Vacation Changes….Again!!!

After initially scheduling a week in the Colorado Springs area, specifically Mountaindale RV Resort, for late August, we had to change the dates because our youngest son wouldn’t be able to go at that time because of his job.

Well, now there have been more changes. He has submitted a resume to a new company here in Oklahoma City and has a second interview this coming Wednesday. So, if he were to get a job at this new company, it would be likely that he would not be able to go with us on vacation. Now, there is still the chance that the job doesn’t work out, and nothing would have changed.

However, we got a phone call this morning from our bank. It seems that one of our cards got compromised and someone ran up about $250 worth of charges in Barcelona, Spain. With our cards, they are debit cards that are applied like credit cards instead of debit cards. While there are some advantages to a card ONLY being a debit card, there are also some drawbacks which our cards avoid. But, they can be easier compromised than debit cards.

Anyway, while we will get back the $250 for the charges, it does put a crimp on us as to being able to afford the expenses of pulling our Mobile Suites to Mountaindale RV Resort, especially if Eric were to get the new job. He would be helping with the expenses if he goes along, but since there is an “iffy” attached to this whole prospect, it looks like we need to make a change to our plans.

There is a plus side to this though. If we were to take the Mobile Suites to Mountaindale, our expenses could be likely to be enough to prevent us from being able to attend a Suites Owners International Travel Club rally scheduled for the week after our vacation. That one is at an RV park in northeast Oklahoma near Grove, Oklahoma. However, if we don’t take the coach to Colorado, we can afford to do both a vacation in Colorado and do the rally as well

We will still get the Colorado vacation, but will be staying at our relative’s home in Canon City instead of staying at Mountaindale in the coach. So, I still have the possibility of photographing some good autumn colors, provided nature cooperates, and see friends and relatives as well.

Since we had enjoyed ourselves a lot at the SOITC rally in Carthage, Missouri last year, we really wanted to be able to do the one this year as well. These are not rallies in the same sense as the national rally would be. These regional rallies are generally more social in nature than having seminars on matters related to coach maintenance, full-timing, and RV’ing in general.

So, even though we don’t get to test the Mobile Suites in Colorado cold, we still can have both halves of the vacation. Besides, we will get to test the cold in Oklahoma in a few short months anyway. It may be sooner than we want.

By doing this, we will also be able to better afford to do things to get things ready for winter. For instance, I don’t want to go into freezing weather using a plastic slinky sewer hose because of the possibility of it freezing up because the water won’t drain out of it completely after use. Instead, we are planning on buying one of the Eze Kleen systems that I wrote about in this post:

http://ignoringthebarkingdogs.blogspot.com/2011/06/settling-in-and-adjusting.html

With the all PVC piping, it should allow it to drain better and not build up frozen water after each use. I also want to get some insulating tubing to put around our water supply hoses.

On that one, I will have two hoses going from the water spigots to the coach. Then main one will be for the water supply for the coach and the second one will be for use in flushing the black tank after draining. I can put both of the hoses in insulated tubes and wrap them with heat tape and then insert all of that into a PVC pipe running from the underground spigots up to the compartment for the water inlets and sewer valves.

Then I would mostly need to get a box to cover the underground spigot area to help insulate that. All I would then have to do is raise the box and turn on the water for the black tank flush as needed. I’ll probably also insulate in some way in the water inlet compartment. I’ve considered doing some kind of skirting around the coach, but I haven’t yet figured out how to do that. There is the issue of not having a uniform area for skirting, what with the slides being out and all.

If I really get desperate, I could always buy some hay bales to put around the coach. Then after winter, I could sell or give them to any number of the folks living in our mobile home park that have horses. A number of our neighbors are related to the horse racing business, and some have numerous horses.

I will be calling Mountaindale RV Resort tomorrow to cancel our reservations. It will cost us about 50% of the week’s stay since the cancellation will fall within 30 days of the reservation. But, even with the loss of $100 for that, we will still be in good shape for having the two weeks of vacation.

Should it be that Eric gets the new job, it would be unlikely that he would be able to go on the Colorado vacation. If that were the case, then it would be doubly hard on Jo and me with expenses if we were pulling our Mobile Suites to Colorado and paying all the expenses.

I guess that things work out for us this year, even though I was looking forward to pulling a mountain pass with our F450 and the Mobile Suites. I don’t think Jo is too excited with that process yet, but being the ex-truck driver that I am, I have more confidence. In addition to all the saved expenses, we would also be driving around Colorado in our Mercury Mariner instead of the Ford F450, thus saving yet even more money.

Also, I can drive to Colorado at 70 miles an hour instead of 60 if we were pulling the coach. As much as I love Colorado, I am always in a hurry to get there, but reluctant to leave. Leaving is usually like a last minute thing and then I need to get home in a hurry as well.

I’m almost as excited as this guy over the upcoming vacations.