The latest

Well...it has been a VERY LONG time since I posted. Here is a brief update. We sold the RV to a very nice gentleman from New Hampshire at the beginning of August. One "baby" (a 37ft one) is gone and another one is on the way. Actually any day now. Mike and I are expecting our first baby, a little boy. His due date is Oct 30th, 2008. This is a photo of me from this week...week 37 of 40. I may post one more photo of the little one after his arrival but really, this is probably my last post for this blog. Simply, we are no longer Full-time Travelers. Hopefully, in the future, we will be fortunate enough to live the RV lifestyle again.

Allegro Bay For Sale

Well, it that time...time to put the RV up for sale. Mike and I are enjoying our new house and my job is going well. Tell all your friends it's for sale! Tell anyone who has ever dreamed of the lifestyle. It has served us well and we have created so many awesome memories with the RV, I'm sad to see it go. Our little family will be growing soon and it's time to stay relatively stationary for a while. It's in great condition. I hope the next owner will enjoy it as much as we have. In the mean time, Mike has created a brochure web site for the RV.
Here is the link: 2006AllegroBay

This is also the website address: www.2006allegrobay.com The contact information is at the bottom of the website. We hope to hear from you soon.

Changes

Everything is in the house and we are slowly getting settled in. I don't know how, but the TO-DO list keeps growing longer and longer. Mike and I have been enjoying the comforts of a house. Today we picked out a few trees for the backyard. They will be "installed" tomorrow. One is a Texas Red Oak, which will provide some pretty fall foliage, one is a Monterrey Oak, which is supposed to be a fast grower, and the last is a Bradford Pear, which has pretty white blooms in the spring. We also picked up a few Texas Mountain Laurels. Our new neighborhood has a lot of native, established Texas Mountain Laurels and they have been blooming. They smell awesome! Maybe next year we will have some blooms in our backyard.

A New Home

I know I haven't posted in what seems like forever. We had a really good holiday season, then went skiing in Park City, UT during the first week of January. After we returned, we found a house and made an offer. We close on Jan 31st. I love the RV and will be sad to leave it but, at the same time, I'm ready for more space. And bring on the full size washer/dryer and, of course, A DISHWASHER! Yippee. Now we face the task of unloading the storage building. It should be interesting because I have forgotten what is in most of those boxes. I foresee another garage sale on the horizon. I'm not sure what I'll do with this blog. I would like to keep posting but I guess I may have to change the name, since I will no longer be a fulltime traveler...but mostly a part-time traveler. To be continued...

Monthly Update :)

Yeah...I didn't mean for it to be a month between posts but time has been flying! Mike and I are in San Antonio. We have been working our tails off and burning the wheels off the Jeep driving all over the Hill Country in our spare time. I thought our gas bill would go down when we stopped traveling so much in the RV but I'm not sure that it has. We have been busy visiting with family and enjoying the city. My job is going well so we have started looking for a house. We aren't in a real rush and I'm not going to buy until I find the right place. It is a buyers market now. Yippee.

Christmas is around the corner and we finished wrapping all our gifts last night. We will be with family at Christmas for the first time in a few years. Although our little two person holidays were fun too. After the first of the year, we are going skiing in Utah. Mike and I are really looking forward to it. Then possibly a trip to Las Vegas in February. The other big trip that is in the works is a two week Mediterrean cruise in the early summer. It should be FUN! Happy Holidays!

San Antonio

Geez! It's been a long time since I posted. After we left Tiffin Motorhomes, we spent a week in Hot Springs, AR and visited Hot Springs National Park. Mike and I had a traditional hot spring bath at one of the hotels in town. I don't know if I would do it again. It was an interesting experience. Next, we drove to Texas and visited Mike's grandma. Eventually, we ended up in San Antonio, TX. I started a new job here at the end of October. Mike and I have been busy working and visiting with family in the area. We have been having a nice time. This weekend I went shopping with my mom and sister. I think I have about half my Christmas shopping done! Yeah! We are looking forward to Thanksgiving this weekend. It will be the first holiday we have had with family in a few years.

Tiffin Motorhomes

Mike and I have spent this week in October in Red Bay, AL. Red Bay is home to the Tiffin Motorhome plant. We were here to get some warranty work done. During our stay, there were at least 100 motorhomes here every day. The campground was full! I can honestly say that we received great service and everyone we came into contact with at Tiffin was nice and helpful. I feel like we accomplished alot during this week. We had three blinds with broken strings and they were restrung (for free). We had the RV washed and waxed while we gave the inside a good cleaning. Five windows were replaced due to broken thermopane seals. A faulty wire connection in the lighted door handle was fixed. A screw that was starting to poke up through the carpet was removed. The relay switch that moved the main slide out in and out quit working while we were there and so we were able to get a new one. (Good timing). Last, but certainly not least, the windshield was fixed. Mike and I had seen a small leak on the inside of the windshield during heavy rain. The guys in the windshield shop said that it would be an easy 5 minute fix. Once we got the RV in the shop, it turned out we had a much bigger problem that we didn't even know about. The windshield was not sealed well at all. The guys were surprised we hadn't had bigger problems with leaking. They took care of it without a problem. We arrived in Red Bay on Monday morning and were done with all the repairs by Friday afternoon. I think it helped that we pre-ordered the windows we knew would need to be replaced. I was dreding this week but it turned out to be an OK experience. Thanks Tiffin.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park

We have been in Maggie Valley, near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the better part of the last week. If you have never been here, it’s beautiful. Not only is there the National Park, there is also Nantahala National Forest and Pisgah National Forest. There were a few nice days and a few days of rain when the tops of the mountains were obscured by clouds. We came in search of some “fall color” when the leaves are changing. There were a few vibrant trees but for the most part, I think we were probably a week too early. While we were here, we drove on another section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We went to the Cataloochee section of the national park. The park service has preserved many historic structures here. You can tour a school, churches, a barn, and several homes in the valley.


Five historic buildings are located along the road in the valley. An additional 4 buildings can be reached if you're willing to walk a couple miles down the nearby Little Cataloochee Trail. This area is also where you are likely to see the elk herd. It’s mating season and we heard a few of the males bugling.

One day we visited the Mingus Mill. Built in 1886, this historic grist mill uses a water-powered turbine instead of a water wheel to power all of the machinery in the building. It was very cool.


We also stopped by Clingman’s Dome, one of the highest points in the park. It was a Saturday in October (read: very busy) and the parking lots was overflowing. By the time we made it to the top, a fog had rolled in and the area was packed with people so we moved along and found a less crowded trail.