Sitting tight....

Today was a REALLY rainy day...gray and dreary...we were going to play golf at the Tyler Creek golf course right next door, but the weather just wouldn't let us. We headed into Grand Rapids to get some downloads taken care of at Barnes and Noble bookstore. That's a great place to just browse--free wi-fi, and lots of things to look at and check out. Just for fun, we listened to a guy talk about their e-reader, the Nook...looks interesting, but they have lots of competition...we'll continue to research that for down the road some day. Full timers take advantage of free wi-fi wherever they can because it saves on data useage for the air card. We have a 5 gigabyte plan, and have not used all of it yet. But I could see us getting close if we did things like downloaded any movies, which we don't. We use the Redbox movie rentals that you see occasionally at Walmart's or grocery stores if we want to rent a movie, (1.00) and if we stayed for any length of time in one place, we'll rent from the local library. I downloaded some digital scrapbook files today that would have taken forever to download back at home (in the RV). Sometimes they can be pretty big files, so it was great to use Barnes and Noble's dime.

We took our orientation tour today of the Tiffin...I never saw so many lights, switches, buttons, fuses, and wiring schematics in my life! There must be MILES of wiring in that coach. I took notes, but very quickly it was evident that we would need to sit down and just do our homework of reading manuals. We learned a few things that we remember--how to control the spotlight on top of the RV, where the air horns are (inside the generator compartment up front) how to work the radio/TV system, but the rest is just a blur. I think we will be needing to set up a speed dial direct line to the service department! They tried to talk us into a special coating to apply to the entire outside of the coach (a very expensive option), but we decided, no thanks! There are pros and cons to apply this paint protector to your coach--it's supposed to fade proof the exterior paint over the years and make it less prone to "black streaks", but we chose an extended warranty in its place. With all the electronics on board, there's just too much that might need attention when the warranty runs out.

We set up an appointment for Friday to pick up the coach, but then found out quite accidentally, that they will be needing a cashier's check for the purchase from the bank. We naively assumed that they would take a personal check. Wrong! At 6:00 AM tomorrow morning, we will take the RV to General in Wayland, MI, drop it off for safekeeping, then drive about two hours to Elkhart to the bank to pick up the cashier's check. Another two hours back, then we should be ready to sign papers and make the move from one RV to the other. They will park the two RV's door to door, and we will transfer all our "stuff" from one side to the other. Have no idea how long that will take...we've managed to accumulate and stuff every nook and cranny of the Challenger these past four months, so it might take longer than we think! But we're excited and ready to make the move! What's another day or two if some other snafu comes up? (It's a LOT!)....stay tuned.....