SETTLING IN & RE-ORGANIZING…..

As I mentioned in my last blog that we traded our motorhome and little red car in for a truck and a travel trailer.  We spent the first week just moving all of our belongings from one to the other.

Even though we got everything moved into our new home, we still managed to keep moving things around.  We put things in one area and give it a try for a day or two, then decide-nope it just isn’t in the right spot-yet.  So time to re-organize it to fit our needs.

For instance, the pantry and dish cupboard just wasn’t right and we had to re-organized.  Of course the clothing area had to be re-organized to suit us as well.  Then there is the big closet which needed some re-organizing and some plastic organizer bins added in the mix of things. 

Now Brian has this one big huge basement and that too had to be re-organize to suit him just right.  He came to the conclusion he needed several crates to put things in-to make it easier for him to get at.

Through all this re-organizing, we also have to make a list of things we must buy to make our  new home comfy.  We have decided that carrying 3 7-gallon jugs just of drinking water and another 3 7-gallon jugs for filtering into our water tank was getting to heavy for Brian to keep carrying.  So gone are the huge 7 gallon tanks in it’s placement are single one gallon jugs of drinking water that are kept under the bench seat.  It’s also easier on me-for I was starting to have a hard time turning the nozzles on those 7 gallon jugs.  So how do we now get water back into our tank without having to move our little home every time?  easy!  a water bladder!  Works great and so far we love it!  here is what it looks like filled with water:

Weighs 385 lbs. when filled and only 5 lbs. empty and stores so easy under the seat of the truck or in the compartment without taking up so much space as the 7-gallon jugs did!

Every time we go shopping, we pick up little things that we see that would work for us.  With the big RV show in town we thought for sure we could knock a lot of stuff off our list-little by little the list is getting smaller.

As most of you know-sleeping very long on an RV mattress just don’t cut it.  In just the two weeks of having our new home-the mattress that we have now is already showing indentation of where we sleep-so that must go and now in search for a new one. 

Again at the RV show they had a demo of the new Euro Foam Denver Mattress and now we awaited for the arrival of our new mattress. We were a bit skeptical or our new mattress-for it came in a 16” X16” X 75”box.  you can’t help but wonder how a mattress is going to feel after being compressed that long…here is what it looked like:

The Mattress rolled up….

Brian cutting the plastic away….

…and wholla!  A new mattress!!!  Of course Leah has to be the first to check it out!!!

We no longer have the luxury of the Onan generator at our fingertip anymore.  Personally that won’t be missed to much anyways.  You see, just before we left Fernley RV in NV; Brian had bought a 1000 watt Generator.  Reason was it’s a lot quieter than the Onan (the Onan was placed directly under our bed in the motorhome and was NOT micro quiet as claimed to be!).  We really didn’t need that big of a generator to begin with.  Only time we ever used it was to charge things on cloudy days or to watch TV at night-so the 1000 watt will still do the job just fine for us.

Now that we are settled in, it’s time to figure some of the components in the truck and even in the travel trailer.  We discovered in the truck that it gives us an update on oil usage and will tell us when it’s time to change oil!  How cool is that feature?  We have our cell phone synched with the truck so when we are driving down the road-we both can talk through the speakers in the truck-hands free! 

Having to go with a 1/2 ton truck we couldn’t get the echo-boost engine-they simply won’t pull a travel trailer.  Fuel will be more than what we are used to with the Chevy Tracker, but better than what we got  with the motorhome.  The good thing is, it will run on bio-fuel; which means e-85,86, 87 or 89, to make it more affordable for us.  We just have to make sure if changing fuel grade, we have to have at least less than a half tank of fuel remaining. 

As I stated on Facebook: I think the truck is smarter than a 5th grader or at least smarter than us!!!! Going to have fun figuring out this…..

 

 

 

FREE PANCAKES=NEW TRUCK & TRAVEL TRAILER?

Okay so you want to know how Free Pancakes can equal a new truck and travel trailer?  Well here is the answer….

