At it again

We got up Monday and the phone calls started again.  Brad called the Freight liner Company in Ocala and we scheduled an appointment for Tuesday at one.  We wanted them to give it a look over and let us know what kind of work needed done.  So Monday we packed up, took our ladder back to the Lucero's, grocery shopped, did laundry, and anything else that was required before we moved. 

 

Our parking Pad

Tuesday we get up, and prepare for the move.  We ended up getting to the garage about 11:30, about an hour early, so we are hoping to get it in early and get it back at a decent time.  Off we go, we had lunch, did some shopping (coffee pots and things) and then started shopping for a campground.  After reading the reviews we headed to one....no way, tight spaces and very few left.  We stopped at another, and another and another.  Finally, the first one we passed we pulled in...oh my, what a beautiful camp ground, 3 sections, 1. Class A only, 2. Month or longer stays 3. Transient area.  Back to the office make reservations and then off to get the motor home.  No joy, they hadn't even got it in by now (4:00 pm), but they'll be there until 11:00 PM.  Sorry, we took the motor home back to the CG and have to have it back at the garage at 9:00 AM.  So early night and early morning for us, pulling out about 8:15.  It is only about a 15-20 min. ride to the garage, but no need to wait until the last minute. 





 

View from Site to the
Club House

So we drop it off, go for breakfast, returned the coffee pot since it didn't fit on the counter, did more shopping and killed a lot of time.  We finally get it back about 4:30, not much needed done, one more recall, but they didn't have the parts and back to the campground, sad for us, nice campground and we're not even here to enjoy it.  We have a quick dinner and both of us are off to sleep early, how can waiting for the RV to get out of the garage be stressful and exhausting.   

 

 

Brad working on Hitch plug

Well here it is Thursday and we get to enjoy ourselves.  We walked up to the restaurant for breakfast, then walked out to the river area for a little break.  We sat on a bench watching a couple of boats go by and a few more launch, then headed back home.  Brad worked on the hot water heater, the drain plug dripped, and then he worked on the hitch plug as we had no brake lights or turn signals on the car.  We just kind of putzed around the RV, I dumped all the junk containers, stowing things or tossing junk away.  All in all, it's starting to fall into place.  The neighbor was over to talk for a while, and then the rain started.  Not bad at first, but now it's raining pretty hard, but it was a relaxing, peaceful day.  But we are off and running again tomorrow. 

Some more stress

Thursday afternoon we left the campground and headed back to the Lucero household.  We have a lot of the out side storage things in their garage and some more organization that needs done.....ugh.  We get there about 1:00, a uneventful ride, but stressful none the less.  A new rig, not sure how a diesel should handle, smell, ride, etc, but we made it and I'm a nervous wreck.  (I know the last one didn't make me this nervous). 

No more busting your head
on doors that only open
half way!

We are finally parked (2 feet in an RV makes a difference parking), jacks down and the slides out, it's 2:00 and I'm ready to put my feet up and have a beer......no can do.  We don't do much, kind of putz around the RV, checking things out and trying to understand how they work.  We have a heat pump, inverter and it is all new to us, so much to learn (maybe we should have stuck with a gas coach). 

Paradise Oaks

 

 

We stayed at the Lucero's Friday night until Saturday and worked at packing all over again.  Brad got to do the out side, which was a little easier, as most of it was in the garage and only now needed to be organized, but I tore out a lot of the inside and redid most it.  But there is still a lot of final places that need to be decided.  Our problem is we lost a lot of our junk storage locations, now the junk has to go and everything needs a place.  I still have about 3 small containers to sort, but we are getting there.  There are about 10 pillows on the bed and some other things we are going to pack up and send home for storage, that will help clean up some of the stuff, but some of the things we just need to get rid of or find a home for. 



Too many pillows



 

 

 

 



Kitchen Storage

 

 

 

 

 

We are now at the Paradise Oaks RV Park in Bushnell.  We got here Saturday about 2:00, got set up and I headed over to the grocery store (next door).  I got back, put the groceries away (nice frig) worked on sorting through things again and then had grilled chicken breasts on a salad for me and Brad had a chicken wrap.  Not bad.

 

We got up Sunday and were trying to decide what to have for breakfast, when Shari texted, her, Matt and the kids will be there about 10:00.  So we got cleaned up, had breakfast and just started to try to organize again.  They came and visited and when they left we headed over to 'Howeys' for lunch.  We got back and I got ready to go play bingo...need a break.  It was nice, I didn't win anything, but it killed about 2.5 hours with different thoughts and I met some nice people.   One of the things we can't get working it the TV....no Satellite and no antenna, so we joined the world of Red Box users....yea. 

