ToWanda's maiden voyage

[KP Marsh]

Everyone,

We just got back this past weekend from our 2 week excursion to pick up our
Bluebird, ToWanda, down in Duncan, Oklahoma. We left Minneapolis on Saturday,
April 29th, for Duncan. We arrived early Sunday evening to Ralph & Charolette
Fullenwider's home. Their arms were wide open to welcome us, dinner was on the
table and cold beer was waiting. We can't thank Ralph & Charolette enough for
their wonderful hospitality and for the exceptional care they took of ToWanda
since she came to "nest" at their house last August right after we bought her.

We stayed in Duncan the entire week, getting reacquainted with ToWanda and
preparing her for the trip home to Minnesota by way of Nebraska and Iowa. We
had the pleasure of meeting some new birder friends and sharing in their
knowledge and experience. It was a GREAT week that went entirely too fast.
:o)

On Saturday morning (5/6) we said good-bye to Duncan and the Fullenwider's
hospitality to head for our next stop in Pender, Nebraska at the Blue Ox
Factory. This leg of the trip was to have our hitch/tow package installed on
Millie, our VW Beetle. It was a fairly uneventful trip with the exception of a
slight detour as a result of my (Patti) taking the wrong exit while Ken was
napping.

This resulted in a "baptism by fire" driving experience for Ken on some VERY
narrow secondary roads. The "pucker factor" was definitely a white-knuckle
10+ in trying to keep our big girl's 40 foot long by 8 1/2 foot widebody
centered on a barely 10 foot wide paved surface with absolutely NO shoulders
and an immediate drop off into a very deep drainage ditch..... plus we were
towing a U-Haul car transport trailer behind ToWanda with Millie strapped down
on it. But Ken kept her "between the green and with the shiny side up!"

We stayed overnight on Saturday evening in a service island area on the Kansas
Tollway, just north of Wichita. We arrived in Pender on Sunday in the
mid-afternoon. We had an appointment with Blue Ox to have the hitch/tow
package installed on Monday morning. We stayed Sunday night and Monday night
at the RV park that Blue Ox has right next to the factory for it's customers.
It was VERY nice accommodations plus we made some new SOB friends, Sally Blonder
& Freddie Lewis (retired teachers from Palm Coast, Florida), who were there
also having some work done. We can't say too much too good about the quality
of the installation job and the customer service attitude by everyone we
encountered at Blue Ox. It was well worth the trip to have the installation
done at the factory by their people.

We left on Tuesday morning (5/9) and drove over to Cedar Rapids to spend
Wednesday and Thursday helping Ken's Mom & Dad with preparations to move into
an assisted living apartment. Our only incident during this leg of our journey
was our brain-fading and leaving Millie's key in the accessory "on" position.
We didn't find this out until much later down the road when we stopped for
lunch and discovered that as a result of leaving the key in the accessory
position Millie has automatically locked her doors once she had rolled a few
feet under tow. Hussy! Then we realized we had forgotten the "extra" key back
home in Minneapolis... DUH!!!!

Thankfully we made it to Cedar Rapids Tuesday evening without further incident
and had a locksmith open Millie's doors for us first thing Wednesday morning.
Ken went immediately to VW and had an extra key made for Millie to be kept in
ToWanda at all times. As Ken & I recounted the experience we took the
excellent advice our new SOB friends gave us before we parted company in Pender
and we both said "Wow, Look at all the new things we've learned!" Thanks
Sally & Freddie!!

Things went well at Ken's folks. We had our first Walmart parking lot
experience just a few blocks over from Mom & Dad's house. We got lots
accomplished for Mom & Dad in helping them get ready for their impending move
in July. We left Cedar Rapids on Friday morning (5/12) and drove straight in
to Minneapolis stopping once for gas and lunch.

The only "problems" we experienced in our 1000 mile trip were as a result of our
brain-fades. Our "big girl" performed flawlessly and she is a joy to drive!
Ralph was absolutely correct when he checked her over for us last year and then
told us "You definitely want to buy this one. She's tight as a tick and one
sweet coach!" Thanks Ralph! You dah man!

We had a great time on our trip and learned a lot about our rapidly
approaching "new" lifestyle as full-time RV'ers, most of all being that we
can't wait until we are retired next year and can "keep on going" :o)


Til then, Happy Trails!
Patti & Ken Marsh
Mpls ~ Keepin' our eye on the prize
Full-timing as of March '07
ToWanda'89WLWB40ft


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