Sunday, July 31, 2011

Leaving Home?

Seffner, Florida

Mike didn’t get everything finished up Friday as he had hoped.  He was replacing the gaskets on both air conditioner units.  He found what he called a design flaw on the condensation drain.  I guess ours was one of the first years that they drained the condensation down underneath the coach, rather than on the roof to run down the sides.  He had to re-design the drain system a little bit.  To replace the gaskets the entire a/c units had to be removed. 

The other big project he was working on was the living room slide gasket.  He had to figure out what was causing it to tear and find a solution.  He did, and feels comfortable we won’t have that problem again.  We trust Mike, so we feel pretty good about it too.

Anyway he got it finished up after lunch on Saturday.  Yea….we are getting out of here!

Lazy Days fills up your fuel and propane before you leave, so once he finished, Mike called for a lot attendant to take it to Flying J for the fuel.  A very nice guy named Martin came, and I rode along with him.  After he filled the tank,  he noticed the fuel gauge didn’t got past the 3/4 mark.  We watched it a few minutes to make sure it wasn’t still going up.  It didn’t.  Martin suggested we get it back over to the chassis department (not with Mike) and have it looked at before we left.  He was nice enough to contact someone to make arrangements to take it to “Chassis.”  I again was impressed with the good customer service.  After all, he is “just” a lot attendant, but he went out of his way to get us taken care of.  His job is to drive motor homes where they are needed.  He could have just left it with me to deal with, but he didn’t.  It was picked up shortly and delivered to Chassis.   Al and I were depressed, and were starting to wonder if this motor home is jinxed!

While we were sitting in the motorhome waiting to talk to a tech,  Mike saw us sitting there and came in to see what was going on.  After all, he just released it back to us an hour ago and thought all was okay.  We explained the fuel gauge issue and he said it was  likely an easy fix, that might just require a tweak of the sending unit.  That sure made us feel better…and I guess he was right because shortly after that, the motorhome was brought back with the fuel gauge reading correctly.

Could it be?  Could we finally be ready to leave??  We decided to spend the night in the delivery site, because it was late afternoon.

So…….we are sitting at the deliver site and could go today if we want to.  However, we still have to get the cats out of the old motor home, and clean it up (again), and prepare this one for travel (again).  We are both tired and don’t have the enthusiasm needed for moving today.  Our fresh water tank is nearly full, and the gray and black tanks are nearly empty. We have free wifi, and 50 amp electric service.  We probably won’t leave until tomorrow.  We have decided to go back to the Lazy Days Campground for  nights.  One reason is that we have 2 free nights there, and the other is Al needs to make sure the toad hooks up correctly and is at the right height.  We haven’t had the opportunity to set up the truck behind the motor home and hook it up to check the lights and everything.  We figure we can go on a test drive down the interstate then to the campground and practice backing into campsites using the lessons we learned from our driving class.  Even though Al drove the motor home a few times on a test drive, it is now ours, and he is a bit intimidated by it. I am completely  intimidated by it.  We feel the campground will give us a good un-crowded place to practice our skills.

The weather here in central Florida has finally caught up with most of the rest of the country.  It has been warm, but not unbearable….until this week.  It’s been mid 90’s and very humid.  The overnight temps aren't’ going down below the upper 70’s. 

10 comments:

  1. Lazy Days has definitely gotten some of the best advertisements in the world from treating you so well. I had never actually considered going there since I assumed that big place meant big prices. But I think even though it seemed to take forever, you were so wise to be patient and let them fix EVERYTHING. You both get high marks in my book for paying attention and noticing what's wrong as does Mike.

    Color me impressed with all 3 of you.

    Sherry
    www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com

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  2. HIP HIP HOORAY!!!! I am glad you are finally released and on your way! They have treated you guys well and their service really was 5star!!! Now onto the fun... don't let the motorhome intimidate either of you. Just relax and have fun! I pretend it is a big car (LOL)while remembering in my mind how big it really is. I am excited for you and if you ever need some advice just send me an email and we'll be gad to help you with whatever we can!
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  3. Congratulations! Good luck with your first few days, it must feel so good to finally have the coach to yourselves and get everything in it's place. I also will look at Lazy Days next time because of the fantastic service you received.
    Have Fun! :)

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  4. FINALLY !!! I know you have to be excited about the prospect of "moving on." Hanging around the campground and using up the free days is wise. Again CONGRATS

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  5. Now we get to celebrate all over again. Thanks. And practicing at the campground is a wonderful idea. That is the only way to over come the intimidation factor.

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  6. We are keeping our fingers crossed that you will soon be on the road! Happy Trails!

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  7. We are keeping our fingers crossed that you will soon be on the road! Happy Trails!

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  8. Reading your blogs over the past few weeks somehow has me humming that old song my Eric Burdon and the Animals that goes "We gotta get outta this place, if it's the last thing we ever do"!!!

    Good luck!

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  9. If there is anything left to fix on your coach you will have to do it yourself! You have really had great service.

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  10. This will be a well deserved departure-enjoy:)

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