Lots to organize yet

We missed the super bowl and are watching our second movie of the night (this can get old), but back at it tomorrow..phone calls to make, scheduling different things that need done and getting done with the warranty worry.   

The switch is done

We are at the Wekiva Falls KOA, in Sorrento, Florida, about 5 miles from the La Mesa Dealer.  We got here Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning we headed over to La Mesa.  Our original appointment was at 10:00 AM, and we were there until about 3:30.....long day.  After a couple of

hick-ups with the paper work we were finally finished.  The dealer had already taken the new Motor Home over to the camp ground, so all we had to do was hit the road. 

 

We get to the campground and there they are, parked side-by-side, almost door to door.  After we got half of  a brain working again, we decided to pull the old RV out and back the new one in, so we can get it hooked-up and pretend we live in it.  We shuffled the RVs carried enough stuff to live for the night and called it home.....yea.

 

Door to Door parking
with a rug from one to the other

Wednesday, let the fun begin.  We had put the RVs door to door, so out of one and into the other.  As you can only imagine, Brad can carry faster that I can put away.....his answer is to just put it in a cupboard and deal with the organization later....I don't think so!!! 

Can you say a mess!!

 

 

Now, can you say Disaster?

And then we went from bad to worse.  It took most of the day, starting about 8:00 and finally getting finished about 4:00, but it's in the RV and actually packed in where it will stay (ha, ha).  I don't know about the rest of you, but once we are living here 2 weeks, it will get rearranged  to a more usable layout. 

 

We got finished, called La Mesa and they picked up the old RV.  We went for a stroll, showered and then had steaks for dinner.  Brad struggled to stay awake until about 8:30, me I made it until about 9:30, and it was a struggle.  Today we are still happy with the purchase and getting ready to leave the campground.  We are headed back to Shawna's to load up the rest of our things (oh-no) and then off again to who know where.  Looking forward to doing some camping again.

 

Diane and Brad

Stress

OK.  The shopping is done, but now for the stressful stuff.  We have unloaded a bunch of stuff that we don't use everyday or need for about a week, most of the tool boxes and fishing gear are in the garage and we are planning on picking up the new RV, Tuesday or Wednesday.  They are doing somethings trying to pay off the old RV, which the loan is a 2nd mortgage and not tied to the RV, so not sure what they will or can do......wait and see.

We are leaving here tomorrow and going to a campground about 10 miles from the dealer.  We need to be there at 10:00 AM on Tue and not sure what the traffic will be like getting there, and we really never get moving all that fast in the morning.  We are both getting a little anxious, nervous and excited, all at the same time.  Me, I haven't been sleeping, stressing over where I will put everything and how it will be packed (but we all know I'll redo it 3 times before I'm happy), so every night I've been sleeping restlessly. 



Madison and McKayden
with Nillie and Spice

We have done a little running around, looking a different campgrounds and shopped for a few things for the RV, but mainly just putz'ed around here, in the yard, raking and cleaning things up for the Lucero's.  We have had dinner with the O'Donnell's and enjoyed spending time with all of them.  The farms at both the Lucero's and O'Donnell's keep growing, this is Vanilla (Nillie) and the mini donkey, Spice with the kids. 

At the Lucero house tonight the farrier was here to work on Ashley's horse(Inka) and then we had Chili for dinner.  Len has made a video for the little piggie he rescued, if you get the chance, try to watch it 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z-uO5TPQfM'.  We'll try to keep you all posted on our pick up, just wish us luck.

Thanks, Diane and Brad

Shopping.......Done

OK, we finally did it.  Broke down and bought a RV.  We did a lot of shopping, looking and looking and shopping and finally called a place back on Sunday....never thinking they would meet our offer, but surprise, surprise, after about 10 phone calls, they did.  (Much easier over the phone than in person).  So today we got to go look it over and make an appointment for picking it up...January 29, 2013.  It is an Itasca Meridian, 2006, not new, but very new to us.  Now we can't wait to pick it up.  The dealer is about an hour away and we need to be there by 10:00 AM, so we are taking ours over Monday to a park near by, where they will bring the new one over to us so we can spend the afternoon swapping our things.  I have attached a link with pictures, so feel free to comment.  Wish us luck, Diane and Brad

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/115574168101787483704/ItascaRV?authkey=Gv1sRgCOi8vebBnZ3_iQE#

Shopping in Sumterville

OK,  not much happening here in Florida, RV shopping, RV shopping and more RV shopping.  Yes, we are about tired of it. 

