a DC thing. At some point during one of our nights it got pretty cold and very windy. I got up the next morning to check everything and found that my new expensive sewer hose had blown over next to the coach directly under the hot water boiler exhaust and the boiler had melted the top right out of the new hose…..lol Just can’t win sometime. Oh well (used a bit of DC ingenuity and it’s now spliced back together).

Leaving family is always hard, especially for Susan but we bid our farewells to our Missouri family  and headed to Decatur, IN for our first service appointment. Our motorhome was manufactured by American Coach and we thought, where better to have it serviced than by the people who made it? So early morning on the 16th we left Missouri in our rearview mirror and head further north to arrive in Decatur later that day. Our arrival to Decatur marked the start of our two week maintenance turnaround, or so we thought…lol 

REV Service Center in Decatur

Monday Oct 17th at 0600 we hand our coach to our maintenance tech Jim and our events began. We only had a couple of items on our list for repairs when started. Every morning at 0500 Susan and I would awaken and ready our home for Jim…lol and every afternoon sometime between 3-5 Jim would bring it back. We were able to go to take a factory tour which was really cool, except I was having a very bad health day and could barely move. But it was fun and even here we are meeting new friends, Andrew and Polly Maletta. This wake and break camp routine only lasted three days because we had to be in Charlotte, MI on the 19th for chassis service. Little did we know we would be returning to Decatur….

Wednesday October 19^th we left Decatur and headed to the Spartan Factory in Charlotte, MI where our chassis was built. This was scheduled to be a two day event, but nooooo... there is rarely a two day event that actually takes us just two days…lol. Spartan found a few more issues than we realized, hear those dollar signs rolling?? The most serious repair needed was a broken steering gear box. Luckily it was under a recall, can we say big $$$ savings? In addition to the repairs,  I had them install new Koni shocks on the front. The guys at Spartan were awesome and we once again met new friends in RVing, Leslie and Pat shared stories of their years as full timers and helped pass the days. Finally on the 24th Spartan says they are done and we are on our way after dark once again. No option to wait until morning as we had to be in Elkhart, IN that night for our appointment at MasterTech RV the following morning (October 25th). Goodbye Charlotte, heading south - at least a few miles south.

We arrive in Elkhart, IN about 2200 MasterTech RV for a new lifetime spray on roof. Tuesday, October 25th finds us up and ready to go by 0700. I am pretty excited about this!. This was supposed to be a 4 day event, but on the first day they say nope they can be done in two days. That’s cool as we are staying in a hotel during the completion of this work. What did I say before? There is rarely a two day event that actually takes us just two days!... LoL and it wasn’t this time either. 

Susan and I ended up checking in and out of the hotel more than a couple times.  This wasn't quite as planned and then the technician ran into some problems. I won’t get into the details except to say they had issues.

During the delays we took a drive to the Shipshewana area and I ended up ordering Susan a new double recliner couch and me a new electric recliner from Lambright Custom Chairs in Topeka, IN. http://www.lambrightcomfortchairllc.com/oc/profile?g=1715180 . Lambright's is a small company that specializes in 100% Amish made furniture. This was a fun experience working with Jeremiah Lambright. He actually worked with Susan and I with our measurements to insure the furniture would fit in our motorhome and would meet our needs. They did have furniture on the showroom floor but the sizes were not what we needed so we place an order for custom furniture to be picked up in mid-November. HE even worked with us on a timeline as it usually takes 8 weeks for a custom order, thank you sir.

On the 27th MasterTech told us we were ready to roll. Oh, if it was only that easy. You know me, of course I had to look at the work before we left and after inspection I determine the work is well below sub-par. Hmm... well, I talked to the owner and he got on the roof and agreed, it was not a quality product and he wants to schedule a return visit for him to personally supervise the work.  

We did go ahead and leave Elkhart (but scheduled a return) and finally got to relax and get out of parking lots and waiting rooms. We headed to Auburn, IN to meet a good friend from the Coast Guard. We will just call him Boz and his wife Tina….I have not seen Boz since I retired in 2014 and Boz is now retired as well. But even after all that time it was like we had talked just yesterday. We all sat that evening and visited and shared a spirit or two or three…..wow then it was 0200…lol

This place is AWESOME!

Saturday met us with a new experience, right behind the RV park, http://www.firesideresort.com/ was a museum. Not only a museum, but a military museum and a classic car museum. It was incredible. It housed some priceless cars like the Original Dukes of Hazzard car, the original Batmobile, the original KITT and the original A-Team van, among many, many others. Oh but there  was more, wagons and buggies…..some of the most beautiful horse drawn wagons and buggies you have ever seen. We ended up spending several hours in this place. Who would have thought out here in the middle of no where. http://www.nationalmilitaryhistorycenter.org/home.html If you are ever in the area this is one cool place to see and Veterans are only $4 admission.

