Heading West by Going East

After several days visiting Auburn and having Sparky examined, Pattie and I headed over to Stone Mountain, GA for a couple weeks.  We needed to recon a couple places near Atlanta, so we can visit Pattie’s family who live in Atlanta.  We stayed in the excellent Stone Mountain State Park campground.  It doesn’t get much better than this setting with lake front lots, groomed sites, and entertainment of all types. 

There are several trails around the park to bike and hike including to the top of the mountain.  There is also a cable car lift for those less athletic.  We purchased tickets for the Duck Ride since Pattie had never been on one before.  The Duck is an amphibious military surplus vehicle that they drive from land into the lake and give you a tour of the facilities and history in the area.  On Saturday night, we went to the laser show that is projected against the carvings on Stone Mountain.  It is free and incorporates digital video as well as lasers in an entertaining presentation.  It was a wonderful day and we headed back to The Bus about 10:30pm. 

When we got back to The Bus, Sparky was ready to go for a walk.  We had checked on her several times during the day and noticed she was having trouble urinating.  Unfortunately, she could no longer urinate and after consultations with the emergency vets locally and back at Auburn; it was time.  We bundled her up and took her to the emergency vet nearby, gave her some Conecuh sausage that we always shared, and eased her into that final sleep.  Our hearts were broken, but we are thankful the Lord gave us 13 years with her to enjoy each other’s company.  Having been full-time for a little over two months at this point, we had developed our routine with Sparky.  It does add to the logistics and constrains your schedule to have a pet along for the ride.  However, once you get accustomed to it; it is hard to adjust to a loved one no longer with you. 

During the week, I work from The Bus when away from my Huntsville, AL office.  The following week, a large project that I am the lead for and have been working on for 5 years was ready to enter the proposal phase.  This requires my full team participation in California for a couple months.  I flew to Los Angles for the first week leaving Pattie to visit family in Atlanta.  We hatched a plan to put The Bus in storage and fly her to CA.  So, I flew back over a weekend and we dropped the cat (yes, it has a name.  Katy, and no we don’t get along) off with our sons, put The Bus in storage, and flew back to CA together. 

This is the first time since I have been working for this company that Pattie has been able to join me in CA.  We are enjoying our time together seeing the sites, watching football with the local Auburn Club, and hanging out with friends that I work with or know in the area. 

We also took time to take the Warner Brothers Studio Tour and visit the Ronald Reagan Museum.  Both were well worth the effort.

We are enjoying the amenities of the Residence Inn in Burbank, CA and all the restaurants within walking distance.  However, it isn’t home.  So, we are researching campgrounds close enough to my work where we could bring The Bus out and live in it to complete this project.  So far, the pickings are slim unless I want to subject myself to an hour plus commute in LA traffic each day. 

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You know you are a full-time RV’r when:  You see a new coffee cup you want and realize that if you buy it, you will need to throw away one you already own. 

Praises in the Storm

The musical group Casting Crowns sings a song titled “Praise You in This Storm” which comes to mind as I prepare this month’s blog.  Pattie and I have been on the move since we began our full-time RV adventure. “Well, duh. It’s a RV and you are suppose to travel.”  Yeah, but our moving about has been more out of obligations than adventure seeking.  In the last blog, we left Red Bay, AL and headed to Tombigbee State Park outside of Tupelo, MS after having work done to fix a pesky roof leak and make some upgrades.  The residential refrigerator is doing its thing with no drama and the TV/BlueRay system is quite nice.   The roof leak has weathered a couple storms, but we are keeping an eye on it.  The Tombigbee State Park was the first place we have stayed that really felt like a relaxing campground rather than a converted parking lot. 

The RV park was level and offered full hook-up with advertised 50 amp service.  However, we were only getting 30 amps from our site as were many others; so we had to alternate which air conditioner to run, as it would not support both simultaneously.  Our friendly Cajun neighbor said, “They don’t have good e-lek-tik here.”   Love the Cajun accent.  We picked Tombigbee State Park to rest over the weekend because it was on our way to Tuscaloosa, AL where we were headed to support my Mom for a heart procedure. 

Since the RV lifestyle kind of demands that you seek out what is interesting wherever you travel, we headed over to the Elvis Presley Museum since Tupelo is his birthplace.  Neither of us are big Elvis fans, but we learned a lot about how the King of Rock and Roll got his start.  After the tour, we headed over to Johnnie’s Drive-in for some lunch sine that is where Elvis ate.  It was good home cooking.

