Site H3 in Pride RV Resort, Waynesville, NC

On May 14, 2016, we celebrated our one year
anniversary of the purchase of both our Phaeton Motor Home and Cadillac SRX.  We actually didn’t do anything to celebrate, in fact, we parked the Phaeton in Pride RV Resort, Waynesville, NC while spent the weekend with friends in their mountain cabin in Cullowhee, NC. Oh well, we’re not really celebrators….😞

But first, it will make writing about our motorhome if she has a name. So in honor of her anniversary, we are christening her “Tiffany” in honor of our dearly beloved dachshund. We’ll have to dig up a photo of her. She lived from 1982 to 1999. We had her for 14 years. She ran away from home and found us. More on her later…..

Let’s do a quick review of this year. We decided in January 2015, we were ready to upgrade from our XLite Cougar 28′ 5th Wheel. We bought a “For Sale” sign and began to advertise it at each campground. We only had a few people interested in it, so we put it on Craigslist. Sure enough, we got the perfect “hit” soon after we advertised it on May 3, 2015.  The couple were seasoned campers and in fact, the husband used to buy and sell campers.  They wanted the 5th wheel to serve as “Camp Hosts” in OBX.  Believe, me, you get nervous selling something this big and expensive on Craigslist. But they came in person to examine it. The husband brought a ladder to get on the roof and canvas pad to look under the belly. These were serious buyers and it only took them about 30 minutes to decide to buy it. They gave us a deposit and then we had to figure out how to get it to their home in Maryland, about 50 miles away.  If you’ve been following our adventures, you will remember the truck we used to tow our 5th wheel was wrecked (as in totaled). You can read about it here if you missed that exciting post. 😁

As soon as we had our transaction in the bag, we began to seriously look for our new home.  Bill had “saved” four Tiffin Motorhomes on RV Trader that met our needs.  We sent each one of them an “offer.”  Only one took us up on it (we did offer less than their asking price) so we put a deposit on it on May 4, 2015, sight unseen. She was located in Cocoa, Florida. We had looked at 100’s of Motor Homes and more or less knew this was the one for us. She is a 2010 Phaeton 40′ QTH.  She had two previous owners, neither one had used it much. It only had only been driven 21,958 miles.

While we waited for the necessary paperwork to be finalized to buy our new home, we began to hunt for our perfect TOAD, or car to flat tow behind Tiffany. Knowing this day would come, we had already eliminated the Jeep. We thought a Jeep Grand Cherokee was going to be our car one day, but the price was just out of sight. We didn’t want to put that much money into something that would be subject to such abuse AND we knew we really needed a COMFORTABLE ride.  Long story short, after sitting and test driving many cars, we boiled it down to the Cadillac SRX. We found a 2013 with only about 22,000 miles on it. She was fully loaded and the color was perfect. We did want her to blend in with Tiffany!

So one year later, Bill has driven Tiffany 5,166 miles. We both have driven the caddy over 20,000 miles. I haven’t kept track of those miles.  We have had a whirlwind year and have loved every minute in both Tiffany and the caddy.  Both fit us and we are definitely living up to the Tiffin motto, Roughing it Smoothly!

Here are the highlights/challenges:  Our washing machine was repaired for one load after our time in Red Bay.  We were on the road when we learned it wouldn’t work; so, we had to buy a new washer and ended up buying a dryer as well. They have made life more enjoyable! It was a challenge turning our car into a TOAD, so you can read about it here.  We were on the hunt for a more comfortable chair, which we ended up buying a La Z Boy while in Myrtle Beach. Which reminds me, that is where we bought the new washer/dryer, turned our car into a TOAD, found the chair and new carpets to match! And then the biggie was when we had a blowout, which you can read about! Phew, we sure learned a lot and it all worked out….

New chair and carpet

As for side road trips, we visited our families just driving the car on multiple occasions. And all were LONG trips, so we were very comfortable.

