Travels with Gunther and Kara

We’re back to the Sticks and Bricks in Fairfax with the RV in tow. It only took Neil 2 tries to get it into the driveway…we’ll get a photo tomorrow and post.

Catching up the past couple of days…we left Junction City finally on Saturday afternoon after all of the punch list items were repaired. Made it to Kansas City and settled in at the Walnut Grove RV park for the night. It was decent but pretty cramped for space and we would probably not stay there for any extended period. The adults ate at the Brick in downtown KC as recommended by Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and it was pretty decent food. They walked over to the Kaufman Center for the Saint-Seans concert and it was really great. The preliminaries included Joshua Bell playing the Brahms Violin Concerto and then the grand finale was the Organ Symphony performed on a brand new organ in the hall with Paul Jacobs as the soloist. He played a short arrangement of the Pomp and Circumstance #1 (you know, the graduation march) to show off the instrument a bit before the symphony started. The orchestra returned and they gave an excellent rendition of the Organ Symphony, Paul Jacobs essentially ignored the conductor and blasted out the finale…it was truly great.

Sunday morning we hitched up and headed out, ending up at Whittington Woods Campground in Whittington, IL. Really nice park…both of the adults agreed that they could easily stay there for a week if they were in the area again. Neil went on a bike ride and found the Corps of Engineers Rend Lake Gun Creek Campground nearby; this would be an even better place to stay for a week as it has lots of sites right on the like, great kayaking, and is half the price of Whittington woods. Great internet there but alas, no DirectTV signal due to trees.

Monday morning we headed out again (this is starting to get repetitive) and stopped for the night in Huntington, WV at the Robert Newlin Airpark RV park which was located at the local airport/skydiving school. Grass runway, easy in/out, quiet, and full hookups for $16 a night…can’t beat that.

This morning we got headed out and arrived back in Fairfax about 1630. Parked in the driveway, unloaded a few things, went on a quick bike ride, a quick dinner at Outback and they’re in their recliners for the evening now.

I’m pooped so will post more tomorrow including a couple of pictures of the new house at the old house.

We’re in the RV!! Yea!!

The adults checked out of the hotel yesterday and we headed over to the New Horizons site for our pickup at about 0900. Between the initial walk through, checking things out, unloading BAT into the basement and inside, putting everything away for our stay, going on a bike ride in the afternoon (90 degrees hot) and going out to Coaches Sports Bar for dinner the adults were pretty much done in. They ended up going to bed about 2130 last night…heck, it wasn’t even completely dark and they were out like lights. Slept straight through ’til 0530 this morning then they got up about 0600 when all the RV builders started revving up fork lifts, banging things, and generally waking the neighborhood up. They did some more checks today, got the internet and satellite TV working, went on another bike ride, and had some teriyaki marinated pork loin and fajita rice for dinner. Got a piece of carrot cake from the Wally World (Walmart) yesterday and will eat it in a bit for dessert but I bet they snarf it all up and don’t give me and Kara any of it.

They got most of the truck work done today; the camera cables and electrical hookups for the rig are done and the hitch base plate is installed. Tomorrow is the hitch itself and the PressurePro monitor to keep track of tire pressures. Most of the items on their rig punch list are minor; the window over the TV was the biggest thing that wasn’t done and that got fixed today. Most of the other stuff is pretty minor…at this point I don’t see a reason they won’t be on the road Friday as planned although you never know what might happen.

Anyhoo; here’s a few snapshots of the new home…I’ll make them post some more  when they get things put away a little better. Enjoy and cyas.

Well, we successfully arrived here in Junction City this evening after a pretty hectic three days of travel.

Neil and Connie finished loading up BAT (Big A@@ Truck) on Thursday afternoon and early Friday morning and headed out for Knoxville to drop off some stuff at his sister Mary Jane’s house on the way out here. At least they didn’t forget me and Kara this time, we loaded up in the back seat of BAT and took a lot of naps in between gazing at the scenery.

You’ve all heard the story about the golfer that got home 18 hours after he left that morning looking pretty bedraggled, right? His wife asked him what happened and he said “I was playing with Fred and he had a heart attack on the 3rd tee this morning.” His wife says “That’s terrible.” and he replies “Yes, the rest of the day it was hit the ball, drag Fred, hit the ball drag Fred…”

Friday was sort of like that. Neil and Connie had put a tarp across the roll top desk and other stuff in the bed of BAT and used bungie cords to hold it down. They stopped just about every hour on the hour almost all the way to Tennessee to readjust the bungie straps. What a nightmare. They eventually got to Mary Jane’s house, unloaded equipment and then closed the tri-fold hard tonneau cover over the bed. That made the driving yesterday to Springfield and today to Junction much easier.

