Author: tepetravels

Posted in: Exploring South Dakota, Museums & Tours, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Day 2 Of Travel

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Day 2 Of Travel

On to our next stop! (June 10, 2020)

Most of the truckers that had also used the casino’s overnight parking last night were gone by the time we left. Let me tell you something; I feel huge when we are driving and towing the RV. However, when we pull into a gas station with truck pumps or park next a semi truck, I feel a little small.

We started early again to get the most of our day. We had left the slides in and everything put away for the one night, so we had much less to do in order to leave. We hadn’t even unhooked the RV from the truck. Our next stop was also in Iowa, although right near the South Dakota border. It was another casino, Grand Falls Casino. This one had an RV park with full hook ups for $35/night. We also had access to their outdoor pool.

It was pretty standard driving, no sudden storms this time. There was some construction, but nothing eventful. We did see lots of windmills and water towers. One water tower was even painted yellow and had a smiley face on it! We found a pay phone at a rest stop in Iowa. Seriously! Blue frame and all. We became card carrying rewards members of Kum & Go.

Once we arrived at our destination, I had to go into the hotel check-in desk to get the key to the electric box and our designated spot assignment. We also got the wristbands for the pool. The campground was all pull through spots, with full hookups. The RV park was towards the side of the property (road behind us and the driving range in front of us).

We grabbed some dinner, and this time it was pretty much what I expected. I did get to make a nice salad though!

The boys enjoyed the pool for a few minutes before it got too crowded and we left. We have noticed that not very many people are wearing masks in Iowa or South Dakota. There are signs “recommending” wearing masks, but nothing requiring people to wear them. We are one of the few, other than employees, and we are still trying to maintain a social/physical distance. The night ended with the boys filling in our travel map*. We have one on the kitchen wall and one in their room for them to fill out. (Thank you Denny & Gabe for the map, the boys love coloring in where they’ve been!)

Saturday we explored the area a little bit and went to the pool again in the evening.

We began Saturday morning with getting bagels from Bagel Boy. They were pretty good (and reasonably priced when compared to back home).

Will really wanted to see some oddities/quirkiness on this trip (things like the biggest ball of twine). We checked on AtlasObscura.com and RoadsideAmerica.com and found a few options. After seeing how far they were from us, we decided on Mr. Bendo, a large statue holding a tailpipe outside of a muffler shop. He was pretty large! According to roadsideamerica.com, in 2018 the city said he could no longer hold his tailpipe, as it acted as a sign for the business and was too tall. When the city’s people heard about it, they were upset and got the city to reverse their decision. Since it had not been considered a sign when it first began in the 60’s, they said it was a work of art instead.

Our next stop for the day was extremely out there. We went to Buffalo Ridge 1880 Cowboy Town. This one was definitely an experience. It was out in the hillsides, and this man has created quite the livelihood. He was very nice as he showed us around. He had a two pump gas station, a souvenir shop, the cowboy town, buffalo (also sold buffalo hides, skulls, and burgers), had several billboards on his land (both for rent and to advertise the cowboy town), and offered overnight parking. What an entrepreneur!

The town consisted of several buildings/exhibits: a gold mine, antique farming equipment, a saloon, a sheriff’s office, etc. There is an upper walkway so you can view the town as well. The other option to get a bird’s eye view is to climb the tower. You can see the buffalo herd sometimes from here as well.

The town had many hand-painted signs explaining what each exhibit is about. There are mannequins in each location, some of them are animatronic and speak or move. It was certainly an experience! The town is a little run down. It is a huge undertaking for one person. He also said he is still cleaning up some tornado damage from a few years ago.

Some of the robots still work, although they are a little worn. The town does sit out in all of the elements, so there is some weathering to the paint, wood boards, signs, the mannequins and their clothes. Some areas smelled a little musty, so I didn’t stay in there too long with my allergies. You could tell that a lot of work had gone into making the town, although I’m not sure exactly how historically accurate some of the information was.

I would definitely stop and check it out if you like finding oddities and things off the beaten path. When we went it was $8/adult (12+) and $4/kids. We did a quick video of some of the exhibits, if you want to check it out!

