And so it starts. As we near the end of 2018, we are planning for our full time life in our RV. It’s a stressful time as we work to sell our home we built and have lived in for the last 12+ years as well as 99% of its contents. Many people have reassured us that this is “liberating” and that it’s just “stuff” but it’s still a lot of what reminds us of our past 31 years together and family and friends from farther back than that. We can look at things and remember when/where we obtained them – that odd looking floor lamp we got at the Arts Festival one year, that Botero picture that almost got Dad arrested, rocking chair with the 5 faces, and the list goes on. But the planets have aligned to allow us to embark on this adventure while we are both relatively young and relatively healthy so here goes.
But before we go forward, maybe we should start by going
backwards to how we got to this point.
Not sure when we started thinking about this. We became interested in RV’s several years
ago but the roots of interest may be found in Dan’s early history or even
before he was born. Early on, his
parents, Jean and Sid, spent time out on Cape Cod back when anyone who wanted
(and had a vehicle that was capable) could drive out onto the beaches of the
Cape and camp. Sid built his own
campers, the first being a Jeep that he built a box camper on the chassis on
his own. They then “upgraded” to a van
chassis with a small towed trailer mounted on the chassis. This vehicle carried Dan out onto the Cape in
his first year or two of life. Camping
soon ended as the family moved to south Florida and campers were replaced with
sail boats. Jump ahead about 50 years
and we started considering the world of RV’s.
We’d go to RV Shows and wander thru the variety of vehicles – Class C,
Class B, 5th wheels, and Class A’s.
We really had no idea what we were looking at other than they seemed to
be pretty homes on wheels. We were
amazed at the size and varieties, so many configurations to consider! It was all very innocent, very little cost
and no commitment to window shop at all the new shiny RV’s since we had no
plans to buy! But over time, we started
sorting thru what we’d be interested if (a very big IF) we ever wanted our own
RV. We realized that Class C’s and B’s
were too small. We like our conveniences
and space and just couldn’t see going that small. We loved the 5th wheelers but as
we spoke with folks at shows we realized that the idea of starting out towing
something that big down the highway just wasn’t where we wanted to start our RV
experience. So, that left us with Class
A’s. Decision made, right? Not so quick.
Gas or Diesel? How long a rig did
we want (IF we ever did decide to buy)?
And still so many floor plans!!!
Sometime near the end of 2016 we decided we should really
put up or shut up. We’d been going to
shows and reading a lot but we had NEVER spent ANY time in an RV. As a far as we knew, we might have spent one
night and decided we’d rather be trapped in a cave with hungry bears than be
cooped up in a rectangular box on wheels.
We started looking at renting figuring that was a way to try before you
buy. A work colleague suggested a small
family company north of Atlanta so we started checking out what they had and
before we knew it, we had a reservation to rent a 37’ Gas Admiral Holiday
Rambler. We showed up on a crisp
February morning with a very full SUV loaded with food, clothes and even
bikes. We got a crash course on how to
operate the major systems, loaded up the RV and off we went. Several hours down the highway on our way to
Hilton Head Island, we were pretty stressed out. Figuring out where the sides of the RV were,
getting buffeted all over the road when a big rig would drive by, were keeping
us very nervous. And then…the odor hit us. It smelled like the black tank was coming up
thru the RV like some zombie rising from the dead. We tried to address it by opening the window
and vent and that helped a bit. We even
got on the phone with the company and they happily told us that wasn’t anything
to worry about – probably just a dry tank letting out some odors now that it
was getting stirred up for the first time this season! Yuck!
We finally arrived at the campground, were happy to be
assisted with parking (backing the darn thing in??!!) and collapsed. The two major things we now look back with
amusement on were related to learning more about the systems we had to work
with. The first dumping of the black and
grey tanks was an event in and of itself.
While Dan put on gloves and stood ready to dash away if connections
failed, Jill bravely supported him from behind a tree for protection. Everything went well and later you will see
that Jill has now embraced the dump completely J. The other system issue was more
puzzling. As we settled down to sleep
the first night, we would hear a buzzing sound every now and then. We kept trying to localize it, feeling that
it was coming from the dash or engine compartment up front. We asked someone at the campground to take a
listen but they couldn’t figure out either.
After another night of interrupted sleep, we called the renting company
again. After some diagnosing, we finally
figured out it was the satellite dish rotating on and off trying to get a
signal (which was futile since we had too much tree cover)! Thus we were introduced to the idea that on
every trip, you should expect to have something happen that will frustrate you,
confuse you, or just plain make you shake your head. The rest of the trip was uneventful and by
the end we were sold on RV’ing!! Not
full time, but just the idea of renting or going out from time to time. In the mean time we’d be satisfied going to
more shows and looking, knowing that we had no plans to own anytime soon.
Fast forward to January 2018. Another RV Show near home to visit! And, we had decided to bypass the weekend
rush and attend on the opening Friday!
By this time, we were pretty focused.
We’d walk right past the trailers and Class C’s and seek out the Class
A’s. And even then, we’d only be looking
for those that were in the high 30’s or 40 foot lengths. It usually meant a very quick visit since we
bypassed 70% of the show. This trip we
were sort of disappointed, few Class A’s to be found. But in the back there was one dealer who had
bought a bunch of Class A’s. And that’s
where we found Lola (more on her name later).
There she sat, 42’ of gleaming metal and glass, Thor Tuscany diesel
pusher. We walked inside and were
pleased to see a floor plan we had seen before with 1 ½ baths. And it had a lot of other extras including
dish washer, stacked washer/dryer, 4 TV’s, and more. Then we saw the price and started scratching
our heads. This seemed way too low for
this coach. But then we realized this
was not a NEW coach, it was used. We
were used to seeing only new units at the shows and those prices always kept us
from even thinking about buying. But now
we were staring at a coach with just about all the things we wanted in a unit
and a price we had never considered would be possible (because we had never
thought of buying used). We wandered
around the show discussing financing, the pros and cons of buying used versus
new and by the end of the night concluded that we should buy it! And so, we did.
That weekend we had some major rethinking. What had we just done! We’d never driven anything this big before
(well, to be honest, we’d only driven one RV our whole life!). Where would we store it, what would we do
with it, where would we go, how much would it cost to maintain (and how many
miles per gallon did that beast consume?)?
Jill was really worried that second thoughts would set in and we’d be
forced to rescind our offer. But the
next morning, Dan came down the stairs declaring he had a name in mind for the
RV. We would call her Lola from the song
by the Kinks. This had always been a
favorite of ours just for the fun idea of it, a man dressed as a woman and
another man realizing he was dancing with a man. Like the character Lola in the song, our Lola
“…danced like a woman but talked like a man”.
Lola was as pretty as could be but she was strong and powerful with a
450 hp diesel pushing her along. And
thus, Lola was born. And we now owned an
RV!
