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Our Maiden Voyage
Back in August, we purchased our first motorhome. A 1997 Fleetwood Discovery 36RS. After purchasing it, we did some things to it. Ensuring it was up to traveling. We had a new roof installed, new tires, and new fuel lines. We had everything checked as well. We were planning on using it for our vacation the end of June, but were also wanting to do a smaller trip first, to see if we had any issues. Things got busy with work and that never happened. June rolls around and it is time for us to go on our vacation. We drove from Phoenix, AZ to Spokane, WA and back with our 5 dogs.
We left Phoenix on the morning of Saturday June 16th, towing my husband's 2006 Chrysler PT Cruiser on a tow dolly. The second night, the GPS got the best of me. I had heard to verify the GPS, prior to following it, but I didn't. I learned the hard way I should next time. I didn't get stuck or anything. Just ended up on a narrow, not well maintained, country road for about 40 miles, in the dark of course. We finally get to the campground at 11 that night. Neither of us were in a good mood by then. The next morning, I go to check the tow vehicle and noticed something. The nut on the ball had fallen off, causing the tongue of the tow dolly to break through the rear bumper of the motorhome. Luckily it wedged in between the hitch and the metal plate behind the bumper. If it would have gone any farther forward, it could have hit the radiator. Luckily it didn't and it didn't drag on the ground or come unhooked all together.
The only other issue we had on the whole trip was one of the fuel injectors came loose and was spraying diesel fuel out the back. The PT Cruiser was covered in it. Luckily it was an easy and cheap issue to deal with. $55 to wash the motorhome and car to get all the diesel off of them and $50 for them to find the issue and to tighten it. I can live with that.
The majority of the places we stayed at were KOA campgrounds. A couple were not. Several we would definitely go back to and would recommend.
Our 5 dogs all did great on the trip. 3 of them are labs (one 8 yo chocolate, one 8yo yellow, and one 14 yo white lab.). One of the other ones is a 7 year old boxer mix and a 15 yo hound. When we checked into the campsites, I always mentioned we had dogs. I never said how many and none of them ever asked. One did ask what breeds and I just said labs. At the one park we stayed at in Spokane, the both of us left for a couple of hours. When we got back, the guy across from us came over to inform us that our neighbor had called to complain about our dogs barking while we were out. No one else came to us to say anything else. For the most part, we tried not to leave them in the campground alone.
Met a few nice people at the various places we stayed at.
In the end, I think we did all right for our first trip. We both love the motorhome and are already looking forward to our next trip in it.
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1997 Fleetwood Discovery 36RS
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