Picked up New Travel Trailer & Our First Night in it

We had had an appointment for last Friday at 1:00 at Optimum RV to do our pre-delivery walk-through of the Sonic travel trailer we bought last week. But we got a call Friday morning that some of the techs had called to say they weren't going to be at work that day, so our delivery date was postponed to Monday. 

We left the house this morning around 8:00 and drove up to the dealership in Ocala. We brought Tinker along with us this trip because we were going to go to Silver Springs State Park for a couple of nights camping after we got the travel trailer. We stopped for gas in Belleview at Raceway and paid $2.859 a gallon for premium - the manual for the Honda Pilot says to use premium grade gas instead of regular whenever you're towing anything.

In planning ahead for our stay at the campground at Silver Springs State Park, I had brought a cooler with food that we were going to eat while we were at the campground.

We had the tow bar and sway bars installed

and the brake controller installed.

The techs also removed the exhaust fan in the bathroom and installed the Fantastic Fan Vent in its place. 

Then there was a problem regarding the wiring of the brake controller. The Pilot was already wired for the connections, but the tech didn't realize that it was pre-wired and was going to run a whole new set of wiring to the front of the Pilot. Another tech knew the Pilot was already wired for the brake controller and said that we only needed an adapter to go from 4 wires to 7 wires, so he pulled out the wiring the other tech had installed. Then they had to go to a parts store to get the adapter and that took a while.

So after a long day at the dealership, Mike, Tinker and I were finally headed over to Silver Springs State Park at 7:00. The park closes at sunset and today that was going to be a little before 8:00, so we had plenty of time to get there before the gates were closed.

However - we had just pulled out of the dealership lot onto US-301 and hadn't driven no more than a mile

Travel Trailer Shopping & Buying

Last Sunday we drove over to Kissimmee to visit with my sister-in-law Elaine since we hadn't been over there for a while. Before heading back home, we drove out to Camping World at to look at their RVs. We didn't see any that travel trailers there that we liked. On the way home we stopped at the Dairy Queen at the I-95 Sebastian exit and bought a couple of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blizzards for supper.

Last Thursday we drove up to Ocala (169 miles) to Optimum RV to look at the Sonic Travel Trailers by Venture RV. Since it would be lunch time when we got to the dealership, we stopped in Belleview at Zaxby's to have lunch and had their chicken fingers basket with fries. 

We got to Optimum RV about noon and told Stephen that we were interested in the Sonic Travel Trailers. We told him we wanted to look at the 2017 200VML model. Stephen took us out on the lot and we looked at some of the models they had there. 

Mike had come across the Sonic trailers when he was looking on the internet for something that would meet our criteria for travel and comfort. We had both looked at several floor-plans for the Sonic and had

Goodbye 2016 Subaru Outback, Hello 2015 Honda Pilot

We have had some major changes just in the last week! I've been writing about our search for a travel trailer or pop-up that our Subaru Outback could tow with its 200 lb. hitch weight limit. So our choice was to either get a different vehicle that had a higher hitch weight limit, or settle for a really small travel trailer or pop-up and the ones we saw really didn't appeal to us.

So -- Mike found a used 2015 Honda Pilot with slightly less than 15,000 miles on it at the Daytona Toyota dealer. We drove up to Daytona to take a look at the Pilot on the 6th and took it for a test drive. We decided to trade in our 2016 Outback for the Pilot. The Outback had the Eyesight Driver Assist, Lane Assist to keep you in your lane, Pre-Collision braking and blind spot warnings in the side mirrors. The 2015 Pilot has none of that, but does have the navigation system, plus the hitch weight on it is 450 lbs. It's a trade-off between the technology of one car vs. the towing capacity of the other car - towing capacity won out!

After much searching on the internet, Mike has found a possible travel trailer that would fit our needs for travel and comfort. It's at a dealer in Ocala and we will drive up there next week to look at the models.

The Honda Pilot is taller and larger than the Outback, so Mike is looking on the internet for some running boards for the Pilot so it is easier for me to get in and out of the Pilot. The Pilot also has leather seats and Mike is ordering some seat covers for the front seats. 

DAR & MOAA Luncheons and Genealogy Conference

The first half of this month was pretty busy for us. 

I went to the D.A.R. luncheon at the Vero Beach Country Club on the 6th. Our guest speaker was Jennifer Royals the Music Director at Masters Academy in Vero Beach. Our special guests were the Masters Academy Fife & Drum Corps, who performed tunes that were used to call soldiers to arms, move from one camp to another and some patriotic tunes. The Fife & Drum Corps were recipients of a DAR Special Projects Grant in matching funds for new uniforms and they looked terrific and sounded great.

