The Decision Is Made and Tomorrow's The Big Day

DeBary, FL.

67 deg. cloudy, WSW wind @ 16 mph.

Forecast = Today: Mostly sunny. Highs around 64°F. West northwest wind to 21 MPH, gusting to 29 MPH.
Tonight: Clear. Lows around 41°F. Wind chill around 34°F. West northwest wind 7 to 16 MPH, gusting to 23 MPH.

Jim and Linda have been busy trying to figure out what to take to the house and what to keep in me to transfer to their new (to them), Motorhome. They've probably taken more to the house than they should have, but until they actually get the Motorhome, they really won't know just how much will fit into the smaller cabinet space and storage compartments.

The other day, (I think it was Monday), Laura brought Anna to the house to see it. If you remember, Anna lives up in Jacksonville and was down here to visit.

Anyway, both Jim and Linda said that it seems like Anna really liked the house and she and Laura even helped Linda make some changes to the curtains in the Florida Room which runs across the front of the house.

Thanks Anna!!! : )

OK, it's time to announce who's going to take over this blog.

After much persuading, Blaine, (Jim and Linda's pet), has agreed to give it a try. He's really hesitant, but I've assured him that all of my followers have been very understanding when I made mistakes and that I was sure that you would be tolerant with him too.  

So,  ,  ,  ,  why Blaine??? Well to be honest, he probably knows more about Jim and Linda than most anyone else. He's been with them since before they went full-timing, he's traveled to all the places that they have gone during the last 12+ years, and he will be in the RV when they're traveling and in the house when they're not.

He could even ride along when Jim and Linda take CLT (Cute Little Truck), someplace! ; )

I don't know just yet how we'll make the transfer, but in the next couple days, he and I will get it figured out. I've helped him start a new main page, so there will be a new URL. There's no post on it yet, but I'm sure he'll post in the next few days. As soon as he gets the page set up and makes his first post, there will be a link to it here.

Tomorrow is the big day!!!! Jim and Linda will take me to the dealer in the morning and then, after the inspection of the new MH and the papers are signed, the new MH and myself will be taken to a CG in the area where Jim and Linda will transfer the rest of their belongings.

After that, Jim and Linda will bring the new MH back here to Highbanks and someone from the dealership will come an take me to the dealer's lot.

A little about my time with Jim and Linda.

I've had a great time, and it's been fun taking them to the places they wanted to go. I'm really sorry that I'm just too big to go to some of the parks that they want to go to though. Jim says that he really likes how I handle the Interstates, and both of them seemed to have really enjoyed my spacious interior, but they both like to get "off the beaten path" when they travel, and, as Jim found out, I'm really too large to do that comfortably. (At least for him).

I also understand that since they've decided to buy the house that I'm just too big for their needs. There's really no sense putting a 45' MH in storage for at leas 1/2 of the year and in fact, it would be very hard on me.

So, hopefully I'll find someone who wants to travel long distances and stay in larger RV parks. I'm sure I will. I'm really in pretty good shape for my age.

All in all, I've had a great time and have enjoyed writing this blog. I'll miss Jim and Linda, their family and all of their friends that I've met, but things change and I'm used to that. After all, I am a house that has wheels, and I never know where I'll be on any given day.

Who knows, buy this time next year, I could be on my way to Alaska!!! ; )

Did you know that today is "Oreo Cookie Day"?

Just one last thing.

I would like to thank all of you who have followed this blog. It has really meant a lot to know that so many of you were interested in my ramblings. Thank You!!! Thank You!!! Thank You!!!!!

Please follow Blaine's Blog when he starts posting.

A Big Change For Jim and Linda Part 6 My Future

DeBary, FL.

60 deg. light fog, no wind.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. Fog early. High of 81F. Winds from the SE at 5 to 10 mph.

I know that many of you have more questions about this big change for Jim and Linda. Today, I'm going to try to address a question that I know many of you are asking. This question concerns my future.  

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  What does this big change mean for me?  Well, I’ve known for at least a year that Jim has not been happy with the choice that he and Linda made to purchase a 45 foot Motorhome.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, Jim really likes the way I cruise down the Interstate highways and how well I handle the crosswinds and rough roads. And, he and Linda really enjoy all the room inside of me and the solidness of my construction.  But soon after he and Linda purchased me, they realized that they had sized themselves out of many of the national parks, state parks, county, city parks and COE parks that they really enjoy.

They also can’t get me into a few of the commercial RV Parks that they really like, including a few of the Escapees Club parks. 

