Here is some lived in interior pictures

We are pretty well situated in our new home.  I replaced the kitchen faucet and shower head but everything else is as we got it.  The shower head is one with about six different spraying options like our old one and the kitchen faucet has the sprayer head the other one didn't have.  We still love our new home away from home and have no regrets about our decision to trade.  We feel like we have a huge amount of space compared to our 5th wheel.  Sydney and Tanner were a little uncomfortable at first but have now settled in and each have their own favorite spaces.  The rugs in front of the sofas are for the dogs.  They have problems jumping up and down on the granite floor so rugs make it much easier for them.  Also today it is suppose to get up to the high 80's so we have the shades pulled to keep things cooler inside.  This resulted in some of the pictures being a little harder to see.  Below are some pictures of the interior now that we are living in it. 

 

 

Each dog has their own bed on the couch on the left.  Originally they were on the other side but for some reason they like the couch on the left.  I think it's because they can look out the side window and out the door window which we rarely pull the blind over.

 

 

 

 You can see the his and her computers leaning against the inside of the booth.

One option this unit didn't have that we wanted was a dishwasher.  I can put in a Fisher Paykel drawer dishwasher very easily where the two wide bottom drawers are now but Huli isn't sure she wants to give up the drawer space.  This dishwasher is actually better than the one that would have come with this unit from the factory.   In my opinion the nice thing about the dish washer is it let's you hide dirty dishes until you get enough to do.

 

 

 

The tv in the back by the refrigerator is the largest one and it is on an articulating arm that allows it to be pulled over so it can be viewed from any seat easier.

 

 

This sink is next to the shower which is between the kitchen and bedroom.  Then across from the sink is the door to the toilet area of the bathroom.  Across from the shower are double doors for the stacked washer and dryer.



Just about all organized

Huli has been organizing and getting rid of junk and taking other things up to the mail room so others can have it if they need it.  She has also put many of our unneeded clothes in space bags and sucked them down to a fraction of there original size.  I have been checking out the systems and reading the information that came with the motorhome.  By the way, the problem I thought I had with the cable tv system was operator error.  On this unit you have to make sure you have the antenna booster turned off when connecting to cable or you get the fuzzy picture.  My friend Mike who we followed here from Gulf Shores told me to check this when I told about the problem we were having with cable.  All ok so as of today we have not had one problem with anything on the motorhome.  I had always heard Newmar motorhomes were good units but now I am seeing it for myself.  The quality on this unit and the attention to detail is much better than that of our 5th wheel and we had arguably the highest end 5th wheel you could buy.   I just hope our current experience continues.

Played golf today with 11 other guys at a course about 25 miles from Okeechobee.  I played well for me shooting in the mid 80's on the course that is much longer than the KOA course.  Tomorrow I play in a four person scramble at the park which should be a lot of fun.  Huli enjoys her time puttzing around although we plan on hitting the pool tomorrow since it is now much warmer than it was a couple of days ago and we have much of our work done.  Other things we have done is converted our grill over to a 20lb. lp cylinder since the motorhome is all electric and has no propane tank.  On the 5er I ran a hard pipe from the tank to where we used the grill so all I had to do is hook up my quick disconnect hose to that pipe.  Now I hook up my quick disconnect hose to the 20 lb. cylinder.  We changed out our shower sprayer and I will be replacing our kitchen faucet in the next day or so.  Most of the storage bays under the motorhome have been gone through and cleaned up.  We put things in clear plastic totes that better fit these bays.  We still have many things we don't need but aren't sure we want to get rid of them now so we may just wait until we get home.  For example, we used to use a small refrigerator for drinks but don't need it with our larger refrigerator.  Another thing I did was take a look at the engine.  On this motorhome it has a rear radiator so you get to the top of the engine by removing a three by three foot tiled panel in the bedroom.  Once the tile panel is removed from the floor then you remove an insulated panel and there is the big red Cummins diesel engine.   The only time you need to get to the engine from this manner is if something needs repaired.  The maintenance items can be performed from the back and underneath for the most part.

We will attach some of our lived in pictures in a couple of days.  We are both still very happy with our decision and have no regrets at this point.

