Out with the Old and in with the New

Our Quartzsite trip turned out to be a fork in the road. We took the jobs with Thousand Trails at Brainard Lake and started thinking - will our Jamboree be adequate for 2, 2 1/2 months while we were working? The answer was a resounding 'no'. We could stand a couple of nights in the Jamboree but after just 2 trips and maybe 400 miles we were ready for something larger.

Next question was what to get? Fifth wheels work best for the long term camping we were going to do in June but we were also planning on being on the road for some time after our job ends in September and a Class A or large Class C is best for nomadic travel. So we had to decide and began looking around Quartzsite at motor homes and fifth wheels. No luck, but we did talk to some nice people and the usual sleezeballs that hang out at RV sales lots.

We left Quartzsite and headed back to Sun City West without a new(er) RV but with a pretty good idea that we wanted to get a Class A motorhome.

Our search for a motorhome began at the usual places: Sun City RV Storage Lot's collection of bulletin boards, the news papers, and Orangewood RV which is right down the street from the storage lot. We didn't find anything we liked. We went to another of our favorite places to look at RVs, Consignment Specialists on Grand Ave. We were shown a couple of models when one of the owners told his wife who was helping us to show us the 2000 Winnebago Chieftain they had just bought from an owner. Love at first sight. We bought it and traded in our Jamboree. The Winnebago has just 31,000 miles on it and is almost perfect condition.

The really big problem was driving it home from the consignment lot. Neither Seven or I had ever driven a big vehicle like this before. I went on to RVNet.com and asked the old timers in the Class A forum for some advice about driving one of these babies. Lots of good information came pouring in. All those tips and a quick around the block drive with the owner of consignment lot and we were good to go. I won't mention how I almost pulled out too far into traffic and scared the heck out of some poor lady. I drove it to the big parking lot in the front of the Sundome on Johnson Drive and let Seven have a go at it. She cruised around the parking lot and wanted to drive it home. That is the last time I drove our new RV. She loves driving it. It is a dream to drive and a lot of fun.