Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Norman comes to Texas

Friday, December 28th, 2018

We planned a Winter trip months ago, when we received an advertisement that Angel Fire was offering Teachers a $99 season pass. This is a really great deal, even if you only go one time, because lift tickets can cost as much as $80 a day! We also were able to purchase a Four-Day Pass for me, for a reduced price, so we were sure that was where we wanted to go skiing this year. On top of that, we got a great RV Park rate using our Escapees Member discount, saving 50% of the regular rate!

Tony was off all week, but I had to work, so we planned to leave right after I got off work on Friday. Tony had the rig loaded, hitched and ready to go when I got home, and we pulled out about 5:30PM. We were doing just fine, until we headed up a hill near Baird, not too far from home. The truck decided to turn on the check engine light, and we had to pull off the road. Once we got off the highway, turning the engine off and on seemed to return everything to normal, and we decided to head home to address the issue. There was no point in trying to travel 600+ miles if the truck was going to be "iffy".

Saturday, December 29th, 2018

We woke up, and decided we absolutely had to do something different. We needed a reliable vehicle for the trip, or we would have to scrap the trip altogether. Tony decided this was the last straw. We had just put a lot of money into the truck in October having some sensors replaced, so he was ready for a change. We had already been looking at options since October, as mentioned in a previous blog post. We had planned to wait until AFTER this trip to look seriously again, but we decided it was definitely in our best interest to move now.

We did some more research and located a few options. But calls to the dealers netted just two possibilities, one of which was a color we didn't really want. So we negotiated with a dealer in Oklahoma, and had a pretty good-looking deal in the works. We told them we wanted to come and look at the truck, and would be willing to make a deal today if it was what we wanted. They also asked for info on our trade, and I sent photos inside and out. They made a reasonable offer on it, so we felt pretty good about the potential for a deal.

We headed out about 2:00pm and arrived at the dealership  about 6:30pm. (They were open until 9pm.) Our salesman had the truck cleaned up and ready to take a test drive so we hopped in and headed around town. The truck performed as expected, with no red flags. We then looked it over top to bottom, and inside and out, testing things.



Nice looking/driving truck!


After that, we went back in to talk to the salesperson. We had given them info for running credit prior to our departure, so the negotiations were short. We liked the truck, the pricing and proposed payment were within what we wanted to pay. So they moved us over to talk to the finance guy for the paperwork. That lasted about an hour, and we had a deal -- along with an extended warranty.

We then got the keys, and moved our stuff from one truck to the other -- the hitch, the stuff under the seat, and in the compartments.

Swapping our stuff took about 15 minutes.


We left the dealer about 9:30PM, and immediately had to get fuel. (We didn't realize they didn't fuel it up!) On the way home, we decided to name the truck "Norman," since that's where it came from.  Norman handled the trip just fine, and we both really like driving it. Even though it's only 3 years newer, there are a number of improvements we are really going to enjoy.

We headed back home to Texas, and got home about 2:30AM Sunday.




Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Early Christmas and a Truck Trist

Friday, December 21st, 2018

We planned this trip to get together with our relatives in the DFW metroplex for Christmas. We made reservations at Bluebonnet Ridge RV Resort, our favorite place to stay when we visit family.

We left about 1:30pm, because the day before, we had gone to look at a truck in Abilene. A newer version of ours, same color. But we found a few things that didn't add up right, and had decided it was not for us.

We got to the edge of Ft. Worth about 3:45pm. Right before Rush Hour. GREEEAATTT! But luckily, traffic was not too terrible, and we got to the RV Park by 5:30pm.

One last rest stop before entering the Metroplex!

We arrived!

Our site (pic taken the next day.)



Saturday, December 22nd, 2018

Today we did a little prep-work for the Christmas get-together tonight, and then headed out to "Smoke Sessions BBQ", a food truck on the outskirts of Royse City, for lunch. We had the most amazing BBQ! A huge beef rib, jalapeno and cheese sausage, brisket, and smoked mac & cheese. It was a little expensive, but worth every bite!



Afterward, we headed back to the rig and did some more prep-work for the party. We also did some more research on trucks and hitch compatibility.

