Eagles Landing

We've been camped here at Eagles Landing since the 14th of December. What was going to be a 2 week stay has evolved into our Winter Wonderland. We like it so well we are going to stay here till March 8th when we will begin to wind our way back up north again. We had planned on going farther south, even as far as the Keys... but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Being in the land of citrus, if you get handed a few lemons just make up a pitcher of sweet sweet lemonade. And that's what Chuck and I are enjoying now. A nice tall pitcher of the best lemonade we've ever had. In my last post I told you we were at the repair shop getting the coach looked at. They worked on it a good two hours trying to find something wrong. They took things off, checked them out and put them back on. Their thought was maybe something had jiggled loose or gotten dirty. After a couple hours of tinkering it was quitting time and time for them to all head home. We spent the night in their lot on Monday night. This was the 7th of January. The next morning they couldn't get right on the coach cause they had a truck to get finished and out first. We were in no special hurry as we had a full tank of fresh water and our grey and black tanks were empty. They provided us with electricity. So we were good for a couple three days. The sun was shining beautifully and it was 70 degrees out. Chuck started work at 6 am answering phone calls and working on reports. After I got my morning chores done I decided to go in town and pick up some groceries. I was halfway there and realized I'd forgotten my phone. Oh well, I decided to keep on going. If anybody needed me I'd call them back when I got back to camp. I went to the Winn Dixie because the lady in the office had told me about a scenic shortcut and mentioned the had a "buy one get one free" special going on their meats. We had leveled the coach at the repair shop so my refrigerator was running and I didn't have to worry about keeping things in a cooler. Might as well stock up. Since we don't have Winn Dixies up north and they are such great grocery stores, I was in no hurry. I took my time and checked out all their specialty departments. I was gone at least 2 hours and when I got back to the coach Chuck met me at the door and as he was helping me carry in the groceries, he mentioned I didn't take my phone with me. I told him I'd forgotten and asked him if anyone had called me. He said no. He helped me unpack the groceries and as soon as I got the cold things in the fridge he grabbed the phones and said "Let's go take a walk" I was a bit startled and asked him again if someone had called. It seemed as if he was walking me across the parking lot to give me some bad news and my first thought was something had happened to mom or dad or one of the kids. I asked him again if someone had called me while I was gone and he said no. So my next thought was about the coach.... oh no, had they given him some really bad news about our motorhome? He just kept walking farther out into the parking lot and my mind is galloping away. Finally he stopped me and said he'd gotten a phone call from Chris Cole, the guy who'd hired him many years ago and Chris had told him the company was downsizing and Chucks job was being eliminated Friday. Three days from now. My immediate reply was "oh thank goodness, I thought your were going to tell me some horrible news!" I told him I was afraid something was wrong with my parents or one of the kids or the coach. I could tell he was relieved to see my reaction to the news he'd been dreading to give me. He hurried on to tell me he'd be able to get unemployment and I could tell he'd already done the math because he was saying things about vacation pay and dollars and cents we'd have on our last payday but I could tell he was worried. I knew he was thinking of his disabilities and his age and the horrors of finding a new job. I told him everything would be fine. I told him we were a team. I told him thank goodness we'd moved out of the house and bought Big Blue. At least we didn't have any bills and our cost of living was minimal. I told him also there was probably some wonderful job waiting just around the corner that we'd never have found if he was still employed. We decided first thing to do was find out the repair shops ideas on what was wrong with the coach and discontinue any further work. The coach does run as long as you don't go any faster than 50 to 55. If necessary we could make it all the way back home on backroads. We were a bit worried about what it was going to cost us for the work they'd done so far because they don't take credit cards, only cash. Chuck went to talk to the shop foreman about their progress and to tell him that he'd just found out he was losing his job on Friday. The foreman told him they hadn't been able to find anything wrong except for their suspicion about the bad diesel fuel. He told Chuck that we needed to take it somewhere that has a chassis dinometer to investigate the problems further. He said he'd get us put together and there wouldn't be a charge for the work they'd done this time. We could hardly believe our ears when he said no charge. What wonderful, honest and helpful people they are there. We took it as a good sign that everything would work out. They put us back together and within the hour we were back on the road towards Eagles Landing. When we got back we told them we'd decided to stay in their park till March the 8th if they had space for us. A full two months from this date. If you pay by the month it's much less expensive. Chuck and I had discussed our options. We knew if we continued to head south, things were only going to get more expensive. We both agreed that we loved the countryside in this area. We were close to the beaches and recreation areas and shopping was close enough to be convenient for groceries. I'd already attended the Kingdom Hall in Crestview a number of times and had made a lot of new friends. The park here is clean and neat. The owners, Dick and Judy are wonderful people. We'd already made several friends in the park with people who are staying here long term. So it made sense for us to just stay put. Once our decision was made we decided to start enjoying our "vacation" instead of crying over spoiled milk. What might have been was history. We both like to focus on the future and keep going, so off we go, into the brave new world. And I have to say, if your gonna be stuck somewhere, Holt Florida is a darn nice place to land. Complete with Eagles!


