The End of a Fabulous 117 Day Journey!

After leaving  Oaklawn RV Park in Biloxi, Mississippi, we drove a little over 300 miles and finally arrived at Tallahassee RV Park.  We will arriving home tomorrow, and there will be so much to do, my head was swimming with the details!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014  Day 117

Today is the final leg of our trip!  Who would have believed it!  117 days!   From Tallahassee, Florida to our home in The Villages was about a four hour drive.

If you remember, Norm and I had planned to sell the Motorhome as soon as we returned.  We have ideas for different types of vacations over the next few years.  First on our list would be to take an RV caravan tour in Europe. Then do Alaska perhaps 3 ways. ( Rent an RV, rent a house, and then cruise back).

So knowing this, I was calling and speaking to motorhome dealers  since we hit Las Vegas.  We figured that if someone offered us enough money, we would put what fit in the tow vehicle and just drive it home.  Previously owned RV’s in Florida are a dime a dozen, and there were thousands on consignment,  so if we got a fair price we would be willing to let it go- especially since we would soon be dealing with putting our home on the market, and the job of moving, as well.

 Thankfully, our Motorhome was definitely in great shape considering it had 50,000 miles and was 5 years old! Most folks thought it was new!

With a lot of research and many calls, by the time we hit Tallahassee I found a buyer for the RV! It just happened to be at Alliance Coach, where we bought it 3 years ago! I told them we were not willing to negotiate our price, and they seemed very agreeable.

We had been so confident  this trip would  be the” BIG ONE”, that we had given our coveted covered parking spot  to our good friends and neighbors before we left.  Why pay for it all summer to just give it up when we returned? Last week  I called ahead and made arrangements to just store it out in the open for a couple of days when we got back to get it ready for sale.  Thank goodness he had space for us!

After being quite comfortable in our 32 foot Motorhome, it finally convinced us that this house is just too big!

As we approached the house, we felt like we hadn’t been there in years!

 Norm and I jumped out of the RV, took a quick a walk through the house, checked the pool area ( I quickly determined that I would be  firing the landscaper the next day ) then proceeded to completely empty the RV.  We must have made more than 50 trips from the street to the house!  We were pretty tired at that point, so we called it a day and drove it to the storage facility.

The very next day we got up and out early before the Florida heat to immaculately clean the RV.  I steam cleaned everything inside and vacuumed.  Norm meticulously cleaned the storage bins below. A fellow had come to wash the exterior, and when we were done it looked better than new!

We had an appointment the following morning to meet the buyer at Alliance Coach.  As we pulled out of the storage spot, water, once again came into the coach above the windshield!  Oh no!  At least we knew exactly what was causing it, and we thought it would be no big deal for this authorized RV service center to fix it.

We pulled in, put the jacks down, and opened the slides.  We were prepared for them to thoroughly inspect this 5 year old gem.  Wrong!  This baby looked so spectacular that when he came in he looked left, right, glanced into the bathroom and said “Wow! This looks better than when we sold it to you!”  Let me just check with the boss.........

Ten minutes later the deal was done.( We were, by the way, honest enough to tell them about the leak, and where it was coming from. They were not concerned at all) We left, check in hand, with very mixed emotions.  We had such great times in this baby.  It served us amazingly well, and the fact that we got most of our money back made our memories all the sweeter!

Side note:  The tow car was sold on Craig’s list in 3 days, and after we spent a couple of weeks preparing the house for sale, sold before it ever hit the market.  A good friend stated we had a “lucky horseshoe firmly placed where the sun doesn’t shine”!  We do work hard, and take very good care of our possessions, but yes, he is correct.  We really like how it feels, and pray it stays firmly in place!