I meant to keep this going in order but as usual life got in the way.. I really can't wait until retirement. Don't get me wrong we both love our jobs and have good careers.. but Betty has been sitting in the driveway for over a month now.  We are both jonesing for a trip.  But I digress.  Our maiden voyage was to Burnett Texas.  It was blue bonnet season and we need a 4 day weekend place.  We had finished the remodel and stocked our home away from home.  We bought the Atlas and loaded apps on the phone and tablet.   We made our reservations at Big Chief RV park on Buchanan Lake.  The day we left we have 25 to 30 mile an hour wind gusts.  You learn all about limits in a 30 foot MH towing a Liberty Jeep.  Going  over 60 was not done on this trip.   But my wonderful white knuckled hubby stayed true and did a fabulous job.

  Now I want to tell you we love the Hill Country but have not made it down in many years.  As most everyone knows we have been in a terrible drought in Texas.. but I did not realize how bad it was south of us.  I can tell you that it take blue bonnets in the wild a good six months to germinate.. there was an area that was under water at least a  year ago and is now a meadow of blue bonnet and up from that meadow sits the most beautiful home with an incredible boat dock with water over 100 yards away from it.  It hurt my heart.  I do have to say it was still beautiful as were the people and the weather was perfect.  We went to some wineries, Fredricksburg for the trade days and to the Longhorn Caverns.  I can tell you they are well worth it.

 
And yes ladies and gentlemen we got orbs.. funny they say this place is haunted as a matter of fact they have tours and are certified by some ghost society.  Now I have to tell you I am are huge fan of any ghost show out there and this made my husband wonder what the heck.. and so starts our next set of adventures..

 

So Betty became a part of our lives in March of 2013.  I showed the hubby the wonderful find on RV trader and she was the same price as a class C we were looking at with close to 35000 miles on it.  The hubby drove out to Grapevine took a look and sent me a text "we are buying this bad boy." Betty is a 2006 30 ft. Hurricane (made by Thor) she is a gas rig and only had a little over 6000 miles on her.  I will give the dealership a plug Professional Sales RV in Grapevine.  They were great to us and answered a  lot of questions and very up front with us.  Betty was a consignment unit and bless their hearts they did not make very much off of the deal.  Now like I said in the previous post my hubby had never been in an RV nor had he ever driven anything over 20 feet.. this was a bit intimidating.  Our sales guy took him right out and had him drive around even found a hill to go up, and that clinched the deal.. he love it!!!  After offers were made and counter offers were made we made the deal. I even missed my friend and coworker Mary's bridal shower.  I had to call her and tell her I was buying a bus.
Now I had already called our cities code compliance department.  We wanted to be able to keep her in the driveway for a bit.  Surprisingly we were good to go.. not sure how our neighbors felt about it or still do.  Although Betty was in incredible shape we knew there would have to be changes.  Hubby had to drive her home in the rain and through major construction and with knuckles white they made it safe and sound and there she sits.    

  We went to work right away.. carpet gone... booth gone.. back splash and tile work needed.   We found the coolest product at Home Depot they look like glass tile but it is peel and stick (come to find our weight is very important)   We both wanted nice looking flooring.  we found a vinyl floating wood type floor also at home depot.  We removed the booth and replaced it with a corner desk that we can actually eat at.  Removed the bolted chair and bought a pedestal to go on it and replaced the mattress a new standard pillow top with 3 in memory foam topper.

I have also added some red to the pillow selection and a red pleather ottoman for the chair.  The same tile was used on the back splash in the kitchen.  I could not get the pic to open but there she is.. time for our first trip.

And the Madness begins...

In October of 2012 my incredible, good looking, smart, and best cook ever hubby  of 26 years and I (I won't say I was coerced into adding adjectives....but), started watching that travel channel.  House hunters International is the bomb.com!!!  This prompted us to  start thinking about the things we wanted to do in our golden years.  After great discussion we discussed moving to another country to experience living in different cultures and learning different languages etc. would be awesome...we are both military brats and  have a bit of Gypsy blood running through our veins.  The house we currently own is the the longest I have ever lived in one place in my life.  Now we are not strangers to adventures.  We have owned a motor cycle for the last 13 years and have done allot of riding on two wheels (not as much as we have liked)  but we were growing weary and needed a hobby preferably without helmets, rain gear, and less wear and tear on our rumps.   So after seeing a RV show on RV parks in the United States the light went off in our heads.  We live in the greatest country in the world and although I have lived in 8 of our great states and the hubby 5 we wanted to see the rest of it.  So I began researching.  (he claims that is an understatement, obsessed with info is the statement I'm looking for) anyhoo... where to begin

Now I must share a bit about me and the hubby.  We are NOT outdoorsy people.. we do not camp, fish, or hunt.  Room service is our type of camping... you know those people who need AC, showers, coffee maker, etc.  I am the only one of us that has ever even been in and RV.  My father bought a class C when I was 7 that we traveled in to go to the car shows around the country and it only lasted three summers. the hubby was in the boy scouts for about 2 minutes.  Both our fathers were Vietnam Vets and neither wanted to hunt after coming back.   My mother loves to fish and would drag me to the lake where I would play in the water or in my teen years layout an work on my tan.  Only twice in the 26 years of our marriage have we camped.  Once in Arkansas and once in Sturgis during rallies and we managed to  stay intoxicated enough to survive both times.   

So with that being said we have now made the decision to buy a recreational vehicle and travel part time and hit the road full time in 12 years.  We went to our  first RV show two weeks after seeing the show on the travel channel.  And for the next 4 months I was obsessed. (his word not mine) with articles, blogs, books.  RV trader is in my favorites :-)    We ran the numbers and looked at pig tails, fifth wheels, class C's, and class A's.  We priced Trucks, to pull the towables.  We test drove and looked at class C's.  We drove 200 miles to see a class A diesel pusher.. and made the decision to wait 6 years sell our Harley and 52 Chevy Deluxe rent a RV and then make a plan to purchase our first RV.  And then I found "Betty"