We also have a summary of our 2015 year, where it overlaps this if you’d like to see more, here.Here is a list of where we’ve been this past year in Tiffany, from most current (not counting where we are now) to when we first bought her. If we have a corresponding post in our blog, it is hyperlinked. This reflects 23 move in and outs of campgrounds and we’ve hit a total of 80 since we began in September 2013.

80)Pride RV, 4394 Jonathan Creek Rd, Waynesville, NC 28785 Phone 828-926-1645, May 10-19, 2016 (6 nights)
79)Mayberry Campground, 114 Bunker Road, Mt. Airy, NC, 336-789-6199 5/10-13/2016 (3 nights)
78)Hidden Acres Family Campground, 17391 Richmond Turnpike, Milford, VA 22515, 804-633-7592
3/25-5/10/2016 (48 nights)
77)RVacation Campground, 428 Campground Road, Selma, NC 27576, 919-965-5923 (1 night) 3/24/2016
76) Pirateland, site #158, 5401 S. Kings Highway, Myrtle Beach, SC, 29575 (843) 238-5155   3/2-24/2016. 22 nights
75)Walkabout Camp & RV Park, 742 Old Still Rd., Woodbine, GA 32569
Telephone:  (912) 729-4110 3/1-2/2016 (one night)
74)Bryan’s RV and Truck Collision Repair, 16420 hwy 27 Lake Wales FL 33859
(863) 638-2374 2/8-3/1/2016. (22 nights)
73)Lake Bonnet Village, 2900 East Lake Bonnet Road, Avon Park, FL 33825  Telephone: 863-385-7010 Site 3013 Bristlecone  1/7-2/8/2016 (30 nights)
72)Walkabout Camp & RV Park, 742 Old Still Rd., Woodbine, GA 32569
Telephone:  (912) 729-4110   1/5-7/2016 (2 nights)
71)Swamp Fox Campground,1600 Gateway Road, Florence, SC 29501 (843) 665-9430 dates: 1/4/2016 (one night)
70)Hidden Acres Family Campground, 17391 Richmond Turnpike, Milford, VA 22515, 804-633-7592
11/13-1/4/2016
69) RVacation Campground, 428 Campground Road, Selma, NC 27576, 919-965-5923 (1 night)
68) Pirateland, site 158, 5401 S. Kings Highway, Myrtle Beach, SC, 29575 Dates: 10/7-11/11/15 (34 nights)

Stayed with family in Highlands County 9/17-10/7/2015

67) Swamp Fox Campground,1600 Gateway Road, Florence, SC 29501 (843) 665-9430 dates: 9/16 (one night)
66)Hidden Acres Family Campground, 17391 Richmond Turnpike, Milford, VA 22515, 804-633-7592      6/24-9/15
65) Waynesboro North 340 Campground, 340 Eastside Highway, Waynesboro, VA 22980 Campground office: (540) 943-9573.   6/22-24/2015.
64) Shadrack Campground, 2537 Volunteer Pkwy, Bristol, TN 37620,(423) 217-1181. 6/20-6/22/2015
63)Marion County Park and Lake, 9696 US 41, Jasper, TN, 423-942-6653.  6/18-20/2015
62)Allegro Campground, 7th St NW, Red Bay, AL 35582 6/11-6/18/2015
61)Red Bay, Alabama Self Serve RV Park, 717 4th Street Northwest, Red Bay, AL 35582 (telephone number 256-668-0526) 5/19-6/11/2015
60) Walnut Creek RV Park, 222 County Road 5516, Troy, AL 334-482-3532  5/18-19/15 (one night)
59) Suwannee River State Park, mailing address: 3631 201 Path, Live Oak, FL 32060 386-362-2746
5/16-18/15 (2 nights)
58) Sonrise Palms Christian RV Park, 660 Tucker Lane, Cocoa, FL 32926  321-633-4335 5/14-16/15  (2 nights)

All we can say is that every morning, we thank God for our blessings. We were able to be with family quite a bit through a serious illness and death. We were able to be with our daughter for the birth of our second grandson.  So here were definitely highs and lows in our year.

Great is his faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:23