Getting our DUCKS in a row HDT Offer Made

Getting our DUCKS in a row 

HDT offer Made

Thursday January 25, 2024

Technically it was yesterday but Jim and I called the bank and talked to our financial guy in Pennsylvania. We officially made an offer on the HDT.

 Then after breakfast we went over across the road in the golf cart for the Thursday flea market. A lot of stuff to look at inside and out. Alot of produce here. 

We found Sweet onions. Drain Covers, that we wanted to give to my brother for his kitchen sinks. It strains the food particles, so it doesn't go down the drain, works fantastic. A plastic vase and also bought more Holy Moly cleaning cloths. 

Drift wood bird house really cool, very heavy. Not RV friendly. Some huge salad bowls and pots.

Guy selling pizza, 2 cool toy HDT's

Had a nice chat with a few people, met some from Mount Zion, that are literally only miles from our former house. They knew our neighbors. 

Then we drove the golf cart back home had lunch together here.

Later Jim made smoked grilled chicken on the Ninja. With rest of pasta salad.

Friday January 26, 2024

After breakfast I went up and did walk fit with the ladies. 

I walked over and back, which was an extra mile and a half or so. 

Then had lunch here and then we went to Lowe's looking for that Goof Off to get the sap off the camper like our neighbors had. Tractor Supply, for springs to repair the recliner of Jim's.  Then we went to Bealls and walked around, didn't find anything though. 

Then went into the liquor store next door, always find stuff in there. They were having tasting of watermelon tequila.

Then we went home saw beautiful

sunset and

 I made us each a dinner salad.

NOW What....

NOW What...

Monday January 22, 2024

This morning we got up, hopeful for a Happy Monday. 

I always forget waffle Sunday, so I made him waffles, before I left to go to walk fit. 

Today's the last day we can use the building on this side, there Rally starts here tomorrow.

So I walked up right before 9:00. Talked to a lovely group of ladies. We did about four miles today.

 I had texted Jim I was on my way to Line Dance across the road, it's a long walk, both directions, 1 1/2 miles.

My path is the middle pictures.

Here Comes an HDT in here.

he said he couldn't talk, he had a problem. 

Great NOW What....

I got back to the RV after 12 noon, to  see the golf cart all tore apart. 

He waited till today to get it out. I've been trying to get him to Pace himself. As he works too hard, all in one day and is worn out. 

He said he got the golf cart out and it didn't want to move. Sort of figured there was a loose wire somewhere. It took him the rest of the afternoon, but he tracked it down, and got it going again. 

He's amazing. Then he went for a ride, with Bruce #3, riding shotgun incase he needed towed home. 

Later we took a ride together.

Later I made dinner. Turkey Kabasi, grilled veggies, and pasta salad.

Tuesday January 23, 2024

Thos morning after breakfast and coffee, later we went out for some errands. 

First we went to the Lake Square Mall. Just another deserted Mall like all through the country I guess. 

Not many stores open at all. Unless you need a wedding dress,

or formal wear.

Enjoy walking around. Went to the food court for lunch, only choice was Pizza or Chinese food.

Hershey ice cream, too no thanks.

We chose Chinese and took some home I even took a tupperware container with me. 

Then we had frozen yogurt for dessert. After that we saw a kiosk with some really cool t-shirts. 

Then I realized they were all faith-based and we started talking to the lady that owned it. 

Of course being full-time RVs always comes up. She kept saying it was her dream. 

We talked with her about Switch It Up, and their mission. She just loved the idea and I gave her our card and SIU card, told her she had to check it out. And plan her next RV Adventure. Told her she should definitely come to a Huddle or Campout.

 Then we went to a shoe store or two. I've been on a hunt for new sneakers named Fila. I also found a pair of slip-on Skechers that I love. 

Then we headed out, our next stop was Aldi's. I was given a time limit of about a half an hour, and I did pretty well. Still came out with about $80 worth I think. 

Also tried Batteries +Plus bulbs, we needed a new battery for the hotspot. It won't hold the charge anymore . It's where we got it last time, but they don't carry them anymore. 

Now you have to resort to Amazon, I guess.  Jim said they don't even have them. Work in progress.

Then we made a quick stop to Walmart for the rest of the items we couldn't get there. 

We saw this really cool smart car in the parking lot when we arrived.

 Be a perfect paint job for us . Then headed home, by now it's time to make dinner.

Wednesday January 24, 2024

This morning we got up and had breakfast. Took a quick golf cart ride to see if anybody we just met was interested in getting there tanks cleaned.

Matt arrived at 10 am. Ironically Kleen tank was doing one right behind us.

They use a small air compressor that's electric. And Healthy Tanks, uses a gas powered motor pressure washer. That gets up to 2,000 PSI. I think it would make a huge difference doing it this way. 

