The first drive in the Tiffin…

So I inserted the key and turned on the ignition and rev’ed her up (I am pretty sure it is a she). Merikay asked if I test drove her before and the answer is no I didn’t but we did start her up and check her out pretty thoroughly. Since she has a 5 speed Allison I pushed the D button and gave her a bit of diesel and off we went… and first obstacle was  a large low hanging tree near the exit. Easily circumvented it was down the narrow road to my first ever right turn.

I let the front end go a lot further than I did in my old truck to turn right and I had a successful first right turn… one more and we were on the state highway a short bit till we got to the restaurant where we were going to eat lunch.  After hearing my driving looked pretty good for a rookie from my partner I had a great chicken fried steak and then it was time to get on down the road.

So we are driving and I am seemingly staying between the lines and noticing how ever so close the guard rails seem to get on the right side of the road (never noticed it before – wonder why?). So we drive on through Johnson City (a bit scary), on through Dripping Springs (a bit scary) and then we started approaching Oak Hill near Austin where the traffic started to become quite congested.  I was feeling pretty comfortable when we got here so I stayed in the middle lane of the three lane road (thinking I was big and they would steer around me). And then it happened…

An approaching light was turning yellow and I had to decide if I was going to stop or go for it.  I decided I needed to feel the motorhome stop on short notice so I hit the breaks firmly. Stopped at the light and when I did the passenger side curtain (which was apparently not secured) slid forward completely blocking off my right side mirror and part of the right side of the windshield. Traffic started moving and I thought “CRAP” so I stayed in the middle lane and hoped the next light turned red… it did and I hopped out of my seat and secured the curtain. Whew!!!

Driving though the congested south side of Austin with somewhat white knuckles I made it to Bastrop where my partner pulled into a convenience store for a potty break.  When I got to the entrance I scouted the place out and saw where I could pull out easily on the other side but when I looked up at the entrance there were three cars lined up to leave and I had to turn right into that entrance and hopefully miss them and the ditch on the right side of the entrance. Several YIKES later I was parked and talked with my buddy who said I was doing great.

With my confidence growing the last seventy miles would be a breeze right? Wrong! Sixty nine of those miles were easy but then I had to park the rig in my neighborhood alongside the curb in a cul de sac – YIKES!!! But with my wife assisting me getting close to the curb I was able to get her home after 3.5 hours of tense driving… I am now an experienced class A RV driver!

… now I have to get her turned around in a few days at the end of our cul de sac.. YIKES!

Our new (to us) home…

Well as crazy as it may seem to a lot of our friends we now own a motorhome and will be living in very, very soon. Upon making the deal with the previous owner a couple of weekends ago we started to get our minds into this whole “we are going to buy a HUGE motorhome” thing… My deal with the seller was that we would meet at a bank on the southeast side of Austin, TX.  My reason to meet here was to shorten my drive by about 80 miles each way and so I wouldn’t have to drive the motorhome through the Friday afternoon Austin traffic, which can be brutal in a car!!!

So as all plans go this one too went awry… the owner called and said he had to get some minor surgery the day before we were to meet and the doctor advised him not to drive the motorhome.  YIKES! Now I have to drive it the full 180 miles through Austin. YIKES!

So a buddy of  mine and I drove over to Austin where we met with the owner and concluded the banking transaction. He gave me a bill of sale and the bank gave me receipts from the transaction. We followed the owner into the Texas hill country between Johnson City and Fredricksburg where our future home was sitting.

The owner gave us the run through of the controls one more time and then it was all mine to drive. I must mention here I never – EVER – drove a motorhome before (my advice to you would be to do so). So I crank the engine and off I went.  We were only going to go about a mile to a restaurant we saw on the way in so my partner could tell me how I was doing and we could grab a bite and give me time to absorb all that was taking place.

… to be continued!

the motorhome has landed…

YIKES…

YIKES…

YIKES…

YIKES…

YIKES…

YIKES…

I just drove a motorhome for the first time in my life 179 miles through Austin Texas traffic… and it is parked in my front yard with no damage… Amazing…

Are you kidding me… this is for real… more pictures (and stories) coming soon!

RV Insurance… the comparison.

I took the liberty of filling out on line quotes for RV insurance on the web.  I got quotes from six companies.  The companies I solicited quotes from were all highly recommended from my scouring of the world web and and from reading the various RV related forums. I was interested in RV insurance for fulltimers – there is a huge difference in what it costs for this type of coverage as compared to what I call weekender coverage.

