Tag Archives: Fishing

Feeling Back to Normal

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It’s been a few weeks for us being back in our actual home and we are loving it!

With the one minor detail, that we’re living around a bump out that’s fully closed in the living room, everything else is working perfectly (knock on wood). We’ve been able to enjoy our evenings and weekends again without feeling like we’re on borrowed time. I especially love having my own washer & dryer, although the loads are smaller and I have to empty the grey water tank every 3rd load.

Since moving back in, we have kept busy – I headed to the Bahamas for work and introduced 4 colleagues to Scuba! They got to try Discover Scuba Diving with our team at Sandals Royal Bahamian and enjoy all the resort amenities.

We ate all the sushis, soaked up all the sun, and even got to see a Shark on their first ever dive (at a Shipwreck)! There’s just something about floating in the sea that warms your soul.

After the Bahamas Trip I came home for a quick weekend to welcome BigSeester and the Niblings (Nephews & Niece) before I had to take back off for Ohio.

That weekend happened to be Pirate Weekend in A-Bay! I had some portions of a costume already in the camper (some of my favorite shirts, by Migdalia – I found her in a booth at the Hendersonville Apple Festival a few years ago!)

Is it giving Pirate? or more Kid Rock?

I tried to swap the dates on the Ohio trip so I’d get more than 3 days with the family but sadly that wasn’t meant to be. Watertown has a teeeeeny tiny airport, the photos below are both the check-in counter, and baggage claim. And most flights take off at 6am, so you’re there around 4:30a to check bags and head through security. The actual gate waiting area is on the other side of this wall, but they do have donation coffee and a vending machine!

The Ohio trip went really well! We had about 3 days to connect with Travel Advisors from Cleveland through Columbia and the BDM did a phenomenal job on our itinerary. While there wasn’t time for a visit to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, we did take a drive around Cedar Point! Both add on’s for the next trip for sure.

We ended up meeting 41 Travel Advisors and opening up their travel opportunities to SCUBA in those 3 days. Here’s hoping for more visibility soon!

Austin had been pulled from his Syracuse job that week as well, so he was back on the road in Texas. By the time I got back to NY, the fam had been having a fun week leading up to a very special 7 year old Birthday Celebration! I was glad to not have missed that day.

Oma and Daddo treated us all to mini-golf, digging for treasure, and bumper boats! I had to jump out mid-day to coordinate a virtual meeting from the car, but it was buckets of fun for everyone!

As the weekend approached, it was time to get everyone “home” and back on the boat, into the water with C&B and Adopted Uncle Dave & Aunt Judy. I managed to pack all the dive masks & snorkels and got all the kids snorkeling around the boat with Austin – they FLOCK to him and he’s so great with them.

The Niblings’s final night was spent on a foam mattress with blankets for everyone, outside stargazing till late in the evening – on BigSeester/mom’s approval. We even downloaded some stargazing apps for each kid to look for constellations. We had so much fun pointing out the big dipper, and all the satellites streaking back and forth across the night sky.

With Keystone still planning to collect our camper at the end of September for fixes, we’re looking forward to spending some time in VA with everyone. It’ll allow us to get to fall practices and games and just be with family a little bit longer.

Austin was able to get the trolling motor all situated on my kayak like he’s been wanting all summer. So now it’s a true fishing kayak and he took the big kids out on a ride before they packed into the car to head home. I took it out myself (without using the motor, because I didn’t realize it wasn’t hooked to the battery) as a core/upper body workout the other windy day and it got my heart working!

It’s been extra windy this last week so I haven’t ventured back out with it again.

That next weekend we decided to head into some of the local dive shops and grab some new, and some rental gear to check out the 1000 Islands dive experience. It’s COLD.

BUT I’m obsessed with my new Halcyon backplate & wing BCD. It’s a discontinued color so we got a hell of a steal deal on it. It was also time for my regs to be serviced and good thing, the shop said they were gross. Somehow I managed to wedge a small piece of metal into a spot where it shouldn’t be and it punctured another spot and had been rusting! The Dive Shop is fixing all that now ahead of my next 2 trips in September.

Did I mention that the water is COLD here. Well, colder than I’m used to so I also bought a 5mm wetsuit, but we got Uncle Chris hooked – sorry, not sorry! Welcome to the cult… I mean Club! Next up is Uncle Dave!

It’s been nice to have our own space back as I noted before. The cat is a happy camper on his spot on the couches, and I’m able to finagle my work schedules a little bit so I can enjoy some early morning fishing some days.

I caught my first Walleye this past Monday!

As we get into our final month of time here at The River, we’ll start unpacking the camper for Keystone. It’s been helpful as I’ve always been an over-packer so we’ll be able to actually get some of the things we didn’t use the last 6 months out and have a better understanding of the basic necessities for our future trips. We’re also planning to be back here next summer so we’ve been graciously offered to keep the summer necessities stored here at Grandma’s our C&B’s houses.

I like my stuff. D&J have figured that out with us as we’ve used their address here for our Amazon deliveries… sorry, and THANK YOU!

This first week of September brings another 2-week out of the month travel month for me. It’s Labor Day weekend here at The River and should be an exciting bit of fun. Then I’m off to host some divers in Antigua, do some dive training webinars for Travel Advisors, and help host our Inaugural Dive Week in Curacao!

I’m so excited for Dive Week – we have an awesome itinerary scheduled and some of my favorite people partnered with us.

