Yesterday we took our first short trip in our new to us Winnebago Ultimate Advantage, and we love it!

The motorhome has so much storage that getting ready to hit the road was a simple matter of pushing a button to stow the automatic satellite TV dish, pulling in the slides and retracting the leveling jacks, and then unhooking the water and electric connections. After a quick scan of all of our tires with our PressurePro tire monitoring system, I fired up the big Cummins diesel engine and pulled out of our regular RV site at Elkhart Campground.

With our bus conversion, we would have to carry Terry’s big Kitchen Aid commercial mixer and some other stuff back to the bedroom, and used a collection of assorted sized bungee cords to lash everything down. Not because they would fall over, the bus has an incredibly smooth ride, but because we didn’t want anything turning into a missile if we got into an accident.

After a stop at the campground’s propane station to fill our tank, we hooked up the van to our tow bar and were ready to go. Ron and Brenda Speidel, in their Winnebago Journey, and Ken and Billie Barker, in their beautiful older Safari motorhome, were already hooked up and waiting to go.

The most direct route to Fort Wayne, Indiana would have been down U.S. Highway 33 from Goshen, but we took the longer (but faster) route east on the Indiana Toll Road to Interstate 69 and south to Fort Wayne. It added 20 miles to the trip, but because we didn’t have any stop and go traffic in the small towns along the way, we made better time. Besides, I wanted to see how the Winnebago handled on the open highway.

I’m happy to say that it handles just fine, with lots of power and a very smooth ride. Passing trucks didn’t affect us at all, and we had plenty of oomph when I wanted to pass a slower moving vehicle. The motorhome didn’t even seem to notice the heavy van it was pulling.

From Fort Wayne, we traveled east on U.S. Highway 30, a great divided four lane highway. We crossed into Ohio, and before long we were in Van Wert. We stopped at the Murphy USA at the Wal-Mart in Van Wert for fuel, which is not one of my favorite places, but both Ron and I were lower on fuel than we were comfortable with.  

With our fuel tanks topped off, we took U.S. Highway 127 south another 25 miles to Celina. We pulled into the Mercer County Fairgrounds with 163 miles behind us, and even more pleased with the motorhome than we were the day we bought it.

We did have quite a problem getting leveled, mostly because of the site we pulled in to. Finally, after running the jacks up and down half a dozen times, Ron had me pull a few feet forward, which allowed us to get into a position where our HWH jacks could get us level.

With the motorhome leveled out and hooked up to water, electric, and sewer, we were all famished and more than ready for dinner. While in Celina last year for our Ohio Gypsy Gathering rally, we had discovered the China Wok Buffet and enjoyed it so much we went back a couple of times. If anything, it was even better this year, and we all abused our diets and our waistlines.

Tomorrow we’ll be hard at work on pre-rally details. It’s going to be a busy week!

Thought For The Day – Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?

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Yesterday we left Show Low Lake Campground and moved to the campground at the Elks lodge. Since we were only going about three miles, we didn’t bother hooking up the van to tow, Terry just drove it and followed me.

The Elks lodge has fifteen full hookup 30/50 amp gravel sites in the pine trees, which at $15 a night is a heck of a deal in this resort area. The sites are not very level, and we are once again wishing we had leveling jacks.

When we arrived, we were the only RV here, and there was a sailboat on a trailer in one other site. A couple of hours after we got settled in, a pickup with a large overhead camper arrived and parked with the boat. Shortly after that, a very nice Mountain Aire diesel pusher arrived, so now we have some neighbors.

For RVers who travel as much as we do, membership in the Elks and Moose can be a real money saver. Many lodges have dedicated RV parks like this, and even more will allow traveling members to spend the night in their parking lots. The fee, if they charge any at all, is usually very low compared to local RV parks, and the money we pay goes to help support the lodges’ community work, so everybody wins!

After being on a site with just electric for two weeks, it was time to dump our holding tanks, and then Terry started a load of laundry. With those chores out of the way, we drove a few blocks to my daughter Tiffany’s house, where son-in-law Jim threw some steaks on the grill.

