That's not to say we didn't have a few tasks to complete during our month long stay here in Jacksonville. We had several social engagements to handle this month, the first being meeting up with our friends Chris and Melinda from Indiana, who we first met during our visit to Alaska in 2022. They are staying down in St. Augustine, so we drove halfway there to share a lunch with them and get caught up with each others future travel plans.
They own a very desirable 2016 Airstream Pendelton Edition trailer. Airstream only made 100 of these Limited Edition trailers to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the National Parks Service. Melinda also has a blog and if you'd like to read about their travels you can do so HERE.
Next up for both Tricia and I was so sit down with a medical doctor and get a full physical examination to make sure we were both healthy enough to keep traveling. We both have been feeling fine for the most part, but it's good to find out we are both actually healthy.
Tricia also visited the dentist office while we were here and began some dental work that will be completed when we return next year.
Now that we have been declared healthy, it was time to turn our attention to THE POD and ROVER to make sure they are fit to continue with our travel plans.
First up was the chore of getting new tires on THE POD. Rather than put standard trailer tires on THE POD we elected to continue using 16" Goodyear All Terrain-Light Truck tires that far exceed the sidewall strength and load ratings that the standard trailer tires offer.
Then it was time to do the same for ROVER. We ended up getting the exact same Goodyear tires as THE POD, except these 18" tires are much taller.
It was also time to replace the shocks and struts on ROVER and we went with Fox Brand equipment, which is considered to be off-road racing equipment. It greatly improved the ride of our loaded down truck and we will see how well they perform when towing THE POD when we leave town. We also had ROVER's oil changed ahead of schedule so we didn't have to have it done while we were traveling across the country in February.
While I was getting ROVER into top shape at the FORD dealer, Tricia, along with her friend Heather, her daughter and her daughter's friend, all went to New Orleans for 3-nights.
Everyone, except Tricia, added to their tatoo collections while in New Orleans and afterwards went out on the town to enjoy the cuisine and listen to some live jazz perforances.
The "World Famous" Bourbon Street is located just 2-blocks behind the church.
Another little side trip we did was to travel over to Tampa to visit the RV Supershow. Heather and Mike (her husband) were kind enough to drive and we shared another AirBnB home just a few miles from the fairgrounds.
We left early Friday morning and arrived at the show before noon. We were both looking at the Class B Vans and I believe we spent about an hour sitting inside of our next RV purchase. The whole time we were sitting in the van we were talking with a gentleman named Chris, (BTW he's the newest member of our Facebook Group) who I believe will also be purchasing this van. The difference is, he's purchasing one today and we are looking to purchase one about 4-5 years from now. That's also about the same timeline when Mike and Heather will be purchasing an RV and joining us on the road.
On Saturday we went back into the RV Show and once agian looked at a few alternatives, no reason to become narrowminded with our choices this far in advance. One other thing we did was visit the Airstream booth and located the salesman who sold us THE POD 8-years ago. Scott couldn't recall our names, but he did remember that one of the conditions of our sale was that we be provided with two additional Bahama Shutters to replace the sliding plexiglass pantry doors above the sink and stove. I also requested two additional Tommy Bahama badges that appear of the side and rear of THE POD.
It took us 3-years of carrying those doors around before we finally got them installed at the Airstream factory in Ohio. As for the Tommy Bahama badges, these weren't installed until just this week.
The leafy artwork on ROVER's topper side-windows has been deteriorating for the last few years. It has finally become bad enough that I had it scraped off and replaced with the standard 5%-black limo tint. It seemed like the perfect time to finally display the Tommy Bahama badges.
But before all that happens, we'll be visiting the Blue Beacon Truck Wash this morning, located just 4-miles down the road from our campground and getting ROVER and THE POD all shined up to make the trip.
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