Matt said our tanks were very healthy considering we've been using Tank Tech Rx, AKA Just Science. It was amazingly quick for cleaning out four tanks, two black, two Gray. Less than an hour. After he left we finished our usual tank management routine. He also bought us a bottle as we were almost out of Just Science.

 Then later we had lunch.

Later Jim went out to try to get the sap off the camper again, with our new stuff. 

He was working, he was making some progress. Bruce #3, again was  polishing his. They talked back and forth a little bit, eventually Bruce came over and showed us what he was using. 

The small bottle on the right, was the neighbor across from us in that MH. His was a lower strength.

He tried it on the sap on the truck and it wiped right off. No elbow grease needed.

His wife came over we had a nice chat. I was telling them about Switch It Up, I invited her in. We chatted about Todd and Sheila. I was explaining there vision, for RV Revolution and what good people they are. She was all teary eyed. I said where are the tears coming from.

 She explained a moment of faith she had with someone. I said wow, you would just love them. I put a video on so she could see them, and how to find them. She said she couldn't wait to watch.

Later Jim and I had dinner together.

Then I realized that we had a message from David, a guy we met,  pointed us in the direction of this HDT. He kNOWS the guy who is selling it. He said he would vouch for us, WOW.

Then a 3rd person Liz and Benny we also met at HDT Rally, he let Jim drive his Volvo. Also told us about the  SAME truck. 

Incredible. The truck seems to be perfect for us. Wrong color, but we could fix that later. Black and orange of course.

My HDT dream truck. If we can get all our DUCKS in a row.

Then we got ready and made the drive in the golf cart. Same route that I walked to go to happy hour.

We sat with some people I line danced with. They had nachos, burger sliders, and popcorn. 

2 beers per person, with me not drinking, never drinking beer, he had four. Was a nice time. I drove us home then.

Jim made Ribs on the Ninja for dinner tonight. 

Last Day of the Tampa RV show

Last Day of the Tampa RV Show 

Sunday January 21, 2024

Today is technically Day  #5, of the RV show. But we weren't able to go in, as today is moving day.

This morning we woke up to the thump the RV makes, when the electric is shut off, at 7:30 a.m. IT was supposed to be on till noon. Not the Wake Up Call we wanted. 

We got up to see what was going on. Not sure why but it was off. 

Jim eventually got the generator going. We got the coffee and breakfast going. Packed up a few more things for travel. 

Then we had a lovely surprise visit from Lawrence. From the Brazen Brits.

So nice for him to stop and say hi. We were very touched that he did that. He was picking up a love seat from Chad and Sabrina to put in his RV as they were getting new furniture too. His Dad made the road trip with him. So sweet. I went over to say hi to him again.

Site 881 Southern Palms 

Our spot at RV show.

Didn't realize I had our two different spots in the collage.

So hard to say goodbye to everyone. As people started to leave we got ready and pulled out about 10:00 10:30.

 We were heading to Southern Palms in Eustis Florida. Pretty short travel day, it was only about a 2-hour Drive. We arrived about 12:30. We new our site number was going to be 881. So we called them when we were about 10 minutes out. 

Pulled up next to the site and waited for our parking attendant and his little rope they use here. 

Then he said we wouldn't fit in the site. They had nothing else for us. As we are Thousand Trails members, we get the bottom of the barrel. There was a couple different Rallies going on here so it was going to be full. 

He's telling us 50 some coming in today and 140 tomorrow. Not really our problem cuz we had reservations, we even made a pre arrival phone call to make sure. Per there recommendation a few days ago.

 Anyway said he'd give us a try, so we tried to back in. Guy behind us came out he couldn't believe how they were trying to squish us in, although he was being very nice. He said Jim and I look familiar.  I said we can figure it out from where later. We thanked them for being so nice about everything. But he didn't mind as we slowly were encroaching on his site. 

Then our guy said he had to call in the big guns, and some other dude came over. Not much help, they were guiding Jim, based on how far they thought our slides came out.

He Didn't want to listen to me or Jim that we didn't need to be over as far as they thought. 

The guy crossed the road was complaining quite loudly about their process, and where they were putting us to get in.

 Everyone else was very nice and we eventually squished in.

 I got some food out, we had lunch did minimal setup. The truck ends up being right where are outdoor living space should be.

Later we saw this posted. 

Robert  and Julia Barclay were lovely people too.

Almost didn't get in, Now voted Best in Show.

We saw that he tagged us in Facebook post, because he wanted us to see this listed. 

Well this just got interesting. It appears like almost everything we wanted, but the colors, needs new paint.

Okay now we're finally squished in our site and Jim plugs into electric. 

