January 2017 - Cruisin'

January started and ended in the same place - Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Texas. We had lots of travel over the month but only minimal RV time.  If you click on the link http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5873178604208128, know it is not broken - we flew and road the boat so the APP was unable to provide a route. It does however show destination points.

We started the New Year quietly in the park but we did see a few fireworks going off here and there. The first couple of weeks of January we spend relaxing, finishing up doctor appointments and enjoying evenings in the hot tub. A few days before we left for our cruise Brett's mom (Bridget) came and camped at the campground with us. She is enjoying her little Siesta and stopped to see us on her way to "the valley" to visit her mother.  She never comes with empty hands and this trip was no different - several dozen chocolate chip cookies as well as oatmeal cookies and pickled eggs for Brett.

Mid month we left Lake Conroe and drove the coach over to my good friend Stan's to park for the two weeks we were gone on our cruise to Hawaii on Carnival Miracle, January 14-29, 2017 round

Picture courtesy Leon Kirby -  Port Long Beach

trip from Long Beach CA.

Would love to say the cruise was great but this one was just not all we had hoped. It was January after all and January in the Pacific can be touchy as well as chilly. Hawaii itself was great - Susan had never been so it was nice to be able to share the island adventures with her. Weather prevented us from making two of our ports so we did not see Nawiliwili, Kauai or Hilo on the big island.

Spiny Silversword

In Maui we took a sunset tour
up to Haleakala Crater ttps://www.nps.gov/hale/planyourvisit/summit-area.htm to see the sunset at 10,000 feet. The view was indescribable and pictures do not do the experience justice. If we ever make it back to Maui we will plan to schedule a sunrise visit to the crater and we will most assuredly take jackets as IT GETS COLD AT 10,000 feet!! LOL! While at the crater we did see several Spiny Silversword plants - the only place in the world they are known to grow is at Haleakala Crater. This amazing plant lives anywhere from 3-90 years or more but they only bloom once in their lifetime and once they bloom, they die.

We were blessed to have wonderful tour guides while on Oahu - Norm and Michelle Gann were great!  We started the day off by watching the inauguration on Fox News before we walked to the Ala Moana Regional Park Beach https://roadtrippers.com/us/honolulu-hi/places/ala-moana-regional-park where Susan put her feet into the Pacific Ocean for the very first time and where we met up with Norm and Michelle. They then spent the rest of the day driving us from

Norm, Michelle and Brett

USS Missouri

one end of the island to the other. Our day included stops at
Pearl Harbor and tours of the USS Bowfin http://bowfin.org/ submarine and museum, the USS Missouri https://ussmissouri.org/#, and a view of the Arizona (tickets were sold out so we were only able to see it from shore but the sight was still humbling to say the least)! We also had a great late afternoon lunch and of course a few beers. Thank you again Norm and Michelle for helping to make our time in Hawaii enjoyable - it truly was the best day of our trip!  Unfortunately by the end of the day my back started to protest so we had to end the day rather abruptly. Feeling rather bad about this we informed our guides they could just "let us off here" and we would walk the last few blocks to prevent them from having to deal with pier traffic. Thankfully they declined as we arrived at our pier only to find our ship was GONE, and to be informed that it had relocated to another pier and due to weather we would be staying an additional day in Honolulu! So thanks again Gann Family for sticking with us and "going the distance" to get us to our relocation destination!
Day 2 in Honolulu was a bit less exciting but we know how to find fun. We made a few early morning calls to find out the bus schedule and made our way down to Waikiki. It may have been a wet drizzly day but the bar on the beach at the Halekoa http://www.halekoa.com/ was open for business! Guess where we spent the day?

Borrowed clip-art

Our next stop was Kona and Susan signed us up for a historical tour excursion that took us by 3 places we would not have otherwise visited. OHHH did we mention the storm we hit on the way from
Honolulu to Kona? Let's say it was a pretty good one and I have been in some pretty good ones...lol We had winds overnight in the mid 90MPH range and seas 25-30 feet. Cruise ships are not designed for those conditions as they are very top heavy. Needless to say it was a bouncy night, awww but I slept like a baby.

