Now that we have acquired our new motorhome we wanted to give it a good test. We left on a Thursday before Memorial day for Elkhart Indiana to visit our friends Terry and Dale Pace. Trip is about 210 miles one way and that would be a long enough drive to get a feel for the new rig. We had been a couple of times to Kiser Lake but that is only a few miles up the road but was a good test for any issues.
The trip over was pretty windy, lots of cross winds. I have made several changes to the chassis to help it handle better like changed the sway bar settings to help prevent roll of the body, installed Sumo Springs to help cushion the hard bumps, steering stabilizer to aid in the effort to steer and control should we ever have a blow out and last I built a Track Bar for the rear of the chassis to stop sway from approaching or passing trucks. All those certainly benefited the ride and control but there is nothing you can do with a gas rig to prevent cross wind from pushing you around. Diesel Pushers are quite a bit heavier and handle better as I recall from when we had our Monocrapo DP.
Anyway the ride over wasn't too bad, hopefully the wife gets a better ride in these seats than the others we have owned and Jessie seems to find the couch quite comfortable for riding. :)
Took us about 4-1/2 hours to get there with a few stops and one of those was for fuel once we were on the toll road and close to Elkhart. Our mileage was 6.3, about what was expected since we were towing our Honda Fit on a tow dolly. Our last motorhome lost about 1 to 1-1/2 mpg towing. Trip was pretty uneventful.
We were here for 5 days and lots of eating and enjoying the company was had. First day we hit the RV surplus stores and then to Essenhaus for lunch! Had the buffet with everything you can imagine.
Up till Friday evening the campground was pretty quiet but then the holiday campers started rolling in. Kids were playing and dogs were barking so pretty much a typical outing except a little more intense :)
Saturday Dale and I went to a pond that was opened last year across the tracks from Goshen Fairgrounds. It use to be a gravel pit and I toted along the Kayaks so Dale could see if she liked it. Had a great time, only half a dozen people on the water and no power boats or swimming allowed. Dale said the shallow end was 172' deep and they don't know about the deep end! Was a little intimidating at first but the water is so clear it was incredible! You could see fish swimming below you 20' probably.
So we spent about an hour and a half on the pond, Terry at one point got bored waiting and left to run an errand. It was a great time and relaxing.
Later that afternoon I took Deanna back so she could see the place and we walked Jessie around the lake.
Later that evening was slated for a Dairy Queen required run.
Sunday we went to a gun show and flea Market at the RV museum center, sounds like a weird place but it is more than just the museum there. Only purchase as a couple of hats but had a fun time looking. Then back to campground for some lunch.
Monday was just lounging around and it rained off and on all day long.
Tuesday is head for home day, we wanted to get an early start and had everything packed and ready to go by 9 but the motorhome had other plans. Started out with the slide not coming in. Ironic that we were in the same town it was built in. :) Anyway called Thor and they had me check a few things but that didn't work so they were trying to contact someone else for information. In the meantime I called Lippert who made the system and they gave me a couple things to try which also didn't help. After messing around with it I magically got it to work. OK now we are ready to go.......NOPE, now the jacks wont come up! Once again a call to Thor and we got those working. The first tech called back and wanted me to take it by a shop they recommend which was pretty much on our way home anyway so we did. He looked at it and said without it messing up he couldn't trouble shoot it but while there I had him add a seal to the slide I was afraid would end up leaking. So it was definitely worth going there and I think I will use this guy for our service even though 4 hours away.
Rest of the trip was no issue except still having bad cross winds of 20+ mph but we made it home without anything else going wrong. Was a great 5 days and nice to get away.
Ms Jessie hanging out!
As you can see she brought her toy box with her.
Oh and Ms Jessie's biggest nose fan Terry
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