Lunch with New Friends

Today we met Froggi Donna and Stu for lunch. We’ve e-mailed with Donna and followed each other’s blog for a while now but have never had the chance to meet. We learned that they were coming to Pigeon Forge so we found some time to go to Mel’s Diner for lunch. Had a great time getting to know each other.
We are still waiting on our assignments. Linda B did talk to our boss this morning and he asked if we’d be interested in going to the west coast….we said sure, as long as there’s no snow. He said he’d get back to us after he made some arrangements so we’re hoping to hear first thing tomorrow morning where we are headed. If he doesn’t give us an answer, we’re jumping on the bike and getting some riding in.
Tried to get some things done around the rig today, in preparation for leaving and getting back to work. From the looks of our water filter, do you think it was time to flush the system and put a new filter in ? Wow, and that’s only about 7 weeks of use. Really easy process…take out the pre-filter and fill the chamber with Morton salt pellets. Disconnect the water hose from the rig and turn the chamber upside down and run the water stream about the size of a pencil till all the salt is gone from the chamber. Run a little bit to get any salty taste out of water, put new filter in and away you go till it loses that “slippery feeling” again. A nice process to walk away while it’s doing it’s thing and work on something else. We’ve been in a dilemma about putting our e tracks down in the garage of the rig. We have three tracks, made of steel and feel we should mount at least one so we can secure the trike to it while its traveling but wasn’t quite sure how to do it. I spoke to the RV dealer, where we got the rig, and he answered my questions. Didn’t recommend using the tracks on the walls, as I’ve seen others do and said to cut the tracks to go over the arched area on the floor, back near the ramp. Will have to see if my jigsaw can cut it. It’s pretty thick steel.
Weather has been awesome. In the 60’s today. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to hit 70…a great day for a bike ride. Rain possibly on the way for Wednesday so we’ll see what we can accomplish tomorrow. 

Pigeon Forge

We arrived in Pigeon Forge on Friday afternoon. The trip through the mountains, from North Carolina to Tennessee, on Interstate 40 was really pretty. The foliage was still very colorful and the trees were holding their leaves. Quite a winding road but nothing compared to 411 south that leads into Pigeon Forge. Holy Mackeral….the first 11 miles were pretty wicked. We came by the Bush’s Beans plant…very large plant in the middle of no where. We got to Eagles’s Nest campground and got set up. They are a Passport America park…so half off for the length of our stay. We’re not sure how long we’ll be here so paid till Monday ($66). We have a phone meeting with our boss this evening and will get our schedule.

Hanging out with Hugh and Dianne, our trainers with AGS. They are here working 14 parks over a three month period. They will finish up end of November and then go back to their condo in North Carolina. This is the only assignment they do every year (but heck what a big job it is). Dianne has been dying to see our trike so she tried it out by sitting on it. Last night we went to see Country Tonite, a country show in Pigeon Forge. They’ve started their Christmas show so the first hour was the regular country show and the second hour was the Christmas show.

It was very good and the comedian in the show, Bubba was hilarious. He did this one spoof on the song, “Jesus Take The Wheel” but instead it was Cletus Take The Reel….oh my, it was funny. Had a really good time and it was a fun night out. Today Hugh and Dianne are coming over to watch the race with us and grill out. Tomorrow we might take the trike out and get some riding in before we leave this beautiful area. Would hate to leave and not see any of the back country roads. We hear the rumble of bikes on the road, that goes past the campground, and know this area is a favorite for bikers. The Dragon Tail, an 11 mile stretch with 318 twists and turns is something we might tackle….stay tuned to see if we take on the Dragon !

