Days 7,8,Thanksgiving Day – Happy Merry Thanksmas

As we continue to occupy space #11 in the “campground” adjacent to the service center by night we spend the days helping make more phone calls on Insurance to help set up Kevin's mom and sister for 2014 and determine what his mom's long term care policy would cover. Yes this did take the better part of 2 days! It is our experience that the Health Care provider Web sites are of little to no help forcing us to call and talk to multiple sales reps to have them explain the terms and conditions of the many options available. We could not even talk to the same sales rep in the same company to discuss Health and then Dental options, instead we had to be transferred to the other dept. In every case the transfer actually put the caller back into the cue. The Affordable Health Care web site must have modeled its self after these insurance web sites. How come so many folks complained about that Web site if it works as well as the regular insurance company sites do? No one gets it right! In the end Kevin's sister and mom have the same Medical insurance and can see the same Doctors.

Kevin's Mom's place in The Villages, FL

We also visited one more Assisted Living facility that was very close to Kevin's mom's home but currently under construction. It would be an ideal location so that his sister could easily take her 'sports car' (golf cart) there to visit. Kevin's mom has put her name on the list of potential future residents and will be able to make a special visit to tour the finished facility before it is open to the public. At that time she can pick up to 3 potential favorite rooms if she chooses.

On Wed. we got a call from the RV service guy and he told us our windows have returned and they had to replace the glass as it was not only fogged but stained and etched as well. Kevin used that opportunity to add yet another item to the repair list, this means more $$ to repair. We still need to determine if the starter motor is failing as the RV has just as much trouble starting in the morning as Kevin has. With all this it looks like final (for now) repairs will be finished on Monday so the duo can continue their adventure on Tuesday Dec 3rd!

On Wednesday Kevin called the Direct TV satellite company to request the local channels be activated for the location where they were camping. Thru the course of the conversation it became apparent that the Direct TV satellite service does not typically deal with satellite receivers moving from billing zip code to other locations. After some back and forth the solution was for Kevin and Theresa to fill out a special FCC paper work requesting Global service for ABC, CBS, and NBC stations to be activated on their receiver. While Kevin had the rep on the phone he also requested to deactivate a second receiver that had been shipped to them but that was not being used. This reduced the monthly bill by about $10. The representative also activated a bundle of HBO and Showtime Movies for no charge for the next two months. Yeah, they now get to watch movies from the 1950 to 1980 time period. Maybe there is something they had not seen yet.

Theresa also took the time and checked our online mail service from Good Sams Club and yes we have mail! Checking it we were disappointed that they did not show the image of the envelope so we can help determine if we should trash it, scan the contents or have it mailed to a location. Since this was our first time using this service we gave scanning a try to discover that it costs $2.50 for each scanned item. What a rip off! Last year we used a different service that was far better and less costly. Lesson learned. We will end up scanning as few letters as possible and then send the rest in batches to Kiehl or Theresa's Moms or sisters so we can go thru it out there.

Theresa also saw the December bill for Time Warner Cable, yikes it was higher than normal! In preparation for the trip we had requested to put our bundle of phone, TV and internet on 'seasonal' to reduce that cost significantly while we are not home. We did this in early November giving a start date of the 18^th so we could 'test' it prior to leaving. TWC proceeded to place it into effect the next very next work day and left Theresa coping with poor internet for an entire day before she realized what happened and spent hours with TWC on the phone to get it straighten out. Finally they put the home service back so Theresa could continue to work from home prior to the planned reduction to seasonal service on the 18^th.  On Nov 18^th she checked and sure enough everything was turned down to a low threshold as requested. So what is with this bill, it should have reflected the seasonal rate? Theresa logged into the TWC site to see that for some reason they had us back on full + service WTF? On Thanksgiving day she called TWC (yes they have folks answering calls on a holiday) to see what was up. Fortunately the service representative could see all of the previous inquiries and was very apologetic. After several minutes on hold the agent informed Theresa that this matter would need to be escalated to a manager to get corrected and we would hear from them on Friday. With that assurance, Theresa thanked the service agent, wished her a very happy Thanksgiving and hung up. Yet one more thing to follow up on! Any bets TWC contacts the Smits on Friday?

