Start of a new adventure

 

So that’s where I was and what I was up to until the end of March.

And now where are we?

Well right now I’m sitting in Savannah trying desperately to remember how to put together a blog post!

The beginning is probably the best place to start, then progress from there. So here goes!

Welcome to the blog. We had discussed our summer 2024 trip some time over the winter and came up with what we laughingly described as a “plan”. Of course we are the original No Plan Kids so things were a little loose. Things like where we were going, how we were going to get there and when. Nothing major.

Our motor home - the Monaco, has basically sat for 2 years in indoor storage to protect it from the intense Arizona sun during the summers we were in UK.

The Monaco in Mexico 2 years ago.

Maintenance was due. Overdue if the truth is told, so initially we took it to Norris RV in Casa Grande for them to fix the entry step and step cover, both of which had ceased working over the past year or so. They also resealed the roof which needed doing and while they were doing that I had them replace the bathroom skylight which I had patched 4 or so years ago when we first bought the rig but really needed to be replaced altogether, and doing it when the roof was being done made sense.

I’m not going to list costs because if you can’t afford the price of maintenance you shouldn’t own a motorhome in the first place!

The second thing was the rear tires which where well outdated but it made no sense to replace them and then have them sit for 2 years, so we waited until we were getting ready for our new season. Purcell Tire in Casa Grande were considerably lower in price than anyone else and had fresh tires of the brand we wanted and in stock, so they got the business.

Last thing in Casa Grande was the engine and chassis maintenance. Big diesel engines have a massive oil capacity which is used both for lubrication and also cooling. 11 gallons of oil, new oil filter, new fuel filters, generator oil and filter change and lubrication of all the many grease points on the chassis was accomplished at a local truck/RV shop.

I wonder if the license plates taste like lobster??

We had decided that a return trip to Maine sounded good (Think LOBSTER). But more maintenance was needed on the 4 slide outs, where the seals along the top had fallen apart after 15 years of neglect. I had replaced the side seals about 4 years ago but the top seals require the slide topper awnings to be removed and I’m no longer capable of working off a ladder.

A company named Talin have an outstanding reputation for excellent work and also specialize in slide outs. The have developed a “Guardian Plate” to address a common problem in the slide floor where water gets in and rots the plywood.

They aren’t in Casa Grande, not even in Arizona. They are way over in the East Coast in Florida about 2200 miles away!

Obviously the directions were not going to follow a straight line between Casa Grande and Maine!!

Our initial thinking was to make an appointment with Talin (They are very busy people and you need an appointment way in advance). We called them in January and made an appointment for mid April. Then came my vertigo thing and with doctors etc we weren’t able to leave early so it looked like 7 LONG days of pounding across the country on the I-10 Interstate, which neither of us liked the sound of.

After some consideration we blew off my annual wellness exam, which was the last one and the problem, after all I had just seen an endless stream of doctors, had blood drawn multiple times and had X Rays, MRI etc etc and nothing except vertigo had been diagnosed. I was mostly recovered from the vertigo too so we canceled the wellness visit and left April 3^rd headed East.

It is an almost perfectly straight line to Jacksonville FL from Casa Grande and all on I-10, not our favorite way to drive. What could we do to make it more bearable?

An old thing in RV’ing is “The Rule of Twos” which suggests drive 2 hours and take a break, drive less than 200 miles a day, get to your destination by 2pm and stay 2 nights. We have followed that pretty much all our Rving life and it works for relaxed travelling.

We sat with the big Rand McNally Road Atlas (Remember them? Thanks to Barbara Whaley for ours!). We divided the trip into 200 mile segments and adjusted them to suit places we have been before and liked.

After putting the rig on an RV site at the park with power, water and sewer we got everything running and charging while we loaded up the fridge, transferred our clothes from the house, cleaned the tanks, filled the water tank and got the whole show ready for departure on April 3^rd.

Not being 100% sure of my driving ability after all the problems I’d had, we planned a fairly short first day on the road and stopped at the Wilcox AZ Elks Lodge where there is a big RV area with full hook ups and a very friendly Lodge.

After that we stopped in Las Cruces NM, a Walmart in Odessa TX and an RV park in Sweetwater TX before stopping for a couple of days in Haslet TX, near Fort Worth.

Side trip to Dallas and Dealey Plaza

Why Haslet?? Well that’s where our friends Paul and Karen are living now after they left Sundance a couple of years ago to be nearer their kids and grandkids.

We soon got caught up with all the news and by complete coincidence it happened to be exactly in the zone of totality for the solar eclipse! I swear we didn’t plan that, it just happened and we were very fortunate that the RV park they live in had a last minute cancellation just as we were getting near!

Solar Eclipse any minute now

Goofy glasses.

We all had goofy glasses on looking at the eclipse then we toured around the Fort Worth area sightseeing and eating at all the best places. Life on the road can be tough!!

Paul and Karen getting goofy

Eventually we had to tear ourselves away and keep heading East. Marshall TX, Vicksburg MS, Hattiesburg AL at Elks Lodges and commercial parks led us to a longer stay at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation in Foley AL near Mobile on the Gulf Coast.

Gorgeous Sunset over Mobile Bay

We spent some time in this same park back in 2017 after being chased out of Florida by Hurricane Irma. 

https://banbrv.blogspot.com/2017/09/back-to-usa.html

This trip was much less fraught and allowed us to tour the coast, eat some delicious seafood and chill out for a couple of days.

What else is there but seafood??

Next came Elks Lodges in Tallahassee and Zephyrhills near Tampa FL. This later was handy for Talin and also our old Escapee friends Peter and Donna! More parties and dinners out, all aided and abetted by MORE Escapees friends Larry and Marilyn! We had just the best time with this group of like minded people and time just flew by.

Donna and Peter

Larry and Marilyn et al.

Talin took our rig and plugged it into power to keep the fridge running and the batteries charged, then they walked the work we wanted to ensure they understood what we needed. Then we left it in their hands for the 4 days they needed to get it done.

That’s right, we unhooked the car and left the rig with them for 4 days.

UUHH? Where would we go?

Well to more friends! Fred and Judy - from back in our motorcycles days - live in Sebring where they had a spare bedroom waiting for us in addition to the great welcome they gave us.

Fred and Judy

Naturally more dinners out, tours of their park, the town, the Elks Lodge all followed and again time flew by.

But we still had 1 night left before we picked up the rig so we got a room in a Holiday Inn at Bonita Springs another 100 miles South near Naples FL so we could visit with our Casa Grande friends Al and Marie, who have moved closer to their son Drew after Marie suffered some medical problems.

Breakfast with Al and Marie

It was onIy was only 200 miles back to Talin after that!

We were sorry to have to leave everyone behind. It has been wonderful seeing you all and hopefully it won't be quite so long until we meet up again, Love Ya’ll.

This meant that the first stage of our “Plan” was over and we had to proceed with the second stage. Maine was our next objective, but how we will get there and what we will see along the way is anyone’s guess!

Tag along, it’ll be fun.