Sunday, October 15, 2017

Moving Day Tomorrow October 15 Going to Lake Gaston North Carolina We got a Rack for Jeep

Moving Day Tomorrow.....

Today we will spend preparing for moving day.  Won't be too bad as we have only been here 13 days in Williamsburg Virginia.  It has been raining for last few days, so our mat and some other items are wet and dirty.  We will be washing and cleaning outside items.

Today we will also be installing our TPMS....Tire Pressure Monitoring System we bought at the Hershey RV Show.

We are try our luck at doing a video on installing the TPMS and about the new to us rack for our Jeep. 

Oh did I mention we bought a rack for the top of the Jeep?



The rack is really nice, as it will rotate all the way back and allow us to remove the Jeep hardtop and freedom Panels (T-Tops).  We bought the rack so we could carry 2 Hobie Outback Kayaks. Hopefully our next blog post will be about the Kayaks on top of our Jeep.


While in Williamsburg Virginia we did lots of siteseeing and of course fishing.  Here is a video of our best day of fishing.  Finally Mark Catches Some Fish .

Well kind of a short update, don't want to bore you too much.

We like moving day, because we like rolling down the road in the Maserati.........

see ya

Mark

Thursday, October 5, 2017

Mother of all Updates. November 10, 2016 - October 5, 2017 VERY Condensed Version

HEY YALL.......


I started a post on November 10, 2016 and had just the title about a signed contract on the house. Everything else was blank. So will start there.  I promise I will keep it short and sweet.  

If you read it all,  You may understand why this blog was put on the back burner for a while. Why this is not how we planned our adventure to start off.  Also that we took a ferry ride in our new motorhome and in August We found a new hobby and will discuss it at the end.

Once we had the house on the market we let our Son and Daughter tag anything they wanted.  We told them to pretend we were dead. (Morbid I know). We asked them to come thru the house and put a tag on anything and everything they wanted. We had a houseful of colorful tags.  We loved the idea of giving them things now rather than after we really were dad.  As it got closer to official closing date, we began moving these items to their homes.

NOVEMBER 2016. Bought a Elite Connections campground membership to Thousand Trails.  

DECEMBER 23, 2016.  House officially sells.  We had moved the motorhome (1997 Airstream Land Yacht Motorhome 33ft no slides) to a RVpark in Kemah Tx. (25 minutes south) the day before.  So we are now officially FULLTIMERS. 

 All our personal possessions gone except for a rented 5x10 storage room. Business papers, original documents and 2 big totes of family photos and few misc items.

DECEMBER 2016. Our crew of 6 (2 husband and wife friends and us) went out to celebrate our new adventure.  The next evening Mark goes to the Emergency room. Mark spends the first 8 days of our fulltiming adventure in and out of the emergency room and hospital. Not the expected outcome of the first week of fulltiming.  Who knew, but apparently all the excitement was also a bit stressful.  That issue is now under control. 

JANUARY 2017.  Spent from December 23, 2016 to mid January in the Marina Bay RV Resort in Kemah Tx.   During this first month we worked on going thru the storage unit and shopping for our new home on wheels. 

Mid January we moved to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe just north of Houston Tx.  There we met 4 fulltimer couples that took us in as their own.  We have become very good friends with all of them and have reservations at more than one place even into next year to camp with them.

FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL 2017.  Besides shopping everyday for our new home on wheels, We knew and planned on staying near Deer Park / Pasadena Tx. to finish up some business ties and such over these few months.  Its about 60 miles back to where we lived and had to take care of stuff.  We put lots of miles on our 2 vehicles.  

Mid March we bought our new home from Motorhomes Of Texas in Nachadoches Tx. . A 2008 Beaver Contessa 43ft Motorhome with 4 slides. Here is a link to their ad for this very motorhome we bought from them  Marks Maserati     You will learn in a few months why this Motorhome is my "Maserati".  

   With our new to us home on wheels,  I now don't get in trouble for my leg hanging out while sitting at the kitchen table.  Lol.....   March and April we went to 2 Goodsam Rallies. Texas and Louisiana.  My sister traveled with us for these 2 weeks and we all had a blast.  During these months We stayed mostly at the Thousand Trails Lake Conroe, but only 21 days at a time as per our membership. we would plan our trips and other rv parks around our Home Base at Conroe.

MAY 2017.  Our main plan was to really kick  off our fulltiming with a 3 month trip with my sister and brother in law.  We were to meet them about 2 weeks into our 3 month trip.  It started off perfect but ended abruptly.  Lauree and I went to a fulltimers rally in Seiverville Tn. Arrived May 5, 2017. It was a fantastic rally and we met some wonderful people we now call our friends.  We met up with my sister and brother in law as planned.  We were doing a big loop from Tennessee to Mackinaw Island Michigan and back down to Texas.   Lots of stops and beautiful places along the way.  The abrupt stop comes in June.