Thursday was Thanksmas! Since we will not be with Kevin's mom & sister for Xmas we brought a

few gifts and treats to celebrate both holidays at once. The Turkey, stuffing & a new sweet potato and apple recipe (see recipe) were prepared and consumed. We were thankful that there were no calls to make or forms to fill out or places to visit today! We did get to facetime with Kiehl and Madison twice, once at the beginning of their day and the second time when they were at Theresa's sister's house with her mom and all the family there in Fallbrook, CA. We are so looking forward to making it in person (barring any unforeseen delays) for the next family gathering at Xmas!

Days 4,5,6 - Care and Feeding

With the RV bedded down at the service campground for the weekend we were able to continue to address items that Kevin's Mom need help with. First on the list was to tour several Independent and Assisted living facilitates in the area that she was interested in moving to. All raved of the great food (3 meals a day, snacks anytime) and had varying levels of care/services, activities and prices. The rooms were small but adequate for one person. Some of the more pricey options had very ample open community living areas and plush decor. Yet others felt more sterol and hospital like. The big challenge will be to figure out what she can afford and what her Long Term Care policy will cover!

We next set up a fax we bought for Kevin's mom and sister to use to send us any questionable forms or mail that they receive, rather than paying at Staples to fax documents to us. Also they can fax forms and make copies as needed. We immediately used it to file paperwork to get $$$ for Kevin's mom's out of pocket medical expenses she had been accumulating.  Kevin's mom fed us several wonderful meals and his sister made her homemade Beer Bread.

On Monday morning we visited the service counter first thing to check on the status of the repair work. We met with our advisor and there was still more work to adjust the back slider and Kevin also said to go ahead and repair the 2 foggy windows on the drivers side and door. We really have a great feeling about this place as they fixed in 1 day what took Camping World 2 months to NOT fix!

Leaving the RV in good hands, the rest of the day was spent in exploring health care options for Kevin's mom. The website was not helpful as it had very limited information and did not show all the options for Dental. It took many phone calls and transfers from one service person to another to finally get a handle on prescriptions, in-plan doctors and covered dental services.

This effort left us both exhausted! We headed back to the RV to see that the 2 foggy windows had been removed so they could send them to Tampa for repair and the back slide had been fixed, along with the rain fly over the front passenger slide-out (another item that had been supposedly fixed and paid for while at the NC RV repair shop). So now we just hang out here until next Tuesday when the windows are scheduled to return and be reinstalled.

Day 2 & 3 - Monaco Mecca

 

Before we took off from the Day 1 KOA in the morning we toured the grounds to discover a large lake with flocks of Swans and Geese. How appropriate for the holidays (more than 7 swans a swimming and 6 geese a laying)! We thought this would be a great place to return to and stay a bit longer. We were off to a leisurely start to our first destination The Villages, FL where Kevin's Mom and Sister were anxiously awaiting our arrival. 

As we motored down I95, Kevin had Theresa research Tiffin RV (Smitanic) service centers. There were signs for one in Ft Myers but that was way too far out of the way. There was one in Gainsville so Theresa called to see if we could get in... earliest they had was first week of Dec. Further search found the Alliance Coach RV center in Wildwood, FL., only 25 min from Kevin's mom's place. This was originally a Monaco dealership, Monaco went belly up a few years ago so now they service all brands. Theresa called to see if they could get us in. Indeed they could and we could also camp at the onsite campgrounds, for free! This sounded way too good to be true, but after our recent disappointment with the Garner Camping World we would give anyone a chance.

