Mr. Intruder... before

So here we go, the dust has settled, not really, it's very dusty here in Texas.  Where I left off was with the arrival of the '97 Damon Intruder.  The "new" RV.  Graduating in a way to a motorhome.  Moreso a necessity for our desired travels and the accompanying zoo.

Well I took a flight all the way into the deepfreeze called Flint, Michigan.  Wow, I wish flights departing anywhere in Canada were at the same prices as the US.  Good ol' taxes.  As it happens, on this mid-January day, it hit record lows for daily temperatures.  A nice balmy -19 degrees.  Go figure Cat didn't go for that ride.

The Intruder got the cold start test, and amazingly it started after the third crank.  The generator started right up and the heat slowly began to flow.  Then the drive test... to Walmart.  No prob, a little shaky getting used to a new rig, especially on snow laden roads.  Alright, after getting everything sorted out and stocked with some supplies, I was off.

It was a very agonizing drive for the first 7 hours or so.  Not that I was uncomfortable driving, it didn't take long to catch the hang of it and how it responds.  The problem was the road conditions.  There was a winter storm approaching, and I wanted to get the heck out ahead of it.  With wind and flurries already coming down, it was a very slow go.  I was lucky to be going 40 miles/hour, and there were occasional standstills.   Yikes, some drivers...  these weren't even bad roads yet, not like in PEI anyway!

At one point I was stopped for about 10 minutes as there was an accident up ahead.  Then I immediately took appreciation of a Class A.  I put it in park, went to the fridge, and fixed myself a sandwich.  Oh, it's worth it!  After much too long of this crawling, I made it past Indianapolis, and conditions improved.

So first run out of the gate, I drove for 13 hours, the weather cost me about 4 hours of extra driving.  After a sleep, I drove the rest of the route to Cocoa Beach.  Not too shabby for the maiden voyage.





We were staying at Carver's Cove park in Cocoa Beach, and the manager was gracious to let us park the Intruder right beside the Escalade, even though it wasn't an actual site.  And that's when we get to the next chapter that we'll touch on later.  My parents and friends, Trevor and Kelly, and their son, arrived in Florida to camp it out, to take in the RV experience...  It sure beats living out of a hotel room for 2 weeks.

I was surprised...  all 5 of them stayed in the Intruder the entire time, and enjoyed it!  I would have bet that my parents would venture off to a hotel after a night or 2.  I think they would consider getting an RV themselves now.

All at once!

It's kinda sad when you're so busy, that you can't take a few minutes to update your blog. I suppose it's the pressure of getting pictures up....and when you are disorganized and haven't unloaded/gone though literally months worth of photos, well....it's easy to get a little overwhelmed and just say, EH, I'll update later.

Later turns into months, so I'm going to put an end to this once and for all:-)

Haven't I been saying that since the beginning?

Anyhoo, a lot has been going on. We'll do an entry for each catagory below, to get ourselves caught up....along with pictures of course. Eventually, you have to tackle that beast!

1. The 'new business' and the fashion show.

2. Bringing the Puddle Jumper to Florida - our much loved 1997 Damon Intruder! (P.S. It's a BEAUTY!)

3. Company and the 7 day Mexico cruise.

4. Our trek to the Florida Panhandle, then to New Orleans for our first Mardi Gras!

5. Our trek to Texas, and the NURvers Rally!

6. The Intruders renovations.

Doesn't seem like that much when you list it like that, but wow, we're exhausted. This is by far the most busy/crazy winter we've ever had, and we've been loving every second of it.

Check back....we're going to catch up, I swear!

:-)

A Merry Christmas to All and To All a Goodnight!

We would like to wish a Happy Holidays to all our family, friends and readers!  We're spending this Christmas on our own, just the two of us.   It's something different, we may miss being with family and friends at times, but it is nice spending it together.

Here are a couple pics of our Christmas decorations. 



That's our cozy little Christmas setup although some people deck things right out.  Here's one display we liked in the park.



We didn't wrap any presents to put under the tree this year.  Our Christmas present to be is the Class A Cat posted previously.  It wouldn't quite fit under a mini 1 foot tree anyway!  We had someone take a look at it for us and it passed the preliminary check.  Thanks Chris!  Also completed an auto check on the VIN, shows it being clear of title and problems.  There were 2 owners from the records and it was registered in Michigan the entire time.  So we secured it with a downpayment, and it looks like I will fly north sometime in the first week of January or so.  It will bring us lots of adventure in the New Year.

Hopefully everyone has a terrific holiday, take care and safe traveling!

Goodnight!

'Tis the Season!

Whoa, need a break.  We are in Miami now, and it's hot.  Thank goodness we are settled for the month.  It lets us focus on work and some maintenance.  Yes, I just changed the anode rod in the hot water heater.  Wow, until a little while ago I had no idea what an anode rod was.  After living in a condo, and leasing a vehicle, well it sort of encourages one to leave everything to someone else to care for.

Now we are pressing forward into the DIY spectrum.  It's much cheaper that way, well... sometimes, and especially useful if you actually learn something valuable and develop corresponding skills.  A new old Class A will be a definite test.

But one must also realize the limit to their own capabilities.  For example, I was a bit stubborn trying to fix a camera, a small Sony point & shoot.  So what do I do...   take it to a repair shop...  NO!!  Actually it would have cost more to repair it than buy a new one.  So instead of buying a new camera, I get the same model, a used one with a cracked LCD screen for cheap.  Ahhh, put 2 and 2 together...  you got it!  Well, in theory it could have worked.  But my thumbs were a little too rough for the delicate ribbon underneath.  Doh... on to camera 3.  Same model again, used, but this one works so far, so I will leave it alone...   until something breaks on it.  But I'm sure I would get one camera working this time, really!