On Sunday, we headed over to Sunset RV Park in Tuscaloosa and checked in with Mom.  Her procedure was set for early Thursday morning with prep work in Birmingham, AL on Wednesday.  I worked from The Bus Mon-Wed and Pattie took our old beagle Sparky to a local vet to get a lump on her leg x-rayed and a mole taken off her eyelid.  She boarded Sparky there so we could get a hotel room in Birmingham Wednesday night to pre-position for the Thursday procedure.  Amongst this storm, my nephew Nathan flew in to Birmingham between Air Force assignments and was able to visit with his GranNan before she went in to surgery.  The surgery went well and we were able to bring Mom home Sunday.  Nathan had just finished basic training and was enroute to his first duty station in Wyoming.  He needed to buy a dependable car and in between all the other events, I went with him car shopping.  It was a praise for timing to work the way it did allowing me to help him in the purchase negotiations and share Air Force experiences.  

The storms continued into the following week when the veterinarian said that she was so concerned about the lump on Sparky’s leg that she would not recommend removing the eyelid mole and referred us to the Auburn University Vet School for specialist evaluation.  I worked all week from Mom’s house and we departed Friday to Maxwell Recreation Area on Lake Martin near Dadeville, AL.   We had reservations for site 54 on the water, but when we arrived we found a truck with an empty boat trailer parked directly in that spot (clueless or just self-centered?). 

We called the office and they said they would get in-touch with the owner.  We sat in the middle of the road for an hour with the generator running having lunch before a couple young ladies came up in a golf cart saying they could not reach the owner.  After some reasoned discussion with me mentioning “Tow Truck” several times, we got them to agree to allow us to swap reservations with someone else who was not coming in until later.   The lake was beautiful.  We swam every day and rented a boat after church on Sunday to ride around and look at all the lake homes.  Since our referral appointment for Sparky was not until Thursday, we stayed a couple more days with me working from The Bus and relocated to Auburn RV Park during lunch hour on Wednesday. 

This is our first time to stay at the Auburn RV Park south of Auburn, AL and it is very nice.  We have a level, shady spot right on a creek.  Well-maintained grass areas and full hook-up with cable is nice since the trees block the satellite signal.  We took Sparky to the Auburn University Veterinarian School where an amazing team of doctors and students ran all sorts of tests.  Then we received the call.  The doctors found numerous masses in her lungs…cancer.  Sparky is 13 years old and even with heroic type efforts; she would only have about 6 months to live.  We took her back to The Bus and have some medicines to help keep her comfortable.  We will monitor her daily and when she begins to have more bad days than good, it will be time to take her back for a final goodbye. 

“But as the thunder rolls

I barely hear You whisper through the rain

"I'm with you"

And as Your mercy falls

I raise my hands and praise the God who gives

And takes away”

Casting Crowns, Praise You in This Storm

Repairs and Modifications

I suppose veteran RV’ers have come to accept that there will always be something on their rig that doesn’t work or needs fixing.  That’s really not that much different from a bricks and sticks home, but in an RV you are subjecting your home to an earthquake everyday.  There will always be some little thing that isn’t quite working correctly.  In our last entry, we were at the Tiffin Service Center in Red Bay, AL preparing to get some things fixed.  We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and on Tuesday morning we were summoned to the Express Bay.  The techs removed and resealed the front A/C unit to address our leak, installed a new motor and tensioner in the awning, adjusted the rear bedroom slide and killed a sporadic electrical gremlin.  We stayed until Thursday so we could tour the factory and watch them build new Tiffin motorhomes.  They are rolling out 12 units a day!  During the 2007-2008 economic slump, they were turning out 3 per day.  The new units were really nice and I am envious of their networked wiring architecture.

We returned to Huntsville, AL and I was able to put some time in at the office and check our P.O. Box where our sons forwarded gathered mail.  The following week there was a fast moving storm that poured rain and we found out the hard way that the roof-sealing repair was not effective.  I called the Tiffin Service Center and told them I was heading their way on Thursday.  When we arrived, they took us directly to Bay 8 and techs immediately removed the font A/C unit and a specialist came and resealed everything.  Two hours after they finished, a rain shower came through and no leaks!  Hopefully, that is the last we will see of this problem.  The Tiffin folks were great and let us stay in their park free that night. 

On Friday, we drove the rig over to MS RV Solution near Golden, MS (check them out on Facebook) to have a residential refrigerator installed as well as upgrade the audio/visual system.  The standard RV refrigerators (ours was a Norcold or better known as “NeverCold”) are complicated and run on propane or electric.  Their ability to maintain a constant temperate is poor and they tend to fail under full time use.  Over the last six weeks, we have experienced food spoilage, icemaker failure, and freezing up of the unit.  Daniel Humphries at MS RV Solutions (256-324-0457) and his partner Carl do all types of RV renovations and several residential refrigerator upgrades per month.  They work with an excellent woodworker who goes by TJ (662-279-4022) who also does the TV upgrades and cabinetwork.  Together they removed our Norcold unit and replaced it with a Whirlpool side by side.  There is only one unit that will fit our space, so the only choices we had were color and water/ice in the door or not.  We went with stainless and no water/ice in the door to keep it simple.  Since RV doors are too small for the units to pass through, they removed the driver’s side window and hoisted them out/in through there.   

