Continuing on our journey to Florida, we left Louisiana and spent 2 very cold days at the Hollywood Casino RV park in Bay St. Louis. I (Maren) tried my luck on the day's date, 12-12-12, at the slots and walked away $200 richer, so we enjoyed the huge buffet for dinner the night before we left -- "on me" :-)
The rest of the money went to partially fill up Max with diesel fuel (I say "partially" because filling his tank completely would cost almost $400). It is interesting to drive in to a new town... we can't help but inspect each gas station as we drive around. While we'd love to take advantage of the better fuel prices than we'd find on the interstate, the vast majority of "in town" stations are a definite "no-go" of fitting Max+car in tow on their diesel pumps. In Bay St. Louis, we didn't even see one we'd be comfortable driving Max alone in.
Ergo, it was with careful planning ("The Next Exit" is a great book for RVers) that we picked a truck fuel stop along I10 that we could fill up on our way to Pensacola. Turned out to be a non-event. Lots of pumps, lots of room... even got a burger from the Wendy's that shared its building. Now if we can just get our "Pilot / Flying J" card working so we'll get a puny discount at the pump.
Arrived in Pensacola Thursday evening and was happy to be back in the "Land of Sonny's Real Pit BBQ", which we promptly ate dinner at with Jeffrey's brother and his wife, John and Susan. While in Pensacola, they gave us a great tour of Pensacola's downtown area, we explored Ft Pickens state park, we stocked up on seafood for the freezer at Joe Patti's Seafood and, for a grand weekend finale, we went to the Naval Aviation Museum at the Naval Air Station to see the museum and enjoy a big commemoration of the 40th anniversary since the final Apollo mission. As part of the agenda, we got to hear a presentation from the flight directors and 2 surviving astronauts of Apollo XIII (Jim Lovell & Fred Haise). We also got to hear a bit about the Gemini and Mercury programs by a number of astronauts from that era. Very cool! How nice that our timing in town coincided with this terrific event.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
First 450 miles under our belts!
Well, we have survived our first two travel days! Left Georgetown Dec 5th and enjoyed a 200ish mile drive to Livingston TX, home of the Rainbow's End "Escapees" RV park (which also serves as our mail forwarding service). We think we need to adjust our RV GPS a tad. It had us on some lovely but curvy back Texas roads. Thankfully they were in decent shape except for the railroad crossing that "looked" smooth but jarred our teeth as we crossed it. No crashes in the house behind us, so we survived that one with no casualties.
Rainbow's End was an interesting mix of traveling as well as retired RVers who had homesites with specialized parking for their rigs. There is even a facility for RVers who need temporary medical care and assistance as they heal. We went on a tour and got to see their state-of-the-art mail processing center. It processes more mail for full-time RVers than the entire town of Livingston's other residents. They wouldn't let us take a picture inside or we would have snapped one of us posing with our own personal mail slot.
One of our big accomplishments while there was to use the "SmartWeigh". It gave us an accurate weight of each corner of Max so we could see if we were overloaded. You do this process with a full fuel and water tank (and other tanks empty). Turns out we were at the max weight overall, but a little lopsided in the rear -- probably due to the washer and dryer being on one side. We don't normally travel with a full water tank, so we'll definitely be "under" the max when we travel. Hopefully nobody noticed when we went back to our site and drained out 50 extra gallons so we don't have to haul it across bumpy Louisiana roads :-)
We left on Dec 8th for Henderson, LA the next day and had a nice ride until we got within 20 miles of our destination -- that is when the roads went to concrete segments with seams every 10-15 feet. All I can say is OMG! About halfway through the steady bumping, a heavy speaker cover fell off the wall and banged to the floor. Luckily it didn't do much damage on the way down and still worked fine when we screwed it back in place securely the next day.
The Cajun Palms RV Resort we are at for 3 days is really something -- hundreds of RV pads and very targeted to families. In the warmer months this place must be a madhouse! For our stay, only a fraction of the spots are in use and many of those cleared out Sunday morning as the few families that were here went home. Right next door is a Crawfish Town U.S.A. restaurant, so we got to enjoy some gulf seafood (at least I did -- Jeffrey found a non-seafood entree). We also went into nearby Lafayette and wandered through the Science Museum. They had a planetarium as part of it and we enjoyed 2 different shows. Pretty much had to drag Jeffrey out of there!