 I told him the surge protector was reading faulty ground. 

He had the volt meter out, tried the 50 and 30 amp even the 20. 

He felt like there was something wrong with the new box. It was brand new, only used one time before us. And they probably didn't have a surge protector. So I had to call and they said they'd send the electrician over. Oh geez

He had to rewire it.

Didn't do much else the rest of the night. 

Kept thinking about the blue boys above.

I had leftover Thanksgiving food, I had gotten out of the freezer for dinner. We talked about the possibility of an HDT in our future.

Tampa RV Show Day #4

Tampa RV Show Day #4

Saturday January 20, 2024

This morning we went into the show as soon as we could. BUT.. Not early enough, because we missed the donuts, again. I guess once was enough.

Then we walked around for a while. I had made a list before we left of things we still wanted to see. 

We accomplished almost everything on the list, but the Custom Travel Home with Robert and Julia as it was in the show now.

 They didn't make the whole show. There was a whole back and forth of whether they were going to let them in or not. Long story.

But Today was our last chance to see anything else. 

We went back to the rig later for lunch.

We talked to our neighbors Lori and Rocky behind us in the Brinkley. She was talking how she collects rocks, and brought me to see. Not RV friendly. The dresser was covered in them. I think they still have a house.

Then we tried the product we bought around the water heater. You can see the streak on the right and how the streak on the left was easily removed with Koenig Spray Polish.

 Back at 1:00, to the SpaceCraft. 

 Ryan was setting up to play guitar on the roof. First time using the new sound system.

He welcomed everyone to the RV Show, talked about Todd and Sheila. Sang a few songs, played the new one he wrote for us again. I just love that song, it makes me teary eyed sometimes thinking about it. 

Time For a Change.

He only played for a good 20 minutes. Todd didn't want to encroach too much on the other sales people around us.

They are so considerate. We had a great time talking with everyone. 

Our Crew, Todd and I together.

Todd with youngest daughter Brianna.

The little boy on the right went up to Todd and ask him to autograph one of the switch it up cards they were handing out. It was so touching.

Later we saw Todd posted this that he had a visit from someone pretty influential.

 You can't listen to it, but he was talking about all the good Todd and Sheila do. We're all curious if he was one of the big money sponsors. We don't know for sure.

It was nice that Peggy and Brett

showed up, that we had met from Pennsylvania at the TT3 Campground before we arrived here. He said he owed him a beer. He bought Jim an $11.00 beer, at the Tampa RV show. OMG, can't believe they charge that much.

After that was over, I talked Jim into sitting and watching a chef cooking with pots and pans you don't need water or oil to cook with. Basically it was just a great place for me, Jim especially to rest. Jim could care less, but he needed to take a break. Plus we were killing time for our our sofa pickup.

 They're very expensive,  but they seemed pretty awesome. Then we left and talked to a few more people. Ended up going back to the sofa close to 5:00. We saw Mark and Debbie Morrison there.

 Come to find out later they also had stopped at Len and Phyllis's a long time ago they said. 

She said are they the ones that let you use their soaker tub if you want to. I said absolutely, they are that generous. Don't think anyone ever took them up on it.

We had a picture taken with them and they had bought the same brand of furniture, but with a different dealer.

Maybe in a year or two. We could get the recliner set in the middle picture.

This is also called Lambright Luxe Sleeper Sofa.

Later David brought the dolly over to put the sofa on. He was going to go get the van. We walked outside with the sofa in tow. I bet we were a funny sight to see. Lol 

So many people made comments, like "are they stealing that, or look at that sofa, you can take that right to my RV."

Ha Ha, you are SO funny people.

Then we looked around to see which direction to go, David said we could just wak it all the way there. 

We said okay, so we started walking. The three of us with the sofa about halfway there David said, " I'm going to go get the van. " Jim said REALLY!

Jim didn't want to have to move it again and pick it up. 

We kept going, taking breaks occasionally. We got back to our camper right before he arrived, we never had to put it in the van, thank goodness. 

 David was great at helping Jim get it inside.

 I recruited two of our Switch Crew friends to help. 

David did a great job and assembled it in its place.

 What a wonderful buying experience it was with him.

 We were finished, just in time to go over to the potluck and have dinner with everyone. Glad we only had to cook once for the two potlucks.

Then we all sat around and talked by the propane fires, we had five going I think. I had a nice talk with Polly, center.

She has a motorhome and travels all by herself, she is almost 70. Wow.

Jim went home early he worked really hard today.

Slowly everyone was turning in for the night. It was really cold if you walked away from the fire. I helped Polly carry her stuff home. She showed me her cute Class C MH. We said goodnight and I walked home. 

So sad it's over and tomorrow we leave.