So back to the anode rod, take a look.



It protects your hot water heater from corrosion, and it was quite the job loosening it.  First I had to get a 1 1/16th inch socket.  Just make sure the hot water heater has been turned off for awhile.  There was a fair amount of debris to flush out with the hose as well.



Alright, next post we'll get some pictures of the Christmas decorations displayed out and about at the park.  Cat has a funny story to tell, once she gets the chance.  She will be launching her new site shortly, it has been a mad rush getting product and samples ready.

More coming soon...

Black Friday it is...

We have embraced the American holiday weekend, it beats the pants off the Canadian Thanksgiving and then followed up by one of the biggest shopping days of the year.  Cat loves the chaos but I prefer sleeping in.  The poor suckers camping outside BestBuy at 3am in Maine.  And that takes us to a tragic note.  Three people were killed in the madness of these sales.  One Walmart employee was trampled and two others at a Toys R' Us shot one another over a piece of discounted merchandise.  Come on!  Yesterday was Thanksgiving wasn't it?

So we are looking at the Class A, as Cat highlighted in the previous post, the main reason being the discomfort in moving long distances with a 5th wheel.  No slides is fine, I don't want to have to pack up and move a lot of items everytime we go somewhere.  We're going with an old one since we would have to get another vehicle regardless in June once the lease is up on the truck.   Trading the Escalade makes zero sense...  we're in a negative equity situation, and the prospects of getting that much more money is slim.  So the next step will be to find a piece of land where we can park the Escalade permanently.  I'll have to talk to the bank to see if they'll consider it a primary residence (mobile home), and then work on negotiating a much more favourable - traditional mortgage.  I'm aiming for the least amount of debt right now.



We are currently at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, and it is significantly warmer here than North Florida.  It was the first day we have run the A/C -- instead of the fireplace!  Love this park, it has really grown on us. The first time we came here, we thought it very decrepit, the place is brush filled and has fire charred trees. It's a very dry area and the park often conducts controlled burns.  I really like the area around Jupiter.  It's more laid back before hitting busy south Florida.

A possible new addition....

....and not of the animal varity. Nor human, thank goodness. What is this possible new addition? That would be a 1997 Damon Intruder....that's right, a Class A.

What about Mr.Escalade? Not to worry, we're keeping him. If we were to trade in, we'd take a loss. Not like we want to trade him in either, no way. We figured it would make more sense to get a used Class A in excellent condition and keep the 5th wheel....it's cheaper than getting a new truck for the fiver when the lease runs out this June. That and we are itching for a Class A for more reasons than I care to list on here! I'm sure any one with an A would know about this!

And so, the search has been going on for months....the discussion, the debates, the frustration on what route to take, but it's falling into place. We're currently scouting out some land (not quite sure where yet however, ugh) to park the Escalade on....build a deck around it and use it as a home base. Then in the future we have the option to get a used truck or whatnot to pull it.

Back to the search, we've looked at every RV known to man. From new to used, to literally falling apart. Just trying to gage the differences, the prices of 'fixing them up' and things like that. Well today we found 'the one'. The only floor plan we truly loved. We had recently looked at one of these 'rare' floorplans in person, but the unit itself was pretty run down. Listed for $15,000, thought maybe it would be worth the fix up cost at $5000 less but the seller would never have gone for it. Glad we waited for a while, because today I ran across our guy online....in Michigan. For the first time BOTH Bryan and I went: THAT'S IT! Good sign!

Of course buying sight unseen is risky (we're still having someone take a look at it, with the slight possibility of Bryan flying up for a few hours to see it and back down again), but with the price it's worth it to us. We know we'll be spending quite a bit more fixing it up and taking care of the 'unforeseen problems'. It's listed in EXCELLENT condition, and super clean interior. Enough for me! The only problem is we don't want to put the full amount down....especially with todays, er, 'problems'. What if the dealership went bankrupt?! Very bad. Well we've worked out a plan to get us around it, and have some back ups....we'll see how it goes. Also, we'll have someone to check it out before the full amount is paid, so that's good enough for me!

Enough of the boring stuff, here it is. Putting a deposit down on it soon after we get some terms and conditions out of the way. My mother is freaking out about buying sight unseen, which is understandable. She also manged to get some people all riled up on the RV forum about how stupid a decision it is. But you know, we're kind of a different, er, 'type'. And young enough to bounce back....and pretty damn resourceful if I say so myself;-) Starting off on an RV at a young age was a risk itself, and one we never look back on. All those folks, they've lived and learned through their mistakes over the years. We've only just begun;-)

That being said, hopefully we can write a post in the future that doesn't warrant any 'I told ya so's! I have a feeling we're going to be A-OK.

Meet, Mr. Intruder! Muhahahaha! We may be meeting him in January!

Where are we exactly...

We made it to our destination, good ol' Florida.  Only thing is, we got a little confused, or maybe it was mother nature, because it sure hasn't seemed like Florida the last three days.  It has been freezing, yes freezing in Florida.  Albeit we're in north Florida, near Jacksonville, but these are record lows we're seeing.  It was 30 degrees F the night before, and inland it dipped to 20, that's well below the average nightly tempature of 50 degrees.  It's so mixed up that it was warmer in PEI the last 3 days.  Go figure.  But this cold front will surely break soon, plus we're headed farther south in a few days, then Cat can go outside again;)

Cat snapped a pic of the welcome to Florida sign, but it turned out blurry.  I like this one a lot better.   



 

This is at Fernandina Beach, nice spot, you can drive out on the beach too.  I know you can do that at Daytona Beach too, but for some reason we've passed right by this general stretch of Florida on our previous treks.  We'll hit the beach soon, the water was a little cold though.