What has happened to the time?

I can not believe that it has been so long since I posted.  So much has happen since I last updated you.  We have had LOTS happen.  We attended the Georgia Good Sam Rally (Samboree) in September.  We wanted to ensure we attended Rick and Louise's last Rally  as State Directors.  We have gotten to be good friends with them and wanted to support them for their last samboree.  When we left there, we went to NAS Jacksonville for a short time before we headed to Thousand Trails Orlando.  Whle we were at NAS Jacksonville, hurricane Mathew came through and we were evacuated out of the park.  We rode out the hurricane in the 5th wheel at friends house, Charlie and Susan Hardrick.  We really appreciated them letting us ride it out there.We were able to attend Escapees Chapter 57 Luncheon while at Thousand Trails Orlando. When we left TTO, we went to the Florida Good Sam Rally (Samboree).  We wanted to attend this one as this was Joe and Debbie's last samboree as State Directors.  Tommy and Lois will be taking over in January.  It was good to see our chapters, Sunset Ramblers and North Florida Lifetime Sams.  We decided to not renew in North Florida Lifetime Sams as we are not usually available to participate in their annual camp out as we are usually not in the area.  Should we ever settle back into Florida we will rejoin them.  While we were at the Samboree, we attended the Escapees Chapter 57 Meeting.  New officers were elected and it was good to see our friends from Chapter 57.  Florida Good Sam had changed their dates this year which was held the same time as Chapter 57.  It is my understanding that they are going back to the other dates this coming year, so we may be able to attend both.  After this, we headed back to NAS Jacksonville.
While we were at Thousand Trails Orlando, we stopped at Clermont Walmart for a RV show by Alliance RV.  They did not have anything there that tripped our trigger, but they had a Foretravel at the lot in Wildwood, so we drove down there the next day to look at it.  It was a beautiful coach, but just to small for us.  But while there, they told us about a 2008 Phaeton 40QSH.  The folks trading it in were not moved out of it yet, so we could not go in and look at it.  We put a refundable deposit down on it to make sure we would be able to be the first to see it when they moved out of it.  The following week, we were allowed to take a look at it.  They told us they were going to replace the inverter and install a new cooling unit in the fridge.  I noted that the tires were in bad shape (dry rotting) so I asked for new tires all around.  I asked that they perform the engine and generator maintenance.  They also ended up replacing the fridge with a residential unit, which is what we really wanted, the alternator, the main TV, and several other items.  So, we now own a 2008 Phaeton 40QSH.  Debby is not real happy as we lost LOTS of kitchen space, and surprisingly storage space, but we are getting by.

  You may notice that we also had to get another car that was towable.  We ended up with a 2013 Ford Edge.

We were rushed to get moved into the rig.  We got to start moving in on the 7th and left on the 8th.  We then went back to NAS Jacksonville where we stayed trying to get the rig livable before we left to head west on the 13th.  We have been working our way west and will arrive at our friends, Vic and Barb, tomorrow and spend Christmas and New Years with them.  From there we will be heading toward Quartzsite to work the Escapees both at the Quartzsite RV Show.

I will try to be better about the blog, and when we get settled somewhere, I will attach more pictures of the rig.  I have more on my external hard drive, but it is not currently hooked up.

Y'all stay safe and I'll type more later

2 Month Update

I can't believe it has been 2 months since I wrote in this blog, but it has.  We stayed at Kenessee Lake Thousand Trails until 11 July.  It is a really nice park.  The staff is great and very helpful.  We stayed in the C section for 1 week, but we did not have good satelite reception, so we moved into one of the pull thrus that came open.  The reception was much better and we enjoyed the park a lot more.  We went to eat the the Jefferson Dinner on 2 occasions, which means it was really good. They had a band for entertainment one evening.  They were pretty good, but I think most of the campers did not appreciate them being provided for them.

We left Kenessee Lakes TT and went on a couple of 1 nighters,  I do not normally like to do that, but we were headed to Escapade and I wanted to camp in as many states in the north east as possible while we were up there.  Our next stop was Pope Haven Campground in Randolph, NY.  We were able to get a pull thru site so we did not have to unhook, so we spent 1 night there.  The site we got was as good as it was going to get there, and it was difficult to get out of when we got ready to leave the nest morning.
We next went to Trout Run Camping Resort in Wellsville, NY.  This was really a nice campground that was in the process of renovating.  A salt water pool had just been added and opened for the first time the day after we got there.  I would recommend this campground to anyone.  All of the sites appeared to be pull thrus.  I did recommend that he trim a few trees as they are fairly low hanging.  We stayed there for 4 nights.  This is the first place I have seen a 'Live Bate"  machine.

