I haven't submitted any blog entries for the past week because when we got home, we had no internet for the first two days. Signing up for Comcast's vacation plan means you have to be without service for at least 3 months and although we got back on the 28th, we couldn't get service until the 30th. So this entry may be a bit long to cover everything that has happened and address some information others have wanted.
When we left the Mammoth Cave area, we ran into increasing temperatures and humidity. We expected that, having lived in SW Florida off and on since 1982, but the difference in climate after being out west for almost three months was more drastic than we anticipated and we made up our minds that we want to change climates as soon as possible. The problem we have at the moment is not knowing what the economy is going to do for the next couple of years. If we go into another recession, it might be best to sell our house quickly before the market crumbles and then wait until it bottoms out to buy something else, hoping that won't take too long. The coach may have to play a part in that since it will be difficult, if not impossible, to rent with three large dogs.
The trip back took three days, as planned, seeing us stop in Morrow, GA the first night and stay at a Cracker Barrel. The second night, we had planned on staying in another CB in Lake City, FL. However, we changed those plans because Under the Sun RV Awnings in Tampa said they could repair the slide topper on our way home the next day but wanted us there no later than noon. Not wanting to take any chances with traffic or road work, we chose to drive to Gainesville, about 45 minutes further than Lake City, and stay the night there. We made it to Tampa in plenty of time, even with a pouring down rain much of the way.
One look at the slide topper told the owner of Under the Sun that there was nothing wrong with the roller, as the mechanic in St. Louis had told us. He showed me that the spring on one end had failed and allowed the pin to gouge the hole in the end cap wider to the point that it was loose and sloppy, thereby allowing the roller to drop down too far onto the flange of the slide. He replaced both springs and end caps along with the fabric since it had been scored pretty badly and nearly ripped in one place. While we were there, we had him replace the fabric on the bedroom slide topper since it began ripping about two years ago and we knew it was only going to get worse. We knew having a mechanic do the work in Fort Myers would be triple the charge, at least, and this guy specializes in this work so we were confident the work would be done right and at a good price. My mechanic charged my insurance company over $2,000 to replace the fabric and roller in the living room slide last year. Under the Sun did both slide toppers' fabrics and the other work on the dining room slide for a total of $673. More than we were hoping, but all of our slide toppers are now new along with the awning, so hopefully, we won't have to worry about them for another few years.
We left Tampa at 2:30 and got home at 5:30 after dumping our tanks at the local Love's truck stop. The house was still standing and appeared to be in one piece. The first order of business was to take down the hurricane shutters we have put up before leaving, but because Dorian was, at that time, expected to cross the state and possibly come our way, we decided to leave up the shutters on the east side of the house, just in case. But then, we discovered another issue that needed immediate attention when Judy realized we had no water. We are on a well and septic system. The city is currently running new utilities through part of the area just south of us but we have been told we will not see the utilities and accompanying assessment for another ten years, which is fine with us since we don't want to pay the assessment and plan on selling the house in plenty of time before then. We had our regular water company who takes care of all things related to the well come out and replace one of the well switches in March. But while we were gone, that switch rusted out completely, to the point that the contacts were rusted together. When Judy realized we had no water, I had already flushed a toilet and used the pressure in the lines that had been there for months. But because the switch had gone bad, it blew the GFCI. I reset the GFCI and the pump came on, refilling the pressure in the lines to the house. But instead of shutting off at 50 psi as it was set to do, it continued to run until it buried the gauge at 100 psi, and still wouldn't shut off. I had to unplug it before it either blew a line or tripped the GFCI again. By that time, it was too late and I was too tired to run to Lowe's and buy another, so I waited until morning and replaced the switch. I knew the old one was still under warranty, but the company would charge me a $70 trip charge to come out and replace it, while a new switch was only $30 and something I had done before. It was cheaper to do it myself.
The only other thing we have thus far found wrong with the house was my iMac will not turn on. Still under warranty, I took it to the shop and they asked if I had a surge protector for it. I told them yes, a good APC. They then asked how old it was. I told them I thought about 15 years. They told me more than likely, it took a surge from a lightening strike and didn't stop it from going to the equipment because surge protectors only last for so many strikes before they go bad, and if mine was 15 years old, it is probably worthless. Something I didn't know, but now do. Time to buy new ones for both the computer equipment and the home theater.
Aside from what was already mentioned regarding the slide topper and the Spendide, nothing else went wrong with the coach on the way back home except for a tire problem. As stated previously, I really think we did well this trip, all things considered. I budgeted for $3,200 in repairs to the coach and the total we spent, not counting the deductibles for the collision work and whatever is wrong with the w/d was $3,257. We got very lucky with the 5-? year old tires and will probably have to get at least two new ones before the next trip because I noticed two days away from home that the right front tire is cupping badly, telling me the alignment is off. I'll wait until next spring to get new tires so I can check the rear tires and see if they are exhibiting any signs of dry rot or sidewall cracking. If they still look as good as they do now, I'll try to get another year's trip out of them and only replace the fronts. I'm going to have to some research and find who sells Toyo tires in this area. I have read too many bad reports on Michelin XRV tires to want to spend the money on them when the Toyos are almost half the price and have a six year warranty, from what I have been told.
For those interested in knowing what the cost of this trip was, I'll break down a few line items for you.
The coach needed repairs when we started, so take that with a grain of salt when I say the total cost of coach repairs was $3,257. This included a new drop hitch receiver, something that normally would not be needed to purchase, and new hitch umbilical cord and emergency brake release. The initial repairs from HWH and Winnebago were $1,300, so on the road repairs and service was actually pretty minimal and we felt extremely fortunate that we had no problems that actually put us off the road for any length of time.
