PART 2 The HAPPY ending

PART 2 The HAPPY Ending 

Saturday October 22, 2022

We had an appointment at Sycamore Hill RV to get the camper inspected at 9:00 a.m. Upon arrival they took care of us and we were finished by 10:22 a.m.. We talked with Jim a lot about full timing. Didn't realize he wanted to do it too, in about 10 years.

The drive was beautiful with the leaves changing colors.

We stayed on the Ohio Turnpike again for another night. I love the set up there. We had same spot as last time. We can back up more to give us more space and allow us not to have to unhook. 

So exciting the anticipation of arriving back in Indiana to finally get our much-needed work done on the RV. Jim grilled some chicken, for the next couple of days in the hotel.

Sunday October 23, 2022

We arrived at Affinity RV. We had the gate code to enter the facility, as they are not open today. We packed up what we felt we needed left all the slides in. We plugged in the RV and said goodbye to her until tomorrow morning. 

We headed over to the Quality Inn, so excited for our new adventure. We have no suitcases in the FW, just alot of bags you get at RV shows, so luckily we were able to get a luggage cart out the side door and sneak back to our room after we checked in, that no one could really see us. We had a lot of stuff for a week. Pillows and food and clothes and way more than I thought it would be. We got settled in unfortunately the pool was not open. Made quite the list of things that we forgot, we will get them tomorrow. After that we were good.. We had food that we packed for dinner. Jim thought the bed was hard I thought was soft, we got used to it. 

Monday October 24th we went to the breakfast that they had. We lovingly called the hotel quality not so Quality Inn. But the breakfast was top-notch for Jim, first class all the way he loved it. Here's a picture of him in line. 

 The man loves his breakfast food.

I just drink coffee and watch the man eat, I had my little steel cut oatmeal and Greek yogurt I make in the instant pot with fresh fruit everyday. They had scrambled eggs and bacon biscuits with sausage gravy. A Belgian waffle maker bread English Muffins with a toaster, almost anything you could imagine. We watch the news and weather while we enjoyed our coffee for a good hour. 

Then we would head over to Affinity RV group to check on the campers progress. 

The above picture has 1 of 4 of the stress cracks circled. 2 on each side above slides.

Till we got there they had the fifth wheel inside and the progress was underway. Amazing how much they had done already.

 The slide was out already.

After we left the first full day they worked, we were leaving as the welder was coming in. He welded for hours we were told. We believe he unplugged the RV and forgot to plug it in when he left, when we arrived the next morning it was at 67% battery. But they must have caught it before we arrived. Was probably a little lower than that but it was okay.

We would hang out for a bit and watch them work, and then we would take off and go find something to do. 4 out of 5 days we walked at the beautiful Fiddler Pond Trail. 

In 4 days we walked 10 miles. A great path around the lake.

It was a little chilly and windy but beautiful. Saw some black squirrels.

 Then we head back to check the RV one more time by 2 or 3:00 before everyone leaves at 3:30. Then we would go back to the hotel and have dinner. The next morning we do it all over again. 

We had a cup of coffee in the room, got ready. Went to the breakfast room had a fabulous breakfast, well Jim did. After I ate we would go check on the RV  about 10:00 in the morning or so. One day we stopped at Dunkin' donuts and took two dozen over to the guys working.

Then maybe go to a store and go shopping our favorites were Menards and Meijer. Couple times we went to Taco Bell, and he did Burger King once for lunch. Other than that we ate in the room with all the food I brought. It was very convenient to have the fridge and microwave and way cheaper and healthier.

 Then we go back to check on the RV before they closed up. The one day the guy was up the ladder and he asked Jim if he wanted to go up the ladder and look. So he crawled down and Jim went up to check the progress. 

I was inspecting from the ground. 

You can see new piece above slide before it was painted 

before the slide was out.

Then got messier and messier inside.

I kept seeing things and would say to myself, well I can get rid of that. And that.

This is what Jim saw when on the ladder.

           They replaced on both sides above slides.

You can see slide on  Left, laying on it's side with old floor.

