If you have been following the storyline, the plan was to fix up the Land Yacht so we had a place to live for a few months while we organized the 2nd Annual Step Up to the Tee for Veterans golfing fundraiser in Beaufort SC. (BTW we still need players, donors and sponsors to make this work! Please check out http://paws4vets.org/golf)
The next step in the plan was to sell Yume and find a truck and 5th wheel RV to travel westward after the fundraiser.
Well…
We found a truck on Craigslist in Sarasota and picked it up this week. While down there we put a deposit on a 5th wheel as well. It is a 32ft 2007 Newmar Cypress. (See image above.) So now we have a vehicle for the first time since we left the horse farm three and half years ago.
Next Friday we meet the new owner of Yume in Brunswick, hopefully collect a check to pay for these recent purchases, and take one last trip north on the waterway to help them get Yume to her new home in northern Maryland.
Which means the 1990 Airstream motor home we just rebuilt is available and needs to find a new home. If you know anyone who might be looking for a very reasonably priced, older, high end motor home please send them to http://miamiphillips.com/1990-airstream-land-yacht-motor-home
Here is how the Land Yacht turned out!
In the meantime, we live in Tuc in De Woods campground in St Helena Island SC and enjoying it!
We are so abundantly blessed it is hard to believe. We are very, very grateful. And thank you for your support!
The plan was to leave this last Sunday – but found a slow leak in a tire and took the RV in to get that fixed. The owner at the Goodyear place talked me in to spending $1000 for 6 new tires as the current ones are 11 years old and probably not the safest on the road. I agonized over that decision – but as in all things we are definitely watched over. As they pulled the double wheels off the drive shaft, it was readily apparent the brakes were ready for catastrophic failure. We would have found out by breaking down somewhere far, far away from help.
Parts were ordered and delivered Tuesday. We spent the extra two days getting some more projects done inside and out, and moved out of Ian’s house and into our new home on Monday night.
It took two men 5 hours to fix the brakes on Tuesday and we got on the road about 4. We drove to Camping World Valdosta (our new favorite store) to pick up some new exterior marker lights for the roof and realized the alternator had died – again. NAPA had to order that for the next day. We camped right there and was at NAPA at noon to swap out the alternator (and replaced a fuel filter while at it).
Back on the road at 2 and arrive Jacksonville Fl (where we bought the Airstream Feb 1!) to visit friends Cathy and Dave and show off our work. Everyone was suitably impressed.
Tomorrow we are off early to Brunswick to check on Yume and give her a bath – then on up the road towards Beaufort and the golf tournament.
We are super glad to be moving and not tearing stuff up or getting out every tool we own!
Suffice to say we have been busy as we are kind of under a deadline.
With a commitment to be in Beaufort SC to get the 2nd Annual paws4vets Golfing Fundraiser organized – we have to be out of our son’s driveway here in Valdosta Ga in about 10-12 days.
I’ll post a series of videos to show our progress. We are doing our best to leave a little time to be able to visit on the way!
Two weeks ago we rented a car to visit the boys at Ryan’s place in St Pete. Ian was driving in from Valdosta for the weekend. We were both looking forward to visiting the boys.
We decided to stop by and visit our sailing friends Dave and Cathy for lunch in Jacksonville, then Joe and Sue in Ft Pierce for dinner, stay the night and drive over to St Pete on Sat. Easy.
Dave was showing us around the church where they park their RV and do mission work (all kinds of stuff needing doing with a group called Nomads) and casually pointed out a motor home, laughed and said “you could probably get that cheap” or something to that effect. We looked inside and Shelly said “don’t touch anything”.
The RV had been sitting there for 5 years under the trees, the interior was pretty bad – moldy, dirty, smelly etc. Half the 8 tires were flat, and the body was a lovely shade of green and black to match the trees it sat under. No thanks.
Lunch was nice, and we got on down the road toward Ft Pierce, but I was still thinking about that RV. I did some research and found that a 33′ Airstream motor home was called a Land Yacht by the manufacturer and was known as top of the line for its time in 1990. I also found one for sale in Texas for $5700. Land Yacht? Hmmm.
I sent Dave a text and told him that and that it probably wasn’t worth $2- 3,000 and forgot about it.
We had a great night with Joe and Sue reminiscing about Bahamas sailing days over Guiness and fish n chips in an Irish pub.
On the way across the Okeefenoke we stopped at an RV place to check out 5th wheel rvs, and actually found one we liked. Right about then we get a text from Dave that the Pastor at the church would sell the Land Yacht for $3000. Oops.
That sure started a conversation while driving the rest of the way!
Aside from the $106 towing fee from parking in the Publix lot my so smart son directed us to, we had a great time attending a beer and bacon festival, walking through the (opinion withheld here) women’s march route, and then a super nice Italian meal out on the street downtown late at night.
In the morning we got on the road early (the day of the tornados in Ga) as we wanted to go back and check out the Airstream, and have time to get back to the boat in Brunswick before the storm hit.
In Jacksonville, a closer look at the MH ( motor home ) showed the original quality that might be able to be restored, but two hours of work would not start the motor to see if it ran. We made plans to come back the next day and try again.
To, cut the story short, we own a Land Yacht and have a contract on Yume. We have everything pretty much packed on the boat, and have spent 4 hard days commuting from Brunswick to Jacksonville getting the Land Yacht ready to drive.
The plan is to go to Ian’s house in Valdosta for some serious repair work, then take it to Beaufort SC in March to get ready for the golf fundraiser in May. Then who knows?
I have agreed to help the new owners of Yume (if all goes well with the survey!) sail her back towards Maryland sometime in the next four months so they can learn from my vast experience how to properly behave when running aground and in storms. 😉
Life sure is a funny thing isn’t it? We are sad to be leaving our sailing home but excited to see why lies ahead on the road.
Maybe we will see you there? How long is your driveway and does your homeowners association let you park nice motor homes overnight there? 😉
We found a truck on Craigslist in Sarasota and picked it up this week. While down there we put a deposit on a 5th wheel as well. It is a 32ft 2007 Newmar Cypress. (See image above.) So now we have a vehicle for the first time since we left the horse farm three and half years ago.
