Back in February my wife and I bought a 2002 Winnie Adventurer 32V. Don’t get me wrong, the Winnie is not a problem, I just bit off more than I can chew. The Winnie is so much of an upgrade from our 1990 Bounder 27D. Everything about it is an improvement over the Bounder. It’s a lot newer, it has the V10 with a Banks Power Pack, a better trans, there are two slides and it was the right color, size and most importantly it was low mileage and priced below NADA’s Low Average Retail Price.
So what is wrong you wonder? Well at 76 six years of age, many years spent in physically demanding work and the onslaught of arthritis and sever lumbar stenosis, I can’t work on the things that need doing like replacing a leaking hydraulic hose for the front slide, building cabinets to replace the bezels for the boat anchor TVs and even a little thing like polishing the outside skin are physically too much for me.
I knew these thing needed doing when we bought the RV, I didn’t think much about that at the time and with the price being so good and knowing that there wouldn’t be the crawling around putting the old 2” X 8” X 3’ ramps down to level and other problems of owning a 27 year old rig, I let my heart and desires do my thinking.
This past week was a real revelation for me, we took the DGD with us for a week at the beach and when we got home after the very strenuous drive that should have been 2.5 hours that ended up 4.5 hours and then having to off load and prep it to go to storage, which by the way I enjoyed five years ago, I couldn’t think straight I was so tired.
Outcome! After a long talk with the DW and getting her input we decided that a 5 or 6 year old Class B would have been a much better choice than the Winnie. Neither one of us can face ending our camping days at this point, the camaraderie of camp grounds and the places we’ve been, and all the places we have yet to go, we just can’t give that up yet. Told the Family on Monday and Tuesday and our daughters are so excited for us, the grandkids are relived that “G” Dude won’t be getting up on the roof to work and that they will still be able to camp with us, it is so great.
We’re going out to the storage yard this morning and talk with the owners about consignment and making arrangement to sell and OMG, off loading everything we have put in there since February. The daughter of one of the owners runs the office and is making sure that we will have a place to keep the “B” when we get it. It is such a big relief to know we will still be camping but won’t have to maintain a big ol’ RV and the toad. One car and one RV that can be a backup daily driver, how sweet it will be.
"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to go". R. L. Stevenson
David Bishop
2002 Winnebago Adventurer 32V
2009 GMC Canyon
Roadmaster 5000
BrakeBuddy Classic II
