2014 has so far proven to be a year of change for our little family. Some good, some bad. We had sold our Ram in Nov13. Loved the Cummins and Engine Brake but hated the rough ride, leaks and low payload capacity. On the way to visit Lori's family for Christmas we stopped in at the Ford dealer in Dauphin. I had been checking dealer websites for over a month and this dealer just got a truck on their lot that fit my criteria for an upgrade. F350, PSD, SRW, Leather, NAV and Bells & Whistles. Gotta love those Bells & Whistles. Its a King Ranch which I didn't necessarily want due to the soft, less durable leather, but slightly used F350s are hard to find. The kicker on the deal was only 60,000KM with Fords ESP giving me another 4 years of full warranty. Other than the box being a bit beat up and a mark or two on the soft KR leather and it being BLACK its in pretty good condition. Even new tires. We were there for an hour and after my usual inept efforts at getting the price down I cut them a check for a deposit and told them we would be back after Christmas to pick it up.
After spending the fall and winter looking at trailers online it was time to see some in person. Unfortunately February in Manitoba means tromping through snow banks to get a quick look in a freezing trailer. The selection at dealers this time of year is also pretty limited so off to the Minneapolis RV show on Feb 7. A side trip to Albertville's Premium Outlet Mall took care of any convincing Lori might have needed. What a great place to look at trailers. Literally hundreds of them. We pretty much narrowed it down to 2 units and after a quick phone call back to a dealer in Winnipeg we made a deal at home. Paid a little more but we hoped a local dealer would provide us with good service and offset the additional cost. The verdict on this decision is still out. We also still needed to sell our Cougar and I needed to upgrade my Drivers license to a Class 3 to pull the bigger trailer so it was a lot easier to just deal locally.
At the same time Lori was having a very frustrating last year at work, made more difficult because she was in countdown mode. Even had it programmed on her IPhone so each day she could tell anyone, whether they asked or not, the number of days, hours and minutes till she was FREE. Lori's mother also had open heart surgery in the spring and while she is recovering nicely there were some difficult days during the surgery and recovery.
We did manage to get out to Stephenfield Provincial Park for a 5 day shakedown trip with the truck/trailer. One thing we noticed right away was the few spots available in Provincial Campgrounds for a 37’ trailer. We spent a wonderful day day with friends, Ken & Laura, which included a frustrating round of golf followed by a great dinner at their trailer. Everything went well with the trailer and we identified a few items for the dealer to fix before our next 3 week trip in Aug.
Then the day before we were to head out to Swan and Clear Lake for our 3 week Aug trip we got the call that Lori's father had died of a massive heart attack. This was a shock as these things always are but even more unexpected because, of all the health problems he had had the past few years, none were heart related. It was Lori's mom who had the triple bypass and valve replacement in the spring and she had just started to get her energy level back to a normal level. Needless to say we spent the next 8 weeks dealing with all the things one must deal with when a loved one passes away. Lori's mother is adjusting well to her new reality which gives Lori some comfort as we plan on being away for 5 months this winter.
Next up is our Snowbird preparations and our departure, finally.
Later
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