When I bought the RV it was big enough for me, but now I got ‘family’ and it is a little small, also we want to be more self-contained when on the road. I got upgrade fever.
Since I have had almost a year and a half on the road with this RV I know what I like and what I don’t. I also know that I have the funds to get what I want, so it was time to start making a list. On my wish list was a bigger fridge, washer/dryer, bigger bedroom and more sleeping than the sofa and dinette (I just hate having to convert something each night for a guest).
We got the laundry done and daddy said that we can go talk to the RV people and see what they have, but no buying today. I agreed that we were just looking.
We went to the same place that I bought the current one at, I figured I would let them have first crack at us.
“So what is it I can help you and your son with today?” The salesman said. To which I pulled out my list of stuff I wanted.
“We’re looking for an RV no more that 32 feet with the following; larger than normal fridge, two beds in the back, bunk house or bunk over cab elsewhere, washer and dryer…. ” as I read off the list. Only to be dismissed as he turned to Max and made a comment about I got a nice wish list there.
“In the end he’s the one you are selling to, not me” Max said, but I don’t think the guy really caught on.
We saw a few like 10 different ones, talked about all the customization I wanted, like graphic colors, interior trim, rear bedroom configurations, and more. I got prices and we left to hit up another place and re-do it all over again. We sat down that night and discussed what we liked and disliked about each model, sales guy and pricing and time-frame.
We ended up going back to the first place, but I insisted that somebody else make this sale. I was just a little burnt that Max had clearly said that I would be the purchaser and the guy continued to ignore me.
We ended up working with the sales manager, placed an order for a new class A 32 foot RV. I wanted to keep the length as short as possible as some of the places we camped only allow 30 foot plus the car, and sometimes we have to leave the car elsewhere. It had a little bit bigger fridge, the largest we could get that runs on 3-way power. Bunk over the cab, and 2 bottom beds in the back, double slides in the bedroom, kitchen slide too and and the dinette was a u-shaped one that was not hard to convert if we had to. We had the space over the cab, that lowered down, which worked for us. Best all, the washer and dryer. It was a small stacked unit, but it did not need to be that big, as we could still do the laundromat for large things like the bed sheets or large loads.
It was going to take 3 months to get it and then another week to prep it the way we wanted it. Like building the custom crib on the other bed, hey when you have the money, people will do custom work.
This means one last big adventure in the old RV. We had driven through West Virginia before but never stopped. So this time we had some great plans. We were going to go to Beckley WV and do a coal mine tour, then we wanted to hit some of the state parks, Babcock state park, and black water falls. Before heading up to Somerset PA to see the Flight 93 memorial, then up into the Allegheny national Forrest for a few days of relaxing. Before heading up to buffalo NY and then Niagara Falls and into Canada.
Now that it was planned out, we had about a week before leaving. Time enough to stock up on supplies, and make sure all our plans were going to work out with crossing the border as well.
We stretched that trip out to take about 5 weeks, our first stop was in Hocking Hills State park for two nights, then onto Beckley WV. The Coal mine experience was fun, as was the museum as well. We stayed in that area for two nights before moving onto Babcock state park. We hiked the trails there for about 3 days, getting photos of the mill from all angles, before moving down the road to Blackwater Falls where we hung out for about a week. The area was totally awesome looking, but was getting busy as we were now mid June. We did not stay but an afternoon at the flight 93 memorial before finding a nearby camp to stop for the night.
The next morning we packed up and we drove further east to Gettysburg, PA, which is where max wanted to go. He is more of a history buff than I, but I must admit I did enjoy it, we did a bus tour one day, hit the museums the next day and on the final day went to the Eisenhower estate before just chilling for day 4 and 5. I took those days to assemble the videos, photos and blog posts, and scheduled them all out. For the next 3 weeks. These days the posts are becoming more delayed than they used to be, and not as often as before when I was posting 3 times a week.
Leaving out on the 6th morning we were headed towards Bar Harbor Maine. It took us about 3 days of driving at the pace we do of 200-250 miles a day, any more and it just is too taxing. Of course we avoid the tolls like the plague, as it adds up in a RV with a tow vehicle.
Maine was nice, we hit the bars and seafood houses and relaxed for a few days. We were going to head to Canada and drive back but it was too much of a hassle with us both having our handguns in the vehicle. We did end up go into to Niagara Falls. We simply secured our guns in the RV and drove the Fiat over the border and back.
We will have to get the paperwork in order before we attempt to go to Canada or through there in the future.
After traveling for what amounted to an entire year and 2 months, I was tired. When we left Niagara Falls after 5 days I was ready to be home. We kind of made it a point to push ourselves to getting as many miles in as we could, doing the 3 on 3 off, eat/sleep then repeat, and we made it home in 2 days.
For the next two weeks we both just chilled out, cleaned the old RV out, took the crib rails down and turned it into a normal bed, cleaned out the fridge, defrosted the freezer, sanitized the tanks.
Max and I had not really decided on what to do with the old RV as we had another one on the way. The new one had all the solar, batteries, TV’s and such brand new in it, so I did not need to pull any of that out of there. The old RV was paid for, as was the new one.
I got a phone call on Saturday from the RV dealer saying that the new RV was ready for pickup. I said that we would be up on Monday.