So our adventure begins. We got our old site back and quickly set about unloading. Out with the awnings. Out with the lawn chairs. Out with the plants. Out with the grill. Home sweet home.


Before the day was over, Chuck was over in the pecan grove picking up pecans and back shelling them at the picnic table. I teased him and told him I'd have him over on rte 90 selling them right next to the boiled peanut guy if things got too bad. That gave him a good laugh.


The scary part is that Friday is the end of our insurance. I have a big back tooth that needs to be pulled by then and we have to make sure and get all our prescriptions refilled. I called around to some local dentists and they are all hugely expensive. AND, they don't pull teeth. You have to go to an oral surgeon. To get into the oral surgeon you have to first see the dentist. Pay for an office exam and x-ray and get referred. Then you go to the oral surgeon, pay his exam and x-ray fee in addition to the cost of pulling the tooth. All this takes considerable time and money. No way was I going to get it all done by Friday. What a racket! I asked around and found that there's a place in Dothan Alabama called the Dixie Land Dental Clinic which is very reasonable. They take walk ins but you have to be there by 8:00 am and they only take so many a day. Dothan is 2 hours from here. Friday morning we got up at 4:00 am and were on the road by 5:00. We had a pleasant drive and were the 2nd car in the parking lot at 7:08. I was glad we were there plenty early cause by 8:00 there were several people waiting in line at the door to get worked in. The place was very very big and I was so nervous. I'm not a big fan of tooth work. They told me at the window they'd work me in, could be this morning, might not be till closing time. I told them no problem. Secretly I was not in a hurry. Chuck had his laptop and phone with him and there was a table to sit at with a plug in and he was able to work. It was his last day of work so it was going to be a memorable one. By 9:30 they were calling me back to the work area and the butterflies were swirling in my tummy. The nurse took an x-ray and settled me into a comfy dental chair and told me to relax, yeah, right. The dentist came in, looked at the x-ray and began his speech about saving the tooth and I held up my hand and told him to just save the speech, the tooth was coming out. He kind of laughed at that and said I was probably right. So at this point he begins the chore of pulling out my tooth. Out comes the shot needle, OUCH! Then comes the pliars. He wiggles and wiggles and before I even realized it he had the thing out of my mouth and onto his tray. Wow, that was simple. But the best part was the price. For a grand total of $71.00 I was out the door and on my way. I could not believe it. We were on the road by 10:00. Too early to go home with such a beautiful day all around us so we decided to head down to the beach in Panama City. What a beautiful spot that is. We stopped at the marina and walked thru to look at all the boats. We stopped along the beach a couple times while CJ answered work calls and gave out passwords from his laptop. We went to the local Walmart to fill our scripts and they told us it would be a 3 hour wait. So while we were waiting we went to the "Ripleys Believe It Or Not" which was close by and browsed thru the gift shop. We were shocked to learn that it was $14.00 each to go thru the museum. No wonder the parking lot was empty. We told them that was the BIGGEST "Believe It Or Not" of all time. I also stopped at Shell world to see what all they had to offer. We stopped at the big public beach down the road from Wally's and took some pictures. We were getting hungry but I didn't know what I could possibly eat so we decided to try a Waffle House and I ordered a soft waffle. That hit the spot and was easy to eat. After eating we headed back to Wally's to pick up all our medicine and made our way back towards home. We took the scenic beach highway up towards Destin and on up to Rte. 10. CJ's last day of work turned out to be quite an adventure. It's been a couple weeks now and my mouth is healing up quite nicely. We're happy as clams sitting here in our motorhome. Even on the coldest of days it's warmer than the weather up home and at the most we're only a couple degrees lower than southern Florida. The winter is passing so quickly, before you know it, it will be time to head north again. So we're busy enjoying our free time.