We arrived late afternoon, registered at the front desk to be told we were 3^rd on the list for a campsite tonight and had an 8am appointment the next day. We hung out in the lobby with lots of other folks with their dogs (yes they were pet friendly) waiting for service. We chatted with some veteran pilots who told of exploits in their days in Vietnam and others who make this yearly trek for service and then spend the winter months in the warm Florida weather.

By 5:30 we received and assigned campsite and were informed that our service advisor would be knocking on our door at 8am to review what we need done. With that we hooked up to the 50amp service and opened up 3 of our 4 slides(all but the one that needed service).

Theresa prepared a salad with some seared tuna and the wine was open in celebration of their 38^th anniversary the following day. It was delicious!

Still buzzing from the road it was a somewhat sleepless night and we were startled awake when we realized we over slept. We rushed to get ourselves and the RV ready for the appointment. Thank goodness our advisor was also running late.

Kevin went over all the items (including some additional items) and they had technician come and get the RV and dock it in the service bay. He also said that the service area was open so we are welcome come by and get into the RV or just see how things are going.

We packed some items and the dog in the car and headed off to The Villages to see Kevin's mom and sis around noon.

The remainder of the day Kevin spent reviewing a years worth of accumulated mail that his mom questioned. Health Ins offers, info on investments and other (mostly advertisements) that she did not know if it was OK to discard. We did not hear any status or update from the RV center, but we did arrive back to the campsite to find our RV back in it's place and the electric hooked up. Guess we are here for the weekend. So we called and postponed our original campsite reservation until Monday when we could find out any status.

Off to a shaky and challenging start!

We got an early start to the day knowing we not only needed to get the RV and Tow all hooked up but the house all shut down as well before we were ready to roll. We had docked the RV in our Cul de sac a day earlier after we took it by Camping World for one more assessment on the Rear Slide (see Prepping for the trip) so we were able to get most everything loaded from the house. It is really amazing how much that RV can hold! We emptied both refrigerators and most of the pantry in the process. Giving some to neighbors and donating some. Time to shut down the house. Everything that could be unplugged was, all toilets flushed and not running, all lights off, doors locked, water features drained, spa drained, deck furniture covered and secured, temp adjusted and water off. All good.

Kevin unhooked the electric and pulled in the slides in preparation for hooking up the car (Towed = Toad as it is called). Theresa pulled the CRV into position and waited. Kevin turned the key... the starter was trying but would not turn over...again... nope...another 3 times … nope. Thinking maybe the batteries needed some juice we hooked the electric back up to the house and tried one more time.... nope... again........Yeah it started! But now we worry that this will be an issue when we are out on the road...one more thing to add to the maintenance list. Anyway time to hook up the Toad. Wait where is the Break Buddy and tow cables?? Crap we left them at the RV storage unit over by Lake Jordan 30 min away. Well that is not too far out of our way and it will be easy there to hook up the Toad without impacting our neighborhood.

We said farewell to Tasman and off we went knowing all is batten down and the neighbors are keeping an eye on things.. though they have hinted at throwing a huge party while we are out (we hate to miss that!).

At the storage shed we quickly hooked up the car, being careful to follow the steps in the CRV Manual (yes Ron C. we do read manuals). Checked the lights and as Kevin pulls forward Theresa checks that the Toad is turning freely and the tow bars are secured. READY TO ROLL by 10:30 am after a 6:30 am start.

Traffic was moderate all the way to Fayetteville where then it became lighter. Theresa had work to do today so she had the mifi and her laptop and cel phone going as we headed down I95. The goal was to get South of Savannah, GA and find a place to Park for the night. Theresa did a bit of research on the web to find a KOA that fit the criteria. The place was right off of 95 and looked to be well kept and well populated with Rvs and Log cabins. Campgrounds can very dramatically but KOAs are usually pretty consistent so when in doubt they provide a good choice. We decided to only hook up to the electric since we would be off in the morning to continue our journey. We found a local seafood place and feasted on boiled shrimp and grilled grouper... yummm.

Beer bread recipe

Sweet potato and apple casserole