Ok, so I'm over my trauma ... it also didn't take me too long to decide that I LOVE this new coach! what an emotional roller coaster this has been! Thank you to everyone who commented ... I loved hearing things like
'we have a big rig and still keep the laundry hamper in the shower!'
or
'I've changed rigs a couple of times and things never fit at first, even into a bigger rig. Over time the stuff will settle into place.'
and many of you commented that sadness and angst is a very natural part of the process of moving, even when it is a good move.
Jim did the majority of the moving, and was very understanding of my need to spend time blogging. I have a real need to write things down when I'm in the thick of it - otherwise I would forget. We spent Monday night sleeping in the new coach. We traded mattresses first - I can't believe that anyone could sleep on the hollow springy thing that passed for a mattress in the new rig, and the folks at Harbersons RV told us it was OK to take our old one with us. It took us till about 2pm on the second day to clear everything out of Oh Boy.
I cried as we said 'Good Bye' and 'Thank You!' to our Safari Class C 'Oh Boy' ...
Then we turned our attention to settling in to the Gulf Stream Endura - we will come up with a new name, I don't want to call it 'Oh Boy 2' because there could only be one 'Oh Boy.'
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OMG, look at this mess. This is everything moved over to the new rig. |
It's going to take a while to find anything! But, somehow, we got it all secured and ready to hit the road. We cleared the areas for the slides to come in, hooked up the Honda to the tow bars and drove away!
First Stop - a weighing station!
I was very nervous about the weight of this rig with all our stuff in it Weight carrying capacity of the Endura was the only potential problem we saw when we researched the purchase. We knew the CCC (cargo carrying capacity) of the rig from the paperwork, and discussed it in detail with our friend and RV Weight Safety guru,
Walter Cannon. We all agreed that it might be a little tight, but that it should be do-able.
We stopped at a Pilot truck stop with the CAT scales and got the whole thing weighed.
The GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) of this RV is 22,000 pounds. There are lots of other numbers to be concerned with, but we at least wanted to know what the total weight was to start with.
We pulled up on the scales and pushed the button to ask for a print out of the weight recorded. Jim drove around when I went inside to pick it up. I looked at the bottom line and saw the number 25,000 ... my heart sank. I slowly walked over to where Jim was. I was probably shaking my head. I handed him the printout and sadly pointed to the 25,000 number.
He looked at it, then looked at me and laughed! What in the world could be so damned funny!?! This was disaster!
He pointed to the third number down ... 3,500 ... and told me that was the weight of our Honda that was being towed. If you subtract that from the total ... our RV weight is 21,500.
We're 500 pounds UNDER!!
Yippee, Yahoo, and Huzzaah - all is right with the world. We have a new, beautiful home, and it is NOT overweight! It does seem to be leaning a bit to the port side ... when we get to the RV SEF conference which is our first rally of the summer, we'll have Walter and his team weigh it correctly with a number for each wheel position. But, for now, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and knew I could start the process of making this new coach our home.
Back on the Road
Now I could relax and enjoy the ride! And what a ride it is! You can just feel the power. And, the seats are SO comfortable. And, it's quieter. And, the view is better because our old, larger, cab-over used to obstruct our view. And, the dashboard console is so pretty, and, it's SO clean. and ... and ... and ...
Have I told you that I really like this new RV!?
With this motorhome, we have a fresh start on our travels. It is just raring to go. This new RV only has 10,000 miles on it, and it has been sitting on a dealer's lot for several months. You could just hear it saying, "Thank you for letting me run!" We have over 10,000 miles planned for this summer and you can just feel that this diesel engine will consider that just a trot around the track.