A Whim Update

I really have been a little busy while staying put.  Once I got the Whim back from the slide repair I began working on removing the horseshoe dinnette so I could have more space for a recliner and chest.

Before:  With dinette intact.

The wood portion removed & saved, just in case...

D is our POA president and a darn good electrician.

I removed all seat belts but one to be used for the recliner when traveling.

All finished & ready for furniture.

I am still deciding what chest to put in here.  The dinette afforded so much storage for me that I'm looking for something to replace that and add to the counter space so badly needed.  I already have my recliner and steps for Sedona to get into bed.  She always used the dinette as her step so I had to get something to help her.  Margie had originally purchased these for her dogs and they worked so well, I got a set for Sedona.

Dog steps from Camping World work great in The Lodge and The Whim.

Cart from Big Lots

Here is the cart I'm picking up today to use in the slide. The good thing about Big Lots is that they will assemble w/no cost so I'm driving the Whim over today for them to load it in.  I'm planning on a comfortable winter this year.

But that's not all I've been doing.  Next post will be an update about my lot in Crossville.  I've been working like crazy on it and it's shaping up nicely.

My knee is doing well.  I purchased a stationary bike from a friend and have been riding it to keep the knee in good shape and flexible.  My 37 yo son, Jonathan, had hip replacement surgery so I was in SE GA for about 3 weeks.  He is doing fantastic.  Youth!  My how they heal and bounce back quickly.

We had a Labor Day celebration at Deer Run and the park was full even though there was a chance of rain from Isaac.  It was overcast but not a lot of rain for the holiday.  Halloween is just around the corner and the park is booked.  It's a fun time here on the Cumberland Plateau.

Later...

Good day, Wednesday

Met Jim the buyer of my dulcimer and he paid me $15 for delivery. So my days of the dulcimer playing is gone. I'll just have to pat my foot or pick up spoons when I hear the melodic sounds of bluegrass. I just don't have rhythm for playing a musical instrument even though I love music.

Called Margie to meet her at Longhorn in Rivergate to tell her I was going to be on time. She said she was in a new to her store, Essex, that sells returns and overstocks from Target, Amazon and a few other stores. Since I was early I decided to meet her there. She was checking out but walked around the store with me. All I found was a box of filters for my Pur water pitcher at a good price. We also found a cute sewing machine that we both were going to get for $10. After looking at the boxes showing doesn't work, and broken signs we decided we really didn't need a sewing machine in our rigs. After all I now have LiquiSew that seems to be doing the job nicely.

We went to Longhorn to eat lunch and to catch up on what's been going on with us. While there, Marty Stewart, came in and sat in the booth behind us. He must eat there a lot because it's not the first time I've seen him in there with his wife. Lunch was good. Neither of us got a photo while eating and when we got to the car, Margie remembered her camera and got a shot of me standing by my car. We laughed that we are always looking for a blog moment.

Then it was time to head over to Camping World. I had decided to take my surge guard back since it had really been challenged over the past few months. I had purchased the warranty on it and thought I should get a new one before I head out again. It turned out that it was still under the 1 yr warranty and the additional 2 years wouldn't kick in until November. Wow, good for me. They didn't give me a hard time, just took the box the new one came in and took the old one and said have a nice day. What a terrific transaction.

The night before I had unhooked everything from Somewhere and opened the freezer door so it would defrost while I was gone. Sure enough it defrosted nicely so now I have a clean freezer/refrig and am ready for my new ice maker. I was tempted to walk around Cw to see if there was anything I "needed" but decided I didn't need to spend any money and I can always find something in CW if I look hard enough.

Next I head to the Cupcake Connection on 6th Ave to pick up some of their delicious cupcakes before heading back to New J'ville. They are so good and it had been about 9-10 months since I had had some.

Today, I've been cleaning windows on the inside and just general piddling around.

Later...

What Am Up To?

No, I not still on the mountain top in Huntsville, AL. I made it down just fine going the "new" way. The grade was a little steep but down shifting and a little braking got me down with out any problems. When I began my decent my ABS light went on, so that made me a little worried but I knew I was having Somewhere checked out at the Workhorse Carl Black Chevrolet as soon as I got to Nashville. I called Shaun, service rep, and asked him if I was doing damage by driving it. He said no but he would check it when I got there.

Turns out there were two shields gone bad on the ABS system. So by the time I got my oil changed, tires rotated and balanced and the two shields (I may not be calling this by the technical term but it's the way I understood what they were) Carl Black got $450 of my money. Somewhere drives so much better now.

I had already decided that before all this that I was going to buy an Even Brake to supplement braking with my tow vehicle the Grey Goose. The way the Even Brake works is it hooks onto the brake peddle in the car and when the momentum shifts downward, it applies the brakes in the tow vehicle. There is a sensor on the dash of Somewhere showing me when it's working. Camping World installed it at a price of $1500.00 Yes, I've had some high dollar expenditures lately but needed to be done.

Good news, when in Nashville, I had my annual eye exam and nothing had changed in a year so I'm good to go and don't have to buy new glasses.