Other interesting museums in Auburn include:
http://www.automobilemuseum.org/#home.html; http://www.fordv8foundation.org/; http://natmus.org/

The day and the weekend ended way to soon and Sunday it was time to say goodbye to Boz and Tina as they are headed to NC and we headed BACK to Decatur…lol

Sunday October 30^th we arrive back in Decatur, IN at the coach factory. The parts they ordered the first time we were here had arrived and now for the install…As always this took longer than desired and they didn’t get done until Thursday….What the heck, Susan and I decided we would just stay right there in their parking lot until Monday….lol  Our next destination was not until Monday and in Celina, OH and it was only a 40 mile drive.

Needless to say in October we were VERY busy. We were able to visit family and friends and spend more than half a month camping in parking lots and waiting rooms…..and a hotel with a hot tub and pool…lol Fortunately even with all of our delays we were never late, the good thing about having no schedule… See you next month in....

September 2016 - Took us two months to leave Texas... but we finally made it to OK

Found a great way to share our route and will try to include a link to it every month so everyone can follow along to see how much or how little we have traveled in the previous month. The link for our September travels can be found here: http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5841379905765376

Susan and I left Lake Conroe on the 31^st of August and headed to Thousand Trails Bay Landing http://www.rvonthego.com/texas/bay-landing-rv-campground/ in Bridgeport, TX. We found that park to be nice; it was very large with huge sites.

Unfortunately, there were only a few full hookup sites and we ended up in one with 30 Amp electric and water only. Now take a rig of our size that’s total electric AND combine that with Texas summer temperatures -  it takes some juggling of ACs and appliances to make 30 Amps work, but we did. With electrical limitations, this park would be best to visit in late fall, winter and early spring. No major sightseeing as Susan was still recovering but we did enjoy a nice quiet day sitting in lawn chairs at the lake and a nice seafood meal at the clubhouse. Everyone at the clubhouse was very friendly. The pool was closed for repairs which did greatly disappoint Susan. However, we would easily recommend this park, just be wary of the electrical issue and no sewer hook ups. We did make it work for the time we were there and only triped the breakers a couple of times.
On the 5^th of September we departed for our next stop at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma (http://www.rvonthego.com/texas/lake-texoma-rv-campground/ )near Gordonville, TX. On arrival we found a good spot backed up to a big pond with full hookups and plenty of shade.

We thought all was good UNTIL (there seems always to be an UNTIL) I walked outside only to be greeted by the ranger who said “Mr. Wickett we are going to have to ask you to leave the park” Now mind you we had been there less than 30 minutes. I looked at the ranger with probably a very strange face, “Excuse me?” She proceeded to tell me that I had been seen by a park employee throwing bags of trash out on the side of the road when we were “stopped” right after coming through the gate to unhook our truck. My first thought was WTH” followed by “Now wait just a second.” I agreed that we had stopped to unhook the truck and agreed there were two small bags of trash laying on the ground. I told her that I had even started to pick them up to throw them away until I discovered they had dog poop in them - and I wasn’t going to pick up someone else’s dog doo!

She agreed that the bags had dog poop in them but said the employee specifically saw me throw them out….LOL I kinda laughed and said “Ma’am that would be impossible as we don’t even own a dog and have no pets of any kind but you are free to explore our coach if you would like to verify.” This rather upset me from the get go as I am a responsible camper and always strive to leave a park in as good or better condition as I found it. For me to have two bags full of dog poop would be more odd than me throwing them out on the side of the road…lol She gave me a funny look, apologized and indicated she would talk to the employee who “saw me throwing out trash” immediately. You just can’t make this stuff up! Aw we start off good…lol

We were only at Lake Texoma for a week, but it was a very nice and relaxing week. Susan and I took several long walks and “swam” about every day. Ok, I swam and

One of two pools at Lake Texoma

Susan walked around in the shallow area as the doctor recommended she not submerge for a while longer. Now the swimming was good because it was a huge pool and except for one other couple there was no one there and we had it to ourselves. The other couple, Randy and Debra LaBrash, were very nice, we stay in contact with them still and will be camping with them in March in Arizona. We would again recommend this park, there are several 50 Amp full hookup sites and all the 50 Amps we saw would accommodate large rigs. There are MANY 30 Amp full hook up sites but most of those are either too short or too hard to get into with a big rig, so beware if going there. Side note, I was very proud to see this park flying the flags of our military services EXCEPT the Coast Guard……ugggh

All of the short hops and continual TX stays were because of the earlier issues I spoke of, but also because we had an appointment at http://www.mcdinnovations.com/ to replace all of our old string day/night shades in the coach with new, modern, string-less day/night shades. This was something we were really looking forward too and if you have ever had a coach with the old string shades you can certainly understand. We arrived at MCD on Sept 11th  for our appointment for the 12th.