Jim and Linda are figuring that at this time, (and this may change in future years), they will be spending 6 or 7 months out of the year at the house down here in Florida, and travel the other 5 or 6 months. They still have family and friends up North that they will want to see as well as doctors, their financial advisor, and they definitely will still want to see Mike and his family in NC and Joe and his family in VA each year. And, they also want to be able to go back out to Portland to see Jeff and Heather again in a couple years.

There's also the problem of where to store me when they're living in the house. There's a storage lot at Highland Country Estates where the house is, but there's not enough room for an RV my size. All of this means that they will be selling or trading me off on a smaller RV. Right now, they’re thinking a Class C or B+ motor home, but a small Class A is not out of the question. 

As of right now, the plan is to keep me at least until Jim and Linda take possession of the double wide. The reason being that once they take possession, they can move a lot of what I, Myrddin before me and Mariah before that, have been carrying around for the past 12 years. 

They will take all of the off season clothes, extra bedding, towels, and anything else that they’ll not need for the next few months and put it in the double wide. Then, when they’ve unloaded everything out of me that they can, they’ll start looking for a much smaller RV. 

Being that they’ll need an RV for their summer travels, (beginning on or about the 1st of May), they’ll need to either trade me off on a different RV, sell me and buy another RV, or keep me until they return to Florida in the fall.

It will all depend on what kind of a deal they can get.

A Point to Ponder : Why do grocery stores buy so many checkout line registers if they only keep 3 or 4 open?

A Big Change For Jim And Linda Part 3

DeBary, FL

52 deg. overcast, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly cloudy with rain showers. High of 70F. Winds from the NE at 5 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.


My last post had Jim and Linda checking out the double wide unit that had all the work done on it.

After much more discussion and thought, it was pretty much decided that this double wide would be right for their needs so Jim and Linda told Nancy, ( the Community Manager), that they would like to try to make a deal with Emily for the home.

So, they made an offer.

Now, at this time Emily was at her daughter’s house for the Holiday so it took awhile for her to get back to Nancy, but on Friday, the 4th of January, she called back and gave them her reply.

Now, Jim and Linda have a few more questions and concerns, but after even more conversation, checking on finances and other technicalities, it was decided that if their questions and concerns were answered, and they didn’t find any problems with the home after another viewing, either today or tomorrow, they would go ahead and accept Emily’s price.

So, as of right now, there have been no papers signed but unless something happens, it sure looks like Jim and Linda are going to do this.

I should know what’s going to be happening for sure in the next couple days.

A Point to Ponder : One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.

A Big Change For Jim And Linda Part 2

DeBary, FL.

60 deg. overcast, no wind.

Forecast = Overcast with a chance of rain, then a chance of a thunderstorm and rain showers in the afternoon. High of 79F. Winds from the NNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.


In my last post, Jim and Linda had stopped at the Office of the Manufactured Home Park in DeBary.


Upon entering the office, they met Nancy, the Community Manager of the park. After talking to her for a little while and telling her what they were generally looking for in a home, she told them that she had a few that she thought they might like, and offered to show them to them.

Nancy showed Jim and Linda 4 different homes that day. 2 of them were single wide, (which Jim and Linda thought would be large enough for their purposes),  but soon realized that the storage in most single wide units was almost non existent. In fact, there was such a small amount of storage that they didn’t think that they’d even be able to find a place for the things that I’ve been carrying around.

The double wide units had much more storage room, but seemed way too big to them after living in an RV for 12 years. But, they pretty much decided that it was the way they needed to go.

Of the 2 double wide homes, one was much nicer than the other. It’s owned by an elderly lady who had lost her husband a year or so ago. Before he passed, they had done a lot of work on the home and since then, she has had even more work done.

After Christmas, and after thinking about the home over the Holiday, Jim and Linda decided that they wanted to go back and see the house again. So, on the 28th of  December, they called Nancy and made arrangements to go back and closely check it out.

After talking to Nancy for awhile about park regulations and other things about the park itself, they went over to the house.

The owner is a lady named Emily and she is in the process of packing up all her belongings and moving so that she is near where her daughter lives. She has a lot of items packed up already and it doesn’t look like it would take her too long to pack up the rest.

The home is an older home, (as are all of the homes in this community), but has been very well maintained and, like I said, has had a lot of work done on it.

The carpeting is fairly new, (less than 2 years), the flooring in the kitchen has just been replaced, there are new plumbing fixtures and sink basins in the bathrooms, the refrigerator is only about 2 years old, (as are the washer and drier), the steps leading into the kitchen have been replaced with wide and very sturdy steps with strong railings and the heat pump that heats and cools the house was replaced just this last spring.

Jim and Linda said that you can tell that the home was very well cared for and so far, only found a few small items that would need attention.