We’re still trying to fit visits in with the rest of the family in the area – our plans were just so thrown off by this camper debacle that we feel terrible it hasn’t all happened yet and now we’re running into a time crunch.

The plan is to head back towards NC/TN area for the winter (once Keystone tells us we can have our house back) but we’ll see what happens! The house closing is still on for September 16th – we’re just waiting for the closing lawyers to get paperwork together and sent out to us. They originally tried to get us to sign blank documents which I absolutely was NOT doing, and it seems to be a challenge getting them to understand why… You’re a law firm! You should know better! We’ll be doing a mail-away closing so we’ll also need to connect with a Notary up here.

Camper has left the chat

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Keystone Corporate is coming to Cicero, NY to pick up our unit and tow it to their headquarters for fixes.

Does that make me incredibly nervous? YES – MORE SH*T COULD BREAK. But we’re being told anything they break in this tow, they fix – no questions asked. We still haven’t been given any type of figures on cost to us out of pocket for the past 3 weeks, with warranty and insurance, we’re hoping it’s minimal if any. Cicero keeps saying they’ll be fighting for us to not be out of pocket at all.

In the last week we have been back and forth talking to Cicero, and Statesville (finally got a hold of the GM). Cicero says they left a couple messages for Statesville, Statesville says they never got any messages so New York Missy had to be polite but firm that this needs to be dealt with.

After finally getting a hold of Alan Good, Statesville’s GM on July 10th, I was not taking “he’ll call you tomorrow” for an answer. We’re going on Week 3 without our unit, or any information on fixes happening anytime soon. I’m losing my patience. After confirming to Satesville’s team that yes, I know I called North Carolina, that’s where we bought the unit. Yes the camper is in New York…. Alan, upon hearing of our struggles, jumped into action by calling Cicero – sadly, Kim (who we’ve been working with here in NY) had already left for the day. Service guys leave at 6pm, but the front desk workers in service leave at 5 – explain to me how that makes any sense…

Anywho’s…. Alan calls me back at both 5:22p and 5:50p to note that he’s 100% on the issue and calling back to get the full details as soon as Cicero opens the next morning as he’s now playing catch up. He did speak to hubby when all this originally happened but apparently didn’t take any notes about it/couldn’t remember all the details. By 9:25a the next morning (July 11) Allen calls me back saying he’s tried Kim twice with no luck and his Director of Service was also going to connect with Cicero’s DOS for updates. At 10:09a we get a call that Statesville now has all the updates they need about our unit (he’s also pulled our service records from November since he wasn’t the GM there yet – I bet that was fun for him to read about, his new team dropping the ball and all). He’s calling his Keystone contact directly to expedite this process for us now that he understands this is our summer accommodation in a campground… He reiterated that he’s in the office all weekend and is “on it” for us. It’s nice to have some backup. He’s also told Kim that anything warranty or Keystone rejects – to please send him the quote so he can “see what he can do”. As much as I appreciate that, I don’t know if that will happen or what could happen. So it sounds like another weekend of waiting it out for Keystone to respond.

Hubby and I decided to visit our poor, broken down camper that Friday evening after work – take photos of the broken welds, broken wood supports, etc. for our own records and pick up the last few things we absolutely need for an extended outplacement.

No big deal – we’re getting used to quiet weekends with no yardwork. We have not completely become lumps on a log though we helped build a tiki bar/shed at the river this weekend! I also finished another book, that’s 9 for 2025 – how many do I need for a pizza party again?!

We’re also thoroughly enjoying having our Kayak back and an easy launch point in and out to do some evening fishing and a decent workout. We honestly haven’t been in the kayak but twice since we bought it in 2020 during Covid. The Gander Mountain near us in NC was going out of business and we got a helluva deal on it.

It’s so smooth. Plus we’ve been spoiled with friends & family boat access. Bring on the Perch, Bass, Walleye, and Pike!

No news on Monday as I’m sure Keystone had to go over the full report of issues and she’s not just broke. She BROKE broke. I’m no welder (hubby is, surprise surprise), but FOR THE LOVE OF METAL…. WHO WELDED THIS?! Because… they should be fired.

Also, these should not be pinched….

Thankfully hubby is in the area for work this week – so he’s only an hour or so away from CW and was able to chat with the team Tuesday. We got the update that Keystone was coming to GET our Unit and take it back with them. Nothing has been fixed, but the cap has been put back on the front for transport. So it’s in Keystone’s hands now… whatever they break – they fix in that tow. Misty from Keystone HQ connected with hubs on the next step – she has to figure out WHEN they can get the camper in. It could be this week, and in reality – it could be MONTHS from now.

More Waiting. Great, my favorite thing. Hubby is being annoyingly level headed about it. I’m wonky brained because “HELLO – I’VE BEEN WITHOUT MY CAMPER THAT MY WHOLE SUMMER LIFE IS PACKED IN FOR ALMOST A MONTH NOW. I WOULD LIKE IT BACK SO WE CAN ENJOY IT.” And this jerk’s logical brain comes back with “well, we’re not the only ones with a camper in for problems….”

Me:

So we’ll just be here waiting for more updates. Will they get our camper in quickly? Will they offer us a temporary replacement while we wait? Will it be fixed for sure? Will it be returned to us sometime before the end of the summer when we head back to NC?!

ho hum…