*Affiliate link

Alone Time

Written by tepetravels

If you know me at all, you know I am introvert. I seem to have a lot of extroverts in my life though! I need my alone time to recharge. It can be tiring and draining to be around people all the time. I know fellow introverts will understand, even if the extroverts don’t. 🙂

At the house, I could retreat to a different room or a different floor, but in the RV there isn’t a lot of space to get alone time. The original plan when we first began planning this trip had been to sit in a Starbucks or a coffee shop to decompress, but with COVID-19 that isn’t going to happen.

I have the best husband though. He is an extrovert, needs to go out almost everyday, while I am good with staying at home more. I was maybe a little cranky today. It’s been awhile since it was just me in a space with school being from home since March and COVID restrictions. Ben took the boys out to run errands and explore Keystone today so I could get some quiet time in.

I figured out some computer/phone stuff that had been driving me nuts, finished scheduling a few posts, and am about to make some coffee and read a book. Best husband ever. I am very lucky to have him balance me out and know when I need a break, even if I am too cranky to realize I need one as well. Love you Ben.

Posted in: Injuries, Newbie Mistakes

Reality Check…RV Life

Written by tepetravels 5 Comments on Reality Check…RV Life

I have been told that I am not writing enough. I am taking that as a compliment because the people in my life think I have something to say. Well intrepid fans, thank you for your patience. Hopefully the following is worth the wait.

My wife is so darn nice and optimistic, that her version of RV life comes out too…perfect. Everyone loves Sarah. But many want to hear the real story of RV life. Well, I really struggle with being anything but blunt and people love a train wreck, so here we go.

Driving: I tell anyone that will listen that the key to life is marrying well. I wish I could say I found the right one and I was so amazing I charmed her into marrying me. Unfortunately, I was just a stupid 21 year old that lucked into an amazing person who decided I was good enough to hang on to. All that said, Sarah has driven the rig 80%+ of the time. I took a brief 200+ mile stint of the first 1,400 mile we have driven so far. It wasn’t hard driving, but certainly not my favorite. So, I am very glad that she is a competent, independent woman that can manage almost anything.

NOTE: My driving experience stopped when I got over confident pulling into a gas station and set the RV up for a bollard catastrophe that required backing out of a rather easy pull through spot. We are still learning to back the rig up well, so this ended up with some terse language back and forth with my aforementioned love of my life. Gratefully the gas station on the semi side was close to empty and real truckers can spot a newbie RV owner a mile away. They all gave us a wide birth as we figured things out. Apparently I am going to learn humility on this trip.

Kids: Sometimes I think God put kids on this planet to test us. More time with them has been such a rewarding and frustrating time. Being mini versions of us, the kids know exactly what buttons to push to get us angry. Overall, I am learning to be more patient and they are learning how to deal with Dad in 400 SF of space.

Some fun kid situations so far:

During one of his first events using the rather small shower in the RV, one of them managed to shut himself in the doors. To which the rest of the RV got to hear “Ow my penis.” This has been an ongoing refrain for anyone that gets hurt (regardless of region).

The kids convinced me that since the Greyhound did not make it on the trip we had enough room for bikes. After Walmart provided fully assembled bikes for under a few hundred bucks I was convinced. Will got a nice Mountain bike that he can grow into and Nick got a classic BMX with upgraded handle bar brakes.

So, the kids are not expert bikers. They have only cycled in controlled suburbia sidewalks. So, after we got the bikes ready at the camp site, I gave them a quick tutorial on biking with hand brakes and on gravel. I would have been better to teach the various trees how to ride bikes as in retrospect I don’t think they could hear me over their internal dialogue of “YEAH BIKES!!!!!!”

Well friends, no matter how frustrated you get with your kids, you never need to reduce yourself to corporal punishment. Mainly, because kids do it to themselves.

Day 1 of bike ownership the older one learned the hazards of gravel as he lost most of the skin from both elbows. On the upside, this allowed me to use the nice first aid kit my mother-in-law made for us and to dust off my first aid merit badge skills.

Day 2 the younger one learned the hazards of the front brake as he flew over the handle bars. Luckily nothing was permanently damaged and he kept all his teeth.

POOP: I have gotten the opportunity to do some plumbing in my life. As a two time home owner and a dad to two rambunctious boys, I have replaced a number of toilets. It is never a fun job and often leaves me stinky and disgusted.