We spent that Saturday night at my parents for dinner and conversation.
“So what are you going to do with your other RV?” My dad asked
“I am not really sure yet. It is paid off, and I did not trade it in. I am thinking about parking it at a nice campground for the summer and have it set up so we can just go out there and not have to drive the new coach out there.” I said
“Your mom and I have always thought about doing the whole RV thing, that’s just a dream” Dad said
“You know we could always work something out. Maybe we will just put the old one in storage for the winter and re-visit it in the spring, maybe you could take it out for a vacation. It runs well, has great tires and you know I keep it well maintained” I said
“Yeah your dad can sleep in the crib” My mom quipped in.
“We took the crib down, it has 2 twin XL beds at the moment. My bed can be moved and connected to Jason’s to make a split king sized bed.” Max said
Sunday we went up to a campground and took a look at a spot they had, but really weren’t impressed, so we kept looking. We went to about 5 different campgrounds that day. Finally we had to settle on some place. We really weren’t happy with what we got, but we needed 2 spaces next to each other for the next 2 and a half months.
Monday morning I had a 10 AM appointment at the RV dealer. We pulled up on the lot in the fiat and I knew which one was our new RV. I had ordered a custom paint scheme of bright red, blue and green. The representative showed us the features the new RV had, we grabbed the keys, took a quick test drive, tested out the features and were then on the road after having hooked the fiat up to the back of the new RV. I had ordered the same exact car connection system for the new RV just so it would not matter what RV we pulled it with. This meant I got another set of connectors for another vehicle should somebody else need to connect to the back of one of the RVs.
We now needed to stock the new RV. I had found a a new diaper pail for the new RV, well it was new to me. I figured that since we planned to keep the old RV, we needed to keep it stocked somewhat. I had taken an inventory of what all was in the old RV’s kitchen cabinets, pots, pans, seasonings, utensils, plates and glasses. I mostly just re-ordered everything I had purchased to furnish the other RV.
In the diaper department, I already had them packed up in crates, so I just had to load them into the under coach garage and into the bedroom. Soon we had the new RV loaded up and ready to hit the road, but we had other things to attend to first.
At the campground, I paid for the rest of the season for both of the RV’s even though the new one was often not there. We left the old one there and would have my parents, and Max’s use it that year.
We had Riley, David and Josh and Michael up a couple days too. Since the whole blow up at Christmas time last year, when Riley was being punished with having to wear diapers, he had been seeing a therapist for his anger management and was handling his frustrations a lot better now. What surprised me was the first night that he stayed with us, he got dressed in the back bedroom and came out with a diaper under his shorts.
“Hey buddy, are you still being punished with having to wear a diaper?” I asked being concerned that this diaper punishment had been going on this long still, and it was time for it to stop.
“No, I just sometimes have issues at night, and I don’t want to damage your beds.” He said sheepishly
“When did you start having bedwetting issues? You weren’t wetting at night before.” I asked
“It started once I started seeing my therapist and sleeping better. My doctor also changed my meds too” He said. Riley had epilepsy as well, but it was well controlled with medication.
“Well thank you for being considerate, and I did not mean to embarrass you. You can either sleep on the sofa bed, or sleep above the cab in the bunk there.” I said, thankful that this RV has the extra space to allow us to use the over cab bunk for sleeping and not storage.
When he stayed with us, he was perfectly behaved, and took care of his diapers all on his own. I only knew he was wearing them because when I took the trash out I saw his plain white diapers mixed with my printed ones that I used from time to time.
The second weekend that we were there, we got a letter that our behavior was lewd and would not be tolerated. We marched up to the office and spoke to the manager.
“Your friend here needs to dress properly. Another camper claimed he was outside in just a diaper, and he acts like a damn freak toddler.” The manager said getting loud.
Before I could even respond, Max jumped in. “For starters he NEVER leaves our RV in ‘just a diaper’. He always has his lower half covered; usually with shorts, but at night he may have went out in just a onsie, still covers his diaper, which unless you were spying on us, you would not be able to notice. This is why we picked the 2 spots we did so we would have privacy. Furthermore he is the toddler who never wanted to grow up, and is not hurting anybody. He also is playing out behind the RV’s out of most people’s sight.” Max continued
“I have never once lied about who I am. I am paying just as much as the people who have music and drunken parties going at their campsite until 2 am; which we don’t complain about. We don’t leave a mess with beer cans strewn about, have our kids and guests making a mess in the public areas either.
We will not be back next year, and I sure as hell won’t be recommending this place to anybody else after this treatment. Nobody seems to be having an issue with us except YOU! The other people close by actually like that we are quiet compared to the other part of the park.” I laid into him, which I think surprised him, as I am usually very docile when Max is around.
We ended up agreeing to disagree and while walking back to the RV Max said that we might have to dial it back a notch to not loose our spot for the rest of the summer.
That fall we ended up hitting almost every state park campground, where we could be there for a day or two and then moving along to the next spot. We spent a week along the Lake Erie coast, hit up Cedar Point, the Zoos in Toledo, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus; along with every other animal park we could find. David and Riley enjoyed Cedar Point and the Toledo Zoo too.
That place worked for that year, but we would need a new place, one without the heavy handed rules.