Today they stopped by Whitewater, Kansas which is over near Wichita and visited Connie’s nephew Ken and his wife Tanya and two adorable kids Anton and Annabelle. They live out in the country in a 120 year old restored house; the adults had a nice visit and ate barbecued chicken and lemonade. After dinner they headed out another 100 miles to finish up here in Junction City after driving by the New Horizons location to check out our new home. We’ve got the primo place front and center near the door and will start the delivery process at 0900 tomorrow. 

Sorry, no pictures today but they’ll get lots tomorrow and I’ll post a quick tour of our new home as soon as I can.

Cyas.

Well, the Monster Truck arrived yesterday. There was a bit of a kerfluffle over the rebates. Ford has changed the incentive programs since the adults ordered the truck in Feb and the dealership tried to not honor their quoted price. After they were reminded that we went with them over the alternative dealers because they said they would honor their price and after Connie hung up on the phone after telling them they weren’t playing fair…they reconsidered and agreed that the agreed on price was what the adults would have to pay. They picked it up and headed home; stopping by a local truck cover place to order a RuggedLiner tri-fold hard cover that folds back while towing but when not towing provides much better security than a soft tonneau cover. Here’s a picture of their new ride; it barely fits in the drive at the homestead. Only a few more weeks ’til they head out to Kansas via Knoxville and Wichita to visit family and drop stuff off then it will be New Horizon time.

Monster Truck

As you can see; it’s quite a monster and is really much larger than either of them are really interested in driving; but if you’re gonna have a 5ver then you gotta have the monster truck to pull it around with.

Not much else is new; the S&B (sticks and bricks…that’s RVspeak for a house without wheels) is still on the market; getting plenty of traffic through to look at it but the sign doesn’t say sold yet. They did have a couple come by and look but the husband said it wasn’t for him since the tree out back would drop leaves on the deck. Neil suggested if he didn’t like leaves he should live in an apartment and why was he looking for a house in a wooded suburb if that was the case. Sheesh, what was he thinking.

Cyas.

Well…those adults went ahead and did it again. They went off on a trip and left my furry behind behind!. I woulda really liked Nova Scotia too.

They had tickets to one of those Organ Symphony concerts up in Halifax and packed up and left the old homestead. Me and Kara  stayed home on the mantle (grr!) and guarded the home front while they were gone…I sure hope this nonsense stops when we get on the road.

They made it to Maine the first night and had this really nice lobsta dinner and a couple of beers, went by Booth Bay Harbor to see Connie’s parents house and then headed off for Canada.

They thought they were being so smart by taking Neil’s car with the South Dakota plates until they got to the border and tried to enter Canada. First question “Why are you coming to Canada”. Answer “To attend a concert”. Question “You came all the way from South Dakota for a concert”. Answer “Well, we actually came from Fairfax, VA”. After that we went into the suspicious characters line, got the whole 20 questions, search the car, rummage through Connie’s underwear routine and finally after an hour or so were allowed in. They spent a  night in Windsor Canada, went by and saw the tidal bore come in at the Bay of Fundy, and made it to Halifax for a couple of days.

Here are a couple of before and after shots from the tidal bore coming in; this was in the river at the top of the Bay of Fundy and the tide started in with a wave about a foot tall. The difference between the two photos is about 6 or 8 feet of tide change in maybe 15 minutes. We didn’t get back by the place with the boats after the tide came in but you can see from the dock height that it comes up a decent amount at high tide.

Bay of Fundy at Low Tide

Truro Tidal Bore at Low Tide

Truro Tidal Bore at High Tide

Once in the Halifax area they went on a couple of hikes and saw some geese and a pair of nice little waterfalls.

Windsor Park Waterfall

Canadian Geese

Hidden Falls

The city of Halifax area was petty much a bust as on Saturday it rained pretty hard all day. Sunday was nicer but they had the concert in the early evening so didn’t go too far afield after Mass…nothing much is open in Halifax on Sunday anyway. They ate at this great little bistro near the concert hall. The lobster ravioli was really great and since Neil noticed that they had ginger beer on the menu he asked if they had Gosling’s Blackstrap rum. They did so he had a couple of Dark and Stormy’s instead of his usual Guinness. Great. Nice flavorful dark rum and ginger beer is like ginger ale on steroids…much more ginger flavor. Try one…it’s a great drink.