One trip we've made is up the road a ways to Baker where they have a museum of local history. We had a wonderful time meandering thru and reading about the local industry and some of the past professionals. There were several items on loan to the museum. There was a display of antique medical equipment from some of the past doctors in the area. It gave us a chance to see what the area was known for and what kinds of animals were in the area. After we left there we went north a few miles and found a nice lake that had a famous trail used by troops in the civil war. We stopped at a small restaurant called Gators to eat supper. The inside is decorated with figures cut out of plywood and hand painted in a theme from the 50's. Reminded us of "Happy Days" They have good home cooked southern meals. Everything down here comes with coleslaw, cornbread and sweet tea. I feel right at home. On our way home we took some country roads and did some exploring. On quite a few of the roads the blacktop stopped abruptly and red clay roads began. We would immediately turn around and look for another road. We found lots of pecan trees and several times Chuck pulled over and we picked up pecans off the shoulder of the road. We passed lots of huge and beautiful horse farms.


I've included a couple links you can click on to see some of the pictures we've taken. Hope you enjoy them and stop back soon for more recent updates.



Eagles Landing Album http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.14x1d49c&x=0&y=-cjn1fj



Baker Museum Album http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.rvey1w8&x=0&y=vmjo5b

On The Road At Last~

In Chucks words:

