We're Done!!!!

Finally finished……..yeah!!!   The last couple of weeks didn't go exactly as we'd hoped but the end result is AWESOME (in our opinion) so it was worth the wait.

We did take our road trip to Crossville, TN where we spent some quality time with dear friends there.  So glad we went because this week Bob has been in the hospital with LOTS of fluid having been drained from his lungs.  He was really struggling with rehab when we were there and wife, Betty, is just plain worn out from going to see him, handling things on her own, plus worrying about what the next step is going to be.  I can't tell you how many times they told us that they just aren't ready to give up their home and friends in TN to move closer to their daughter in NC (which she desperately wants). We do think that is going to be 'gently forced' upon them in the very near future so we are very glad we got to see them when we did but it sure takes the wind out of your sails thinking that is could be ahead for all of us.  On a lighter note, we did see a couple of other friends there and had a great visit with them and hope to see them 'on the road' sometime soon as they are both RVers too.

Enroute back to Elkhart from Crossville on Thursday, we got a call from Haulmark mid afternoon asking if we could spend another night in a hotel as they were not as far along as they'd hoped.  Ugh!!  Hotels are not our thing anymore (especially Dick and Murphy) but we agreed if it would get us done on Friday.  When we got there on Friday a.m., they had made good progress…….but wouldn't be complete by day's end as they'd run into a couple of issues.  However, we were able to bring the coach back to the campground for the weekend as it was livable, without a dinette area, and then take it back Monday a.m.

Dick was there bright & early Monday a.m. and they went to install the dinette and it was too long (there's only so much room in a motorhome).  Apparently, the engineering gal had measured wrong (or so they say) and since these are all 'custom built' she had them build their 'standard' size and we aren't 'standard'.  Soooooo……the wood guys had to build another one, the Corian counter tops had to be taken to be recut and sized properly, and we had to go back Wednesday to have it all installed and it fit perfectly this time!!!  Needless to say, the wood guys were NOT happy to build another one,  but were glad to see us happy in the end.  They wrapped us up Wednesday afternoon after doing some 'extra' little things for us at no charge since we had extra wait time.  One more little 'funny' though……as Dick was pulling out of their parking lot on Wednesday, (the workers were all gone home by then) four of the new desk drawers came open.  So he propped them closed and got back to the campground.  Friday a.m. he went back down there to see how they wanted to handle that as the gal forgot to put the closures on them.  We really like Char, she has bent over backwards for us ever since we've had this coach, so we didn't want to get her in trouble, but we can't have drawers opening going down the road.  Dick jokingly told her maybe she could come to the campground and do it there……..and that's exactly what she did.  Took about 15 minutes and she couldn't apologize enough although she did joke that she did it on purpose so she could pet Murphy one more time.

Once Char was gone, we started the chore of putting things all back together.  It was almost like moving in for the first time because we had to find 'different' homes for a lot of 'stuff' since our storage was totally different now in several areas.  By Friday evening we were pretty well settled and all in all very very pleased with the results.  I will attach some pictures.

We are paid here at this campground through next weekend, however, we will leave Thursday headed for my brothers in IL where we'll spend the weekend so Dick can attend his 50th class reunion.   From there our plans are to 'slowly' head west getting back into the Phoenix area early September for our granddaughters wedding and some medical/dental appointments.  At this time, we're not sure how long we'll spend in Phoenix as Dick's son has to have heel surgery again and will need our help but that date hasn't been determined yet so we'll see.

We have enjoyed our time here in Elkhart…..although Dick says 'enough is enough' and I, too, am ready to get back on the road.  We have enjoyed this weekend here with some RVing friends who are vendors at various rallies and are just kinda 'hanging out' here until their next rally in August.  So we will both leave on Thursday and meet up probably this winter in AZ at a couple of rallies being held in the Phoenix area.

Here are a couple of pictures of why we've spent two months in Elkhart………

New desk/entertainment center and chair
(for those who haven't seen our coach, our entry door
is to the right of the desk)

New Sofa (recliners on ends) and dinette area.  Table extends if needed.
New carpet in living room and bedroom.  

Week Six in Elkhart

We have hopes that the upcoming week will see some big accomplishments as we take the rig in to Haulmark tomorrow a.m. and they will keep it until Thursday p.m.  They were building all the cabinetry last week, counter tops, carpet, new awning, and whatever else they would need had been ordered so we have high hopes we will see a big difference when we pick it up on Thursday.

While they are working on the rig, we are going to take a road trip in the car to Crossville, TN to see some dear friends who are having health issues right now.  We figured we'd have to be in a hotel anyway, we might as well make it in Crossville, about 8 hours from here.

This week has seen all the RV industry return to work after the holiday vacation week and we were able to get a couple of things accomplished.  Dick took the rig to South Bend for an oil change……note, I said an oil change.  This is a Freightliner dealer, we had an appointment for 8 a.m. and thought sure he'd be back by noon at the latest.  Of course, they had a couple of emergencies with over the road drivers so they came first and that was ok but they didn't start on us until almost noon & then they did something called a 60-point check up, which isn't a bad thing but it had just been done last year and doesn't need to be done every year unless mileage warrants.  Anyway, that takes longer and, of course, the bill was MUCH higher than we expected.  Dick kept asking about what was taking so long and they always had a reason but it was obvious when he saw the bill what the delay was.  Ouch!!!  Oh well, we are good to go once again, with just less money in our pockets.  He got back to Elkhart about 3:30ish so was a long day of just waiting in a waiting room for him.  As for me, I had taken Murphy to day camp, and then just hung out doing some shopping and 'girl' things so Murphy and I had a good day.

