starting RVing - part 3: does Margie like it?, finding our RV, first trip in our own RV - Travel With Us

rental trailer

One of Barney’s first concerns was that I wouldn’t like staying in an RV since I hadn’t done it before, so experiencing an RV for a couple of weeks before buying was important to him. I had not doubt that I’d like it.

We picked up the rental trailer at Lightin’ RV Rentals on a Thursday afternoon, and they hooked us up to Barney’s truck. We had our supplies and our food for a week stored in the truck. By the time we left the rental site, it was already 5:00 as we pulled onto Hwy. 85—the worst time to drive a 31’ RV behind a truck. Added to the rush hour traffic was the additional surge of cars because of a fire on a bridge on Hwy. 85 going through Atlanta, so everyone was on the road with us. But Barney is a trouper, and we made it safely through the Atlanta area.

Our first night on the road we made a reservation at Cecil Bay RV Park, a campground just inside of Florida. We unhooked the trailer in the dark and got set up; luckily, we could pull through the campsite instead of having to back in. The roads in the park were dirt instead of paved. We made up the bed in our “home” and slept soundly—our first night in a trailer was a success!

The next morning after breakfast (and a great cup of coffee), we connected the RV to the truck, and Barney realized that his inexpensive lock box wasn’t air tight and so was full of dirt. Hmmm. A trip to Home Depot at our destination in Stuart, Florida, for a better lock box was in our future. We made it to the state park south of Brian’s mid-afternoon and got set up. We did our first back-up successfully and realized we had a great view of Florida vegetation that’s close to a river.

The first night the family came for dinner (lasagna heated up in the microwave), and the boys loved going in and out of the trailer. During the week we got to see the family in the evenings, and the boys spent two nights with us enjoying the bunk beds.

One day Barney and I drove down to the everglades and enjoyed learning about this area of the United States. A ranger gave a great talk about the alligators and crocodiles in the park. Definitely this is a place we want to go back to and see more.

We did get a new lock box, and Brian said the best way to get rid of the old one was to put it out by the street for someone to pick up. He said it would be gone in a couple of hours, and he was right.

Mornings at the park were wonderful. We could sit outside in our soccer chairs and enjoy the beauty in front of us, me with my coffee and Barney with his iced tea from Chick-fil-A. Definitely this is a park we would return to!

Our trip home was uneventful, and we stayed at a nicer campground that was paved. Since we arrived after dark again, we decided not to unhook the trailer from the truck so it would be easier to leave. We got the trailer back to the rental place in time and took off for home. We both enjoyed the camping experience and wanted to continue putting our plan in place.

finding a trailer for us

As the summer months flew by, we kept talking about the trailer we wanted to buy. Barney found a place on Hwy. 75 close to Tennessee that sold the style we wanted but with a different name. Their website showed the trailer we wanted, so one Saturday we took off with Jason to check it out. When we arrived, we found that they were still waiting for “our trailer.” Phooey.

We looked through the styles they did have on the lot and were convinced again of what we wanted. A couple of weeks later Barney found a sales location off of Hwy. 85 just inside of South Carolina. Barney and I drove up on a Friday to check it out, and we again decided this was what we wanted. The only question was timing. Matt and family were going to be driving their mobile home out for thanksgiving and leave it here in Georgia so they could fly home. We would then drive it back to California by the end of March so they could have it for soccer games, and then we would fly home. Originally, we had thought we’d buy a trailer after this trip to California. So while their motor home was available if we wanted to travel around Georgia, we had no guarantee that the one we wanted would be available when we wanted it since they are so popular. Hmmm.

buying our trailer

One day Barney read in the blogs that the manufacturer of the RV we wanted was going to redesign its products and add a window to the front of the trailer. We couldn’t see the value of this since the Murphy bed would hide the window’s view during the day, and we wouldn’t want the view during the night. He also read that this change could decrease the carrying weight available for the trailer, not a good idea for us. So I started thinking, why wait?

Finally I voiced my question to Barney, and he agreed that we really didn’t have a good reason to wait. We decided that if we got the trailer we wanted now, we could start taking some weekend trips so we’d be ready for longer trips when we returned from California in March 2018.

We called Shane at the sales location, put down a deposit over the phone, and took off on Friday, September 29, to pick up the trailer. We planned a weekend trip to the Hiwassee area starting the next day for a long weekend since Mondays are now Barney’s day off. We had been collecting items for the RV, especially those supplies Barney would need for operating the trailer’s systems. Thank goodness for amazon.com! We kept the trailer on the street that Friday night, transferred the supplies to the trailer, and then took off Saturday morning.