RVing With a Purpose

Friday, June 16, 2017

Sorry we sort of left you hanging. Yes, we brought our new motor home home last Friday. We had a couple of little things to be adjusted before we said goodbye to all the great people at Sherman RV and made our trip home. It was a very, very busy week after that. Our niece and nephew Phillip and Lauren from South Carolina actually arrived at our house while we were at Sherman last Thursday and stayed the weekend with us. We so enjoyed having them and their two beautiful daughters, Dorothy age 3 and Tabitha, 5 months.  Hope to see them again soon.  After they left on Sunday, we began trying to sort through all the boxes and load the motor home. It was a challenge. While the new motor home actually has more storage space it is quite different so now items are located in different locations than before. We now know we loaded things but can’t remember exactly where we put them. Oh well, we will find it all eventually. We also spent Monday continuing to go through all the stuff we hurriedly packed when we sold FRED 1. We purchased additional storage containers and packed and loaded the basement. Tuesday we went back to Atlanta to prepare to move Anne’s mom back to Tuscaloosa to Aspire Rehabilitation. Aspire is considered a step down from the rehab hospital. We moved her Wednesday.  Mama Ruby will continue to receive therapy for the broken leg and stroke for the next several weeks. Thursday was then the day for our routine packing of the motor home for a mission trip – all the clothes, food etc.

 

Today was the day to begin our first trip in our new rig – really exciting. It was a short drive from Remlap to Hollywood. That is Hollywood, AL which is about five miles from Scottsboro, AL. The forecast was not that great but we had a beautiful sunny drive by Lake Guntersville, and the Tennessee river. Nice part of our state. We will be staying in Hollywood at Bellefonte Storage and RV Park until next Friday. We will be working in Pisgah, AL at the Rosalie Baptist Church with the Constructors for Christ. Rosalie suffered significant damage from a tornado last November. We especially love doing the Constructors project each year because Max’s brother Randy and his wife Debra stay with us in the motor home for the week as we work together on the project. It is always a great week of work and visiting and we look forward to another one this year. We start work at 8:00 in the morning. Check back tomorrow for pictures of day one.

 

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. The breeze was cool and dry with blue skies and sun. It was also a very exciting day for us. We left home a little before 8:00 for the 3 ½ hour drive to Sherman, MS to pick up our new motor home. We never thought we would do this but the day is finally here. The drive was uneventful. We made one stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center and picked up and interesting brochure about a biking trail not far from Sherman. Too bad we don’t have time to ride on this trip but the Rail Trail looks nice and we will have to try to come back for the 40 mile Tanglefoot Trail. We saw our new “Fred” as we drove past the dealership on I-22 so we walked to the back parking lot to check it out as soon as we arrived. What a thrill! It still didn’t seem real. We then checked in with our salesman, Andy Pearson, who put us with John who then spent until about 4:30 reviewing all the details of our rig. We did take a quick break for a sandwich for lunch, but otherwise it was school all day. At the end of our day with John we then went to the office to sign all the papers and get our many, many manuals and warranty cards to complete. Tonight we have started moving in. We are trying to test all the various systems and equipment so that if anything is not working as it should they will be able to take care of it before we leave for home tomorrow. Then the real move-in begins. We have to be in ready to begin our next project Saturday morning so there is lots to do.

As an update – Anne’s mom is continuing in rehab in Atlanta and we plan to go to Atlanta Tuesday to move her back to Tuscaloosa Wednesday. She will be going to Aspire for additional rehab but will be back in her home town. We know she will be happier there.

Friday, 2 June 2017, 1500 hours

Tuesday May 30, 2017

Anne drove home last evening. She needed a break and wanted to be in Red Bay with Max for the final inspection of our new motor home. So, it was up at 3:00am to make the Red Bay drive to be there at 6:00 for the start of the Tiffin work day. Max has been doing this almost daily for the past two weeks. While Anne has been busy with family emergencies, Max has been insuring the best build we can get. It was just so great for us to get to spend the day together and once again today do a joint blog post. We do so much better together. The new RV is looking really good. We are so pleased and excited. We watched as they performed the final cleanup, and touchups, talking to the Tiffin employees and continuing to learn about our new coach and ways to best care for and touch up little “mishaps” that will inevitably happen. These guys know how to touch up the marble, the wood, the dash. Really amazing.

Today we also had the real treat of meeting with Bob Tiffin. We asked at the office if we could speak to him and the receptionist said sure, as soon as he gets off the phone. So, a few minutes later we were escorted to his office for a brief visit. We simply wanted to thank him for generously allowing us to view the entire build of our motor home and interact so freely with the employees. What a wonderful experience this has been. We have met some of the nicest people and seen them take great pride in their work. We so glad we were able to express our gratitude to Mr. Bob.

Our new rig is now back in Belmont for the little paint repairs we mentioned in the last post. They expected to finish that up tonight and have it in line for delivery by early tomorrow morning. There will be paperwork to complete and then a driver will make the delivery to our dealer Sherman RV in Sherman, Mississippi. YEA!! Just a few more days.

For those of you who are also walking through the hard times our families are experiencing. Anne’s Mom was transferred to Health South Rehab Hospital in Newnan, GA this afternoon. This will begin a week or two of acute care rehab before her return to Tuscaloosa for continued care. She made the trip in great shape and will now start the hard work of rehab. Marguerite continues to loose the battle of ovarian cancer. It is such a struggle for she and Jim. So very hard but we will continue to walk through this “valley of the shadow of death” with the two of them. Thank you all so much for your prayers. They are felt and greatly appreciated.