These past few weeks haven't been very exciting. No sightseeing for us. While waiting for RV service, we've mostly been working on our software development for a client. They made some last-minute changes and the software has to be ready for delivery by mid-April. Staying put ended up being a good thing and we're back on track for an on-time delivery.
While we only planned for a one week stay, our stay at the RV repair shop at "The Villages" in Florida ended up being almost 3 weeks long! Although we had made an appointment 5 months in advance, the repair shop was a little slow getting us in. After 4 days waiting, they finally saw us for the body work. They also looked at the slide-out issue, but couldn't get us in for another 5 days. Then they had to order a slide-out motor, which was another 4 days waiting. When they finally got us in for the slide-out repair, the new motor didn't work. So we waited around for another 5 days for a replacement motor. Finally, all was repaired and we were free to roam again! At least we had a free RV site for the three weeks we were there.
Thanks to Facebook friends' updates we were able to arrange a few visits while waiting for service. We met up with a couple we worked with in 2005. We worked with Marsha and Gary at Lake George Escape RV Park in upstate New York. That was our first workamper experience. They were in the area for the winter so we had a nice evening with them catching up on their adventures.
We also had lunch and visited with fellow Escapee Boomer friends Bill and Gisela. We've met up with them around the nation at various times over the past 15+ years.
Our last weekend before leaving the repair shop, we were able to go spend the night with Bob and Joyce again. We enjoyed their company and soaking in their hot-tub and dinner out at a fabulous German Restaurant they have raved about for years, Emmy's Time Out Tavern. Recently, Bob had purchased an Oculus Quest Virtual-Reality headset. We got to play with it, and wow! It's pretty amazing, and we just touched upon it. I got motion sick with a couple of the games. Playing a Star Wars adventure, my legs were shaking and I was sweating bullets. I'm sure I would eventually get used to it, but this first experience was draining and fun!
Connie was more adventurous than me. She was playing games and walking the plank in no time. This video shows her reactions.
This delaying of our departure put us behind our intended travel schedule. We had reservations at Camp Blanding National Guard base in Starke, Florida for a week. At first, we postponed our arrival date. Then we had to completely cancel the reservation and lost our $30 deposit. When we were finally able to leave the repair shop, we drove up to Camp Blanding and stayed for a few days. We had to take a first-come site, which only had water and electric hook-ups. But it was a great site with a good view of the lake. Also, it was $15 less per night than their full hook-up sites. Fine with us!
We spent a few days at Camp Blanding visiting the four military campgrounds in the area. I wanted to get videos, photos, and updated information on them. We had a long travel day (for us) yesterday, driving almost 400 miles to Joint Base Charleston, SC. We're now back on our travel schedule and will be here for a week.
We're slightly worried about the Corona Virus hysteria. We have our home with us and are mostly isolating ourselves from crowds. What worries us is the ability to still purchase food and find places to stay. We hope the rumors of campgrounds closing are just that - rumors. After our week's stay here, we have a couple weeks with no campground reservations. But we're not too worried, we'll just stop wherever we can. It's not like we're not used to dry-camping. Then we have six weeks of campground reservations in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.