ToWanda's maiden voyage

[orbitalsolutions]

Nice!

When I bought my bus I drove it eighteen hundered miles in four days.

Something was pumping...

Congrats, and best wishes.

I don't know Ralph, but if I ever do meet him, I will demand a great
dinner.

Of course, I will prepare it on the bus and attempt to treat them as
well as they have treated you. (provided he has a level place for
me to park.)


James
78FC33SB
Parked on a ranch in Texola TX



--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, KP Marsh
wrote:
>
> 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
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>