Our first "shakedown" trip.

Our first trip was June 18th. We planned to move the coach to John Prince Park which is a county park within 10 miles of home. We found this location on the Internet and were excited to find out that as a Palm Beach County resident it was an discounted inexpensive option nearby right on Lake Osborn in Lake Worth Florida. Jay navigated his way to the park right off I-95 and I followed in the car. At this point I have to comment on Jay's impressive driving ability. He maneuvered thru city streets like a seasoned pro who had been driving a 40 ft RV all his life.
We arrived at the park, checked in and proceeded to our spot after being cautioned by the Park Ranger NOT to feed the alligators and to be aware of the water moccasins in the lake. What?!  Note to self,  sneakers only while wandering the park with Savannah. The Van dog found her spot on the couch during travel and settled right in from day one!
Jay backed in the site flawlessly and we proceeded to go thru the checklist of what we "do" and in what order! Thankfully, it all fell into place.
We settled into the park life enjoying the quiet evenings away from the noise of downtown West Palm Beach. We were  delighted with our first stop in this park, it was full of family campers, kids on bikes and we met other RV'ers  who offered some helpful tips on the RV life.
We quickly found out that there were many things about the coach that were not quite up to standard. There were missing hoses, armrests that were broken and the list was started.
There are 3 TVs with a satellite set up which is great, when they work, and they didn't . We were under the mistaken impression that when you purchase a new RV that prior to pick up they would inspect it and determine that everything works. A lesson learned on our part, that was definitely NOT the case. We spent hours trying to get a TV to work with no success.  We commandeered a Direct TV truck in the park and after some cash paid we had TV service on two TVs. That was a good thing because it rained constantly for days and days... Summer in Florida.
During our time at the park we organized the coach, provisioned the kitchen and familiarized ourselves with the generator, the inverter and all the other systems in the coach. Captain Jay was right at home with all this from his boating days. I sure learned some new things reading and looking up "how to" manuals on the Internet.
Talk about being uninformed, the sales person didn't tell us that the king sized bed was a Sleep Number bed and I realized that when I made the bed and found a remote. Great, but how does this thing work? So I called the Sleep Number folks and they walked me thru the process. We slept well after we learned our number! Do you know everyone has a number?!
Next stop ...Fernandina Beach Florida 7/2/2014.