As I write this, our last full day in Henderson is a deluge of rain and wind -- perfect for catching up on some chores, email, etc. Heavy rain inside an RV is like sitting in an Igloo cooler under a waterfall... you have to turn up the volume on the TV when it gets really loud on the roof!
Rainbow's End was an interesting mix of traveling as well as retired RVers who had homesites with specialized parking for their rigs. There is even a facility for RVers who need temporary medical care and assistance as they heal. We went on a tour and got to see their state-of-the-art mail processing center. It processes more mail for full-time RVers than the entire town of Livingston's other residents. They wouldn't let us take a picture inside or we would have snapped one of us posing with our own personal mail slot.
One of our big accomplishments while there was to use the "SmartWeigh". It gave us an accurate weight of each corner of Max so we could see if we were overloaded. You do this process with a full fuel and water tank (and other tanks empty). Turns out we were at the max weight overall, but a little lopsided in the rear -- probably due to the washer and dryer being on one side. We don't normally travel with a full water tank, so we'll definitely be "under" the max when we travel. Hopefully nobody noticed when we went back to our site and drained out 50 extra gallons so we don't have to haul it across bumpy Louisiana roads :-)
We left on Dec 8th for Henderson, LA the next day and had a nice ride until we got within 20 miles of our destination -- that is when the roads went to concrete segments with seams every 10-15 feet. All I can say is OMG! About halfway through the steady bumping, a heavy speaker cover fell off the wall and banged to the floor. Luckily it didn't do much damage on the way down and still worked fine when we screwed it back in place securely the next day.
The Cajun Palms RV Resort we are at for 3 days is really something -- hundreds of RV pads and very targeted to families. In the warmer months this place must be a madhouse! For our stay, only a fraction of the spots are in use and many of those cleared out Sunday morning as the few families that were here went home. Right next door is a Crawfish Town U.S.A. restaurant, so we got to enjoy some gulf seafood (at least I did -- Jeffrey found a non-seafood entree). We also went into nearby Lafayette and wandered through the Science Museum. They had a planetarium as part of it and we enjoyed 2 different shows. Pretty much had to drag Jeffrey out of there!
As I write this, our last full day in Henderson is a deluge of rain and wind -- perfect for catching up on some chores, email, etc. Heavy rain inside an RV is like sitting in an Igloo cooler under a waterfall... you have to turn up the volume on the TV when it gets really loud on the roof!
Monday, November 19, 2012
SCHEDULE from 12/5/12 through 4/10/13
Here we sit just a few weeks away from hitting the road on our first big road trip! We still have a to-do list to accomplish before we leave, but it is thankfully getting shorter every day. We have managed to actually plan out our first full 4 months on the road -- mainly because we will be in Florida for a big part of it and were forced to get reservations for the parks we will stay at since it is "high season" for RVing in that state :-)
Here are the dates we'll be in each location (note that the first day is when we arrive mid-afternoon and the last day is the day we leave in the morning to head to the next destination)
12/5/12 - 12/8/12: Livingston, Texas (Rainbow's End RV Park)
12/8/12 - 12/11/12: Henderson, Louisiana (Cajun Palm RV Park)
12/11/12 - 12/13/12: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Hollywood Casino & RV Park)
12/13/12 - 12/18/12: Pensacola, Florida (Pensacola RV Park)
12/18/12 - 12/20/12: Tallahassee, Florida (Tallahassee RV Park)
12/20/12 - 12/21/12: Bushnell, Florida (Sumter Oaks RV Park)
12/21/12 - 1/4/13: Hobe Sound, Florida (Jonathan Dickenson State Park)
1/4/13 - 1/16/13: Tampa, Florida (Lazydays)
1/16/13 - 1/18/13: Bushnell, Florida (Sumter Oaks RV Park)
1/18/13 - 2/1/13: Clermont/Orlando, Florida (Lake Louisa State Park)
2/1/13 - 2/22/13: Williston, Florida (Williston Crossings RV Park)
2/22/13 - 2/27/13: TRANSIT to Raleigh NC -- stops TBD
2/27/13 - 4/10/13: Raleigh, North Carolina (Not confirmed: Cooper's RV Park)
... after this... Washington DC for a few weeks and then TBD :-)
These are the plans so far and we'll be happy to stay on this schedule. Having said that, living in a moving home sometimes makes its own itinerary based on weather and potential mechanical issues!
