Heading out & Happy Birthday Mikey

We got up early and got things ready and headed out. Unforuntally hubby still has to work and so we are on to the next job. We are hoping that now that our home is where we park it, it should work out great with his job. When the job changes, we just pack up and move our home to the nearest location.

Hey by the way, i'm getting better and faster about how long it takes me to have Ms. Southwind ready to roll! Hubby does all the outside jobs and i do the inside ones. This team is working pretty good together!

I'd like to wish my nephew a Happy Birthday. Today is my sister Patty (Puddles)oldest Son birthday. Happy Birthday Mikey! What is so neat is my oldest son Tyson looks a lot like Mikey. Tyson is Hailey father and Mikey has a daughter that was born on Tyson's birthday, Dec 11! How weird is that our oldest son's have so much in common. Hailey came a day early of being born on Mikey's birthday. I thought about posting a picture of him when he was younger, but i'll be nice .. this time .. hehe

Happy 3rd Birthday Hailey!

Today is my grand daughter's birthday! She is 3 years old! Happy Birthday to grandma's precious princess! We didn't get to be with her for the family gtg for her birthday but we do get to see her on her birthday and so we will be having our own little celebration!

We got her a barbie laptop, she just loves my computer and so Papa and Grandma just had to get her one of own! It's funny because her mother is always telling her just a minute, i need to finish my home work and when she comes to visit i let her play with my laptop and she will tell her mom and dad. Just a minute, i am doing my home work ... LOL It's amazing how at times our words come back to bite us when it comes to children.

We had a amazing time spending time with the kids and celebrating Hailey's birthday. Of course the time was cut to short as the kids had to head back home and had a long drive ahead of them. We are spending the night here and then heading out in the morning. It's been a fantasic day!

Tomorrow i see my babies

We got up early and our slowly working our way to our meeting point. We are going to be getting our babies tomorrow! Yes, tomorrow our beloved pets will be joining us. Our first plans were to wait until spring, but i just couldn't hold out! Now that we are in our own home I want them back with me. I'm so excited. So far the motor home is doing great traveling down the road. We will be stopping around 5 pm for the night. Hubby doesn't like to drive after dark as he doesn't see that well in the dark anymore. It bothers me a bit when he see's things that are not there and he doesn't see things that are there!

Hailey's family birthday party

Today is Hailey (our grand daughter) family birthday party and this will be her first birthday party that we have missed!

I'm sure that even though we are not there you are having tons of fun with your other Grandma and Papa, Uncle Gabe, Shannie and everyone else that is there with you.

Grandma and Papa are thinking about you and missing you so much. Sorry we are not able to be there to watch you celebrate your birthday, but we are with you in spirit . We love you princess.

Mr Winter has arrived

Well we've spent several nights in our new home and so far things seem to be going pretty good were staying warm and cozy inside even though the temps seem to just keep dropping. I think Mr winter has moved in and forgotten how to leave.

So far so good in Ms. Southwind. We did notice a small leak in one of the cabinets but were thinking it's condensation as you can barely tell it's wet there. I opened the cabinet and stuck a bowl to catch the water. It's something we will keep an eye on. Today we are leaving this nice little park and heading on our way.

What a life

Aghhhh what a life .... the view is beautiful here and I'm sitting here looking out my window and enjoying my morning cup of tea, watching the morning news. Hubby is still sleeping, he decided he needed a day of sleeping in. I have his coffee on and so it will be waiting with his newspaper for him when he gets up. Even though the tempature is a bit nippy outside, were warm and cozy inside of our new home.

I'm trying to decide what to do today. Do i try to hang up photo's or do i read my book? mmm ... I think i'm gonna read my book and just enjoy the view out my window. I deserve some rest and relaxation.

First night in our new home

We spent our first night in our new home! It was awesome. We had some things we needed to get done this morning, so we got up and got dressed and got things moving. Hubby doesn't move well until he has his daily morning routine.

We needed to drop off the keys to our recent tempary home we had been renting and are now heading down the road for the new adventures ahead of us as full-timers. There were some things i felt i needed to purchase. So we stopped at a Wal-mart, i got what i needed. I wanted to get another electric heater as our new home is bigger then the last one, i also purchased a hot plate, hey electric is free when you park in a campground, why not use it instead of the propane we have to pay for. I also wanted to get some new mini blinds and other things. Of course a few things ended up being several hundred of dollars! Hubby also picked up some things he felt we needed for our new home, so hey don't blame it all on me. Oh what the heck guys .. blame me i have broad shoulders and can take it!