In the RV park, we noticed this unique "tiny home". It looks like it was built on a flatbed gooseneck hauler, but they also incorporated RV-like slideouts.

A real tiny home!


In the evening, we got together with family and had a great meal, exchanged gifts -- a new idea this year -- stuffed Christmas socks. We then played some games, and enjoyed visiting with Tony's family and my folks.



Eventually, it was time to clean up and head our separate ways. It was great to see everyone!



Sunday, December 23rd, 2018

Today we worked on some projects around the rig, laundry of our bigger washable items (comforter, etc.), ran some more errands, researched some more trucks, and then Tony cooked on the grill. He attempted to cook a Prime Rib Roast! It turned out pretty good, but not quite as "rare" as we would have liked. 


Tony's first Prime Rib roast

Monday, December 24th, 2018

This morning, we planned to get going fairly early. We had contacted a dealer in Stephenville about a truck we wanted to see, so we headed out, planning to meet up with them before they closed for the Christmas holiday.

Heading out!


 Stephenville is about 40 minutes out of the way, but sorta on our path to home.  We arrived at the dealer about 1:00pm. We had specifically asked about the hitch that was in the bed of the truck, and were told it was a B&W. However, when we arrived, it was a Curt, which is not compatible with our current B&W Companion 5th wheel hitch. We went ahead and test -drove it, and looked it over well. They said they could get the hitch changed out for us. We said we'd think about it. But after driving away, we talked about it on the way home, and decided it was probably not the truck for us, for a variety of reasons.

They brought the truck to us! We had to park in their overflow lot, about a block from the dealership. 

We made it back home to our home park in the late afternoon, and we set up for a short week. We depart again on December 28th!


Monday, January 21, 2019

A Trip for Winning and Friends

Friday, September 21, 2018


Well, I am waaaaayyy behind on the blog. I will try to catch up, since it's now mid-January 2019!

In September, Tony had a "bye-week" with no football game, so we planned a trip to Fun Town RV Park at Winstar,  which is located next to the Winstar Casino in Thackerville, OK.

The trip was going to be a rainy one, but we really wanted to get away! Also, our good Heartland friends, Jay and Stella, were making their way across the country to head to the Oklahoma Rally in the next week or so, so we coordinated to meet up with them, as well.

We left on Friday after school was out, and headed out. It rained some along the way, but not too badly. We arrived at the RV park about 7PM, and Jay & Stella were already there. The rain was starting to pick up, so we agreed to just meet up in the morning, so we could get set up and eat something quickly.



In the middle of the night, I noticed the bed was slightly wet when I returned from going to the restroom. I was worried the cat had left us a present, but it was only water. We discovered the water was dripping from the TV antenna controller, which was directly over my side of the bed. Apparently, we have a leak!

Saturday, September 22, 2018

We woke up and get dressed, then proceeded to meet up with Jay and Stella to head over to the Casino for breakfast. They had a good choice of food for "brunch" and we had a good visit. After that, we all went our own ways to gamble and such for a while, and agreed to meet up again later.

I won a little money playing the slots pretty quickly, so I became pretty conservative after that. We had a good time just seeing what was what around this huge casino. You can walk for miles and see lots of different things. After a while, we headed back to the RV and relaxed a while. The rain continued, so we stayed inside.

In the evening, we met up again with Jay and Stella, and drove in the rain, to go eat in Gainesville at the Rib Crib. We had a good meal, and visited a lot about various topics. After dinner we headed over to Wal Mart for a few things, then back to the RV park, where we said our good byes.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Today, we were slow to get up and get going, but we headed out just prior to lunch. We stopped at Bucees in Ft Worth, and had a quick lunch, then continued our way home with no issues. The rain had finally let up so that was good.



When we got back to our home park, our Progressive EMS would not allow power through, so we investigated further and found water had leaked into it, ruining it. Luckily, it is covered under a lifetime warranty, so I contacted Progressive on Monday, and a new one was shipped right away. We used our "backup" EMS from SurgeGuard (which doesn't have all the same features, but does protect against surges and reverse polarity) in the meantime. This has come in handy twice now.

Water in the LED display of the EMS.


Overall, a quick trip, but we had a good time seeing our Heartland friends and coming home with a little more in our pocket than what we started with!