MCD was outstanding! They had us a parking spot with 50 Amp power all ready for our arrival and right on schedule on Monday morning they came out and began the process. The first day was nothing but measuring all of our windows as the shades are custom built while you wait. Day two and three was nothing but waiting on manufacture and day four was the install.

It was pretty uneventful just sitting there in the parking lot camping and waiting. Well, not just waiting - we did have company too. Jeff and Karen (Susan's brother and his significant other) who live about 45 minutes away in Grapevine stopped by to visit and invited us out to dinner.

We also had a visit from Randy and Debra - the couple we met at the swimming pool at Lake Texoma. They decided to stop in and check things out and they ended up ordering new shades for their coach before they left.

We have been wanting new shades for years and - oh, but the wait was worth it. We LOVE our new window shades…… The install was actually completed by about noon on Thursday, but we didn’t have to be at our next destination in Oklahoma until Friday afternoon so we decided to spend one more free parking night before leaving to head to the big OK.

Mid morning on Sept 16^th we said our farewells to the MCD parking lot and began our trip to the motherland…..yep, Oklahoma here we come. It was an uneventful, and relatively short drive up to the Sallisaw KOA in Sallisaw, Ok http://koa.com/campgrounds/sallisaw/?utm_source=power-listings&utm_medium=yext-partner&utm_content=website-link&utm_campaign=Yext- our home for the remainder of the month. This campground is right off of I-40 which makes it a great place for a quick stop when traveling. Rates are reasonable and they do offer a weekly as well as a monthly rate for anyone interested in sticking around like we do.

HOWEVER, we were in OK and OK has bad storms and yes we were greeted with one of these….We had made plans to go to a HS football game the night we arrived to town and arranged to meet cousins there. Well we got there, got into the stands and all hell broke loose so we all ran to the truck and sat there for an hour until the wind and rain subsided (the game was delayed), then we said to heck with it and we went to a cousins house and visited. When we arrived back at the KOA there were many limbs down and my big flagpole was hanging from the tree, but no apparent damage to any rig….lol WELCOME HOME BRETT.

#1 Cousins 

We had MUCH to do in Oklahoma while we were there and believe it or not, we got it all done and still had time to visit with some wonderful cousins 
and even take time for a very nice motorcycle ride with cousin Kelly and her husband Ross. Susan and I had pretty much laid out our plans for our attack on OK prior to our arrival as one event hinged on another. But during our visit we had to change the registration on the truck, motorcycle and motorhome, get new OK vehicle tags,  get new drivers licenses, go to the VA to get set up in OK, get a tax exempt card, get our passports, get my concealed carried license and apply for a handicapped mirror tag….Believe it or not, nearly every event had a story and a specific order, but we still got it all done. OK has to be about the most backward state I have had to deal with, and most of their stuff cannot be done online.

Love seeing her happy!

Oh yea, did I mention we also had time to take my mom to Tulsa and she bought a new motorhome so she could meet us from time to time……Yeaaaaa! I won’t bore you with all the little details, but it was a very busy couple of weeks. We were very glad to get to spend time with my mom, my Aunt and Uncle Raymond and Louanne and cousins Kelly, Deloris, Memorie and Jennifer (all sisters) and some of the finest people I could ever have in my life, even though one of them caused me to NOT have GRITS for breakfast….:-) I love ya’ll beyond belief, thanks for always being there…..NO WAIT, two of them were NOT there when we hauled our furniture to OK to put in storage...BUT.. oh, nevermind - lol!

 And then just like that, October 2^nd had arrived and we had to get on the road again continuing our northern trek. Missouri here we come.

August 2016 - The Journey Begins - It was a slow start

When I retired in 2015 Susan and I knew our days as sticks and bricks homeowners were coming to a crossroad with many decisions to make. We had long talks, we began making plans and in August 2016 after selling everything we could sell and boxing up the rest for storage we were ready to hit the road.

These ladies helped make the day go by with lots of fun and laughter

We put everything into storage on July 31st.                                                 Thanks to my wonderful cousins Memorie and Deloris for helping us unpack the moving truck, my truck and the 16 foot flatbed which we had loaded for bear!

It would have taken forever for Susan and me to have moved everything on our own.

We knew the first few months were going to be challenging but we were ready for yet another chapter to our life.

