Wednesday, December 21, 2016

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