We are here!!!  This post comes from Huntsville, Alabama. We are watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in the Holiday Inn Express and have just seen the Australian team march in. We certainly feel a long way from home!
So much has happened in the past 7 days but I can report that today we became the owners of a Tiffin Allegro 32ft motor home!
So how come we are in Alabama?? To retrace briefly ...

We had a great flight from Perth to Auckland.  We were upgraded to Business Class. We were seat nos. 1A and 1B!

A glass of champagne before we took off! Lovely food and wine and great service. We certainly set out on our grand plan in style.  I said if this is the start imagine how it is going to evolve!  Trevor said it could also go downhill badly from here!!

The Novotel Hotel at the Auckland Airport was great for our 13 hour stopover.  We were first off the plane and straight to the hotel.  In bed by 6am!  

The flight from Auckland to San Francisco was good despite being long.  We both had some sleep.  Again great seats and good food.  

There were long lines for immigration but we got through in about an hour. Because we were seeking 12 month visas we were directed to an immigration office as the guy on the desk could only grant 6 months.  All went well.  I think they were intrigued by what we intend to do here.  We were granted 12 month visas and  advised  to contact CIS  for an extension if we want one!

We spent 4 days in San Francisco. We stayed at the Hilton out of town near the airport. We thought we may have to hire a car to go look at motor homes and the airport seemed to be the obvious place to be. We were quite busy. I bought an iphone and we set up our phones so that we can keep in contact with each other and home. We will also use the hotspot on the iphone as a modem when we are not in a wifi area. The brain has been truly extended with the gadgetry and technology we are accessing! So far we have had  free wifi at the hotels we have stayed at so we have yet to see if it all works.
On Monday we visited our bank and made all necessary financial arrangements.

Trevor continued searching the internet for a motor home. And he found one - a Tiffin Allegro - for sale in Alabama. The make and model were just what we were looking for; a 2011 model with only 2800 miles on the clock. He phoned the seller. Yes it was still available.

The most amazing sequence of events then unfolded! Trevor was able to negotiate a price, if we liked what we saw. So we were off to Alabama! We went to S F Airport and bought one way tickets.

On 25 July we flew to Huntsville via Houston; 2 flights; 2 time zones; about the same as going from Perth to Sydney. We arrived in Huntsville at 6pm. It was so hot! High 90's. We had booked in to the Holiday Inn Express. We phoned the seller when we arrived at our hotel but had to leave a message.  Had we come all that way for nothing? The next morning we phoned him again but again had to leave a message.  So we started a fall back plan, rented a car and visited a motor home dealer in the area!

And then the seller phoned ...!!!

Michael (the seller) turned out to be a really nice guy; a dentist; mid 40's  He was equally worried as he told us when we met him. His wife had insisted he not take Trevor for a test drive by himself!!  He asked if I would be with Trevor. He said he had had a dream the night before that everything went wrong and we turned out to be a scam which resulted in him losing his motor home!

But everything fell in to place so smoothly and enjoyably. Yes there are still nice people in the world with good values. Michael had had another offer for his motor home after we had made our arrangements, at a higher price and a local buyer, but he held to our agreement. Knowing that there was another prospective purchaser also took pressure off us if the motor home had not come up to our expectations. We will all dine out on that story for some time to come!

Yesterday, 26 July we met Michael. He showed us all over the motor home - it is just great. Almost like new.  Trevor had a drive.  We finalized the deal.

Today we settled the purchase, arranged insurance and our home for the next 12 months is parked in the car park of the Holiday Inn where we are staying.  We have made a trip to a shopping mall and bought some basics. We plan to drive to South Dakota where we will properly 'shake down'.

So - here goes ...!!

Last week......

7 days to go. Now things are moving. Plans and lists can at last be finalized.

I have spent several beautiful days in the garden.  The weather is glorious. Should I prune the roses this early?  Is it too late to fertilize?  (I never really know when to do it anyway).

We seem to be spending a lot of time with the children. We went to Melbourne to see Todd and Charli,  Fin has stayed overnight regularly. Mace seems to be at home a lot, eating with us.  He has a new smart phone so he rings from work  at lunch time.  Thankfully Kim is able to watch his usage!
Trevor has finally had the guitar lessons - a gift 2 years ago about to expire!  I have been to a cooking class which was also a gift and would have expired while we are away.

Lovely things continue to happen inside our home.  We have had new blinds installed downstairs;  all the door handles are finally on;  our new airconditioning system (reverse cycle) downstairs is also proving worthwhile especially as the weather is really quite cold.  I don't want to leave this yummy place!!