Here are the dates we'll be in each location (note that the first day is when we arrive mid-afternoon and the last day is the day we leave in the morning to head to the next destination)
12/5/12 - 12/8/12: Livingston, Texas (Rainbow's End RV Park)
12/8/12 - 12/11/12: Henderson, Louisiana (Cajun Palm RV Park)
12/11/12 - 12/13/12: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (Hollywood Casino & RV Park)
12/13/12 - 12/18/12: Pensacola, Florida (Pensacola RV Park)
12/18/12 - 12/20/12: Tallahassee, Florida (Tallahassee RV Park)
12/20/12 - 12/21/12: Bushnell, Florida (Sumter Oaks RV Park)
12/21/12 - 1/4/13: Hobe Sound, Florida (Jonathan Dickenson State Park)
1/4/13 - 1/16/13: Tampa, Florida (Lazydays)
1/16/13 - 1/18/13: Bushnell, Florida (Sumter Oaks RV Park)
1/18/13 - 2/1/13: Clermont/Orlando, Florida (Lake Louisa State Park)
2/1/13 - 2/22/13: Williston, Florida (Williston Crossings RV Park)
2/22/13 - 2/27/13: TRANSIT to Raleigh NC -- stops TBD
2/27/13 - 4/10/13: Raleigh, North Carolina (Not confirmed: Cooper's RV Park)
... after this... Washington DC for a few weeks and then TBD :-)
These are the plans so far and we'll be happy to stay on this schedule. Having said that, living in a moving home sometimes makes its own itinerary based on weather and potential mechanical issues!
Monday, October 29, 2012
The Education Continues -- Camp Freightliner!
Holy cow! We can't believe October is almost over. Only another 5 weeks before we hit the road. We plan to be gone from Texas for over 8 months, so it is going to be a BIG road trip!
The last month has been focused on visiting doctors (annual checkup stuff) and continuing our RV lifestyle education. Doctor-wise, we only have our teeth cleanings left plus get Maren graduated from physical therapy treatment for plantar faciitis. Education-wise, Jeffrey passed his non-commercial Class B driver's license written test + driving exam -- a feat that required us to drive the rig to Taylor, Texas for the afternoon. He even had to parallel park "Max"... okay, a few points deducted on that part but the rest was flying colors!
The other education was the big deal. We flew to Gaffney, S.C. for a 2-day "Camp Freightliner" class. We were with about a dozen other RV owners -- some full-timers like us -- and we were taught all about the chassis that Max sits on. Topics covered the engine, transmission, wheels, suspension, and all of the other things that Freightliner pre-installs before the chassis is delivered to the "body builder" (Winnebago in Forest City, Iowa). We now know enough to be dangerous ... especially if we have a problem and need service. One cool thing is that we know what filters and other parts to carry with us in case we need emergency fixing somewhere. If we have what they need, we won't be delayed in our travels.
Our big remaining tasks are to get the car (Moby) and Max in for service appointments... thankfully just checkups / preventative maintenance stuff. We still have a few warranty items for Max and hope that they can be addressed here locally before we leave. If not, we can do them in January while staying at LazyDays in Tampa... lucky for us we are in their campgrounds for 12 days already while we visit family and friends in the area.
Thanks for checking in on us!
The last month has been focused on visiting doctors (annual checkup stuff) and continuing our RV lifestyle education. Doctor-wise, we only have our teeth cleanings left plus get Maren graduated from physical therapy treatment for plantar faciitis. Education-wise, Jeffrey passed his non-commercial Class B driver's license written test + driving exam -- a feat that required us to drive the rig to Taylor, Texas for the afternoon. He even had to parallel park "Max"... okay, a few points deducted on that part but the rest was flying colors!
The other education was the big deal. We flew to Gaffney, S.C. for a 2-day "Camp Freightliner" class. We were with about a dozen other RV owners -- some full-timers like us -- and we were taught all about the chassis that Max sits on. Topics covered the engine, transmission, wheels, suspension, and all of the other things that Freightliner pre-installs before the chassis is delivered to the "body builder" (Winnebago in Forest City, Iowa). We now know enough to be dangerous ... especially if we have a problem and need service. One cool thing is that we know what filters and other parts to carry with us in case we need emergency fixing somewhere. If we have what they need, we won't be delayed in our travels.
