Monday, April 6, 2026

An Update With Little to Report

Well, we are about 3 weeks in and thought we'd be rolling along by now, and have a lot to report, but no.

We are all settled into our 2 month site, and found out at this RV park, there are different rules for monthly renters versus overnighters or shorter term stayers.  We were told on check-in that although we might see a lot of folks with canopies set up, we were not allowed to have one?!?  So if you're here 29 days you can put up a canopy, but if staying 30 days or more, no can do.  Then another item caught us, we were told and in the rule book it says they want the sewer hoses to be elevated, why I don't know, and something we have never done or been asked to do in all our 30 plus years of doing this, and then we figured it meant if you had a normal 3 inch slinky hose you had to elevate, for what purpose, who knows?  Since we have a small macerator hose we didn't give it a thought, although we did run our hose carefully up the concrete, then made the turn to the hookup.  Well, about 3 days into our stay we had a staff member walk over and present me with an envelope, saying, "I was told to give you this, and I'm only the messenger", what?  I open it up and it says we have 48 hours to comply with elevating our sewer hose or else!  Well, we guess they are serious.  The commercially made supports are all made for 3" slinky hoses and they cost about $80!  So Jan decided she could comply with what we had on board, so she got out our folding ladder and a couple flower pots and managed to support our sewer hose on the ladder top and then across 2 flower pots, it must have met their criteria since we haven't heard anything more:-)  And looking around, we have to admit that although the short stays rarely have their hoses elevated, all the long term we could see, do.  Oh well, what it comes down to is this is the only acceptable park somewhat near our property, and the long term price is very good, so we'll just have to accept their funky rules and very lax caretaking and landscaping of the "resort".  You can also see in this picture the weeds growing near us, we haven't seen them cut any grass yet.



Jan has already started her garden, even before the house:-)


And even has a baby tomato!



Now as for the house, we have received all the final drawings and documents for the build, and all have been forwarded to the builder for his pricing.  He said about 2 weeks, and at the 2 week point, he reported that he had about 90% of the required estimates, but was still waiting on lumber and trusses estimate, we thought that might be fairly important so we were told another week or so.  Our anxiety level goes up and down depending on the day and what we are internally thinking at each moment, so we have to get through another week or so hoping, fingers crossed that his number is going to align with the stars and our budget and we can actually get this rolling:-)  We do go down to the property often to look around, visualize, have coffee, watch our new neighbor's progress, keeping our fingers crossed all the time.


Jan checking things out

So we are a bit stir crazy, but have been able to visit some friends, go out to eat here and there, met Karen a couple times, and just had a very nice Easter weekend visit from our son, Jason and Joanne.  We found out that our little cupping on the tag tires is bad enough to have to replace them, they are the oldest tires on the coach also with the highest mileage, so it's time.  We will buy 2 new tires for the steer axle and move the present steers back to the tag.  Frustrating that we didn't catch it when we were in Florida at Josam's as it's where we've bought our last several sets of tires:-)  So we'll do some research and maybe hook it up with a short trip to be doing something worthwhile while we wait.




Thursday, March 19, 2026

Back to Atlanta, and Wow, Wow, Wow!

With only a week left we had several things we wanted to take care of.  Jan washed and waxed the truck, and then we both washed the motorhome after Jan washed the roof:-)


 



We went back to the Lobster Pound for their amazing red snapper sandwich and added some whole belly clams to the mix.  Jan was also able to get several pounds of fish for the freezer.




We also were able to meet BIL Tom for a couple lunches and visits, one more memorable lunch with Harvey, and packed up our site.  We found an interesting restaurant nearby, Seasons 52, it is a chain, but very good.  Very tasty and fresh menu and nothing on the menu is frozen and they don't have a fryer, their entire menu is below 600 calories, but don't think foo-foo.  We went 3 times all together and enjoyed flavorful, tasty real food, highly recommended!

Jan had a fresh tomato flatbread and a green salad

I had a cheesesteak flatbread and lobster and corn bisque

So the time to leave came, and so did the forecast calling for rain, right after the washing of the vehicles, of course, right?  We left a little early to beat the first wave to go to Orlando to Josam's Truck Alignment where we have any chassis, tire, shock, etc work done.  It was Sunday so we spent the night outside their gate so as to be ready for our appointment in the morning.  We made the most of it and got ready for the torrential rain that did arrive that evening and night.

Chilling

Had a vistor, a very large and colorful lizard.



Now for the WOW.  We were ready right at 0700am and so were they with a knock on the door and an "Are you ready?"  In we went, now this particular visit was intended to be short, we were just getting an inspection of the chassis to be sure everything was A-okay, and it was and then we needed our desiccant cartridge for the air system replaced.  It keeps water out of the system and has to be replaced every 2-3 years.  And the first wow, we were done and on the road headed for Ocala before 0900am!

We were headed there to Detroit Diesel to get and oil change service and a chassis lube done, our actual appointment was for Tuesday so to say we were early would be an understatement:-)

We pulled in a little after 1000am, and wow, they had us in the shop in less than 10 minutes!



We had planned to spend the night there and continue to a campground on Tuesday night.  We ran out for an early lunch and decided to make a reservation for 2 nights back in Madison, FL since we all of a sudden gained a whole day.  That is what we did, we were driving out of DD before noon and arrived in Madison at 3pm.  So 2 services, and 211 miles all before 3 in the afternoon, WOW!!

The last cold blast of the season, I hope, came through and was expected in Atlanta as well, so we thought we'd avoid some of the real cold by staying in Florida, well, 32 our first morning and 30 the next!  But we are over the hump now.

We are back in Atlanta now, an uneventful trip north, except we discovered some cupping on our tag tires, need to look into that.

We are hoping to enter the next phase of our lives in the next few weeks, the final plans should be completed this week and forwarded to the builder to get some final numbers, and with a lot of luck, we'll be able to get started on a new home.  Hopefully a lot to report in the upcoming weeks.