Universal Studio - Orlando

Once we arrived in Orlando, the first week of December, we found the Thousand Trails campground, we got the motor home all set up and hooked up, and within 20 minutes the rain started. It rained and rained. We stayed inside the coach for 3 days waiting for the rain to stop and the Florida sun to come out.



We decided to go to Universal Studios first. We had a good time there, we went on some of the rides and checked out some shows and took lots of pictures. The free tickets for the Military Active and Retired were for 6 days, we will only use 2 days, because we also have the Disney World passes that expire on the 23rd of December.



There are lots of things to do at Universal Studios. Universal has two parks, one is for the movies and Universal Studio exhibits. The other park is an amusement park with lots of rides. We spent one day at each of the two parks.

We loved the Blues Brothers performance, it was lots of fun.

Check out these rides, they looked like lots of fun, but they looked wet too, so we took pictures and laughed at the other people who were very wet.

We went to a few shows and had a great time. We watched the Macy's parade, it was lots of fun. Joe was even asked if he would like to be in the parade, but he said no thanks.

We had a lot of fun at Universal and we are very thankful to them for this offer to the Military.

The cows of North Florida

When we left our friends in Maggie Valley, we were on our way to Florida, Sunny Warm Florida !!! We have our tickets for Disney World and Universal Studios and warm weather.

We are stopping just one exit over the Florida line to see our friends Connie and Terry. We had met them at "Camp Mandalay" (the factory service department) in Elkhart Indiana about the first of October. We hit it off with this couple when we first met and hated to see them leave, so we are very excited to see them again. Terry drove up to the Flying J to lead us into the property, they have a lot of land and we would never have found it alone.

Wow, they are way out, off the beaten path, and what a beautiful place they have. Many big old trees with moss hanging from the branches. We parked right out in their back yard near a pond.

We had such a good time with Connie and Terry, They have a great home and we met Connie's Mom and their son Samuel. Joe and Terry fed cows and ran around all day, visiting with the neighbors and taking care of the chores. I spent the day with Connie, and had a great time. Connie shared some of her recipes with me, and she's a great cook. Connie and I took the golf cart out and went to the garden to cut some cabbage for dinner. We picked some grape tomatoes for me to take with us, and boy are they good. I froze several bags to use for sauce and in recipes.

Our last day there, Joe and I went out with Terry to feed the cows and I took these great pictures of them. The cows were so funny, they heard us coming and met us at the gate, then followed us mooing all of the way. They are so cute (for cows that is).

We said our farewells to our friends, and now we are on our way to the Thousand Trails of Orlando and hopefully warmer weather.

Thanksgiving in Maggie Valley, North Carolina

We left Memphis about 7:30pm and decided since we had lost a day due to these repairs we would drive for a few hours. We arrived at the Flying J near Nashville about 3 or 4 hours later and slept until morning. We had breakfast there, and then headed for our friends home in Maggie Valley. The main highway through the smoky mountains was closed, due to a bad rock slide, so we had to go around the mountain about 100 miles further.

We finely made it there about 7pm, when we got all hooked up in the RV park, we went over to Rhonda and Bill's for pizza and salad. Rhonda's Mom and Brother, Andy live in Charlotte and drove up for Thanksgiving and when they got there on Wednesday and the three guys played golf. The next day was Thanksgiving Day and what a great dinner, with great people. Rhonda is a wonderful cook, and everyone ate too much, just like we are supposed to on holidays.

They have a fantastic log home and we love it there. Their beautiful daughters Alysia and Allison are a joy to be around, they are both so talented and fun to be with, just like their parents.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year, and we have a lot to be thankful for, we are living the life that we both love. We have great friends all over the USA and we meet new people all the time and make new friends. Our children and our grandchildren are all happy and healthy, all of our other family members are also. We actually get to see more of our family and friends now than we did before. Yes we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

The deer attack and Memphis repairs

I forgot to tell you all about our run in with a deer in Camdenton. Joe was driving home about 9:30 at night when a deer came running across the road and ran into the side of our car. The deer hit the front fender just in front of the driver's door, broke that mirror and then hit the rear door. The deer was nowhere in sight when Joe stopped to call police and make a report. Joe was fine but our car was not so fine. We will get it fixed when we get to Florida.

We left Camdenton MO on Sunday morning and headed toward Memphis, our plan was to get a little past Memphis the first day and then go to rest of the way to Knoxville Monday and arrive in Maggie Valley on Tuesday around noon. However, as you all know, our plans do not always go as intended.

