Remedial RV Education

Looking at our busy schedule, we discovered that we had nothing pressing to do today.  Not to let the free time go to waste, we quickly filled it up, hopped in the Element and drove 109 miles to North Carolina.  Why?

The North Carolina RV Show.  Now before you think we’re out shopping to replace the Journey, we’re certainly not.  After being on the road fulltime for almost 14 months now, we’ve finally found a place for everything and everything in its place.  A new RV would turn our system upside down and we’d probably never be able to find everything we’ve squirreled away while moving to the new RV.

It’s always fun to look, but we came for another reason.  Using my new Cannon camera was one, but not the main reason.

I had to retire my Sony point and shoot camera, it’s gotten so much dust inside it, the picture quality was bad.  Looking at the Sony website, to have it repaired would cost $91, plus shipping.  The camera only cost $110 new and I could buy a new Cannon on sale for $99.  It was a no brainer, even for me.  All the pictures in this post are with the new camera, I’m pretty pleased with it.

But there was another reason.  Keep reading.

The show was about 90% pop ups, travel trailers and fifth wheels.  There were many nice units, for all price points.  Lots of fancy fivers,

 

with some serious outside kitchens for tailgaters.

Some toy haulers had beds in the garage for the kids, or the husband when he misbehaves.  Better than being banished to the couch by the lady of the (house) trailer.

There was a micro pop up for a tight budget,

And a real bare bones unit for tighter budget.  Sides and roof were optional.

We looked at the new Winnebago line of travel trailers, we were impressed with the quality they had built in to them, just like their motorhomes.  Of course, the colors were not something I’d choose.

On the motor home front, I was very impressed with the Winnebago Vista, it had a great floor plan, compete with bunk beds and full body paint for a very reasonable price.  The Vista is an entry level unit that has great value for the money.

There were vendors, but most of them were not RV related.  Gutter covers, bathroom fixtures, cooking ware were among the vendors.  RV supplies were pretty lacking.

There was a new Class B built on the new Nissan van.  It has a pop top roof like the VW buses of years ago.

We even met the only honest RV salesman in the whole place.

The real reason, though that we came was to see Howard and Linda Payne from RV Dreams. They were at the show to present their excellent seminars on full time RVing.  We’ve been to a couple of their rallies where we learned about the ins and outs of the full time lifestyle.

We sat in their seminar to review how we’re doing.  Fortunately, we’re doing great.  It wouldn’t be a good thing to find out we’re doing everything wrong after full timing for about 14 months. Phew!

We passed on the few outside RVs on display.  There was freezing rain and we decided we’d better head for home because of the bad weather.

The roads were slick and we crawled home.  Slow and steady but we got home in one piece. 

A good day, despite the bad weather. Even better, a new RV did not follow us home. ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.