Stop 1 brought us to the Royal Kona Coffee Center with lots of samples of 100% Kona Coffee? If you ever have the chance, you must have some! This coffee was not cheap but the samples were free so we indulged in a few or more. 100% Kona Coffee was about  $18 per pound in the store. Not going to make it to Hawaii anytime soon? No worries, you can order it online - for a price. http://royalkonacoffee.com/visit/. 
Stop 2 was at The Painted Church, http://www.thepaintedchurch.org/default.asp which is a historical Roman Catholic church built in 1899 and painted by a priest with no professional training and a very limited budget. His labor of love and devotion took years to complete. The church has ongoing efforts to continue to preserve this quaint beauty and donations from tourist go toward aiding in the preservation/restoration efforts. I know our catholic friends will find this interesting but anyone who enjoys history is likely to enjoy it as well. 


Our 3rd and final stop of the historical tour was at Pu’uhonua o Honaunau https://www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm. We could have easily spent hours enjoying this stop. The good and the bad of booking an excursion - Good: you see lots of stuff quickly, Bad: you see lots of stuff quickly.
We ended up spending two days in Kona due again to bad weather but we opted to stay on the ship the second day as we were only scheduled to be in port half of the day and had no interest in shopping at the time. While we were in Kona we did receive the new that we were expecting a kitten! Well, actually we were informed that the expectant mother had delivered six kittens so we would get one around the first of April.

We were a bit bummed that we did not get to go to Hilo as we had scheduled an all day trip to see the Hilo Chain of Craters (volcanos) and the famed Lava Tube! I don't know if we will make the journey back to Hawaii anytime in the near future but if we ever do, we have seen a peek of what there is to see and have a LONG LONG list of things we would still like to do there. Maybe Susan can get her professional license in Hawaii and then get a contract job there for a few months.
There was a short stop over in Ensenada Mexico and while it was another adventure, it was the mandatory foreign port for this cruise and just another tourist trap in our opinion. Don't get me wrong, it was an interesting stop just not a place we will put on our "have to see again" list.

Partial list of delays due to protest

We finally arrived back in Long Beach on January 29th and spent the night in LA for an early flight back to Texas on the 30th. Did someone say something about protestors? Grrrr.... not even going to go there other than to say the airport and traffic into and out of the airport and the surrounding areas was a MESS!

The 30th found us overnighting at http://www.aggielandrvpark.com/ in College Station. We were just too tired (and not feeling well) to go any further - even the extra 75 minutes it would have taken us to get to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe was just too far.
But on the 31st we were up bright and early, or at least we were moving by mid-morning and on the road by 11 for the short trip back to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe for a much needed bit of relaxation and recuperation.

This is where we head to relax - our "home park" Lake Conroe

December 2016

December finds the Wandering Wickett’s still in Hickory, NC enjoying the area and spending time with our daughter. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/4703505275682816 Susan and I pretty much concentrated our time with our daughter and didn’t really do much site seeing as our MAIN reason for coming to NC this time of year was to celebrate our daughter’s graduation from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

Taskina graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Business Administration. Her major was in Management and she had a major concentration in Human Resource Management. 

We were pleased to share this happy event with my dear mom who made the flight from Oklahoma to Charlotte, NC. We picked Mom up from the airport on Dec 9^th and made the trip up to Boone where we camped in a hotel for a couple of nights.  Our Saturday morning started bright and early as we had to be on campus by 9:00am for the graduation at 10:00am. Did I mention it was also 20 degrees and the wind was blowing about 20 MPH?  I am pretty sure that was the coldest temperature Boone had had this year (2016). Anyway, we made it to the graduation and enjoyed it immensely! It is such a great feeling to sit and watch your daughter be rewarded for all the hard work she has put in over the past four years. Of course the ceremony was followed by pictures. LOTS of picture and celebrated that evening with Mom’s homemade tacos – per the graduate’s request.  We left Boone on Sunday and head back to Casa Wickett in Hickory to spend the night as mom had to be back at the airport Monday morning.

It was sad to say bye to mom and even more sad to say bye to our daughter, but when the 14^th arrived it was time for Susan and I to start our slow trek to Texas. So G’bye Taskina and G’bye North Carolina. We had a great time once again and look forward to the next time we will be together.