New Wax for Ozzie

I’ve tried lots of different wax products over the years and the two years I’ve really liked the “waterless” type of waxes, since many of the parks we work don’t allow us to wash our rig while staying in the park. Recently, while staying in one park, Linda had picked up some motorhome magazines that were laying around in the laundry room and brought them back to the rig. There was an article where they tested and rated waxes and brushes for use on a rig. The product that got the highest reviews was “Wash Wax All” and the brush that comes with their kit. Here’s the description of the product, from the company’s web site:
Wash Wax ALL was originally developed 23 years ago as an aircraft cleaner, and is widely used by private, corporate, and commercial aircraft operators for all their aircraft cleaning and detailing needs. Wash Wax ALL has also been found to be excellent as a waterless wash and wax for detailing your aircraft, car, RV and helicopter, as well as for your boat and watercraft.
Wash Wax ALL is a multi-surface cleaner and wax, in one product. It can be used either of two ways; as a "waterless wash," by spraying it directly on the dirty surface, and then wiping it off; or it can be used as a "wax as you dry" product, where you spray the Wash Wax ALL on the wet surface as you dry, after a hose and bucket washing.
Biodegradable and water-based, while both alcohol and ammonia free; Wash Wax ALL is safe to use on all surfaces that are safe to water, such as paint, plastic, chrome, aluminum, stainless, fiberglass, gel coat, leather, vinyl, rubber, glass, granite and many more...

One stop shopping for all your airplane, aircraft, RV, car, and boat detailing, cleaning products and supplies.

100% Money-Back Guarantee!
I bit the bullet an bought the kit, with the pole that extends and the bug buster attachment. I thought the waterless product I used to use was

easy to use. No pun intended but this stuff is really slick and the pole makes quick work of reaching to the top of the rig (ours is 12’) without a ladder. Won’t spot the windows if you get it on them…you actually use it to bust up the bug guts on the windshield and makes the water bead right off. With a push of a button the pole extends to the desired length. The head that screws on the pole has a “wet” side and a “dry” side so you spray some wax on the wet side of the head, put it on a small area…flip the pole to the “dry” side and wipe it off. So easy and fast. I did one whole side of the rig in about 20 minutes. The finish creates a non-static, slick finish that doesn’t attract dust and makes a high gloss look.
Whenever I had those dreaded black streaks on the rig, I’d use the black streak remover stuff you get at Wal-Mart. In this product line-up, you use the degreaser that comes in the kit. Put a little on the bug buster head and without any effort the streaks come right off, without any harsh chemicals that you have to worry about staying on your gel coat. Will be pitching out the other black streak remover.
Waxing the rig is like “therapy” for me…something I really enjoy. With this new product, it’s so quick and easy. I’ll have to wax the car, trike AND the rig to get enough therapy time in on the weekend. Here’s to happy waxing !

The New Rig

We arrived in Asheville, NC yesterday afternoon. Our friend Lindig is here….we worked together at Amazon in Coffeyville, Kansas. We set up at Bear Creek campground, which is only a couple of miles from her. We took the car to get her and went out to eat. Had a good meal at Stone Ridge Tavern just down the road a ways. Was great to catch up on what she’s been doing and have a laugh and drink with our good friend. After dinner, we took her back to our rig so she could see it. We watched a little HGTV and then took her back to her rig. It was great to see her. We stayed another day at the campground, as I needed to get some things done around the rig and we went out and did some errands.
Yesterday we got the Roadmaster Invisibrake installed at Camping World in Statesville. Turns out they were running a special on the installation of this particular braking system so we saved about $150, which was a wonderful surprise. The control box is under the driver’s seat in the car and a cable runs up under the carpet to the brake pedal of the car. When I step on the motorhome brake,it applies the same amount of braking pressure to the car’s brake. Only thing to hook up, when it’s time to hit the road, is the breakaway cord and a little cable that connects the motorhome to the car. That’s it….off we go. We picked this system since we move so often…every one to two weeks and we didn’t have to be crawling around on the floor boards, hooking up a braking system. We wanted a “set it and forget it” type of system. Hooking the car to the motorhome is fast too with the Blue Ox tow bar. We can be hooked up in just a couple of minutes and on the road. It seems so nice to be able to go out and shop and do errands in our car.