We left Springfield Illinois for the south on Nov 23. What a job emptying the house. We only made it as far as Mt Vernon Illinois the first nite. We were exhausted from moving and had to stop. We had been using the coach in the driveway many nites to get familiar with it. And guess what, we ran out of LP for the furnace in Mt Vernon that nite. And of coarse no one has it at 3:30 AM. We took off and stopped at the Flying J north of Evansville, In. We fueled up and filled the LP as well. We caught some shut eye in the noisy parking lot and took off after lunch for Morgantown, KY. We overnighted at her cousin Roberts where we met up with her folks and took off the next day and got as far as Athens, Al. A caravan of 3. Me driving the coach, Candy following in our car & her mom and dad in their car. We stayed at an RV park within viewing distance of the KMart on the north side just off the interstate. The next morning I was up early as it was a work day for me. I finished about 3:30 and we drove to Birmingham and got in late. We decided to stay at the Flying J so I could work that following day in the coach in the parking lot where I had access to internet. Her parents took off from there in the AM to visit with relatives in Auburn, AL. We left in the afternoon to meet up with our good friend Karen who lives on the southeast side of Birmingham. We fueled up at the Flying J before we left. We enjoyed a dinner with our friend at an Italian Restaurant (shoot can't remember the name) where we had Lasagna and Spaghetti. This was the best Italian meal we had ever had. We took off in the dark and we were going to drive until we found a good RV Park. We stopped at Prattville for the night and the next day I worked from my laptop in the store at the park as they didn't have WIFI in the park. We left Prattville at 3 PM and went around Montgomery at rush hour. That was quite a chore as they had heavy construction going on. At mile marker 52 on I65 the coach quit running. Just died. No easy steering or brakes. I managed to get it safely to the side of the road and put the flashers on. We had to be towed back to Montgomery to Freightliner and we spent the night in the parking lot. The next morning they found a couple leaks around the fuel pick up pump. Fixed it pretty quickly & we took off from there heading south again and the same thing was happening 105 miles down the road. We got off at exit 93 at Castleberry as it was running terrible, and had been running funny since we fueled at Birmingham. I limped it 5 miles to an RV Park where we spent the night. The Next day we limped it back to the exit to a closed gas station and called freightliner. They sent a mechanic out with a new fuel pick up pump. I passed the time waiting, working from my laptop and answering calls while Candy fixed breakfast outside on a cardtable. It only took the guy a couple hrs. to get to us & he installed it onsite and test drove and everything seemed fine. We made it to Gulf Shores State Park that nite after meeting up with Candy's folks for a wonderful supper at Lamberts (home of the throwed rolls) in Foley Alabama. We stayed for a week at the State Park right across the highway from the Gulf and Candy's folks stayed in her Aunt Bobbies Condo in Orange Beach, just down the road a couple miles from the park. They left to go home Monday and we were on our own. When we left the State Park in Gulf Shores we drove to Pensacola to visit our friends David and Laura in Cantonment Florida. We plugged in at their house on the street. Our coach blocked their entire Christmas Light display. We left there Monday (3rd) after my workday ended and headed for Holt Floridas Eagle LandingRV Park. We didn't make it far. The coach had been running funny again just past the big bridge coming out of Pensicola on I10. I made it to exit 26 and pulled off. We stayed the night in the Stuckey's parking lot. Tue we were towed to Ward International in Pensacola. They found 2 leaking transmission lines and repaired those. They also found a leaking left rear wheel seal. We stayed at Dave and Laura's. Thursday we were back again to Ward Int. The wheel seal did not make it till late Thursday and we had to stay in the Coach in the parking lot at Ward Int. Friday they installed the parts and finished the repairs and we were on the road again to only breakdown at exit 26 again. Same exit as before (Bagdad/Milton exit) We limped it to Mckenzie GMC in Milton, FL. A mechanic named Tony worked on it replacing yet another filter and again dumping some water out of a fuel filter and we were on the way over the road again. Barely 4 miles from Holt, FL it quit again. We decided this time just to set along the road and wait for it to cool down. And for me to get over the trauma of having to steer this huge baby one more time down the highway with no power steering or brakes till it finally came to a stop on the edge of the road. Candy suggested we play some scrabble so that's what we did. Luckily no police came by to catch her beating my buns over the scrabble board. After she won & the coach had cooled down I sprayed a small amount of starter fluid in the breather and Candy fired her up. I limped it to Eagles Landing RV Park with Candy following behind in the car and we settled in for the nite. In the light of the next day we discovered we were at a very lovely RV park. It's clean & they have really nice shower rooms and a laundry facility just across the lane from us. Monday I drove over to West Florida Truck Service on the recommendation of Dick and Judy at Eagles Landing and talked to them about our troubles. They thought we should check the fuel tank for obstructions and said bring it over tomorrow morning. We took the coach there Tues morning and they started trying to determine the problem. They dropped the fuel tank and drained it and blew out the fuel line. It was getting late so we stayed overnight in yet another parking lot so they could put the fuel tank back on the next morning. The parking lot was noisy as there were trucks going in and out to a business behind there all nite long. We had chicken in the fridge we needed to use up so we got out the barbque grill and charcoaled it right there. Wed. morning they put us back together and we did a test run and again it drove very well. This was after he had let it warm up to 180 degrees on the radiator. We let it sit for 15 min and then shut it down. Paid the bill and took off for the RV Park. 1.5 miles down the road it was doing the same thing again. So we headed back to Eagles Landing and parked it. Put out the awnings, got out the lawn chairs and decided to just stay here and enjoy the neighbors and sites. We are only about 30 miles from the Destin/Fort Walton area. Pensicola is 29 miles west of here. We're situated about halfway between Milton and Crestview. There's a nice little cafe a half mile from here and a post office. I've got internet access and my phones are getting a good signal. The mechanic at the West Florida repair shop had mentioned he thought it was possible we'd gotten bad fuel. We told him we'd done all our fueling at Flying J's and he said that could very well be the problem. They apparently don't have a very good reputation good quality fuel. He said that might be why we had to keep having water removed from the fuel separator. He gave us a sample of the fuel he took from the tank and now we're going to contact the Flying J people to see what they have to say. In the meantime, this is as fine a place as any to be stuck for the winter. There's even a campfire circle right next to our parking space. At least we made it to Florida. We haven't seen any aligators yet but we've heard rumors of bears. We'll keep you posted.

