To Say It Was A Rocky Start Would Be An Understatement...

Geo and I always wanted a motor home so we could take our time and see all the sites that we missed with flyovers. I traveled for work for almost twenty years. People would say to me "you get to see so many places. It must be a great job". The truth was, I could tell you where every Hampton and hospital was located. I could find decent restaurants but knew nothing about the towns or the sites in the area.

I read every article that I could find about buying a motor home. Number one rule: Rent one before you purchase so you can decide what works for you. Well if you knew Geo, you would know that he just runs across 'deals'. The title of this site is motor homes as in plural. Geo found the first motor home in the Georgia Mountains. It was somewhat vintage and needed "a little work". We knew we were up to the task; however life has a tendency to get in the way. Geo can fix anything but one medical emergency and one motorcycle accident left it in severe disrepair (Don't worry, the majority of it has been recycled).

Our second motor home, a 1989 Georgie Boy was 25 feet, without slide outs and in good shape. It looked and ran good but needed the side repaired. Interior needed some work but not overwhelming.. In the middle of the repair, Geo came home talking about this great motor home he just happen to run across. Needless to say, I threatened him severely with body harm (he is 6'5 and I am 5', I do not think he was worried) if he brought another one home. He mentioned it several more times but I put my foot down firmly. We continued to work on the one we had. Keep in mind, we had two and still had not made a trip.

Several weeks later, I came home from the store and the first thing I noticed was another motor home sitting on the hill with the canvas rolled out. I am sure smoke was coming out of the top of my head. I went in the house and it was not long before he came to the house with hands up saying just come look at it before you shoot me. So up the hill I went. I was prepared to be very mad and hold my ground. As I walked around it and went inside, I knew that we now owned three. I loved it!. The layout was just what I wanted. It is a 1993 coachmen. It is 35 feet long without slides.( I never wanted slides because of all the articles I read where people were stranded because they would not slide into place). Yes, a new or newer one would be nice; however it is paid for which gives us so much more freedom.

Geo fined tuned it mechanically and I spruced up the inside and we planned our first trip. We wanted to make it close to home (just in case) so we decided on a campground about an hour away on Lake Lanier near Gainesville, Georgia. I booked a site in River Forks Park. It was great. Our site was on a hill over looking the water with lots of shade. The people were very nice and the site and park was clean and well maintained. In fact friends visited us while we were there and booked a site for the following weekend.

All in all, it went great. I learned that when I book a site that there is a difference in 30 amp and 50 amp. It means do not run the air conditioner, toaster and microwave at the same time if you do not have enough amps. I have no ides what that stands for but we need 50.

After we got home from the first trip, we knew we had to rearrange a few cabinets and figure out why some cabinets flopped back and forth going down the road. Minor issues so we geared up for planning another trip.

The next trip we planned was to meet our son near Valdosta, Georgia. We repacked a few items, bought food and confirmed our dates. We were looking forward to seeing our son but Valdosta in the summer can be very hot. I went online and found a park right on I75 south so it would be a convenient meeting place. We had a nice five hour ride with no issues. I was starting to worry as we got closer to Valdosta. We saw a number of RV parks with not much shade in sight but we were there for a reason and figured we would survive the heat. We followed our GPS and rolled into River Park RV Park, Valdosta, Georgia. The sites were beautiful. They were level and very shady. The park was clean and everyone we meet was friendly and helpful. We had a great weekend and visit with our son. I definitely recommend it.

On the way home, Geo noticed the mirror on the driver side was loose and the air conditioning up front was not keeping up with the heat. In fact, it was not keeping up at all. Our refrigerator is new and the guy that had it before just put a bungee cord to keep it from coming open. It didn't make to big of a mess when it flew open and items leaped on the floor. Yes, it is on the list to fix. Did I mention, if you stop to get gas remember to put the steps back in the driving position? I am not admitting that might have been my job but is possible that it was. No harm done so after that was accomplished, we were homeward bound. Of course all the way home we were planning the next trip.

Unpacking is not as much fun as packing but it has to be done. Geo started tackling the issues that we added to the ever growing list. Mostly, it seemed like little stuff. The loose mirror turned out to be a little more complicated. Over the years, after all it wasn't new, water had gotten in between the interior and exterior wall and it had damage. In fact Geo went to get gas and the entire floor and wall was moving up and down on the driver side. My first thought was oh no here we go, but Geo said no big deal and started the repair project. He pealed back the side and rebuilt it. I told you he could fix anything. He added additional cab air conditioning, especially since we had decided our next trip was to the beach in Florida. We decided to take the Harley on a trailer. Armed with new air, new tires, rebuilt trailer and little things fixed, we headed on our third trip approximately 9 hours down the road.

I booked a site at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park on Santa Rosa Beach Florida. We had a few minor navigation issues on the way down. We had purchased a new RV GPS with lots of bells and whistles. It has RV parks, dump stations, gas and food locations. I have used numerous GPS units and didn't feel the need to read any of the instructions which was an error on my part. We knew where we were going for the majority of the trip but I wanted to use the GPS to get use to it. As we neared the area, it seemed we were not going in the right direction so I checked it against my phone. Yes, I was correct, we were going east not west. Course corrected and we made it even though it took a lot longer than we planned. I have committed to reading the directions before the next trip.

Once again, we had a great site. It was level and Geo backed trailer and motor home right in the slot first shot. The park was beautiful. The beach was a little further than I thought it would be from the actual park. They had a great bike path so we rented bikes and off we went. Well, it had been about 15 years since I had ridden a bike. The distance was doubled with all of the wobbling that I did but we made it. A great ride and it was mostly down hill. The beach was beautiful. It was September but this beach was not crowded. Nice bath house and the water was so nice. I did mention it was mostly down hill. On the way back, it was not. I thought my legs would die. Never fear, they do have a tram for those that don't think riding a bike would be a good idea. We did bike it several times and it was very obvious I was out of shape. Of course, Geo had no trouble. Remember, we did take the Harley so we took our chairs and umbrella and rode down the road for a short distance outside of the preserve and we were on the beach. It was much easier.

Our third trip was wonderful and of course revealed a few more issues. The back air conditioning decided it was going to have a natural death and the passenger side mirror became loose so it will need to be rebuilt before our next trip which will be this summer. We are headed west to see all those things we have flown over for years. My hope is to add our preparations, adventures, pictures and minimal repairs for this trip.

Hope you stay tuned.

Geo and Linda

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