In order to be able to compare apples to apples I solicited quotes on the following items:

• liability - 100/300/50
• PIP - 5000
• uninsured motorist - 100/300
• comprehensive - 500 deductible
• collision - 500 deductible
• physical damage settlement options - agreed value
• custom equipment - 1000
• personal effects - 5000
• roadside assistance
• fulltimer liability - 100/300
• glass coverage – with deductible amount

The companies I received quotes from were:

• Victoria
• Progressive
• Geico
• Foremost
• Gilbert
• Overland

The quotes were fairly similar and ranged from 1176-1497. Research on the forums regarding claims made no clear winner emerge.So how did I decide? I selected the one agent who took the most interest in my situation and was one of the lower priced options… you may get different results. I hope this helps some of you looking for fulltimer insurance. Now all I need is an RV…

…guess who is going to Austin tomorrow to buy an RV?

Insuring a motorhome…

Insuring a motorhome… is not an easy task! I have contacted at least six different insurance companies and have gotten each to give me quotes that are as comparable as I can get.  I still have a few more to get as well.  I have laid them all out upon a spreadsheet for comparison purposes and there seems to be two groups that are similarly priced.

For the motorhome we hope to purchase the insurance is running from about $125 per month to $155 per month depending on who we choose. This is full timer insurance. Now obviously cost is a major factor for us but it is not going to be the only one in our decision since the main reason we have insurance is so that the claim process goes smooth and easy. So although We know which insurance company I am leaning towards We will ultimately decide after reading more forums and blogs of those who have had to make claims.

And yes I know I am running out of time as the fellow who I hope to buy our future home from wants to meet on Friday and complete the transaction…

… I better get busy…

Buying a motorhome from an individual…

Buying a motorhome is difficult enough without making it even more difficult. What I am saying is that buying a motorhome from an individual complicates things more than buying from a dealer. What makes it more complicated simply boils down to money and trust.  You are dealing with a lot of money in a motorhome transaction and it is necessary to extend a certain amount of trust.

I will share what is going on with this transaction. We are looking to buy a motorhome from a married couple who are giving up fulltiming and retiring to the sticks and bricks lifestyle. They have a lien on the motorhome and are upside down in their loan. So how does one make this work? I had some ideas of my own but I went to my trusted bank and got the experts opinion.

Now what made this deal convenient is his loan is at the same major bank as my bank account is so the transaction was going to easier as a result. My bank basically said that the process should go like this to protect me:

 

1. Obtain a Bill of Sale from the seller.

2. The seller should first pay the difference between our agreed upon sales price and the balance of the loan

3. The seller pays off their part of the loan and my bank will verify the remaining payoff of the loan which should be the agreed upon sales price (less earnest money)

4.I will then write a check from my bank to pay off the remainder of the sellers loan. The bank will provide photocopies of both checks from the seller and the buyer.

5.I will take possession of the motorhome and the deal is mostly done.

6. The seller will receive the title in 5-7 days and when they do they will mail the title signed by them to me.

So we plan to do all of this in one day at a bank between where they live and where we live.  We will each write our checks and they will turn the motorhome over to us. They suggested that I start my insurance on RV the day of this transaction. After I get the title I can take the bill of sale and the title to our local tax office and get the motorhome registered in our state.

Now you know why I don’t want to jinx it…. thought these details might help others in this situation…

Guess who put earnest money down on a motorhome?

Can’t say anymore about it because I don’t want to jinx it…. but wish us the best!!!

 

more to come later…

Sold the truck…

So in December of 1997 I was in search of a new truck and had found it in the form of a charming brand new white ford ranger pickup truck. Since then I have only put 67,000 miles on it since I mostly used if to go back and forth from work.

Today when I woke up the truck was gone! I sold it yesterday and as a result, today when I left the house to go to work, there was a bit of sadness that my old white ranger was gone… Man I loved that truck!!! So today I drove our brand new Honda CRV toad that had been hiding in our garage since we brought it home. I really enjoyed driving it but it just wasn’t the same… However, I hope that this is the beginning of brand new love affair with an inanimate object…

47 days to go… YIKES!!!!

Looking for a motorhome sucks…

Catchy title… huh? But really… looking for a motorhome that you want to live in fulltime is really hard work!!! I mean we look at a rig and everything looks good but the color scheme sucks!  What is it with the designers of motorhomes? Do they buy all of their fabrics on sale at the discount store or do they get the leftovers from the Las Vegas casinos?

I mean really!!! We have looked at a lot of motor homes and in general we like a lot of them but the décor is really hideous on many of them. I am just saying… we want to live in this and not feel like we stayed a night in a cheesy hotel…

But really we have started narrowing it down to less than a dozen rigs and we have finally come to grips that we may have to remodel the décor of whatever rig we may buy. 

So besides looking for motorhomes we sold our truck today and got to pay the entire proceeds to the tax man for the property taxes on our house… Nick there is a blog in here somewhere if you want it…

So we are less than 50 days to retire and leave this place and still don’t have a rig…

Wish us a lot of luck! Hope we don’t find an ugly one…

Consumer Electronics Show for RV’s…

What can I say but WOW!!! What a show!!! If you have never been to this international show in Las Vegas and have the opportunity to you simply must go… Had I not come down with the crud while I was there it would have been even better (later diagnosed as viral bronchitis – no wonder I felt like crap while in Vegas).