Our beloved BS Duck Ranch

We left our home in Iola, Texas on the 10th of August and headed a short distance to Thousand Trails Campground, on Lake Conroe, Texas. Susan had given her notice to her employer but still had a few days committed to Huntsville. We also had to wait for the closing on our house and attend to some medical issues. The house closed on August 12^th and Susan had her surgery the following week on August 17^th.  We remained at Lake Conroe until the end of August to be close to doctors should they be needed during her recovery.

If you remember from our last entry I gave a big thank you to Bill and Mary and said that story was for later…… It is now later and here is the story:

Shortly after our arrival to Lake Conroe we were walking and noticed a new motorhome with a Coast Guard license plate pull into the campground. Coast Guard plates are not seen very often in the Conroe area so we stopped and said hello. Bill and Mary were just arriving so we didn’t talk long, but we learned that Bill had been in the Coast Guard some years ago – it was an instant bond of shared service. We didn’t have the chance to talk to them again until the day Susan and I were leaving. Literally as we were getting ready to pull out, Bill and Mary stopped by to say hi. We talked for a few minutes and I asked where they were headed next. Bill replied they had a few stops before heading to Decatur, Indiana. What a coincidence – us too! We of course have our American Eagle and they have a Fleetwood Discovery – the factory that built both coaches is in Decatur, Indiana. Further conversation found that both our appointment and theirs was for the same day, October 17th and we would all be arriving on the 16th. We had a good laugh and just like that we had met new friends we would see again in a month and a half. In the time since we met, Bill and Mary have become really good friends.

As you can see, we didn't make it very far in August. Not only did we not leave Texas, we didn't travel more than an hour away from Iola until we left Lake Conroe on August 31st.

Background - Leading up to the Dream

I would like to thank some very good friends for encouraging us, assisting with the creation of this blog which provides us an avenue to share our stories. Many thanks to Bill Garcia-Godoy and Mary Olson! There is actually a story to share about them that I will get to another time, but let us focus on the steps we have taken to prepare our RV and make it our home.

Leading Up to the Dream...

For as long as I can remember I have had the dream of driving an RV around the country and seeing everything that surrounds us. Susan and I bought our first motorhome together in 2007 and the beginnings of our new adventure had begun even if only on weekends and vacations. Now leap ahead several years and a handful of motorhomes…..lol yes a handful, we arrived at a 2007 American Coach Eagle 45H and we had found home, for now….lol and the journey really began.  Right off the bat we knew that if we were going to live in this rig we needed some updates so my adventure began, remodel, remodel, remodel. It wasn’t bad as I had retired and Susan seemed to think I had tons of time on my hands…lol One of the first things we knew was that we needed a larger refrigerator and wanted to switch to a full residential, so out with the old 11 cubic foot and in with the new 21 cubic foot Kitchen Aide.

 

Then we decided we didn’t want any carpet...

... so out with the carpet and in with new hardwood flooring everywhere we didn’t have heated tile.

Floor work completed by:

Ernie Ekberg RV Flooring, Weatherford, TX

We also decided to take out one of the couches so that I could have a recliner.       

Oh but then my dear wife says hey I don’t have any place for my baking pans could you make something, why of course I can.  So I find some Cherry lumber and go to work....     

Then she says, "Hey, if we didn’t have to lay our dishes flat we could save some room" ….. I can fix that too….  

Ah, but next it is my turn and I say "The only thing we have that still runs off of propane is the cooktop, wouldn’t you like to have a true-Induction cooktop?"

Getting ready for true-Induction

Recessed true-Induction cooktop has been installed

Waalaa - out comes the gas top and in with the new cooktop.     

And just like that I had struck again.

But Nooo - it can’t stop there, we had a front TV that we didn’t watch, who needs more than one in the living room anyway.

Wickett storage cabinet and new front blinds

When you are looking to maximize storage, space is premium. So I said to my dear wife two simple words…….”trust me” and I went to work once again…lol   Behind the “Wickett” is a lockable door and a nice storage area….

In addition to all the above modifications, we also changed out all the incandescent lights and replaced with with LED lighting. (I think we had over 70 different bulbs to change) Bulbs bought from  http://www.cabinbright.com/. We also changed out our old cockpit curtains and installed new Levlour stringless blinds from Lowes.com.

Just prior to moving into the motorhome, we removed our old living room TV, rebuilt the TV cabinet and installed a new 46” with a Bose sound bar.

New mid-ship TV with sound bar

We have also removed the King mattress from our bedroom and I rebuilt the bed base so that we could install a new Queen memory foam mattress. This simple change gave us much more room to walk around in and now making the bed is much easier. I have gotten to the point I don’t even remember all the things we have done to make this our new home, but the list is much longer than seen here.  Anyway you get the idea and the last couple of years have been pretty busy getting ready for our new life.

Enough of the remodel, Let the Dream and the journey begin….