We made it through our first year of being full time RV'ers! (And we're still married!) It's been a interesting and fun year. I think we've learned a lot, and learned more about getting along with each other in a small place. Here's to more adventures!
Since we decided we like spending the winter in a warm climate, we have changed our domicile to FL. (Note to others: don't change your address twice in 6 months.) We made this decision right before we were to leave FL. This extended our stay in FL as we waited for titles to be transferred on our RV and car. (We couldn't do our driver's licenses until the RV title transfer was done.)
After that, we headed to AL and the Tiffin Service Center again. We've spent a total of 15 weeks there out of the 18 months we've owned our Tiffin. Because of all of the problems we've had with this current Phaeton, and after a lot of discussions with Tiffin, we are moving into a 2018 Tiffin Phaeton IH, similar to our current Phaeton but with some nice features we don't have now. That necessitated picking out colors and options. We hope to take delivery of the new Phaeton by the end of the summer.
While in Alabama, we headed back to Florence hoping to take in the Muscle Schoals Sound Studio (MSSS). We had previously toured the FAME studio and MSSS was under renovation when we did that. This time the studio was open for tours.
Sound Boards at MSSS
Record Covers
Outside of the Studio
Notice the sound absorbers on the wall-they are actually Styrofoam packaging materials
The history is rich here, as it is with the FAME studios. Many famous artists, including Cher and Mick Jagger, have recorded there. The renovations preserve the studio as authentically as possible when the Swampers had it set up int he early 70's. The Swampers are the musicians (who are also known as the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section) who played on classic cuts by artists such as Aretha Frankilin, Paul Simon, Cher, and many others.
I left Andy in AL to head to MN so I could attend some "grandma" days at school for Olin and for Hope & Chloe. While in MN, our Equinox started acting up again. Long story short, the second transmission in that car had failed, in less than 6 months! So after a long time waiting to see if GM would buy back our Equinox, we decided to look for something else. We truly believe that the Equinox should not be on the list of towable cars for RV'ers. We're now the owners of a Ford C-Max Energi, an electric hybrid car.
So that's a new state and address, a new motorhome order, and a new car! And all the accompanying paperwork and other things associated with all of that. With all that's been going on, we haven't been traveling as much, and we've been places we've been before, so there hasn't been as much to write about. We did go to Grand Marais, MN for the 4th of July with family and are now on the east coast seeing family in MD.
After this we will head to AL and wait for the new coach, then to FL.