Jack

Still Organizing and Discovering

We have spent two nights in our new motorhome and everything is going very well.  We both feel extremely blessed to have such a nice unit to live in.  We got to try out the furnace and heat pumps in the air conditioners last night since it got down to around 30 degrees.  The heat pumps worked good but are somewhat noisy.  The aqua hot system works great and is much quieter than the three roof top units.  What we are doing tonight is using the heat pumps in the front living area and the aqua hot in the bedroom.  We are still getting used to the additional space and Huli really loves the washer and dryer.  Another plus we have discovered is the double filtered water in the ice maker and the drinking water faucet.  In the 5th wheel we bought bottled water and didn't use the ice maker in the freezer because we didn't like how the ice cubes tasted.  In fact, I took the ice maker out about three years ago and just put it back in when we were getting ready to trade it in. 

One issue I discovered today is that while the four tv's work great on Dish satellite and the air antenna but when connected to cable tv they are fuzzy.  I checked the box where cable  connects to the motorhome but that connection in the switch box is ok.  I believe that cable runs from there to a distribution point or a splitter and that is where the problem is.  I left a call with the dealer but if I don't hear from them when I return from golf tomorrow I will probably just deal with Newmar and not the dealer.  With the Mobile Suite I found the factory people much more knowledgeable and willing to help than the service people at the dealer but maybe North Trail will be different. 

Another problem is all of the literature no matter if it's from Newmar, Cummins, Frieghtliner, or any one of another 50 suppliers or so is very generic.  Since they make many models of very similar products very little literature is product specific.  I have about a foot of documents that I have looked through and very few explain your specific appliance or product.  Oh well I am enjoying leaning about how this thing works and feel like I know where the cable distribution problem is located but will wait until I speak to the dealer or the factory before poking around any more.  We don't need cable tv here but I am just checking everything out to find any issues like this. I wish the dealer would have had cable I could have checked it out before leaving the lot.  I was more concerned with making sure the satellite receivers were hooked up correctly.  Hopefully I won't find anymore issues but more than likely I will.  The man next door in the Prevost has been through hell and back with his $1.25 million motorhome.  Once he punched the incorrect code into his keyless door entry system so the system would not open.  However, then it wouldn't open when he used the correct code either.  The factory told him they did not have a solution and told him to call a lock smith.  A lock smith came and drilled the lock and got him into the motorhome.  However, the motorhome was smart enough to figure out that someone gained entry without properly unlocking the door so it shut down all of the systems on the motorhome.  He says he has spent more miles going to and from the factory than he has traveling for pleasure. 

Drive it like you stole it

Hello Everybody,

Well our 36 hours of hell is finally over.  Wouldn't you know that the day we go to pick up our new motorhome is the day it rains all day without letting up.  This hasn't happened for weeks in Florida. We got to North Trail RV at 10:00am on Thursday in a torrential down pour.  The first thing that happened is they inspected our 5th wheel to make sure it was in as good a shape as we said it was.  Well even though it was raining it was very warm and the 5th wheel was parked out in a remote parking lot with no hookups.  As soon as I said to the inspector person let me start the generator and turn on the air conditioning for you.  He said "you have a generator"! Being somewhat surprised.  At that point I knew we were home free.  I also knew our 5th wheel was in excellent condition.  I later saw him and ask him if there were any problems or if he had any questions and he said no everything was good. 

Next we went to the business office to pay for the unit.  We ran into a little hiccup.  Steve the business manager was suppose to have called us earlier in the week and tell us to bring a certified check which he failed to do. I said I have a check I will be writing on our brokerage account and he had kind of had a blank stare on his face.  He then went to talk to his boss.   Steve still not back but minutes later we got a call from Dynacheck and I knew they just lost 1% of the check amount in profit by insuring our personal check through a third party.  Damn,  no body trusts anybody any more.

We then had the pleasure of having Lonnie Cook show us every single thing this motorhome had on it.  He started inside at the passenger seat went down the passenger side then up the drivers side on the inside of the motorhome.  We then went outside and went around it starting at the door and ending in front at the generator compartment.  A lot to remember but I was familiar with most items due to research or based on owning the 5th wheel previously.  When he learned I had zero experience driving a motorhome he was initially surprised but then told me to "drive it like you stole it" he said don't be timid because it drives like an over sized car. 

On to the store.  Lonnie took me to the store while Huli stayed with Tanner and Sydney.  I bought a hard wired surge protector, two Dish network receivers, and some tire covers. Dropped a few hundred so they could get back at us for having to insure our check.

Throughout the day I would check on the service department to see how the wiring was coming on my truck. 

