Motorhome

At the moment, I am still "full ahead" with buying a motor home and setting forth on my own, the more I look into it the more I have to consider, for example, when you see one with a marked price of say $42,000, this is not what you pay, on top of the price you will have to add a sales tax which is never shown, of 17% in California, the tax level varies from state to state, this at once brings the price up to about $45,500, plus road tax, about another $400, and of course insurance, it all mounts up and can start to run away.

Another thought, can I afford a small car to pull behind as most large motor homes do, the answer is no, I have to draw the line somewhere, a small car would allow me to go to the supermarket easily, go sightseeing with ease, instead of taking 33 feet everywhere, parking that at Safeway and Wall Mart is a skill still to be learnt.

So far I am happy with my decision to come to America, from what my other son tells me winter has shown its teeth a bit, so I have avoided all that, also I have not been living alone, and on top of that, I have my future plans to get my teeth into, if I was at home I would be sitting looking out at the weather, going nowhere, bored and lonely.

As far as keeping in touch with family and friends, I think it worked well, while at John's I would e-mail David every other day, I also used to keep in touch with some of my ex work friends.

One of the first items I bought when I moved out was a cell phone, once on the road on my travels I spoke to John most days, it also meant the family could contact me should they wish, it gave me a lot of pleasure once a month, I would call a couple of good work friends, I would look forward to calling them, and keeping in touch with home.

Decision time, final thoughts, can I do this on my own? Quite a daunting thought, going away thousands of miles from the security of John, in a foreign country on my own, with company I think it would be much easier.

When I have a spell of doubts, I ask myself, what would I be doing at home, then the answer is yes, I have been given this wonderful opportunity and by golly, I am going to take it, a life on the road, seeing new places observing a whole new world of mountains, lakes, rivers, deserts, forests and all the different wildlife living there.

I am not saying a lot about RV sites yet, I have not stayed on one, but what I am expecting is my own plot with a hook up for mains power, a hook up for my flush toilet, a "city" water supply, and probably a satellite hook up, anything more is a bonus, like a pool, a shop and a laundry.

I don't have a motor home yet but my plan is to head for the very green state of Oregon, that is my goal.

Before I was in a position to buy a motor home, I joined an over 55 club for company,(I must be getting old) they run monthly bus trips, arrange visits etc, the first trip I decided to go on was to the late President Reagan’s library, situated in the hills behind Los Angeles, a beautiful setting, not a library at all, more a museum, even his old “Air Force One” Boeing 707 was there, open to the public to walk through, on another trip we went to Las Vegas for a couple of days, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I meant to mention earlier my brush with the law, one day while out in my trusty old Dodge truck, I had just executed a turn at a very busy junction, suddenly I heard the siren of a black and white (police car) telling me to pull over, one’s thoughts go into overdrive, I pictured myself, legs spread, hands on hood and the officer with gun drawn.

As it turned out, I did not even get out of my vehicle, no gun, he told me the tax sticker on my number plate was showing on his computer as being “off the road” he asked for my driving licence and when he looked at it very pleasantly said get it taxed and off you go, I think my strange licence was going to cause too much paperwork, I am glad to say, my only brush with the law in over 7000 miles.

I think the tax sticker system is good, firstly it is very visible to a following police car, no need to stop and look, also colour coded for the year, easily checked.

Instead of a disc stuck on our windscreens, the American system is a brightly coloured sticker stuck on the top right corner of the rear number plate, when re-taxing, the new sticker in a different colour is stuck on top of the old one (no, they do not pick off)

Surprise surprise, I have bought me a motor home With John’s help, he is better at haggling than I am; it is the 17 of April, a day I will remember.

The vehicle is more than I ever dreamt of, it is far bigger than I had planned, but it was beautiful, it was in good condition and it was within my price range.

It was 35 feet long, built on a Ford truck chassis, powered by a 7.5 litre V8 petrol engine, weighing in at around 10 tons, it was 10 years old, done 20,000 miles and ran on 8 brand new tyres (triple axle) fitted by the garage without me asking.

When I stood in the showroom and looked at it I suddenly thought how big it was. It required 5 steps to go from ground level to the floor level, The salesman gave me a walk around, explained all about the two warm air heating boilers, the two air conditioning units, the hot water system, about the generator, the hydraulic corner jacks, the slide outs and I don’t know what else, it all seemed to go in one ear and straight out the other.

The day I collected it, the salesman handed me the keys and bade me farewell, John by this time had left for home, I was on my own.

I sat in the driving seat and looked around, yes it looked very long, but I was not bothered by that, what did bother me was the width, I could get up and walk across to the passenger seat, it looked wider than the lanes on the highway.

I started it up and drove out of the showroom onto a quiet country road, within a hundred yards I was on to a busy interstate route with heavy, fast traffic. Don’t panic, let’s go, if I can just keep within the two white lines (they are actually yellow) other drivers will avoid me, I am much bigger, that was my plan and it worked.

I quickly discovered I appeared to be as wide as the lanes, each time a coach or an 18 wheeler passed me it seemed we had only inches between my mirror and theirs, all requiring constant attention, I am glad to say, after a week or two it got a lot easier and driving was a lot more relaxed sitting there in my armchair.

By the time I collected the “bus” and drove home to John’s house I was tired and my shirt was fairly damp, I wondered if I had done the right thing, maybe I should have gone for a smaller class C motor home similar to the one I hired in Canada instead of a class A, the largest class, over 40 feet requires a special licence, mine was a baby at 35 feet.

This would be a good time to give you a guided tour of the interior, you could almost divide it into three, the lounge at the front, the kitchen/rest room in the middle, and the bedroom at the rear.

The lounge has of course the two front seats that swivel and recline and so can be used as 2 lounge chairs, there is also an L shaped sofa that can convert into a double bed, across from that is the dining table and chairs. The entertainment side is covered by a 26-inch colour TV built in to a cabinet, beside it is a tape deck and radio. The floor has a plain sage green fitted carpet and pale grey carpet on the ceiling. When parked on site the wall and floor can be moved outwards by about 3 feet at the touch of a switch, giving quite a lot more floor space.

The lounge of course has its own dedicated warm air heating or its own air conditioning.

Moving on to the kitchen area, an L shaped counter top with a four burner gas hob, a double stainless steel sink, a microwave, a full size fridge / freezer, storage for all the crockery and glasses, just everything, even filtered drinking water.

The “restroom” had a half size bath with shower above, a triangular wash basin and various cupboards and of course a flush porcelain toilet.

The bedroom, which has a slide out like the lounge, had a queen size bed, a mirrored wall of wardrobes, two chests of drawers, a dressing table and another 26 inch fitted TV, access to the restroom was from the bedroom en-suite or from the lounge.