Our big remaining tasks are to get the car (Moby) and Max in for service appointments... thankfully just checkups / preventative maintenance stuff. We still have a few warranty items for Max and hope that they can be addressed here locally before we leave. If not, we can do them in January while staying at LazyDays in Tampa... lucky for us we are in their campgrounds for 12 days already while we visit family and friends in the area.
Thanks for checking in on us!
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Getting Closer!
Well, it has been a few more months of living in Max and learning the ins/outs of our new lifestyle. Lucky for us, we still feel like we made a good decision to embark on this journey! We have accomplished some major milestones in the last few months: car rigged to be towed by motorhome, progress on satellite issues, some new "must-have" RV toys purchased (portable water softener, vent covers, surge protector, front external window screens), and various warranty items addressed. Just as important, we also have 4 Gator game watching parties successfully under our belt!
We are counting down to our first big road trip, which kicks off the first week of December and sees us aiming for Florida to spend a few months visiting family and friends all over the state. Our pre-trip to-do list is thankfully getting smaller and smaller and is mainly focused on finishing up warranty items, getting Jeffrey his non-commercial driver's license addendum, and finally settling on what we want to take with us verses leave in our Texas storage unit.
We are also going to fly to Gaffney, SC, in mid-October for a 2-day class about our "Freightliner Chassis" and hope this better prepares us for the maintenance we'll face in the future. More about that later!
We are counting down to our first big road trip, which kicks off the first week of December and sees us aiming for Florida to spend a few months visiting family and friends all over the state. Our pre-trip to-do list is thankfully getting smaller and smaller and is mainly focused on finishing up warranty items, getting Jeffrey his non-commercial driver's license addendum, and finally settling on what we want to take with us verses leave in our Texas storage unit.
We are also going to fly to Gaffney, SC, in mid-October for a 2-day class about our "Freightliner Chassis" and hope this better prepares us for the maintenance we'll face in the future. More about that later!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
We are making progress!
Well, for two people who should have lots of time on our hands, our days are pretty darn busy even though we haven't gone anywhere in Max yet. Aside from Jeffrey's remarkable knee recovery (he is almost back to full strength), we have slowly been ticking through our list of things to investigate, things to fix, things to buy, etc., as we work toward our goal of getting officially "on the road" in December.
One big item was my transfer of Gator Presidency to new blood as well as closing out the reporting to UF for the past year. We still love being involved in our Gator Club and will continue to be a part of it however they let us :-)
Our other big accomplishment was getting a pile of little "Max" warranty items fixed, which is somewhat interesting when you live aboard full-time. The service folks can't always come to you, so you have to drive the coach to the service center (thankfully ours is only 4 miles away), leave it for the day with a list of items to look at/fix. Pick it up at the end of day where they fixed what they could and ordered parts for the rest. They'll call you when all of the parts come in and then wash, rinse, repeat! The scariest one was a recall letter we got on our fridge. Instructions were to IMMEDIATELY turn it off and get fix applied. Lucky for us, we already had our appointment to get some other work done and they were able to get the fridge part in time, so we only had to live out of a cooler for a few days. Also lucky for us that we have friends close by with some extra fridge space we could borrow!
Well, better stop posting on my blog and get back to my to-do list!
One big item was my transfer of Gator Presidency to new blood as well as closing out the reporting to UF for the past year. We still love being involved in our Gator Club and will continue to be a part of it however they let us :-)
Our other big accomplishment was getting a pile of little "Max" warranty items fixed, which is somewhat interesting when you live aboard full-time. The service folks can't always come to you, so you have to drive the coach to the service center (thankfully ours is only 4 miles away), leave it for the day with a list of items to look at/fix. Pick it up at the end of day where they fixed what they could and ordered parts for the rest. They'll call you when all of the parts come in and then wash, rinse, repeat! The scariest one was a recall letter we got on our fridge. Instructions were to IMMEDIATELY turn it off and get fix applied. Lucky for us, we already had our appointment to get some other work done and they were able to get the fridge part in time, so we only had to live out of a cooler for a few days. Also lucky for us that we have friends close by with some extra fridge space we could borrow!