Well, RV life gets you close and personal to this exciting part of human life. On day 2 of boondocking we got to empty the black tank and remove the hose. Nothing can really prepare you for a 6:30AM poop shower/bath. Apparently we had a knife valve that was sticking. I haven’t seen much more that motivates me in this word than a 3″ open line of urine and feces under 30 gallons of head pressure. I found the strength within me rather quickly to “unstick” that knife valve and stop the cascade of fun. After a quick wash off, I even managed to smile long enough for a photo. Although, I have to admit the smile is slightly forced for the picture.

Money: Man is this cheap adventure expensive. It seems like everything we do costs more than I expected. $10 to park at Mt. Rushmore, $30 to see Crazy Horse, $20 Custer State Park, $10 parking Deadwood, $25 Buffalo Ridge 1880 Cowboy Town Museum, $6 for bundles of firewood, multi-hundred dollar RV campgrounds. Hopefully most of these are normal start up costs and this outflow of cash slows significantly. Some of the more expensive items we purchased to get started (besides the RV itself): TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors) for RV tires $327; Coach-Net insurance $179; backup camera for RV $546; EMS (Electrical Management System) to help manage potentially unreliable campsite electrical grid $387; telescopic ladder $120.27; RVLock door locks $290.99; Viair compressor $311.37; under mattress pad (keeps air flow, prevents mold) $106.95; blackout curtains for boys’ room (they broke the aluminum blinds night 1 of use) $73.39; wheel chocks/x-chocks/levelers $150; LevelPro $145; full time RV insurance $621; Good Sam roadside assistance $80; the list goes on, but it makes me tired just to write it all down. I factored in about $5,000 for start up costs and I think we will likely blow through this pretty quickly. I will do a later post mid adventure reviewing this gear and seeing if it stands up to full time living. In general, so far, I have really loved all the things that we have gotten.

Work: I was lucky enough to work for a company that let me go remote for a year to live out this dream with my kids. They agreed to this all pre-COVID, so prior to the huge swell of remote workers making this mainstream. They are a remarkable company and I am grateful to work for them. Based on perceived limitations of remote work, we decided it would be best to move from a Manufacturing Leader to an Operations Analyst. The Manufacturing Leader role is easiest done with a physical presence and has many direct reports that require regular interaction. The Operations Analyst position has no direct reports and allows for more independent contributor work. This has been my first week in the Operations Analyst role and it went very well.

Pluses:

When doing independent contributor work, I can retreat to an office with the best view of my career.

I thought the hardest part would be connectivity. I have been blown away by how good the coast to coast networks have been. I would say it is very similar to home. The only time we lost signal was deep in a National Park. We were even able to FaceTime my dad in Deadwood so he could see the staged gun fight.

Deltas:

I am still adapting to being an hourly employee. I have done this before and will get back in the swing of things. I tend to get lost in my work and time flies by. It is just a hassle to set alarms to make sure I do not go over my 40 hours.

Time zones are tough. We are currently on in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) and my work is in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). This translates to a 2 hour delta. This is a double edged sword. I start earlier (i.e. – 6:30AM/4:30AM EDT/MDT). I finish earlier (i.e.- 3:00PM/1PM EDT/CDT). So I am working several hours before the family wakes up and going to bed several hours earlier. It should be interesting to adapt to the Pacific Time Zone.

WRAP UP:

So far, I couldn’t have asked for more.

More time with my kids has been great. I am really getting to know them better and am learning a bunch of things over that I thought I knew about them.

Things break, smell and challenge me every day. I am regularly humbled by all that I do not know, frustrated by interactions with my family and the world and pushed to learn faster than I previously have. It is all good and really just part of life. We are living more now than we did and getting out there. Hopeful for the best that is to come.

Safe travels out there.

~Ben

Travel Day, First Time Out of Ohio (well, first time with the RV)

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Travel Day, First Time Out of Ohio (well, first time with the RV)

June 9th started our adventure. Although we had been living in the RV for a month now, it’s very different trying to pack it up, move it, and then unpack it all again.

We have watched countless YouTube videos. Seriously, we have been watching for about a year or so now. Trying to do this in real life is so much different (and harder) than watching all the videos would make you think it would be.

The night before we packed up all loose items. All loose items: coffee pot, radio, paper towel holder, baskets holding remotes, Nick’s plants, dehumidifier, all cords/games/etc.. Everything had to be moved out of the way of the slides. Anything that could move had to be packed away, shut away, etc. We even took out the microwave glass plate and wrapped it up after hearing about how the door could open in transit and the plate could fall out and break.

