Beginning of the End....

Cher and I are getting older. There's no escaping that - every day I go to work the "young guys" who are the age I was when I started this job 16 years ago, are dashing about energetically busy conquering the world; and me, well I'm just happy to get through the day without any of my clients turning up at Reception, shotgun in hand. Oh my goodness - what is man to do to keep up with all that youthful energy and enthusiasm?

I know - let's buy a 30 - 40 foot trawler, park it at the end of our dock and then cruise it 10,000kms around Canada and the USA (the Grand Loop) and then park it back at the end of the dock - that'll give the "young guys" something to think about.

Problem - Cher thinks I'm a lunatic and wants nothing of it. In a desperate attempt at staving off my fresh ambition she suggests (she's been regretting it ever since), that we take up RVing instead. Cruising a 30 - 40 foot trawler is not easy single handed. My hand is forced - reluctantly I agree and the Revised adVenture venture is on.

Great Expectations

So a great new dream is born - tour North America flat and when we've built up our confidence we'll do the rest of the America's. Oops I hadn't told Cher that - how do I delete something on this computer? Have Road will RV, that's our new motto.

So who has money for a new motorhome? No one right? So where does one buy a good used one? The USA of course - so it's down to Buffalo where we met the Nicest Salesman one could ever wish to meet, where he obligingly made us a good deal. Almost without realising it we owned the thing - where was that checklist of questions we were supposed to go through, and weren't we supposed to get it thoroughly checked over by someone other than the Salesman? Oh well, I must admit on stepping back to consider it objectively, our 31 foot 2004 Coachmen Leprachaun - is a sight to behold.  Big, Bold and Beautiful. Sweet.

A quick tutorial on how it all works and the next thing we were heading on up the QEW dreaming of good things to come. Question - How does one drive a 31 foot bus/truck/RV on a busy freeway for the first time ever? Answer - with trepidation and quite a bit of inspired guesswork. One thing I'll never do again is drive anywhere near another RV on the freeway. They may be driving it for the first time.

Trial, Trauma and Tribulation

Who said life was supposed to be easy? Actually the RV has held up pretty well just as the Nice Salesman said it would. Our failing memories - not so well. What did the guy say about the furnace?  Can we run the microwave off the battery, or ....? And how does that that whole toilet pump out system work again? Was the switch up or down? Hmmm - oh well give it a shot. If it doesn't work I guess I'll find out.

Question - how many visits to Canadian Tire does it take to buy a radio from them and have them install it? Answer - four. Well actually only three, but that's because we ended up calling the Pioneer Help Line direct and they figured out the problem. Another Question - what happened to radios with On/Off buttons and a simple volume button with a Treble and Bass option - gone with the Dodo. Now it's all electronic gimmickry. I didn't realise I'd need to hire a techie to take with me. Fortunately Cheryl does pretty well in that department, so we're all set.

Well after a few weeks of sitting on our driveway, we've pretty much exhausted WalMart's supplies, so we're all Set, Ready and Rearing to Go. Departure Day is nigh and our long awaited inaugural trip is upon us.

Hitting the Road - Jitters, Highs and Lows

It's 5am on April 4th, 2013 and Cheryl and I are set to beat the traffic across the GTA and head back to Buffalo. We have to talk to those nice folks in Buffalo who sold us this Baby and have them remind us of a few things. We have to get ourselves hooked up with limitless internet, and other basic necessities like that.

I have to say that the folks at Colton RV in Buffalo are nice people. Really. Helpful is their second name. They even let us spend our first night at their complimentary on site campsite designed for dozy types like us, in case we remembered overnight anything else we had forgotten. Now that is service.

The next day we were set for our first full day of real RVing without all the prep attached. We headed south trying to get away from overnight lows of less than zero. We now had real water in our plumbing system and could not afford to let it freeze. Like Canada Geese, we were soaring south.

We headed due south, avoiding the Interstates - too much traffic, too little experience driving the RV and not enough scenery. Well we discovered that New York State is beautiful, with lots of mountains and way too many villages with 25 mph speed limits. I nearly died, but Cher was in seventh heaven - in her book, slow is sweet.

The low of our day was our first fill up. I diligently waited for the cheapest gas before getting to our stop which was close to a big town. I finally found it at $3.73 per gallon. I nearly had heart arrest when I found out how much gas a Baby like this likes to drink. I consoled myself with the thought that if it had been a 30 foot trawler it would have been three to four times costlier. I felt a bit better, but not that much. Imagine my dismay to discover that all gas since then on has been $0.25 cents cheaper. Drat - don't you hate that?

We were welcomed into our home for the night  -  Candy Hill campsite in Winchester Viriginia after what felt like a lot of driving - we had been on the road about 9 hours in all. I was guided perfectly into our site and we were feeling like seasoned troopers. Until we got to do our first sewage dump. Which way was that switch again? No sweat - it went off like a dream.

The End of the Beginning...

We are now safely ensconced at the Anvil campsite in Williamsburg, which seems to be the South's historical equivalent of Florida's Disney World, covering almost the first two hundred years of USA history. We figure it's going to take three days to cover what it took these folks, two hundred years.

We now have three days of driving under our belt and are the epitome of modern day campers. I am sitting in the warmth of my heated RV with the following devices currently being charged or in use; two laptops, two iphones, Bluetooth radio, playing music off of our ipod,  along with electric heater to take the chill off. Oh yes and don't forget the GPS, back up camera along  and of course the famous Canadian Tire, Pioneer radio. I still need a tutorial on how to find a radio station with it. Oh what else are holidays are for if not keeping updated on the latest gadgetry?