Got Camper?

There comes a time in everyone's life when they ask themselves if they are truly happy with the life they've created. Some may call it a mid-life crises - others may call it a fresh start or cleaning the slate. We're calling it LIFE. Life happens; life changes. Life is too short to be lived in misery (of any type).

We took the last sentence to heart a day after we wrote off the back-firing motor-home. Dave exhausted the RV possibilities in the state of Maine, and so we began looking throughout New England. We've done this before - sometimes you have to go a greater distance to find the right item (in this case an RV) at the right time. After numerous phone calls & too many emails, we finally lined up some viable candidates to take a look at; all in southern New England & three in the Manchester, Connecticut area alone.

Thus began our day on Saturday - like fox hounds beginning the hunt. Meg, Dave & I hit the road at about 9am. Looking back, I realized we all had an unspoken agenda:
 - I was hoping I could make the journey down and back. I was looking at 9 hours minimum - that's a long time sitting & riding in anyone's book.
 - Dave was hopeful that at least one of the RV's would work for us. The ones we had called about & saw earlier in the week bombed horribly.
 - Meg was determined to get down & back without killing anyone... added to this fact was, "We are NOT leaving freakin' Connecticut unless Mom & Dad purchase a camper! We are NOT going home empty handed!"
So - the next question is, "Got Camper?"

The answer is a resounding yes! After weeks of pretty intense searching, we scored a great deal. It gives new meaning to the term "an oldie but a goodie". We purchased a 1977 Itasca Seafarer class c motor-home. Itasca was built in conjunction with Winnebago and is based on a 1-ton Chevy truck chassis. What's cool about this rig, is the drivetrain, suspension, brakes, exhaust, etc., are all old Chevy. It is simple to work on & parts availability is cheap and plentiful. The RV barely has 70,000 miles on it, has spent almost all of it's life in Florida and is in great condition considering it's 36 years old. Even Meg, our family ASE mechanic, was heavily impressed. The exterior checked out, as did the roof. The interior needs a little cleaning, the exterior needs some touch up in the paint department, and the RV itself needs just a little bit of TLC, but it's nothing we can't handle. We are more than confident that we can not only drive our Seafarer home, but also make the trek cross country.

What added to the sweetness of this purchase (besides a quality RV at a great price) was the seller. This aspect can sometimes make or break a deal. The seller was from Turkey and was very knowledgeable as well as hospitable. He was patient in answering all our questions, explained and demonstrated all the camper systems (which is rare in itself), and took us on a "spirited" test drive. After the deal was sealed, he even offered us refreshments & pizza!

We're going to take a little side track here for a moment - about this test drive. Dave has read that European drivers tend to drive in a more performance-oriented fashion than we do in America. There's nothing wrong with this, it's just we're usually not used to it.

The test drive was in a residential neighborhood. "Ve vill just go around da block" the man said.  Meg and I sat on the sofa cushions behind the captain's chairs.  Around the first corner at about 35mph, the table went flying out of the wall towards Meg and landed on the floor.  We were gaining speed and took another corner.  This time we heard a ka-thunk as something in the head hit the door... Meg and I looked at the shadow and wondered if indeed it weren't the commode come free from its mooring. (To our relief, we later found out that it was four plastic wastebaskets that had toppled.)

"You see. It handles vell! ", he said with a big smile. We all nodded in agreement - there was no other option as we were all speechless! (and that's rare for our family). Once again, I thought "am I really going to survive this trip?" Meg thought, "Oh my God... I'm going to die!" 

In actuality, this kind of test drive only proved the durability of the suspension as well as the craftmanship of the RV as a whole not to mention the holding power of the industrial strength Velcro that was holding the microwave to the counter. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we pulled back into the driveway - not only were we thrilled we were buying a quality RV, but the fact this roller coaster ride had come to an end! And we thought Dave's Mustang was a fun ride!

Signing off for now,
The Happy Campers,
Jill & Dave