Big trip

These past few weeks have been a zoo. Hopefully things will calm down in our lives soon. Sunday after posting my my last update to the blog I woke up and no hot water, AGAIN! I went outside and found the water heater dripping from the pressure valve AGAIN! The water had dripped onto the gas valve and corroded the electrical terminals and now it would not work. I tried changing the wire connections but could not get it to work.
We decided to just make an appointment with an RV dealer for service. I called Modern Trailer in Anderson and got things set up to drop the 5er there on Thursday before they closed. We were planning on spending the night at Rudee's parents anyway since our flight to Florida left really early Friday.
Thursday Rudee and I both took a 1/2 day off work and were hooked on and headed out shortly after noon. Rudee followed me in the Dakota and we were able to talk back and forth on the CB radio. This is the way we envisioned traveling once we retire and it worked pretty good.
The drive to the dealership took a little over an hour. We met with the service advisor and went over our list. We had them do a little more than just the water heater. We had a slideout seal needing replaced as well as had them repair a window blind and replace the brakes with self adjusting models that I had purchased last year but had never installed myself.
We left the Montana in their capable hands and headed to Plainfield. Our flight leaves at 7:00 am and Rudee's parents live about 10 minutes from the airport which is really handy :-).

Friday morning we were out the door really, really, really early :-(. Our brother in law David dropped us off at the curbside check in on his way to work. We even had time to grab a quick breakfast in the food court before getting on our flight.
The flight was uneventful and after a couple of stops, hey I'm "frugal" and to get cheap tickets we had to make some stops :-), we landed at Tampa 20 minutes early.
We picked up our rental car and headed out to meet Steve and Trish and pick up my parent's urn. They sure saved our day by hauling it down here with them. They were leaving Saturday morning to head back to Indiana so we didn't get to spend a lot of time with them but it sure sounds like they have had a nice week in the sunshine.
Speaking of sunshine, wow, the weather forecast was great. They were predicting 80's all week :-).
My parents lived in Zephyrhills and that is where they had their plot so we stayed at a Quality Inn there so we could get all our business taken care of.
Saturday my sister flew in from Washington and we spent the afternoon and evening catching up with her.
Sunday we drove to Honeymoon Island State Park and walked around the beach a little while. We even saw a Dolphin playing off shore :-).
Monday was the day of the burial. My brother and his family met us at the cemetery where we laid our parents ashes to rest. We did not have a "formal" ceremony, just family members telling stories. I think they would have liked it that way.
We left the grave site and all went to their favorite restaurant Barb's in Zephyrhills. My Mom and Dad ate here a lot and had a whole group of friends that would meet here with them. We all sat at "their" table and got to listen to all the staff telling us their best memories of our parents. It was nice :-).
After lunch we all said our goodbyes and headed separate ways. Paula was flying back to Washington and then heading on vacation to Hawaii. Jon and his family had a condo on the beach rented. Rudee and I headed for Orlando where we spending the night. We had 3 day tickets for Disney World and wanted to be close so we could get an early start Tuesday morning. I'll keep you posted. (Soon, I promise!)