Saturday December 19, 2009-Rayford Crossing

Today, being Saturday, was breakfast in the park day. When I got to the Lone Star room, I found that someone had already made the coffee and it was almost done when I got there. I looked around but didn't see anyone else, so I guess the coffee fairy made it. I had already heard that yesterday, when I was not here for coffee, they had 14 for coffee,and that they had fought for my seat at the table. We had another large group, so we drank most of the coffee. There wasn't much left for the breakfast crowd, but Frank had made a full pot on his side.

We went over to Lakeview RV Park to visit Tom and Judy and Bill and Ornell, who had come over for Bill's treatment at the hospital. When we got there, we learned that David and Susan Gondren had come over to visit with Jim and Sheila, but they left the park so we didn't get to see them. David and Susan had just gotten their new Bighorn 3055 trailer. Heartland had given them the new one after they had many problems with their old trailer. The new rig looks really nice with the new graphics, slam baggage doors and touchpad lock for the front door. We didn't get to see the inside, but I don't think they have made that many changes.

While visiting, Bill told me that he had seen a few Dodge trucks for sale not far from the park. Bill, Tom and I drove over to the car lot where they were. They had a couple of trucks out near the street but I wasn't interested in either one. Then we found a 2008 four door truck that looked pretty good. I drove the truck and it drove and performed very well. I was very impressed with the power and performance of the truck and the handling was much better than my '02. I really liked the exhaust brake. When we go back to the mountains, that feature would really come in handy. I sped the truck up to 85 mph and slowed it to 30 without touching the brake pedal.

We returned to the lot and I spoke with one of the people in the office about the price of the truck. When we got there, another customer was there complaining that he couldn't get any satisfaction from the company. He said that he had bought a car from them and then learned that it had been in a flood. He said that they had promised to refund his money, but he had been unable to get in touch with the manager and had continuously gotten a runaround. I then met a man who said he was the manager. When I asked for a cash price, he told me that they are primarily a finance company and don't have a cash price on anything. I didn't understand that concept, but he quoted me a very good price on financing the truck. It was so low, it made me very suspicious. When we came back home I checked on the place and found a couple of online complaints about this place and one that said they are the type of finance company that sells at a low price, then if you are an hour late on the payment, send out the repo-man to pick up the truck and resell it. Based upon the other customer and these complaints, I think that this is not the sort of place I want to deal with, no matter what the price is.

When we got back home, I had time to take a short nap, but decided to catch up on some email that had accumulated over the last couple of days before we left for the Texas Opry in Magnolia. We went with 18 other couples of winter Texans from the park, and when we got there, Ted and Donna and Rick and Brenda also showed up. We knew that they had made plans some time ago to go to the Opry, but we were supposed to have left last week and didn't think we would be here, so we were glad to see them. We all sat in a reserved area, but Ted and Donna and Rick and Brenda sat right behind us. The Christmas performance was very nice and we are glad we were able to go. Carl had set this whole thing up, and we are thankful to him for finding us some seats.

Jerry and Diane rode with us tonight. It is our first time to spend time with them. They are a very nice couple from Canada who come to the park to stay. We had a very nice time with them. We were out until past 11 o'clock, which is the latest we've been out in a long time. I was proud that I was able to stay awake that late.....

So long.