Then the new slide floor here. They took everything out of side and layer it down. Then had to put it all back in. Above ladder you can see new replacement glass that will be painted later.

By Wednesday and into Thursday things were starting to come back together. And the slide was back in. We arrived one day and they went to show us the slide coming back in. And it didn't work. I broke into a flop sweat. They started working on it again, they had to change out the way it was beveled on the floor. Here's a picture of Rod and Jim together. 

 A few years ago when we stayed at our friend's house in Jonestown, we painted the black trim at the edge of the top of the roof line, because it was peeling so bad. When they did all this work they had to peel the rubber roof back. Jim and I were so concerned about how it ruined the paint. The painter they hired is fantastic,  and it was painted on both full-length sides, even better than we had it. I think that's what they were doing in the above picture with all the scaffolding.

He told us to check everything and if something isn't right to tell the one guy and they would take care of it. First thing Jim saw was the strap for the recliners was no longer attached to the new floor. He told me don't say anything I'll just do it quick. And then Jim started looking around and spotted three different things that needed attention. The main thing was above the slide the paper was all wrinkled. After they investigated why they realized it was rotten under there they had to pull all the paper off, replace the wood and put new wallpaper up. Now I call that my accent wall. They did an amazing job cleaning up putting things back together. They paid Attention to all our concerns. They cleaned the outside and Polished it. They even cleaned the hard wood floor and Polished it, so much that I almost took a wicked fall, some of the workers almost did too.

 There was so many bugs in the front nose when we arrived and they got all them cleaned off it was amazing. We can't say enough good things about them. They did an amazing job, I guess that's what 35,500 gets you.

Between the two of us we took so many pictures of all the progress. So many more...

here they had to take the window out, fix broken wall inside, put up new wall board. Part of my new accent wall.

Above picture is my new accent wall with a new wallboard and window back in. I asked Rod if they could not put the window boxes back up, just throw them in the dumpster. I want to have Jim help me put curtains up on the back three windows, ASAP. He said sure we don't have to put them back.

By Friday they had everything together. And we watched them pull the fifth wheel out of the Bay.

 They parked it in our spot we've had so many times now. We were able to move things back in from the hotel. It took a lot longer than I anticipated, because I still needed to clean up certain things and put stuff away. Once they left for the day I had full hookups and I think I even started on some laundry. 

He can't say enough good things about Rod and Affinity. They have been fantastic to us taking such good care of us and are home. We would highly recommend them. 

We were just so happy and thankful feeling so blessed everything was finished. He stay the night tonight, head towards Georgia tomorrow for the  Switch it up Huddle. 

Back in Pennsylvania

Back in Pennsylvania 

August 17, 2022

Is when we arrived back in town. My granddaughter and daughter-in-law and her sister went to New York to see Harry Styles, they stopped at the Today Show. They were on  the Plaza, I still have it recording, although I don't really watch it anymore. But I went through and found a whole bunch of shots with them in the background. 

Then my granddaughter came home and was sick with covid. 

The next day Jim went to visit his mom and he said my car was making weird noises. End up calling Thomas and he had it towed to his work at Ciocca Honda in Harrisburg. He inspected it and put on One new front brake and caliper.

I went over in the truck to pick him up. Have been driving it alot.

Later car was acting up again, had a vibration in front. We took it back to Thomas in a few day's. He is ready for us to get rid of it. Lol

September 3rd we went to pick up my car. All ready to go and get SOLD.  It was a Saturday we got to visit him at work. Really fun to visit your adult child and see their work life firsthand.

 Nice to have my car back. But now I have to drive. 

September 4th we took his mom for a drive saw a beautiful field full of sunflowers we all went out to eat together. 

September 5th I was at work, was just about to leave for the day and there was a snake in the Hall of the nursing home. So I went and got a clear pitcher and ended up catching it, and releasing it outside. I told her I wanted it on my resume, nobody else would have done that. 

September 10th we went to Harrisburg to look at electric drum kit. We were there about an hour, Jim was playing one. 

