Saturday, April 30, 2011

Getting Ready to Leave RCC

Yep, that is what we are up to-taking care of the little things before we leave Rock Crusher Canyon on Wednesday.  We’ve been here at our winter home since November 28th. Starting with today and working backwards, here’s what has been happening with us. After our usual Saturday morning breakfast at Kim’s Cafe in Homosassa, we came back to the “Castle”  and began the process of emptying, reorganizing and repacking the basement storage area. We have never really packed it completely since we bought the 5er in late January. Remember, we really have not taken any trips in it other than to take it over to Ocala and back for the warranty work and a couple of add-ons. I’m really surprised that we have more room left than I thought we would. All that remains to be loaded are the lawn chairs, the grill, rugs and those items involved in unhooking from the utilities.

Dodge Alpine Small Web view

Yesterday, Barbie weeded the planter box in the front of our site. It needed to be done before leaving for the summer. Hopefully it won’t look too bad when we return in November. We were surprised how good it actually looked when we returned this past November. Last evening we dined at Mr. Wang, a Chinese restaurant in Homosassa, one last time. We’ve decided that was our best “new” find this winter. We finally decided to try this place out this year. And, we found it to be excellent and very reasonably priced.

Thursday, we were up and on the road at 7:00am to be at Tampa Spring Company in Ocala for our 8:00am appointment to have a “leaf” added to our springs on both rear sides   of our Dodge pick-up. When we took the “Castle” to Suncoast RV a couple of weeks ago, their tech thought that since our hitch weight is a tad heavy at 2235lbs, some extra support may be in order. So I contacted the manager at Tampa Spring described my truck, the “Castle” etc and he explained the options and costs for each, then recommended adding the leaf to the springs. Knowing nothing about the matter, I went with his recommendation. He said we could re-address it when we return to RCC next winter if I wasn’t satisfied with just that being done. I’m good with that since this was the least expensive fix and this is the fix he has used in the past with success on a Dodge 3500.  He also suggested we have the u-bolts re-torqued in 500 miles, so we’ll have that done in Lakeland at their sister store next Friday morning.

So, Wednesday morning we’ll head out of here and head south on I-75 then east on I-4 to Lakeland where we’ll spend the night at Sanlan RV Park. Thursday morning we’ll have the “Castle” at  Quadra Manufacturing where we’ll have the Bigfoot Auto-Leveling system put on the “Castle.” They’ll keep it until midday Friday so we’ll spend Thursday evening at our stix-n-brix home in Valrico before picking up the 5er Friday about noon. We’ll then go back and spend Friday and Saturday nights at Sanlan before starting the trek north  a week from tomorrow. These plans etched in jello then include overnight stops in Lake Park, GA and Perry, GA before arriving at River Vista in Dillard, GA for a good portion of the summer. We are hopeful that the weather that has terrorized the southeast this past week is history with no repeat in sight.

To all of our followers and friends, be safe in your travels!

‘Til next time…….

3 comments:

Margie and Roger said...

Where did the "season" go? Seems to have flown by and it's soon time to begin the trek north. Hope you have safe travels and enjoy your beautiful new truck and 5th wheel. Where do you stay in Perry? I think we stop at Twin Oaks right off I-75. May stay at Agrirama this year.

Jeff said...

Twin Oaks has been our favorite stop in that area for years-Passport America, good price, good people.

Max Parker said...

Sound like you've been keeping busy taking care of your 'castle'. Hope that you have a a good time and weather conditions in Georgia. Look forward to your future stories in Georgia, so that I know where to visit there soon ;) Safe travels and stay away from those dangerous driving people out there.
Regards - Max