Mind the Gap

This post will be to fill in the gap of time between buying the new RV in January and our first big adventure in it the Summer of 2014.  Note:  The title of this post is a little running joke we have from our trip to London.  As you get off the subway in London, a recorded lady's voice politely tells you to "Mind the Gap"...she is referring to the gap between the train and the platform, but we use it to describe any gap...I guess you had to be there...it was a great trip...but that is another story...

The January weather in Florida was nice, but the weather prediction for Cary, NC was COLD.  We had the dealership winterize the RV so when we picked it up it on January 26th it would be prepared for freezing temperatures.  Wayne drove the RV and I followed in the car.  Other than being bigger, he said it drove like our old RV.  I agreed to drive from rest area to rest area...no backing up, no fancy parking and no skinny streets.  I drove from the GA welcome center to the SC Welcome center...and I survived and no one was hurt...I can do this !!!

We arrived at the storage yard later than we had hoped but we made it safely and with no problems with the RV or traffic.  Success :)

So now we have a brand new RV that we have never even ridden in together, other than the test drive, and we are leaving in June for a 3 month trip !  To give us a chance to get organized and figure out where all the buttons are we decided to move into the RV in April for 6 weeks while Wayne finished up this term of his contract. Those of you in NC know the weather this winter was very cold for NC and when we did get a break it would rain.  In February all we could do was go check on the RV to make sure all was well.  It was too cold to actually do anything, so it sat in the storage yard.  March was not much better.  So a trial camping weekend never happened.

The last weekend in March we moved out of the apartment and into the RV.  We are in a nice wooded space in an RV park outside Chapel Hill called Spring Hill RV Park.  The park is quiet and clean, the management is friendly and the location suited our needs.  We are so glad we did.  RV's seem the same but each manufacturer is a little different in where they put the buttons/switches and how things operate.  We have gotten to know the RV.  I initially put things away and have since rearranged about half of it realizing there was a more convenient place for things to be based on use and ease of reaching the cabinet.  The six weeks passed quickly.  We are so glad we did this and now feel comfortable with the RV.

During this six weeks, we bought a 2004 Jeep Liberty to use as a tow vehicle.  Wayne added a tow bar and brake system to the Jeep and wired the lights.  We took the RV and Jeep on a test run over to Mebane to see how everything worked together. I am happy to report that all went well, so we are ready !

When we were water cruising, our boat's name was Born to Cruise.  We had BTC for 10 years and always talked about taking things to the boat, going to the boat etc.  We kept slipping up and calling the RV the boat, to resolve that problem and to give the RV a name we have decided to call it the " Land Yacht" and the Jeep we tow behind will be called "Dinghy"...so no one will know when we are slipping up and it also means we have a title for the new blog as well :)

Wayne finished this term on his contract and we have been at home in Florida for two weeks.  It is wonderful to be home...but we have plans, Sunday, June 1 we head back to NC to pick up the Land Yacht and our summer adventure begins. I will update the blog as time allows and hope to share pictures with you as well.

A new RV ???

Short story we ended up trading our 2008 Coachman 21QB  for a 2014 Forester 3011DS.

Long story:  A new RV was not really the plan…it just worked out that way :) We did a lot of driving over the Christmas holidays.  While we are driving, we call it our “planning sessions”.    We loved traveling in 2013 in our Coachman 21QB RV, but the more I thought about a 3 month trip out west in our little Coachman the more I wondered how we were going to do it.  Our 21QB had a nice bed, a dinette, bathroom with shower, a sink, stove, fridge and almost 3 inches of counter space…there was the problem !!!!   On May 1, 2013 Wayne and I adopted a whole food, plant based eating plan.  This means I prepare most of our meals because eating out is challenging.  I love to cook but I need space.  So we determined during our “planning session” that maybe we should look at RV’s.  Maybe we could find one that would better fit our kitchen needs and give more comfortable seating for relaxing.  The Greensboro RV show was in early January and seemed like a good place to start looking for brands and models with a design we liked.  Our thought was to look at the 2014 RV’s to see what we would like to get in several years when they were used.  I fell in LOVE with the models with the LARGE counter space.  That model also had the TV directly in front of the couch so you did not have to look sideways to watch TV.  We took several day trips to various RV dealers looking at used RV’s both Class A and Class C.  We also read LOTS of reviews on quality and drivability.  The Coachman drives great which made it hard to consider something that did not handle as well.

At one dealership the salesman showed us the used units and said I have a deal on something I think you will love…he was right I loved it and it was a good deal…it was also new, but he was offering great financing and would give us top dollar for the Coachman.  So we gave him a deposit and the plan was to go to FL the following weekend and get the Coachman to bring back for a trade the following weekend. We did this on Saturday.

Driving back from Virginia where the dealership was we were having another “planning session”.  Wayne said I wish it had leveling jacks.  We agreed that getting a new RV it should have ALL the features we wanted. Monday morning Wayne called the dealer.  After checking the dealer said the RV would have to go back to the factory and it would be an extra $3000.  We told him we no longer wanted it.

While we were waiting for the dealer to respond on Monday I had been on the internet searching for an RV with leveling  jacks and the layout we wanted for a similar price.  I could not believe it when I found one for a little less money with the leveling  jacks in Jacksonville, FL !!!  Tuesday morning I called the dealership in Florida. I verified with the salesman, yes they still had the RV and yes it had leveling  jacks.  I told him if we could work a deal we wanted it.  He explained the dealership was being sold on Friday at midnight and we would have to close the deal before then to get this price.  I told him about the Coachman and if he could give me what the other dealership had offered then we had a deal.  Only issue was it was in Rotonda West and we could not get it back by midnight,  but if someone wanted to ride down with us they could drive it back.  He talked to his boss and we made a deal assuming we approved the new RV when we saw it.

We were at the RV dealer on Friday morning at 8:30 to test drive the new RV.  It drove great and looked just like the pictures we had seen on their webpage.  We signed papers and were driving to Rotonda before noon with our salesman in the back seat of the car!  It takes about 5 hours to drive to Rotonda from Jacksonville and we had to stop for lunch.  We got to Rotonda, emptied out the Coachman after retrieving it from the storage lot and the salesman drove away.

Sunday on the way back to NC we stopped in Jacksonville and picked up the new RV.  We are the proud owners of  a Forest River 2014 Forester 3011DS with leveling  jacks !!!!

The salesman said this was the easiest sale he had ever made !!!!