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.

One Week to Go

Amazingly, we are down to only one week left here in Florida, and if it sounded like I was complaining about all the cold weather, I can now say we are fully into warm and humid Florida weather now.  In this case it's welcome, we have been able to go outside, eat outside, have HH outside, and with the upcoming daylight savings time, we'll have even more daylight in the evening.  Why that is good we don't know, neither one of us is a fan, because being early risers we get to go back to it staying dark until after 730am :-(

We even got a couple chores done.  It was the first since my surgery that I was even able to help, bending is working better and better every day, but as the pictures show, Jan, the diesel mechanic did the brunt of the work.

We had to replace our water hose and it is easier and cheaper to replace the hose right along with the reel.  With the hose out in the sun every single day of its life it gets brittle and breaks, we had already lost 9 feet of it so it was obviously time.  Overall a pretty easy job except for the difficult access.

The backside where the hose connects into the motorhome

Jan trying to wrestle it out

The new one

In place and ready to wind up

Had to go back to the New England style place we liked and this time got awesome pan seared haddock sandwiches, of course had us dreaming of Maine.

We have two small ponds here in the park and had a brand new little visitor show up.

He is just a baby, only about 3 1/2 feet long

And in addition to meeting BIL Tom a few times, we were able to meet an old friend for lunch, Harvey.  We had a great visit!

And as far as the finger crossing for the house plans, we were able to get the final revisions submitted and are expecting all the final drawings early next week, so there is real progress being made, like anything worthwhile a lot of patience is required:-)