Out with old Norcold

Big hole when driver's window is removed

Wow! Look at that storage space.

Finished like it was from the factory

While Daniel was working on the refrigerator, TJ removed our 2006 era 32in Panasonic TV and surround sound/DVD combo and installed a 40in Sony LED Smart TV and Samsung Blue Ray surround system.  The original system worked, but used component video cables run through the coach and one set of cables had failed making it necessary to swap connections between satellite TV and DVD play.  TJ removed those bulky cables and replaced them with three HDMI and one Audio optic cable.  The results are outstanding.  Picture clarity is superb and the surround sound allows me to Bluetooth my phone to hear music through out the coach.  TJ’s woodwork matches the original perfectly and you would never know this was not installed at the factory.

Original 2006 era TV

TJ removing old component video cables

New cables run

New TV covers full width of box without wood trim frame

Like factory. Nice work TJ!

Modifications complete, we headed south to Tupelo, MS and set up at Tombigbee State Park.  We plan to rest and relax over the weekend and check out the house Elvis grew up in.  Why?  Because it is here and so are we.

Pattie trying something new in Tupelo…Chocolate Martini

Next week, we plan to be back in Tuscaloosa, AL for repairs of a different kind.  My mother will be undergoing heart surgery and Sparky will have a large mole removed from her eyelid. 

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Tips/Quotes:  You know you are an RVer when you are ready to catch something every time you open a cabinet.

It is the Southeast for Now 

We closed on our house 12 June and said goodbye to Maryland friends before we headed south to visit our sons in Auburn, AL over Father’s Day weekend.  Paid our last taxes to Maryland leaving the state.

On the way to church Father’s Day Sunday, Chris bought me breakfast.

 After church, William treated me to a movie.

Pattie says in the first father’s day in 15 years where I was not enjoying bonding during a Boy Scout father/son campout or working at Dunkirk Baptist Church’s Father’s Day car show.  It was nice to relax.

Next, we headed to Huntsville, AL where my company has assigned me to an office.  I got it squared away while Pattie set up at the Redstone Arsenal FamCamp.  Unfortunately, we could only stay three days at the FamCamp, so we moved to a campground near Decatur, AL.  There were thunderstorms every day that rocked The Bus.  Fortunately, the campground has a large (100 person) underground storm shelter. I left Pattie to watch the dog for a couple days and flew to Maryland for a friend’s wedding.  Jeff and Cheryl Watson were gracious enough to allow me to stay with them.  It was odd not going back to our house. 

Once back in Huntsville, I was able to get the windows tinted on the Jeep, have dinner with some friends and work a few more days before heading to Tuscaloosa to visit Mom over the Fourth of July weekend.  She has been having some health issues and we are postponing our trip out west until her and my mother-in-law’s surgeries are over in August. It must be all the Crimson Tide logos in Tuscaloosa because our dog Sparky got sick as well.  Pattie took her to a vet and got some shots and antibiotics.  She seems to be responding well.  William came up and we grilled hamburgers for everyone.  We let William take Pattie’s Honda Accord back to college with him to store it for us. 

Sunday 5 July, we headed to Red Bay, AL to the Tiffin factory to get some minor issues address on The Bus.  I will work from the mobile office this week as we hope to get it in for service.  There are several ahead of us, so we don’t know how long this will take.

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Casting Off

So much has occurred since our last post.  We are near the end of a two-year timeline to transition from living in a bricks and sticks home to an RV.  Today, we closed on our house in Maryland and set off for adventure.  It was a good house that made a nice home for our family for about 15 years.  There are many things we will miss about it and the Southern Maryland community, but it is not where we want to retire and we want to take our time seeing the country and finding our next spot to settle.  How long that will take, we do not know.  For now, we say farewell to our old friend and wish the new owners as much peace and happiness as we found there.

The last six months has been very busy packing, putting the house on the market, moving items to long-term storage, sorting and giving away final bits and cleaning the house for final inspection.  We were blessed at every step.  Pattie did the bulk of packing and cleaning.  I did sorting, hauling to dump/charities and continued to work full-time.  Some friends from church helped us load the "U Pack" container truck and our sons' college friends helped us unload on the other end.  I don’t think we have had a day without something planed for six months.

Now with the house sold and things in storage, we are at The Bus trying to figure out where we will store all the last minute stuff we took with us.  I am sure it is too much, but we have become pretty good at pairing down what is not needed.  Tonight, we took time to sit outside and go for a walk along the beach at the Navy Recreation Area in Solomons, MD.  Tomorrow, we have nothing planned.