Good things always seem to happen around Shark Week! We’ve had a very promising week and a half!

First Up – we decided to order Starlink for our new internet provider while we’re mobile. It seemed to be the best option that we saw, and we heard first-hand after the devastating hurricane that hit the North Carolina Mountains last year – the people with Starlink were the ones getting information in and out of the area. That was good enough reason for us! It arrived July 16th and it’s made SUCH a difference in my work week to not be kicked off the WIFI every 3 seconds.

Where did we leave off on this camper debacle, ah yes, that Keystone was scheduling a date to come pick up our unit for the major structural repairs. We were told that while the “manufacturer’s warranty expired in 2023 and we know you’re the second owner of the unit, but none of this qualifies for manufacturer warranty repair… BUT out of GOOD WILL, we will come get the unit and complete the fixes.” YOU CERTAINLY WILL WITH THE PHOTOS WE HAVE OF WELDS MISSING AND SHODDY WORK. This is a structural issue, and clearly the quality control inspector was off the day our unit came off the line – so they’ll come get the camper from our summer campsite at the end of September. They’ll tow it from here to their corporate headquarters in Indiana, and then we’ll wait some more to hear when we’ll get it back, and where we want it delivered. We do have to clear everything we “would be upset losing” out of the camper for them… so it looks like we’ll be visiting Lowe’s for a few more storage bins.

The next order of business was to get Camping World Cicero to FINALLY submit our requests to warranty for the leaf spring diagnosis (which they told us about first on June 21st) and surprise surprise…. we also have to replace a tire because it’s ” seriously damaged, bald” from the leaf spring issue. Cool, thanks for tossing that one on top of the pile. Can we just get this sh*t ordered/submitted already?! You’ve been holding our camper hostage for a month with no fixes or movement…

Hubby has thankfully been working about 2 hours away from our summer setup for the last 2 weeks so he’s been able to come home every night and enjoy longer weekends. He’s a bit of a motor head, so we took one Friday afternoon to enjoy the Syracuse Nationals Car Show at the fairgrounds. All while monitoring email waiting for the warranty approvals to come through and liason-ing between CW and Keystone.

Keystone says we can’t move our camper until that leaf spring is fixed, CW doesn’t know what warranty will cover… it’s been a Catch 22. BUT we do know (and got approval from Keystone) that once the leaf spring IS fixed, we could take our camper with us and use it until they come get it. We just can’t use the front room/living room bump outs because the track is broken on one side. CW also told us that for some odd reason, now the driver side living room bump out is also not operating correctly. So I’ve got 3 couches that we’ll just be sitting REALLY close together on. Whatever – I get my camper back!

CW tells us that the leaf spring is covered by warranty, but the tire is not. At this point, I DON’T CARE ABOUT A DAMN TIRE – JUST ORDER IT AND I’LL PAY FOR IT. Although, we did also purchase the tire and wheel coverage as part of the insurance/warranty package… weird. We go back and forth more on “do you want to buy the tire and bring it to us? the install will be $102.60”…. for a 10 minute tire change, that we could do ourselves because the dang camper has hydraulic feet/lifts attached to it. Also… do they not have tires available for purchase in service?! It seems like a regular need to just keep in inventory, but what do I know.

On July 21st, With the leaf springs being approved and ordered from Keystone, there was one sentence of CW’s email that really set me off “It is estimated to take a few weeks to get there”. A FEW WEEKS?! Not okay. At that tidbit of information, I suggested we call our friend Alan at the Statesville CW location and ask if he could help us expedite that shipping through his Keystone contact. Turns out, he hadn’t heard back AT ALL from Cicero about what was or was not going to be covered and he called CW directly. It was a good call because Statesville decided to cover the tire for us! Bonus!

We’re also told that “a few weeks” is ridiculous, and there is expedited shipping that can be requested. So another call to Keystone tells us that the leaf springs are “already on the truck, not sure why they would tell you a few weeks. And here’s the tracking number.” FABULOUS.

Hubby is checking the tracking number and as soon as he sees that DELIVERED notice on July 24th, he’s emailing CW to check on install times. We get the typical runaround “I haven’t been told they’ve been delivered, if they went to retail instead of service… blah blah blah” so we nip that in the bud and Hubby Says “It says it was received by Matt if that helps”. BOOM go find it. “I’ll ask him when he returns from lunch”…. that was at 1:12pm… we ask AGAIN for an update at 4:30pm – quite the lunch – and are told (no surprise) “they’re here – I have to find out when we can bring the unit into the shop”, and then she’s gone by 5pm. So we waited till Friday Morning to find out they can bring the camper in on Monday the 28th. Ideally they’ll fix it quickly Monday and I can bring the F-350 down to pick it up that evening, or hubby will drive the truck to work Tuesday to swing by on his way home (I’ll be traveling for work the rest of the week).

We spent the weekend out on the boats taking in the 1000 Islands Poker Run which was a blast to see then a tour & history lesson around Singer Castle on Dark Island with Captain Dave. We headed over to a local bar after, Hurricane Joe’s, for a beer or two and make our way back to the Bay for a relaxing evening.

Mom & Dad also came up for the week and we visited Clayton, had a fabulous meal at Bella’s where we found a citrus Corona, wandered a little farmers market, and played a lot of Farkle. Aunt & Uncle have their little tiki bar space setup right in front of the boat dock so we’ve been getting a lot of jealous stares all week. They also added a sun shade on a few posts to keep us cool and comfortable while we enjoy that outdoor space. We cooked up some fresh caught Walleye and Perch Sunday night and I’ve been testing out a few white wine sauces.

In other news – while we had received 2 (terrible) investor offers on the house in the last month or so, $100k under asking price, we finally received a real person offer that we chose to accept! We still had the Ring doorbell attached to our internet service so we could confirm showings arrived – and a new family with a 16 month old put in an offer! Albeit was a lot lower than we were hoping for, it’s time for us to move on. I’m happy to get a new family into this home to make it their own. The due diligence period starts Monday, 7/28 for 15 days. Then we’ve scheduled closing for Sept 16th (to work with their requested schedule). Hopefully everything sticks and they don’t walk away from it – because we’ve taken so much off for the offer, we’re not contracted to do any concessions, fixes, or closing costs.

I’ve also been celebrating the 10th birthday of one of my favorite companies – Stream2Sea! They are fantastic people who I absolutely adore, and they’re doing a 20% off with free shipping! I am OBSESSED with their shimmer sunscreen, leave in conditioner, and their mask defog – those are staples in my dive/water bag. They sent over a collab box with a bunch of their amazing product that I’ve been incessantly shoving into friends/families faces all summer. sorry not sorry!

I also made a Canva template for my travel advisors to use Stream2Sea’s information on their own business card! I think they came out pretty cute! The company is also really great about partnerships and co-branding. I can’t wait to bring them on resort for Dive Week!

The rest of the week will include one more wait for a camper pick-up time/date, a trip to Florida for work, and sweating out the Due Diligence period of the house. Anybody need a 2023 Samsung Washer & Dryer? The new buyers don’t want them so we’re either putting them up for sale or taking them to the TN property for future use.

Recent Wins:

• It was SHARK WEEK!
• Starlink Internet was delivered and is working fabulously
• Camper is livable through the end of September
• Keystone is fixing everything else
• I’m down 37 lbs since April (Thanks Tirzepitide!)
• WE ACCEPTED AN OFFER ON OUR HOUSE!

This is how I expect to look sleeping once I get my own bed back this weekend.

*fingers crossed!*