The weather has turned cold since moving in, but we are warm and cozy inside. So far everything seems to be working fine. I used the cook stove for the first time today and it cooked great. I know i just bought a hot plate, but hey i just had to try it out! I also used the oven and it worked great! Much better then the last one that burnt everything no matter what temp i put it on! The range & oven looks like they have never been used. Of course with me that won't last long!

We didn't go far, we found a local park and hooked up to electricity. We decided we better have electricity to start out with, just in case. We've decided to spend a few days here as a trial run and then we will move.

The big day has arrived!

The big day has finally arrived! We discussed it last night and decided it was silly to pay another day rent when when we have Ms. Southwind ready to go. So we load up a day early and move into our new home. All that is left is loading up the refrig stuff and our few personal items, and clean up. I got up early and got everything packed up and ready for hubby. I wait patiently for him to get up. He rolls out of bed and gets his coffee, reads his morning paper. Finally, after me cleaning under him, he gets the hint, i'm ready for him to load whats left.

I finish the cleaning and everything is just as it was when we moved into our cozy tempary home. We will miss it, but were ready for a new adventure in our new home!

Hubby goes out and remembers to turn on those neat switches and she starts right up! After she warms up, he comes and gets me. Pulling out of the parking lot i follow him in the other vehicle. Off we go .. We are officially full time RVer's and our home is where we park her!

grocery and laundry day

Ughhhh .. the dreaded task of grocery shopping and doing laundry! Hubby and I went grocery shopping today and did the laundry before we head out later in the week. I don't know why we don't break these 2 taks up instead of doing them both in the same day? Hmmm .. maybe it's because I dread doing both so I just wait and do them both in the same day, or is it because I get hubby to come help me so I make sure that both get done so he can be there to carry them in and out ... hmmm i do believe it's the later but let's let that be our little secret ... Okay?

It's always a exhausting day and so this evening i'm going to spend my evening with my feet kicked up and do nothing but relax. I know I dread doing these 2 things but I sure am happy to know that both those task are done for another 2 week

Aghhhh this is going to be a lazy night of laying in bed and watching the tube,
my back needs rest before the big event takes place and were outta here!

Few days of relaxation

Well after taking a few days off, becuase my back has been killing me with all the cleaning, packing and stuff. We have finally finished all the loading and unpacking that can be done .. All that is left is loading up things that can't be moved until the day we head out. Were looking at Thursday or Friday .. not sure yet.

Wow am I glad that this job is finished!

uh oh .. is something wrong

Hubby decides to get up and go out and start up the motor home, he is starting to worry something is wrong with her. I stay inside as its cold and i'm lazy today.

After a few minutes i don't hear her running and look outside and her hood is up and he doesn't appear to be in a good frame of mind. I go out and ask what is wrong. He tells me that he can't get anything, no charge, no nothing, its like the engine is dead. I decided to go inside of her and check out the house batteries and see if maybe they drained the engine battery. (actually thinking uh oh .. i'm in trouble i left something on) I checked the house battery, no register, the panel won't work! I'm thinking okay, what did i turn on yesterday. After checking everything, i remember .. oh Larry said to always turn on the switches on ..duh .. i didn't turn them on. Flipped the switches and the panel works fine, both house batteries are fully charged. I get up in the driver seat and turn the ignitation and she starts right up. Wow, i found the problem! Hubby comes inside and asked me how i got her to start .. LOL I first reply, she likes a woman touch .. of course he is no joking manner! I then tell him to get in the driver seat and turn her off. He does, i flip the switches to that neat feature Larry had showed me. Then i tell hubby to try her. Nothing! I flip the switches back and tell him to try her now. behold she starts on the first try! We found our problem all along. It wasn't her battery it was the fact that i was flipping the switches off all the time .. lol Apparently when the chasis and coach switch is turned off, nothing works and i mean nothing! Nice safety feature.

Well now that i'm dressed and up i might as well go to work, after all she is warming up nicely. I also decide to put hubby to work. I have him carry all the boxes that we have been living out of for the past few months. He carry's the boxes in and i go to work in putting things away and trying to organize where i want what.

