Waiting….

We left Montgomery, TX this morning and drove about an hour to Demontrond RV to get our warranty items done. We are outside of Houston, just off I-45. The shop has closed for the day and we are in our rig, right outside of the garage door and are here with one other full timer couple….locked in for the night. Our service advisor gave us a key to the gate, in case we need to get out but we’re staying put. We went out earlier and went to Sam’s Club, which is only 3 miles from here. This RV service shop is huge. There must be 8 or 10 rigs parked on either side of us. Jeanie, our service advisor said that 22 rigs came in last week, without appointments. Wow ! She said it gets like that every year as spring break looms near. No one thinks ahead about getting their service work done. Full timers like us, who cover a lot of miles and have tight schedules, know that you have to schedule service work sometimes months out to make it fit in with your schedule. Jeanie said that I was spot on with the three week window I told her we needed for getting the new microwave in. She said she waited several months for a Spartan part cause they had to make it first, then the holidays came and then they had to ship it. the manufacturers are competing their part inventory really tight, which sometimes hurts the consumer who has to wait for a part to arrive. Good thing that we don’t need many parts, although we do need a bracket for the ramp. I hope we don’t have to wait several days for that to come in. She said the approval of the warranty work would be the longest part of all of this. Thor tends to be a little slow with their approvals. She said we might be here several days. Sigh….Good thing we padded in this whole week for the work.
Temps were gorgeous today….supposed to be in the 60’s overnight.

AGS/TXAd Annual Meeting

We arrived in Montgomery, Texas a week ago Friday and have been staying at the Lake Conroe KOA. We have a great site, facing towards the lake. On Sunday, the folks who made it into the $100,000 club had brunch at the local country club. We had gotten an e-mail several weeks ago saying that we had exceeded $100,000 in sales…thus making it into this group. We each got a jacket, with the 100 club insignia on it, and had a great meal. I think I counted nine couples in total that were there.
On Monday, the information sessions began. Lots of great information was shared and I find, with conferences such as this, that you always learn the most from the other people that are there. The networking and sharing of ideas is the best part of events like these. On Monday evening there was a nice dinner and the awards ceremony. In addition to getting certificates for the 100 club, Linda and I also were chosen as Rookies of the Year. Quite an honor, we must say as many teams were hired in 2011. We were really surprised !
Here are the owners of AGS/TXAd – Brian and Debra Shaeffer. If you’re wondering why we are dressed in cowboy attire, it’s because the theme was Denim and Diamonds for the banquet. We got shirts and a hat for Linda…all for $15 at the local thrift store. What a deal !




Look at Brian and Debra’s cowboy boots. They are made out of stingray.

Here is Linda and I with Rick, our scheduler. He has the crazy task of keeping track of all the rep teams and figuring out where they are to go.






On one of the evenings, Linda and I helped Rick with a version of the Newlywed Game…..four couples tried to match answers with their spouses on RV and work related questions. Linda asked the questions and kept the couples in line and I kept score. It came right down to the bonus round to decide the winner. We all laughed so hard at some of the wild answers.Thirty of us went out to eat, at a Mexican restaurant on Thursday night and we had a great time. Some of the reps have started pulling out, for their next destinations, but we are here till Monday morning. We are going to a Thor approved warranty center, outside of Houston to get warranty work done on the rig. One of the major fixes is replacing the microwave that buzzes very loudly whenever you use it. Won’t know what to do if we don’t have to crank up the TV while the microwave is running. As soon as we finish at Demontrond RV, we are going to a nearby Ford center to get a safety recall taken care of on our rig. We’ve allowed plenty of time to get everything done, that is needed, as we will have a busy year ahead. We’ve picked up about nine new parks, gave up three and will be working on the east coast at two parks in Gettysburg, couple in Virginia and one in North Carolina. Gonna be a busy, but fun year ahead. Buckle up your seat belts….Ready, Get Set…..GO !!

Leaving Schertz

It’s 8:30 a.m. and we’re sitting at Blue Bonnet Motors, in New Braunfels waiting for the rig. Ozzie is get her first oil change ! Found out, after checking in here, that there is a safety recall on the rig. Something about a pindle, which has something to do with the gear shifter and apparently there is a sharp edge on it. If it cuts the wire, then the rig would be stuck in whatever gear it’s in at the time and can’t be shifted out of it. Megan is calling to see if they have that part available and how long it will take to fix.
Blue Bonnet Motors is an amazing place and the folks are so nice here. Since we have a Ford chassis, it was handy to stop here on the way out of the area to get the oil changed. They are set up to do different types of work on RV’s. Look at this set-up!
Awesome customer service lounge too…There is a play area for kids and a very comfortable lounge for the adults too. I’ve never seen a gift shop in a car dealership/service center before. Like I said, it’s really quite a place. 