People ask us how we like the motorhome, as compared to the 5th wheel. Since we’ve never known anything different, we loved the Excel and truck. Now having this, the ride is so much smoother and so pretty looking out the large windshield. We love the set up inside the rig and I love having a garage for the trike. I can putter around in the garage, waxing the bike or whatever. Here’s some pictures of the rig…its hard to get much in the picture.
There isn’t a regular oven. It’s a combination microwave/half time/ and convection oven. Haven’t used anything other than the microwave yet. The microwave makes a weird buzzing sound and needs to be replaced but we have to know where we’ll be in 2-3 weeks so it can be shipped to an rv repair shop for install.
  Other than that, we haven’t found any other things that need to be fixed. That’s a good thing. Yesterday at Camping World, a guy came in with a Winnebago Itasca and he had a laundry list of items that needed attention…..a long list. Hope he brought his sleeping bag…he’s going to be in that waiting room a long time. The sleeping loft wouldn’t be something that everyone would care for but we like it. We call it the “tree house” and that was where Teagan (Linda’s grandson) liked to go to take his naps cause he could watch TV. We’ve never had a TV in the bedroom…is kind of nice.


I love the engine braking system and the tow haul mode. So far, with the hills we’ve encountered our fuel mileage has been running 6.8 miles to the gallon. The “info” gauge, on the dash automatically calculates the “number of miles to empty” based on the last 500 miles of driving. Nice feature. We haven’t really missed the 5th wheel or truck. There are a couple of things I liked about the 5th wheel that I wish we had with this rig but nothing we can’t live without. We’re really happy we made the switch. So easy to drive and easy access to everything while we’re driving. Even with the slide in, there is a large aisle down through the rig with full access to everything in the kitchen and we’re able to sit at the dinette (which we love) to play cards, eat or work. Next time I’ll tell you about the new wax I bought for the rig. Awesome stuff !

Virginia Beach

This is our last night in the Virginia Beach area, visiting Linda’s kids and grand-kids. She is out trick or treating with them tonight. Watching the evening news, there is quite a mess in the northeast due to the Nor-Easter that hit there. Lots of power outages and massive snowfall amounts in some areas. So glad we got out of there when we did. Saturday we went to the Aquarium and yesterday it was “Zoo Boo” day so the grand-kids went in their costumes. I about froze to death, with the wind and cool temps. People were there in short sleeves and I was bundled up, trying to keep from freezing. My blood must be super thin….thank goodness we’re Florida bound. At least I think we are….no word yet from our boss. We picked our car up in Hampton at Hibbard’s Iron Works and they had put the Blue Ox base plate on and did the light harness but did not install the Roadmaster Invisibrake. I called the Camping World location in Statesville, NC and lucked out due to some folks having a cancellation. We have an appointment for Wednesday at 8 a.m. to get the braking system put on. Not sure where we’ll go from there….perhaps we’ll mosey on to Pigeon Forge to see friends there. Leaving in the morning for the six hour drive down to North Carolina.

Linda with her sister-in-law, Susie	Spent a night in Williamsburg, VA visiting Mike & Cindy
Boomer with his buddy, Teagan…watching cartoons.	Grammy with ila…
Linda’s daughter, Laurie & hubby Matt	Linda’s son, Todd with Teagan
Left to right:ila, Stephanie, Teagan, Jessica and Laurie

On Tour….

The last few weeks I’ve felt like a rock star (minus the seven figure income) with the “tour” schedule we’ve had visiting family and friends. No roadies but driving Ozzie (what we’ve named the Outlaw) sure does feel like driving a bus. We left Chambersburg this morning after having spent several days at Barry and Carol’s place. Barry has a great house on a cul-de-sac, which was perfect for parking the rig. We stopped by Carol’s workplace so Linda could get a final hug from her sister on our way out of town. As most of you probably know, Chambersburg is in the heart of Amish country. I thought I knew quite a bit about Amish dishes (being that I’m part Pennsylvania Dutch and part German) but I heard about two dishes this weekend that weren’t familiar at all. Hog Maw was the special at one place we stopped at the other night. Can’t even describe what comes to mind when that phrase rolls off my tongue. It’s pig stomach stuffed with potatoes, sausage and cabbage. Sounds yummy, eh ? Not so much ! Or how about slippery pot pie ? Apparently all the pot pie I’ve ever had was the sticky kind and not the “slippery” one cause it has a whole separate category here in Chambersburg. The slippery variety has noodles in it….THAT I might have been brave enough to try if I needed to.

