Eighth and Last Entry - March 7, 2012 (with photos!)
Good Morning Everyone!
Chapter 1 of our "Living the Dream" journey has come to an end. This has been a 4,198 mile trek making a lifetime of memories for us and we look forward to making more as we continue "Living the Dream". We hope you've enjoying living our dream with us. Thanks for all of your email and text messages as we enjoyed them very much with many smiles and a lot of laughter.
Love to all
Bill and Maureen Living the Dream
Seventh Entry - February 28, 2012
Dawn,
We are now in South Padre Island, TX and it is all that we thought it would be. Today's high was 87 degrees with sunny clear skies and a low tonight of 69 degrees. The rest of the week is suppose to be carbon copies of tonight with temperature shifts from the high 70's to high 80's. Humidity isn't bad either.
We are staying at the KOA here on the island and it is very nice complete with palm trees, pool, hot tub and the list goes on. The people are great and we've met people from all over the US and Canada. There is lots to do here and it's a great place for families.
I've sent a few pics. Hope they go through. (see above)
Bill and Maureen Living the Dream
Sixth Entry - February 25, 2012
The eagle has landed near Houston tonight. We left around 6:15 am and stopped about 1:30pm. 7 Hours of driving is enough. Congratulations to me! I finally passed my fueling test. I pulled the RV with Jeep attached into and out of a diesel station and no mishaps! Of course it was a nice big one with a lot of room, not like the small ones I was in before. So hopefully no more poles and RV meeting!
We had lots of rain yesterday while Bill was driving, I was sleeping as 6 am is not my best time to get up. After restful sleep I was ready to drive and I did, lots of wind but no rain. Bill drove again and lots of wind wrestling with the RV. Today was much better, it rained most of the night last night so hopefully we have had enough. Today was overcast, mild, and not too windy.
Bill woke up at 5 am and accidentally woke me up, LOL, so we prepared to head out. I of course needed a nap before driving as 5AM is NOT a time for a person to wake up and be alert. Bill drove for 4 hours then I took over for 3 hours. We are chillin' here at the KOA East Houston.
We have had some rough roads, we will need to check the front end on the RV when we get home. The infrastructure in our country is terrible. We need a national road building and repairing campaign it is really in bad shape.
We will go to St. John's for Mass tonight so we will be able to leave early in the morning:(. Once we are in South Padre perhaps I will be able to sleep past 6am to a more normal wake up time say 8am. Sometimes the Internet is really frustrating, even with our Sprint mifi, everything is so slow! Oh well, when I am rich I will have really fast Internet when I travel. Maureen
Well, I think Maureen covered it all so not much more for me to add.
Love to All
Bill and Maureen Living the Dream
Fifth Entry - February 23, 2012
The hydraulic leveling jack on the RV was replaced today by a dealer in Lakeland, FL and everything works as it should. Yippie! Happy Days! We head out early tomorrow morning heading northwest up through central Florida then across the panhandle. We will travel across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana into Texas then down to South Padre Island. If all goes well we should be in South Padre Island by late Sunday.
Love to all
Bill and Maureen Living the Dream
To view some fun pics of their trip, please click here
Fourth Entry - February 20, 2012
Good Morning Missouri!
It is a beautiful Monday morning here in Florida. Forecast today is Sunny, a light breeze from the west and a high of 83 degrees. We're not rubbing it in, we're just sharing with you to make you feel warm.
Our time here in Orlando was spent at Disneyworld and Universal Studios. Our two Grandsons Mitch and Blake flew down last Thursday to spend a four day long weekend with us. We took them to the airport early this morning and they are on their way home. Disney was great as usual and Universal was really great too. Lots of new stuff there. We to Mitch and Blake to Cocoa Beach and they body surfed in the ocean. They had a blast. It was fun having the boys with us.
Our trip will be delayed for about four days because of a major malfunction with the RV. The right front hydraulic leveling jack deployed just as we were pulling out of our campsite in Savannah, GA. We were able to retract the jack and drove on to Disneyworld without any problems. When we arrived at Disney we auto deployed the jacks and the right front jack collapsed when it tried to bear the weight of the RV. It deployed, but at a 30 degree angle to the rear. "Rut Row! Houston, we have a problem. We can't drive the RV!"
Long story short, a guy came out and removed the jack so we could drive the RV. We found a place in Lakeland, Florida that has the jack and will replace it on Thursday the 23rd. Somebody is smiling on us because this jack is not available to a dealer on such short notice. Thank you God for taking care of us and thank you Father Charles for your travelers blessing.
