JEMISON, AL; Family Fun

The past weekend was full of family time, sharing meals and laughter, celebrating Steven's graduation,  catching up on news and just enjoying each other's company.  The Florida, Kentucky and northern Alabama visitors left on Monday.  A great time was had by all.

Our RV problem with the rear A/C being cut off by the power distribution system had reappeared two or three days after we left Tom Johnson's.  Hank spent most of his free time since then inventorying and studying the various power management components that control many of the electrical loads in our home.  He was certain the problem was that those systems were not working as documented.  He sent his findings to the manufacturer of the power system and they determined that the circuit board in the breaker panel that was replaced by the dealer was a newer version than the original equipment and was not compatible with the operator monitor and control panel.  They offered to upgrade the system (at our cost) if we remove it and ship it to them. 

The service department at the RV dealership had already agreed to continue working on the system if we return to their facility, so Hank forwarded the manufacturers findings to them.  They are supposed to let us know tomorrow if they agree with the diagnosis and how to proceed, so a trip back to NC looks like a good possibility in the next few days.  We had thought we'd be heading to Florida to start the process of establishing Florida residency, but that may be put on hold for another week  or two so we can get this problem solved.  Fortunately, both A/C's are doing a good job keeping us cool as the summer heat is starting to appear in central AL  We're definitely enjoying our "new" RV.

The closing on the sale of the house is still set for June 11 and all is progressing forward as expected.

JEMISON, AL: Family Times Ahead

Thursday, May 22

We left Bremen, GA this morning for the two hour drive to Jemison, AL.  Four miles short of our last exit,  we came to a stop with a lane closed down the road.  Thirty-eight minutes later we reached our exit to set up at Peach Queen Campground near Jemison.  Usually when we visit central AL, we stay at the Hoover RV Park which is next to the Hoover Met, which is hosting the SEC Baseball Tournament.  There's no room in that park, and the few remaining parks closer to town are not very good,  so we decided to try  the Peach Queen Campground.  There aren't many RV's here, and most seem to be long-term residents. Our site offers some shade with good hookups and free WiFi.  The residents are friendly and the owners even had a discounted rate for the  holiday weekend, when they're expecting more campers to visit. 

We're in the area to celebrate grandson Steven's high school graduation, with other family members arriving tomorrow evening and on Saturday morning.  Tonight, we met Debbie and Robert for dinner at a Mexican restaurant, then visited in their home and picked up 3 months worth of mail.

The next few days will be busy ones as we enjoy visiting with family and friends.

BREMEN, GA; Visiting's Yogi's Place

Yesterday (Sunday),  we had a mostly rainy drive from Spartanburg, SC to Bremen, GA which is about 45 miles west of Atlanta. We're staying at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Campground - another half-price park for us - and a good spot to spend a few days until it's time to arrive in central AL.  The Jellystone Parks are geared to family camping with lots of activities for children and adults, especially on holiday weekends and during the summer.   At this park, there appear to be a lot of permanent or semi-permanent residents   The sites are close together, but hookups work well so we have all we need. 

During our stay here, we'll catch up on cleaning and laundry tasks, and will probably reorganize things some more.
We plant to make the short drive to central Alabama on Thursday. 

SPARTANBURG, SC: Back on the Road!!

After a few more touch-up repairs to the A/C late this morning,  we were cleared for takeoff.  It didn't take too long to get the Tradition ready to roll or so we thought.  Hank had a little trouble getting all of the outside lights figured out.  After he hooked up the HHR, he found the 12 volt outlets in the RV weren't working ( we need those for the Brake Buddy monitor, GPS, phone charger, etc.)  After searching for the proper blown fuse, and enlisting the help of the assistant service manager, we were finally ready to roll.  We made a fuel stop to top off the tank, and at 2:10 P.M. headed south toward Spartanburg SC.  The drive was easy and pleasant, except for the loud thud of a bird hitting the windshield (first time for that).  We're now relaxing at  the Cunningham RV Park, where we've stayed before.  It's nothing fancy, but certainly adequate for what we need - good hookups and a long site so we didn't have to unhook the car - and nice people handling things, all for a discounted rate.

Tomorrow, we plan to drive to western Georgia where we'll spend a few days before arriving in central Alabama on Thursday.

Marion, NC: We're Still Here!

The Tuesday deadline for finishing the rear A/C unit repairs came and went.  A new rear A/C unit was installed on Monday, but didn't fix the problem. The situation is puzzling to the technicians here, but finally today, there seems to be another plan.  So another part has been ordered and overnight delivery requested.

With the additional repair time needed, as well as overnight time for testing since the problem shows up most often when it's cool outside,  we decided to cancel our trip to Dayton, Ohio for the Dayton Hamvention . We were originally scheduled to arrive there today for pre-event gatherings,  but since we wanted to make the trip over two days,  it seemed wise to delete this trip from our schedule this year.

