Well, winter has been upon us for a couple of months, and it's created some “challenges” to the Parental Parolee family – as expected given the lifestyle we've chosen for the past 5 ½ years.
As always, and given who I married more than 40 years ago, keeping warm is a priority. Fairly easy to do in a sticks and bricks home; not so easy in any kind of RV – especially when you can't move the motor home until after the first of the year due to family commitments.
I detailed our first big heating issue back on December 5th, when on a trip to get our propane tank refilled (we were down to 12% - a number we have NEVER been before on propane), I damaged the back end of our home on wheels. Follow up to that incident, Progressive took care of everything, even the (expected) additional costs once Red Bay Body Shop took a good look at the damage. I can't speak highly enough about the people I have dealt with at Progressive, and their no-hassle approach to taking care of this insurance issue. It also helps that their ability to pay off claims is easy for me, the customer, to get paid quickly so that I can pay the body shop as the work is completed.
Once again, Jeff and Jeff at Red Bay Body Shop did their usual excellent job and our home is looking as spiffy as always.
Speaking of Red Bay, Alabama, we left Bolding Mill COE Campground early on Friday, January 3rd for our semi-annual pilgrimage to get little things that broke in the past 6 months fixed. It's usually better to get to Red Bay in the off months, as you can get into one of their Express bays in a couple of days instead of weeks during the spring and fall snowbird travel season.
No so this time.
Our repair list was received by Tiffin schedulers on Monday morning , and even though we were ready to get into a bay by Thursday late morning after our body work was done, no call from Tiffin ever ensued. A major winter storm was set to come in early Friday and go through Saturday, so we decided to head out of town early before having to deal with 6-8 inches of snow and ice, and a potentially closed service center for 2 working days. That being said, as I write this, we STILL haven't received a call from Tiffin, even though we never had the opportunity to cancel our place in the service line. It appears that our next trip to Red bay will be fully scheduled with third-party repair shop appointments, and that our time with Tiffin service direct is over.
But back to keeping Barbara warm.
Our RV came with a Furrion fireplace which is supposed to be capable of keeping 500 sq feet of motor home warm, and for the most part it has done that for the past 5+ years when needed. But all of a sudden, Dave's Law of RV Components has reared it's ugly head again. You see, I contend that RV's and their components are built and sized for the 2-4 week per year user, NOT for full-timers like us. I mentioned this a couple of years ago when our rinky-dink electric slide for our bedroom failed and needed to be replaced. That system wasn't designed or sized for being brought in and out 30-60 (or more) times per year.
So after 5 years, the fireplace stops heating. Still looks pretty with it's glowing crystals, but doesn't make Barbara happy in the least. Good news is that I found another Furrion fireplace with the fake logs and coals, which is much better looking than the glowing crystals for ambiance, and got that ordered to be delivered to our winter quarters in Chiefland, Florida. Installed and running in an hour or so, and it's very nice.
But also during this time, our Coleman Mach 7 combination AC/heat pump also decided to give up the ghost. The heat pump has done yeoman's duty for the past 5 ½ years in saving us propane, as long as the outside temps stay above 40 degrees. Now, it dies at a time when we don't have the fireplace working either! And in the middle of winter!
Fortunately, we had moved to our favorite campground just outside of Montgomery, AL – Gunter Hill COE – and just down the road is the dealer who ordered and sold us our motor home back in June of 2019, the former Marlin Ingram RV. He retired and sold the business to Blue Compass RV (a national company) but many of the former Ingram employees are still there, and still treat the business as personal and not corporate. I call on a late Friday afternoon with our problem, and the service guy thinks he can have a new unit on site by Monday morning, and installed by 3 PM that day. True to his word, our 4th generation Coleman Mach 15 is up and running by 3:30, and we head back to Gunter Hill for the next 2 days. Thank goodness for the small space heaters that pulled us through these sub-freezing times!
All this to say that it's been a trying winter of 2024/2025 thus far, but we're back in North Central Florida through April 14th, an 80-degree pool and 101-degree heated hot tub awaits, as well as the warmer temperatures Barbara and I both enjoy. And more importantly, a working RV full of heating devices!
Coming up next, a report on the largest RV show in the world plus Florida's annual Strawberry Festival, with some new RV tires thrown into the mix.
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