New here and to RVing! And so excited to get started!

[Starfire5]

Hi all,

My husband and I just bought our very first RV, a 2009 Winnebago Outlook 30D, two days before Christmas. He is flying to Chicago Thursday (only 2 more days!) to pick it up from the dealer there where we bought it.

We are so excited to get started and hope to meet some of you along the way. We will be traveling with our golden retrievers (which is the main reason we bought the RV) and plan to travel to Colorado every year to visit our daughter and her husband. For now, I'm just busy collecting items to outfit our new rolling home.

Our only previous RV experience was in 2002 when we rented a Class C and drove to Colorado for our daughter's wedding. We had a really positive experience, but it's taken me this long to talk the hubby into buying one of our own!

Any advice or words of wisdom to 2 people who have no idea what they're doing would be greatly appreciated!

Janet and Jim
Sanford, FL

[John H...]

Janet, Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new MH. This is one of the modt friendly and informative forums around. Keep monitoring it and you will collect a wealth of information. If you have anything specific, just post your question or do a search at the top of the page. Good luck...

[RickO]

Hi Janet

...and congrats on your new rig! You've come to the right place and be sure to keep us posted on your adventures and don't be afraid to post questions.

Rick

[vanvs0702]

We are new to RV'g as well. The best piece of advise I can give you is that we fell in with a group of long time RV'rs and they helped us with everything we needed. Knowledge, hard knock experiences and even extra RV supplies. They have become part of our extended family.

I hope you have as much luck finding your RV family as we have.

[WheelingIt]

Congrats on the new rig! My starting piece of advice is spend lots of time camping and testing out the rig close to home before you go on an extended trip. It'll give the doggies a chance to get used to it and give you guys a chance to work out any major issues/bugs before you hit the road. Other than that just read the forums, ask lot of qs and enjoy the ride! Nina

[JMonroe]

Congrats! Must be a story behind buying in Chicago, rather than Florida? Seems there's an RV dealer on every other corner in Florida.

We want to hear all about your husband's adventure, returning from Chicago to Florida in your first ever RV, in the dead of winter. I'm guessing it will make for a good story.

Happy trails...

[Starfire5]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMonroe Congrats! Must be a story behind buying in Chicago, rather than Florida? Seems there's an RV dealer on every other corner in Florida. We want to hear all about your husband's adventure, returning from Chicago to Florida in your first ever RV, in the dead of winter. I'm guessing it will make for a good story. Happy trails...

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I look forward to being a part of this RV family. Thanks also for the advice. We do plan to start out very close to home the first few times to make sure we have all our supplies and equipment, etc.

And yes, there is a long story about why we bought one in Chicago. But I won't bore you with all the details. The short version is that there was a particular model I wanted and there are very few for sale. The one I found in Chicago was the right price, condition and VERY low mileage. And because we have relatives in Chicago, they were able to go and check it out for us. Now we're just sweating out the weather and the fact that my husband hasn't driven in snow for over 30 years and he is not at all familiar with driving an RV. THIS should be interesting! I'll let you all know how it goes. LOL

[macadnphyl]

You should consider joining FMCA, they have a tremendous amount of info
that will help you. Also check out RVNET. There might be an chassis forum
that would help as well. Read everything you can find, and ask questions, most forum members would be glad to answer your inquiries, after all, we all started somewhere. I think it was a good suggestion to camp close to home for your
first trips or two out, we did, and when you have problems, you will have
more options.
good luck

[Chickadee]

Janet & Jim:

Hi from Casa Grande, AZ, and a big WELCOME to iRV2. We spend alot of time in Florida and are headed your way in Feb. Son and his family live in the Tampa area and is retiring from the Air Force after 21 yrs. and 4 tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Glad to have him OUT!!

Boy!!, with the rough winter weather patterns hitting the Eastern part of the nation lately, even all the way down to Georgia, we sure can see why your nervous about your husbands run down from Chicago with your new rig. It's likely though that ya can find a good weather window to beat the next storm front. We're originally out of Duluth, Minnesota so we know what real winters are all about, but, we've managed to stay out of the snow since 05 when we sold the house and stuff and hit the road full time.

Well, again, WELCOME to the gang. Hope to meet ya in person somewhere down the road.

Steve & Lynette

[bill carle]

Welcome neighbor, Bill and Sandi here from San Mateo, just south of Palatka. Congratulations on your new rig. There is no question you have just found the friendliest and most knowledgable group around and they are more than happy to share the information and experiences they have had. I do hope your hubby has a safe trip from Chicago. While we have had our MH for awhile now our first experience with snow/ice was two years ago in route to Las Vegas. It was in APRIL...in New Mexico on 3 inches of ice with the snow coming down so hard the ww could hardly clean the windshield. On US 40, no where to get off, it took us 5 hrs to 40 miles. Took our time (like we had a choice and had a safe trip. Again loads of luck and safe traveling... bill & sandi....

[dairybar1]

Welcome Janet & Jim, We are also new to this world since it has been almost 20 years since I had the last RV ( a fifth wheel ), we just purchasd a 40 foot Monaco dp a few months ago for the same reason, so our four legged family (two German Shepherds) can go with us. One big caution to you about this site. It is addicting!!! The people here are so nice and are so willing to share their wisdom. I find myself spending way more time here than I should. Guess there are much worse addictions. lol Best of luck and enjoy many happy trips with your goldens.