In the mean time we are working on the house getting it ready to put on the market and getting our affairs in order for the move to Texas.
Will update more later.
2/17/12
The bathrooms are done, woohooo.
New vanity top and tile floors.
Got a real estate agent coming in to give us an appraisal, both for how much we could sell the place for or renting it. Three weeks till our trip to get tags and DLs in Texas.
Update 24 Feb.
Went to trial load the trailer and found a problem. I was doing this to determine how much room I would have in the front of the trailer with the motorcycle in it's designated position.
While loading the Suzuki the right ramp broke. The 'L' bracket that fits into the lip on the back had not been welded everywhere it should have been.
I sent an email to the manufacturer along with these pictures (5 in all) and received a response almost right away. The owner said: DANG ITTTT!!!! and that he would be having a chat with his folks. Also said that I would be hearing from another boss soon. I took both ramps to a local welder and had him fix the broken ramp and then weld all the points of contact on the 'L' bracket. Cost $20. Will not be asking for reimbursement from the manufacturer.
Doing another test loading Sunday the 26th.
Update 26 Feb.
Finally, got the Suzuki loaded today. Then I got the bike up on the trailer. It was fun since the truck only weighs 4700# it kind of jumped around a little while going up and down the ramps, which held BTW. I was a little worried about the motorcycle ramp and had Pat watching while I rode the bike up the ramp onto the trailer. She said there wasn't a bit of deflection while the ramp took the full weight of me and the bike, woohoo. I saw once the bike was up there that I had plenty of room for tying everything down. Found the tie down points on the front of the Suzuki so there's no problem there, I have plenty of distance for the bike to be strapped down. I am also going to be able to take my grill, now I am in heaven since the grill will fit on the ramp and I will be able to load it without having to pick it up. Life is good sometimes.
March 2, 2012, we are on the road. We go to moms and load up the Suzuki and bike. Strap everything down and then do five or six walk around checks of everything, straps, ramps, trailer tires, ball and receiver. Finally I'm satisfied everything is in order and we head south, stopping by the house to pick up some last second stuff we might have forgotten, of course there were. We finally hit the road seriously and off to South Haven and the free I-35 to Oklahoma City which we get to about a little after noon and get set up in the Famcamp on Tinker AFB. We'd been here before so we new where we needed to go. First unload the Suzuki, found the first issue, the front straps had loosened some during the trip. Need to find a better way to do this, ah ha, put on the parking brake dummy. Well we unhook the trailer and settle in for the night, tomorrow we go to visit son and his significant other in Chickasha. The next morning we make the trip to visit son and have lunch with him and SO. The next morning we are back on the road southbound to Dallas and I-45 toward Huntsville, TX. However since we're not in any big rush we stop in Fairfield and the Primrose campground for the night. This is a nice campground for the night. The sites are wide enough for the motorhome and the trailer. The next morning we get back on I-45 and go south to Huntsville and get on Texas 190. We pull in to Livingston a little before noon and get set up at Rainbows End and Escapees.
The site is nice but there is no WiFi or cable TV. Oh well, we can do without that for a couple of days since we're here for tags and DLs. So into town we go for lunch and schedule inspections for all four vehicles for the next morning. The Chinese restaurant left a lot to be desired for me. That evening we dined at a Mexican place that also left a bit to be desired. The next morning at the inspection place I was talking with the folks there and they recommended we try Mamma's. Well the next morning we did just that, now this is what I'm talking about, real food. This place is great, a real down home kind of place with good food and plenty of it. Anyway after breakfast we go down tot he tag office where I find out that I had brought the truck title instead of the motorhome title, bang head against nearest brick wall and yell stupid repeatedly. Call daughter and ask her to go look in the office to see if that dang blamed title is laying there. A couple of hours later daughter calls and sure enough it was right there. Daughter gets it in the mail since we now have mail service with Escapees and a real Texas address, we are residents but not Texans (according to the lady at the drivers license office anyway). Well we knew this was going to take a couple of days so we take off and go to Galveston. Little did we know that next week was "SPRING BREAK" and all the campgrounds would be booked up for the entire week. So we get online and look for somewhere to park for the week, not on Galveston Island. Called a place in La Marque (La Mark), they had room for us so we head north, after plugging in the coordinates into the GPS liar thingy. Well the GPS thing got us right to the campground, I apologized to it and went to check in. This campground had received not so good reviews but we decided we would take a chance, I'm glad we did. The new managers had been on the job for about three weeks when we got there and they were busy cleaning the place up and doing repairs. I was happy. We had cable TV but the WiFi just wasn't strong enough to reach our spot. Well we weren't there to watch TV or get on the internet, we'd heard about Galveston so we thought we would go see it, and we did. We went to Walmart, where else. Yep, we went to Walmart. Our fridge had died in Oklahoma City where we bought a cooler, well that didn't keep the meat we had frozen so we were shopping for a compact fridge. Walmart came through for us. We got a 3.7 CU fridge which did the trick, now we could go do the touristy stuff.
We did the Duck Tour, we had done this in Branson and really enjoyed it. We should have sat in the lower tier seats, oh well live and learn. We did find a couple of different areas to go explore during the Duck Tour, old town for one.
In Old Town there was a tall ship, I love tall ships.
Since parking was not free and we had heard the fines were a little on the stiff side we didn't dawdle very long.
We also took in some of the old stately manners from days gone by.
One day we decided we would go north to the Houston area, I wanted to see the USS Texas BB35, located next to the San Jacinto Monument and battlefield.
It was one of those dreary overcast almost wants to rain kind of days.
Well on the way we took a detour to the Houston Space center.
No, we didn't take the guided tour. Maybe next time.
So on to Houston. We had decided to visit the Downtown Aquarium. That was fun, noisy, crowded, and dark but a ton of fun.
This place was worth the trip.
What a day, we had a blast. Back home we go, satisfied in our touristy doings.
What I couldn't believe was that on the island of Galveston we could not find a restaurant that served crab, for less than a weeks wages anyway.
We did manage to get over to the Texas Aviation Museum, next to the Moody Gardens, I was not impressed. I didn't even take any pictures of the place. I'm an airplane freak, I love airplanes. This place left a lot to be desired, especially at the price we paid.
Well fun time was ending and we took off and went back to Livingston so we could get our Texas residency stuff completed. Stopped by the mail box and picked up the mail and down to the tag office and then drivers licenses. Other than waiting in line it was really simple to get done. Next morning we go back home.
