We had to get a new back tire on the bike and then we took it in for some modifications so hot air doesn't blow so much on your feet. Luckily the hot air modification was covered by a Cal-Am recall. Each of these things involve Terry riding the bike and me following in the truck to pick him up and then the reverse when we got the bike back. On one of the trips we stopped at Famous Footwear and were lucky enough to find a pair of sandals on clearance for Terry. Considering how much he likes to shop for shoes this is a great deal.
We
were still looking for a new rig so we made a trip to Surprise to
look at a Momentum that we had seen in Mesa but was advertised for a
lower price in Surprise. Unfortunately it was a 2015 with only 2
axles and the salesman was obnoxious. As all my facebook friends
know, we did buy a new toy hauler which was a huge undertaking.
We
traded in both the Montana and the little toy hauler so we first had
to empty everything out of the toy hauler and were lucky enough to be
able to stash it all in Neal & Robin's storage trailer. We
unloaded everything from the underneath storage in the Montana and
made a huge “Beverly Hillbillies” pile under, on and around the
round table on the patio. Then we covered it all with a couple of
tarps and tied it with rope. We packed up most of the Montana –
except clothes, toiletries & stuff in the fridge and put the
boxes in the underneath storage so we could just move from there to
the underneath storage in the new rig and put away when we got parked
on our site.
We
“signed on the dotted line” on Monday Sept 14th and
took the toy hauler in on Tuesday. There was someone looking at it
to buy before we left the lot. We took the Montana in on Wednesday
with the intention of leaving it there for the day so they could move
the satellite dish to the new rig and then we would move stuff over
and take our new house back. We were eating a late breakfast when
the salesman called to say they could not move the satellite as it
involved more than they thought (we asked if someone wanted to come
and see it beforehand!) so we hustled back to figure things out. The
whole deal was going to blow up if we didn't pay another $1000 so we
offered to pay half (which was supposed to buy a back up camera!) and
they said OK. Unfortunately, by now it was too late to move the
satellite and the best installer was off on Thursday so we ended up
grabbing some bedding, clothes & toiletries and hauling the
little toy hauler back so we had a bed for a couple of nights. When
we got here we discovered that we didn't have a 30 Amp outlet on our
site and had no conversion plug (packed in the Montana) but we had
enough cords to reach our neighbors' (Ron & Terri) power box so
we were good.
On
Thursday we went back to move stuff over to the Momentum. It was
being prepped and had a space beside it so they could pull the
Montana up in the opposite direction so our doors were together.
When the fork lift set down the Montana and went to back out it got
stuck in loose gravel and it took a couple of guys over an hour to
get it out. In the meantime, we were moving everything – Terry
lugging the boxes from underneath storage and me moving clothes, etc
that had not been packed up. Do I need to say that it was close to
or at 100 degrees? At least the AC was on in the Momentum but had a
hard time cooling things down with the door open all the time. Back
to the little toy hauler for the night and then in to pick up the new
rig on Friday. Of course it wasn't done when we got there but we did
get it late in the day and Terry put it into our site with no
problem.
Now
the real work started with trying to figure out where everything was
going to go. We had to put in extra shelves in the kitchen cabinets
– LOVE Home Depot being so close and being so obliging about
cutting lumber – get towel rods for the bathroom and cut down the
board under the mattress since we had a king replaced with our queen
and the dealer won't cut down the board as “it will void a warranty
on that part of the rig”! Yup, I got the same information when I
emailed the manufacturer about it. Talk about CYA! We built a
simple desk in the garage for the computer and assorted papers that
need a home. I have a stainless steel fridge so I can finally use
magnets to post necessary items such as the monthly activity calendar
and a grocery list. I will have to try hard not to let it get too
junky!
We
had a lovely break when we joined a bunch of friends on a music
cruise on Saguaro Lake. We had dinner first – on land - and
enjoyed music by Saguaro Sunset as the sun set (how appropriate!).
Tons of fun. Lots of people were returning for the winter season so
it wasn't all work. We had music in the courtyard a couple of times
from 6 to 8 since it was so hot.
Dave
& Phyllis and Ron & Terri showed up later in September so it
was nice to have neighbors on the street. Actually Eladio Guiterrez
was here early and is just a few sites down from us but leaving at
the end of December. Bob & Dar are also here on our street now.
We
had to make a trip to Total Wine with Ron & Terry and then we
took them and Joe & Jean to At Home as they had never been there.
We bought blue rope lights which turned out to be greenish so we had
to return them. We got more blue at Big Lots and they were less
greenish but still went back and exchanged for white. We are kind of
picky about the color as we have blue lights on the Momentum and the
others clashed.
We
had to get someone to complete the satellite TV hookup as the RV
dealer just installed the dish and hooked it up to the input but
didn't hook up the boxes to each TV. The installer at the RV dealer
also thought he was doing us a favor by putting in a splitter so we
could easily switch from satellite to antenna to park cable. Direct
TV's Genies don't work with splitters so it took a couple of guys
nearly 4 hours to figure everything out. Luckily they had given us
an estimate and we paid only 50% more.
Canadian
Thanksgiving was October 12th so Terri & I organized
dinner for 38. We had a bit of a challenge finding frozen turkeys
but Smart & Final had them. Dinner turned out excellent as
usual. We moved tables for eating onto the side of the street that
was shaded by a couple of park models as it was still very hot.
We
had a hectic few hours on Friday the 16th. We were
supposed to move a trailer from storage to a site at 4:00 and we got
a phone call a 3:10 from Barb Fatzinger saying they were stranded in
Wickenburg. Their car developed engine problems and they were towed
into Wickenburg. They had a Uhaul filled with stuff and their
Suburban was full including a wire kennel for their 2 dogs. They
couldn't rent a vehicle that would tow the Uhaul so they wondered if
we could possibly come get them. Terry went down the street to
Eladio who agreed to move the trailer from storage. Then Terry left
for Wickenburg and I stayed to coordinate the trailer move which was
a good thing since there wouldn't have been room for one more
passenger coming back from Wickenburg. I had dinner ready when they
returned about 7:00 (rush hour traffic!) and then we helped unload
everything so the Uhaul could be returned the next day. I don't
believe there was a 4 cubic inch empty space anywhere in that
trailer. It was a marvel of packing!
We
had the first golf outing of the Whiskey Row Hackers on Sunday the
18th. It was followed by lunch at the Duchess bar &
grill as The Hub messed up Dar's plans for us to eat there. So nice
to get back into some of our fun activities including line dancing at
Tower Point a couple of times and hopefully the rest of the winter.
Thanks
to Claude & Elaine for kicking me in the butt to catch up the
blog!! Once again I will try to keep up but I am sure that once
again I will fall behind!
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