Changes in Seasons

02 Friday Feb 2018

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Airstream, ChILL, F150, Hanna Park, Island Time, North Beach

Changes in Seasons

As surely as the seasons change, we pass through seasons in our lives. In 2012 we set out on an adventure to see how we would like camping in a moderate-size travel trailer. In July of that year, after a vacation to the northern latitudes to see family, we purchased our 2013 Coachmen Catalina 222FB and put in motion a chain of events that would change our lives in a most positive way.

Our cozy little travel trailer, affectionately named the Island Time, became our escape vehicle from the stresses of the everyday routine. We purchased it as a great starter kit to see if we enjoyed the camping and RV lifestyle. We learned a lot about what the modern RV world was about and found that we truly enjoyed our time in this mobile “tiny house”.

Over the next few years we continued to enjoy the Island Time and week-by-week filled it with great memories of adventures. Everything from weekend trips to local campgrounds to longer trips to the Keys, Hilton Head, Gatlinburg, Chattanooga, Naples, and so many other stops along the way only served to feed our desire to do and see more. Wonderful visits with family allowed us to share in the everyday lives of our children and grandchildren with special outings.

Simple times in the woods at Hanna Park or wonderful relaxation at North Beach only more firmly cemented the idea that we should do this more often. Even time with our dogs seemed more special as we spent time together walking, talking, listening to nature and calming our minds. Each outing served to feed a satisfaction deep within our souls.

Of course, we were never roughing it. Air conditioning, HD TV, walk around queen bed, full Internet connectivity, range, oven, microwave, hot water and shower are accommodations a long way from what most people think of as camping. All of the luxuries with just enough space to live and wheels to take us to new places or revisit the best of the places we had been made this an attractive alternative to being stuck at home.

As we filled the Island Time with memories we were also filling our hearts with joy. We came to realize that this camping thing worked well for us and that touring the country while bringing our condo with us would be a great way to make the transition from a career of busyness to a retirement full of adventure and intrigue. The vision materialized and became named the Victory Lap and achieving it meant careful planning and execution. We had decided on the approach for our next season, now we needed to align the resources.

As the season changes from occasional vacations and outings to fulltime travel, so does the need for the appropriate tools to support the dream. While the Island Time was a great if not a perfect vehicle for vacationing, we would need something more appropriate for fulltiming.

And now at the start of the change of the season, we are excited to be the proud owners of a new 2018 Airstream 25 FB Twin Flying Cloud we have named ChILL and a new 2018 F150 Lariat 4×4 pickup! Of course, we are also sad to say goodbye to the Island Time as part of the transition. There can be no replacement for all the memories it provided, but at the same time it was not up to the task for the next season. Fortunately, as part of the trade-in process we were able to park the Island Time and ChILL in close proximity to each other to transfer a few items. Deep in my heart I believe that during that transfer all of the great memories and experiences moved over as well. When I step into the Airstream I can feel the excitement of the memories yet to happen as well as the memories from the past.

The Island Time will continue to be with us as we travel the country in ChILL. We celebrate the past by including a reminder from it in the future. The Airstream will continue to have the ISLNDTM license plate as the reminder of a special travel trailer that started the whole adventure. We always believed that the license plate brought a smile to those that were stuck behind us as we lumbered along the highway. Hopefully, the feeling will continue with ChILL.

We are so excited to be moving into the next season of our lives. We can never know for sure what the future holds, but we are truly blessed to be well positioned for our next season with family, our health, adequate resources and a burning desire to explore. Thanks for coming along on our adventures so far. We look forward to sharing the joy of our next season. Stay tuned!

Thanks,

Captain Skip

First adventure for the new ML350

ChILL and our new F150

New Island Time license plate

Boarded by Pirates and Surrounded by Idiots

02 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by captskip55 in Adventures

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Gore RV, Hanna Park

Boarded by Pirates and Surrounded by Idiots

Finally camping again and glad to put this chapter behind us. This weekend finds our adventure resuming at Hanna Park after a month due to interruption by events beyond our control or any test of reasonableness. Before I recap the events that have transpired since the last blog entry, let me focus on the positive and moving forward. We are camping again in space #18, a very nice back-in site with a beautiful view (though the utilities are pretty far forward in the site), a nice breeze blowing on a nice summer day. The music is playing, there is a rib eye roast in the Cobb and it is not hard to remember why we like doing this.