For a slideshow of pictures we've put together for this chapter click on this link

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.dv0tqa8&x=0&y=vmgbmo

Thanksgiving Dinner~

We had intended to take off Thanksgiving morning. We were racing the clock and the clock was winning. Mom and dad were going down to the coast with us in their car and they left on Wednesday morning. We were to meet up with them in Morgantown Kentucky Thursday evening at my cousin Roberts house. However nothing ever goes as planned. On Thursday morning it was obvious that we were not going to get out of town anytime soon. We still had a couple trips to make out to Mom and dads house with the last of our stuff. We had some donations to drop off here and there of last minute things. We still had the cleaning to do on our nearly empty house. We were dressed like bums in our work clothes, we hadn't had showers and we were more tired than we'd ever been in our lives. We were passing McDonalds a little after 11:00 am and we were both hungry. We saw they had their sign on and there were people inside so we decided to stop for a quickie burger to hold off starvation but when we got up to the doors they were locked. They'd closed at 11:00. the people inside were employees cleaning up. Oh no, where on earth were we going to get a quick bite to eat on Thanksgiving morning. My kitchen was already packed up, movedand cleaned. The grocery stores were all closed. As we drove down the road we noticed a crowd of cars at Sgt. Peppers. We weren't going to be choosey so we pulled in. Thank goodness someone was open. As soon as we walked in the door a young man told us to pick a table and someone would be right with us. We chose a table and sat down and waited for a bit and another young man approached our table and asked us if we wanted tea or coffee. I thought to myself the soda pop machine must be broken but it passed right thru my thoughts and Chuck and I got busy talking about what we had left to do. We weren't paying much attention to anything or anyone around us. We were both bone tired and in terrible pain from all the hard work we'd been doing. Before we knew it a woman came to our table carrying two plates filled with food. Chuck held out his hand and said "Sorry, that's not ours, we haven't even ordered yet." She said "Oh you don't order, it's the free turkey dinner, everyone gets the same thing." We looked at each other and froze. Then we both started laughing. It seems as though a charity group was using the restaurant to feed Thanksgiving dinner to the needy. We apologized and told the woman we didn't realize what was going on and we got up to leave. She said, "Don't be silly, you're here, you might as well eat with us." Considering the way we were dressed, she probably thought we looked like we could use it. So we sat back down and ate a turkey dinner that was as good a turkey dinner we'd ever ate. Chuck of course gave me his sweet potatoes and I gave him my dressing. When we were finished with our meal Chuck excused himself to use the restroom and while he was gone the waitress came to our table and asked if we'd like pumpkin pie or pecan pie. I told her I'd love some pecan pie but knowing how Chuck feels about nuts I ordered the pumpkin pie for him. By the time he got back to the table the pie was sitting there waiting for him. I said to him, "wouldn't it be our luck for the t.v. station to show up to shoot a spot for the news." No sooner had I gotten the words out of my mouth than he said "You better eat fast cause they just got here!" We didn't even wait to finish our pie. We just dug into our pocket for a cash donation, threw it on the table and hit the floor running. We were out of there before the t.v. guy could even get his camera out of the case. We laughed about it all the way home.

