Why the title?

"Pioneers take the arrows"

Oh, wait. I should be upbeat and taking arrows doesn't sound like an upbeat thing to say.

So, let me amend that statement.

It was courage and vision that led the pioneers to leave behind a comfortable, settled life and trek West to begin a new life in a new place. Many of those from the East that went West found a strength within themselves that they didn't see while they were in their old life. Instead of being one of those that just kind of went along with the others in the old life, they became leaders and visionaries in their new lives.

The sentiments of that last paragraph come from a favorite author, Louis L'Amour, in many of his books. So, I can't really say that it is an original thought from me. However, what he said is truthful.

Welcome to being a pioneer. Look ahead and ignore the "barking dogs" that give you negative opinions and comments. Louis L'Amour also spoke of the barking dogs.

In some of his stories, it was usually a father or older man telling a young boy how it was that when the Westward bound Conestoga wagons rolled through towns, the dogs came out to bark at them. His character then told the young listener that the barking didn't stop the wagons from going on to their destinations.

Following the advice of the Louis L'Amour characters, may we all forge ahead with our plans, after carefully considering all consequences and leave the "barkers" behind.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Rolling Retreats Vacation - What?

Yep. We pulled out of the mobile home park where we stay and are spending some time in Elk City, Oklahoma at Rolling Retreats. Alicia and Slade Tennery are the owners of Rolling Retreats, which has been an RV dealership that started as the two of them buying used DRV Suites units at auction after they had been repossessed. In fact, they are the only employees of Rolling Retreats. If you’ve ever seen a good “mom and pop” RV dealership, it would be them.

Now, a few years later, they are official DRV Suites dealers for new RV’s as well. They deal primarily with the Suites but have some other brands on occasion. If you are ever looking for a good used Suites model, check out their website at Rolling Retreats. When you look at “Inventory” you will see some very nice looking units and they are as good as they look in the photos.

After buying the used ones at auction or taking in as a trade, they go through them and check all the systems and really clean them up. Besides being very good at making sure they have a good quality product to sell, they are also super nice people to boot.

We are actually here to replace our old dining room table (if you can call a 2010 model old) with one of the new style dining tables. The old style, seen just below is a normal table with 4 chairs and the table top can be moved back and forth to allow for more room on one side or another or it can be rotated 90 degrees.

DSC_6439

This one is a different angle of the old table showing more of the center leg.  There is a short leaf section at the outer end that can be pulled out and up and pushed into place to make a little larger table top.

DSC_2524

Jo really liked the new style and opted to purchase one and have Slade install it for us. You can see our new table below, and as you can see, it has a cabinet attached to the slide wall with additional storage. The table will pull out about another 8 or 9 inches from what is seen in the photos below. The two chairs in the photo were a part of the old table because we didn’t want to have to buy new chairs with the right finish.

DSC_2576

Here is another picture from a slightly different angle.

DSC_2578

In addition, we will be getting the factory recall on the wheels done and possibly adding a socket at the front of our coach for the Honda generator to plug into for powering the coach. I’ll write more on that when we get the job done and I have a picture of the finished job to show.

Let me tell you a little more about Alicia and Slade. Alicia used to be a nurse, but gave up that job to go into the RV business. They have some potential customers staying in their RV over in a nearby RV park who were having some issues with their microwave or convection over working. They had talked to them yesterday and the lady had been speaking with some slurred speech.

Alicia had her do some things to give her an indication as to whether the woman was perhaps having a stroke. I thing she specifically said she had the lady stick out her tongue. Today, while they were over looking at the problem with the microwave/convection oven, they told her that she (the customer lady) seemed to be feeling even worse and the slurred speech has not cleared up. So, Alicia and Slade helped them get to an emergency room, and stayed with them for some time before coming back to the dealership. Hopefully, we will find out more about the lady tomorrow as to what may be wrong with her, and we really hope it isn’t a stroke.

Slade is a great guy. He went to great lengths to make sure that he did a good job in installing our new dining table and cabinet. In the past, we have never dealt with them as customers, but they have become good friends. Now, I can say that Slade is a very conscientious man with working with his customers. We will have no problems with confidence of how well the job was done.

By the time we got the table installed, we told them to go check with the folks in the RV park with the appliance problem. Besides, it will be a lot cooler in the morning when we tackle the job of removing all four trailer wheels and doing the recall work for the factory.  I see no sense in working outside in the heat if it isn’t necessary.  Since we are off through the whole Memorial Day weekend, we have plenty of time to get things done.

They got in a new 2012 Elite Suites 38RSSB4 yesterday, and I may take some time tomorrow to take some photos of it to share with folks. We were blessed with having it here because it has the new style dining table and Slade used it as a “model” in seeing how we needed to install the one in our coach.

So, if things go well tomorrow with the recall work and the installation of the generator socket, I imagine that I can confidently say that I highly recommend Alicia and Slade if you are ever interested in a new or used DRV Suites model. I can say that if we were to ever buy a newer one, we would buy it through Alicia and Slade at Rolling Retreats.

2 comments:

  1. Glad you took some photos, cuz I loved seeing the pics of your scenery shots, they are beautiful!! You will have to tell me where you took them.

    Anyway, enjoyed our visit and wish we weren't so busy so we could have spent more time together, but I am sure Slade was taking care of you guys when I was tied up. Look forward to our next visit. I want to thank Jo again for the shirts!! I will be emailing in the next day or 2 about the long lost questions, LOL. Blessings! <>< Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you check back here, I've got a question for you. What scenic pictures? Jo was the one that copied the photos of the Elite Suites to your computer, so I wasn't there for that. Did she also copy a folder entitled "Various Personal Photos?" If so, that would explain it. Otherwise, I didn't take any scenic photos on the trip out to see you.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.