Later in the day after the business stuff, PDI, and visit to the store was handled, they moved the 5th wheel next to the motorhome so the doors were about three feet from each other.  We thought in about two hours we would have this move from the 5er to the motorhome knocked out.  I think that was at about 4:00 pm.  At about midnight we quit with all but the stuff under the bed to be moved over but neither of us had the strength to do it.  The thing we learned during this move was if we don't get a grip on things we could be on the next Hoarders Show.  We had stuff we have been hauling around for years we didn't know we had.  We both wear basically the same clothes over and over even though we bring 90% more that we never ever wear.  When we get back to Warsaw we both have a lot of purging to do to get rid of this stuff we don't use or need. 

Since we were having some items installed on the motorhome and since the work was being performed outside in the rain things took longer than usual.  This was ok with us since we were no where close to being ready to leave when they were going home for the day on Thursday.  They gave us a key to the front security gate and said good night.

We got up at 6:00am Friday morning and got the balance of the move completed but were waiting for them to complete the surge protector and the installation of two Dish receivers.  The truck was completed the evening before so we said we were going for breakfast.  Good thing we did since we had some issues with the wiring job they did.  When we returned I dropped the truck off at the service area and told them they had some issues on the job they did the previous day.  Turns out they had a ground problem in the wiring. 

At about 2:00 pm our salesman Kyle came back to drive the motorhome out of their parking lot and to help me hook up my truck to the back of the motorhome.  I was just hoping the work I had done on the tow bars and the air lines was ok and everything would work correctly.  After about 15 minutes everything was hooked up and we were good to go. The air lines were ok since the brakes worked great.  Everything on the tow bar was also good.  I had one right turn and two stops to make in about a 100 yard distance to get my experience before entering six lanes of bumper to bumper traffic.  (The guy who helped me on the air lines, who is from Canada, still can't believe they will let me drive this motorhome in the U.S. without some kind of a special driving license.)

We got to the park a couple of hours later and our new neighbor with the $1.25 million Prevost was there waiting to help guide us to our new site 366 at the Okeechobee KOA.  He told Huli "we take care of our own in this area of the park".  As he was looking our unit over I told him my offer to trade him even is still stands if he really really likes it.  After driving in bumper to bumper traffic, on the highway,  taking it through narrow streets in the campground, and backing into the site I would agree with Lonnie.  It drives like an over sized car. The cameras in the back and each side allow you to see whatever you need to see.  We had just one little problem on our initial trip.  I ask Huli to get me a can of Pepsi out of the refrigerator which she did.  However, she forgot to lock the refrigerator door which we discovered  the hard way after making a hard left hand turn.  The bottle of hot sauce that broke on the granite tile christened the interior of the motorhome.

We were glad to be back in the campground and love everything about our new home.  While setting up the motorhome we had a parade of people coming over to congratulate us and telling us they were glad we made it because they were worried when we didn't make it back the previous day.  The top three things we like the best about our new motorhome would be 1) King sized bed  2) Larger stable toilet  3) Residential refrigerator.  Sometimes it's the little things that make a big difference.

Here is a couple of pictures of us arriving at the KOA with the truck in tow.  I am getting ready to unhitch the truck before entering the campground.





Pick up the new house on Thursday

We got a call today from North Trail RV and we could have picked up the motorhome on Wednesday but I am playing in a golf tournament so we are going to wait until Thursday.  I have been really enjoying playing golf and have also been winning a little money playing in the daily points game.  Another side benefit is my right arm pain which had returned a few months ago is now gone.

Huli and I have been working to get the 5er ready to trade by removing our little touches to get it back to stock as much as possible.   I have also installed the components on the truck to accept the tow bar and have installed the air brake system on the truck and the break away portion of the brake system.  If I could have gotten a wiring harness and diodes locally I could have wired the lights up on the truck. Since we couldn't North Trail will do the lights and run an air line to the back of the motorhome.

We are also moving in the park to another lot which is in the "ghetto" portion of the park. They have signs that say "you are now entering the ghetto".  Our lot is next to a $1.25 million Prevost motorhome that belongs to a couple from Kentucky who just happen to own a couple of coal mines.  We really hate leaving our current site even though it is very "close".  We like all of our neighbors who have been helping me on the truck the last couple of days.  I also removed a Banks exhaust brake from my truck that never properly worked the way it should and I got where I wouldn't even use it since I was afraid it would damage my truck.  I will never buy another Banks product again.