Getting Ready~

No words can describe how hard Chuck and I worked getting ready for our great adventure. If we thought hunting for the coach was a chore, it was nothing compared to the task we were facing. We had a house to pack up, things to get rid of, and fine tuning to do to our Blue Skies dreamboat. I had already started doing a lot of packing in July when we got back from our honeymoon. We knew we were going to move so I'd started going thru things and packing stuff we weren't using. Faced with the fact that we were not buying a house but putting things in storage put a different light on the boxes I'd filled thus far. I went thru what I'd started with an eye for getting rid of as much as I could. My neighbor who was selling her house suggested I put stuff in her garage sale so I struggled with getting as much stuff together for that as I could bear to part with at that point. It was difficult cause I've been a pack rat all my life. Saving things that I "may" need someday or one of our many kids "may" need some day had always been my mantra. When Chuck and I informed the kids of our plans we began giving them as much stuff as they would take. We were also storing a lot of their things so we started getting on them to find places for their treasures. We had a house with a full basement, full attic and 2 car garage. It's amazing how much a person can store in that much space. Mom and dad had given us permission to store things at their house as long as we kept it within reason. So I had to scale back on what I'd always defined as reasonable. If it wasn't valuable I either threw it away or donated it to charity. At the garage sale I marked almost everything a nickle and what didn't sell we toted off to the Goodwill store. My youngest daughter was just starting out with a new apartment so I was able to give her most of what she needed. Since Chuck and I are both limited with health concerns and weight restrictions I had to get a lot of help from the kids and friends to do the brunt of the moving. Thank goodness we had plenty of both or we'd have never gotten it done. I quit my job at Toyota on the 2nd of November and we hit the road on November 23rd. So those 3 weeks were non-stop days of intense labor. Lot's of planning & keeping our eyes focused on our goal, not to mention some pretty strong prescription pain meds and teamwork. The fact that Chuck and I both agree on so many things & both equally excited about our new adventure kept us on track.

Since Chuck was planning on working from the coach and since we are both avid computer users we had to make a desk area for our computers. We took out the dining room table and chairs to empty up some space & hired a cabinet maker to build us a 72 inch desk top to match the counters thru out the coach. We bought some cabinets and Chuck altered them a bit to fit. The results were beautiful. Plenty of room to hold our 2 computer towers and moniters plus his work laptop and the printer.
We also knew the bed was going to be an important issue. Chuck and I've both had surgeries on our backs and I have fibramyalgia and we were used to a waterbed. There's no way to take a waterbed onboard a motorhome. So we had to do some serious bed shopping. The motorhome came with a brand new mattress, still wrapped in plastic but it wasn't thick enough or by any means comfortable enough by itself. We finally decided on buying a 4 in memory foam mattress topper which was the perfect solution. We ordered it online 3 days later and it came in an 80lb package about the size of a 25in. TV. We unrolled it and laid it out on top of the mattress but it was anything but flat. Lumpy and bumpy and twisted and curled. We wondered if it would flatten out and fit but within a day it was perfect. By the next day it didn't even stink. The first night we slept on it we knew we'd made the right choice. It was wonderful. In fact, it was even more comfortable than our waterbed.
Another issue that was serious for me was the small clothes closet. I had CLOTHES! And of course Chuck was gonna need a couple changes of outfits too. It took me considerable time, not to mention adding and subtracting and carrying in and out to decide what I would need and what I could LIVE without. Since the weather was going to be variable we'd need some warm clothes and some summer clothes. We have 5 small drawers and several cabinets in the bedroom. I was able to pare down our wardrobe to fit comfortably. We share the drawers for undies and socks and jammies. The tshirts, sweatshirts, jeans & shorts are folded into the overhead cabinets. I've even got a little space left over. I'll probably need it by the time we head back north.
I'm happy as can be with the kitchen. In reality, I've got more storage in this kitchen than I had in the house. Including drawers. The important thing was to bring things that could serve double and triple purposes. I found several good tips in blogs I'd read from other full timers. One thing I forgot to do though, was make sure they'd fit in the microwave/convection oven.... oops! Oh well, I can always find what I need at thrift shops. Florida is full of Flee Markets! We are all set to hit the road and surpisingly enough, we've lived thru the preparations!