I said are we going to get one or what. He said no, let's just wait. Later he put it on Facebook and a guy he used to work with called him said you want to buy my kit. 

Long story short we ended up buying his, went to pick it up the next day, he had a huge amp, weighed 65 lb, I said that's not going to make the cut. Ended up giving it to Thomas and taking his real little one. Now it's taking up room and living room till we find a home for it. 

September 17th we went to the Hershey RV show, here's a picture of a new horizon rear kitchen. 

And I like to convert our table and chairs to a counter like this and turn them facing the window. 

RV still a work in progress.

October 2, 2022

 Our friends Marcia and Jeff were in town. They are traveling for now in a truck camper. We went to dinner to Ruby Tuesdays with them. 

Then on October 6th I wanted to make more applesauce I had apples which I thought would be secure in ice chest outside. The squirrels here are crazy and chewed a hole through it. Although the apples were too large to get out, but had to throw the ice chest away.

 October 7th my granddaughter was playing a scary part in a haunted house for volunteer fire company,  where she dressed up.

She is such a good little actress.

 October 8th we had a family dinner at Thomas's where I made kielbasa and pierogies. It was homecoming, we were there as Sarah got ready.

My brother's were in town, our Uncle has been in the hospital. I told Drew to come over. Never thought he would. Then I forgot about it. He really surprised us all when he stopped by. 

Me and my boys Thomas and Travis 

 Later we went to a Bowman picnic afterwards. Jim told his boss and coworkers. Thanks for throwing me this retirement party. He is so funny. 

October 11th my birthday I signed up to do ServSafe so I've been studying for a week or two now next week on the 18th I had to take a test, yay I passed I'm now Serve Safe certified for another 5 years. 

Then we went out to Ruby Tuesday's for my birthday dinner together. 

My uncle wasn't doing well, we were going to stop at the hospital to see him. Didn't know if my brothers were still there so we ended up going home. Shortly after we arrived my brother David called and said they were there, we probably should come. So we got dressed again went back to the hospital. He was wide awake, and we got to talk to him. But he passed the next day. Sad day, he so reminded me of my Dad.

 October 18th was the ServSafe test I just mentioned. As soon as the test is over I went to the funeral for my uncle . My brother's.

Drew myself and David

Jim was changing the tires on the golf cart. We had a lot to do before we leave. 

Jim's last day was Thursday October 20th my last work day was October 21st  they gave me a gift on my last day, a plaque with years of service, was 15 and a clock, really heavy. Have to find a place for it not great in the RV. 

So we ended up 67 days back in Pennsylvania, continuing on and off those days fighting with the extended warranty company. Trying to get the RV repair done. Took forever they finally denied it. Because of non covered components. 

 Ended up going through our Nationwide Insurance. Back and forth, Rod ended up talking to him four times I think he said. The total amount ended up being $35, 535.45 they covered the whole thing. We decided we wouldn't be able to get there and do it this year. We thought we put up with it this long. We would go in Spring. I had called once approved and told one of the ladies in office that. 

I got home from work one day. I was looking in my phone for message from our new insurance lady. I had a message from Rod. He said to call him back.

When I did he said he found out we were going to wait till spring. He just thought that we shouldn't wait. It could get worse, I said we worried about that too. I said had to talk with Jim. I said we didn't think we would have time to get it all done because originally he said 2 to 3 weeks. He said he hired a full-time painter which we needed. He had everything we needed in place, he couldn't promise,  but was hoping to do in a week. He would put us up in a hotel close by we could come over every day. I  said I would call him back. OMG

When Jim got home Geez we had alot to talk about. Just the fact we could get all that done before we left for the winter, so exciting. We would only really have to change one major reservation. We could just do it later. Thunder Canyon with the  RV Odd Couple, John and Mercedes. We will go in the spring. I called him back, and plan was in motion. We would still leave on our original day but side trip to Indiana first.

The last week in Pa was so busy, Jim's cartilogist appointment. We had the truck to get oil change and inspection etc. My last nail appointment.

Jim's last day was Thursday October 20 and mine was Friday the 21st.