Well, better stop posting on my blog and get back to my to-do list!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Knee surgery recovery
One of our first targets was to get settled in an RV park before Jeffrey's planned double knee "cleanup" surgery. Thankfully we made it and surgery went great. Jeffrey is 5 days post op and already walking (stiffly) around and enjoying having me as his designated driver.
Our first outing was a trip just a few miles up the road to pick up our replacement coach coffee table. The original one was slightly warped and cracked. Unfortunately, as the RV dealer unwrapped the new one in front of us, it had a deep scratch on its top... so it was a wasted trip and we had to ferry the old one back to Max. At least we can still use it whilst we await coffee table #3 -- and I got a good workout loading and carrying the heavy thing!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Boo boo #2
Well it's official... we have both knocked our heads hard on some part of Max's outside doors. Maren's was on the forehead (thankfully under my bangs) and didn't break the skin. Jeffrey wasn't as lucky... just got 15 "running" stitches on the top of his head. It wasn't deep but it was loooong :-(
Saturday, June 16, 2012
And so the Journey begins!
Welcome to this blog about Maren and Jeffrey's adventures! Follow along with us as we embark on our first big one following our departure from 22+ years of employment at IBM -- in our first motorhome, "Max". Max is a 40-ish foot 2011 Winnebago Journey that has all the creature comforts of home that we need.
After a challenging process of selling our "bricks and sticks" home at 9401 Pearlstone Cove in Austin, TX, and divesting ourselves of most of our furniture, we officially moved aboard (e.g. started sleeping in it) on June 4th, 2012. We also moved into a 10'x10' climate-controlled storage unit so we could keep the "special" things we will need some day in the future when more daily living space enters our lives again.
We spent our first 9 days at Old Settler's RV park in Round Rock while we finished moving out of the house and closing the sale -- and then moved into New Life RV Park in Georgetown TX where we plan to stay for most of the rest of 2012. This will give us time to get acclimated to our new lifestyle and enjoy our local friends and Gator Club through football season.
Like any new home, we have had a few "startup" hiccups. "Max" spent 4 months prior to our move-in at Crestview RV in Buda having his tile floor replaced due to a manufacturing defect that cracked the original grout. It is special tile/grout that can handle the travel environment, so it was harder to replace than normal stuff. We discovered a few fix-it items remaining from the floor work after we picked Max up, but they are sending someone out to us for these minor things. To add to the fun of our first night aboard, we found a defective outside leaky shower spigot. Lucky for us, Crestview RV in Georgetown replaced it under warranty within 24 hours. Now we just need to get the home theatre "system"/box (fried) and our coffee table (warped) replaced. Ah, what a life!
With house finally sold and us finally settled in completely, we kicked off our new life with a bike ride at a park nearby on our new folding bikes this mornign. And so, our own "journey" begins! :-)
After a challenging process of selling our "bricks and sticks" home at 9401 Pearlstone Cove in Austin, TX, and divesting ourselves of most of our furniture, we officially moved aboard (e.g. started sleeping in it) on June 4th, 2012. We also moved into a 10'x10' climate-controlled storage unit so we could keep the "special" things we will need some day in the future when more daily living space enters our lives again.
We spent our first 9 days at Old Settler's RV park in Round Rock while we finished moving out of the house and closing the sale -- and then moved into New Life RV Park in Georgetown TX where we plan to stay for most of the rest of 2012. This will give us time to get acclimated to our new lifestyle and enjoy our local friends and Gator Club through football season.
Like any new home, we have had a few "startup" hiccups. "Max" spent 4 months prior to our move-in at Crestview RV in Buda having his tile floor replaced due to a manufacturing defect that cracked the original grout. It is special tile/grout that can handle the travel environment, so it was harder to replace than normal stuff. We discovered a few fix-it items remaining from the floor work after we picked Max up, but they are sending someone out to us for these minor things. To add to the fun of our first night aboard, we found a defective outside leaky shower spigot. Lucky for us, Crestview RV in Georgetown replaced it under warranty within 24 hours. Now we just need to get the home theatre "system"/box (fried) and our coffee table (warped) replaced. Ah, what a life!
With house finally sold and us finally settled in completely, we kicked off our new life with a bike ride at a park nearby on our new folding bikes this mornign. And so, our own "journey" begins! :-)
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