The concert itself was great. Unfortunately the organ was electronic and as is typical for electronic organs didn’t have a lot of bass oomph. It was above average for an electronic organ though…however, the orchestra playing was fantastic. It was the second most precise performance they’ve heard…only beaten out by the LA Philharmonic. Not a bobble was heard even in the parts where orchestras typically stumble. Symphonie Nova Scotia was great and clearly deserved a better organ than they had to complement their fine performance. The adults both said Bravo!!

They headed home the next day; turns out that getting back into the United States going to Fairfax with South Dakota plates on your car and telling them you went all the way to Halifax for a concert gets you the third degree every time. Connie took them across the wilds of Maine on the way back; Neil practically had to leave cracker crumbs behind in case they got lost they were so far into the back woods. Rained all the way across Canada and Maine on the way back; which made for some interesting driving. They did see a really nice waterfall (Pennacook Falls) in Rumford, Maine…the river level was much higher due to all the runoff from the storm and was quite spectacular…unfortunately it was raining way too hard to get out and take a picture of it but here’s one of it in better weather.

Pennacook Falls

They ran out of the storm by the end of the first day back, spent the night in Lebanon, New Hampshire and made it home safely the following day.

In other news; their RV build process is finished and it’s sitting in the parking lot at New Horizons in Junction City, Kansas until they pick it up on June 11. The F450 is built and will be delivered next week. The house is on the market; they’ve had about 20 people come and look including one that came twice (an hour the second time) so hopefully there will be a contract soon.

Cyas.

Sorry about the long time between posts…but the adults have been really busy with a lot of things related to getting ready to travel but not actually traveling; so there wasn’t much to talk about (actually there was a bit of traveling but it was mostly the “get there” variety instead of the “do cool stuff” variety, but I digress so let me get back to the point).

After their last trip out to Indiana for the DRV factory tour they left again in early January for a trip (thanks to the miracle of frequent flyer miles) to Junction City, KS (via Kansas City) to visit the New Horizons factory. They then went onto LA for an organ concert at the Walt Disney Auditorium and came home.

They then decided to go ahead and get a custom built RV from New Horizons. The build quality and features you can get put in along with the much better standard features, insulation, and fit/finish make it a better coach than the DRV Elite Suite all around. The DRV is very nice; but if cost isn’t the top consideration then the New Horizons is the all around winner. I’ll post some better pictures of their actual rig once it’s built but just to tease you a bit here’s some of what they’re getting installed.

• Fireplace

• Hardwood floors

• Distressed cherry custom build cabinetry

• Residential fridge instead of an RV model

• Dishwasher

• Neil designed IT and communications systems

• 46″ LED TV

• MorRYDE air suspension and ABS brakes

Here are a couple of pictures of a model very similar to theirs. The red accent is a custom color to match the jerseys of God’s Team; the 2011 National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide. They’re still figuring out whether to get a truck that matches the tan on the rig or the red one that matches the highlight color. I’ll post some better pictures and give you areal tour once it’s built; but if you want a sneak peak take a look at http://www.horizonsrv.com/majestic/photo-gallery and you can see a unit similar to theirs.

Majestic in Champagne Color

Kitchen and Dinette

Living Room

They’ll be moving their recliners and the double-wide into the 5ver (that’s RVer talk for Fifth Wheel) and hitting the road in July. The house goes on the market about May 1…they’ve got quite a list of packing, painting, and sorting to handle before then.

This week they’re driving out to South Dakota to change their domicile over…no state income tax and insurance and vehicle registration is much cheaper. I have to wonder who in their right mind would travel to South Dakota in February…but then they’re adults and responsible for their own bad decisions:-) They’ve already gotten their new mailing service setup; with as much of their bills and other business shifted to online as possible. The remainder will get sent to the human kid to scan and get to them via DropBox. (What will Neil think of next to make their lives easier?)

I think they’re taking me (at least I hope they are, I’ve never seen the Badlands or Mount Rushmore)…at least I’m better equipped to handle the cold being a bear and all, I think poor Kara might get a bit chilly. On the other hand; she is a retriever and used to jumping into cold lakes to retrieve dead birds so maybe she’s not quite as thin blooded as I thought.

That’s about it for now…I’ll update you later in the week with anything cool we might see in the cold wintery upper Midwest.

Cyas…