From Trout Run RV Resort, we headed to Susquehanna Trail Campground in Oneonta, NY.  This was another one of the 1 night stays, which again, we were able to get a pull thru site so we did not have to unhook.  We next went to Lake George Cmapsite in Queensbury, NY.  Once again, another 1 night stay working our way to Escapade.  From there we drove to Lone Pine Campground in Colchesster, VT.  We needed to stay a couple of nights so we could dump the tanks and get ready to go into Escapade as we would not have sewer at Escapade.  This is one of the nicer campgrounds in the area.  We parked next to Gary & Mary Olsen, who were were going to work with at Escapade.  We stayed here from the 19th until the 21st when we went into Escapade.
We next headed the 6 miles to Escapade, at the Essex County Fairgound.  As we were on staff, we went in a early.  We stuffed goody bags and help set up coffee and donuts.  We served the staff, especially the parking crew, for the next couple of mornings before the main body of attendees arrived.  It was really great to work with Gary and Mary Olsen.  They ensured we were well taken care of and had a really good time.  I hope we get to work with them next year in Tuscon. we were able to attend the Chapter 57 get together and, as you can see, Debby and some of the staff enjoyed raising money for C.A.R.E.  I was also able to get with a couple of I.O.O.K. Vice Presidents.  We really enjoyed the 56th Escapade and look forward to the 57th in Tucson.

 

We stayed a couple of extra days at the fairgrounds to reccoperate.  When we finally left in the 31st of July, we headed to Cascade Campgrounds, in Loudon, NH.  I had decided that we would mark all of the north eastern state off of our to do list while we were up there so we would never "have" to come back unless there was really a need to.  The traffic is terrible and slow and the roads are not really conducive to our rig.

We next headed to the Fam Camp at Hancom AFB in Bedford, MA.  This is a fairly decent park, but the greeting we got was Less than Friendly.  She was worried about the grass and threatened to make us leave if I parked on it.  It was all dead.  No one else got this greeting as I did ask.  The good news was that Marty and Peggy McCauley were there and we toured Boston with them.  We really enjoyed our time with them.

We really enjoyed our touring of Boston as we had never been there before.

This was a trolley tour that we could get on and off.  We toured Sam Adams brewery before we went on the trolley.  We had a good time the Marty and Peggy.  We thank them for including us.

When we left Hanscom AFB we did a series of 1 night stays at different parks to fill in so states.  8 Aug found us at Holiday Acres Camp Resort in N. Scituate, RI, the 9rh at Wilderness Lake Park in Williington, CT, the 10th at Triple River RV Camp Resort in Blairstown, NJ, The 11th at Holiday Park Campground in Greesboro, MD and on the 12th at Dover AFB Fam Camp.  This was a real disappointment.  We had heard that it was a small campground, but did not expect it to be SO SMALL.  All but 3 hook up sites are taken by people working on the base.  Not even active duty.  Of course the hook up sites were taken, as was the only dry site.  We did stay one night there, in the grass next to the pavillion.   That is where they told us we could park.  This was our first experience dry camping with the 5th wheel.  We used our generators when we could.  We ran them out of fuel once and used quite a bit of the next tank full.  It would not have been so bad, except is was over 100 degrees wile we were there.  The A/C just could not keep up.

We only stayed 1 night here as it was just unbearable.  So the next day we went ot Brandywine Creek RV Park in Downingtown, PA.  We were only going to stay here one night, but we decided to stay for 3 nights.  It was good to relax for a couple of days and get the holding tanks empty.

Our next stop was at the Thousand Trails in Hershey, PA.  It is a fairly nice campground with the usual TT amenities.  While we were there, we did a trolley tour of Hershey, PA and the Chocolate Factory.  The factory tour is a vertual tour, but very enjoyable.  I highly recommend the trolley tour.  We learned a lot about the man and the town called Hershey.  While we were at the Thousand Trails there, we finally upgraded to Elite Connections, so we now get All of the parks.  We did get a fairly good deal, but still A LOT.

We left Hershey TT on th 24th and headed to Falling Waters Campground in Falling Waters, WV.  We  only spent 1 night here and had a very difficult time getting out as they had just cut down some trees and the logs were partially blocking the exit from our site.  We did finally get out after having to move some of them.
On the 25th of Aug we arrived at Lynchburg Thousand Trails in Gladys, VA.  This is an older park that only offers 30 amp, but it is heavily wooded, os the A/C can keep up.  The only problem with the park is NONE of the sites ar level.  We were in one site that I did not have enough Blocks to get anywhere near level.  We moved across the street and we are now in this site for the remainder of our stay.  When I set up, we had a problem with the slide again.  I thought it was just the slide acting up again, but I found out that the slide out topper had stuck ( the anti Billows got cocked and stuck ) and kept one side from going out.  I got it really cocked before I realized what the problem was.  The slide out topper pulled away from the coach wall and we will be having that fixed the day we leave her on the 6th of September as we head to our next stop.  How frustrating this has been.