We also packed up the cooler and the snack bag for the truck and preloaded everything we might need. The slides were put in, and we thought we were good to go.

It still took us almost two hours in the morning.

After finally getting on the road, driving was ok. We hit a few spots of construction where there was heavy stop and go traffic. We had to slam on the brakes once when the person in front of us slammed on theirs. There was a semi behind us. Of course, the semi is larger and heavier than even us and stopping is even slower for them. He ended up pulling onto the shoulder to avoid rear ending us. Based on where he was sitting on the shoulder, we definitely would have been hit. We were very lucky. My heartbeat took awhile to get back to normal.

We ended up stopping every few hours for bathroom breaks and/or for fuel. Indiana had surprisingly nice rest stops with lots of larger parking spots for semi trucks and RVs.

Will took a turn in the front passenger seat when Ben had some work to do. (For some reason the back seat has more space than front passenger seat.) He took a few pictures, but quickly fell asleep!

Stopped traffic, Will’s reflection in mirror taking pictures, sound asleep minutes later

Iowa was very green. As we were driving through, we checked with the BassPro Shop that we were planning on stopping at for the night. They told us that the city had recently put out No Overnight Parking signs, so we could not stop there. As we were trying to find a new place to stay for the night (we were planning on boondocking), a big storm rolled in and with it a tornado warning. So much fun. The visibility was extremely low, even with headlights and wipers on full blast. It got extremely dark very quickly. It was a harrowing part of the drive. When it cleared up a little bit and the sun came back out, we decided to call it for the night and looked for another place to stay. With a little more research, we found Riverside Casino in Iowa. They did allow overnight parking.

We got the RV parked and went to find some dinner at their cafe. I’ve had casino food before and it’s normally not something to write home about (excluding Las Vegas). This place was delicious. We got several items to split between us: fish tacos, pizza, salad (with chicken), and an amazing poutine. It was a wonderful dinner. We also got a chocolate chunk cookie and a zephyr (glazed donut filled with mouse/cream puff filling, topped with sugar and glazed walnuts).

On our walk back to the RV, we were greeted with an amazing sunset. All in all, it was a decent day. But now I want more of that poutine and another zephyr!

~Sarah

The Shaving Dilemma

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on The Shaving Dilemma

Ok ladies, let’s talk shaving. Our shower is a corner type, so it is a little snug in there. I think I’m about average size, not too tall, not too big. It’s tight. There is just no way I am bending over to shave my legs in this thing. There’s really no room for me to prop my foot up and only semi bend over either.

While I could dry shave at the sink, I have really dry skin so that just causes more problems.

I couldn’t justify spending a lot of money on an electric shaver when razor refills were so cheap to get. So, I spent less money and was less satisfied. I went through several different types of “ladies” electric razors. None of them seemed to work well (not close enough, pulled at hairs, etc.). I gave up for years and went back to the regular razor.

Now, if you know me, you also know that I am uncoordinated even on a stable solid flat surface like the inside of a home. My legs have multiple scars from cuts throughout the years from shaving mishaps. Ben finally pushed me to look at electric shavers again after the last cut (more of a gouge) took months to heal. We were on vacation and in a smaller shower for that one. My foot slipped off the edge of the tub and ouch.

I tried another women’s razor and was unhappy with the results. It also broke within a couple of months. I had no idea what I was going to do in the RV. (I also hate waxing!)

Finally, after reading some reviews I went with a men’s razor. Specifically the Phillips Norelco 6800* series. I was super hesitant to spend $100 on an electric razor that I might end up hating. It’s not like you can try them out before you buy; they’re not a lotion sample.

I love it. It is an electric, so it doesn’t get as close as shaving with a regular razor with blades. But it’s pretty darn close. Ben has even started using it (for his face though!). I do still use my razor for my underarms and trimming (although the electric does pretty well with underarms too). It’s much faster to shave with the Phillips Norelco than it was with the previous razor (I had to go very slowly and over the same spot multiple times).

I let the fact that it was labeled “men’s” keep me from trying the other types of electric shavers. I have been using a men’s regular 5 bladed razor for years now after realizing that razor blades are pretty much the same-the handles are just different colors. I don’t know why electric razors were different in my mind; maybe legs are a different shape than a face so wouldn’t women’s razors be better for shaving legs, since they should be designed for that purpose? Whatever the reason, I am glad I gave it a try.

