We're Off!!

Our last full day in VT was spent with friends we've known since we practically arrived in Huntington so many years ago. Lots of reminiscing, tears of sadness and joy as we both embark on new lives. Don't know where we'll next see Les & Deb, they are in the process of selling their home...it just went on the market and because of it's price is seeing a lot of activity. When it sells they plan to head to Duck NC where they will be renting a house from a friend for the next few years.  Being Jersey Shore folks they are excited to be heading back to the seashore...not much seashore here in VT to enjoy.

It was unfortunate that our friends Mike & Carol couldn't join us on our last weekend. We did get one last visit in over lunch our last week in town. Goodbyes are never easy...more so when you don't know when you'll see each other again.

Monday 9/27 we pulled out of VT Maplewoods just a bit before 8am and headed westward. Our first night was at Green Lakes State Park south of Syracuse NY. We were in the Rolling Hills Section in site 108, electric only and a gravel site. Since rain was expected we didn't want one of the grass sites. As an overnight stop it was great, there is a small lake but with the rain we didn't get a chance to take the trail around it.



Tuesday rain was in the forecast so we decided to make it another travel day. Thankfully what rain we had was never too bad. About mid afternoon we reached West Branch State Park in Ravenna OH. We've been there numerous times now and ended up in site 87 which we had the last time we were there back in April. With the Ohio State Parks Rewards Card we were eligible for a free night...yeah free is great. The local Italian restaurant that we usually go to has closed...owner retired, so the only thing we did in town was get filled up with diesel.

One of expenditures this past summer was an auxiliary tank, Dave opted to go with a 40 gallon tank with a tool box. This gives us the ability travel a bit further between fill ups. With the fill up in OH we knew we could make it to Sullivan IL with out refueling.
 

site 78

On Wednesday we were on the road by 7:30, we knew it could turn in to a long travel day if we went all the way to Bo Woods in IL. Approximately 490 miles but at least we didn't have to worry about fueling while hitched. With the time zone change we pulled into Bo Woods just after 3pm, none of the FHU walk-in sites on the point were available so we settled into the site we'd reserved to ensure ourselves a FHU site over the weekend. Bo Woods is a popular campground, it's a COE park on Lake Shelbyville in central IL.  It has become our go to place when we visit my folks, they live 30 minutes away and it's a nice ride through the country side. We will be here for six nights visiting my folks and some cousins. Unfortunately for us some of our friends in the area have already headed south.

 

After a hectic week we finally have time to breathe and relax for a few days. It hasn't sunk in yet that we're done in VT and now home is really wherever we park it. The things we've done and learned over the last few years have all been leading to this adventure.  In three weeks we'll be in Mesa where we'll be workamping in a mega 55+ resort, so for now we're on vacation and out camping.

Until next time...

2015 Summer In Review

Yes we're still around....with a full time work schedule I took a break from blogging and reading blogs over the summer. I've caught up with most of the blogs I read, just a few more to read through...

Our son Tom ended up staying till mid August with us, every Thursday was tent moving day...couldn't let the grass die instead we had a patchwork yard most of the summer. While Dave worked most Mondays it was a day Tom and I both had off. So great to spend time with him, whether it was talking, going for a bike ride or visiting the local water park. The time spent with Tom this summer was an unexpected gift of reconnecting with him.

That's not to say it was all work, we had a few friends from afar visit in July. Our friends Dennis and Bev who we wintered with at Gulf Waters in TX stopped in for a few days. Of course with Dennis here the smoker was brought out...great dinner as usual. An afternoon at Boyden Winery and a visit to Hope Cemetery made for a great day off from working.

All of the headstones at Hope Cemetery are made by local granite artisans. 

 Later in July longtime friends Mark & Nancy made their first long distance rv trip, IL to VT in 2 days, you do what you have to when you limited time. My best friend from high school also came up from NY for one of the weekends. Rene, Mark and I have been friends since high school, Rene and Mark hadn't seen each other in quite awhile. What a great weekend of renewing old friendships and for Tom to meet some of the adults he remembers from his childhood. A farmers market, Boyden Winery, campfires and long talks made for a wonderful visit.
                                             

There was never a question if we ate good

 No trip to VT is complete with out a stop at Ben & Jerry's. Of course you have to pay respect to the flavors that no longer exist

Who knows when we'll get a chance to all be together again.

