"Honalee" is done and we bring her home!

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October 1 to 9, 2016

We drove for two days to get to Bristol Indiana. We actually stayed in Elkart, Indiana. We stayed in a Hampton and celebrated our last night in a hotel. We were going to pick up our new 5^th wheel and never (hopefully never) have to stay in a hotel again!

On October 3^rd, 2016 we arrived at the Augusta RV factory 20 minutes ahead of our appointment.  We parked and notice several RVs outside, and one …. was ours!! I saw it right away and fell in love. Well, it was another hour before we actually got to go inside and really see it.

 Tom, waiting in the waiting room

to see our new home!

By then they had pulled it around to the attached parking lot, which is really a large gravel area with 4 hookups. They had already hooked it up and she looked perfect! The awning was out and lights were on. Of course I began to get tears in my eyes. This was our new home. This is our Honalee! 

 There she is!

 These are two very happy people!

For the next 3 days we looked at every inch of it. There were a few things wrong or things that needed repaired but they were minor and Augusta RV was super about getting it done right away. The folks there are so knowledgeable and helpful! We met others who were picking up their new 5^th wheels also. What fun! 

 Deb, our sales person

 Gifts from Augusta RV

 Our first look at our new home.

 Inspecting everything. 

Look at the beautiful cheery wood grain!

 Bedroom. 

Not fond of the colors.

 Beautiful bathroom!

 Tom in his recliner, and a beer!

 Kathie in her recliner.

Beautiful new home!

The first night, I had made arrangements for Debbie and Milt (who I met on-line) to come down and celebrate our first night with us! They were terrific people and it was a great evening! I’m going to love this new lifestyle!

 Debbie and Milt on the left, another couple picking up their new rig

and Tom and I and Honalee.

We stayed in the August RV lot for 2 nights. We were supposed to only stay one night but there were things that needed to be done. Also, we had made arrangements for the hitch to be installed in Elkart at Dan’s Hitch. Between the two places, we were tied up for 3 days. At Dan’s Hitch, we discovered that the weight (14,000 pounds) was a bit much for our 1-ton GMC Denali! So we had them install donuts or bladders on the suspension. That added another 4 hours of work. Dan’s Hitch was one of the most knowledgeable places ever! Ryan is Dan’s son and he knows everything! No upselling, no fluff, only honest and ethical. He loaned us a car and knew we were getting frustrated with the 3 days of stuff to be done. We drove to a town nearby and ate a VERY expensive meal at Ruth’s Chris? Ryan pulled our Honalee to the side of his building and hooked us up with power and that’s where we stayed the 3^rd night!

October 6^th at 10:00, Ryan had us ready to go. We had taken a small driving lesson with Dan the day before and Ryan took us around gave us some very sound advice and instruction.

And, we were on the road!!! Heading back to Kansas!! We are complete Newbies! Lot’s of mistakes and learning along the way!! Hitching and unhitching is difficult. It has to be perfectly lined up! And unhitching, it has to have perfect pressure on the hitch or it won’t unhitch. We were on the phone with Ryan the first night! And, I forgot to put the tailgate down so when we finally did get it to release… it ran into the back of the truck tailgate. A little gouge in the plastic and Tom had to re-align the tailgate …..

Of course I had to drive into a Walgreen parking lot thinking it opened up into a large parking lot, only to discover that it didn’t. We tried to back it up… couldn’t. Customers couldn’t get out of their parking spaces and people were watching! Finally a man came up and only said, “Mind if I do it?” I gladly jumped out of the truck and let him in. In two shakes, he had it turned around. Someday…. I’ll be able to do that too!

Finding places to buy diesel and that was large enough for us was a challenge. Finally we discovered that we can go through the trucker’s area and get gas and it’s plenty large enough!!

 We stopped at a Walmart and bought sandwich stuff!

Wow! She's a beauty!

We tried to dump and I think we mostly did it but I’m not sure we did it right. We only have one 1 white hose and I read somewhere that we need two hose, one white for the clean water and one green for dumping use. Ooops! We also bought a thing to put the hose on so it gradually goes into the dump area…. I think it’s called a ladder. Much better than Tom and I holding it up and trying to make gravity work… I imagine people were laughing!

We drove the next day Platte City. We are so close to home!! Sasha and Ryan live only a few minutes away. They, along with Bob and Karen came up to the campground! We entertained in our new home! Haley loved it! Drew was most interested in how the poop gets out. Parker loved the bed! The evening went by way too fast.

We finally got the beast home yesterday. It was a wild and intense week but fun and interesting too! We learned so much each day and although there were a lot of “hurry up and wait” moments, getting it checked out and getting the truck up to speed, we have everything we need now. I feel we are safe and can travel wherever we want.