I've posted pictures for you all to see.... click on the link below
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=enxxrx4.11bbo66w&x=0&y=pgog6o

In the Beginning

As we sat at our desk one day back in August, looking at houses for sale on the internet, we talked about the possibility of buying a house in Florida. We'd spent a week in the south on our honeymoon in July and fell in love with the sun and the people and the way of life down along the southern coast. It was an exciting idea. If only we could take our whole family along. Could we live without the grandkids being close by? Could we stand being so far away from mom and dad? What if we got moved down there and found out we missed them too much? We'd hate to have to put our new house on the market and move everything back north. Almost at the same instant we both had the idea of getting a motorhome and spending the winters down there. I don't know which one of us voiced it first. I think it was actually in unison. Bingo! A plan was born. One we were both equally thrilled with. Not only were we going to spend our winters in a motorhome, we were going to LIVE in it year round for at least two years. Life on the road, moving when we felt the urge. We switched our searches from homes for sale to RV's for sale. The hunt was on. We began looking at picture after picture of coaches and their interiors. We made a list of things we wanted in our coach. On the week ends we began traveling around to various dealers looking at them and most importantly, smelling them. We learned that some didn't smell nice at all. Smoke and pet and cooking odors can leave very unpleasant impressions on our sensitive noses in such a small space. Since we spend the majority of our indoor time at our computers we knew we needed adequate space for a desk. Chuck also knew if we planned on putting a lot of miles on it we'd need a diesel. We found a number of coaches we really liked but for one reason or another we ruled each one out. Early in our search we'd come across a Monaco we liked but since it didn't have a slide or a washer/dryer unit we kept searching. It's not all that easy to find the perfect coach in a sea of thousands. The more we looked, the more we kept coming back to the Monaco we'd found in Lysle Illinois. She was such a pretty thing. The price was right, the mileage was low, it was close to home. Chuck even called the owners and talked to them about their experiences in it. The fact that it didn't have a slide was getting less and less important as we'd talked to many people with slides who had too many problems for no more extra space than you got. Did I really need a washer/dryer in my home? From reading posts online I'd learned that most campgrounds had laundry facilities and the washer/dryer combos weren't all that convenient. You could only wash a few things at a time and they took forever to dry. Maybe I'd be like most people I'd talked to who had the washer/dryers on board but used the laundry facilities in the campgrounds anyway. We were falling more and more in love with the blue Monaco in Lysle. Finally we decided to give it the sniff test so Chuck called the owners one more time to make sure it was still available and we scheduled a visit for the upcoming weekend. I could hardly wait. The days seemed to drag by. We made preliminary arrangements with the insurance company and we had a cashiers check cut at the bank for our offering price. I did a check on the vin number to make sure there were no leans against it. We even made our first camping purchase of walkie talkies at WallyWorld. Finally Saturday morning arrived. My nose was ready. We picked up Mom and headed for Lisle. It was a two hour drive and the minutes clicked by slower than I can ever remember in my life. Finally we arrived and began looking for the Perkins house. I remember when I first caught a glimpse of the Monaco for the first time. It was even more beautiful than the pictures we'd received. Paul and Ro, the owners, had her washed and waxed and all the awnings out and I swear she was winking at us when we pulled in the driveway. I was almost lightheaded when I stepped thru the door and took my first deep breath. She smelled wonderful! No smoke odors, no pet odors, she smelled like the inside of the dryer when you've soaked your clothes in Downey. Our hearts melted. It was love at first site for Chuck and I both. We searched every nook and cranny inside and out. She was 36 feet of heaven. We had to have her. I could already picture us living in her and hitting the road. Even mom was impressed. Chuck made our offer and Paul excepted. She was OURS! Blue Skies were on the horizon.