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Today started as most of my days do–with me dawdling in bed until my body finally said, “Enough is enough. Get up already!” Soon I was settled into my recliner with my iPad doing my morning weather check which said today’s forecast was sunny with light breezes but tomorrow’s forecast was for thunderstorms with winds gusting to 25 mph. So, I said to Dave that the weather seem to be saying we should go today instead of tomorrow. He said, “Probably,” then added a comment about it being rather late in the day to start since we hadn’t finished the prep work yet.

So, I ate breakfast. He went out and got the car’s hitch from the basement bay where we store it while parked longterm and put it back on the car. Then I did a few things to prepare for moving. And Dave did a few more things to prepare for moving.

Finally, I asked, “Are we going today anyway?” Dave replied, “Probably.” Don’t you love how firmly we make decisions? 🙂

So, Dave called the people who needed to figure out our final electric bill and got that process started and I went on preparing to move. We left the park about 1:45 p.m. Which is not a typical departure time. Most of our RVing friends consider that a typical arrival time. But, we are definitely not typical.

We only made it as far south as Lakeville, Minnesota, which has now become a bedroom community for the Twin Cities, before making our first stop. There’s a Cracker Barrel there and we were ready for lunch. Then we headed on south. 

As we traveled down the road I saw a billboard for the Diamond Jo Casino saying it was 60 miles away. I read that as 60 miles to the Iowa Welcome Center. Have we driven this road a few times? Yes, we have. Enough to know for a fact that the Diamond Jo is right next door to the Welcome Center where there is good parking, free wifi, and a dump we didn’t need today. But we did stop there for a move-your-body break.

Our first, at least, overnight will be at the Winnebago factory for one last repair. “Wait,” you say. “Didn’t you stop there last spring on you way to Minneapolis?” “Yes, we did.” “Didn’t they fix everything while you were there?” “Yes, they did.” ” So why are you going there now? You’ve been parked all summer. Surely you did’t break anything while parked?” “Yes, we did.”

Here’s the story. First, some background. Our bedroom slide is on the patio side of the RV at my head height. It has corners that can do some nasty damage to heads if the owners of those heads aren’t paying enough attention when walking by. We hosted two picnics at our RV this summer with several of the guests being about my height. So we took a tip from other RVers and cut a swim noodle to make bumpers to wrap around those corners. So far, so good.

Then one night we were awakened during the night by a severe storm with lots of wind. Enough wind to make the bedroom slide bounce. So, still half-asleep, we decided we should pull that slide in. You got it! We forgot about the bumpers. So that slide needs readjusting. Which we feel a need to have done before selling the RV. So off to the factory’s service center we go. It sure has been nice having them so conveniently located for us.

We pulled in just in time to get parked and hook up our power to their 30 amp outlet before it got dark. 

Thus, ends the first day of our last trip as full timers.

TTYL,

Linda

Well maintained. One owner. (OK, there’s two of us but you know what I mean.) No smoking, no pets. Spacious.

This unit is on a Freightliner chassis and has a Cummins 340 engine and Allison transmission. We put about 20,000 miles on this RV in the year and a half we’ve owned it and never had any trouble getting to where we wanted to go including over the Rocky Mountains a few times. Plus, the almost 35-foot length means we fit into some campsites that 40-footers could not have gotten into.

We updated the electrical system including installing four LifeLine AGM house batteries (6v, 220AH), a Magnum pure sine wave inverter/charger (MS2012), a Trimetric battery monitor (TM 2025-RV) and a Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (LCHW50). The latter has saved us from damage that could have been done by either high or low power in various RV parks where we’ve stayed.  The circuits for the 110 volt outlets and the microwave were moved to a sub-panel which gets its power from the inverter/batteries when you are not on shore power or running the generator. But, we never tested that to see how long you could run things on just the batteries. We had that done to make it easy to upgrade to a solar system which we had planned to be this winter’s project.

The Onan diesel generator has quick start buttons on the dash as well as at the RV’s power management center which means we can start the generator from the cab area if we want to use the oven to make lunch while on the road so the generator has time to warm up a bit while we gather and prep whatever we plan to cook.

The air-conditioner is in the basement (lots of storage down there including a pass through compartment) and is a full-house system which is MUCH quieter than a roof A/C letting us actually talk with friends when it runs. Using the generator to run the A/C while driving makes for already comfortable living when you stop for the evening.