Friday we had an appointment to have the generator worked on.  Onan, generator company, is here in Elkhart so it wasn't a long trip and we hoped it wouldn't be another long day and this time we got lucky.  They found a bad relay switch that has been bad for some time now (although it would work 'sometimes') so we were back home mid-morning.  It has definitely been weeks of unhooking and setting up again but we are feeling good about what has been done so far.

We've had some rain this week, some high humidity days (ugh) and then some sunny days but overall the weather while here has been typical IN summer weather.

Some folks we met in Benson, AZ last winter were here for one night this past week.  They were on their way to MI from MO in search of cooler weather for him to recuperate from hernia surgery.  We had a nice but short visit as they were having a new satellite dish installed on their rig while here.  We said our goodbyes and we'll see you in Benson later this year.    Then yesterday afternoon another full-time RV friend arrived for the weekend.  We met him in Rapid City in 2011 while we were all becoming SD residents and have kept in touch since then.  He's on his way to see some other mutual friends in VT for awhile this summer before he too spends the winter back in AZ.

That's pretty much it for us this week.  This blog isn't too exciting this year but it is what we expected and all just part of this lifestyle.  Some days/weeks more exciting than others……..

Next week I hope I have pictures of the newly remodeled motor home to show you…….  In the meantime, have a good week.   I was in Walmart one day this week and they were stocking the shelves with school supplies………what!!!   Where did the summer go?

Still Here In Elkhart…….

Belated Happy Birthday America!  I hope everyone had a nice holiday and a safe one as well.

I didn't update the blog last Sunday as I was in IL visiting family….truth to be told, just plain forgot about the blog for a few days.  I'm back in IN now and so will catch you up.

Since the last blog, the small awning was fixed, the old sofa and part of the dinette was removed to make room for the new sofa which is now in and we LOVE it!!  The new window shades are in and love those as well.  Now we're anxious for the rest of it to be done but I think we're still looking at another 10 days or so.  This past week pretty much all of the RV industry has been on their annual vacation here in the area, so not much was done and that's why we decided it was a good week for me to go to IL and visit family.  Dick did take the rig back to Bradd and Hall, the company that installed the shades, on Monday and they put the last shade up.  I think I mentioned earlier that Haulmark had to make a valance for a window that never had one before in order for us to have a shade on that window.   They did that, however, when the shade came in, that company had sent the wrong size, so Haulmark made another valance & so now all shades are in and work great.   That was the extent of the RV work done this week.

Murphy has been a bit under the weather and we've had him to the vet once while here but Dick took him back again this week.  He's on some new meds and I think we're on the right path to getting his bathroom habits back to normal.  Enough said……….

I had a very nice visit at my brothers, however, it did turn a bit exciting towards the end.  I mentioned that my sister-in-law and her girlfriend were here in the area to enjoy the Quilt Gardens (beautiful flower gardens in this part of IN), and a bit of shopping.  I rode back to IL with them and intended to return to IN on Monday, however, Mother Nature had another plan.  She kept predicting storms on Monday so we decided to come on Tuesday, weather permitting.  Weather was great on Monday, however, mid afternoon the skies turned, and by 7 p.m. it was lightening like crazy and raining very very hard.  We had followed my brother to drop his big grain truck off for service and then we grabbed a sandwich before heading home.  When we left the restaurant, the skies had opened up and I don't think I've seen lightening and rain like that for years.  You have to remember, we've lived in the SW for years and it rarely rains so I've gotten rather wimpy with storms but they even admitted it was good to get home and off the roads.  Just about as fast as the rain came in, it left, and the rest of the evening was pleasant and the kind of evening where you open the windows and enjoy the breeze.  Well, that changed again about 10:30 p.m. when the winds were calculated at 80+ mph, and again raining like crazy.  I definitely don't like storms at night like that because you can't see anything, and the TV goes in and out as you're trying to find out what's going on.  Again, it didn't last long but it did do quite a bit of damage.  My family lives in Morris, IL and on Tuesday they said we had had a 'small' tornado go through that area.  The town was pretty much 'closed' on Tuesday as no one had power and many corn fields were flattened.  I had just commented about how wonderful the crops looked this year…….but not so much on Tuesday.  Power came back on for most of Morris and the surrounding communities by Tuesday p.m. and as of this morning, his corn crop is coming back.  His wasn't the worst fields by any means but it's still devastating as you put everything you have into these crops.  I'm glad to hear that it won't be a total loss and hopefully the other farmers in the area can say the same.  Fortunately, trees  and power lines down, and corn fields flattened, was about the extent of the damage so they were fortunate I'd say.   Tuesday we spent cleaning up the yard so she brought me back here on Wednesday and it was nice to be 'home' again.   As much as I love going and doing things, it's always nice to come back 'home', even if our home is on wheels.

We had a quiet 4th of July although I think all of the local Elkhart residents were shooting off fireworks until the wee hours of this morning.  Our youngest granddaughter turned 20 this week……wow, where does the time go?

This coming week we will meet with Haulmark and see how they're coming along on our cabinetry and we have an appointment at the generator place to see what's going on with that and why it won't start.

Sofa/dinette prior to removal

Sofa & half of the dinette removed before new sofa arrived

New recliner sofa

One of the many quilt gardens in full bloom around
Elkhart area

A couple arrived one night here at campground with
15 birds of prey.  They put them out on these stands for the
evening & it was quite a site.  They travel the country doing educational
presentations on raptors.  

Their website is www.flightoftheraptor.com if you'd like to check them out.

An owl was also amongst their collection of birds