JUNE 2017.  Put-in-Bay Ohio.  Drove our motorhome on the Ferry to get onto  Put-in-Bay Ohio.  We have been here before and just walked on the ferry.  This time we took the rig and stayed in a very nice rv park.  But will never do this again in our motorhome.  We are toooooo big for the Ferry as they pack you in like sardines and luckily we only ended up with one paint transfer scratch on the side of the motorhome.....then things turn not so good. June 5 received a call that Lauree's mother was having an emergency surgery the next morning.  Not a good kind either.  I had Lauree on a plane that evening and we decided best to stop our trip and do it again another time.  The next 3 days CoCo and I drove the motorhome to Lake Charles Louisiana.  My sister and Brother in law decided to come back as well.  We Spent the next couple weeks in Lake Charles Louisiana visiting and helping with Lauree's mom.

JULY 2017.  We came back to Lake Conroe mid June and did multiple trips to Lake Charles La. to visit and help out with Lauree's mom.  July 4, Mark goes back into the Hospital for a different issue.  A few days later he's back up and running. Spent the next couple weeks taking it easy and driving back and forth to Pasadena/Deer Park.   3rd week of July Lauree's mom dies.  Moved RV to Louisiana for a little over a week.  

AUGUST 2017.  Spent August mostly at Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Texas. Planning our next phase of our fulltiming lifestyle.  (3 month trip East- Pennsylvania, Virgina, North Carolina, South Carolina end in Orlando Florida where we will meet our Son and his family). NO PLANS FOR EMERGENCY ROOMS OR HOSPITALS.  In August we did a lot of fishing on Lake Conroe.  Lauree has become addicted to fishing.  We did spend a week at Lake Livingston with 3 of the fulltimer friends from Lake Conroe.  All I have to say is Don't let 60+ year old guys talk you into water skiing.  Especially since I have not water skied in 20 plus years.  I did it and got up on the 2nd try.  Luckily no hospital visit, but I did walk crooked for a couple of days. 3 GrandChildren have birthdays in August and we loved going to their birthday parties.  Our plans for our Fulltiming is to always be here for the grandchildrens birthdays in August and November. And of course Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Evacuated with Daughter and GrandDaughter from Hurricane Harvey.

SEPTEMBER 2017.  Sept 5th, begin our 3 month trip with 5 days slow rolling to Hershey Pennsylvania for Americas Largest RV Show.  We stayed at Thousand Trails Gettysburg Farm about 45 minutes away.  We then went to Thousand Trails Circle M RV park in Pennsylvania for a week.  The day before leaving Gettysburg RV resort, Lauree broke her toe on the bedroom door jam. Finally she goes to the EMERGENCY ROOM instead of me.  Next day we move to Lynchburg Thousand Trails in Virginia.  Made new friends who live nearby and stay at the rv park regularly. Sightseeing at historic places, relaxing outside and fishing. We are purposely staying at Thousand Trails to get our moneys worth. So far so good.  We bought our Fishing license in Virginia and did lots and lots of fishing.  There is a reason it is called fishing and not catching.  For me that is.  I caught one stinkin fish.  Lauree is up to around 20.  She is loving it.  We fished multiple places.

OCTOBER 2017.   Arrived at Thousand trails Williamsburg Virginia Yesterday Oct. 3rd.  We will be here about 13 or so days.  We have already asked where are good fishing locations.  We heard the State Fair is here. Lots of Historic sites to visit on our list.  We washed the RV today. IT WAS FILTHY.  But now she is shiny.  Called our Daughter today to wish her a Happy Birthday.  Lauree and I both are exhausted.  In bed by 9pm.  It is now 3:06am and I have been awake for 2.5 hours.  So no time like the present to get this blog up to date.

Our new hobby.  We have really gotten into fishing.  Everyday at Lake Conroe Lauree would say, "Lets go fishing"!  She loved it more than I did.  But I have gone with her almost every time. DAILY.... MULTIPLE TIMES A DAY.  hahaha.  It has grown on me and we both now really enjoy fishing.  She more than me, because she is CATCHING and I am just FISHING......

We can only bank fish, which is ok but hard to find places.  We don't have and can't have a boat.  Obviously because we live in an RV and Tow a Jeep.  Well...... we remembered a few years ago while on one of our trips in the Airstream we saw the perfect fulltimers set up.  It was a set up that we both said would be perfect for us. It was a Big Motorhome pulling a Jeep Wrangler with 2 Kayaks on top. What more could you ask for.  The perfect solution to needing a boat for more fishing (hopefully catching) opportunities.  We are now shopping for  2 kayaks to complete our perfect Fulltiming setup. We have decided on buying 2 Hobie Outbacks.  First we have to have a Rack installed on the Jeep.  We will hopefully have the rack installed while here in Williamsburg Va.  

Since we have been fishing so much we have started videoing our fishing trips.  This has been fun doing the videos.  We both laugh at each other.  See our Latest Video on our YouTube Channel at Roaming Texans If link does not work just go to YouTube and type in "Roaming Texans". 

Hope it puts a smile on your face.  You will see exactly what I am talking about Lauree CATCHING and Mark FISHING. We have only done 4 videos.  They are cheesy. We had a YouTube Channel in 2011 and got pretty good at it.  now we are leaning all over again.  So don't expect too much yet.  But we will get better.  

MOST IMPORTANT.  If you go to our YouTube Channel.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.....  Click the Thumbs Up/Like Button and SUBSCRIBE to the channel.  Even if you don't like the videos, humor us and pretend you do...You don't want to see a grown man cry.

Now you are all caught up.  And hopefully I will keep up.

Until next time..... SEE YALL