To the Tip and Back...

Linda and I are currently staying with her brother Roy and sister-in-law Kathie, in Lawrenceville, NJ. We're having a good time hanging out with them while our rig gets a couple of warranty repairs done. Technically the warranty ran out at 12,000 miles (we're over 13,000 now) but since we had scheduled the work several months ago, Thor honored the repairs. Trouble is the cushion they sent to fix the sagging couch was the wrong one and since they will only ship parts after a visual observation by the repair place, there isn't enough time to fix the bowed latch on the rear ramp door. We've been complaining about it since we picked it up but it takes several weeks to get parts in and we are seldom in one place for that long to get repairs done. We will now try to coordinate to get the couch cushion sent to Florida for when we are there the month of December. I need to start work on lining up a Thor repair place and have the new cushion sent there (sure hope they send the correct one this time). It's no wonder that most manufacturers get such poor ratings on RV surveys for follow-up, warranty work, etc. They make RVers jump through so many hoops and then when they incorrectly order parts, all of this leads to lots of frustration for us owners.

Jay and Becky at Herring Cove, in Provincetown MA with me

So we had a whirlwind vacation with my kids over the weekend. We drove to Media, PA to get my son Jay. He works till midnight in Wilmington, DE so we parked near his apartment complex, at a Wal-Mart, and I drove to his work around 10:30 so I could meet his staff and see what he does. He got off work a little early, went home to get his dog and some clothes, and off we went. We drove till 2:30 and then pulled off at a parking area and crashed for the night. The next morning we spent the day driving to Boston and parked at a Home Depot, about ten minutes away from Becky's work, unhooked the car and went into the city to get her. I must say it is a whole lot different driving in cities in the northeast than it is in the midwest or west. Can't say I'm real fond of it....makes for pretty stressful driving. Once we picked up Becky, we got the car hooked up again and hit the road for Provincetown, MA. By the time we got out of the city, it was around 5:30. While only a two and a half hour drive to the cape, it was during heavy rush hour traffic and it was starting to get dark and heavy fog moved in. It was like driving in pea soup ! We arrived at the campground and it was so dark and socked in with fog that we decided to just park in the office parking lot till morning. I have camped at this park many times before but back when I was in a tent. It's a whole lot different when you have a 38' motorhome that's 12'-9" tall. I found a site that we could get in and not get clobbered by a lot of trees and we got set up. I would not recommend this park (Coastal Acres campground) to anyone with a big rig because it's pretty tight getting around in the park and there are lots of trees that would prohibit tall rigs from backing into some of their sites. It's a park that is really geared to tents and small trailers.

We had a great time with the kids. We weren't sure how Baxter (Jay's Rhodesian Ridgeback dog) would get along with Boomer. They had a couple of skirmishes and Baxter got so he was pretty much afraid of Boomer and then they got along fine. He found out that he's not the only alpha dog out there. On Sunday we started making our way back. Dropped the rig off at the place where we bought it and then drove up here to see Linda's family. We got to see Linda's niece, Jen and her new baby Ava. They live in New York but will be moving to Finland next August. This may be the only time we get to see them till they return home to the states in a couple of years. It was so good to see Jen and meet Ava. She is such a sweet baby, with a bright personality. 

Need to pick up the rig on Saturday, from the repair place, and then we'll leave Sunday morning for Mineral, VA and our next park. Have had a great time seeing family. In another month, we'll get to see the rest of Linda's kids in the Virginia Beach area.

 

Linda's brother Roy and Ava

Linda and her niece Jen (Ava's mom)