Every year here in Quartzsite AZ Le Mesa RV puts on free pancakes and lunch Mon-Sat.  All you have to do is fill out a simple quick form and get a name tag and then enjoy the food.  It’s usually not much but hey, while in town why not enjoy their wonderful pancakes, after all it is free.

Well it was no different for us on Saturday, Jan 5, 2013.  On this cold morning, we went in to have breakfast, get some drinking water, a few groceries and then head back out to the BLM.  EXCEPT-after eating the pancakes, Brian says let’s go look at the travel trailers….Now I had found another Winnebago Aspect that had 3 slides that I became partial too, but Brian didn’t want to deal with anymore slides-specially when we boondock like we do and every thing inside was that pleather-not doggie friendly.

Anyways, we looked at what travel trailers they had and nothing jumped out at us.  We had to laugh at one, they literally put the back door right in the bathroom!  The salesman came over to talk with us.  showed us a model that he thought would be perfect for us.  The back bedroom was a bunkhouse and he thought we could convert the bunks to a den area.  Not practical for our living style, so we walked away.

Next stop is Camping World.  They also a lot here with both new and used RV’s.  We were greeted with a salesman and we jumped onto his golf cart to look what they had.  Again, nothing really jumped out at us.  Except maybe one would work; only thing, it had bunks in the back.  So we went into the office and in one of their lots up by Mesa AZ, they had a similar model without the bunk that they could bring down for us to look at.  They wanted money down-with the understanding there would be no pressure on our part and if we didn’t like what we seen, the money would come back to us.  I was a bit leery on the deal-but we did it and the Travel Trailer would be brought down on Monday-January 7th (yes, my birthday).

Now we needed a truck to pull a travel trailer with.  It’s after 11am and there are no dealers here in Quartzsite.  Nearest dealerships was either in Parker AZ or Blythe CA.  Since we had great dealings with the Ford garage in Parker, we would head there.  But we needed to beat the clock-because the dealership closes at noon.  Brian made a quick call, talked to a salesman and told us to go ahead and come on over and take a look.  He had the truck that Brian knew he wanted to pull our new home with, and they actually had one in stock!

We got there, just a few minutes before noon and true to his word, the salesman had the truck in front and was wiping the windshield off.  Without blinking or asking much questions, he threw us the key and told us to take it for a spin!  Now where else can you go and be handed keys to a brand new truck without the salesman going with you? 

We did take it for a quick spin around the block, and it felt it was made for us!  Went back and the they took the Chevy Tracker for a spin.  Came back and we closed on the deal.  They gave us Blue Book value on the car and we can pick up our new truck on Monday Morning-my Birthday!

2013 F-15o, Super Cab

Did I mention that earlier we had moved our wood pile and both Brian and I had our grubs on and looked pitiful?

Now it’s time to grab a quick lunch and head back.  Poor Leah probably wonder what happen to us!

As we get back into Quartzsite, Brian remembers there was another RV dealership down the road and wanted to make a quick stop to see what they might have.

The salesman told us where the new ones were and told us to go look at them.  He didn’t follow us and he allowed us to go at our leisure.

We stepped into each one and nothing again jumped out at us.  Then I notice a brand new Jayco White Hawk sitting off a little from all the others. We both went in and right away, knew this is what we were looking for! 

We go to look for the salesman to ask about this particular model, he too started walking our way.  First question was that unit sold and why was it sitting off by itself.  He just got that one in and hasn’t been what he calls “cleaned”.  We went in with him asked a few questions and made a deal!  His deal was 10 times better on the trade in than what Camping World even offered us!  For the first time ever, we received money back-enough to almost cover the truck cost!  Our new home would be ready for us Tuesday Afternoon.

Next step was to bring the Motorhome in to him so that he could make a walk through.  That was being done the next day, Sunday morning.

