Introduction

We bought a 26 foot 1993 Jamboree Rallye last year. Seven (fullname: 7_Out) retired from working with the State of Arizona in July and with all that we (I am the Mad part of Seven and Mad. Fullname: MadJayhawk), were almost ready to hit the road after looking at RVs for almost 3 years and trying to figure out the best way to hit the road.

7_Out is what Seven uses as a nickname when she plays poker on Absolute Poker and bridge on Microsoft's game site. She was a craps supervisor for Harrah's some time ago and used 7_Out on a vanity license plate. It is somewhat a sarcastic remark only craps players could appreciate. MadJayhawk is a nickname Mad has used since he started playing internet games 7 years ago. He is a big Jayhawk basketball fan and Mad can mean 'angry' or 'crazy' depending on his mood or how the 'Hawks are playing. Either one or the other.

Before we could hit the road though we had to get our youngest settled in college, sell a house, and move. After all the garage sales, all the open houses (we used a sell-it-yourself service called Assist-to-Sell), packing what we could not convince someone to give us a quarter or buck for, and getting started in a our new community we are now finally ready to travel.

Tomorrow is the official starting date for us. We are heading to the mecca of RVdom - Quartzsite for the big RV Show and flea market. We have the data all punched into the DeLorme Street Atlas with Earthmate GPS on our Compaq laptop. We pulled the RV out of storage today, filled her propane tank($15 for 7 gallons), cleaned her inside and out, gassed her up (only $95.39 for 41.5 gallons), checked out allthe systems, and fired up the fridge. We have located all the close-in geocaches in the Quartzite area and those along the way and plan to do at least 10 of those while we are there. It could almost be said that we RV to geocache. In morning we pull out and head west.

We really did a lot of research on RVs before we bought then bought the Jamboree in a fever (right condition, right mileage, right price - you know the drill). We were going to originally go the full time in a motor home route. Then we thought a 5th wheel would be better because we had planned to settle in one spot for 2-4 weeks at a time. Then back to the motor home for reasons we can't recall. Then to a Class C. Then back to a 5th Wheel. Then back to a Class C because we decided not to go full time and just wanted to get something used and inexpensive that had been well-cared for so we could try out the RV life style before investing big bucks into a hunk of steel with a sink and bed on 4 wheels. We looked at a lot of RVs and talked to a lot of sales people who probably thought we were nuts. Every analysis we did caused us heartburn when we looked at the depreciation figures for RVs. RVs depreciate breathtakingly fast so we decided on something nice with low mileage that someone else had eaten the depreciation on yet could get us from point A to point B and let us sit for awhile to enjoy point B. We like our Jamboree but our real love is a Carriage 5th Wheel. If we like RVing perhaps there is one in our future.

Well, that is our first post. We will fill in the blanks, let you know about our successes and failures, tell some stories about who we meet and where we have been, and where we will go next. Hope to see you around the campfire.