Our rock star tour continues…we arrived in Vienna, VA around 11 and parked our rig at a Wal-Mart that just opened two weeks ago. Easy to  get into and out of….asked for permission to leave it overnight and after going through several employees, got the A-ok to leave it there overnight. Linda’s sister-in-law picked us up and brought us back to their house. We’re having a great visit and are enjoying the birds at the feeder off of the deck.

Leaving C-Burg…

 

 

 

 

 

We leave Chambersburg tomorrow morning, headed for Vienna, VA. It’s a bittersweet time for Linda as she has had a great time hanging out with her family but it will be this time next year before  she sees them again. A long time to go without seeing them when you enjoy being around your family and being a part of their family’s lives (children’s athletic games, family outings, etc.). We spent a good part of the day at Linda’s sister Kay’s house. Coby (the picture on the right) is a senior in high school. Karlee, on the left of Linda, is the last child in school. We went pumpkin picking today so Karlee could get her pumpkin ready for Halloween. Found a great selection at an old time roadside stand, where the honor system ( a box mounted on the wall) is the method of paying. Lots of squash (winter, crook neck, hubbard), along with tomatoes, onions, green beans, honey and maple syrup. Loaded up with pumpkins, perfect for making a Halloween masterpiece, we headed back to Kay’s house. The masterpiece didn’t get finished because Karlee had soccer practice. Busy household ! Everyone is running in a different direction to work, school function or task to be done. So great to spend time with Kay and her family.  We also got to borrow her dehydrator to make some squash chips. Like potato chips but much healthier for you…made with the crook neck squash and sprinkled with sea salt/garlic salt and dehydrated. Last time I made them, I did them in the oven and it took me all afternoon. Took longer to make them than it did to eat them ! Will be much quicker with a machine.

 

 

 

 

 

Still no word on where in Florida we are heading for our assignments. Were supposed to hear on Monday from our boss but no call. Not sweating it….still a few more stops to make to see the rest of Linda’s kids and grandkids.

 

We did learn what happened when we plugged the little space heater in and lost power in some of our receptacles. Turns out the inverter tripped. Matt, from the dealership called today and told me how to access the inverter and to hit the reset button. Sure enough, that did the trick. We didn’t have an inverter in our old rig (turns 12 v. power into 110 v.power) so you can run items for a limited time off the inverter without having to turn the generator on. The circuit that tripped ran all the indoor TV’s (4 of them) so it was important that we get it figured out. Now we know how to correct this problem if it arises again.

Leaving the Sweely clan tomorrow

We’ve been visiting my mom and brothers/sister since Tuesday and will be leaving tomorrow morning. We had an excellent parking spot next to Jim’s sugar shack and this morning discovered that he has a 50 amp receptacle (uses it for his reverse osmosis machine) so are able to be “plugged in” for the last day that we’ll be here. Next year we’ll know and can be plugged in the whole visit. We have a beautiful view, down the valley, from where we are parked. The other night we could see the red glow in the sky of a gas well that they are burning off in the distance. You could see the flames rise and fall from the well on the distant horizon. We’re hanging out at Jim and Edie’s house this afternoon (hence the use of their wi-fi). Jim is firing up the grill to cook lunch soon. This is Jim and I sitting on the couch. We’ve had such a good time with my family. It’s been a long time since we’ve had this much time to have a leisurely visit and not have to rush off like we’ have to do after a holiday meal, etc. Linda

got a tour off the sugar shack and heard about the maple process and also of the beekeeping that Jim does. It’s really interesting and a pretty sophisticated process.

Jim works for a company that builds post and beam houses and is located about a mile from his house. It’s very convenient for him and he’s worked there for 25 years. My sister Phyllis is retired and seems to be busier now than she was when she had her florist shop. She runs the food bank and that keep her pretty busy and is very rewarding to serve the community that way.

Tomorrow morning we’ll leave here and head towards Chambersburg, making a stop in Lemoyne to see some friends. We’ll stay in Chambersburg until Wednesday morning. Should hear first of the week where we’re heading in Florida. No word yet from our boss with any details but he promised to call on Monday. 

