RV travels around the USA
We attended this massive show on the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa this year after hearing about it and seeing their ads. It is supposed to be the second largest in the US, next to the one in Hershey, Pa. The purpose was just to look around at the new RVs and see what has changed from when we bought ours in April 2017. What functionality and cosmetic changes have crept in over the last six years?
First of all, the name of this update could be misleading. This update is undoubtedly not about travel to some destination, but coming back to our home in the Virginia mountains. We had a great winter in Florida and also look forward to a summer at home. I’ve also had a bit of a vacation from writing this blog. Completely unintentional I assure you. Just busy getting the house in order and getting back into hobbies. We are already over two months into our summer. So, let’s do a quick recap and go from there.
Clermont, Florida – The winter travel break is a time to kind of relax from the chores of being on the road. Don’t get me wrong. We still love the travels all over this great country, but there is a small downside in the stress of relocating the 41 foot beast of a fifth wheel trailer to new and unknown destinations. During the 3-4 month winter season, in the southern warm climates, we do get the chance to just relax, but we also tackle any annual maintenance, begin on the new spring/summer/fall travel plans, and some other stuff thrown in as well.
Continue reading “Clermont, Florida – Annual Maintenance, Travel Planning, & Other Stuff”
Next up in our southward journey is the vacation mecca of Myrtle Beach, SC where we had some RV maintenance done, took a couple of down days, and meeting with some friends. This is the time of year to visit the MB area. Not many tourists so the crowds are down and the temperatures are great in the upper 60’s and low 70’s!
Our two week stay in Colorado Springs came to a quick end. It was a busy and fun couple of weeks, but that is the nature of our travels. We just get used to one location and then it is time to move on. Our next destination is due north once again to another beautiful Colorado state park: Chatfield. Located just south of Denver (pop 716,000 and 5,280 feet elevation) in the town of Littleton and on a lake. Sounds great! Until we had a failure of our hydraulic jack system and could not leave!
We finally have a new compact SUV after a couple of weeks of researching, test drives, and decisions! The category of car we wanted is a compact SUV to be able to explore our destinations, have good gas mileage and ease of parking. There were three choices that we reviewed: Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4, and the Honda CR-V. Here’s how we decided…
One of the planned upgrades to our 5th wheel RV is to change out the old RV refrigerator and replace it with a residential model. We found a good RV shop near Radford Virginia, close to our old home town. So with a little advance planning, buying the new refrigerator and inverter, and some labor costs, we will have the upgrade completed. Continue reading “Refrigerator Upgrade”
We have covered some distance in the last few days. South from Connecticut on the extremely rough I-84. Potholes, open seams, and all manner of other bumps and holes. On the way to Harrisburg, PA. On top of that, we were traversing through the Poconos. Long and steep uphill grades followed by the same downhill. Let’s just say it is not my favorite driving. And then the right front trailer hub began to smoke! Yikes! Continue reading “Travel Days to Harrisburg PA and Another Brake Failure!”
We had reserved a great campsite at Claytor Lake State Park that is near to our old home town of Christiansburg, Virginia. We booked this site for the maximum time of two weeks to allow us time to complete all of our annual health checkups plus some vehicle maintenance.
This leg of our travels was about 400 miles over two days of driving. This is a bit longer than we really like to drive, but needed to get to our Virginia location for some appointments.
We also had an unexpected brake failure with the 5th wheel coach while traveling in the steep mountains from the Cincinnati area to a one night stopover in Huntington, West Virginia! Yikes!!! Continue reading “Southwest Virginia; Family, Friends, Many Appointments, and a Brake Failure! Yikes!”
I have been planning to post this tour for some time now. But other items keep interfering. Well I finally have it ready after a long time in the draft mode. The photos are not staged and include our living clutter so please excuse. The tour begins with the inside of the 40 foot 5th wheel. The unit is a 2018 Bighorn 3760 EL and has three slide outs, an automated leveling system, two A/C systems, a furnace, and is insulated well enough to be considered a four season model. Continue reading “Tour Through Our RV”