A Point to Ponder : Where in the nursery rhyme does it say humpty dumpty is an egg?

A Big Change For Jim And Linda Part 1

DeBary, FL.

50 deg. overcast, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. Fog early. High of 73F. Winds from the NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.


Well, here's the news you've been waiting for. As of today, 1/5/2013, this is what I know. There's still a few "t's" to cross and "i's" to dot, but I'm 99% sure that this is going to happen.

Jim and Linda are going to be making a big change in their lifestyle. I’ve known about it for a long time but was nothing definite and I know Jim and Linda didn't want me to say anything until they were sure that they were really going to do this.

They have decided to stop Full-Timing. Yep, you read that right. As early as last fall, Jim started to look on the Internet to find possible places to settle down. He did searches on different areas of the country to try to get an idea of what the climate would be like year round. He checked on cost of living, home prices, rent prices, taxes, insurance, licenses fees, and even crime rates. He did searches on stix and brix homes for sale, apartments to rent, Park models, and single wide and double wide manufactured homes for sale.

The location was the first thing that had to be determined. They wanted to be close to at least one of their kids and after much research and thought, both decided that Florida would probably be the best location for them.

The pros:  A state where the weather is good during the winter months.
                A state that is fairly close to some of their kids and grandkids. (3 of their   Children  along the East Coast,)
Low taxes
Low housing costs at this time.
Close to Laura and her family.

The cons: Very hot and humid summers.
Hurricanes.
Possible high insurance costs.
Almost as far away from Jeff in Portland Oregon as they can be.  : (

And, I’m sure there’s more pros and cons, but you get the idea. It’s just like everything else, there ain’t  no 10’s!!!!

So, the location was determined. Now they had to decide on what kind of home they wanted and could afford.

They looked at prices of stix and brix homes, some park models here at the Highbanks CampResort, Checked on rent prices and finally decided that a single wide or double wide manufactured home was within their budget and best met their needs.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  between Thanksgiving and Christmas they started driving around to the manufactured home parks in this area and started looking at used single and double wide models.

The parks in this area range all the way from “trashy” to very “upscale”, so that cut down somewhat on the parks that would be of interest to them. (They were interested in a park that was somewhere in the middle).  ; )

Now, at all of these parks, you own the manufactured home, but you lease or rent the land, (or site), and pay a monthly or yearly fee. You pay for your own electricity at all of the parks and at some, the water, sewer, cable TV and other amenities are included.  But, at others, some or all of the amenities are paid for by the home owner. Of course prices vary widely, so you have to do your homework.

One of the first parks that they checked out up by DeLand and was kind of nice, but after doing some research and talking to some people, it was determined that they have a real problem with their water supply. (lots of rust and bad tasting.)  And, the park also has their own sewage plant, and it is right up to capacity. Soon the owners of this park will be forced to make major improvements so that will undoubtedly raise the prices at that park.

The next park was nice, but after talking to the sales lady they determined that their homes were quite high priced. It is in Orange city, so the location would have been very good. They also had some very strict “rules and regulations” in the park, so that was also a negative.

The next park was in DeBary. It is very nice, but Jim said that he didn't feel comfortable there. It’s a newer park and most of the homes have large yards with lots of landscaping. He and Linda both felt that it was too “upscale” for them to be comfortable at so they turned around and drove back out.

DeBary was also the location of the next park that they visited. It’s an older park that is well established. The homes are older but both the homes and the park appear to be very well maintained. They have a few single wide and a few double wide homes for sale, the lots are fairly small but the homes don’t seem to be too crowded together.

After driving through the park and doing a quick drive-by look at the homes that are for sale, Jim and Linda stopped at the office to get more information.

Did you know that on this date in 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began?

Happy New Year

DeBary, FL.

46 deg. overcast, no wind.

Forecast = Partly cloudy. High of 72F. Winds from the ENE at 5 to 15 mph shifting to the SE in the afternoon.

Hope all of you have a very safe and Happy New year. : )

Nothing much happened around here yesterday. Jim dumped my tanks, Linda did some laundry and both fooled around with the computers and watched football on TV.

I don't know if I"m supposed to say anything yet or not, but it looks like there's going to be some big changes coming in 2013. Jim and Linda have been doing something that they've asked me not to tell you about, but it looks like soon, they will.

Yeah, I know, it's mean to not tell you, but I really do need to respect their wishes.

You can be sure that you'll be the first to know when I get the go-ahead.

Did you know that the tradition of using a baby to signify the New Year was started by ancient Greeks around 600 B.C? They would carry a baby around in a basket to honor Dionysus, the God of Fertility and symbolize his annual rebirth.