Rig & Family

In previous posts we’ve mentioned how awesome Al, our salesman at Whitehorse RV, has been with keeping an eye on our rig before we came to pick it up. When we arrived to make the move into the new rig, he handed us this box and said to make sure we took it with us before we left. Here is what was in it….four delectable bakery items. One was a super rich carrot cake, lemon sponge cake, chocolate mousse tart with chocolate covered strawberry on top and the last item was a strawberry sponge cake with fresh blueberries and a cherry on top. As we were moving into the evening and needed an energy boost, we’d take a few bites of these yummy things.

A huge hurdle that we hit with purchasing the rig has been the financing. The first bank that gave us preliminary “approval”…Bank of the West..backed out when they found out we are full time RV’ers. The finance lady submitted our info to two other banks and they also said no. Fulltimers are frowned upon by financial institutions. Guess they don’t like the gypsy nature of our lives. Another bank, Alliant Credit Union, had been into the RV dealership recently and pitched them that they have a speedy process, will finance for full-timers, yada yada. We started the process with them last Thursday and every day they wanted more and more documentation. Now, keep in mind that we’re on the move…driving a rig we haven’t paid for and the dealership is being really great sports about the whole thing. We are also not fully settled so I’m trying to scan documents (after trying to FIND them in the rig), fire up the generator so the scanner will work, balance the laptop on one knee…quite the acrobatic act to do all this and be out and about with family and friends. Yesterday, we’d had enough with Alliant. After our boss submitted our wages, on letterhead, they then wanted all of our bank statements showing all of our commissions having been deposited into our checking account. ENOUGH ! We’ve been dealing with them since last Thursday and still no answer from them. We told them we’d had it…they had received statements of all of our assets (retirement and non-retirement) and could see that we had enough money to support our loan. We decided to pay cash for it and be done with it.  Our investments, in the stock market, have taken a hit anyways so we’ll save the interest money and own our rig outright. I had heard, from RV dealers that I work with across the country, that financing has been an issue for qualified buyers and now we’ve seen it firsthand. Even with excellent credit, banks are being very tight fisted. So we’re in the process of moving money to pay for our home. In the meantime, Whitehorse is being very patient….bless them !

Visiting with mom and my brothers and sister. We’re going with mom and my sister/BIL to the casino tomorrow. Hey, maybe we’ll hit the jackpot and it’ll pay for our rig. Wonder if I can find a lucky rabbit’s foot to take with me. We’ll see….

So Busy…Just a Mention..

We have been crazy busy with picking up the rig last Monday, working a couple days at getting things organized/downsizing, etc and visiting family and friends in between all of that. Will post more later on the whole experience but suffice it to say that it took us about 15 hours (two days) to even get the stuff out of the old rig and into the new rig. Couldn’t put the trike in the garage cause it was full of “stuff”. Had to drive to Linda’s brother’s house to borrow their minivan for the couple of days that my kids would be in town (aka: airport shuttle) and then go to a campground outside Philly Thursday afternoon to get ready for my daughter’s flight to arrive. Her flight was an hour late departing, from Boston, so consequently she didn’t arrive till around 11 p.m. Had a great time with Becky, Nick (her boyfriend) and my son Jay.

It’s now Tuesday…we arrived at mom’s around mid-day. Yesterday we left NJ, dropped some items off at Linda’s sister’s house and made our way to Williamsport. I stopped by Penn College to see my former colleagues and tour some of the new facilities….so great to see everyone ! We are parked at my brother’s house…it’s a perfect spot. Although he sits up on a hill, his road is in much better shape than I remembered. Linda got too nervous when we started up the steep driveway….she ran to the back of the rig and covered her eyes. When we got up to his driveway, it was so easy to back up into the driveway next to the sugar shack (where he processes maple syrup). A perfect spot with a great view. We’ve found our place to stay when we come home.

Here’s a picture that I took of Linda with her brother, Roy and his wife Kathie. We had a great time spending time with them and are so thankful that we could borrow their mini van to use to pick the kids up at the airport and haul them around all weekend.

Lots to do in the days ahead. Using my brothers wireless internet (thank goodness since there’s no call service here) so will be able to post as I get time. Stay tuned…