Hi everyone! Last year, I mentioned that a change in RV home might be coming my way. So, I will share what happened in 2023 with you.
I started our year out with Mom and Dad at a park east of Galveston, TX. Mom likes the beach so we seem to be along coastal areas a lot.
When we are traveling, I take over the passenger seat so I can help Dad navigate to places they want to go. When Mom leaves for potty, I rush in and grab my seat. Sometimes, we share the passenger seat.
Dad is a really good RV consultant, given all his experience. He helps other people learn how to start doing the same. Here was one of the first classes of 2023. These people all have the ability to make a six-figure income if they put in the time.
When not running their company, Mom and Dad travel with me to cool places. Here I am at a Bucee’s, getting to meet the Beave. I was a little scared by that big bronze thing! Passers-by thought I was really cute. We were headed to South Florida on this particular trip to pick up our new RV home!
While there, we were able to see the remnants of the Hurricane damage from Ian. Fort Myers was still cleaning up from the damage, and things were starting to get back to normal, but there were still many visible areas that had much work to be completed before returning to normal.
While we were in Fort Myers, Mom and Dad found a place where they could bathe me. It was sure nicer than our RV shower! After being dried off, I sure looked like such a handsome man!
Once at the RV dealership where they were going to trade Miss Thiffy, we got a chance to hang out and wait for the new RV home to arrive. Mom and Dad custom-ordered this one. They had never done that before, but I heard Dad say that this new RV home was a twenty-five-year dream that was being achieved.
We got some pictures of it just before it was getting ready to leave the factory to ship to Florida. They chose a Florida dealership because Florida is their domicile state, and it’s much easier to purchase an RV in the state you call home when full time RV living.
It was exciting to see the pictures from the factory!
We were expecting the RV to arrive in early February. It was two weeks late due to some parts issues and a poor transport driver who took much longer to get the RV to Florida than he was supposed to. It arrived at the dealership on February 24th. The bad thing was we needed to be 1,200 miles away two days later!
Here are Mom and Dad taking possession of the new RV home five hours later. Everyone at the RV dealership did their best to get it ready for us to hit the road for a long drive back to Texas. It took seven hours to get everything out of Miss Thiffy and into our new RV home, JC. It looked like a bomb hit, but at least everything was inside! We left the dealership at 1:30 AM on the 25th.
Dad drove through the night into the next day and another night. By the afternoon of the 26th, we were in Texas for a new group of clients for Dad to teach how to be RV consultants.
Our next stop was to go back to the beach with JC. It was the first pleasure trip and such fun to take on the road. Dad loves the Super C motor home because of the Freightliner chassis’s safety, stability, and serviceability.
The Newmar Super Star has an air ride cab and air ride seats. That, plus rear airbags, adds to a more stable ride than the Class A gasser that we had.
In May, we ventured further south to the beaches of Port Aransas. We had three weeks before more business commitments, so Mom chose that location. I loved it because they rented a golf cart for me to be able to visit the beach and get some wind in my ears while riding with them.
Here I am, hanging out on the back of the golf cart, watching the seagulls fly by.
Mom and Dad wanted to be sure I would not get sunburned, so they had this thing called a Shibumi. You face into the wind, and it is like a horizontal sail that provides great sun protection while being lightweight and easily transportable. It fits in a small bag that goes anywhere. It is so much better than a canopy that can blow away and is hard to put up and take down.
Dad loves to keep the RV and truck looking new, so he likes the ceramic coating products on the market. At the time of this picture the truck was already a year and a half old, and has never been garaged.
In July we were headed to the Newmar factory to have warranty work done on JC. It is very normal for RVs of this level to need tweaking before the warranty period runs out after a year. On the way to Indiana, we stopped in Nashville over the July 4th holiday. It was a nice KOA in that area. It was tight to get into, but the RV sites were nice, close to each other, but nice.
Once in Indiana, we overnighted at a Harvest Host location, north of Napanee, Indiana. THe next day we checked into the Newmar Service Center.
Here’s their large service facility with full-service hookups and coordinated service appointments.
We chose a spot and were to be greeted the next morning by our service advisor, who would be sure Mom and Dad’s list of issues would be addressed. They picked up the RV at 6 AM and returned it at 2 PM. This continued each day during the work week until all issues were corrected.
Mom and Dad caught JC driving through the service center on its way to the spot where it was worked on.
While in the Elkhart, IN, area, I got to meet a fellow Corgi pup. His Mom is friends with my Mom, so we got together and had a meeting of the Corgis.
As we approached the really hot summer months, Mom and Dad took me to an RV Resort with a really nice pool for them to hang out at. It is a relatively new pool, and no one was using it.
The RV sites we nice as well! They enjoyed hanging out in the New Braunfels, TX area for a week.
After that, they headed to Fredricksburg, TX, to hang out in the Texas Hill Country. There are many wineries and distilleries in the area. It was super hot, with temps in the hundreds, so I stayed inside a lot until it cooled off in the evening.
One of my favorite activities is hanging out with Mom and Dad on the patio. I can get in a great nap. I either use the RV park Adirondack chairs or my foldup camp chair.
Because I am into healthy living, which Mom and Dad taught me, I established my Corgi Advisory Board to assist with my efforts. They are always willing to chime in . . . LOL! Mom and Dad use essential oils on me to calm me down when I get afraid. I’m a naturopathic dog.
During the Fall of 2023, we headed to the East Coast. Dad visited with a vendor that he works with to assist in his RV consulting business. We stayed one night in a Harvest Host location before heading to Ashville, NC.
The trees were starting to change color, so the drive on US-40 toward Ashville was very scenic and colorful. The steep grades were exciting, too!
Her’s Dad and me at the Homegauge home office in downtown Ashville, NC. What a cool city. I walked around town with new friends and visited everyone at Homegauge. We even played ball in the big office. Much better than in the RV!
Driving back towards Sevierville, TN was very scenic too.
We hung around Sevierville for a week and checked out the sites. The view from atop the big gondola Ferris wheel was cool.
We finished the year by returning to the beach and spending a few months along the Boliver Peninsula. The weather was cool and windy most of the time, but there were days that reached the low seventies. I hung out on the patio in my chair, enjoying the sunshine.
2023 seemed to go by really fast. Maybe because we were traveling a lot, and the new RV home added to that. I heard Mom and Dad may consult a little less with RV clients in 2024, so we may end up traveling more than in 2023.
Happy Trails and Wagging Tails, everyone!
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