Automatic hydraulic jacks make leveling the rig very easy to do. The pads are large enough to not dig holes in asphalt when extended but we still choose to put pads under them sometimes to keep them from having to extend quite so far if the ground is very uneven. You get to keep our pads.

The air-horn lets you please kids who stand by the road pumping their arms (we only did that once but it was fun) and the exhaust brakes stop you well on big downhills even if the neighbors don’t care for the noise.

There’s an outside shower so beach sand can be washed off before entering the house.

Extra security features include an automatic fire suppression system we installed behind the refrigerator and another one ready to install in the engine compartment. Plus we have various hand held extinguishers stashed around the rig in addition to all the standard alarm/monitoring systems.

All recalls have been done plus we did suspension/steering upgrades. And because we are compulsive, you can have the complete set of manuals and maintenance records we’ve accumulated.

We towed a 2010 Honda CR-V (which we could be talked into selling with the RV but are very willing to keep if you don’t want it) using a Roadmaster All-terrain towing bar which lets you hitch and unhitch the car without it having to be perfectly aligned with the RV. We also have an SMI Air Force One braking system for the car that runs off the air pressure of the motorhome. Hooking and unhooking the towed car is so easy even I can do it. The rear view camera let us keep an eye on the car while we were driving down the road.

Upper and lower pull-out pantries let you store an amazing amount of food. The four door refrigerator/freezer adds to that. Plus there are seven, count them seven, drawers in the kitchen in addition to the upper and lower cabinets.

The combination microwave/convection oven works well and there are instructions and cookbooks included to help you learn how to use the combination cooking feature.

We bought and had installed whole house MCD window shades which allow for full sun, solar blocking/privacy option, or light blocking night shades. Those that are hard to reach have powered remotes.

There are four TVs, two in the living area (we used the big powered retractable one which stores in the buffet to watch movies and the end one over the cab for Wii exercising), one in the bedroom, and one outside under the powered patio awning which makes for fun tailgating parties. There is a stereo system with CD/DVD in the bedroom in addition to the home theater sound system in the living room. The driver and passenger seats swivel and the passenger seat has a foot rest turning it into a recliner for watching movies. The powered queen-size sofa bed also has a reclining position for those who choose to watch TV from there.

There’s also a powered awning over the door, separate from the patio awning, to protect you when coming home in the rain.

The shower has a skylight that brings the outdoors in even in this private space. And the bathroom is large enough to let me store everything I want stored in there while still letting me move about comfortably–no bumping my elbows in this shower. In fact, I had a seat in the shower for awhile until I got strong enough again to stand through an entire shower. The two-height post with the hand-held upgraded shower head helped enormously during that time. Plus, of course, there is a ceiling vent fan to help dissipate the moisture that could otherwise build up in the room. There’s another vent fan in the kitchen area.

The dining table retracts to allow more space for movement in the RV or extends with a leaf to make it long enough to seat four people for dinner or game playing. Two folding chairs with upholstery that matches the other chairs complete the seating there but store in the closet when not needed.

The floor plan allows you access to everything except the dresser and back closet when all the slides are in. Yes, even for those like me who are wide loads. With at least one bedroom slide out there is room to walk all the way around the queen-sized bed. There is a cupboard plumbed for a washer/dryer unit in the bedroom but we chose to go to laundromats so as to be able to do all our wash at once. We did make use of the dirty clothes hamper next to that cupboard, though, and installed a cup hook in it so my bag of delicates would stop migrating to the bottom of the hamper.

For those of you who want to camp out in the boonies here’s what you need to know about capacities: 90 gallon diesel fuel, 92 gallon fresh water, 81 gallon grey water, 57 gallon black water, 28 gallon LPG, and 440 amp hours due to our battery upgrade.

Pictures? You bet we have pictures.

                

What else do you need to know? Price? Well, we turned the RV over to PPL Motor Homes in Houston, Texas, today so you’ll have to wait a couple days for them to get it listed on their website to see what’s happening now. Their website is http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/ and our RV will be listed as unit D135.

We loved living in this RV but it is time for us to move back home to be near friends, family, and our doctors. I like to think whoever buys this RV will enjoy it as much as we have.

TTYL,

Linda

Every female knows the outfit isn’t done until you add the accessories. So here’s my most recent ones.

The basket is the extra large bicycle basket from http://www.peterborobasket.com.