 Here we come Indiana. Coming next PART 2

PART 1 Attempting to get RV repaired

PART 1 Attempting to get RV Repaired 

In July and into August we attempted to go through our extended warranty company, and get our RV repaired. We had looked into it when we were still in Florida, we have at least four stress cracks and multiple issues with the slides. But our biggest problem was our main slide would not go in. 

After our first Switch it up Huddle in Texas, when we left we went to a campground that we saw One Strange Adventure, Harold and Cindy, unbeknownst to us, we were in the middle of a Grand Design Rally. And we were chatting, I asked Harold where he would get his RV repaired if he did not have a manufacturer to go to. He immediately and highly recommended Goshen Indiana, Affinity RV group.

 So later I called our extended warranty company and told them I would like to take it there. So we made the arrangements to take off of work a few weeks, and would go to Indiana and arrange for them to take a look at it.

It's about 600 miles give or take, so we left on July 30th, and stayed a night on the Ohio Turnpike. Here's our rig porn.

Jim found a KOA for Sunday night. Our appointment was to arrive Monday morning at Affinity RV. We arrived at the KOA not even 10 minutes into our getting set up. We ran into Marv and Terri Hein that we met at an Escapes Bash in the desert in 2019. 

When they saw us they hollered to Jim we have Yuengling beer. 

We ended up spending the rest of the day and evening together, until like 10:00 p.m.. we ended up having a potluck together. We had the gas propane bottle and he had the propane fire ring . We couldn't have planned it any better. What a great night. The next day we both had to leave in the morning.

We arrived at Affinity RV group for them to take a look at our slide, and all our other issues. We knew it was huge,  but it is even larger than we anticipated. We put the slide out a little for them so they could see all the things. Rod was fantastic going through everything. He had Alicia writing furiously all our things we would need for the repairs. He  said once they started it could take 2 to 3 weeks to finish, OMG. 

 They submitted it to the Extended Warranty company. And now we wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Etc

This is such a long story, long story, I won't do that again but you get my point. Is a long story. Hard to do the short version, but I'm going to try. 

Rod said we could plug in and stay for a few days waiting for the warranty company. Everyone leaves at 3:30, we have the place to ourselves, and we are in there gated area. We could leave if we wanted to, but we never did. I just wanted to start packing up for the hotel, but just would be  premature to start yet. He said he would try let us stay in FW at night. But probably would have to go to a hotel for a few nights, once the work was started. 

So one night Jim grilled and sat outside, was windy here.

 After the second day he suggested maybe we will have to go somewhere else to wait, as he had other people coming in. We were just dying to get in the bay and have them start on the work that needed to be done.

I love details, and it's so hard not to put all of them in here. 

So Jim feverishly looked for a campground to go to. He thought there was a Thousand Trails nearby I called to make the reservation. Told her what we were doing here,  Jim hollered in my ear, they don't care. But when she heard where we were she said there's another place closer. Called Twin Mills and it's free for us almost a half an hour closer she even called to see if they had room. She said they did, and to Call right away, That was so nice of her,, glad I said it.. so I called and made a reservation.

This was such a stressful time knowing how much the RV needed, to be whole again. Affinity RV  told us the claim would be probably in the ballpark of $30,000. That was hard to hear. And they said at some point they probably would have an adjuster want to come and look at it to take pictures. So the next day we left to go to Twin Mills. 

It was a beautiful Campground. Very large,  part of it on either side of the road. Of course Amish everywhere on this trip and horse and Buggies. Jim and I decided to try and enjoy ourselves and find things to do to keep ourselves busy and have some fun. Even though this was very stressful time for us both.

August 4th my mother-in-law's birthday Jim called her today. As we made a little side trip to Michigan. Jim wanted to go. We were going to run into a Walmart next door and I saw this sign for The Dude.

August 5th we went to the RV Museum. It was a lot of fun here's some pictures of that day.

We used to have a Winabago MH 1972 that my Mother had. And much later we used.

We had a lot of fun with that one, we had it in 1990's.

Back when we camped with the horse's.