You know you bought a more expensive shaver when the ties holding it in are so nice.

*Affiliate link. Not a sponsored post, just really happy with my purchase!

Posted in: Campground Review, Exploring Ohio

Frontier Campground

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Frontier Campground

We needed a place to park the RV for a month while we sold the house. We wanted to find a campground that had full hookups so we could get used to the systems in the RV. Everything was new to us.

Most of the local (within 45 minutes of the house) campgrounds were booked for the month, or didn’t have full hookups available. We tried both private and state parks. Our HOA doesn’t allow for long term RV parking either. Finally, I found an opening at a campground that was doing monthly/long term rentals: Frontier Campground in Waynesville, Ohio.

The campground is only RV’s (travel trailers, 5th wheels, a few class A’s in the mix), although there are also cabins available for rent. There is an office that sells ice ($2/bag), a laundry facility (takes quarters), a shower house (closed currently due to Covid-19), a small dog park, some play equipment, and a rec room (also closed to Covid, but looks fun in the pictures).

Sites are $500/month (cash/check, or $515 with credit card), plus electric ($0.18/kwh). Everyone we dealt with on the phone or in person was really nice and helpful. Walter even took time and helped me pull into the spot and get the water hooked up (it was still shut off from winter) when he knew it was my first time trying to park the RV.

Pictures from Frontier, including a frog visitor in our water hookup basin

The campground is close to Caesar’s Creek State Park, a canoe/kayak rental place, Little Miami Bike Trail, and Spring Valley Wildlife Area. Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, and Target are about 20-30 minutes away.

Most of the spots are shaded and there are a lot of trees on the lot, although it seems like they keep them decently trimmed. The shade definitely helped when it hit 90 degrees! It does seem like a mostly long term, full time facility. There is an Air Force base close by that they said they get a lot of business from.

The dog park was small but fenced. It was nice to let her off leash to walk around. There was a bunch of poison ivy along the back fence, so we kept her away from there.

We had a good stay. Towards the end we did loose power (and water) twice, due to the high heat and the electric demand of the area. It didn’t stay off for too long (a few hours the first time and 30 minutes the second time). It was a quiet place to stay and pretty close to various stores and trails.

Caesar’s Creek is a great place to explore. See the Caesar’s Creek post for our experiences there.

The Little Miami Scenic bike path isn’t too far away either. We drove down to an access point (maybe 5 minutes away), parked, and took a walk. There was a brief view of the river, some smaller feeder creeks, and old telephone poles (the shorter ones with metal spikes that probably has the glass caps). I eventually got made fun of for taking too many pictures of the old poles: “Hey Mom! Look! It’s a telephone pole!” We ended up near a park and turned around. Keep in mind this is not a loop trail, so you will have to turn around! Different points on the trail offer different views. Our was pretty boring, but there are several access points nearby, so we may try another one soon.

The Spring Valley Wildlife Area main parking area was closed, as was the boardwalk. We tried walking some of the trails close to the campground, but didn’t have much luck. (Too many biting flies.) I think once they get the boardwalk repaired and the trails cleaned up it could be a really cool spot to walk through.

~Sarah

Our RV Tour

Written by tepetravels 2 Comments on Our RV Tour

When we first started planning this whole adventure back in the Fall of 2019, we had all kinds of plans. We started making RV Park/Campground reservations in January. Six months out and we still had a hard time finding reservations near the National Parks!

We had planned to have a RV tour and to have a going away party with our friends, family, and the kids’ school friends. The boys were going to finish out the school year strong, go to the ice cream party that happened after school on the last day, and we would leave a few days after that.

Plans of course changed. Covid-19 delayed getting the RV, delayed our leaving, had us stocking up on masks for the trip, and then we had to reschedule and reroute several stops and/or campgrounds we had wanted to see.

We still want to share this adventure with our family and friends, so instead of an in-person, IRL tour, we are going to do a quick virtual tour. Here is the link to YouTube! We are still making changes as we settle into the RV.

The dog is not adjusting quite as quickly as I had hoped. She was not a fan of the lack of carpet in the RV, even though her bed is super plush. To help her with the hard and slippery surface of the linoleum floor, we put down the foam mats that were originally in the kids area in basement of the house.

