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.

Insurance, Dinner and Buying Paint

DeBary, FL.

46 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly sunny. Highs around 75°F. West northwest wind 5 to 9 MPH.


Jim and Linda met Laura and Lindsey over at the house yesterday morning. Laura wanted to see the furniture that Jim and Linda had bought and Lindsey helped Jim measure the rooms that Linda is considering painting.

It was about noon when Jim and Linda came back here to the park. When they got back, Linda called the insurance agent to see what was happening with the insurance on the house. Well, the news wasn't good. The agent told her that he had contacted the company and they had told him that it would be at least another week before they would even look at the application!!! : (

When Linda told Jim what the agent had said, Jim said, "Enough is enough, we're going with the back-up plan". !!!!!!!

Linda told the agent what they wanted to do and he said to come on over to the office and he'd get it set up.

So,  ,  ,  ,  after Linda grabbed a bite to eat, they headed over there and purchased a policy that gives them very good liability insurance but no insurance at all on the house or anything in it.

Now I know that to some of you this may seem crazy, but being that Jim and Linda didn't pay much at all for the house, (they could buy 4 or 5 of these houses for what it would cost to replace me), and they're planning on having almost all used furniture inside of it, the risk of losing a lot of money in case of a total loss is minimal. As far as personal "things", Jim and Linda don't have too much of that, and have no intention of collecting a lot of "stuff" in the future.

Also, because just the liability insurance is much less expensive than home insurance, they will be able to save some money to put in the bank in case they need or want to buy another house in the future.

This is not an ideal situation but it seems like one of the only options available for a manufactured home this old. (Built in 1976).  I can't stress too much to anyone who is considering buying property or a home in FL. Make absolutely sure that you can get insurance on anything you buy, before you sign anything!!!!!!  Insurancewise, (I don't think that's a real word), there are some crazy thing happening down here in FL and the rules are changing from day to day. It's not like buying insurance in any other state!!!!!!

For dinner, Jim and Linda met Laura and Lindsey over at the Arby's restaurant in Orange City and then went to Home Depot to pick out and buy paint and supplies for the house. Laura is very good with colors and decorating and Linda really wanted her opinion.

After purchasing (just the right color paint),  Laura and Lindsey headed home and Jim and Linda came back here.

So, ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  Jim and Lind have made the insurance decision and they have decided that they're not going to "look back".  If something happens, Jim and Linda will still be all right. They have enough resources right now that they could go out and buy another house like this one. And, they're still planning on having a medium sized RV for the foreseeable future, so they'll also have that option.

Today, Jim and Linda will be going over to the house and will start the "prep" work for the painting. Then when there's time, Laura will come over and help with the painting.

Did you know that on this date in 1950 - The American Associated Insurance Companies, of St. Louis, MO, issued the first baby sitter’s insurance policy?

Dinner At Laura's and Inside Decorations

DeBary, FL.

64 deg. overcast, light breeze out of the East @ 3 mph.

Forecast = Partly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 82F. Winds from the NE at 5 to 10 mph shifting to the ESE in the afternoon. Chance of rain 20%.


Laura stopped by for awhile Wednesday morning. She's had company staying at her house for the last few days, so we hadn't seen her for awhile.  Jim had gone to the Post Office earlier and had picked up some of those Priority boxes, so while she was here, she helped Jim and Linda package up some Christmas presents to be sent off to family.

She was here for a couple hours but before she left, she invited Jim and Linda over to her house for dinner and tentative plans were made for her to come back on Thursday, to help decorate the inside of me.

About 4:30 Wednesday afternoon, Jim and Linda took CLT (Cute Little Truck), and headed over to Laura and Lindsey's. Earlier, Laura had put some beef and gravy in a crock pot and after letting it slow cook for a good part of the day, it made for a great dish when served over rice. That, along with some sweet corn and some hot-out-of-the oven chocolate chip cookies for desert, made for a very tasty meal. ; )

About 11:30 yesterday morning, Laura came out here to the park and helped Jim and Linda decorate the inside of me. It really wasn't hard to do and it didn't take very long, but like I said the other day, it's become kind of a tradition for Laura and/or the girls to help, and everyone seems to have a lot of fun doing it. ; )

Today, Jim needs to go up to the office and pay another month's rent for my site. (Can you believe that we've been her for a whole month already? ) Then, because there are a couple boxes of presents ready to sent, he wants to go to the Post Office to mail them.

Linda still has a few more presents to get ready, so I imagine she'll be working on that today. Hopefully she'll be able to get them finished and wrapped soon so that they can be mailed. Once they're mailed, the pressure will be off and she can relax.

A Point to Ponder : We cannot change the direction of the wind ... but we can adjust our sails.

Groceries and Helping Denny

Thonotosassa, FL.

62 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast = Mostly cloudy. Highs in the upper 70s near the coast and in the lower 80s inland. East winds around 10 mph.

Denny stopped by for awhile yesterday morning. His Winnebago Brave MH has a chassis that has air bags inside of the front coil springs and he can't air one of the bags, so he was wanting Jim to stop by later and give him a hand to try to find out what the problem was.

Since Linda and Jim had decided to go get groceries, Jim said that he'd stop by as soon as they returned, which was fine with Denny. : )

So, after Jim and Linda got back from getting groceries, (plus getting CLT a drink of 87 octane), and had most of the groceries put away, Jim go on his bike and headed over to Denny and Bev's site to help if he could.

By the time he got over there, Denny had already found out that the air bag itself was leaking and was in the process of removing it.

Now, if any of you have tried to do this, you already know that it's not an easy job. I this case, the air bag was stiffer than normal, (probably from age), and would not collapse enough to pull it out through the hole in the lower "A" frame.

So with the help of a couple vise grips, a saws-all and lots of struggling, the bag was finally chopped up enough to get it out. : (

By this time it was after 4:00 and Denny and Jim were missing "happy hour" over at Gordy's. : O  So, after cleaning up a little, they headed over there.

It was close to 5:30 by the time Jim came back here to my site, so Linda started to put dinner together. After dinner, they watched TV, read and worked/played with the computers until bedtime.

Today, I'm sure Jim will end up back at Denny and Bev's to try help Denny install that new air bag. There's not much room under the MH so he probably won't be able to do much.

He also needs to start getting me ready to travel because tomorrow, we'll be leaving here to start heading out West. 

Did you know that today is "Ice Cream For Breakfast Day" ?