We made the 14^th a short day and stopped in Sevierville, TN for the night at the Riverside RV park once again. http://www.riversidecamp.com/ This is where we had stopped on the way to NC and saw no reason not to visit again. As we were in no hurry we decided to stay a couple days and take in the sights. We rode over to see Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg as we wanted to see what damage they suffered during the fires in November. Yes, many people and businesses were devastated but I am

happy to say the towns are up and running and tourists were walking the streets. We were actually very surprised to see both towns suffered little apparent damage from our vantage point as tourists. The news made it sound as if both towns were virtually gone and while there was damage it was not at the level of devastation expected from what we saw on the news. This was our first venture to either place, but we have vowed to return at some point, some year in early spring or late fall. Wow, they are cool is the least we can say….But man I bet they are busy in the summer! LOL

Next stop Henagar, AL and the home of my best friend in the world, aside from my wife, Karen Blansit. We set up camp in their yard for a couple of days and caught up once again. Karen and I have been friends since the mid 90’s where we lived across the street from each other in Oregon. Karen was concerned the first night as the weather was calling for possible tornados….nah, we were fine. I tried to tell her to trust me…lol Much time was spent catching up and just enjoying good conversation.  Karen also took Susan and I to a local nursery where they decorate for Christmas. I never thought I would say that, but I was truly impressed.  Always good to see when a small town business had the knowledge and skill that could easily compete in any metropolitan area and set the standard. Just in case you were wondering, this is a florist type nursey, not a baby nursery…lol AND besides more themed Christmas trees than I can recall - I also found a real life elf while we were there! Unfortunately we were only able to stay at Karen’s for a couple days and we were off again.

As we continued our trek heading toward Texas, we stopped in Meridian, MS at Benchmark RV park. http://www.benchmarkrv.net/ This was a nice little park that offered Passport America discounts, so it was also nicely priced. This was where I realized we had no zone one (living room) heat in the coach. Oh and it was cold and raining…lol So for two days I learned a ton about my heating system and how it actually worked. Through trouble shooting I learned that my heating system was fine - good deal as that is very expensive but my thermostat was the issue. I also learned my thermostat is an entire computer system consisting of circuit boards, zone control modules and tons of wiring AND it is not made or supported any longer. LOL it was starting to sound like a Gov’t project. Lastly I found out there is ONE place in the country that can completely rebuild the entire system, IF you remove it all and send it to them in Ohio where they will gladly rebuild it and have it back to you in 4 ½ weeks…. Uh wow, how to not have heat or AC in your home for 4.5 weeks. I will figure it out. But were headed back to Texas and at least slightly warmer temps.

As we continue at a slow bell to TX we made a couple more non-eventful overnight stops in Vicksburg, MS http://www.ameristar.com/vicksburg/rv-park and Marshall, TX at Laguna Vista RV park http://lagunavistarvpark.com/. We had stayed at Ameristar a few times before so knew what to expect. We had never stopped at Laguna Vista and it was little more than a parking lot but hey, they are also a Passport America park so for the price one night was just fine. It was clean and all gravel. Mostly oil field workers that lived there, but no issues at all, owners were very nice. We did learn that their name, Laguna Vista really means “look at the neighbor’s pond” in English…lol

Then just like that we had completed our 9 day trek across 1148 miles and arrived in Willis, TX at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe for our winter stop.  It was almost as if we had returned home as this is our home park within the Thousand Trails network and where we started our full time RV adventure on 10 Aug.  This stop really is a place to get caught up on medical appointments for Susan and I more than anything and trust me, we were full of medical appointments…lol

We had thought we would be alone this Christmas. But this was not to be the case. My Uncle Raymond and Aunt LouAnn who have tracked and visited me all over the country for years  graced us with their presence once again…lol! They had been in Houston visiting their boys and grandson and were passing by on their way home. We had a great visit and were able to catch back up before they had to hit the road again. Glad they were able to stop by!

Our day was good, we were not able to spend it with the kids, but it was enjoyable none the less. Susan fixed one of my many favorite meals for Christmas dinner, TACOS…lol and baked a great cheesecake for desert. That was all topped off by opening gifts from our daughter, thanks for the Moonshine….it is great!

Christmas in south Texas tends to be pretty nice weather and this year was no different. Temps in the mid 80’s and mostly sunny made for some great walks with my darling wife. The past few months have been very hard on me health wise and Susan has been doing her very best to help me out by encouraging frequent short walks and staying with me to provide her support. Now if all of that were not great enough, the entire day was topped off by a nice night time sit in the hot tub. Nothing like being in a hot tub at 9 PM on a clear night with temps in the low 70’s on Christmas. Gotta love it!

