Doing this with my phone. It will be short. We travelled to Leesburg, FL today, to visit Kathy's sister Nancy, 450 miles. Weather is beautiful. We just came back from a short walk. A long sleeve shirt was more than adequate. Tomorrow we go look at a motorhome that's for sale. LOTS of traffic both ways on I75.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.
We went to Sunday School and church again at Fish River Baptist church. I went to the men's SS class and Kathy went to the ladies. There were good discussions in both classes. I like the music, Kathy not so much. The Pastor's message was good, but nothing to write home about.
We had lunch Saraceno's again. It was close to awesome again. It ain't fancy, just good ole boy food, and lots of it. There was a line of 25-35 people waiting to be seated the entire time we were there. Another observation about masks. I'm sure I watched over 100 people go through the line prior to being seated. the 6' rule was definitely not in effect, only one group of 3 people wore masks.
It was 32 degrees and windy when I got up this morning. I walked over to the clubhouse and had waffles, sausage, orange juice & coffee for breakfast at 7:30, cost $4.75. It is a half mile walk if you stay on the streets, which I did, and it was cool. After breakfast I took the long way home, 1.6 miles. It wasn't bad except when I was walking into the wind.
Later in the morning we went to the clubhouse to do laundry. All I did was carry the bags between the camper, car &laundry. We drove over and then I walked back home. When Kathy called I walked back to the laundry. I need a LOT of exercise. While she was doing laundry I dumped and flushed the black water tank, and did more research on a vehicle to two behind the motorhome.
Then it was out for lunch. We tried to order a Hunt Brothers pizza from a nearby gas station last night, but their oven is broken. We haven't had a pizza while we have been gone, so we tried the Mellow Mushroom in Foley, about a 20 minute drive.
Cool here last night and windy this morning. I stayed in the camper all morning. I did a little more online motorhome shopping. I also started researching vehicles that we might want to get to flat tow behind the motorhome. I've about convinced myself that a 2017-19 AWD Ford Flex is the best option/value. I talked to a lady at an insurance company about our buying a coach and being able to get an insurance binder with a phone call. She is supposed to call me back with a quote.
Kathy made potato soup for lunch, one of my favorite meals. After lunch she went grocery shopping and hitting a few other "junk" stores. I stayed home and took a 3 mile walk around the perimeter of the campground property. I had not done that this year. The only thing that was noticeably different was that there were a lot of trees around the perimeter of the property that had fallen and been cut up.
By mid afternoon it was nice enough to sit outside for awhile. It must have been pretty peaceful, I never heard Kathy come home. The Chrysler 300M rental is QUIET. She arrived home, carried in the few groceries she bought, and had been in the camper for over a half hour when I came in. I had been sitting behind the camper. I didn't know she was here until I walked around the corner of the camper and saw the car.
I talked to my Mom this afternoon. She was looking forward to eating fresh fish tomorrow. My brothers youngest grandson is staying with him and Mom thinks they will be out ice fishing. It was 17 degrees when I talked to her. The overnight low in Coldwater is forecast to be 4 with a high of 18 tomorrow.
My truck needed a new 'hydro-booster". Replacing that, replacing two suction hoses and changing the oil cost $1,250. Praise God that He has provided us with the resources to pay an unexpected bill like that without worrying about a roof over our head or having enough to eat.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.
Today was a busy day. We dropped my truck off at the repair shop about 8:20 and then returned home for several hours.
Back at the camper I did more research on putting residential refrigerators in motorhomes. Many of the coaches we see advertised have made this modification, even ones that have an additional refrigerator/freezer in the basement. I texted the guy in FL asking a couple more questions about his refrigerator installation. It sounds to me like the RV place did a "poor man's" conversion. They did not upgrade the inverter and he can't run the refrigerator unless he is hooked up to shore power or his generator is running. As I understand it, the invertors that come in coaches are to small to adequately handle the additional load from a refrigerator and they don't provide "clean" enough power for residential refrigerators. He told me that they freeze water in plastic bottles while on shore power and then put them in the refrigerator to keep it cool while travelling. They also run the generator a lot while travelling so that they can run the rooftop AC units. I don't remember us running ours that much, but I don't remember a lot.
The Tiffin coach in TX also had a residential refrigerator. The guy there had an upgraded inverter (wouldn't be shocked if it cost him nearly as much as the fridge) and he upgraded to top of the line house batteries. He said most of their travels were during hot weather, so they ran their generator a lot for the AC.
The attorney in MT who is setting up our LLC asked for some more information and I got that sent to him. I emailed a place to get the ball rolling so that when we buy a coach I will be able to bind insurance with just a phone call.
After lunch at home we headed for the beach. Temps were in the low 60's, but it was a little windy. If it was 10 degrees warmer, or less windy, Kathy could set at the beach for HOURS.
