Installed new refrigerator cooling unit

This morning Doug (my niece's husband) came over at 10:00 to help us pull the refrigerator out of its cabinet. Since the refrigerator sits about a foot up off of the floor, we had to come up with a way to slide the frig out of the cabinet and place it on a platform the same height as the cabinet.

A friend of ours had given us a wooden platform and Mike had bought casters and attached to the legs and converted the platform to a dolly. Having the dolly the same height as the refrigerator cabinet really helped in pulling the frig out. The dolly also made is possible to move the frig around so we could get down the hallway to the bathroom and bedroom.

Here is a photo of the refrigerator sitting on the dolly in our kitchen

From Refrigerator Repair

and a photo of the old cooling unit.

From Refrigerator Repair

We took a break to have lunch once Mike and Doug had removed the old cooling unit. Then it was back to work and by 3:00 the new cooling unit was

Received new cooling unit for refrigerator

Mike ordered a new cooling unit from RV Cooling Unit Warehouse on December 3 and FedEx delivered it last Friday. He ordered a cooling unit built by an Amish company in Indiana. After researching the difference between the Norcold units and the Amish units, Mike chose the Amish cooling unit because it was heavier duty and costs considerably less than the ones Norcold builds.

Since our RV refrigerator quit working on Nov. 29, we've been using coolers in the RV and the refrigerator in the church building next door to store our food. We're using the coolers for the food that we use frequently everyday and then we restock the coolers from the items that are in the church refrigerator.

We called my niece tonight and her husband, Doug, will come over in the morning to help us pull the refrigerator out of the cabinet, so Mike can remove the old cooling unit and install the new one.

We took the doors off of the refrigerator and freezer and removed all the shelves today to make the refrigerator a little less heavy. Mike also disconnected the water for the ice maker and disconnected the propane from the frig.

We had a family of Sandhill Cranes visit us this morning and Mike put out a few pieces of bread for them.

From Kissimmee

After spending weeks trying unsuccessfully to get our HP Photosmart printer to work wirelessly with Mike's new Dell laptop, we bought a HP All-in-One 6520 at Best Buy a few days ago. We're still learning all that it can do, but it works great with both of our laptops and we really like the fact that we can scan a document and save it to our laptops wirelessly.

House Hunting, Thanksgiving & Refrigerator quit working

We've had a busy month here in Kissimmee. On Sundays we met my brother and family and another couple for lunch at Perkins and then spent the afternoon visiting at my brother's house. We went to my brother's house for Thanksgiving dinner and my niece and her family joined us.

From November 2012

We've had 2 meetings with our realtor here in Kissimmee and have looked at about 10 houses so far. A couple of houses that we were really interested in already had contracts on them, so we didn't look at them (maybe the sales won't go through). Our realtor, Dave, recommended Broadway Pizza Bar in downtown Kissimmee and we ate lunch there one day after house hunting - we will definitely go back again.

Since we sold all of our furnishings from our house in Dothan when we started full-time RVing, we will have to completely furnish the house that we buy. Our son, Fletcher, suggested we check out Ikea, so we drove the 12

Dothan to Kissimmee

We got up at 7:00 this morning and started breaking camp right after breakfast. Glenda came by to say goodbye before she left to go to church. Jimmy also came over to see us before we left. We paid W.T. for the electricity for this week ($25.20) and after saying goodbye to W.T. and Jimmy, we left The Willows at 9:00 (CST).

Mike drove the RV down to Tractor Supply to get propane and I stopped at Publix to do some last minute shopping. We had planned on filling our propane tanks at Tractor Supply since they were charging $2.29 a gallon for propane, but the employee there hadn't been certified to fill propane tanks on a RV. We had to stop at the Flying J in Dothan and got the propane there and paid $2.999 a gallon.

We left the Flying J at 10:30 and drove south on US-231. We passed by the Peanut Festival Fairgrounds and I took a photo of some of the rides there - yesterday was the last day for the Peanut Festival.

From November 2012

We crossed into Florida

A busy 3 weeks in Dothan

We've been here in Dothan for 3 weeks and will be leaving tomorrow to go down to Kissimmee, FL. We've been busy for those 3 weeks with doctors' and dentist's appointments.

Mike and I went to our primary doctor for our regular checkup and she said we're doing fine. I had injured the toenail on my left big toe and it had turned black, so our doctor referred me to a local podiatrist. The podiatrist suggested killing and removing the nail - I didn't like that option since the nail would never grow back. I think I'll get a second opinion when we get down to Kissimmee.

We both went to our dentist for a checkup. Mike still had one of his wisdom teeth (it was impacted and loose and it had been hurting for a while), so our dentist pulled it. I went to the chiropractor for a few adjustments. Tinker was due for his canine influenza booster and I took him to Care Animal Hospital (our vet for over 30 years) for that.

We met Mike and Gayle (our friends in Ozark) at Cracker Barrel for dinner one night. Mike and Gayle had driven their motorhome to Alaska this summer and we enjoyed hearing about their trip. We visited with W.T. and Glenda here at The Willows and our friend Jimmy came by often. We ate dinner twice at Mexican Connection and visited with Sharon, Debbie, Sandy and Chad, but we missed seeing Frances and Caroline since they work during the daytime.

Mike and I have been talking this year about looking for a home to buy. We think that with the housing market the way it is and mortgage interest rates being low, that now it is probably time to buy a house. We had planned on full-timing for 10 years and we are entering our 8th year. We usually spend the winter months in Dothan or Kissimmee and rarely travel, so the only difference will be living in a house during the winter instead of the RV.

We have contacted USAA (we're pre-approved for a loan) and signed up for their Movers Advantage program. We told them we are looking at homes in the Kissimmee-St. Cloud and Vero Beach-Sebastian areas. USAA contacted a realtor in Kissimmee and 1 in Vero Beach and both realtors have called us. We told them what size house we're looking for and that we want to be able to park the motorhome at the house.

We still plan on RVing because we haven't visited places like Monument Valley, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon and Yellowstone National Park (we did drive through Yellowstone in 2011).

Photos of The Willows in Dothan

Monday morning Mike went over to our storage unit and got our 40# propane tank. He took the 40# and a smaller propane tank to Tractor Supply and had them filled ($2.29 a lb).He also connected to the water and sewer hook-ups here.

We decided to go to Five Guys for lunch and then we drove over to Sam's Club and did some shopping.

We just relaxed the rest of Monday afternoon. Monday evening we walked over to W.T.'s house and paid $60 for our campsite for this week. We visited a while with W.T. and Glenda before coming back home to watch the Presidential Debate.

Today was busier than yesterday. Mike took Tinker over to For Paws Only this morning for his bath and grooming appointment with Peggy.

Mike took some photos this morning of our campsite and The Willows.

From The Willows in Dothan

From The Willows in Dothan

Mike had a doctor's appointment this morning at 11:00 and stopped to

Arley to Dothan

After breakfast this morning, we began to break camp. We took our time this morning preparing to leave since check-out time for RVs at Hidden Cove is 11:00 and we only had 166 miles to drive today to Montgomery.

We left Hidden Cove at 10:40

From Arley to Dothan

and drove south on CR-41 where we crossed over Lewis Smith Lake and saw this campground on the right on the lake.

From Arley to Dothan

We continued south to Jasper and then south on US-78 where we passed