While the Camper is ready to drive it is not ready in other areas. Since I am new to the systems on this and campers in general, I am preferring to have a Service Place do the checking of the propane, heat, and Water to make sure it is up to date and ready.

Meanwhile I have removed the radio, GPS and am upgrading them if possible. Everything is at least ten years old!
I am using some propane heaters in the storage unit until the freeze is off.

Our children, Emily, now 20 and Ryan, now 16, have been camping since they were just babies. I remember the first trip in our first Popup camper when Ryan was just 5 months old. It was a warm Columbus day weekend in Michigan and the excitement of that first trip is still fresh.

We mostly camp in State or National parks, and for the best spots, reservations fill very quickly. I enjoy the hunt for the best site, looking through the satellite images of each campground, trying to find...

When we got the coach a few months ago we did the usual walk through "Tour" then we were waved goodbye.

I had a pretty good idea of the depth of the pool I had just jumped in, I knew the water temp and thought I could recognize the hazards..

I remember this like it was yesterday, (For those with a Fleetwood Discovery you may want to take notice here),

During the new owner walk through, I was shown how to open the pull out for the generator....

We left Austin for the coast this morning with 1/8th tank of fuel. Waiting for the cheapest diesel I could find I put myself in a position to buy the most expensive..

Also the pumps machines were down so you had to go inside. While waiting to pay with the other 5 truckers, a few other "truckers" came in bitching loudly about the pump blocking RV driver ME,,,, I spun around and told them very loudly that I was in line to pay just like the other...

Well, I think there are different types of MH families;
1. FT'ers
2. Store at CG (part time'ers - Weekend'ers)
3. Store off Site 'ers
4. Store at Home 'ers

We are Home'ers; DOOOH

Once we decided to get a coach (cant call my coach a motor home, sounds to much like mobile home ) I knew I did not want to store it off site. Out of site out of mind. The more I see it the more I want to use it. Our neighborhood has no restrictions...

Its early December in Texas and starting to get cold (for us). I decided to go ahead and drain everything. We did not have a trip planned for a few weeks and I was concerned we might really drop in temp. I did not want to do this procedure for the first time at night when a norther was blowing in, freezing my butt off outside hopping I did it all correctly.

I opened the door of the wet bay and followed the directions to the letter. Step by step winterizing directions are on a sticker...

Update: More Mirror Woes -- 12/1/18

The mirror replacement verdict is in!

As previewed in my previous woeful post, I finally got the gumption up to call NewMar about replacement mirrors. (An original is not available.) As I feared, replacing both sides would run right around $1,500. That's before paint, etc.

While NewMar respectfully declined to disclose their OEM supplier, some digging around online finally led me to Velvac. Of course, the mirror I need is...

Update: Storage Woes -- 11/25/18

I was tinkering around inside the RV a few days ago and just happened to run through the battery and tank level display panel. Surprisingly, my FRESH water tank read 3/4 full; that's about 30 gallons. My first reaction was faulty sensors (although the panel has always been accurate in the past). After all, I had opened both the fresh and hot water low point drains while returning from our last trip of the year.

Just to be sure, I opened...

Day 3 we spent in Hot Springs shopping and walking around the town center. Cute little stores but nothing really special. We found some Christmas presents and did a lot of walking. It was still pretty cold so we ducked into every open store. Had great pizza at Grateful Head. This was a very good pizza, loaded very fresh topping and an awesome crust. Highly recommend going here. They also have homemade root-beer for the kids. Their 14” large was way more than enough for me and my wife. Daughter had...

We left Crater of Diamonds at 11 and made it through some amazingly beautiful country without getting distracted, much….

This is a beautiful state with pretty good roads. Logging trucks like to haul ass but they do that everywhere. Pulled off on the shoulder a few times to let traffic by so we could drive slowly and enjoy the mountains and incredible views. Nice windy roads big shoulders not much traffic and its warming up nicely during the day so my feet are not hating me as much...

We left Austin at 7:30 am heading up 281 towards FW Texas. Not having RV'ed in the cold (yeah I know 40s not cold to some of yall but its FEEZIN TO US).. We left some things at home that we should have brought. cold weather boots, fuzzy socks etc...

Apparently, the coldest place in the RV (other than in the darn freezer) is the floorboard on the drivers’ side. Who the heck though that they could save a nickel by not putting a vent here needs to drawn and quartered. My feet were frozen...

I am new to rving, I just bought a 1974 dodge champion n40 class A motothome. I am trying to find out the model that I have, Since the n40 only stands for the chassie model and not the champion made model. please help if you can.

Update: Winterization -- 11/12/18



Our next road trip isn't until the first of February, 2019, so we secured the NewAire for cold weather storage.

In addition to normal end-of-season service (oil change, filters, chassis lube, etc.), our winterization process included the following steps:

1. Fill fuel tank and treat with non-gelling diesel additive.
2. Run treated diesel into the

...

Well it has been a long road with many, many setbacks along the way. We were not ready to give up on RVing, our dealership or our dream.

The new Fleetwood Discovery 40g was/is so amazing.

We left on Friday night for Rockport TX, about a 4.5 hour drive from our house.

We did do the one thing that we were told not to do, I never meant to or wanted to do and would NEVER recommend someone do in a new coach, arrive at a new campsite in a new class A at...

I am warned to winterize before it gets cold, and have some indoor storage lined up, yet it is about that time of year, and the cold is coming! If it were ready for camping, I would be gone for warmer weather!



Still replacing things like smoke detectors, and trying to understand the systems.. Steep learning curve for someone so ignorant!