On the road again....

Speaking of Wille Nelson's famous song, which happens to be on many RVers' favorite playlists, we heard an older motor home heading out of Elkhart Campground playing the song on their air horn as they left. It was just as loud as loud could be, but many of us at the campground were laughing because it was just so perfect that their rig was playing that. On the front of the bus/RV above the windshield, were the words "Wingin' It"...that just perfectly sums up our lifestyle....(the Tiffin has dual air horns--- guess what Eldy wants for Christmas?)

Sunday night we had dinner with our campground friends Larry and Kay at Hana Yori in Mishawaka, IN, about a 20 min. drive from Elkhart. As with many Japanese restaurants where they cook at your table, you sit at a table with strangers. If you tend to be on the social side, you aren't strangers very long.  We struck up a conversation with the people sitting across from us. They overheard us talking about traveling in an RV, so lots of questions ensued. How do you get your mail? Where are you going next? Where do you stay? Do you still have your home? What do you like about it? Are people very friendly out on the road? They were amazed when we told them about the rallys that are going on in the area. The rally we just attended had about 170 rigs at the Elkhart Campground but the Escapees rally at the Goshen, IN Fairgrounds this week has over 800 coaches in attendance! They were flabbergasted at that there were that many people out there living full time in an RV that would show up at one time in one place to be a part of the rally. You could just tell that they really didn't understand how this all works and were just a little bit puzzled as to how we could walk away from our homes, sold or not, and head out on the road for more than just a couple of weeks. The more we talked about it, the more they thought it was cool! It's hard for people to understand that you don't have to have a plan of where you are going to be...the freedom of it is a hard concept for people to grasp. What? You don't have a schedule? You don't know where you are going next? It was fun trying to explain it!

We traveled north again today to check out the camping areas near Grand Rapids, where General is waiting to get all our tax information for the final assessment to what our possible interest rate will be and the monthly payment for the new Tiffin Phaeton RV. We're holding our breaths as we may not get the favorable rate and payment we are hoping for. If that's the case, then we stay where we are at in our current Damon Challenger until we find something that meets our expectations, but we sure do have our hearts set on the Tiffin! That's been Eldy's dream RV for many years. It's a very high quality unit. He's researched and researched all these models for years....he's currently researching the Freightliner chassis upon which this unit is built. I guess there's a class you can take to learn all about your chassis--maintenance, problem solving, etc. Can't say that's a class I would choose to take, but this is a big investment and I certainly need to know all about the RV in case something happens to Eldy. I was proud of myself this morning. He had to go get his tax records from North Webster so I singlehandedly closed up the motor home...dumped the tanks, put chemicals in the toilet holding tank, unhooked the electric and water,  cranked down the TV antenna, pulled in all the slides, put in the travel bar (so the biggest slide doesn't loosen and wiggle out during travel), and sat down and worked on the blog while waiting for Eldy to come home. There's a lot to remember and an order to everything you do, so I had him doublecheck my efforts before we took off. We have had goofy things happen like an orange rolling off a countertop and wedging itself under the slide (luckily I spotted it before it got squooshed) so you have to look carefully before you put the slides in or out. One time I forgot to take the travel bar out which wedges the slide in place so the top of the frame started to moan and groan before I realized the travel bar was holding it from going out!

We landed at Tyler Creek Golf and Campgrounds  in Alto, MI for the next few days. Alto is east of 131 and directly east of Grand Rapids, so we'll be close by to work out our deal with General. I should say, deal or no deal! Great rates--$25.00 a night..under budget, so we'll see how long we want to stay. The golf is an extra bonus, and it's cheap!  9 holes with a cart, senior rate 50 yrs. and up--$11.00! 18 holes and a cart for 19.00 during the week....we should hear something from General Tuesday afternoon...then it will take a couple of days for financing to fall into place, then another couple of days for the RV to get prepped...we may be here for a week, we don't know...and we may be working on our golf games quite a bit! We shall see.....