We stopped about 50 miles before we got to Memphis to eat dinner at Cracker Barrel and then we came out we checked the car and tow bar like we always do. The entire back end of the coach, our car and the tow bar was covered with oil. We called Cummins Engine in Memphis and got on the schedule for 8 in the morning, they told us they have electric hookups in the parking lot so we drove over there for the night. The next morning they discovered that the Springfield Cummins had not installed the oil pan correctly. Memphis is ordering the parts, doing the work and charging everything to the Cummins in Springfield, so it will be a few hours at least.

Since we had all day to wait, we went and found a car wash first thing. Then we decided since we had so much time to wait for the coach, we would go visit Graceland. Wow, what a great place, we both had a blast there. What a great job they have done to display it all like it was when Elvis lived there, you almost expect him to walk out and talk to you.

We had a great time here, we had a tour of the house, and his airplanes, went to Elvis's car museum and a museum all about his military tour of duty. We even had a great lunch at a little BBQ place near Graceland. When we got back to the repair place they were still working on the coach but by 7:30 that night they were done, and we were on the road again. We drove about 4 hours and stopped near Nashville at a Flying J for the night.

Frank, Julie and Grandkids

We had a problem with our windshield wipers on our way to Missouri, but was able to drive out of the rain and make it to Camdenton without having to stop for more repairs. We did call and make an appointment with Camping World in Springfield MO for the following Thursday, we are spending two weeks here before we head for North Carolina and then Florida.

We were able to spend a week with our family and enjoy our Grandchildren for a while before we went for repairs. We had so much fun, Austin is 6 and is so smart and cute, he is at school all day and is he loves school and enjoys learning things. Cassidy is 2 1/2 and is such a joy to be around. She talks so well, and has such a good imagination, so much fun to watch her play all day.

We had such a great time with them, and enjoyed our week here in Camdenton, we stayed at a campground nearby and spent most days with Frank and Cassidy. Julie and Austin had to go to work and school, but they got home around 4pm so we spent a little more time there then Frank had to go to work and we went on home. I would go shopping and do laundry during the day and leave Joe over there so he could have time with Frank, so Cassidy and Joe struck up a great friendship, and had lunch (chicken nuggets and tater tots) together everyday.

We took our coach in to Springfield (about 85 miles) on Thursday, and they had to order parts, so we decided to take it over to Cummins to have a recall on the engine taken care of. They said they would start it the next morning and it would take all day, so they got started early on Friday. We called Camping World and told them we would be there on Saturday.

Of course it did not go exactly like that, we got a phone call about 2:30 on Friday saying they needed a part and could not get it until Monday morning. So, not only is it not done, we could not stay in it over the weekend because the engine is all taken apart. We stayed in a motel over the weekend and Monday they finished it up. However, the oil pan had a scratch and was seeping oil from a little accident in Elkhart involving a mailbox, so they had to order a new oil pan and replace it. (of course that was at our expense) So the following Thursday, we finely got to the Camping World to get our wipers fixed and then back to Camdenton, after a week away.

We stayed another week there with our family and then headed for Maggie Valley, North Carolina for Thanksgiving with our friends, Rhonda and Bill and their 2 Daughters.

Repair repair and more repair

Well after we finely left Elkhart Indiana, we were heading to Dubuque Iowa to have our two front seats reupholstered at Flexsteel. On the way there we stopped at a Flying J to get a few hours sleep. We turned on the propane because it was very cold and we needed to start our furnaces, after about 15 minutes running the propane gas leak detector sounded. We immediately turned off the propane and aired out the coach. We waited about an hour or so and tried it again, and the leak detector went off again.

We decided to pack up and head on to Flexsteel in Dubuque Iowa because they have 50 amp hookup for us to use at the building. It was too cold to be without heat and when we finely arrived at the Flexsteel factory in Dubuque at about 1:00 in the morning, we got our electric hooked up and turned on our two portable electric heaters. We slept most of the next day, and had to wait until Monday to check in at the factory. By Monday Joe, who had not felt well for a couple of days, finely said he needed to go to the hospital. Turns out , he has pneumonia and spent the next couple of days in bed and taking his antibiotic.

Well, I found out that repairs go on, even if Joe is sick, so I got busy coordinating with Four Winds warranty service to see about getting our propane leak checked out. I also had to check in with the Flexsteel people to make sure they are working on our seat covers. I found the RV repair place a few miles up the road, and drove over there to make sure that they could look at our propane issue as soon as Flexsteel finished our seats. Gee, I miss Joe!!