We brought the motorhome in, the Salesman, Jeff, was very pleased at what he saw and was impressed on how clean we kept it.  Also the main selling factor was the low mileage on the motorhome. 

Brian had promised me Chinese in Lake Havasu and was planned to go on Monday, but instead we did it that Sunday instead, Along with some shopping.

On Monday Jan, 7, we picked up our new truck and said good-bye to “Ole Red”.  We need now to make arrangements with a another business to have some things done to the truck; like window tinting and bug visor along with rain visors to be put on.

Next stop was to make arrangements for the Solar Panel to be put on our new rig later in the week.  We first planned on taking off the original solar off the Motorhome and have it placed on the travel trailer.  Brian went to go on the motorhome to remove the panel that he noticed that it couldn’t be removed without putting holes in the roof.  It was first agreed we could take the panel off, but leave the brackets. 

Brian and I finally came to the conclusion that we would leave the solar panel on the motorhome and we would have a new one put on.  Brian has always questioned whether Camping World installed the solar panel in right or not.  It was later discovered that they did not do it right and also learned we paid for a much higher dollar solar panel, wiring and did not get what we paid for!  So never again will we do business with Camping World!  But that’s another story….

Tuesday rolls around and by afternoon we now had the keys to our new home!  The let the real fun begin…moving things from one to the other.  Since it was getting late in the day-we would start the move in the next morning.

Since all this began, we have been going on very little sleep, excitement won over on both of us.  Yes we have traded in the past, but for some reason this one felt so right to us!  Again we were up bright and very early and started the moving process.

On Wednesday afternoon we had everything moved over to our new home and said good bye to “Big Bertha”.

We spent majority of Thursday, re-organizing and straightening things out.  Of course it called for another trip to Parker to buy a few new things for our new home.

Friday would be my first time pulling our new home on the road.  After purchasing the truck, we discovered it had no break unit on it and the truck was to come with a complete towing package including the break unit.  So we have to wait for Ford to order the break unit and have them put it on.  So it was a bit scary pulling the travel trailer knowing I didn’t have the break unit.  Don’t worry we weren’t going far and went slow at it!

Our home had to go to Discount Solar here in Quartzsite for a new solar panel and new invertor to be put together.  That would become all day job.  We upgraded the solar panel, invertor and the controller.  We now have state of the art equipment!

So you ask why we changed?  We liked the motorhome, it was nice driving down the road and having the convenience of the bathroom inside without leaving the rig.  It was convenient to just pull over, unhitch the car to go look for a spot.  Those two things will be missed. 

However, we didn’t have the space that we will have in our new travel trailer.  We are basically the same length as the motorhome-just without the driving compartment.  And hooked both truck and travel trailer is just about the same length as what the motorhome was with towing the car.

In our new travel trailer we have a couch, more kitchen area and the bedroom is separate from the rest of the living quarter.  the bathroom is much bigger with a much bigger shower (so no more hitting our elbows!).  We went from a full size bed back to a Queen.  Brian says that he now “looses” me in bed! More room to move about with plenty of storage both inside and out.  Brian has a huge basement compartment that goes across the whole width in the front.  Oh and did I mention it comes with a stove and microwave????

      

Also insurance and living expense will drop making our budget a little more easier to live within our means!  We went from two driving vehicles to one.  Maintenance will be easier to keep on one than the two as well.

The travel trailer came with covered underbelly with glacier insulation, keeping us warmer inside on cold days and keeping outside noise-outside. 

Leah our dog, is adapting really well with this.  She has taken claim to one side of the couch.  Her only downfall is there is no carpet, all linoleum floors, so we have to lay rugs down so she don’t slip and slide all over the place.

I will have to learn how to back our new home into spots!  Maybe I will practice out here in the desert!!!

Good By ole Friends-You both did us well and we will miss ya-but it was time for a change!

APPLES TO APPLES

After completing another season with Amazon.com I can now compare Apples to Apples between two fulfillment centers.  My first year was with the fulfillment in Coffeeville KS and this year at Fernley NV. 