 

Wednesday we went to Ocala and stopped at a couple of places.  We found a nice 05 Dolphin at Camping world, but the carrying capacity is only 1,000 pounds, what we have now has a 3,000 pound capacity.  We then went to another place and found 2 we really like, but didn't have time to talk with anybody and decided we would come back on Thursday.  We left there and headed out to Morgan's soccer game.  Good game they were tied 1-1 and went into overtime, but they ended up losing.  Not bad for their first time in districts.  We ended up not getting home until about 8:00, tired and brain fried.

 

Thursday we headed back to Ocala and looked at the couple RVs that we had found the day before.  We decided to talk with a sales person, but in the process of walking around the lot......made discovery.  It looks as if they buy wrecked RVs, probably at auction, bring them here, repair them and sell them......we left.  So we just went and found a Starbucks, walked around the square in Ocala and enjoyed some non shopping time. 

 

Friday, up and moving we are doing a 2 hour drive to San Mateo to look at another RV, Winnebago 36G.  Looks nice, shows some age, but it is a 2005, not bad.  So we tell the guy we will talk about it and get back to him.  Well, we just get tired of the stories, listed as garage kept, one owner.....not.  We did a car fax and no real problems, but it was just bought at an auction in July of 2012, and of course the guy who has it sitting on his lot, didn't think so, he picked it up from the owner who has always owned it.  So we call Lazy Days RV dealers, since their emblem was on the back.  They actually had it listed as dated inventory (older that 6 months) and they sold it at auction in July 2012.  Now what.  If we get that one, then we have to sell our RV ourselves........do we want the headache.  So we decided to sleep on it.

 

Saturday we get up, neither of us having slept very well and decided we really weren't comfortable with the guy selling the Winnebago, stories just don't add up, so no deal.  Back to shopping, off to the Bushnell RV show to look at a Winnebago there, but it is sold....oh well.  We stopped at Shari's a couple of times and left the dog out and fed the pigs (they are at a soccer tournament out of town), which is a nice break.  Back to our place and dinner with the Lucero's.  Tomorrow Ashley has a horse show, but we aren't going as she starts at 8:00 AM.  Back to the RV and veg for the night, we are tired of shopping and out brains are exhausted.

 

Well here it is Sunday morning and the Lucero's are all gone.  I made breakfast and Brad is working on some things with the RV.  No shopping today, just rest and relaxation, but we will keep you posted on the rest of our expeditions.  Diane

Sumterville at Last

Saturday we got up and headed out to another Camping World to look at RV's, nothing to interesting, so back home and slowly start packing up things to move in the morning.  They were having a hot dog and ice cream get together, but with they way we have been feeling, we stayed in not wanting to make the others at the campground sick.

We actually got
to Sumterville Sunday evening about 5:00.  Got set up and then out to the Coyote Rojo for dinner (great Mexican Food).  It was the Lucero's, O'Donnell's (plus one) and the McCurdy's for a total of 14, they ended up opening up the back room for us.  The food was good and the company better, but by 8:00 exhaustion was setting in.  Back to the RV, finished getting things set up, then off to bed. 

 



The only pipe wrench
Brad can find

Monday we got up and then headed into Bushnell for Breakfast, stoppped at the local fruit stand for strawberries and OJ, then from there we headed back to camp, cleaning and laundry on the schedule.  First we emptied the refrig, carrying everything up to the house, then start to defrost the refrig.  Then on to the rest of the chores, but alas, no water, so Brad ended up working on that until about 2:00 in the afternoon while I tried to rest (ha, ha).  He finally got the water working, so one load of laundry in, clean the strawberries and scrub the bedroom and bathroom, and last but not least the refrigerator.  We got all that done about 5:00 then headed up to the house to see what is going on for the night but no body's in sight.  Back to the RV, and waited until we see headlights coming in the drive, back to the house.  Shawna and the kids are home, so we sit down for a dinner of ham and potatoes.  Len finally showed up about 8:00, carrying a box.....with a 1 day old pot belly pig inside.  The poor things' back legs didn't work so they had taken it to the vets office to be put down, but the softy (Dr. Len) couldn't do it, so now he has a home at the Lucero Farm.


Baby Pig

We got up this morning and back to a different place in Bushnell for Breakfast.  The over to the O'Donnell's for a visit and off to look at more RV's.  Now that the Tampa show start's tomorrow, some of the RV's we wanted to look at are there, figures.  So back home and time for a dirty job for Brad.  I forgot to mention, yesterday he headed into Shawna and Len's Camper, and found they had left food in the refrigerator, and it has been turned off for months.  Len's parents are coming in from New Mexico early February, so Brad is going to help them out and clean out the mess and scrub the refrig.  I would help, but then he would just have another mess to clean up, so I made lunch and am now working on the blog.  Shari has invited us over for dinner tonight, so I'm not sure what the rest of the day will bring.  More to come.  Diane