We've of course seen our good friends who still live in the area, maybe not enough but as much as we could. Our friends Les and Deb are in the process of selling their home and hoping to be in Duck NC by March if not earlier. We hope our friends Mike and Carol will come visit us on the road one day. To say it's been an emotional time is an understatement...who knows when the six of us will be together again.

20 years of friendship

Needless to say we both been working a lot of hours. Dave worked as much OT as possible, while I have been putting 35+ hours a week here at the campground...at least my commute isn't forty five minutes each way on a two lane heavily traveled road.

Here at Maplewoods Campground we've had a busy summer, from the fourth of July holiday weekend through the Labor Day weekend we had 100% occupied. Thank goodness for the new campground reservation system. A new larger bath house and six more rv sites were added by the middle of July. Reservations this July, August and September blew out last years numbers. We already have fifty plus reservations on the books for next summer...the holiday weekends are already filling up-the best sites are already gone.

Friends who became family

 The best bosses ever, so many laughs and    good times over the years.

Our years here have been filled with great times, good food and lots of laughter. We will truly miss our Maplewoods Campground family and look forward to the day our travels bring us back to our Vermont home.  

The smallest rv this season

This has been a crazy summer for Dave too, his company was sold to another. At the end of June this technically this brought about his retirement from IBM and immediate hire by Global Foundries. In mid August his leave of absence was approved. In mid September Dave received an email about a Voluntary Employee Separation package being offered. After reading all of the material and finding he was eligible Dave started the process to retire. Dave has always wanted to go out with a package and looking ahead we knew realistically we at the most had one more summer in VT. On September 23rd he received the notice he was approved, his last day was September 24th.

 We were confident he would be approved so in anticipation of not coming back we started the process of purging ourselves of the things we have left here in VT the last few winters. We also sold Dave's beloved Honda Ridgeline, almost 168k miles of memories. We will be leaving VT on 9/28 for an indefinite period so the last few weeks have been bittersweet with many a tear shed.

Really they can fix all kinds of things

 A small retirement party with Dave's closest co-workers with a nod to our adventures.

 So the summer of 2015 comes to an end and so to our lives here in Vermont. The adventure begins...

The End

 Until next time...

Back On the Road

We spent the next few nights in a hotel where the room probably had more square footage than our home. Our days were filled with touristy things, we dropped by Lambert RV Furniture and looked at new theater seating...I can see some in our future. Picking up stuff at the local Amish markets...too early for the Shipshewana market. We took a tour of the Newmar factory...don't think they're in our future. On the grounds of the RV\MH Hall of Fame there was RV dealer show where we spent a few hours going in and out of lots of 5th wheels and motorhomes. Lots of meals out...so ready to be back in our own home to eat Dave's home cooking.

On Friday this was a site to behold

After a quick test of the bedroom slide we were on our way to Ravenna OH and West Branch State Park...for our third time there. We finally got ahead of spring.

 A great park convenient to Ravenna where one my most favorite Italian restaurants is...a great place to celebrate a birthday. 

Our final stop northward was an overnight once again in Verona NY at one of the few places open at the end of April. Our slide didn't work so guess Dave will be looking at that this summer. This year though it was also the meet up with a high school friend I hadn't seen since graduation. Three hours of reminiscing and catching up went by in a flash.




We pulled into Maplewoods Campground  on April 28th as planned, leaving spring a week or so behind. Dave started back to work on 5/1, I helped get the campground ready for opening. The campground opened on 5/9 the same day the owners sister quit...since then I've been working quite a bit. I'm working the store and also getting Campground Master installed and ready to use by the end of May.We did get the slide out but looks like it'll be a project or a stop in IN again on the way west this fall.

Now to catch up with everyone's blog.
Until next time...

