Monday, March 26, 2012

Yeah! Another Monday! Still feeling horrible; been a week now; beginning to think I'm going to have to give in to Ken's wishes and check into the hospital in order to get over this. Maybe tomorrow.

It occurred to me that I forgot to tell everyone about the "new" Casten's Castle! To start getting back into a stable financial position, we had to give up our motorhome back in the fall of 2010. We hung on to all the gear that went on it, hoping that "some day" we could replace it. Lay off and severance pay made a lot of things possible - paying off some bills, making arrangements to resolve some credit issues, putting $$ away for "just in case," and a little $$ for a camper of some kind.

We started looking several months ago, checking Craigslist all over the United States, watching RV Trader, looking on forums, checking RV places all over the DFW area - for something we could buy for cash...no more debt, something we outright own. Everything we looked at was pretty bad. I stumbled across something at Motorhome Specialists RV in Alvarado online and we went to look at it. At first we said no to it -- too old, priced a little too high, needed some tweaking. But after looking at several things, we went back to look again. We had been talking to the neatest sales fellow, Jimmy Campana. The afternoon we went back, Ken and I started asking questions about everything - experience taught us a lot. Instead of hiring someone to go thru the coach, Jimmy suggested we go thru it ourselves and he and his service tech would help us. We combed that thing completely, and after a test drive and Jimmy offering to help us on a couple of things, we decided to go for it. We made a deposit, told Jimmy we would be back on Monday. He called us on that Friday to tell us the owners (it was a consignment) offered to drop it a $1000 because of the things that needed to be done. Yea. We picked up the coach on March 16, drove it to covered storage, and now can't wait for an opportunity to head out.

The "new" coach is a 1998 Tiffin Allegro Bay with less than 40,000 miles on it. It's gas, has one slide, a bedroom and bathroom that are ok size so that I'm not claustrophobic in them, and just the length we like at 33 feet long. The first trip we will make (if we can EVER get well) is to the valley to go across to Progresso, Mexico because I need major dental work done - can't afford it here. We've already met with friends so we know where to go and what to do. If all 4 of us can get healthy at the same time maybe we'll all go at the same time!

After that we plan to head out on a LONG trip of at least two months. We plan to head to Little Rock, Arkansas; venture over thru Tennessee (Memphis, Nashville, Pidgeon Forge); then to Roanoke, Virginia. From there we'll head into Washington, DC for a short stay/look around, and then head to Philadelphia (Ken's family town). From there we hope to visit Gettysburg and Lancaster, Pa, and then go to Woodbine, NJ. We'll double back to Philly and then take the train to New York City (75 minute ride) to visit the tourist traps, see some things. We'll head back to Philadelphia, pick up the MH, then head head to Raleigh, then on down to Myrtle Beach. From Myrtle Beach we'll wonder to Charleston, Savannah, then Jacksonville, FL, then on down to Orlando and Disney World. Then we'll head back to Texas via Tallahasee, FL; Mobile, AL (see friend Luci); then wonder to New Orleans, Beaumont, Houston, and north back home. We would loe to spend time in Savannah...we love that place.

We're trying to find places in Philadelphia to leave the animals while we go to NY...scares us; we don't leave them at the vet overnight here so I can't imagine that we will leave them at an unknown vet. I'm sure we'll work it out - we always do.

Really nice to have some options again. Been working so hard the last 3 years to get finances straightened out! Still have 3 that will not work with me. All the others are pretty near paid off. We'll take care of those that refused to work with us after the others are paid off.

Take care, we feel really blessed right now, sorry if sounds like we're boasting - it is, after all, a 14 year old motorhome! But it's OURS!!!