I have been looking at some of the turns in the park as I ride around it in the golf cart.  Pulling the 5th wheel I knew where I could easily take it and what might be tight.  I have no idea of the turning capabilities of the motorhome.  They have a 55 degree something or other that is suppose to be good for turning.  I also have looked at the site to kind of picture backing up and whether I will need a person across the street to move his car but to be truthful I have no idea if I will need him to move it or not.  Backing in the 5th wheel or the 5th wheel with the motorcycle trailer I would know for sure whether it would be close or not or if I definitely would need him to move his car.  Thursday will be a day full of firsts.  I am looking forward to it.

Bye for now,

Jack

We finally made a decision on our new home away from home

After several negotiating sessions with two different dealers we finally made our decision today on a motorhome.  We originally were leaning toward buying a 2008 Tiffin Allegro Bus off of Lazy Days RV center in Tampa, Florida.  Our two choices were always Newmar and Tiffin.  The Tiffin Allegro Bus was nice but had been neglected and needed several repairs.  In fact, there was a total of three pages of things that were done to the motorhome.  We were at the previous owners house yesterday.  I bought his tow bar since he pulled a truck almost identical to ours.  He lives in Cape Coral, Florida on an inter coastal waterway with more toys than you can imagine.  He has boats, motorcycles, scooters, four wheelers etc. etc.  He has more money than he does time.  I spent about an hour rounding up and removing parts off of his truck for the tow bar we were buying.  I learned his profession is a printing press mechanic.  He travels all over the country working on printing presses and based on his house, furnishings, toys etc. etc. he must be a damn good printing press mechanic.  He shared with me his thoughts of the motorhome we were considering as we were working on his truck.  Basically he used it and did little to nothing to maintain it according to the maintenance schedule.  He sold it to Lazy Days at a wholesale price.  He paid $360k in 2008 sold it in 2013 for $141k.  We decided early in the week we didn't want this unit and our visit to his house confirmed our decision.  We let Lazy Days know our decision around Tuesday.  Wednesday we got several calls with promises that everything would be taken care of.  We agreed to come up on Saturday and look at the unit again.  Then I noticed on some documents they sent us, that were to contain everything they did to the unit, failed to list a couple of items they said they repaired.  I sent them an email pointing this out to them.  While I was golfing the next day a Sales Manager called Janet and ask her if we wanted the unit because he had someone else who wanted it.  She had him call me later in the evening.  He tried to pressure me into taking the unit I told him I wouldn't commit to anything until we had our rv tech perform an inspection the next week.  He told me that was a waste of money because they have already fixed everything that was inoperable. 

Today I let another dealer in Fort Myers, Florida know we wouldn't be able to make it to his dealership today because we were headed to Lazy Days in Tampa.   He called back and said if we could stop their first he would make sure we wouldn't need to drive the two hours north on 75 to Tampa to visit the Lazy Days dealer.  The deal he said was not possible for the last seven days he said was now possible.  In any event we bought a new Newmar Ventana 43 foot motorhome from North Trail RV.  It is technically a year old since it is a 2012 but it is brand new.  Being a  year old really helped in getting them to lower the price considerably compared to the 2013 models but they should since it is worth less.  This was the one with only one bathroom instead of the bath and a half that more people seem to want these days.   This motorhome is a lower end model for big diesel pushers manufactured by Newmar but we are very happy with it.  Now I am working on mounting the base plates to accept the tow bar and the air brake actuator on my truck so the truck brakes work while we are towing it behind the motorhome.  Lucky for us our truck is a very good, but big, vehicle to be towed four wheels down.  We will be at close to 70 feet when hooked up to the motorhome.    It should be interesting me pulling out of their parking lot into four lanes of traffic.  They told me it will be easy compared to hauling our fifth wheel around.  We went for a ride in the motorhome today but I didn't want to drive it.  I told the salesman I have researched it and know from others with motorhome experience that it is a great driving motorhome.  I will wait until we are taking it home to get my first experience driving a motorhome.  I should sell tickets and load up the back full of people who want to be entertained or scared shitless.  Below are a few pictures. 

The main reason we went with the Newmar motorhome and not a Tiffin is two fold.  First, the salesman at North Trail Rv was fantastic.  He told us he previously worked in the service area and justed started selling motorhomes two months ago.  When we were haggling back and forth I told him we may need to sit down with the owner instead of just his boss.  He told me we could do that if we needed to because he did know the owner pretty well.  We later learned, after we agreed to the deal,  he was the owners son.  We told him while agreeing to the deal one of the  main reasons we were buying the motorhome was because of him.  Secondly, I spoke to employees at the Newmar factory last week and explained what we were considering purchasing partly due to their factory being about 25 miles from our home in Indiana.  They explained we were welcome to bring the unit in there for any issues or modifications we may have.  In fact, he said they have Newmar owners who have never taken their motorhomes to dealers but always bring it back to the factory.