Now to recap the happenings that lead to the title of this entry. Yes, we were boarded by pirates! After dropping the Island Time off at the Gore RV parking lot on July 4 I called on Saturday, July 5, to make sure they were aware that the trailer was in their lot and needed to be moved to a secure area before closing that day. On Monday, I called the service department to start the repair process. They indicated that they would put an estimate together and submit a claim to CornerStone for the repairs as part of our extended warranty and repair contract. The service representative mentioned that it looked like someone had attempted to break into the trailer and had damaged the door. He indicated that it did not look like they had managed entry to the trailer.

Explaining that we had a week-long vacation planned at the end of the month, I would guarantee payment for the axle repair so that we did not have to wait for authorization from CornerStone to place the order for parts and I would pay for the door as well. The service rep indicated that it usually only took about a week to get the axle, but it may take longer for the door.

Later that week I received a call from the service rep that CornerStone had declined the axle repair on the basis of the terms of the contract. According to their rejection they did not cover nuts and fasteners, which is true, but the terms were listed in the exclusion portion of the contract not the performance portion of the agreement. The service rep also indicated that the door would be special order from the factory and be $695.00 for the parts. Here is a key clue, he suggested that we may want to file it with our insurance. I indicated that with $500 deductible, all it would really do is charge us with a claim and not really be worth the effort.

To try to shorten the misery of this recap, I called at least twice a week to see what the progress was and to make sure it is ready for vacation. I repeatedly got a story that the axle is there but they are waiting for the door. I am still not able to get a clear date for completion and we need to decide if we are going to take vacation or not. We finally decide that we are going to go on vacation as it seems likely that the trailer will be repaired the Thursday before were were planning to leave.

At the end of the week before vacation, I am still getting the same story on waiting on the door, so I called their parts department. They told me that the door had been there for over a week, but they were waiting on the axle and it would be delivered on Monday. So knowing this I check with my service rep and he assures me that it would be ready Monday or Tuesday at the latest, so we decided to take our vacation, but cancel our reservation at Hilton Head. We would just make the best use of the time that was available and go exploring in other areas.

Then on follow-up on Monday the service rep tells me that it may not be ready until the following Friday as they were still waiting on the door. Since I knew that the door had been there for at least a week and that the axle arrived on Monday, it confirmed my fears that my service rep was less than reliable, so I escalated to the General Manager who got involved and assured me that it would be ready by close of business on Thursday. I am not very happy at this point as we have wasted a large block of vacation time. Looking back I could see in fact that my service rep had been misinforming me all along and basically had a reliability problem. Great.

Boarded by pirates. Thursday morning we received a call that the trailer was ready, so we quickly got ready and went to pick it up. $2,300 later they brought the trailer around and when we open the door, we discovered that the TV was missing, to which the service rep immediately responded with “well you will just have to add it to your insurance claim”. Get the connection. He seemed close to panic when we told him that the door could only be locked with a key or from the inside, but it was not possible to lock the door from the inside and close it. Since the door had not been breached previously and it would take a key to re-lock the door, it had to be an inside job, with someone who had access to the key. The logic of this situation was impeccable, there is no other explanation that works. It happened while in their control, and as you guessed it, they denied any responsibility.

Finally, after working through the service rep and the service manager, I was able to get the General Manager involved and he agreed to reimburse us for his cost for the 32” flat screen, $170. That was better than nothing, but would not replace my Samsung 32” 1080p, 120 hz refresh rate TV.

There are so many other details to this story that support the surrounded by idiots portion that it would just be too depressing to document them all. As an example, they forgot to order a tail light replacement lens, so they were going to have to keep it another two weeks. We resolved that by buying a whole taillight assembly and they were just supposed to snap on the lens and give me the rest for parts, instead they installed the whole new assembly and charged me for the installation and forgot to give me the parts. They forgot to order a wheel cover and lost my coupler pin. The list just goes on.

I will never go back to Gore RV for service unless forced to for warranty work, no wait, the warranty did not work either.

Once we got away from Gore, we went to Discount Tire and had four new Goodyear Marathon tires mounted. This may not have been necessary, but I did not want to take a chance. Of the four, one was brand new on the ground as the spare replaced the one with the separating belt. Another tire was severely overloaded when we had the bearing failure, and the other had been subjected to high heat when the bearing hub was on fire. So four new tires please. These were mounted and balanced without any fanfare and we were headed home, finally.

I was able to find a nice replacement flat screen and mounted it on Friday morning. Same model, size and refresh rate, but this one has Smart Apps with it, so I can get Netflix for grandchildren directly on it. Oh yea, they got my Apple TV also. By the way, the new TV is great.

All of this is now in our rear view mirror. I will file an appeal with CornerStone and feel reasonably confident they will pay. Even if they do not, this is the end of the line on that. I need to move on from this and look forward to the great adventures ahead.

