As I write this, it’s 26F here in North Georgia and the weather weenies forecast a low of 18F tonight.

We definitely missed our chance. The past two years it didn’t get this cold until mid-December, so of course we figured that if we left about December 1 we’d miss it. Yep, so much for planning.

But that’s not all. For some reason this cold weather has made our dually extensions leak, so every morning we’re sitting here with two flat tires. I just ordered some solid long valve stems but they won’t be here for a few days and then we’ll have to get the local tire shop install them. And then Mom has to go to the Doc for her routine checkup;  it seems like she’s held hostage and can’t leave until that’s complete. So that pushes us back all the way to next weekend.

We’re not finished yet. I’m the pool boy here at the campground, but since we’re not in business it’s been a casual thing although of course safe. We’re trying to get back in business and were taken by surprise today when an inspector showed up to inspect and issue our permits! I think everyone thought this would happen in the spring, not right now.

So there’s just me and Theresa the housekeeping gal, and we’re going to try to take this whole thing through the permitting inspection all by our lonesomes because the owner and manager are away, far away. Theresa did good; all her responsibilities passed just fine. Me…well, not so good. Things have changed and since we didn’t have a gizmo the hot tub didn’t pass. I did have Bob install a doohickey upon the suggestion of the inspector but there wasn’t time to install the gizmo. The gizmo had been there but for some reason someone had cut it out of the plumbing and put it in a storage closet where I found it about a year after I took over this fiasco.

The inspector’s a good guy and isn’t busting our nuts; we just couldn’t get the gizmo in. But it’ll be in tomorrow!

All this leads to the fact that I just can’t leave in midstream and will have to try to stay long enough to get the permitting complete…which puts us out even longer to escape southward. Grrr.

We haven’t gone anywhere in our RV since March of  2011 except for a short trip to Don Carter State Park as a test run! This is going to be our first serious travel in The Queens Barge!

So, sometime late November, depending on the weather,  we will be taking a 3 or 4 month trip covering Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana! So, visit our blog often to read about our new adventures in The Queens Barge!

The Queen’s Barge… Royal tags!

We’re on the road today getting things taken care of  on our coach for our trip south for the winter! Todays task, get the transmission fluid and filter changed! Wow, 5 gallons of transmission fluid? No wonder John decided it was better to pay someone else to do the job!

We just found out the filter dates back to 1992 and this is a 1993 HR… Since we only have 43k miles on the coach, and you change out the fluid at 50k, it’s about time! I still can’t believe John managed to turn this big 36 footer around like he did in this tiny little parking lot!