Jim had a Switch It Up T-shirt on, someone recognized it, and followed Todd and Shelia too. We chatted and they took our picture. Also Todd wrote a book about the above  MH when he had one, so good, also a YouTube video, both Called One Lucky Penny, so worth your time, 2 hour video especially if you are a person of faith.

August 6 we went to Shipshewana flee market. Was great to walk around was a very hot day. Had lunch there and spoke with an older man that was there by himself, he was very lovely and enjoyable to talk to.

August 7 Pizza trailer came to the campground, was pricey but good. And we went into the pool today. 

The campground was huge and a beautiful place to walk. They had a little beachy area, we both walked every day, some I did myself to go farther.

Today we found two stores we never went into before called Menards, kind of like a Walmart and a Lowe's, and the best grocery store and booze and Meijer.  I found my favorite soda diet lemon lime Shasta,  haven't been able to find in years. It was so exciting to look around then both.

This morning Affinity called us, first thing she said was where are you now. Come to find out the adjuster came to take pictures of our rig. But never let them know, he just showed up and we weren't there. That's his bad. So we made to make arrangements to leave the campground the next morning, go back to Affinity for him to look at it and take his pictures. Which we did, Rod showed them everything that needed done, although he didn't care, he was just there to take pictures, he was subcontracted out,  didn't even really work with them. Then we left, went back to Twin Mills Campground, to continue our long, long,  long wait.

Before we left we had to extend our stay, which wasn't a problem but when we returned we had to go on the other side of the road. Where the campground continued over there. Not really a problem, but we could have kept a lot of our crap on our site when we left, instead we had to pack up everything.  Although we did decide to leave the golf cart at our friends in Hershey. Thanks to them again.

August 10, went to Bontrager's Surplus and Johnson's. Jim wants to reconfigure our power cord so the rig can be plugged in using it in the front or in the back of the RV. It will also make it easier to Boondock plugging the generator in the front, since it's in the bed of the truck.  Since we didn't know what was going on we didn't want to spend the money yet. The cord and supplies were about 250. So we waited.

First time saw them, both had beards, today one shaved, darn, I fixed it for picture looks bad. Didn't think of getting a picture till our second visit. But I thought I was seeing double that first day.

Then we went back to see my twins. Above. They were the shop owners. Jim love that store. On the way back we stopped and got firewood.

 And on my walk I saw this really cool party smoker trailer. Had a bar big smoker on it.

August 13th

I told Jim I just wanted to go somewhere pretty and walk today. So he found Pine Knob Park.

 It was beautiful and we noticed they had painted rocks all around. And it was a church group that put them there. And this rock says it all for our situation.

 It said if you can't read it Pray Cry Repeat. But don't give up. Amen.Which we did a lot of. 

August 15th I had made arrangements to do a plant tour of DRV.  It was just a handful of us. It was a fun day kept us busy.

 One day we were just chilling and I told Jim look what's coming. They were also RV Youtubers with a 

Vlog.  

They were the Double Decker family it was a double decker bus he had converted for RV full-time living with five or six kids, I lost count. We chatted with him a few times. But I looked online immediately to see the inside. It's pretty cool. Plus they had the windows open downstairs and you could see everything when it got dark.

One day I went for a walk. We had our switch it up Garden flag out, so we can find our people. And I heard this guy yelling at me switch it up lady. I stopped and chatted with him for a while Andy and Yvonne I believe it was. They were also going to the next Huddle in Georgia at Talona Ridge. See them there.

So to continue the rest of the main story here. Nothing is happening still fighting with the warranty company. Longer story short, we decided to head back to PA so we can get back to work. As we continue our long wait.. we only have a few short weeks left before we are scheduled to leave for our official first trip as retired RV couple to Florida and all the fun things we have booked on the way. Rod said don't give up, I said you don't know me well but I Never Never give up, Jim would be the first to tell you that. If Mommy wants something, as he said Mommy gets it. So we made our trip back to PA to work, not knowing what would happen next. But I had a plan. 

Needless to say,when we got back to work,  they worked us to death that last month. 

To be continued