Visiting and Helping Family

Our visits to the Denver area each year are centered mainly on seeing family.  This year that visit included a lot of work.

First we went to our son Eric's home for dinner on their back patio.

We also met them at the Cherry Creek State Park shooting range.  Here are John and our grandson John shooting.

Then we all came to our trailer for lunch.  When you travel in an Airstream, having friends for a meal means eating outside.

A few days later, the work began.  Eric and Liz, Kylie and John are moving to a new home.  It is exciting and it also is a lot of work.  They have been packing boxes for weeks.  The closing was to be on Aug. 30 so Eric and Liz both scheduled a day off from their work as teachers to attend the closing and begin the move.  Then the moving company announced they would pick up the furniture a day early.

Eric asked if we could help and we said yes.  I went to supervise the movers and John took care of our scheduled move from Chatfield State Park to Cherry Creek State Park.

The movers had beds, like grandson John's bed,

 

and many other items to put in the moving van.

The dining room table was a big item.

Finally, the truck was almost full.

The movers closed up the truck and got inside to drive everything away.

When Eric, Liz and John came home, I joined them at Breckenridge Brewery for dinner.

 

We went to a motel for the night.

The next day, they went to the closing and I waited for John to come from our trailer to pick me up.  We met Eric and Liz at their beautiful new home and helped unpack. I obviously didn't take many photos at the new house.  I was too busy.  Here is the back yard.

This is a view of the back of the house and patio.

Granddaughter Kylie came home from college at the University of Houston to help with the move. Saturday we all ate lunch on the patio.

Since our legal address is Eric's home, we were very interested in where we are moving.  Now we know where our mail will be delivered before they ship it to us priority mail.

Goodbye to the Old, Hello to the New

Finally, Thursday we took possession of our new 2014 Mobile Suites 5th wheel trailer. We went in to Kansas RV Center at 8 am, signed the papers, and were given a 2-hour walk-through of the unit. That is the best orientation we have ever had when buying a new RV. Then, we backed our truck into the dealer's garage and they helped us hook-up. Here we are, ready to pull it for the first time.



We drove it about 2 blocks to the Chanute, Kansas, Santa Fe Campground. Our first time unhooking.



Our 2009 Montana was parked there, too, and we began moving all our worldly possessions (except for a few boxes and file cabinets in Colorado) from one unit to the other. Ugh. Hard work. We called the dealer twice Thursday and Friday with minor problems and they sent technicians out to correct the problems. About 1 pm Friday, after the second visit, they hooked up a truck to the Montana and pulled it back to their shop. That was sort of a sad event. We loved that trailer and spent our first 5 years of full-timing in it. We have been to the Canadian Maritime Provinces, Alaska and the US East Coast in that RV. But we are delighted with the new one.

Moving belongings and stowing them away is a big task. We were in a mess most of the time.





Finally, by bedtime last night, things were pretty decent and almost everything had been put away somewhere. Now the task is to find it when we need it.



This 46 inch TV is a bit overwhelming when our chairs sit only 6 and 10 feet away.



What do we love about our new home? There are lots of things. One, it is very pretty. Two, it is a little over 2 feet shorter than the old one. Three, it is built much better than the Montana.

But two things , while not deal-breakers, are certainly high on the list of great things. First is this control panel.



We have 6-point automatic leveling. I have always been in charge of getting the trailer level. Now, all I have to do is push one button to raise the front of the RV so we can unhitch, then another to level. Then we just stand back and watch it go up and down, side to side until it is level. No more driving up on boards on one side or the other, checking the level and often doing it again, then lowering the front till we are level front to back, then putting out boards and putting down the rear stabilizers. It's wonderful!!! And it saves us a lot of time.

If you look back at the photo when we had things put away, and you are familiar with the standard RV day-night shades, you will notice that we don't have those. These shades have one shade that acts as a sun screen and another (the white ones you see in that photo) that blocks out the light and provides privacy at night. All it takes to put them back up is give it a little tug and it rolls itself back up.

Something else I like is the 4-door refrigerator-freezer. It has nearly twice the space of the old one did. And the shelves have small barriers to keep things from sliding off during travel.



Tonight, we are parked in Oklahoma City, enroute for Mesa, AZ. Ain't it purdy? And it pulls really great, too.