~Sarah

Posted in: Exploring Ohio, Hiking, Sightseeing

Caesar’s Creek State Park

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Caesar’s Creek State Park

Caesar’s Creek State Park is located in Ohio. We didn’t stay in the Caesar’s Creek campgrounds as the full hookups were completely booked. We do know several people who have enjoyed camping there though. Our campground was about a 15 minute drive to the hiking areas, so we ended up making several day trips. Most of the trails are really well maintained, some with gravel paths.

NOTE: Some of the trails had a No Pets and No Bicycles restriction.

Our first time venturing out into new hiking trails, we were trying to find the waterfall, but ended up taking the wrong trail. However, we did end up seeing a mom and two baby raccoons!

We stopped at the damn and saw a few boaters and a kayaker on the lake. It was a beautiful day. The boys loved the hike and we only saw a few other people out. (It was great for social distancing!) We walked through the fossil area and all of the boys added a rock to the tower that had been started.

We have tried four of the Caesar’s Creek trails:

Caesar’s Trace: This one was our first trail. No pets or bikes. It had a few spots where the trail went close to a creek. The boys had lots of fun climbing around the banks and over tree roots. It was on this path that we saw the raccoons. We were both minding our own business and ended up startling each other. They ran up a tree to watch us, while we stood on the trail and watched them.

Horseshoe Falls: We started on part of this trail and must have crossed over to another one. I want to go back to finish as it looks like there are several cool features. We ran into the fossil collection area as well. When I actually used Maps from the All Trails app (we just use the free version for now), it got me to the right parking lot! We loved this trail. In fact, it was just the boys and I since Ben had a meeting. I think this one is one to go back to so Ben can hike it too. The path was nicely compacted dirt, just a few muddy spots that were easily dodged (it rained a few days ago), and wide enough that I didn’t feel like I had to turn sideways to make it down the path. There was plenty to see along the trail; a glimpse of the lake, a creek, tiny waterfalls, a cool rock wall, then finally the falls (now granted, they are not like Niagara Falls, but still pretty darn cool and beautiful). You can stop there, or if you walk up the trail a little bit more, there is a rope bridge and a path that you can take to cross to the other side of the falls. Nick found out the hard way (probably the 100th time) that wet rocks are slippery. Luckily he only scraped the side of his leg a little bit, and may have some bruises.

Gorge Trail: We liked this trail a lot. If you take the path one way, you go up a somewhat steep set of wooden stairs. If you go the other direction to begin the hike, you will end up walking down the stairs. There was a pond, several bridges, and the water runoff area was pretty cool to see. To help wear the boys out, they ran up the steep hill that makes up the side of the dam (this is by the water runoff area).

The hill from the dam and them stopping halfway up for a break

Fifty Springs Loop Trail: I would skip this one. This was not as well maintained or marked. It was supposed to be an orange marked trail, but because of organic pigments in the sun, had faded in many places to yellow. It crossed an actual yellow marked trail, so it was easy to get on a wrong path and not end up where you wanted to go. Much muddier after the rain than the other trails.

~Sarah

Just another average Thursday… Buying an RV (June 4th, 2020)

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Just another average Thursday… Buying an RV (June 4th, 2020)

It just slid past midnight as I write this, so I guess it’s technically Friday. I am exhausted. “Of course you are”, you may be thinking, “it’s late, go to bed.” I am actually laying in bed writing this on my phone. It’s been a day; I can’t shut off yet.

Thursday started out with more clearing out of the house. The oldest still had school stuff in his backpack (wrappers, old assignments, etc.), toys were out in the basement, etc. We cleaned it up and made some progress on the house. I patched and painted, filled and spackled all the natural wear you don’t notice normally when living in a home, but will stick out when you go to sell it. Like all those pictures we took down or changed positions over the years.

After having a late lunch, we bought an RV.

What?! Wait! Go back.

Yup, we bought an RV today. Well, officially a travel trailer. We had a 2:30 pm walk-through.

We went through a dealer. I will go through why we picked this RV in a different post. I loved our sales guy Eddie. Now, I know sales guys are supposed to be friendly, but he answered texts and emails and didn’t seem to get frustrated with our thousand newbie questions. I’ve had sales people who just didn’t care. But, this was actually a pleasant experience.

We had looked at this RV a few times and had already negotiated the price. We ordered a few extra things and were waiting for them to come in before the walk-through/paper signing was scheduled.

