#i barely have a mullet now. it is the shortest a mullet can possibly be. it's so sad.

[moe-broey]

.................... Guess who gave himself a shit ass haircut and got haunted by another shaggy haired blonde about it.

[backroadblues3]

Dusting off the Road Trip Blog

Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

Hi there folks,  I am in the process of embarking on another cross-country adventure.

As many of you know my beloved wife Elisa and I are in our 39th year of marriage.  More often than not during those 39 years we have happily owned some sort of recreational vehicle (RV).  We’ve had a couple of different ones.  We’ve had trailers towed with trucks and we’ve had a couple of different types of motorhomes.  At one time we had a 31′ Jamboree Class C motorhome.  Those are the types that are a little like a mullet hairstyle - cargo van in the front and party bus in the back.

We enjoyed “Jambo” as the kids named it, for many years until the business of life and growing list if interests of our kids began to get the best of us.  So after many years, we sold old Jambo to a one-legged senior citizen, who unfortunately lost a leg somehow or another.  He was looking for a motorhome that was of a size that he could manage with his handicap but would still afford him the room to travel the country.  As I think back now on how he happily drove off in old Jambo I can’t help but wonder what adventures he has had in the many years since we sold it.  

Once the kids were grown and gone and I retired from work the first time in 2012, Elisa and I got the itch to get another motorhome.  We began to visit dealerships trying to figure out what we wanted.  We settled on another Class C motorhome but this one would be a little different.  We wanted one that was built atop the very successful and reliable Mercedes Benz Sprinter chassis.  So, in 2013, we took the plunge and purchased our brand new Forest River Solera, model 24S from a dealership in DesMoines, Iowa.  So why did we, who were living in San Diego, CA at the time opt to purchase our motorhome from a large dealer in Des Moines?  Well, after much shopping, we were unable to negotiate an acceptable price from the dealers in sunny San Diego in the middle of winter.  But I found that the dealers in the frozen midwest were happy to take my order for a new Solera.  So we placed our order in November and then went to pick it up in April or May - I can’t quite remember.  We picked the Solera, because we were looking for a smaller motorhome that would be easy to drive and park but still roomy with a slideout….but still packing enough power so we could tow our small car behind it.  

We love the Solera! The MB diesel engine is just great.  It was our first experience owning a diesel vehicle and our initial apprehension and fears of not being able to locate a diesel fueling station were quickly allayed.  Now days you can barely pass a street corner where 2 out of the 3 gas stations are likely to also serve diesel.  The supercharged diesel engine in the Solera has plenty of power but was also pretty reasonable on fuel consumption. We would routinely experience 10 to 13 mpg depending on highway and weather conditions - all while pulling our car behind us.

Many of you may remember the previous blog I wrote in 2013 that detailed our “Epic Road trip”.  We spent almost 3 months on the road covering about 40 of the lower 48 states.  We put about 13000 miles on the Solera that summer and we did it without going totally mad in our cozy little motorhome.  

After that road trip I took another job to help a friend out turning around a small S/W company.  That kept me pretty busy through 2016, but we would still manage to put another 10000 miles on our Solera by taking a number of shorter trips around the Western USA.  It was on our last trip in January 2017 to Oceanside, CA, that I mentioned to Elisa that it would be nice to have a little larger motorhome - maybe one with a larger bed and most importantly a larger bathroom shower.

So that sort of explains why I’m here in Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport awaiting my next flight to Boise, Idaho.  You see, Elisa and I began looking at motorhomes again.  We started out looking at Class A motorhomes - the ones that look like fancy school busses.  We thought if we found one that was about 5 to 6 feet longer than our 25 fool long Solera it would give us all the space we could ever need.  Well, we had never owned a Class A before and we were amazed at the choices available.  They come in all different sizes and shapes and prices.  We had test driven some very basic ones back in 2013 but found them to be too big and noisy and squeaky.

The first one I looked at in 2017 was a very high-end Tiffen motorhome with a gasoline engine.  I was amazed at how sturdily built, quiet and easy to drive it was.  Night and day difference to the low end one we drove in 2013.  That Tiffen was 31′ long - only 6′ longer than our Solera.  As we looked at more motorhomes, we began to think that our Daughter Krista and her fiancé Travis were about to get married in 2017 and they would surely like to travel with us from time to time.  So, we thought maybe we would look at one that was “a little larger”.  Then we test drove a Newmar Ventana LE - all 37′ of it.  We were amazed at the quiet and smooth ride afforded by the rear mounted diesel engine.  That opened us up to the wonderful world of “diesel pusher” motorhomes.  These motorhomes have commercial diesel engines typically made by Cummins engines, sitting atop a heavy duty bus chassis made by Freightliner and equipped with a smooth Allison transmission.  We quickly learned that the sky was the limit on how these diesel pushers could be equipped.  

The Newmar we test drove was priced at $230K but as it was a 2016 closeout model, it could be ours for a mere $160K.  As nice as it was, we weren’t crazy about the floor plan.  It only had 2 sleeping areas - albeit one was a king sized bed and there other a long sofa that unfolded into a king size air bed.  But it didn’t have the dinette configuration that Elisa preferred - instead it had a regular dining table and 4 chairs.  Very nice.  So the crafty salesman showed us another Newmar - this one 39′ long and this one had everything - including 1 and ½ bathrooms and a fold-out sofa bed and the beloved dinette.  Unfortunately, 1 and ½ bathrooms does not come cheap and it was at $199K.  Still a seemingly great deal as compared to the $260K sticker price.  We were way out of our league.

So Elisa and I set off on a search for a gently used motorhome, preferably a diesel pusher and preferably with the much desired 1 and ½ bathrooms.  We thought we had found it, a Forest River Legacy model.  It was a 2015 and it was in Dallas, Texas.  The price was good but there were complications, the owner was traveling and he didn’t have the pink-slip on it and we would have to work out the transaction with his bank.  Nothing insurmountable.  As we were considering purchasing it we were able to find the same model located in Tampa, Florida.  It was a little more expensive by a few $k but it was a year newer and it was brand new complete with the original warranty.  That looked like the one, but I was not relishing the thought of a solo drive back to the SF Bay area from Tampa.

That pretty much brings us full circle.  I was able to find the same model for sale in Boise, ID at Denis Dillon RV.  After a few phone calls and a little negotiating we had bought our new motorhome.  I did manage to overlook that we are still in the middle of winter and the shortest route to Boise would take us up I-80 over Donner pass, which because of all the winter storms we’ve experienced was largely buried under a mountain of snow.  This would make the drive there and drive back a bit more challenging.  So, I now am sitting in the airport waiting on my next flight to Boise and I will be driving our new motorhome back to the SF Bay area taking a meandering route - sans snow - through Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.  it’s about 500 miles longer than if I were able to take the straight shot down I-80 - but after all, someone once said, “its about the journey and not the destination”.

So I’ll let you know how it goes and I promise to post a few pictures.

PS - so what started out as a quest to find a “little larger shower and bed” has resulted in our purchasing a 38′ long diesel motorhome.  What could possibly go wrong?