I walked over to the clubhouse this morning to have coffee. The temperature was in the low 40's but there was a strong wind. My ears and fingers were really cold by the time I arrived at the clubhouse (about 3/8 mile). There were about a dozen people having coffee this morning.
Morning discussion topics were: 1. A speakerphone call to a guy who had to leave and head back to Michigan because of his wife's health problems. They arrived at their MI home late last night. They lived in one of the houses behind the campground. It is now for sale. 2. A lady, who has been a widow for some years, showed up for coffee for the first time. I'm guessing she is in her 60's. She is new to RV living and this campground. Her RV is a 26' Jayflight travel trailer. She is from Michigan, like so many of the folks down here, and first went to AZ to visit a friend prior to heading east and ending up here. She is WORN out from travelling to far in to short a time. She would like to stay here for a month to rest but will have to move somewhere because the campground is now full. She had some interesting stories about her first days of RV living. 3. A brief discussion about guns. The guy who wears the Let's Go Brandon hat has the most, by far. One of the guys called a lady who lives in one of the houses behind the campground to check if she wanted to rent a space on her lot to this lady. She didn't. It wouldn't surprise me that if by tomorrow morning they have found someone who will rent her a space. 4. Which local place has the best sub sandwiches. I left after about an hour. I had soaked up all the wisdom possible by then.😀
After I left I walked the loop around the campground, 2.0 miles. When I got back home I started Class A shopping again. Last week I had ruled out a 40' 2009 Dutch Star because I didn't think it had enough cargo capacity left over once all the optional equipment was considered. The more I have looked the more apparent it has become that "premium" Class A's are heavy, especially after some extras are added. The GVWR of this coach, without options, is 1,400# more than our previous coach. It does have a few more options, but not 1,400# more options. I talked to the current owner some more and we plan on driving to Leesburg, FL next week to look at it, about 500 miles. One of Kathy's sisters spends the winter near Leesburg so it will give us a chance to see her while we are down here.
We ran some errands before lunch. I dropped off the 2nd of our 30# propane cylinders to get it requalified and refilled, should be able to pick it up tomorrow. Had to pick up a General Delivery letter my brother sent me, something that needed my notarized signature. I walked it over to the bank next door to the post office, had it notarized, stuffed it in a new envelope and stuck it in the mail back to him. Then we went down to Kathy's favorite Chinese restaurant for lunch.
Back at the campground excitement abounded. There was an ambulance, another first responder Fire Department truck and a helicopter in the field next to the campground entrance.
They were transporting a 92 year old lady who lives a couple of miles from the campground. They thought she had a stroke. Once before when we were here a helicopter landed in the same place to pick up a person injured in an auto accident. Look at the beautiful sunny sky.
In the afternoon we picked up a rental car. We drop my truck off in the morning to get the power steering leak fixed. I paid to rent a VW Jetta, or equivalent, Enterprise gave us a Chrysler 300M. I may have never ridden in a car as quiet as it is. If the repairs to my truck aren't completed by tomorrow afternoon I may tell Enterprise to extend my rental to a week, I think you basically pay for 6 days, so that we can drive it to FL.
We didn't accomplish much today. Kathy never left the campground. My only excursion was to go over to a local Auto & RV repair place, to make an appointment to have them fix the leak in the power steering unit on my truck. I take it in Thursday morning. Since I'm not sure what they will find, or how long it will take we are picking up a rental car tomorrow afternoon.
Kathy walked over to the clubhouse and worked on the big (1,500 pieces?) puzzle this afternoon. This evening we went to the clubhouse for supper, the main course was some type of stuffed pasta. It was good. After supper we both worked on the puzzle for awhile. It is a BEAR!
I spent 3-4 hours online shopping for Class A's. I talked to a guy in Texas about his 42' 2006 Tiffin Allegro Bus. It appears to have been reasonably well taken care of and the price seems reasonable.
I'd still like to find a 40' unit that I felt comfortable had enough cargo capacity so that we wouldn't overload it. They all look like they have a lot of capacity until you start subtracting of 1,050# for 150 gal of diesel, 800# for 100 gal of fresh water (there easily could be times when I want to have the tank full so that we don't have to rely on campgrounds every night), 120# of propane, another 80# for the water in the 10 gal water heater, etc. The allowable cargo weights in the brochures are for coaches with standard equipment. Once you start adding options (larger refrigerator, washer/dryer, more or larger TV's, etc.) it reduces the cargo capacity. I've inquired about several coaches and asked specifically that the current owner take a photo of the sticker, typically in one of the kitchen cabinets, that shows the weight of the coach as it went out the door, with all the factory options. No one has provided me with that information.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.