Here is what I have learned:

– I will never get service at Gore RV again if I can help it
– I will make sure the bearings are serviced every 12 months, needed or not
– These things will happen
– It can all be fixed
– I am way too dependent on others for my happiness
– Pirates have moved inland
– Idiots are everywhere

Thanks,

Captain Skip

Relax at Hanna Park

11 Sunday May 2014

Posted by captskip55 in Adventures

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Hanna Park

This weekend we were fortunate enough to get away again to Hanna Park. We so much enjoy coming here and this time was not a disappointment. We arrived around 7:00 and easily found our way to space #99. We like this space because it is easy in/easy out, has a beautiful forest cover and convenient for walking the dogs. The site was not perfectly level and we needed one-half of a board on the right side to level things out. Of course we do not have one-half boards so we were a little off kilter all weekend.

A little off kilter is a good description of me this weekend. The changes at work and the threat to my continued employment lay heavy in my thoughts. We have been on an emotional roller coaster for months now and last week became unbearable. I received a call Friday evening before we left that should help stabilize things and move in a generally favorable direction. However, I am totally used-up and am having a hard time refocusing my thoughts away from the what-if scenarios that could impact my employment.

We had a great weekend with perfect weather and great food. On Saturday, I cooked a two and one-half pound pork roast in the Cobb grill using a rub we acquired in St Martin recently. We thought the roast would be good but it exceeded our expectations in every way. It was moist and flavorful beyond belief, with an ample supply of leftovers for this week.

We were just so at peace there we did not want to leave. We usually plan on starting to pack around 1:00 and leaving the site by 2:00. Not this weekend, we just kept putting things off. We ended up pulling out around 3:15 and managed to get to the storage lot and unpack by 4:00 when the rains really started.

I believe Jeannie had a nice Mother’s Day weekend and I started the mental healing process, so overall it was mission accomplished for us. We look forward to four days at Ft Wilderness in just two weeks with Logan for a few days and a visit from his entire family on Sunday to pick him up. We may have to breakout the “rocky-talkies” again for our nature walk, who knows?

We are still having fun, so this must still be the thing to do.

Thanks,

Captain Skip

Island Time in the Woods

Zephyr the Camping Dog

Perfection at Hanna Park

12 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by captskip55 in Adventures

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Hanna Park

Wow! I think that is the best way to start this entry. It is a perfect Fall day at Hanna Park and we have the most fabulous view that could be imagined. We are in site #142 which is a pull-through near the end of the park. We are the site closest to the lake with an amazing view.

As I am writing this I am sitting outside in a “weightless” recliner, a cool breeze is blowing a perfect 75 degrees without a cloud in the sky. I am under the awning with the music softly playing my favorite tunes while the Cobb puffs away at a chuck roast supplying an occasional waft of oak smoke. I have a nice cool drink and am munching on some sliced apples while the dogs nap in their camping beds. I mean really, how does it get any better than this!

While the site has an awesome view, logistically it is not the best. It is very narrow and we had to spend some time moving the trailer as close to the utilities as we could to be able to unroll the awning. Also, I am not sure how we will get out as when we pull out we are at the end of the road leaving us with a 180 degree turn in either direction. We will probably have to back out which will not be easy due to the adjustments we had to make to get into the site. With all of that said, this is still an awesome view and I am sure we can workout the options tomorrow and it will all be more than worth it.

This is one case where having the shorter wheelbase of the ML350 is a real advantage. I was able to move the trailer over about 18 inches within a very short length, something that would be more difficult with a longer wheelbase truck. The shorter wheelbase is considered a disadvantage for distance towing, but has not caused us any problems so far. While I keep my eye on the pickup market for pulling the Airstream on the “Victory Lap”, I think the ML350 is perfect for us now and will serve us great should we be so fortunate to later afford an Airstream.

Checkout the new license plate on the Island Time! We have always enjoyed the challenge of tagging our vehicles with a vanity plate, so after several months in the application process we have “ISLNDTM”. We were hoping for a space between the words, but were not so lucky. Oh well, we like it and it serves as a conversation topic to explain it.

I am going to wrap this up because I see there is someone flying an amphibious R/C airplane from the lake and I have to see it! Is this fun or what!

As you can tell, we are really enjoying our entire RV adventure. Even as I take all of this in, I am already starting to think about planning the next opportunity. It works for us.

Thanks,

Captain Skip

PS: With great direction from Jeannie we were able to back out of the space with only one adjustment needed. We put it perfectly in the middle of the road with one foot to spare from a neighboring campers awning (extended to the road) and one foot on the left side of the ML. No problems!