CALIFORNIA OR BUST ---- Three month trip from Houston to San Diego and back to Houston with stops at Bisbee, Temecula, and San Diego pride. I’m really looking forward to the Temecula event, and can’t wait to meet all you California guys.
I would always dream about the RV life style but it was one I always thought would be too expensive with my work schedule. Many weekends I would be working and most vacations were not more than a few days or a week at a time. A RV would have spent too much time in storage.
After I retired I found myself spending way too much time sitting on my balcony in Galveston watching the traffic on the Seawall. Well that all started to change about 2 years ago when I was sitting on the balcony and saw a little Scamp trailer being pulled behind a little VW bug. I said to a friend how cute, you could camp any were with that. I knew I wanted to get out and do more and that was when the plan to travel the US and Canada was born. And the search for a new RV started.
I knew if I was going to do this for a very long time I had to keep the whole life style as simple as possible. I started out looking at the Scamp and the Casita and then I started to look at the Truck Campers, because of their saying “Go Any Where Camp Any Where”. After about 2 years and lot of research I finally decided on a used 2012, 5000 miles, 24’ Class C, hopefully a perfect match for me at this time. Thanks Greg and Tim and everyone else for all your comments and suggestions. I know 2 years is a long time (even for me) but during that time I also sold my Condo in Galveston, moved back to the house in Houston, (after a complete remodel) and planned my first trip out.
My first shake down trip was to Galveston (already missing Galveston) and I spent a few days just checking everything out. Everything went well until the last night when there was a strong wind storm. Remember the song Galveston; you really do remember the sea winds blowing. It kept me up half the night worrying about what was going to be blown off the RV. I had my awning in but two other RVs had theirs out and they were ripped apart by the next day. Other than a RV covered with sand for me everything was fine, I only had to spend the next day washing the RV. The fridge worked fine the whole time.
My second shake down trip was about three weeks ago to Circle J Ranch just south east of Dallas for two nights then another 3 nights in Galveston and again everything went fine. Circle J Ranch is a working ranch for men only, and they have some great events on weekends. During the week I thinks is probably pretty quite. I’m sure a lot you guys from Texas have been, if not you need to go it really is a beautiful property, the owners were great, and I had a really good time.
Today I have been on the road for 8 days heading to California. The most difficult thing for me so far was getting away from Houston. My original plan was to leave by the 1st of May; I postponed it till the 15th and finally got away on the 20th. So far everything is still going well with no problems except for two scares. The first was with the fridge and happened as I was getting ready to leave. The night before I left I was at the RV trying to get things organized and ready, the RV had been in the storage lot and was really hot so I turned on the generator and the AC while I was working. The next day when I went back to the RV I noticed what I thought was water leaking from bottom of the fridge, but when touched it, it felt sticky. I was hopping everything would be OK and turned on the fridge so it would be cold before I started to load it. When I went back a few hours later the freezer felt like it was getting cold but the fridge was still hot and I convinced myself that the leaking was a problem with the fridge. Completely frustrated I went back to the house while I decided what I wanted to do. I knew it would be best to get it fixed before I left and decided to postpone my trip till it was working, I didn’t have to be to Bisbee till the 15th I still had plenty of time. When I went back out to RV a couple of hours later everything was working fine. Hooray the trip is back on. Yes I knew it takes a long time for the fridge to cool down, I guess I was reading too many fridge stories. The next part I should not tell but I will. When I went to wipe out the fridge before I started to load it (the shelves felt sticky) I took out what I thought was a full can of Sprite I left in the fridge from the Circle J trip, but it wasn’t full it had been leaking from the bottom of the can.
The next scare was at my first Campground in Kerrville, Texas, and a while after I was set up I noticed I did not have any water. My first thought was they messed up my plumbing when I had a outside shower installed before I left. It took me about 30 min. to figure out it was the flow regulator I had connected at the water spigot. Still don’t know why but it worked fine after I took it off.
I will not bore you with all the trip details now but I did want to tell you a little about myself before I meet you in Arizona and California. The rest of you I hope to meet on future Rainbow trips. I will try to post some pics as I get a chance.
See ya soon, Bill