We're HOME!

Seven and a half months later, to the date, and over 17,000 miles later...we are HOME!  After 3-4 hours of emptying the motorhome, we are also Tired, and Sore, and yet happy to be home, and looking forward to seeing friends and family over the next few days.

Tonight was a Pizza Hut night, and we killed off a medium and part of another medium, and most of the eight lemon pepper wings. 

We have a house guest this, our first night back at the condo, his name is Bubba, and he is not suppose to be here, but he is.  Tomorrow I plan to give both dogs a big bath, and on Monday take Bubba over to his Uncle Mike's where he resides while we are home.  Skruffy, as a service dog, is free to be here.  It is SO NICE to have her back home after we thought we were going to lose her...we have so much to be thankful for about our trip...but our Fisherman of Dogs, Dr. Marie “Meezie” Hermansen, saved her life, gave us who knows how many more years of life with our beloved dog Skruffy, and frankly, despite all the wonders of the earth that we saw in Alaska, Dr. Meezie was what and who we remember the most.  We love that "Fisherman"!!!

I have a FEW BLOGS that will be written over the next week or so, I promise.  For now, getting settled and getting a few things done is more important. I promise I will get to them as soon as I can...

Home For The Holidays...

 

Well, not like that....we live in Florida.  The only white stuff we will see is if we go out on the beach, pick up some sand and tossed it in the air.  Anyway, we got "ok" sleep at the rest area...ok only because this cold lingers on...creeps up on you during the evening hours and attacks right when you want to lay your head down on the pillow.  During the entire trip I have played ping-pong with the bed and the Lazy-Boy chair at night.  Last night I had not coughed for over an hour while on the chair, so I sneaked into the bed, laid my head down and COUGH COUGH COUGH, and woke up Marcia who COUGHED COUGHED COUGHED, so I sneaked back out to the chair before she could find a weapon.  Three hours (or more) later I sneaked back into the bed for a few hours of sleep until the 6 am alarm went off.   That was 6 am central, and I think the eastern time zone was on the other end of the rest area.  Anyway, we hit the road by 7:30 eastern time and rolled into the condo complex just after 2 pm.  By 5, with much, not all, of the stuff unloaded, we were tucking the motorhome into storage for three months (except when we might take a short local trip).  Cost for three months was $240, included dump station, RV wash, many video cameras that do work, and secure gate with 24 hour access.  It also came with a sore back, sore legs, sore arms, sore feet and more coughing.

Note to family on west coast:  When it is 9 pm there, it is midnight here.  Yes, one of us is normally up that late, but not always.  Just remember that when it is 7 am here, it is 4 am there.   

Home, Storage, Fire Update

Made it home safely yesterday, spent much of the time unloading and unloading and unloading.  The street right in front of the condo entrance is having major repairs performed on it.  We decided to put the motorhome into the RV park nearby for a night, and unload into the HHR and then unload the HHR into the condo….yep, that was fun.  This morning (Saturday), with less traffic in the area, I did get the motorhome to the front of our condo and unloaded the rest of it directly into the condo….much better. But at 11:30 we had an appointment to meet Jim at the RV Storage lot, so I still have a small amount, perhaps two or three boxes worth, of stuff to unload next week....along with lots of cleaning.

Last winter our motorhome was right where the arrow was…..that was seven months ago, then there was the fire which took out some 35 motorhomes and some boats and some cars, including ours.  Well, he has it rebuilt now, but we are not in the covered area, we are out back.  Jim said that they are 99% sure that a Norcold refrigerator caused the fire.  We were in C1, the other side of this building is the “B” section, and the fire started around B5 or B6…but with the windy conditions, it took them all out.  Jim said that surprisingly ATF was able to pull that refrigerator out, and they are going to perform tests on it which “can” show that it was the refrigerator that started it all.  If so, Norcold is going to be sued again, and will probably settle for $5 or $6 million dollars to reimburse the insurance companies and Jim.

In this google map you can see the storage area better.  The red arrow shows the building which burned down.  The black arrow is the outside storage which we are using this year for 5-6 months.  The “red arrow” building has been rebuilt, and will be ready for use in a week or two.  New rule…all refrigerators MUST be turned off.   Jim said that they are more dangerous on “electric” than on gas, but his attorney suggested that he just have them all to off.  Except there is an area at the end of the open area where one can park the night before you leave and turn everything on.  Not a bad idea.

Last year when I first met Jim I told Marcia that I was highly impressed by the guy….just seemed to be a fine family man, told me how he had just come from kids soccer practice where he helps coach the team.  We paid for 4 months upfront last year.  While talking today he says, “wait a minute, you paid cash upfront last year, right?”  “Yes,”  I said.  He gets out his little handheld device and says, “I owe you $300.”   “But my RV was still right there, you don’t owe me anything.”   “No, I stopped charging people the day of the fire,” he said.  Wow, I thought, our RV was still sitting there in his parking area, it might have been a melted pile of waste, but it was still my waste until the insurance company paid me for it.  So now we don’t have to pay anything until February 1st.  Wish there were more honest men like Jim around….