Logistics, planning and preparing for a time-less trip….

It’s been a few months since I returned from my RV trip to Savannah GA, and since then I went to Europe with my kids for two weeks, bought a used class A motorhome, put my travel trailer on consignment sale, moved my daughter from Brooklyn NY to Chicago IL in my truck. Upon returning to Bucks County PA, I made my way to my first RV show in Hershey, where I met many different vendors and saw the latest and greatest motorhomes. The following week I traded my truck in for a Honda CRV. Whew, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind but not that Fall is descending I need to make like the inevitable snowbird and plan to fly the Northeast coop for a long term pursuit of sun and adventure in my much larger and grander RV.

Some people seem very laissez faire and impromptu and ‘we’ll just park and camp wherever we wind up’ attitude. I envy them, since I am the complete opposite with spreadsheet and miles plotted, target dates for specific events and the camp sites that line my projected trip across Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas before the end of 2018.

I have learned that while I enjoy visiting cities, I do prefer to keep those nights to a minimum and spend more time in natural habitats where there a hikes to be made, birds to here and fresh air to breathe. I purchased the Lonely Planet National Parks of America which has terrific profiles of every national park in the United States. So Shenandoah in VA and Conagaree in SC are in the itinerary, as are Biscayne and the Everglades if I make it all the way down to Southern FL. The mix of natural landscapes and compelling cities such as New Orleans should make for an eventful journey.

So the reason I sold the truck is that it’s now irrelevant: no longer need to tow the travel trailer, and it’s too heavy to tow behind my motorhome. Once it was emptied of my daughter’s worldly possessions in Chicago I was on the hunt to a towable vehicle, nicknamed Toad in the RV world. The Honda was one of the recommended ones as it’s automatic transmission will agree with being towed behind a motorhome with little fanfare. I did enjoy the majestic height and power of my GMC truck, but must admit darting in and out of parking lots behind the wheel of the nimble CRV is wonderful.

I purchased my motorhome from a very nice and thoughtful man who, with a mechanical engineering background, had taken very good care of it. I found an RV service guy who is going to add the tow plate to the Honda, and also do a thorough review of tires, brakes, hydraulic, generator and other components. The motorhome did pass its PA inspection which is a good thing, but I need to make sure that I have it in peak shape for the journey ahead. After all, it sits for months in storage where I go to start it and shift the gears every few weeks. Now I’m calling on it to get me across wide expanses of the country – a completely different environment.

So hope to set sail in the next few weeks, and will have more to write about I’m sure here on the blog.