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.