There is a significant difference between two fulfillment centers that actually surprised me.  Here is what I found different between the two:

To start with, at the Fernley fulfillment center at the “Meet n’ Greet” Day, your first couple of hours is spent at safety school.  It was very extensive and thorough. We moved from station to station, learning proper procedures and safety tips to help us out.  At the end we were given an easy quick quiz to see if we were paying attention.  You had safety school as well in the Coffeeville KS fulfillment, but nothing compared to what we learned at the Fernley Center.  I was very pleased on how they did their safety school and think all fulfillment centers should do it the way Fernley did!

In the Coffeeville KS all the dept. managers, PA, PG’s wore certain colored lightweight vest.  For instant the managers wore Yellow vest, while the PA’s wore green, and PG’s wore Blue and we had a few that would wear red vest(mostly Ambassadors/trainers).  And they all had a saying on the back “Ask Me”.  We had one camper scout that wore a brown vest.  This made it easy to identify each person-specially when you are new and have loads of questions.  You know who you could ask and get the right answer.  While in Fernley RV-well you kind had to figure out on your own who was who…No one wore vest-occasionally one or two people would were safety yellow vest that had the saying “Ask Me” on the back.  But none to identity the managers, or PA’s or even the PG’s…

At the Fernley center, we had more than one camper scout and they wore a red fancy vest.  They were readily there to help us whenever we needed it or had questions.  If they didn’t have the answer-they would find it for us camperforce.  At least in the Shipping Department,  our camper scout was always there to give us a hand when ever needed and did his best to try and greet each of us with a friendly smile (Thanks-Al). 

Also at the Fernley fulfillment center, the HR staff was constantly out on the floor-so if you had any issues, you could stop one and they were readily and willing to help in any manner they could.  The only downfall was that their main office was always locked to us associates and they didn’t have what I would call an “open door” policy.  But they did have a second office out on the floor that did have the “open door” policy-when someone was in.

In Coffeeville our camperforce representative, Paul & Dana, always tried their best to periodically reach out to us camperforce and had a great shoulder for us to lean on, or maybe even cry on once in a while.  In Fernley, I honestly met our camperforce representative maybe once or twice and I don’t think I could actually pick her out in a line-up, but she would do a great job in responding quickly to any emails questions we might have.  BUT with that said, HR WAS great, and HR Manager was really awesome!  She did listen to us and she really did a great job in my book in trying to connect with us camperforce.

One other significant difference between the two was that at Coffeeville, your first 4 days on the floor in training, your Ambassador (Trainer) was there in ear shot of you needing any help.  If there were several folks being trained-then they would have others in close proximity to help you along as well.  They would even help give you pointers to help bring you numbers up to speed as well.  As for Fernley fulfillment-our trainer gave us a guide around our department, showed us the basic of packing, and we were placed on the line in a few hours.  She didn’t stay in earshot if we had any questions, and we weren’t sure who we could ask for assistant-making it just a bit difficult for us on our first couple of days.  I’m not the only one that notice this, but heard several complaints from other camperforce in the break room in other departments with the same issues-feeling improper training and since of feeling “lost” in our first week on the floor.  During peak time there seemed to be plenty of Integrity folks helping those newbies.

With all that said, however, I’m still pleased with working at the Fernley fulfillment center and have every intentions of going back there again.  Why?  I guess it’s because even though there were the differences, I did meet a lot of really nice workers, both seasonal and regular full timer associates.  The manager(s) were really great the atmosphere alone was more enjoyable.  Even though you may not know who to ask a question to-you could stop just about any blue badge and still ask that question-they would take the time and still help you out.  You did soon learn who-was-who, and for the most, everyone seemed to work really good as a team.  I do look forward to more years with Amazon.com as a seasonal camperforce!  I love the challenge it gives me and it’s just for a few months out of the year with good pay and benefits to a full time RV’er like us!

The Fulfillment Center in Coffeeville, KS