Stream of consciousness typing while on our maiden voyage in our new rolling home on wheels:
We moved the stuff from our old trailer – the toyhauler – into our new coach last night. Now we are driving east on I40 to Needles for dinner, then we’ll turn right into the desert where we will find a piece of ground to park for the night in an almost moonless night. We are on our way to Quartzsite, Arizona. Around 9 hours one way. And we left after work. No short, trial size maiden voyage for us – we just jump right in!
Last weekend we had an empty Sunday – football playoff weekend – and we planned to work on the motor home. For Tom that meant taking the new smart tv out of it’s box and trying to figure out the wiring. My goal was to make the bed. After finding out that the mattress pad I washed had shrank, I went to Kmart to get a new one, plus some drawer liner stuff. Then I finally got the bed made and stood back to see how the redecorating projects could begin. I took off the headboard bumper and took down the window boxes in the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. Did I mention that Tom sees NOTHNG wrong with the current decor? His guy brain thinks of this as a car: Work on the motor and make sure all the parts are moving as they should. I on the other hand, view this as out home and I would prefer to live with soft green walls rather than the plain vanilla surroundings we currently have.
However, I was advised that we cannot paint Newmar walls without seriously damaging them, but in my mind there are other ways to get around the color of the walls. But Tom effectively put the brakes on all redecorating projects (for now), so I put the headboard and the valance boxes back up, but left them off in the kitchen and bath. My idea is that at some point Tom will trust me to do something nice and I at least want to change the bathroom. I mean, the wall paper border goes around the sink and has been rubbed off with washing, plus there’s a gap in the vinyl in the side seams. and the boxed balances were just plain OLD looking. I’m thinking beach theme. We’ll see.
So, how’s the traveling going? Noisy. Not bad at all when there’s a radio station coming in, but without that sound to focus on, all I hear are the rattles and squeaks all around the dash. This is definitely a shakedown cruise!
My assessment so far: the cupholder for the passenger seat definitely needs improvement of some type. Maybe they make cupholder inserts – or there are those flip down ones. The footrest is quite handy – especially for using my Lap top, but the motor up and down is very noisy. I don’t know if it just needs WD40 or we’ll have to live with it. The motor that brings the steps up so my feet have a place to land is broken and we’re waiting on a fix part to come in.
Other fixes needed: When Tom tried to adjust the antenna the handle fell off, so that’s another one. The previous owner complained about the headlights, and we don’t seem to have great forward visibility so Tom thinks they need adjusting. Then there are several chips in the windshield that need to be filled or fixed. And we need to get new windshield wipers. Tom thinks that’s a specialty RV item and can’t be purchased from a regular auto parts store.
We didn’t even think to check all turn signals to see if they were in working order before setting out – I know – shame on us! We need to check next time we stop because the people behind us don’t seem to be noticing when we have our right turn signal on. It’s not like you have to sop for gas all the time in these things – you can just drive and drive. When I wanted to take a turn at the wheel, Tom was surprised that I wanted to take my first turn at night, but there was no traffic, open desert roads, and I was keen on the idea. When I suggested we switch while going down the road, he (rightly) suggested that wouldn’t be safe. So we waited for a rest area.
Then I started driving with about 15 seconds worth of instruction. You can’t take the parking brake off apparently without having your foot on the brake or the thing will roll. Geez. And even though the cruise control is “standard”, since I haven’t used one for a while it took me a couple of attempts to engage it and you really need to use it because the gas pedal is so far out to the right. Not right in front of your foot like a car. And the brake pedal is – well a whole foot pad – and very touchy. As soon as I found the next exit, Tom took over – my choice. We found that it was much less stressful for both of us when he drives! So Tom was behind the wheel for over 5 hours straight while I was up and around, went to the bathroom 3 times, read a couple of magazines, started typing this. Works for me!
Peace & Love, Joy