Monday, August 13, 2012

Leaving on a jet plane…tomorrow, Aug 13, 2012

Follow our European travels on Bob’s blog. Just click on the words Bob’s blog and you will be linked to his blog. Below is the actual link, if you want to use it.

http://because-we-can-bob.blogspot.com/

The excitement builds. My bags are packed and ready to go. Bob has a few more items to pack.

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I know I am going to really love the fact our new luggage has wheels. I am now ready for us arriving at the furthest away airport gate and having to walk miles to our next connecting gate.

We fly out of McAllen Airport tomorrow early afternoon for Houston, then around 6:30 leave Houston for a 10 hour flight to Frankfurt Germany. (Germany is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Time, 7 hours ahead of Central Time, and 9 hours ahead of Pacific Time.) After arriving in Frankfurt at 11:30 am on Wednesday, we will travel by train to Wurzburg for our first four day stop on our three month trip.

To read about our trip check out Bob’s blog.


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Travel to and arrival at Retama Village, Mission, TX, Aug 1-11, 2012

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While staying at the Escapees’ Rainbow’s End RV Park making sure our washer/dryer unit worked and the Norcold refrigerator remained cold, Bob tacked another much appreciated, by me, job.  He recharged the A/C Unit in the Explorer.  After adding two cans of R34a we both were happy and cool.

On our way down to the RGV (Rio Grande Valley), we made two stops.  The first was in at the Dixieland RV Park in Carmine, TX, the next two night stop was at Goliad State Park in Goliad. 

Then on Wednesday the 8th we drove the last 230 miles to our RV lot at Retama Village.

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Today, (Sat) we were doing a little gardening and trimming  when some new to us neighbors stopped by, Bob and Kathleen (plus their dog named Cookie.)  They spend their summers here and when they heard we were flying out on Tuesday, they offered to take us to the McAllen airport which is about 15 minutes away.  Thanks Bob and Kathleen for the gracious offer.

Our bags are packed”, or mostly packed for a couple of days now.  Every day I keep adding a few items, so far so good, the zipper still zips. 

I have a list of tasks yet to do:  1) Suspend our Verizon phone service,  2) Suspend our Directv service,  3) Call the bank to increase the withdrawal limit on one remaining ATM card (the others have already been increased), 4) Backup the Quicken program on my computer. 

I have already taken care of our insurance renewals for the coach and car which come due during the time we are gone.   Have also suspended our internet satellite service, formerly Motosat, now through Real Time.  We have also called and notified the bank and our credit card company of our upcoming European travel so they don’t shut the card down for unusual usage outside the country.

I will not be updating this blog during our European trip, leaving out of here on Aug 14th and returning Nov 6th.  But we will be updating our travels on Bob’s Blog,  and will also be posting brief updates on Facebook.

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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

CARE volunteer month complete and successful RV repairs, Livingston, TX, Aug. 1, 2012

July 31st was our last day volunteering at CARE and it was an easy day for us.  With our service appointment at West RV Service having us scheduled to arrive on Tuesday pm, we drove the coach down to arrive by 1:30 pm.  We were greeted by the lady at West RV Service as referring to us as the overnight guests.  Soon they parked our coach, hooked us up to electric and water and we were set for the afternoon and night.

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We joined the CARE residents for dinner and after the table and chair cleaning, Bob with Ron’s help completed the vacuuming for the last time.

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IMG_1227After dinner we joined a few of the volunteers and residents’ for several lively games of Wizard.  One of the residents even gave us our own set of Wizard cards.  Soon it was time for good-bye hugs, bittersweet indeed. 

Today was a successful day for our repairs.  A new thermistor for the Norcold achieved the coldness we desired.  A new to us, but used Splendide motor also fixed our washer/dryer combo.

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Here is proof the washer/dryer does come out of its space, there is only about 1/2” to spare.  I had to see it to believe it.

By 1:30 we had pulled  out of West RV and were parked at the Escapee’s Rainbow’s End RV Park.  I plan on doing several laundry loads tomorrow to make sure the washer does work as expected before we head down the Mission, TX.

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