Wow, It's About Time We Got Back

Hello again!  Did you miss me?  Well, boy, oh boy, have we got some news for you!  Last time I posted was years ago - please don't ask how many, just trust it was a lifetime ago!  So, I'll catch you up real quick like.

Lots has happened.  We bought a house in TX.  We sold it.  We moved to FL and bought another house.  Fixed it all up nice, bought furniture (and, YES, another sewing machine), hosted LOTS of friends and family for sleepovers and stopovers.  Visited The Freezer many, many times (but still not enough), watched manatees for FOUR WINTERS, cut grass, revamped flower beds and held many, many lazy river races in the pool.  Traded in the 5th wheel and dually pickup on a Holiday Rambler bucket of bolts.  Spent a couple of years trying to fix the darned thing, including an all-expense paid trip to Indiana (where we made a side trip to O-hio, oh, don't even ASK about that one, but, DeeDee, YOU know why!!!), then sold the house and 5.6 acres!  But, not till AFTER we painted the fence.  Three times.

So, off we go, into the wild blue yonder, all 3 of us, and a boatload of stuff.  Most of the big stuff was sold with the house, but not my sewing machines.  One came with, along with some rulers and embroidery stuff, and thread.  Lots of thread.  But not enough.  Never enough thread.

All crammed into a little 35 footer bucket of bolts.  After about a month, we started shopping around.  That's different than schlepping around, just in case you were wondering.  We were doing that too, schlepping, but now we were shopping.  After an some rude treatment at a Newmar dealer down in Winter Garden, we took our business (and money) up to Georgia, and found a motorhome we both loved.  Trouble was, the eating area was still a booth dinette affair.  NOT what we were looking for.

So we learned we could actually place an order and get everything the way we wanted, including the seating options and fabric choices.  Yeah, really!  Sign us up!.  Dec 5th, we placed our order.  Then we met Molly and her people, Charles and Barbara.  Through them, we met lots of OTHER people, all of whom have been wonderful and fun to be with.

What a wild and crazy winter we had in Silver Springs.  We visited the springs several times, yes, even went to The Freezer on a few occasions, danced, oh boy, did we dance.  Danced every week, often 3-4 times a week.  Met lots of new campers (new, as in, never camped before and are now full-timing), hopefully we passed on a few tidbits of wisdom and some encouragement...and were only cold a few times.  All in a 35 foot bucket of bolts.

So, come March, you can only imagine our excitement when they told us our new motorhome was coming off the line on Driver's birthday at the end of the month.  Charles was there, faithfully counting down our days, and he could hardly contain his excitement on our behalf.  Some backstory - Charles is such a fan of Newmar products, he has been to the factory many times, and is currently in his 5th Newmar, in 6 years.  Not that there was anything wrong with any of 'em, he just likes the innovations and features that keep coming in the Newmar lineup.

We left Silver Springs on Mar 23rd and drove ourselves up to Lawrenceville, GA, fully anticipating our new home would be on the lot, as we'd been promised delivery on the 21st.  Ummmmmmmmmm, Dick luck prevailed, and there was no new home for us that we could see.  And all week, there was still no new home for us.  Finally, the salesman called and found out that the factory had had an unplanned shutdown (probably due to the inclement weather up in Indiana!) for a week, so delivery had been delayed.  So why couldn't he have called to confirm delivery PRIOR to us driving up, we wondered?

So, the coach and driver (not Driver, this one was a pro, hired specifically to deliver this coach to this dealer) set out on a Thursday morning.  About 100 miles from start, the Check Engine light came on, and the coach shut itself off.  Oh yes it did.  Then a tow truck was summoned, the coach was taken to Freightliner, got repaired.  And sat, waiting for the driver to return.  In a week.  Yes, really. While we sat in the dealer's parking lot, freezing our buns off.  But the really fun part was that during this time, we re-connected with Bob & Louise, a couple we had met while we were managing Twin Oaks, down in Perry, GA.  THEY were picking up THEIR new Dutch Star motorhome from the same dealer, supposedly, the same week WE were.  Small world, eh?

Long story short, we finally got the coach delivered, found a few minor issues (some of which were cosmetic and caused by the tow truck driver's carelessness) and have an appointment at the factory to get everything all fixed up.

We've been living in this beauty a month now, and we're more in love with it than ever.  What a difference 10 feet makes!  And yes, it allows for even MORE thread to be aboard.  Teehee, never enough thread.😁

We just spent the last few days on the beach in Mayport, with Gail & Gary, dear friends from Ocala.  We've been dancing and camping (and camping and dancing) with them for about 4 years now, and there has sure been a lot of laughter over that time.  There was no shortage of laughs this week either.  We will surely miss those two!