A New Year!

We have started with a bang as we moved sites, and are so pleased.  It's almost like being in a new park.  We are out of the wind, and the direct sun.  We are under a canopy of beautiful live oak trees on a huge lot surrounded by wonderful neighbors and friends.  We have thrown ourselves into making it our own with a huge carpeted area, lighting in the trees, our tomato plants all set up, and a little landscaping around our new satellite dish.

Our new site

  
One drawback of this new site is with the trees our satellite dish on the roof of the coach cannot see the satellites.  We called DirecTV and found out they would install a fixed dish for us, which then in turn gave us an opportunity to upgrade from our 2 HD DVR's to the Genie system.  The Genie has an enormous hard drive, and can be accessed from either TV, so we can watch a show in the living area, then decide to finish it in the bedroom, also it allows you to record up to 5 shows at the same time, and another great thing it connects wirelessly to the bedroom mini Genie.  After a bit of a challenge with the dish install, we had to get permission for the park to sink a pole in the ground, we are all set up, with one little catch, we can't use our present satellite dish antenna without modification.  So our plan right now is to upgrade to a SWM dish on the roof, install it ourselves, and sell our existing one, that way when we start traveling again, we will be all set.

Here you can see the new satellite dish, and the carpeted patio.
We have since covered the sand in the foreground with mulch.
Home sweet home (at least for the winter)

We also have several items we need to address this year, so we are working on scheduling and planning around them.  One we mentioned was our new wiper system cracked the fiberglass front cap where they were mounted, so we need to get that reinforced, sanded out and painted, while we are at it we will remove the 3M coating or film and replace it with new.  It is faded, cracked, and mildewy, a real mess.  Then we need to replace our broken windshield and replace our 4 leaking shock absorbers.  This process is underway now, Koni is sending us 4 new ones, and the way their warranty works is, we buy the 4 new ones at half price, replace the bad ones, send them back to Koni, and then on inspection they credit us the price of the shocks, they have a lifetime warranty.  But we have to get back up to Josam's to get them replaced.  Also we are going to have our diesel engine's valve lash checked and adjusted if necessary, as we have about 108,000 miles on the coach.

So right now we are working on a plan, we think we will leave here for a couple days in early Feb to have the windshield and the shocks replaced.  That will be in Orlando and on the way to Orlando.  Then in April when we leave, we will do the valve lash, the body and paint work, and the 3M mask.  Of course the way we work is even if that is the plan now it may change completely:)

So compared to years previous, this should be a short list of items, I hope I didn't just jinx us.