Choo Choo and On da Beach

First thing Monday morning I had to dump the black tank.....we only made it one week since the last dump.....hmmm......I guess we spent a lot of time at "home" last week, obviously, so it was time to dump.  Had to dress up in my warm clothes as it was only 40 degrees at 10am.  By the time I got back in breakfast was ready.

I have been holding off making our reservations for Cedar Key, FL until I was able to make an appointment at Choo Choo Express Garage (Rossville, GA....just over the border from Chattanooga, TN) to have our coach serviced (oil change, tranny service, check brakes, lube, etc), but had not been able to get an answer at their phone number.  Choo Choo has been recommended to us by several people who have coaches with Detroit Diesel 2 strokes, which is what we have.  Their shop rates are also very reasonable.  I was finally able to make contact with Joel yesterday around Noon, and we now have an appointment for December 27th to have this work done....yay!!!  

Some of the coaches being worked on at Choo Choo Express Garage

Here you will see Chris and Cherie's 1961 GMC bus ( on the right)

Right now our plan is to stay here at Heartland RV Park until December 26th and then run the 200+ miles down to Chattanooga, TN that day, and then check in at Choo Choo Express Garage the next morning.  Even if the work takes a couple of days we will still have 2 days to get to Cedar Key, FL.   In the top picture above (taken by Sean Welsh of "Our Odyssey") you will see the large 40' Neoplan bus conversion owned by Sean Welsh and Louise Horner, our "cyber friends" who recommend Choo Choo very highly.  In the second picture, also taken at Choo Choo, is Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard's (Tales from Technomadia)1961 GMC Bus conversion.  On the left you will see the 1963 Flxible Starliner Bus owned by Ben Willmore of The Creative Cruiser.  I have a lot of respect for these guys, and they all use Choo Choo Express Garage.

Our spot (D) very near the water

From there it is around 500 miles to Cedar Key, FL where I was able to book a month yesterday at Sunset Isle RV Resort beginning December 30th.  A number of friends we made when we were there last year for a short 3 days will also be checking in the same day.  Ever since we left Cedar Key the end of March we have been looking forward to returning after our Amazon gig.  We really wanted to be there for New Years at the Low Key Hideaway Tiki Bar, and now we are confirmed!  Today our high temperature will be 46 degrees, and the high in Cedar Key will be 72......looking forward to spending a month working on my tan, and recuperating from our 11 week gig at Amazon, and just having fun with good friends.  After that was done I took care some insurance stuff, and then took a nap, of course!

Okay, so Monday is called "CYBER MONDAY" at Amazon, and every where else in the retail world.  It started raining around 4pm, and was supposed to rain until 5am, so we drove the car over to Amazon, where we found the parking lot almost full at 4:50pm.....of course the day shift had not left for home yet.  Amazon really staffs up for this day, and on Monday night when we arrived there were twice as many people as normal.  As it turned out there had been a system wide computer problem most of the day shift, and things were really backed up, and there were still some issues when we arrived.  We started "picking" around 30 minutes late, and by 6:40pm we all got messages on our scanners to report back to the "Pick Desk" where we were told to stop picking for 15 minutes.  We were then sent back out on the floor to pick, and I had barely scanned a new "TOTE" when I got the universal message again to report to the "Pick Desk".....Monday is not our (D shift) normal work day, and was considered a "mandatory overtime" day for us (D shift).  At the second recall D shift was sent home....there were just too many people picking and everything was still backed up in the Crisplant (packing area) area.  so we clocked out at 7pm, and went home for the evening.  Our mandatory overtime day has now been moved to Wednesday (a day we were supposed to have off), so we will now work 5 days in a row (Tuesday through Saturday), and still get our overtime day, plus the 1.5 hours TLE and I each worked.

At any rate we spent a nice evening at home listening to rain on the aluminum roof, and enjoying our unexpected time off.  

Thanks for stopping by!