Tiffany had seen a Holiday Rambler diesel pusher in a yard nearby for sale, and she took me over to check it out. It was a 1996 model, and just in looking at its outside condition, I knew it was not something we would be interested in.

The owner told me that she and her husband had purchased it five years ago, had driven it less than 2,000 miles, and it has been sitting for over two years. She said nobody had even been inside it in over a year, and I could sure tell that the minute she opened the door! It reeked with a musty, mildew smell, the furniture was faded from the sun, and the roof had obviously suffered some water damage. She said they owed “about” $36,000 to $38,000 and just wanted to get enough out of it to pay the bank off. I wanted to tell her lots of luck, but I just told her it didn’t fit our needs and we left.

It is unfortunate that there are so many people who are buried in RVs that they will never be able to sell for what they owe on them. And then there are hopeful sellers who are just unrealistic in their expectations. We have been actively shopping for a used diesel pusher, and have seen some very good deals out there. But we have also seen people asking 20 to 30 percent more for their coaches than other similar rigs are going for.

I exchanged e-mails with a gentleman who read in the blog that we were shopping, who has a five year old upscale diesel coach for sale. He and his wife fulltimed in it until she passed away last year, and he no longer travels. He paid $225,000 for it, and he wants $185,000 firm. The coach is way out of our price range, but I sent him several online ads for the same year and model coaches with asking prices of $100,000 to $125,000 so he would know why he wasn’t getting any offers. He replied that losing $8,000 a year was bad enough, and he would just keep advertising it until the right buyer comes along. It’s a nice rig, but I think he’ll own it a long, long time.

Thought For The Day – You know you’re into middle age when you realize that caution is the only thing you care to exercise.

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It’s cold here in Show Low, Arizona. Last night the thermometer dipped down to 25 degrees! We were sure glad that we put so much effort into insulating our bus conversion when we built it. With just a small cube style electric heater, we kept it about 65 degrees inside the bus overnight.

We don’t have a furnace in our bus. We installed one early in our conversion project, but quickly realized that the typical RV furnace blows more heat outside than it does inside, so we pulled it out. We have an Olympian Wave 8 catalytic heater that keeps us toasty warm on cold nights, and when we have an RV site with a 30 or 50 amp electric hookups, we use the cube heater to save on propane.

Several people have written to suggest that instead of replacing our bus, we just put in a rebuilt engine. We debated that, but the 8V71 Detroit Diesel engines like we have were prone to overheating on steep climbs even when they were new, and they were never very powerful. We want to get away from the overheating problems and the long, slow climbs here in the West.

We could upgrade to a more powerful engine, like an 8V92 turbo, but that would also require a transmission upgrade, and a pair of larger radiators. I talked to a bus garage we trust and for the price he quoted us to do the job right, we could spend just a little bit more and have a newer coach with a slide out or two.

We’ve reached the point where we’d like to have some more living space. Yesterday my daughter and her family stopped by, and with the two grandkids in here, it was just too crowded.

There is no perfect RV, even when you build it yourself. Our bus meets a lot of our needs in a home on wheels, but if we were going to do it all over again, there are some things we would do differently. We’d install an instant-on hot water system, we would not put in a residential size bathtub, and we would try a different floor plan, probably a side aisle design.

Some things we would definitely do again would be the residential style refrigerator, the stainless steel apartment size range with oven, and the separate apartment size washer and dryer. We’d also still spend the money we did on large holding tanks, our solar system, Magnum Energy inverter, and large bank of AGM batteries.

Some things I’d like to see in our next RV are a bigger engine, at least a living room slide, and preferably a bedroom slide too, a rooftop automatic satellite TV dish or dome, and leveling jacks.

What options do you wish your current RV had, or that you will demand in your next rig?

We know the right coach for us is out there, and we’ll keep looking until we find it.

Thought For The Day – You can do something in an instant that will give you heartaches for a lifetime.

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