So Thursday morning we were done at Flexsteel, I had taken Joe back over to the doctor's for a recheck to make sure the Levoquin was working, and we headed over to Coulter Valley RV to have our propane issue checked out. The only thing they found was that the front furnace was cycling off and on because it was getting excessively hot, they recommended having another heat duct put in the front of the coach to relieve some of the heat from the furnace. But, no leak of propane gas was found.

Looks like we are finely heading to Missouri.........but we should have known it would not be that easy. It started raining after about 1 hour of driving and our windshield wipers started the same thing they were doing before the visit to Camp Mandalay in September for our service appointment. They adjusted the wipers at the factory service, but maybe they should have done more than adjust, because the wipers are worse now. The driver's wiper only goes half way across the driver's side then it flies off the window and goes airborn !!! This wiper slaps back on the window and hops across to the middle, and then repeats. Then as the rain got worse, the wipers got worse, and slowed down to a crawl. So, I am on the phone with the factory warranty department trying to find someplace to get them looked at and Joe is driving about 35 on the highway with the emergency flashers on, trying to get to the Flying J about 5 miles up the road. Wow isn't this fun !!

Finely we found the flying J and parked for a few hours, still trying to find a place to get the windshield wipers repaired. The rain finely stopped and we decided to head out and try to make it the rest of the way to Camdenton MO, we were in St Louis area, so we were not to far away.
We will work on trying to find a place in or near Springfield, that is only about 85 miles from Camdenton and the campground where we will be staying for the next couple of weeks.

Good Bye to Elkhart Indiana

We finely left Camp Mandalay today, the 24th of October, five weeks after we arrived. We got all of our write-ups taken care of, and we are now on our way.

However, we have had a slight change of plans. We are heading for Dubuque, Iowa where Flexsteel is located, this is the company that made the driver and passenger seats in the coach.. We called them and got an appointment to have our two front seats reupholstered. The factory called and authorized the work, so we are headed there to have this done. One thing we have learned during this two and a half years full timing, is that you have to be flexible. All plans are subject to change at any time.

For us, just being on the road again and out of the Mandalay parking lot is a big step in the right direction, and we will be heading SOUTH in a few days and toward warmer weather !!!

Mandalay Factory Service, Elkhart, Indiana

We are in Elkhart Indiana now at the service department, what the Mandalay owners affectionately call "Camp Mandalay" . We have been here for 4 weeks last Friday, and hope to get out of here sometime next week.

We were here for 5 weeks last year, and do not want to break our record this year. Hopefully we will be south of here before the snow comes, but it is very cold here, 30's at night and upper 40's during the day. We have our alarm clock set for 5:45 am and have to have our coach ready for the workers by 7:00 am, we get it back each day by about 3:30 pm. This is almost like having a job, ha ha (except we don't get a paycheck)!

We have met a lot of people here, and made some new friends too, like Ed and Rosemary from Minnesota. They came in just after we arrived and we quickly became friends. We hated to see them leave to go home, it is a little quiet around here now.

Our daughter, Kristy and her 6 children live in the next town south of here, Goshen, so of course we have been able to see her and the kids a few times, and that helps to make this a more enjoyable time. They are all doing great, and it is so much fun to see them and catch up on what is going on in their lives.

Our next stop after we leave here, is Camdenton Missouri, to visit with our Son Frank and his family for a couple of weeks, them we are heading for Florida and have reservations in the Orlando area from Dec 2nd until Jan 5th.

Western Pennsylvania and Ohio

When we left Niagara Falls area, we went on to Clarion PA to visit our friends there, Wayde and Emily. We were there for about 6 days and had a great time visiting with them, and checking out the area.

We parked in their great big garage. Wow, what a huge garage, they have hook ups in there and all. Their motor home was at factory service for repairs, so we had the garage all to ourselves.

They have a beautiful home, and very nice neighbors too, it would be nice to live in such a friendly area, and such a nice town too.

We drove up to Titusville PA to the Drake Well Museum, where the oil well was drilled that launched the petroleum industry in 1859. They have a great museum there with the original equipment on display, some still operating, and with films about how the oil well was started. We even drove through a very interesting small town named Oil City.

When we left our friend's house in Pennsylvania, we headed toward the factory in Elkhart Indiana, we had over a week to get there, so we stopped at a Thousand Trails Park in Jefferson, Ohio, just 12 miles from Lake Erie.

We spent 5 or 6 days there and just relaxed and rested, Joe even got to fish a little bit in the small lake at the campground. One day we drove up to Geneva on The Lake, they were having a motorcycle rally there in town, and there must have been over a thousand bikes there. We stopped at the city park and looked at Lake Erie, it looked like an ocean, it was so big!! We went to a couple of Farmer's Markets in the area, and a small car show at the city park in Austinburg.