I went to our monthly genealogical society's meeting and the DNA meeting. I also went to the Indian River Genealogy Conference at the LDS Church in Vero Beach. It was a joint conference by the Indian River Genealogical Society and the Family History Center at the church. We had several local speakers on a variety of subjects and it made for a very interesting and informative day. Unlike our Valentine Seminar that has a catered lunch if you want it, everyone is on their own for the lunch break during the Conference. I went over to Applebee's and had their Chicken Tenders Basket with fries.

Mike and I went to the MOAA (Military Officers of America Assn.) luncheon at the Vero Beach Yacht Club. Mike and I both ordered the Roasted Turkey dinner. 

The guest speaker was Maj. Kirby Harwell, USMCR. While he was on active duty and now as a reservist, he was attached to the Presidential Helicopter Squadron. He gave a very interesting talk on his

Still RV Looking, Valentine Genealogy Seminar

We started this month off with going to the annual Vero Beach Gardenfest put on by the Garden Club of Indian River County at the Riverside Park. We always enjoy going to get some ideas on plants and see what might work in our yard. We bought a Tibouchina or princess flower plant there and stopped at Busy Bee Garden Center and bought a bromeliad before going home.

I went to the D.A.R. luncheon on the 6th at the Vero Beach Country Club and our speaker talked about 100 Years on a Florida Cattle Ranch which was interesting to learn about the early cattle ranching in Florida.

I attended 4 of Pam Cooper's classes on genealogy on Tuesdays. She had a different topic each week and she covered Courthouse Records, Church & Cemetery Records, Newspapers & Military Records and Emigration, Naturalization & Passport Records.

I also went to our monthly genealogical society meeting and Pam Cooper was the speaker and she spoke about Rarely Used Records of Skilled Workers - railroad records, union records, etc. So we all learned some new resources to look for when we research our ancestors.

Mike and I went up to the IMAX theater to watch The Great Wall movie with Matt Damon - really good movie! After the movie we stopped at the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. We both ordered the Bacon

Sue's Part Time Job

I mentioned in my last post about some changes we were contemplating with getting another RV. So now I have another major change. Our son Fletcher called to say that the medical practice he works at in Ft. Lauderdale is looking to get a new bookkeeper. That the person who had taken over for the long-time bookkeeper had messed up the financial records and would I be interested in taking over the books. He said it could be arranged that I could do the accounting remotely from home.

So long story short - Fletcher drove up on the 21st and we drove down to his house on the 22nd. Then on  Monday I went in to work with him and met the doctors and started learning about their bookkeeping system using Quickbooks. They switched from using Quickbooks on their computer to using Quickbooks Online and I can access their records from my home computer. So I spent the rest of the week learning their record-keeping process and getting used to using Quickbooks. There is someone in the office who will handle the daily deposits and check writing and anything else that has to be physically done at the office. 

I've been retired since May 2006 and it's been a long time since I had to get up in the morning and go to work! But I enjoyed working with the staff (who are all younger than me) and getting to watch our son while he was working. 

I took my laptop with me and set it up to use with their system and I will use it to do my work on. I think Fletcher thought I was bored being retired and that this would give me something to do! Just from what I've seen that needs to be corrected on their books, I have my work cut out for me. I think my "part-time"

Tampa RV Show & RV Shopping

We've been talking lately about how we want to do more traveling and what would be the best way to do that - driving the car and staying in motels, or getting another RV. If we get another RV, would it be a motor-home or a travel trailer? We want something smaller than the 39' motor-home that we had before when we were living in it full-time.

That brought up more questions - if we got a motor-home we couldn't tow the Subaru Outback - we would either have to tow it on a trailer, get a different car, or travel with only the motor-home. I know a lot of people disconnect their motor-home from the campground hookups and use it for sightseeing, but that doesn't really appeal to us. 

If we got a travel trailer, how much weight can the Subaru Outback tow? Well, the hitch weight for the Outback is 200 lbs which means we would have to have a very light weight travel trailer or pop-up.

We decided we didn't really want to get a motor-home and have to get a different car to tow. So Mike and I have been looking on the internet to see what travel trailers or pop-ups we can tow with the Outback.

We just went to the Tampa RV Supershow this week. We drove over on Wednesday and spent the night at the La Quinta Inn at Pinellas Park. We paid $66 for the room and that was with their New Year Sale Promotion. Then on Thursday we went to the RV Show at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

We saw a lot of RV's, but the majority of them are too heavy or the tongue weight is too much for the