November 2016 - Maintenance Continues

November found us on a continuation of our "maintenance trip" in Indiana and Ohio but by the end of the month we did finally make a turn south. http://www.rvparky.com/trip/5847367115341824

When we left off last month we were back in Decatur, IN to finish up with REV (American Coach’s service facility). On our last trip to Decatur we ordered two manual awnings…..To explain the two, our coach came from the factory with a Girard electric awning package, that actually is top of the line and pretty expensive. However, when something breaks repairs are also pretty expensive. In this case our bedroom window awning motor had quit and after pricing just the motor at $1200, plus $240 labor for install. To heck with that! Remove the entire electric awning and replace with a manual. The other?  For a long time I wanted to get a manual window awning over the living room window next to my chair. This window always relied on the main patio awning to shade the window, but because of the height above the window and its configuration it just didn’t do a very good job of shading. I must say the factory did a very nice job in the retrofit from electric to manual as the two different awnings were from entirely different manufacturers and were completely different.  Now we only have one electric window awning left and will likely replace it with  a manual in the future. This whole event only took a couple days but we were in no hurry to leave so as our next appointment would not be until the coming Monday so we camped in REV’s parking lot campground  through the weekend.

Finally, on Monday the 7^th, we hooked up and prepared to head to our next appointment destination. This was a short 40 mile drive to Cruising American in Celina, OH. Here we met with owner Kevin Mallory for yet a bit more work….lol. Kevin doesn’t have a website but he has an outstanding shop. He and his sidekick were both techs at the

American Coach Factory for many years and they really know their stuff. Our main reason for this stop was to have our tank gauges changed out. We decided to go with SeaLevel Tank Gauges from https://www.garnetinstruments.com/rv-shop/ 

This install removes all gauges from the inside of your tanks and places the new electronic sensors to the outside of the tanks…..They work great!

Remember I said that was our main reason to visit Kevin but when you have an RV, there are ALWAYS additional repairs that need to be completed….lol! Unfortunately when we left Auburn, IN another fix-it project added to our list - while we were pulling in the living room slide we blew out an upper slide seal..ugh So guess what else were having looked at. We were a bit concerned because that is a major seal on the slide. However, upon inspection by Kevin he determined it was actually the sweep seal as opposed to the slide seal. Easier to fix and less money! Unfortunately, that is apparently a proprietary seal from the factory and Kevin was not able to order one. This could have been a big problem but remember we were only 40 miles from Decatur. Susan and I jumped in the truck and made a quick trip back to the factory to buy the seal allowing Kevin to continue to work.  Day One work with Cruising America started on the 8th - tank gauges prepped for install, seal purchased and planning for completion by the end of Day Two.
But the fun didn’t stop there. We pulled out of the bay to park for the night and relax…..Oh, no - this was Election day and the night was young. I vowed to stay up to see the winner announced and  I was not alone! Many of my Face Book friends were awake with me. AS the results came in we were rapidly typing back and forth posting our thoughts and opinions. Most of us made it to the final

results but  my dear wife Susan gave up about 0130. I sure missed her because she had spent the evening working the internet getting updates while I was keeping track of the news on FOX and CNN and posting our combined intel. We make a heck of a team.  Once the election was called, I finally got to bed about 0320. The night was long but it was worth it, at least until the alarm went off at 0700.

Day Two pretty much took the entire day to complete guage install and replace the sweep seal. It may have completed a bit earlier BUT before they said we were done I came up with another little project. I decided to have them install another electrical outlet so that I could plug in the new electric recliner that we would be picking up in a few days. You know it’s the important things in life. Kevin was gracious enough to allow us use of his parking lot one more night. Thank you Kevin for outstanding quality work! Hopefully we are done with repairs for awhile.  

Too many cars to pick just one!

On departing Kevin’s we headed BACK NORTH as we have furniture to pick up and a roof to get repaired. However, we do have a couple days to burn so we decided it was time for a little fun. We stopped back at Fireside Resort http://www.firesideresort.com/  in Auburn Indiana. There were still a few things we wanted to see in Auburn, most especially the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum. http://www.automobilemuseum.org/#home.html.

All I can say about this place is WOW! If you in any way like cars and history, this is a car museum you have to see. Right behind this museum is the National Automotive and Truck Museum http://natmus.org/. Another outstanding museum dedicated to automotive history and a must see if you are in the area. Unfortunately, I was once again dealing with some pretty bad health issues and we were very much hampered in our walk around of all these fabulous cars. Thankfully we had all the time we needed, were not rushed and were able to take a few minutes to relax as we ambled through all the tires and steel. This was a fairly quick couple of days and we are once again rolling.