Packing and unpacking is the worst part of moving .. i'm so glad we never moved much through the years, in fact this is our 3rd move in 24 years and 2 of those moves have been in the past 4 months .. lol

The task of cleaning

I got up early and decided to go out and clean on our soon to be new home. I was cleaning and it was very cold. Hubby came out and decided to be nice to me and start her up and give me some heat. Uh oh .. she won't start again. While he is wiggling the key, i reach up and turn on the coach and chasis switches. All of sudden she started right up. Hubby gets out and opens the hood, thinking the battery cables are the problem now that we have a new engine battery thanks to the dealer. We turn on the furance and wow, she sure does throw out some nice warm air after she is warmed up. Hubby shuts the motor off and even though the cables don't appear to need cleaned decides he will do it anyways. So i spend the morning cleaning. She was a bit on the dirty side. But after some elbow work and soap and water she is looking great. Hubby comes inside and can't believe how different she looks. He said, your right a good clean up and she looks different. Now if the weather would only warm up, of course that isn't going to happen for awhile, after all were in the dead of winter! She needs a good scrubbing on the outside, but that will have to wait until a warmer day.

3rd Time is the charm - Buying the motor home

We woke up to a very cold and windy day, but we were still determined to go look at this motor home. So we got up early and headed out to go look at a Southwind 30' motor home to see if it could be our new home. We arrived, introduced ourselves and the sales man took us to see it. The sales man left us to explore and examine her. I looked the inside over. Every little nook and cranny, opened and shut the cabinets. checked for any signs of leakage and dry rot.

We checked her out from top to bottom. While i stayed inside and imagined what we could do with her, ( i was impressed, i could make her into a nice home) hubby went outside and checked the outside. He climbed on the roof and checked it out for damage, crawled underneath and examined her, then he raised the hood and looked at the engine. He was impressed (good sign).

The next step was the test drive, she wouldn't start, uh oh .. the service dept came out and put a jump starter on her and within seconds she was running. We left the parking lot, and she rode really smooth, i sat at the dinning table to see how she rode, then i jumped in the back in the bed, the real test .. wow she passed with flying colors, others i had ridden in were pretty bouncy back there. She drove like a brut, her engine seemed to just pure. Could barely hear her running. She is a older model but appears to be in good working order. She will need some TLC, but we are willing to give her that. Okay we've decided were interested in purchasing her.

Now it was down to the dirty work of discussing the price. Hubby doesn't like to be apart of my dealing, so he stayed outside and looked her over some more. I had already talked price over the phone and got the dealer to come down before we drove to look at her. But, hey, he came down over the phone and now I had cash in hand, it's the middle of winter and how many people are looking to buy in this weather. After all it's spitting snow flurries! I had did my research and knew what her fair market value was (even with her 2 draw back) and we had agreed ahead of time what we were pretty much willing to pay for her. I went inside and found the sales man, (he was hiding inside because the weather was very cold) The salesman asked me what we thought and I replied, it's okay, needs some work and cleaning, but if the price was right we would be able to fix some things I made an offer and he replied he had to have more then that because they had more then that in it. I explained about the 2 draw backs and he said yes, they were aware of that and had already adjusted the asking price because of that issue (he was correct, they had already adjusted the price and were well within range) but hey i'm trying to get the best possible deal i can ... right? So I asked him what he had to have and he replied. I replied to much, i explained some things that would need to be repaired and he then said, well if your willing to do the repairs this is what i will take. I then made another offer and told him that I had cash in hand and this was all i would pay for the unit (of course my bottom dollar amount was actually much higher), that we could make the deal today. He told me to hang on and came back and said that they would take it. I went outside and told my husband what i got the unit for and he said, your kidding me. I said nope, 4500.00 less then asking price and 5800.00 under Nada book used value price. I also told him that we were getting a new engine battery (remember how it wouldn't start when we first tried it) a full tank of propane and a half full gas tank. I settled for the half full gas and hey with all these extra's I just added to the price of savings.

We went inside and did the paper work, then we went into their shop and did our walk through. The dealer gives everyone a walk through and esp since we are first time owners of a self contained unit. We didn't tell them we had been researching and i have tried to learn everything i possible could by reading and talking to those who were expeierenced. A very nice man name Larry showed us everything we needed to know about the unit. Where everything was and how it worked. Wow so much information in such a short amount of time. He even gave us some personal tips he says he has learned himself from personally owning a self contained unit. I would recommend this dealer to anyone interested in buying a motor home.

Happy with our new purchase and our new home to be we drove off the lot and to the next town and finished filling up the gas tank. We drove back to our tempary homebase. Tomorrow is the task of cleaning and transfering all of our belongings. The task i dread!