I hung it from jumbo swirly hooks from http://www.think-king.com so it wouldn’t interfere with my ability to apply the scoot’s hand brakes. I was concerned about the placement of the swirly hooks but they do not make the grip uncomfortable at all.

 

Then I tied the bottom of the basket to the upright on the scoot to keep the basket from bouncing around.

Because I bought the extra large basket I have to tilt my knees out to the side to turn sharp corners.

Yes, the basket blocks the cane/crutch holders but I didn’t like putting my cane in there anyway as that interfered a lot with my ability to turn. I just rest my cane on the red catchall leaning back against me and it rides there just fine.

I also added the soft buggy cup from Think King. It’s so big I can put my largest beverage bottle in it.

And I added the CB3 model Crampbuster throttle from www.crampbuster.com to make it more comfortable to drive my scoot.

Now a simple press of thumb takes me, in style, anywhere I want to go.

And it all still fits unfolded in our Honda CR-V as long as I remember to swivel the seat in before I close the hatch. I’ve since discovered that if I turn the handles around so the basket faces the middle of the scoot, I have even more storage space behind it.

Now the leaves are changing colors here which makes for an even prettier view from our campsite but that also means the nights are getting cold so I’m ready to hit the road this weekend after Dave finishes at the dentist Friday.

We plan to drive through Arkansas on our way to Texas to complete the list of having visited all 48 contiguous states in our just over three years of full time RVing.

TTYL,

Linda

Our original plan was to leave here September 20th heading west on US Highway 12.

Then Dave decided he didn’t want to do full-time RVing anymore so he picked out an apartment to rent and we planned to leave here October 14th when this park closes to head down to Texas to sell our RV if we didn’t sell it here before then.

Then Dave decided he’d like to be here for an event the weekend of October 15th so we researched local parks we could move to when this one closes postponing our departure a few more days.

Then it got cold. So cold we had to disconnect and bring in our water hose so it wouldn’t freeze overnight. So we decided we’d quickly move a bunch of stuff to storage here then head on south. We’d be able to move more slowly if we did that, including going through Arkansas, our one missing state.  Plus, Texas is a better place than Minnesota to sell an RV at this time of year so spending a month there instead of here makes sense.

Then Dave broke a tooth. The dentist says he needs a new crown. The prep work is done but it will take a couple weeks to get the crown.

So, when are we leaving here? I have no idea. Do you?

TTYL,

Linda

While Dave and I both like to eat, neither of us is particularly fond of cooking or cleaning up after preparing food. We eat a lot of meat. So the idea of being able to cook a lot of meat at one time with only one batch of cleanup appealed to both of us. Thus, our newest cooking tool:

First, we cooked three racks of baby back ribs we bought at Trader Joe’s. So simple! How simple, you ask? This simple:

Cut each rack into three or four sections and dump them in the crock pot. Dump a couple bottles of BBQ sauce on top of them. Put the lid on the pot and cook for about five hours on high. Done. Makes 9-12 servings depending on how you cut them. Be prepared to dispose of a bunch of juice then wash the one pot, meat thermometer, and fork. Done with cleanup.

Dave likes his leftovers reheated in the microwave but I prefer mine cold. We can testify they are delicious either way.

That went so well we decided to try chicken. In our freezer we had a five pound bag of skinless, boneless chicken breasts we bought from Schwan’s that said it serves twenty on the bag. We threw that in the refrigerator to thaw. The next day we dumped the whole bag full into the crock pot and dumped a can of chicken broth in on top of it. About four hours later we had this pile of chicken:

No that’s not twenty chicken breasts. I guess you are supposed to cut pieces off some to make that many servings. I miss Simek’s; their bags of chicken actually had the number of pieces the bag said it served.

Anyway, sone of these will get cut up to put in salads. Some will get reheated to be part of a dinner. Some will be eaten cold dipped in salad dressings for snacks. I expect they all will be tasty. At least, I know they all will get eaten. Soon.

In the meantime, here’s one of my favorite chicken salad recipes:

Stir together 1 Tbsp mild-flavored olive oil and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Add salt and pepper or herbs, if desired. Chop up one large apple and stir into juice. Chop up two chicken breasts and add to apple. Stir in 2 Tbsp dried cranberries and 2 Tbsp chopped pecans. Serve immediately. Makes two main dish servings.

You could probably make a big batch of that too but I don’t know what the dressing will do to the cranberries and nuts if allowed to sit since we always eat all of it right away. 🙂

TTYL,

Linda