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!

:-)