When the repairs are finished here, we'll be ready to head toward central Alabama for Steven's graduation celebration at the end of next week.

MARION, NC: It's Starting to Feel Like Home...........

We're talking about the American Tradition coach not the town of Marion, NC, although it is a pleasant place to be.

Yes, we're still in Marion, having our 'punch list'  worked through by the various technicians at Tom Johnson's dealership.  With the large American Coach rally here last week  (144 units), and the springtime readying of RV's in full swing, the service department was swamped with work orders.  Adding the needed time to order and receive parts means that delays are inevitable.  Since we bought a used coach, we definitely wanted to find any problems before leaving the area so the dealer could take care of our concerns.

Because we bought an American Coach product during the rally last week, we were immediately invited to several of the rally events, as well as two different chapters' events, which also included spending time with lots of new friends.  These people were a great source of information about our new rig, since all of them were American Coach owners.

This past week has been busy.  There's been a lot of paperwork going back and forth with regard to the sale of the house.  There's been more paperwork and phone calls about insurance and an extended warranty for the motor home. The warranty inspector spent 3 hours with us making sure all systems were ready to go, including a ''test drive" (we passed!)  The Tradition got four new rear tires at a Marion tire center (wish we could see a video of getting the coach in and out of that place!). A bedroom window was repaired. Burned out interior lights were replaced. The TV antenna was replaced.  We drove to Asheville and bought a new drop-down hitch (the Tradition sits a little higher than the Discovery did). The rear A/C unit still has a problem, and today one of the dealership owners stopped by to assure us it will be fixed or replaced by Tuesday if at all possible.  He also apologized for the delays we've experienced and thanked us for our patience.  Things are slowly falling into place. Over the last 6 years, we've  learned that "slowly" is just the way of things at RV dealerships, especially when it comes to service.

Unfortunately, the above delays prevented us from going to Jan Redle's birthday party in Louisville.   However, the extra time spent here has given us more opportunity to go through, purge,  and reposition our belongings, meet lots of nice folks, enjoy the beauty of the surrounding mountains, and learn more about the Tradition and it's many amenities.  We're looking forward to getting the wheels moving down the highway by Tuesday or Wednesday.

Unexpected Change of Plans

We have had a busy week with some major changes taking place!

Monday morning we dropped Little House off for routine diesel service and some minor repairs, then as we usually do when we are here we toured the RV inventory.  It is well known that if you don't have a house your credit rating plunges and it is hard to find financing for an RV in a class suitable for full time use, so we are always looking to see what's out there.  At this time there is an American Coach Association rally taking place here and there were a lot of trades taking place.  American Coach is an upscale cousin of Little House, both being made by the same corporation.

It didn't take long before we ran into the salesman we have dealt with before, and of course he had a few trade-ins that he knew we would be interested in.  Sure enough, he had a 40 ft 2008 "American Tradition" that we liked, at a price we were almost comfortable with.  He checked on the value of Little House as a trade-in, and came up with a figure much more favorable than we had been led to believe by another RV dealer.  So we called the service department and put a hold on repairs.

Thus started the first surprise of the week. Things got very busy after that as we started checking out every corner of our potential new home.  We spent the next 48 hours checking and double checking the our own comfort level  as well as many return trips to the coach to check on features and condition.  On Wednesday morning we took the 40 ft. 2008 American Tradition for a test drive, then signed many pages of paperwork, and drove our new home over beside Little House to start moving our belongings.  Boy - you can't believe how much STUFF you can pack into a tin can in 2 years!

Here are some pictures from the dealers website:
 
The next surprise came that afternoon.  We got a call from our Real Estate agent - WE HAVE A BUYER FOR OUR BRICKS AND STICKS HOUSE!  The buyers will get an inspection and survey done within a week and our agent said they will have no trouble with financing.  Closing is set for June 11.

We moved our bedclothes and a few necessities (coffee - but forgot the cups) into our new home Wednesday afternoon and started actually using everything we could to give it a good shake down.  Items that had problems were reported and most have been fixed already.  There are also a couple of things we asked for, like new tires,  that will not happen until next week, and we still have to remove some of the radio equipment, but so far everything is great.

We have had some time to relax and enjoy the company of some friends from our local Good Sam camping chapter who happen to be here for the rally.  And not all  of the work is manual labor, there are a lot of phone calls and paper work involved.

Then this afternoon we got a call from our warranty agent saying that we would get an unexpected refund on the warranty we had for Little House.

So this has been one wild,  busy, crazy, delightful week, with a day or two of work remaining.  We are both tired and looking forward to relaxing next week.