Back to the show… and no I am not talking about Vegas which is a show all by itself with all of its weird people and lost souls… I am talking about the World’s Largest Consumer Electronics Show… Every geek in the world was here (I know I saw most of them). So what were some of the coolest things I saw for RV’ers?

• 3D TV… There were 3D TV’s everywhere and if you have ever visited Disney World and seen any of their 3D skits you will simply love 3D TV…. Imagine sports, nature shows, simple things like models walking down a runway are now alive! You will just have to see it to experience it…

While here I found lots of interesting things to share with the people at work but also spoke with some vendors about stuff RV’ers are interested in.

• Weingard was there with their satellite antennas and they had a Winegard carryout automatic portable satellite antenna (model GM-1518) that looks like the a great solution for us at around 700.00 for the set up (which was way less than I thought…) So I got the brochure and will read up on it some more later. 
• Also, Dish Network was here and they now have a Pay-as-you-go TV plan that may be useful to many RV’ers.
• For window treatments there was Polarshades who have an array of window coverings that look interesting… more for commercial and residential properties but may be useful for RV’s.
• I also found a company that displayed many LED lighting solutions called Showa Industries that may be a good source for LED lights.
• There was even a company that offered portable solar solutions called Goal Zero which I found very interesting.

A great show overall and now that it is behind me (as is the crud I had) I had better focus on getting us an RV pretty soon or we will have to walk everywhere…

Phones, TV’s, Laptops, electronic gadgets galore…

Tomorrow I fly out to Las Vegas for my last official business trip where I will attend the International Consumer’s Electronics Show. More than 2,500 vendors consisting of manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems and related products and services will be on hand.  This is the single largest event for consumer electronics where more than 126,000 people from over 130 countries attended last year’s event. Every electronic gadget imaginable will be on display…

One thing I am looking forward to is the keynote from Verizon where they are likely to announce the 10 inch android tablet and some phones capable of using LTE. For more news go to the cnet site that is letting us have a sneak peak of some of the products being announced. I will mix a little pleasure with the business and look at some gear that may have to make it into my future home. I also have to be careful and not run into the Midlife Cruiser who is prowling around in Vegas as well…

Blue Ox, Roadmaster, Brake Buddy… Oh My!

Now that we have our toad it is time for us to get the toad ready to be towed behind our future home.  I wanted to buy the entire towing system and install it before we get our motorhome (since we don’t have one yet) but it appears as if we really need to wait on some of the parts since a crucial measurement is needed before installation on the toad.

It has been suggested to first measure the height from the ground to the center point of the motorhome’s hitch receiver and from the ground to where the base plate tow bar connections would be on whatever hitch plate system we decide upon. Why? Well most tow bar manufacturers recommend there be no more than 4" difference between these two measurements.  This will prevent the toad from pushing under or over the tow bar connection points during emergency stops.

But that shouldn’t stop me from buying and installing the base plate on our 2011 Honda CR-V. All my research has narrowed down my choices to Blue Ox and Roadmaster. After reading the installation manuals for both of them I feel more comfortable installing the Roadmaster since it doesn’t require any cutting of the existing frame structure of the CR-V whereas Blue Ox does. Both require taking off the front fascia which I admit seems a bit scary but doable.  Both require drilling new holes and fitting new components. Those who have installed them their selves suggest the Roadmaster is easier and will take about 3.5 hours to install.

So it looks like I will purchase the Roadmaster baseplate and then decide on the tow bar and brake system later…

Which tow bar and brake system would you recommend for the CR-V with a roadmaster base plate?

1-1-11 or Happy New Year…

We welcomed in the New Year Texas styled… we had a plate of homemade tamales (the ones we made), black eyed peas with jalapenos and homemade cornbread… and all I can say is mmmmmm mmmmmmm good! We even chased it down with a bit of bubbly…

So out with 2010 and welcome to 2011. The year 2010 was an interesting year with the changes in my job and the realizations that we were ready to depart the place we called home for the last 25 years. The good news for us in 2010 was that the stock market rebounded and empowered us to be able to retire when we had hoped for in March 2011.  So no changes to our retirement date were made which makes us really happy and we are enjoying the fact that 2011 is finally here.

I never have had much luck making New Year’s resolutions… only made one in my life that I was able to stick to.  What was it – you may ask? To Never Make Another New Year’s Resolution!!! I will stick to this resolution for 2011 as well.

Now that we made it to the year 2011 we are going to have a very busy time as we find our future home on wheels…

Hope that everyone out there in blog land will have a great 2011!