After all that it was time to head to New Johnsonville TN to Theda's. This is where I'll be parking until I head north to New York and beyond. Theda had had an electrician come over and install a 30 amp service so I could run A/C, refrigerator, etc. while it was parked here.

Wellllll, guess what! The electrician hooked up a 30 amp 220 service which fried my microwave and if I had not had a very good surge protector for my TV, DVD and electronic management system, they too would have fried. The surge protector did it's job but it's fried too. So I'll have to get another one of those. I could have kicked myself because I have a surge guard (Camping World) that I didn't plug in first because I thought, what the heck if it's new it should be good. WRONG! STUPID!! Why do I have it if I'm not going to use it EVERY time???

I'll contact Cullum & Maxey and find out if my warranty will cover the microwave and if I can upgrade to convection/microwave then that would be all the better.

So, that's what I'm up to! Looking forward to celebrating my birthday and the 4th on Kentucky Lake.

Later...

Rainbow over Camping World

Yep, I'm still here. Seems as though I had some leaking issues with my windshield and front cap of my roof. Had to have that repaired, they said I caught it before damage was done. They had to take the windshield off and reseal it.

While I was waiting for everything to be taken care of, I drove on down to the campground where I'm gonna be for a while. OMG, washboard roads. Kind of reminds me of TN State parks, you see the sign for the park and 10 miles down the road, there it is. LOL Anyway, I made arrangements to go there tomorrow. However, I am going to get an estimate on having my carpet removed and a different floor put down. As I said estimate! It will probably be too much to have it done. More on that later.

Yep, an unexpected expense but at least they allowed me to stay in the parking lot again, this time with electric and water hookups. Nothing can get me down, it's all good, plus they threw in a rainbow.

Later...

This is a First for me!

Yep a first for me. I'm sitting in the parking lot for the night at a Camping World. I know that my friend, Margie, used to do Walmart's all the time and it didn't bother her so here I am. I decided to leave Jonathan's today and cross the border into Florida. The sun was shining brilliantly and thus my spirits soared.

I made an appointment to have my electrical cord looked at and the end changed on it. While I was at Mark's a few months back the extension cord and the main power cord melted together (note: that's also when I had the problems with the TVs getting fried and a few other things) anyway since I'm going to be staying in a number of state parks I decided I needed to get it looked at and taken care of. I have an appointment early in the a.m. and then will head on for my 2 week stretch at a FL state park.

Later...

Out with the Old

It's not a New Year's resolution, but it is a path to getting my act together and getting rid of "stuff." Man, when I think of full time RVing and I look around my condo and think how in heck am I gonna downsize enough to live in a 400 +/- square foot space?

This weekend I had a great breakfast w/a fellow RVer, Margie, and my friend, Becky. On my way to Cracker Barrell, I stopped and picked up some storage containers to begin my clean up. The breakfast was quite enjoyable and then after breakfast, Margie and I went to look at some MHs for she and her DH and then went to Camping World. Nice outing. I had to get estimates for new tires ($2377 for 6) for Somewhere so I sat in a nice rocker/recliner. Margie came over and we talked some more about plans while rocking in CW, what a natural place to do that.

See, Margie's DH has decided he wants to sell the house and go full time. She has the cutest B+, it's name is Ms"B"Haven and she goes all over the place in her. Now they are going to have a huge lifestyle change. They are both retired so it will be a matter of selling, giving, storing their goods. Anyway, it was fun looking at new class A MHs with her. Gosh, it would be nice to have a Tiffin Phaeton if they made one about 36' long. The one we looked at was beautiful!

Anyway, I digress. When I got home I began the task of sorting. Read on the forum, http://www.womenrv.com/, to take it one room at a time so that sounded good to me and that is what I did. I began in the office. Ooooh, maybe not a good choice as it's pretty overwhelming but that's where I began. Two-fold, it had to be done and I needed to get things ready for taxes. Made sense to me.

Did a little in the kitchen, WHAT TO DO WITH EVERYTHING?? I have piles to throw away, give away (charity), sell (priced it already), and keep. All that stuff that we just can't live without?? If that's true, what's a girl to do????? Anyway, it's all coming together. Another piece of advice from the forum, if in doubt, take it w/you and if you don't use it, get rid of it then. Gosh, those ladies on the forum make a whole lot of sense sometime. See they have been there, doing it!

I'm feeling good about my progress. The realization is that 2009 is here. I have been talking about making this a reality in 2009 but is always seemed so far off and I'm sure people are getting tired of hearing about it, but 2009 is here and it's time to get it going on.

Contacted my realtor, Karen Hoff, last week. Told her I would be ready by late Feb to put my condo on the market and what I wanted to get for it. She is checking everything out and will get back to me.

Contacted insurance companies about full timing insurance for Somewhere and for the Grey Goose. Tried about five companies and will choose the best out of the five. Began working up a budget based on my TN Consolidated Retirement benefit alone. I can do it, will have to be thrifty though. Hopefully, I won't have to touch my other slowly disappearing money and TIME will work for me so I'll have more when I do need to dip into it.

It's just beginning, much more to do so I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Later...