Almost mid-November and here we are back in Elkhart, IN and back at Mastertech RV. This time we are here so they can re-do our roof from the last visit. We don’t know what to expect, except they have assured us it would be taken care of. Because we arrived on Saturday and our apt was on Monday we had a little time to explore. What do you do in Elkhart, IN on a Sunday? You go visit Notre Dame University! That was one of the most beautiful campuses I think I have seen. It took us a bit of time to find the entrance and a parking spot, but there was virtually no one around and we took advantage of it. We didn’t walk around a whole lot, but the main grounds in front of the gold dome and the immediate surrounding buildings are really inspiring and almost breathtaking. The history and the architecture – if only the walls could talk. There is no doubt tons of Catholic Dollars have been dedicated to this facility. We pretty much spent the whole day on this site seeing adventure.

Awe inspiring!

Back to the coach and Monday (November 14^th) morning finds us up at 6 AM and in the shop once again. It didn’t take long and it was decided that we would once again be back in a hotel room – this time on Mastertech’s dime. Susan and I grabbed our travel bags, a few food items and we are on our way to our new home for a couple days.

Susan and I have decided to make the best out of every situation, and this is no different. We wake up Tuesday morning ready for another adventure as we were not far from Nappanee, IN, the home of Newmar Motorhomes - off to the Newmar factory for a tour. http://www.newmarcorp.com/ This was interesting for Susan and I for a couple reasons. 1. We owned a Newmar Mountain Aire motorhome before our current American Eagle and 2. We had seen the American factory so we could make some comparisons.  I was very impressed with the cleanliness and the way in which their line moved. There was very little chatter, or talking between employees which was odd, as the American factory was filled with music from radios all over the place and their employees talking, laughing and carrying on. I will say that while both are outstanding coaches, I was more impressed with the Newmar factory. It is hard to describe, but it was very professional, clean and well organized, the workers had such a routine that they almost seemed to be reading each other’s minds – it was that smooth.  

After a couple days in the hotel and another long day in a waiting room our coach is ready to go – again. I had made several inspections during the process this time and I can say it is finally right.

                          No time to waste as we have an appointment at

Getting ready for new furniture

Lambright’s to pick up the furniture we ordered last

The recliner really is full size - I assure you!

month.  Susan needed to get her couch as she had been sitting in a lawn chair for the past week  and really did not appear to be impressed…lol.  Lambright’s went off without a hitch. They helped install, made sure everything worked, made sure we were happy, took our money and poof, we were on the road again.

It had been a LONG day so we didn’t drive far but it is still after dark when we arrive at http://timberlinevalleyrvresort.com/. We didn’t get to see much as this was just a one night stop over but from what we were able to see we need to revisit this park. It was late when we pulled in but yet the staff was friendly and even escorted us to our site - always a nice bonus when arriving in the dark at a place you have never been before..

November 17, 2016 – HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOMINICK!

We celebrated Dominick’s birthday with a phone call full of well wishes for him and setting up for a few days of much needed rest for us at Thousand Trails Diamond Caverns in Park City, KY. https://www.thousandtrails.com/kentucky/diamond-caverns-rv-golf-club/
Our original plan when we started this whole new life back in August had been to spend three weeks here but maintenance stops and reworks had us pushing the days back and back again. All told we were only able to spend a week here but this is another place we will someday revisit.

We had a great time while here and I was able to get a couple of things accomplished that I had been wanting to do for a long time. We went to the Corvette Factory and Museum in Bowling Green, KY http://www.corvettemuseum.org/. The Corvette Museum and Factory is something I have always wanted to do. Susan and I have owned a couple different Corvettes over the years and will likely own another one someday. Seeing how they are made and the history of them was a lot of fun. “Man o man do I gotta get me one of them new C7 Z06’s! Yeah, I see one in my future…”

2007 Atomic Orange C6 ZO6 - Ok, this one was not in the museum but DAMN it's a nice 'vette and I'd love to have it back!

Did someone say there is a Cabela’s in Bowling Green?  Well yes there is and you know we had to visit there as well. Neither of us had ever seen a Cabela’s as small as this one and we were informed it is the smallest Cabela’s in the US - surprisingly it is only a couple of years old.