Hoping to get back on the road soon. Headed to Montgomery, TX for our annual picnic. Have about 180 miles to go….looking forward to meeting the other reps. Hard to believe that we are coming up on our one year anniversary working for this company. We started at the end of February last year. We’ve seen so much in the last year, met so many great people and did 25 parks. Just put the last job in the Fed Ex box this morning. Yeeha !! March 1st will start our loop all over again, except we might have some changes to our schedule to change our route a little bit. Have a meeting this weekend with our scheduler to figure out the upcoming year’s schedule. We’ll keep you posted on where our travels will take us in the coming months.

Is this Texas or Pennsylvania ?

Ok..it’s 8:00 p.m. and it’s 43 degrees outside and supposed to be 33 by morning. What’s with that ? We’re in Texas, land of winter warmth and no snow. I don’t like it. Am now debating what to do about the water supply. Disconnect it….leave it and let it drip. Crap ! We shouldn’t have to make these types of decisions in Texas. Been so chilly and windy that we haven’t even had the trike out since we’ve been here. Hoping that once we get to Montgomery, TX that we’ll have a warm spell and can get the bike out. Keeping our fingers crossed.
On the flip side of that, in the land of warmth…Hawaii…look at these cookies Linda and I have been enjoying. Special cookies that a friend of ours sent us from Hawaii. Some of them were dipped in chocolate. Notice I said “were”…they are all gone now. We practiced restraint as best we could but we love shortbread cookies so it was really tough. Each individually wrapped to maintain freshness. Yummy stuff !
Thursday night Linda and I had dinner with her cousin and his family. She hasn’t seen him since they were kids so we had a great time chatting with them and had a wonderful dinner. Rob and Karen’s two kids, Kyle and Marissa were there and Marissa’s boyfriend. We had a really good time and hope to get together again…perhaps in Bandera.
We are going to drive to Whitsett tomorrow to meet up with our friends, Bobbie and Jim. They are working their first gate guard assignment. Each one takes a shift, since it’s a 24/7 assignment. This will be our last chance to see them till later in the summer so looking forward to spending a little time with them.

We Made it...

Well we made it to Montgomery, Texas ! We left on Sunday morning and arrived this afternoon. On the way we stayed Monday and Tuesday evening in Lafayette, LA so we could visit our friends Bobbie and Jim. We met them, in 2008, when we worked in Coffeyville, Kansas for Amazon. We've stayed in touch over the years and intercepted each other, when our paths would cross in some part of the country. They are spending a month at Betty's RV park in Abbeville, Louisiana and they are having a ball there. They came up to our rig on Tuesday, got caught up on what we've been up to and had lunch. After lunch we followed them back to their park so we could see their new rig. They have a Heartland Landmark 5th wheel that they purchased a few months ago. Wow, is it nice ! Such a great open floor plan and nice workmanship throughout. We're so happy that they found a rig that works better for them as full timers.

We were at Betty's RV park as happy hour started and all of the campers gather under the pavilion. Folks bring something to munch on and their favorite beverage. Then the fun begins....We left our friends to get back to our rig and get things ready for us to pull out in the morning. It was so great to spend time with Bobbie and Jim ! We also got to meet Bobbie and Jim's friends that they are hanging out with. What a great bunch of folks ! Just what the doctor ordered...

We only had a four hour drive to get to Montgomery today. On Monday as we were driving the personal coaches of some of the NASCAR drivers and the trucks hauling their race cars would pass us on I-10. Sunday's race had been in Daytona so now they are headed to Phoenix for the next race. It was a lot of fun to watch them go by. When Linda would see another one coming up in her rear view mirror, she'd say "Oh, here comes another one !" I was able to get the camera out and snap pictures of the car haulers but didn't get any of the personal coaches. By the time I figured out what they were, they had blown by us. I wonder if they drive straight through of if they stop to rest somewhere. In Jeff Gordon's truck,it looked like a husband/wife team in the truck so we were wondering if they trade off driving or if they stop somewhere. We were hoping to see them next to us at our campground but no such luck.

The Lake Conroe KOA where we are doing our training is a great campground ! Great pull through sites, complete with a fire pit, concrete site and patio and picnic table. Indoor heated pool, hot tub, two K-9 dog parks, lots of indoor and outdoor games, meeting spaces, etc. It's a beautiful place so we're really going to enjoy our time here even though our days will be spent in class, learning our new job. Our first activity is an hour long meeting tomorrow afternoon and then full blown training begins Friday morning. I have some things I want to do on the rig tomorrow, plus some laundry and check out the local area. We'll keep you posted on what we see and do as the week unfolds.

As you can see from the weather info, it's warm here. Saw on some of the bank thermometers, as we were driving today, that it was around 80 degrees. Supposed to be pretty much those same temps for the foreseeable  future so we're loving it ! Thinking of our family and friends back home where it's not very warm and a bit on the nasty side.