The cost of RV parks and camping for the entire 90 day trip was $2,920. This was low because we dry camped whenever we were "on the road" between destination with only a few exceptions. I consider this to be costly simply because I don't like paying more than $45 per night for a site and try to keep it below $40 whenever possible. But when you're going to popular destinations such as Yellowstone and Glacier NP's, you're at the mercy of supply and demand and are going to have to pay a premium price for a site. Out of the 13 weeks were on the road, we stayed in RV parks roughly 8 weeks and dry camped the rest of the time.
When I budgeted for this trip, I wanted to keep groceries separate from dining out, and incidental expenses separate from both. I quickly found out that wasn't going to be possible because when shopping at Walmart or Target, we weren't going to take the time to determine what was grocery cost and what was not. So when I totaled up the cost of groceries and dining out, incidentals were added in. The total we spent on food and incidentals was $3,885.
Misc. items such as park entries and souvenirs came to $373.
And the biggest cost of the trip, as expected, was gas, with a total cost of $3,902. That included gas for the car, and we put on over 4,000 miles on the car running around. The mileage on the coach for this trip was 8,600, while I had anticipated it to be 8,200. That tells me I made a few wrong turns, but it also includes side trips such as the one to Tampa for the topper repair and driving around parking lots trying to figure out how to get out. I budgeted $4,400 for total gas and expected the average cost to be $2.80/gal. The actual average was $2.597, meaning we saved roughly $100 just in the price. Also contributing to that $500 savings under budget was the fact that the coach averaged 7.15 mpg, while I had estimated it would be 6.5. This takes into consideration the gas the generator used and subtracted from the total. I estimated the generator used .5 gal/hr of use and we used it for 175 hours.
The difference in driving the coach with the car being towed four down rather than on a tow dolly was not only much more comfortable and easier to drive, it also contributed to the gas mileage. When coming back in flat Florida, the computer's average for the last 50 miles showed a consistent 8.4 mpg, whereas with the old tow dolly, I never saw it get above 7.5.
The bottom line is that I budgeted this trip costing $13,577. If you don't count the $1,000 deductible I'll have to pay to get the coach repaired from the two accidents, our actual costs for this trip totaled to $14,338. We were low on gas, high on dining and about even on coach repairs. The costs of camping were slightly higher than we thought because we weren't sure where we were going to stay for the week we toured the state of Wyoming. Total cost was roughly $800 higher than I anticipated. Anything less than 10% is acceptable.
Takeaways from this trip: we were getting on each other's nerves before the end of the trip, telling us it might have been a little too long. We now realize there is no way we could full time in this coach with three large dogs; the coach is simply too small. It was very difficult on the dogs, having to go weeks at a time without the ability to run off leash. They made this trip with flying colors, staying out of trouble, not chewing anything up they shouldn't, and only having one accident inside the coach the entire trip. We have decided that future trips will be limited to 8-10 weeks and if we have the resources, we'll take two trips per summer instead of one, with a month in between to decompress. We had mixed feelings about the trip ending, but we were both happy to get back to a large house, a large backyard for the dogs, a large shower you can bend over within, and a toilet area where you can pull up your pants without hitting your head on the wall in front of you as you bend over.
Given the restrictions that were placed on us due to the accidents, I think we did pretty well. We conserved the LP and used the stove very little once we realized we had only 20% of the tank remaining so it could be used for hot water and making sure the fridge would run if we didn't have the generator on. We were unable to use the electric water heater when on the generator because it is on the same circuit as the #1 a/c compressor, so trying to use both at the same time would trip the breaker.
I am tired. I drove every mile we put on both the coach and the car - almost 13,000 in 90 days. And I am finally tired of the road, something I haven't felt before this, probably due to age. Before I take the coach into the shop for repairs on Tuesday, I need to wash the last 30 days of grime off of it and check the caulking around the main vent in the living room because I felt moisture on the ceiling a couple of days before we got home, and I have to clean it thoroughly before putting it into storage. I can tell right now that aside from driving it to the shop and then from the shop to storage, I have no interest in driving it again for a while. I am sure I'll get back in the mood soon, but not as quickly as has been done in past years after shorter trips.
One of the biggest and most important takeaways from this trip was meeting new friends and seeing old ones. Because along with seeing new places and sights, we planned on seeing people we either had never met before or hadn't seen in a long time. Jackie Mac and Steve were outstanding companions while we were in Yellowstone and our lives are richer for having them as friends. We met online friends for the first time after talking to them for the past three years that live in Montana and are one of the largest and most responsible Collie breeders in the United States. We saw old friends from Las Vegas and had dinner with grandchildren and a soon to be son-in-law, and lunch with a daughter we hadn't seen in years. And we planned the trip to take us back to the Midwest where we are from to see old friends in St. Louis, dine at our favorite restaurants, and see Judy's mother and siblings in SE Illinois before heading to Mammoth Cave. We feel fortunate that we have friends and acquaintances we enjoy seeing throughout the country, so we can plan our trips to see them along with new sights we have never seen or not seen in a long time.
We have decided instead of traveling west again next year, we will do the next trip we had planned, taking us up the Eastern Seaboard to visit the major cities on or near that coast all the way up to Maine. We will then cross over into Canada and reappear at Niagara Falls. We will do this trip next year rather than waiting until 2021 because we plan to sell our house in Florida and move west sometime within the next two years, dependent on the economy. We'll see the eastern areas while we are still here in Florida, making the travel much shorter and less expensive. When we move out west, we'll have the chance to see more of the areas out there we want to visit, again at a lesser cost due to distance.
To those who have followed these posts, thank you for your interest. If you have any questions regarding our trip, please ask.
