We finally did it! We cut the umbilical cord tying us to the mother ship and headed to Lake Milford for a couple of nights. We’ve been so intensely connected to the New Horizons factory, and especially to our point person, Jeffrey, that it felt rather strange to be driving away by ourselves, towing our new home.
Today started much like every other day recently. We got up early, startled out of bed by the 7:00 a.m. whistle. We had forgotten to set our alarms for 6:30 a.m., and Jeffrey would show up at 7:30 a.m., ready to start another day. We were scheduled to go in for touch up painting of the hinges of our new compartment door, which had somehow been damaged.
After our walk, we went to the customer lounge, where we chatted with Jim and Karen, fellow Escapees and former Excel 30RSO owners. They gave us some tips on hazards to watch out for at Lake Milford. We talked about lessons learned—often the hard way. We asked them about the kinds of problems they had run into in their first year as Majestic owners.
They listed things like an electrical short in one of their awnings and some minor leaks that were fairly easy to find and repair. Nothing they mentioned seemed too serious, with one exception: one of the trailer brake pads fell off. This caused some major problems with that brake, but they were fixed. It was only later that they realized that the tire involved had also suffered some damage. Of course New Horizons took care of all these problems.
Jeffrey took us for a test drive, and he adjusted the gain on the trailer brakes. He also helped me figure out a way to load a full 40-lb. propane tank on the propane rack. The best part is that we can lower the front of the fifth wheel using the Bigfoot, which means I don't have to lift the tank very far. Another thing that helps is that the rack doesn't require you to put the base of the tank in a retaining ring, because the tanks are locked in by a mechanism at the top.
Jeffrey did some other minor touch ups. He replaced the locking latch that had been put on the propane door in error with a proper (nonlocking) twist latch. He countersunk some staples and covered them with custom matched putty, making the fix essentially invisible.
We picked up some groceries at Dillons to hold us for the weekend.
Jack returns from Fort Worth with Gary and Judy's lovely now-former home. It seems rather eerie to step into a place we had spent so much time with our friends and to see only traces of their presence--like the wall decals in the hallway I had admired so much. It was as if the heart and soul of the place had departed. Soon, I'm sure, someone else will make it home.
We finally headed out to Lake Milford and set up in a long pull-thru site. Setup was a dream, with the automatic Bigfoot levelers, the water hose reel, and the power cord reel.
Our last trip here in June of 2008 was memorable, and mostly not in a good way. We had to move because of rising flood water, and we quaked in our beds because we had seen tornado warnings on TV--just before the electricity went out and the TV died. After the storms passed, we had a pleasant visit the rest of the week, including a tour of the New Horizons factory. We picked lots of delicious ripe mulberries. This time the mulberries are all green, and we're living in our New Horizons Majestic. What a change!
When I opened an overhead compartment, some games fell out, including a backgammon set. We hunted all over for the missing pieces. That's how we discovered that the storage area under our sofa has no bottom! We had put bedding and the inflatable mattress in it without even noticing.
We get to sleep in!
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