Summer 2014 - Leading up to Take off

I have to begin by backtracking for the 2 weeks prior to our leaving on May 23rd. There is a need to present the whole picture of what transpired causing us to miss our original leave date of May 15th.

Many of our family and friends know we have been looking for the “perfect” Class A for a while. I had not been too excited about the prospect for many reasons, but knew if we were going to trade we needed to do it before our beloved 5th wheel further depreciated and with new RV models coming out the prices for them would continue to escalate therefore creating an even wider gap of what we could afford. After visiting and calling a number of dealerships looking for a Tiffin RV, and not finding the “perfect” one, I told Bill I would lessen my expectations and settle for most of my list. He in turn would have to give up his Nissan truck and trade it in with the Ram in order to buy a tow vehicle that we would not have payments on.

Kitchen with Corian counters

Our new RV

Every night I would check websites and find RVs that might be the one only to call the next day and find it was sold. But knowing how important it was to Bill to get a Class A that he felt comfortable driving, I continued to search but widening our possibilities by including Winnebago units. On Sunday night, May 4, I found 2 possibles at La Mesa. Bill confirmed that he would go with me Monday afternoon to see them but to call first. As was our luck they were both sold, BUT the salesman said they had just gotten a 2013 Itasca Meridian 36M by Winnebago and he’d be happy to have it ready to show us that afternoon. We arrived at La Mesa at 4:30 and they closed at 6, but we didn’t leave there until 9:30 as the proud owners of the Itasca. We hope we didn’t jump into anything but it was as close to perfect as we had seen and a beautiful coach inside and a color outside that I could live with.

They had some prep work to do on it and we arranged for our mechanic to give it a thorough

And that was after a lot was put away

checking over, so we would not be able to pick it up until the 14th We arrived at 9:30 that morning and we had our 2 hour walk through and signed all of our paper and at noon we started moving all our stuff and at 9:00 we had made a lot of headway but still had a pile on the floor, but we call it a day and Bill drove it home. I worked on Tuesday but in the evenings I started looking at tow cars. There are only certain makes and models that can be towed as

The new wheels

automatics and each manufacturer has different oddities of what you have to do to the vehicle before, during and after towing, but that’s a whole other story. Ford seemed to have the most possibles so on Wednesday while I went to the dentist Bill stopped by Sun State Ford to take a look at some SUV’s. I told him he could pick since he was giving up his truck. He called and asked if I could stop buy on my way to the east side of Orlando where I had an appt. later in the day and had planned to make a final attempt to find the “perfect” dress for Kam’s wedding on the 10th. Now remember this was on the 7th! I was beginning to feel a bit of stress at this point. I stopped at the Ford dealer and 2 hours later we left with a new 2013 Ford Edge in a beautiful blue.

THE dress

I just made my appt in time and then managed to look for dresses at 3 places and at the last one I found my perfect dress. (I had 2 at home to return). Now, since Kam’s wedding was having a Pittsburgh traditional Cookie Table at the reception, I had already baked 9 dozen cookies and froze them. I had all the cake layers made for her wedding cake and had finished her veil. What I still had to do was make 6 dozen coconut macaroons and decorate the wedding cake.

Now the sweat is starting to run down my back! I worked on Thursday and spent Friday making macaroons and icing for the cakes and doing the decorating. By the time of the rehearsal I had most of it done and once we got home I finished the last layer. Saturday Kerry and my friend Jean and I went to set up the Cookie Table and the cake at the designated time. They were not ready for us and I ended up missing my hair appt. Plus I had some major cake problems all along and wasn’t sure this was going to be one of my best efforts. Geez! Kam arranged for the hairdresser to wait for me at the church so I did manage to get a bit of a “do” just not what I had planned. 

Kam and Dan entering reception

The wedding was fabulous and Kam was beautifully elegant in

The Cake

her dress. I looked pretty good in my new dress that matched Bill’s shirt! I was ecstatic to arrive at the reception and find the cake still standing and received many compliments on it, especially how good it was. (each layer was a different flavor with a different filling, nothing simple for my daughter)

At campout moved decal from
the 5th wheel to door

With the wedding behind us, cars and trucks and Rv’s all exchanged, traded, we brought the RV home on the 14th and left on the 15th for our monthly campout with our club. We didn’t take the car as we had to arrange to have the towing apparatus and braking system installed the following week. Everyone was surprised to see us driving the coach! Oh, not us, Bill drove it! He drove it home from the dealer at night and then in the rain to the campout. I was not quite ready to drive it but had my brother take me for a 45 minute lesson that week in his. I think everyone was more shocked to see him drive than see the coach. We had a great weekend in it and a short list of things that needed attention so Bill took it back on Monday and waited for it. Wednesday we delivered it and the car to have the towing and braking system done. Bill went to pick it up Thursday afternoon and there had been some glitches and he didn’t get it home until 7, but he was fully trained in hitching and unhitching.

And then the fun begins…….