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Golfing and chillin at the pool

The longer we stay here the more we say "it just doesn't get any better than this".  The town of Okeechobee isn't the greatest in terms of restaurants, movie theaters, shopping etc etc etc.but we just don't leave the park that much.  I have been playing golf every morning and my game is actually improving.  Yesterday I was 2 under par through six holes before choking on the last three with a bogey, double bogey, and a bogey to end two over par. Keep in mind this is an easier course than the course I played in Warsaw but still a challenging course for golfers of every ability. This morning I played golf in a nine hole scramble with about 15 teams and ended up tieing for first at six under.  Each team had four players with different handicap levels and you had to use at least one drive from each person.  While I am playing golf Huli gets her alone time and then we hit the pool where they were having a bratwurst barbecue for lunch to raise money for the Children's Cancer Fund.  We end up at the pool almost every day at some time.  We were there last night until after 10:00 pm.  I actually prefer going in the evening at about 4 or 5.  It's a little cooler and the sun is not near as hot.  You never have to worry too much about the pool being over crowded since they have two pools. 

Below are some misc pictures Huli took over the last week or so. 

This "housing complex" is on our way to Palm Beach in a little town called Canal Point.  As I have mentioned before the poverty in central Florida is everywhere.  You really see the haves and the have nots on this trip to the coast.

Our trip back to Indiana in the ice.  No wonder it took a while to get my motorcycle to start once we got home,

Today at the pool and the bratwurst luncheon.

 

 One thing we quickly learned in Florida is that you don't need to worry about your physique at least as to what other people think because no one cares.  As we grow older we all seem to have our flaws and people here don't let that stuff worry them. 

 This gentleman in the middle was really in to dancing.  I believe his perception of his dancing ability was influenced by the amount of alcohol he was drinking.  I can relate to that.  He was very entertaining though.



Motorhome plans are changing

Over the weekend I spoke to the man who owned the Allegro Bus motorhome we are considering buying in order to schedule a time to buy a tow bar that he has so I can tow my truck.  During our conversation he mentioned the slide topper being torn on the driver side on one of the slide outs.  We have been having second thoughts on this unit  anyway due to the number of things needing repaired to get it in good working order.  Our fear is there are a number of other things no one is aware of that also need to be fixed.  We could take the unit to Red Bay, Alabama to the  factory and stay in the service campground.  We already called the factory about doing this and they have dedicated people who would go over it and check it out and make repairs if necessary.  But in the meantime we decided to start to look at some other units at some other dealers.  We have had several people add their opinions and the consensus seems to be a motorhome needing repairs is a major money pit.  I could accept some of these things but I am not sure how much time I want to spend waiting for a person to repair the unit and the hassle of getting the unit where it needs to be to get repaired.  While I believe Tiffin and Newmar have very good reputations for being well made motorhomes they are still not without problems. Especially if they have been neglected for the last five years or so.   I would like something that I feel the previous owner took care of the way I would and clearly the person who owned the Allegro Bus did not do that.

Today we went to Fort Myers and looked at various new and used motorhomes.  I am learning that some of the new lower end motorhomes have incorporated features that were reserved for the higher end units just a couple of years ago.  I still have concerns about the new urea requirements but many new great features are starting to out weigh some of the new not so good features like the new epa requirements.  We will be looking over the next few days and possibly weeks and will also be doing more research online to learn as much as we can before we take the leap.  I am positive we are going to get a motorhome.

In the meantime I had to get up on the roof of the fifth wheel today to clean and lube a gasket on the sticking cover of a Fantastic fan.  Seems to be working perfect now. 

Tonight we are sending an email to the sales person at LazyDays (we can't get her by phone) to let her know we are no longer interested in the 2008 Allegro Bus but do want quotes on two new Tiffin units they have sitting on their lot.  In Fort Myers we plan to work on getting them to sharpen their pencil on a 43 foot Newmar Ventana which is an entry level diesel pusher.  They have several with one being a 2012 which is technically a year old.  They said it hasn't sold because it only has one bathroom instead of a bath and a half which people now seem to want.  Huli and I like the floor plan with only one bathroom.  We will see how things go.  Probably shouldn't have let Huli look at the new ones.  Damn are they nice.