Could this be strike out 3

The salesman called me today and we discussed the Southwind unit. He sent me the address to their website and added more pictures of the unit on it for us. Hubby and I looked over the new pictures, we liked what we saw and so hubby and I agreed, we would go look at the unit in the morning. There were a few draw backs to the unit and I think that is why i always skipped over it, even though it always caught my attention. The draw backs were it has an electric only refrig and no generator! Those are 2 big draw backs. Hubby and I discussed these draw backs and decided that we could work around these 2 draw backs. If we could get the unit cheap enough we could buy a new generator and eventually we can replace the electric frig with a new unit when the time came that we needed to do that. But, for now we are planning to be plugged into electricity pretty much of the time and when were not, we have a
refrig that runs off electric or a cig lighter for the backup Hmmmm could the Southwind be our new home? Is the 3rd try with the Southwind going to be our new home we've been looking for or is it going to be our 3rd strike out? Hmmmmmmmmm

Guess you will have to stay tuned and find out if we have found a new home or if we have struck out again!

Tioga Strike 2

Got up this am and the salesman didn't call me back so we waited around til they open and I called. You won't believe it. The couple looking at the Tioga was there before the doors opened and paid a deposit down on the unit! WOW 2 motor homes sold out beneath us in 2 days! That is strike 2!

Looks like the Tioga wasn't meant to be our new home either! Hmmm oh well, i'm back on the search again.

As i was searching online tonight, I decided to look at this ad for this Class A motor home that i have seen many times recently in my search, i don't know why but for some reason this ad always kept catching my attention, but yet i would skip over this ad. We had thought we wanted a Class C unit, but for some reason tonight i decided to look the ad over better and WOW! It was like this camper was calling our name. I was impressed with what i was seeing. I had hubby get online and look over the ad and see what he thought. We spent some time discussing the unit and even though we thought we had decided on a Class C. Reason we had looked at the Class C was because of the extra bed over the cab for when family came to visit. Of course, the bed over the cab would be off limits to me because of my disability. After looking the ad over, and seeing that we would still have the same amount of sleeping options as the Class C, we would actually have more room in the Class A. This unit was still in our length that we wanted. So i sent an e-mail with my telephone # for the salesman to call me.

Hmmmm ... do you think the Southwind is to be our new home? We'll have to wait and see

Mallard Strike 1

Wow, i'm glad we didn't take off to look at the motor home because the lady called me today and said that they sold it Saturday! Wow .. who in the world would go buy a motor home in the middle of a snow and ice storm! Guess they wanted it more then we did. Oh well, i've always lived believing if it's meant to be it will happen, if it's not, it won't. Guess the Mallard wasn't meant to be for us. Strike 1 down!

Well it's back to searching, i have found another Class C unit on the internet that is about 20 miles from where the Mallard was. I called and left a message for the salesman to call me.

The salesman called me back and we discussed the condition 1987 FLEETWOOD TIOGA is in and pricing. This unit has more miles then the Mallard had on it, but the setup is about basically the same. Length is 27' instead of 28' We are going to go look at it in the morning.

The salesman called me and said that a couple just came in to look at the Tioga! He is going to call me back and let me know if they take it or not. hmmmm could the Tioga not be meant to be as well? Or this just a stroll of bad luck ..... this is just how my life goes ... always something

Our Jouney begins in finding the right RV for our home

I have been researching online for over 3 years now. In the beginning we were looking at the nice big fancy 5th wheels, but they also carry a nice hefty dollar amount with a monthly payment. Plus we'd have to invest in a heavy duty tow unit. Even though the extra space would of be nice for those rare times family comes to visit. Then we started looking at the used units as many Rver's have advised us that sometimes it's best for first time buyers to go with a used unit.

In the beginning hubby wouldn't even consider a motor home, he wanted a 5th wheel. Myself, because of several factors was interested in the motor home units. Reasons being were:

1. I felt they would be easier for me drive

2. safety reason when parking over night .. we wouldn't have to leave the unit during the night time for any reason, as going to the bathroom, if we needed to make a fast exit for some reason

3. It would be a extra vehicle if needed when hubby or i was away in the tow vehicle

After looking at new and used tow units, we decided to start looking at the motor home units. After we started looking at the motor home units we started liking them. During the past few years we have gone back and forth in what was best for us, but after weighing the pros and cons, the decision was finally made and we decided that a motor home would be the best type of unit for us to go with for several reasons:

1. we could purchase a used motor home unit for the price of a used tow unit

2. we both liked the idea that i would have access to the bathroom while traveling down the road if need be. (that is a big plus with my back injury)

3. If need be it could be used a second vehicle in case of an emergency

So today we were suppose to head North to look at a 1987 Mallard Class C 28' motor home. The woman called and said the news was predicting freezing rain and snow for them tonight and tomorrow, so we decided that Monday would be a a better to go. Plans put on hold once again ... grrrrrrrrrrr Hopefully, they don't sell it before then.

Hmmmm ... will the Mallard be our new home?