We kept the broken jack are we are starting a collection of "RV Yard Art." The jack is our first piece which will become the stand for a wooden sign we had made in Savannah that says "The Vernon Villa." We think it will be a nice touch. Hey, we're recycling!
Keep those emails coming. We love em!
On the Road Again...
Love to All
Bill and Maureen
Third Entry - February 16, 2012
We are having a great time here in the Fort Wilderness Campground here at Disneyworld. This is a beautiful place and we will be sending more pictures.
We did have one major malfunction with our coach. The right front leveling jack unexpectedly deployed while we were just pulling out of our site at the campground in Savannah, GA. Fortunately we stopped immediately and were able to retract the jack and drove to Disneyworld without any problems.
When we arrived at our site at Fort Wilderness in Disneyworld we auto deployed the leveling jacks. As the right front jack touched the concrete pad it bent backwards at about a 30 degree angle. We knew we were in trouble. Long story short, we had a local RV guy come out and he had to remove the jack. The leg was broken inside the jack housing which caused it to bend backwards on deployment. We also lost a lot of hydraulic fluid in the system and now we can't use our jacks for leveling. We will have to do without until we get home in March and get a new jack unless we can find one in our travels. Ah, the joys of owning an RV.
So, other than that everything is going fine.
Bill and Maureen
Second Entry - February 13, 2012
Hi Everyone!
Well, our time here in the Peach State is coming to an end. We leave tomorrow morning for Florida for a weeks stay at Disneyworld Fort Wilderness Campground and Universal Studios.
Our time here has been just wonderful and very relaxing. The people are friendly, helpful and have miles of smiles on their faces. Everyone has a kind word for everyone else. The weather has been just gor...geous with sunny skies and warm temps ranging from 62 to 74 degrees during the day and night time lows ranging from 35 to 57 degrees.
Savannah is a grand old town rich in history and some very remarkable architecture. These majestic structures built hundreds of years ago still stand tall and proud today in all their grander. Did we mention food? It is just fabulous down home southern cooking with a lot of love. The seafood is fresh everyday from the ocean and bought right off the docks by the restaurants. You can’t get any better than that.
There is much to see and do here in the city. An additional week or so would be needed to see the rest of it along with the islands to the east in the Atlantic Ocean. That however, will have to be for another day. With that we bid a fond farewell to the great state of Georgia.
On the road again “Living the Dream”
Will send some pics for you.
First Entry - February 6, 2012
Good Morning Premier Coach,
Bill and Maureen Vernon here in SUNNY AND WARM 74 degrees Richmond Hill, GA KOA campground about 20 miles south of Savannah on US Highway 17. Very nice KOA nestled in a beautiful pine forest and large lake complete with swans, ducks and geese who seem to own the place. The lake is stocked with all manner of fresh water fish and they have a catch and release policy. A wonderful place to stay!
We left home on Monday 1/30 and arrived here in Georgia on 2/2 about mid afternoon. The weather was sunny and great all the way and the traffic wasn’t bad either with mostly sunny days all the way south and not too much road construction.
Our biggest problem was contending with the consistent crosswinds and headwinds which beat us up pretty bad for the first two days. The third day was a reprieve greeting us with sunny warm weather and a light breeze. The RV did very well for the entire trip despite the winds. We did encounter 2 problems with the RV.
The first is that the ice maker doesn’t work. I know the techs checked it and it worked. Apparently I’m doing something wrong. If you have any tips on how to get it to work please let me know.
The second problem and the worst of all was that the bolt that holds the passenger side seatbelt harness on the wall simple fell out when Maureen was straightening a kink out of the belt before we got started on our third day on the road. Thank goodness it fell out while we were stopped instead on driving.
I attempted to put the bolt back in place, but that failed because there are no threads on the metal leave inside the wall and the threads on the bolt are damaged as well. We have a local RV dealer here and they will replace it for us on Monday. They will have to re-tap the sleeve in the wall then insert a new bolt. Hopefully all will go well with the repair.
Other than that we are having a great time. We have pics we will be sending over the next few days.
Good Morning Everyone!
Chapter 1 of our "Living the Dream" journey has come to an end. This has been a 4,198 mile trek making a lifetime of memories for us and we look forward to making more as we continue "Living the Dream". We hope you've enjoying living our dream with us. Thanks for all of your email and text messages as we enjoyed them very much with many smiles and a lot of laughter.
Love to all
Bill and Maureen Living the Dream
Seventh Entry - February 28, 2012
Morning Sea Fog Sunset in the Fog Pelicans Waiting for Lunch
KOA Office Causeway To The Island
Seventh Entry - February 28, 2012