I will try very hard not to be so remiss in keeping up the blog.  Our travels are not interesting to all, but I know there are some that enjoy the posts.  It will be good to get back to see the kids in September.  From here we are headed to Debby's aunts in Gainesville, GA and then on to the Georgia Good Sam Rally.  Then we will be headed to Jacksonville.
Ya'll Travel safe, and I'll type more later.

June Update

We enjoyed a nice Chapter 51 Rally.  We were scheduled to be the VCR's for that rally, but while at a rest stop on the way, we received an email that the VCR program had been retired, so we felt like we were fired.  We went ahead and represented the club anyway as they had not had a VCR in a very long time and seemed really appreciative of us being there.  We really enjoyed their rally  and had a good time.  This was held at the Howard County Fairgrounds in Greentown, IN.

We left Greentown, IN and headed to Dayton for the hamfest.  This is the largest hamfest in the US and I had never been, so we decided to attend.  It was interesting, to say the least.  We enjoyed it for sure.  I bought a new Kenwood TS-480SAT HF radio.  I traded in my FT-897D on it to allow me to afford it.  I am really happy with it.  We stayed at the Dayton KOA in Bardtown, OH.  Nice campground, but we were under a tree, so I could not get any satelite.  I got over it.  I did find out that the folks in the flee market thought their gear was worth as much as the new gear on the inside was worth.  We got to spend some time with the International Organization Of Krazies.  I was assimulated and enjoyed the company.  I look forward to seeing the other Vice Presidents again soon.

We left Dayton KOA and headed back the way we came to the Indiana Good Sam Rally at the Howard County Fairgrounds in Greentown, IN, where we had just left.  Unfortunately, I was sick the entire time, so I did not get to have such a great time, but Debby enjoyed it.  She did not get sick until after the rally.  We stayed there after the rally for a few days before heading to the Escapees Tri-Rally at the Wayne County Fairgrounds in Wooster, OH.

The Escapees Tri-Rally was a lot of fun.  I had recovered, but Debby still had a cough.  while there, we enjoyed several dinning outs and toured the Age Of Steam Roundhouse.  This is an operational roundhouse with numerous steam engines and cars.  We really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone, except it is not open to the public, and only do occasional tours and we were fortunate enough to get to tour it.  We also toured a chocolate factory in Canton, OH and dinned at a Amash family household.

Next we stayed at River Trial Crossing RV Park in Butler, OH.  this is a very nice campground.  We just had some down time and enjoyed the time waiting to get into General RV in North Canton, OH to get the wheel bearings replaced on the coach.  We visited Debby's cousins in Canton and went out to eat.  We enjoyed the visit and had a good time.  We headed to General RV on Friday before our appointment to check on our parts.  We found that our service writer was no longer working there and our parts had not been ordered.  We had been told by General RV in Orange Park that it should run between $400 and $500 to have the bearings done.  We found out that the parts alone would be $209 per wheel, and they were not ordered.  I talked with the parts manager, and he was able to order them and get them air freighted so they would be there on Monday, when our appointment was.  We got ready to depart on Monday morning to go to our appointment, and the living room slide would not come in all the way, and it had popped a resetable circuit breaker.  It took a while to find it, but I finally found it, reset it and got the slide in.  We ended up showing up at 9:50 for our 9:00 appointment.  However, the parts were not there yet.  The service writer got the parts set on his desk at noon!  Then they finally get started on the coach, and find out that the bearings have to be pressed in, which they can not do.  SO, they  had a couple of places in the area that could do it, but could not do it that day.  To make a long story short, they did find  someplace to press them in and we were on the road about 6:00 PM.  We were NOT happy campers for a while, but I must give credit to Alan, the service writer for finding a place that was willing to stay open late to do the bearings and the tech who worked on it for their persistance.   We really appreciated it!  We left General RV and headed to Kenisse Lakes RV Resort, a Thousand Trails resort.  We are here now and enjoying the area.  This is a very nice Thousand Trails Resort and is well maintained and the staff are great.  We usually use Thousand Trails to rest and relax after a busy time, and we save some on the budget.  Although we did not get in until late, they still had a spot for us.  We moved after a week here to a pull thru site so I could get satelite. 

Anyway, We will be here until the 11th of July when we start heading toward Escapade.  We will have our 32nd wedding anniversary on the 1st.  This is as good a place to celebrate as any.

Travel Safe, and I'll type more later