A Grand Day

6:30am found us pulling into the service center to drop off our home. After talking with Tim Reaves the head of the service department about our three issues: our water leak that we had a pretty good idea of where the problem was; our bedroom slide not coming in completely; the crack in the gel coat we had made the first time hitching up.

We had a tour of the facilities scheduled for 2pm so had some time to while away. A great breakfast at Gramma's House of Pancakes where we took our time and Dave regaled her with stories of our adventures.

About 9:30 we received a call from Tim: our leak issue had been diagnosed; the slide was being taken out...seems there had been a leak and the floor needed to be replaced; they were starting to repair the cracked gelcoat. We are two months out of warranty but do have an extended warranty, Dave asked Tim what the cost was going to be. Tim's reply was "Spending a few days in Elkart" after repeating it a a second time Dave realized they were going to take care of everything with no cost to us. We just had to find a place to stay for a few days. No problem we can do that, but first we headed to the service center to get some clothes and essentials for a few days. Let me tell you it's very disconcerting to see your slide out of your bedroom..wish I had taken a picture.

While visiting the service center we got to meet JD from customer service. JD has been our go to guy when we have any questions or issues, according to Facebook he's also a lot of other folks go to guy.

 Before too long it was time for our tour, Tyler met us and we chatted for a bit. He said if one of the owners of Grand Design is on site during the tours they try and meet the folks taking the tour. Don Clark came down, met us and then asked if we would come up to his office for a chat.

We were also joined by Bill Clark the new Director of Marketing. Seems when Dave set up the tour he mentioned I was the admin on the Grand Design Owners Facebook page. We spent an hour talking: of our reason to by a Grand Design; our happiness in our home; the Grand Design Owners Facebook page. A great conversation, some pictures then Don gave Dave and I a few gifts. Bill Clark has since become a voice for Grand Design on our Facebook page.

Eventually we headed out for our tour, what a great tour guide Tyler was. From chassis to finished roof and everything in between. Dave now has a better understanding of what\where things are and where they are run. Meanwhile Tyler is making notes of things we comment on and asking us questions as well. After a 2 hour in depth tour we called it a day...and oh what a grand day it had been.




This was Dave's Facebook post that evening.

"Today was the most amazing day Faye and I have had in a long time. We are in Bristol Indiana to get some work done on our RV and to tour the Grand Design factory. This morning we dropped off the RV at the repair center at 6:30am and was met by the service manager Tim, super nice guy. I explained what was wrong and went to breakfast with my queen. At 9:30am the service manager called me back and asked if we can leave the rig with them until Friday. He said they found the leak in the gray tank output, fixed it and were putting new insulation and bottom cover on, they also found a leak in the bedroom slide that warped the floor causing the slide not to go in all the way and were replacing the floor and seal. They said they were also going to fix the cracked gel coat on the front nose of the RV, that's why they needed to keep it to Friday. I asked what it was going to cost me and he said nothing, that's right people nothing. We went back to get some clothes out of the rig to find several guys working on it. The slide was out of the rig, a guy was working on the leaky pipe to the tank and had already started working on the cracked gel coat. Then they really started to overwhelm us on the tour. We met the CEO of the company, sat down in his office with his marketing director and a couple of other I think important people, talked about the company and gave us company jackets and hats. They took pictures of us with the CEO and us with him in his office. Then our private tour started which was amazing, now I know the ins and outs of my whole rig. Along the way Faye saw some upgrades to the 2015 rig in the same floor plan she liked and our tour guide took notes and I think he's going to get them added to the RV while it's being repaired, talk about customer service." 

Until next time...

RV\MH Hall of Fame

The next stop on our northward migration was Bristol IN just outside of Elkhart IN, we were there to get some work done and the Grand Design factory and tour the facilities.

We arrived a day early and found Eby's Pines Campground more than adequate for what we needed. A large pull through and only 2 miles from the service center.

With our free day we headed to where most RV'ers would go if they hadn't been already.

Since neither one of us or our families had ever owned an RV before we bought ours in '12 the tour was so fun seeing the evolution of the recreational vehicle. 

It was an early night since we wanted to be at the Grand Design service center as early as possible and they opened at 5:30.