Your RV Is Ready.

I took my RV to the Ford shop because of a recall notice. My camper sits on a Ford Transit chassis. I also asked for a price for an oil change and installing a trailer hitch on the front end so I could transport my bikes. My rack is the same that public buses use. It was such a nice day so I decided to ride around town while waiting for the call that the camper was ready.

When I retrieved the Transit, the dealer gave me a good price for the oil change, but his answer for the front hitch gave me pause. He said, “Ford does not make the hitch I wanted but he could get one from Camping World and install it for 3-4 hundred dollars. My pause was the he was going to get it from the place I bought the RV and my power of deduction says that I could save a bit of money by going to the source of the hitch. However…………. Camping world prices are premium. I’m going to get a quote from them but I’m not sure they will be less expensive. It sounds crazy, but in the world of RV’s, things are different. (not to mention, expensive). We’ll see. As for the recall. All the parts passed the tests and no defect was found. Naturally, the dealer replaced them.

I did have a decent ride in the city, with the sun shining, and the temps hovering around 50ish.

West Beach Barrier Pat — West Beach Elevated Path in the distance

West Beach Bike Path — New West Beach Bike Trail

Busy Fairhaven MUP — Busy Fairhaven, MA MUP

RV Recall Ride

98-IMG_0782 My new RV doesn’t have a name yet. Wifey wants to call it the Tiny House. I have started calling it Tranny. (The RV sits on a Ford Transit chassis). We shall see which name sticks.

The Ford dealership in the city is around 8 miles from my home. That short distance made it an easy choice to bring a bike along and ride home. The recall specs to the dealer say it’s a seven hour minimum job payment and the service guys said, with a wink, wink, to count on a couple more hours tacked on to the minimum. “I’ll call you tomorrow” he said. So “Tranny” was admitted and will stay overnight for tests.

Road Trip

dscn3262 — Spending the night at Cracker Barrel somewhere in Virginia

Sue and I recently completed our first RV road trip. This was the 23 foot vehicle we bought in October on a whim. We originally went out to buy a sectional couch for our living room and came home with an RV. It could be the ultimate impulse buy.

Our adventure took us to visit family in the southern part of the US. Atlanta, Georga, Ocala, Ponte Vedra and Jacksonville Beach in Fla, and Cullowee, North Carolina. We also stopped by to see friends in St Augustine, Fla for a day. This highlight of course was getting to spend time with our grandchildren in Atlanta. Second to that was being able to attend a surprise birthday party for Kate. Kate and Fabio lived with us for a few months while they were making seaworthy their tiny home, Tranquility, a 28 foot Columbia sailboat. We fondly refer to them as the “Italians”. We attended their wedding in the Italian Alps two years ago and that was an item on our bucket list that makes all the others pale in comparison.

dscn3273 — Photo session falls apart after a couple of minutes

We parked on the property of those we visited and either bunked in their home or in the RV. Our two dogs determined weather we stayed in or out of the home. Not everyone is a dog person.

While on the road we were able to stay in the back lots of Cracker Barrel restaurants. That worked out much better than we had anticipated while planning this trip.