We were up quite early on Monday morning so that we could
have breakfast yet also have our motorhome ready to move into the service
garage by 7:30 am. That is when Ken went
over to get in line to sign in at the office (by going then he was first in line). Very shortly thereafter our technician came
for the MH and we began a day of sitting in the waiting room hoping it wouldn’t
take long so we could start our drive to Florida.
Another couple waiting loved playing games so I was able to
enjoy a round of cribbage and then afterwards play a game similar to Pegs and
Jokers that was played on a round board
on a Lazy Susan stand so it was easily shifted.
I had a great time playing the game with them and even came out the
winner – beginners luck for sure.
They were off shortly thereafter and Ken and I decided to
drive to the local Pizza Hut and have their pizza buffet lunch after checking
to be sure the MH wouldn’t be finished within the hour. Needless to say we were already getting antsy
about the fact we would have less and less time to drive.
Unfortunately we spent a good deal more time in the waiting
room reading (we’d forgotten the electrical cord for the computer so couldn’t
use it very long) as it was not ready for us till 3:45. So by the time we were hooked up and off it
was a little after 4:00.
Our hope was to get to a campground just south of Atlanta
(about 4 hours away) before pulling in for the night. Already that meant we’d be driving after dark
but knew it was a must if we were to make it to LazyDays the next day in time
to do all we needed to do to prepare for turning it in for service as well as
packing for the cruise and an unknown time of being homeless.
Around 5:30, as Ken was switching lanes a car that had
ignored his turn signal and was speeding up to pass us got into his blind
spot. He caught the car around their
passenger side with our front corner and sent it off toward the median and we
moved over to the shoulder. Luckily no
one was hurt but everyone was shook up, police needed to come and write a
report and then we had to face and even later arrival at the campground after
losing well over an hour. It was a rough
drive for Ken but we finally made it. We
skipped dinner cause neither of us could face food and simply crawled into bed
hoping we could wake early and get back on the road.
By 7:00 am we were back on the road and headed to Florida
arriving at LazyDays a little after 4:00.
By the time we were hooked up I had was loads sorted and ready to go and
had begun gathering items to be packed and Ken had gotten the suitcases out
from our basement bin. He worked on the
computer printing out documents we’d need for our various points including last
minute requested information from our service advisor at LazyDays.
Around 6:00 pm our friends Frank and Bette showed up. They had driven down to retrieve items from
their RV that was in a service bay. We’d
been communicating all day trying to arrange a few minutes of visit time. They came with a cooler, so I filled it with
meats and other items from our freezer and refrigerator as we had found out we
had to totally empty it before turning it in to service.
After they left, I continued with the wash and packing. We stopped for a bite of dinner using up some
items in the refrigerator. Then I packed
all the remaining items in the refrigerator and freezer and we drove those to
the Cooks place at Hillcrest for her use or to share with Mary Gray. It was just too late to also stop at
Mary’s. She is not doing well – still
trying to get enough strength to go through the cardiac workup necessary before
having an operation for the kidney cancer that was discovered a couple of
months ago after a bad fall.
The Cooks filled up in on all of the latest developments at
Hillcrest since Christie took over.
WOW! We can’t wait to see it in
the daylight and spend time there enjoying all of the upgrades. A few people have arrived but by far the
biggest group will arrive Nov 1 or in the next few days after that. Lots have been posting notes on Facebook about
their preparations and planned arrival dates.
We stopped at our shed long enough to store a couple of
items and then returned to the motorhome to finish the packing before crawling
into bed after midnight. It was a mighty
short night as we needed to get up, clean up, eat breakfast, finish the last
minute packing and put everything in the car and be over to the service center
by 8:00 am. Friends had told us to get there early as there is always a long
line of people waiting. Well, that
didn’t prove to be our experience. Our
service advisor, Neall Griffin, showed up at exactly 8:30 as he told us he
would and by 9:30 he had us on the road heading toward the cruise ship. He was
wonderful!!!!!!!!
It is a long drive to Ft Lauderdale but this time we took
the tollway most of the way cutting down on traffic and thus travel time so we
arrived at the parking lot around 1:30 and we were into our room on the ship not long after as a shuttle
bus was parked right by us and left immediately after we loaded for the short
trip to the ship. There were only a
couple of people ahead of us in line to register and then we were off to the
ship itself.
Once we had unpacked and put away the items in our carry-on
bags, we went up to the buffet for a small salad to carry us over till dinner
which was at 5:45 pm. That was followed
by the usual safety drill and the ship leaving the harbor at 4:00 pm. We stood at the rail and watched the process
finally relaxing a bit and just reveling in the fact we would now have ten days
of total relaxation with someone else driving, someone else fixing and cleaning
up after meals, and someone else providing all the plans and
entertainment. We could just go along
for the ride and do as much or as little as we wanted.
We enjoyed our dinner with two other couples who will be our
table mates for the trip. They are in
our age bracket and have both done extensive travel including a lot of cruises
so we had a delightful meal just sharing experiences and a bit about our
families. I think we’ll really enjoy
spending our dinners with them on this trip.
We went to the evening entertainment that followed dinner
which is really just an intro to what is to come with one dance by the company,
introductions of staff and what they will be offering during our travels, and
then a short taste of a comedian who will entertain later in the week.
By that time we were exhausted and simply
returned to our room, looked over the Princess Patter newspaper to see what all
was going on tomorrow and crawled into bed.
Oh did that feel good. We could
simply feel ourselves relaxing as the ship rolling ship lolled us to
sleep. We’re here!!!
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