Part IV - Accepting Delivery - October 29, 2000 

On Wednesday afternoon our sales consultant Brian takes us to Delivery where we meet Jesse Brackenbiller, our Delivery Consultant.  Jesse will ramrod the process of preparing our trailer for delivery to us and getting us happily on the road.  Because we need to have the washer/dryer transferred from the Westport to the Carriage, the Lazy Days staff came on Wednesday and drag our trailer to the bay area.  We spend much of the day in the Customer Lounge.  This is not a good place to be since many people here have been stuck at Lazy Days for quite a while as they wait for parts to be delivered, problems to be accomplished, work to be completed.  Many people are parked in the repair bay and living in their units while work is being accomplished.  The bays offer full hookups in order to make this possible.  But the stories of problems surface all over the Customer Lounge.  We're having a good experience, so we discount these stories not because they're not true, but because problems do crop up everywhere and people become frustrated, anxious and angry.

Our Westport is sent over to the delivery area where we move back into it for the night.  We have electricity but no other hookups.  Because we've disconnected our Radio Shack switcher, we have no satellite or other TV and miss West Wing.  We both would rather vote for Jed Bartlett for President than for either of the two Bozos running, but we'll cancel out each other's votes again this year.

On Thursday morning we walk past our new Carriage LS where the detail crew sprays it with high-pressure hoses. We hang out in the Westport until our new trailer is delivered.  It is parked door-to-door with the Westport to facilitate moving.  Soon Deb, our walk-thru technician shows up and we do a walk around, discovering areas, which will need further attention as we go. Soon after Deb leaves, we begin moving into the Carriage.  Irene makes the bed and we spend our first night in it.  On Friday morning we check in with Jesse after breakfast and return to the trailer to continue moving.  An hour so later a tractor pulls up to our door.  Irene piles stuff up as Ilian hooks up, we close the slides and our trailer is gone back to the bays for repairs on the items we found with Deb.  We return to the Westport where Irene packs for a while, but soon all the containers are full and there's nothing left to do.  We sit and read for much of the rest of the day. Around 4:00 we see our trailer come around the corner and Ilian drops it next door.  We spend another hour or so moving stuff.  Much of the work still needed will have to wait until Monday.

The electronics tech has wired our switcher, but only the satellite works. This fancy Radio Shack switching system has allowed us to use cable,
satellite, or antenna, to tape from any input, to play our TV through the stereo for improved sound, and to watch cable in the bedroom while recording from the satellite in the living room.  Jesse proudly tells us we won't be charged for the connection, but when we try to use the functions, nothing works.  At $75.00 per hour for repair work, we won't have any more done on this if it has to be done at our expense.  We'll find an electronics installer somewhere else and get it done right.  If we can negotiate a free installation, maybe it'll get done here.  One advantage we hold is that our evaluation of the effectiveness of the work done here effects pay.  Jesse is obviously concerned about his ratings on the mailed scorecard we'll be sent after the process is complete.  Maybe that can work to our benefit.  Anyway, the satellite works, and we can watch TV.  This all sure sounds obsessive, and I guess it is, but we do watch a lot of TV, and we go to bed early.  We like evening programs and tape them to watch early the next morning.  We want the system working.

We spend all day Saturday moving our stuff.  Now we understand why we were 1500 pounds over the capacity of the Westport.  We carry box after box of stuff from the Westport to the Carriage.  Clothes, dishes, utensils, books, more books, still more books, printer, copier, tax records, check stubs, food, Slim Fast, cleaning products, stepstool, utility table, and more and more and more.  Underneath I stow the rock grinder, saw, tumbler, tools, outdoor furniture, filters, hoses, satellite dish, and more and more.  I come inside to nap.  When I wake Irene is gone.  She's next door pulling together the final loads to move and vacuuming the old trailer.  The Westport is finally empty and now we rush.  Irene wants to move back to the Rally Park.  She's tired and irritable.  Whatever is left unstowed (lots) gets piled on bed and sofa; we close the slides, and hitch to the truck for the first time.  Smooth.  We drive up to the Rally Park, where they are refunding the three days we spent in delivery, back into our slot and hook up.  We're home even though we have no idea where all the stuff will go, any more than we know where it all came from.  After dinner we watch a movie, Irene putters, and we head for bed early.  Sunday will be a day of adjusting, finding space, learning to live in our new space.  It looks like it will all work out just fine.