I was also able to treat Susan to a rare meeting of yet another cousin. You would be surprised at how few cousins she has actually met but the nomadic life of the Coast Guard did not often place us near family over the years. My cousin Shawn Ellis and his girlfriend, Becky Hoover, live only a couple hours from our campground and came to spend a day with us before we left Kentucky. I had not seen Shawn in probably 20 years or more so it was fun to catch back up. Shawn and I used to do some, uh fun stuff growing up…lol Probably safer to leave that right there. It was a great visit and “We really appreciate you coming by Shawn, let’s not wait so long next time.”

Susan’s highlight for November was the Mammoth Cave Domes and Dripstones tour https://www.nps.gov/maca/planyourvisit/winter-schedule.htm.  All of the cave tours were not open because of time of year but the park rangers told us this was the best one and they were not kidding. Be advised though that if you are well grown (BIG) or have an issue with tight places you

probably want to skip this…  Some areas of the cave were pretty tight for us man size people and we had a couple in the group that were less than comfortable with the tightness of some of the places we had to go through.  At one point on this cave trip we were 500+ feet BELOW ground level. There are no elevators in this cave, so if you have an issue with stairs you probably don’t want this trip either.  Just remember if you go down 500 feet below ground level, you have to go back up!

Diamond Caverns has now come and gone as we put it in our rearview mirror and started our journey to see our daughter. After all, seeing our daughter and being a part of her graduation from Appalachian State University has been our goal for hanging out in this area anyway. Susan doesn’t like for me to drive very far in a day anymore and actually I am quite happy about this -so we break this 400 mile trip in half and stop for an overnight in Sevierville, TN at http://www.riversidecamp.com/. What a nice facility with tons of room. We really liked his place and we will be back for certain.

Before our journey even began back in August, I had made reservations for us to stay at Thousand Trails Forrest Lake in Advance, NC from November 23 – December 14, 2016. Unfortunately, this park is about two hours from where our daughter lives, but hey it is “free” for us and we like free… in case you are unfamiliar with Thousand Trails and I have not explained before – Thousand Trails  is a campground membership that we bought into a couple of years ago. We pay annual fees but are able to stay at parks all across the country virtually free.

Photos taken from Indian Springs web page

Anyway, I had Susan call ahead to make sure we were still set for our arrival only to be met with the dreaded words “we are not sure we will have a site large enough for you”, SERIOUSLY? Rather than stress, we decided we were not interested in going that far only to not have a spot so we frantically started looking for an alternate campground. AHHH did we find a diamond in the rough when we found Indian Springs Campground http://www.indianspringscampgroundnc.com/. in Hickory, NC. While this campground was not free like the one we were headed to - the price was very reasonable, they offer a 10% military discount and had we been interested we could have had the monthly rate for what our three week stay cost. The owners are outstanding – very friendly and they worked with us on short or rather no notice! The campground is small, quiet and secluded but close to the interstate making it easy to get anywhere we needed to go. It has large sites and is only an hour south of our daughter…..win, win, win.

As we get to Indian Springs Susan and I are very excited as we have not seen our daughter (Taskina)

Larry and Susan

since June, her graduation is right around the corner, and we get to spend Thanksgiving with her. So on Thanksgiving morning Susan and I get up, pack the food and head north up the mountain to Boone, NC and our daughter’s apartment for our Turkey Day Feast. That evening I needed to get back to the motorhome as there just isn’t enough room for ole dad in our daughter’s efficiency apartment but I did leave Susan as she had already planned to stay with Taskina for a couple weeks. OK, actually it was only 9 days, but man from my lonely motorhome it felt like a month! But she did stop by for visitations and on one of her visit days we had the pleasure of meeting up with Susan's Uncle Larry who had been in the mountains visiting friends. It is always good to see family!

I have to mention that within only a couple days of us leaving Sevierville, TN we were saddened to see the news of the fires and devastation in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg area. Many campers, homeowners and businesses were evacuated. So very sad and our hearts and prayers go out to the homeowners and business owners that lost everything.

We survived November and before we knew it December was here. Hope to have December posted soon. However, it is New Year’s Eve and Susan has had this post in her possession for editing for over a month – she already has December in her documents as well, wonder how long before she has it ready for your reading pleasure? LOL – I, Susan, really wrote this last paragraph or he would be in deep trouble but as the editor I can put whatever I want and pretend he wrote it! Try not to blame Brett for the late entries – he is all ahead of the game, it is his editor who procrastinates!

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and wishing you a Happy New Year!

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....