The walk-through itself was interesting. Our sales guy was onsite, but the walk-through itself was done by the service department. At first the service guys seemed friendly. We had Nate and Tom. Tom, the trainee, had recently retired and was doing this as a post-retirement job. Nate was younger than us, but had lots of experience since he had been doing this since he was a kid. We also had John there as our inspector, who we had hired through the NRVIA (National Recreational Vehicle Inspector Association). We are going to be living in this full time for a year, so we wanted to make sure to catch anything obviously wrong with it before we signed the papers. The dealership did not seem happy that we brought in an inspector. They made a few little comments along the way. We went over the outside, we went over the inside, we opened drawers, we checked doors. We checked the second A/C unit we had installed, as well as the MaxxAir Fan in the bathroom we had upgraded. We asked questions and John taught us along the way. Tom also added a few things he had learned in his years of RVing. Nate was pretty quiet.

The walk-through is also called a PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection), which is a checklist the manufacturers want the dealers to go over before a sale. John informed us it is generally 1 piece of paper the manufacturers create.

We were there about 2 hours. Nate and Tom were getting antsy and tried to hurry us along, especially Nate. He was impatient and if he had been our salesperson, I may not have gone back for a second look at this dealership. He said things like “PDI’s normally only take 20 minutes” (we did tell the person who scheduled it that we were bringing an inspector), “You get a $50 voucher but it’s good for today only and the [dealer owned] store closes soon”, and finally “I want to get home…”.

We were almost done anyway, but it felt like they were really rushing us along.

One of the last items to be looked at was the roof. I was so glad John climbed up there. I am not looking forward to having to do that to check the seals. There were several spots that had bubbles, which when he pointed this out to the dealership guys, was told it was normal. We did get pictures of it thanks to John, and asked that it be noted on the dealer paperwork for the walk-through.

We finally met up with Eddie, our sales guy, when the walk-through was over. A friend of ours and my father-in-law drove over to be the lead and follow car for our caravan home. It was my first time driving anything being towed, so the extra help was extremely useful and appreciated. They also installed the back up camera while we were waiting on the finance part of things. (Thanks Dad and Doug!)

We mentioned the roof to Eddie and he called the local Keystone rep, who also said with the new roofs, that was normal. While Eddie dealt with a car sale and we waited for the finance department, I walked over to the store to spend my $50 credit and pick up the WeBoost we had ordered with the RV. John walked over with me and we talked a little bit there as well.

I had plenty of time before the store closed and picked up a couple of things that were on our list that we hadn’t bought yet.

The finance part of it was surprisingly easy. There was the normal GAP insurance sales pitch, but otherwise it was easier than when we bought the truck. Maybe it was because we had already negotiated the price of the RV before the walk-through and paper signing. Whatever the reason, it went pretty fast, and we were on our way home.

Now, Ben will tell you I did a great job. I think I did ok, but man you could hear my hands letting go of the steering wheel when I finally pulled it into our driveway and turned the truck off.

Our friend Doug stayed to help us level it in our driveway, which was an enormous help because the drive slants downward at the end.

Dad stayed to help install the new microwave in the house. When the house heard we were selling, the microwave and the garbage disposal quit out of defiance within weeks of each other.

After everything was done, I remembered to call John. He was going to send a report, but mentioned I could call him as well. He thought it was going to be a fine RV. He and his wife gave me lots of knowledge and advice they’ve learned through their journey. They were a very friendly and helpful couple.

What a day! It took 6 hours to get it inspected, purchased and parked in the driveway, but it felt like it flew by. I guess the nerves, stress and fear of messing up really accelerates time. Happy to be done…for now.

~Sarah

Shout out to Eddie Holmberg and John Addington ([email protected]): Thank you for making this such a great start to our journey!

I Made My 1st YouTube Video

Written by tepetravels

We have a YouTube channel! As of 6/23/2020 at 11:30pm, there is 1 whole video! It may not seem like much. And honestly it isn’t, but it is my first video to be published on YouTube. Not a huge deal in the scheme of things (especially once you see the video!).

I videoed the unboxing of our Furrion Backup camera. Of course, we had already started boxing up the house and storing items, so I had no idea where my tripod went. The video would have been much better with that simple tool. However, I was able to edit out the sections where someone was snoring in the family room! In case you were curious (like just how bad a first time video attempt is), here is the link to the video: Unboxing My New Furrion Back Up Camera

~Sarah

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