Sunday (4/28) we lifted our jacks and started our journey all the way from Fredericksburg to the Buckhorn Lake RV Resort just outside of Kerrville Texas where we planned to attend a New Horizon RV owners rally. A whooping 30 mile travel day.
We actually arrived 1 week early before the rally started but that was by design so we would have a little time to get used to using our new home and if we had any issues or questions about it we knew we would be amongst a bunch of knowledgeable owners that could help us along if needed.
Plus after such a long stretch of hotels followed by a hectic period of picking up our new home on wheels we figured a little down time might be nice. And of course we wanted to do a little touring.
We ended up having a nice pull-through site ONLY because of the misfortune of a friend (one we have never actually met other than through emails, texts and phone calls) that was supposed to have a brand spanking new New Horizon and also be attending the rally but his new truck was not ready so him and his wife had to cancel.
We were really looking forward to meeting him and his wife but it sounds as if we will actually get to meet them when we go back up to Kansas to have a few things done to our rig in June.
While setting up in our spot Jim (a fellow New Horizon owner) that was already at the park came by to say hello. Ed & Sharon and Jim & Patty were the Rally Masters for the rally and had been in the area for over a month already making plans and getting things ready. A lot of work goes into having a rally. I mean after all, they have the daunting task of checking out the numerous catering services in the area and tasting all of the food beforehand.
After getting set up we headed out for a little walking tour of the park which is a pretty nice one with 133 full hookup sites that are all nicely manicured. In fact the entire park is well taken care of.
This was a pretty cool sitting area.
Bucket lights
Loved this seat idea.
The park is set up in 3 parts, the campground section we were in, a small adult only section and then a completely different section that is separated by a bridge over a stream that is filled with small homes with RV ports. No-one can own a lot in the home section unless they actually own a motorhome.
RV park on the left and RV port homes on the right.
During our walk we ran into a few other New Horizon owners that also arrived early for the rally which was nice and we could tell it was going to be a good time.
They have a few cabins to rent
After our walk and some toying around with oddball stuff the rest of the day we settled in for the evening. BUT while sitting all of the sudden I heard a familiar sound!!! Why I thought I heard a Pickleball!!! So of course I was out the door in a flash and headed down to the courts and sure enough a game was going on.
A small gym is in that building
Before long I was chatting it up with the players who happened to live in the homes across the stream we mentioned earlier and I was invited to play the following morning.
It turned out they gathered every morning at 9 and played at least a couple hours and I found myself down there probably 6 or 7 mornings over the next 2 weeks. During the rally gatherings started at around 9 so I wasn’t able to hit the courts. Hmm, I should have talked to someone about the scheduling LOL!!
We decided to just hang around home the next couple days and just chill with a short trip into Kerrville tossed in for some grocery shopping and a little driving tour of the town and to fill up with fuel and of course Pickleball in the mornings.
The weather was pretty shaky pretty much the entire 2 weeks we were in Kerrville with some pretty good thunderstorms rolling through and a number of threats of hail (which luckily never happened) and boy howdy, when it rains hard in Texas it flat rains hard.
During one of the rains I noticed a little water inside one of our side windows at the rear of the coach and thought then that it needed to be addressed but it was just a little water and not overly alarming so we went on with our day, you know, one of those I need to get to that moments.
Well at 2am the 1st good ol Texas gully washers rolled through and woke us up it was raining so hard so I figured I would go out and check that window and boy I’m glad I did.
Water was gushing in so fast at the top of the window that it made it’s way across the roughly 1 ½” space between the window and screen and ran down the screen so fast that it looked like one sheet of water. You know, like some of those fountains you see. Anyway once it reached the bottom of the screen it was going down the wall to a small end table and then cascading off the front like coffee being poured out of a pot into your morning cup.
See the gasket poking up that I’m sure let water in.
After a short phrase of 4 letter word’s I yelled at Diane to bring out towels loud enough that I’m sure I woke the neighbors.
Well she came out with one towel which lasted for a few seconds and I told her to bring out all the towels we had it was that bad. I mean we needed to play catch up with all the water that had already reached the floor and was pooled behind the couch as well as try to keep up with what was coming in, not what I wanted to be doing at 2am.
See the hole to the right of the screw that let water in.
Anyway, after a bit I decided to open the window in hope that some of the water being pushed in at the bottom would be forced outside instead of inside, and it did work some. We used pretty much all the towels we had and was ringing them out in the sink but luckily it wasn’t one of those long term rain events and when it slowed to what I will call a normal rain the gutter was able to do it’s job and kept water away from the window.
Once we got everything dried the best we could and our fan directed at the floor to help dry things out I just sat in my recliner and checked the radar on my phone to see if we had any more bad raining coming our way that we would need to battle.
Luckily the bad part of the storm had gone by so I was able to go back to bed but of course I found myself up checking the window now and again until I finally just stayed up.
Once it was light outside I grabbed my ladder and headed out for a look to see what the heck the problem was and found that there was a gap on each side of the hinge point at the top of the window that had no gasket material that I could see. One of those shake my head moments. In fact I shook my head hard enough that you could hear it rattle across the park LOL!!
Luckily Ed & Sharon had some good caulking and some wide tape and I applied to beads of caulking followed by a layer of tape and I’m happy to announce that it held up through the next gully washer and in fact the rest of the rain we experienced from that point forward.
As you can imagine I contacted New Horizon about that little experience and told them that window needed to be taken out and installed correctly when we returned in June. And when they do I will want them to get their pressure washer out and check it thoroughly.
Ok, that’s it for this update.
Dave & Diane throwing caution to the wind 
That’s a beautiful looking Resort. Bummer about your window leak. It doesn’t seem to matter how much one spends on a rig…that first year there always seems to be deficiencies to deal with.
Safe travels!
Yup, we fully expected some things to happen, It’s the nature of the beast. Our hope is that once we get through the initial round of thing that we will reap the benefits of bellying up.
What an awesome resort, glad that they had pickleball for you!
Man, those glitches really stink, Dave…especially since you had seen the same sort of stuff when you toured lesser priced models. Makes you wonder if that communication issue they have with their customers isn’t also a problem between the shop and the office. Hope it all gets resolved for you.
Oh I can tell you with certainty and without hesitation that there is a lack of communication between the workers on the line and the main office just rom conversations I had with workers that were in our coach. At one point after I pointed something out (that I won’t go into because it’s a story of it’s own) to one of the guys fixing a issue he said “we wondered about that when it was on the line” to which I said “well why did’nt you bring it up to Cole (our salesman and owners son)” he just laughed and said “we would jest be spinning our wheels”. I did communicate that to the CEO of the company in one of our chats and made mention that communication is a two way street and that workers should WANT to and feel good about bringing things up that they see. Hell reward them for it in some way. Odds are if they see it it WILL be a problem down the road once the customer gets it. We are just gambling that there will be fewer problems with this unit that the other brands once the first round of head shakers is complete.
Wow, all I can say is WTH?? With a unit like yours I would not anticipate that major of a problem. Makes me really wonder what problems our next unit will have and how long we want to live with the devil we know vs. the devil we don’t know. Sigh, this is just wrong.
Well we expected some problems. That’s going to happen with any rv I’m afraid, but that window leak surprised me as well as a couple more that will come up in future updates..