We are attending a rally of motorhome owners in Vermont. There are nearly 2,000 people milling around and living in their coaches in the evenings. It's a veritable town here, with wi-fi, some coaches have paid for water and electric. Others, like us, are living as though we are anchored on a boat away from the shore. We start our generator in the evening so we can watch TV or charge our cellphone or work the laptop to connect to the Internet.
The participants mostly have their bricks and mortar homes, unlike us. When they hear we are living aboard there is still that sense of surprise that we are so adventurous.
Coaches range from $20,000 to $2.1 million (only a few here are that expensive). The expensive ones have marble (real marble) floors, fans in the ceiling, bathtubs, king-size bed. It is VERY heavy and probably costs a fortune to drive. But, if you can afford the price of the coach, it's unlikely you are bothered by $4.50-a-gallon diesel fuel.
Jo and I sometime participate in seminars together and sometimes we split up and go our separate ways. I took in the electrical seminar in my endless search for understanding the mysteries of amps and current and voltage this morning while she was off creating stained-glass. Two nights back, we took a dinner cruise on Lake Champlain. We sat with a young couple and had a wonderful time swapping stories. We endlessly hear how envious people are that we are living aboard full-time. They always claim that's their goal but they have to work another five or 10 years. And we always tell them not to wait too long. This lifestyle is not for the feeble and infirm. It's for folks who believe in living out on the edge while they can.
I found a mechanic who specializes in stabilization issues on these coaches. The more we drive, the more we are aware of being rocked pretty badly when massive trucks pass us on the interstates. They push an invisible wall of air in front of their trucks and when that wall hits the coach we are pushed to the side and do some nerve-wracking roll-n-roll. The mechanic says he has the answer to our problems: a much-strengthened anti-swaybar and bushing system. So we asked is he could add it while we attended the rally. He said he didn't have one with him that would fit our coach. However, we have arranged to meet him in a parking lot in Danbury, Connecticut, in five weeks when he heads south after another rally. He said he'll bring the swaybar and bushings and will fix us in the parking lot. I had a hard time believing this but he assures me he hauls along a complete workshop and can do everything on the run. So we'll see how this adventure plays out.
Jo and I attended a line dancing class and had a great time until my bad knee gave out. But she kept on dancing. Afterwards, we joined daughter Stephanie and the family at a Vietnamese restaurant for a wonderful meal. We took the whole gang for a drive through the rally grounds so they could get an idea of the astonishing variety of motor coaches that currently are attending.
When we leave here on Sunday morning, our plan is to head southeast and visit with old friends in Concord, New Hampshire. Then we'll head for the coast of Maine.
The participants mostly have their bricks and mortar homes, unlike us. When they hear we are living aboard there is still that sense of surprise that we are so adventurous.
Coaches range from $20,000 to $2.1 million (only a few here are that expensive). The expensive ones have marble (real marble) floors, fans in the ceiling, bathtubs, king-size bed. It is VERY heavy and probably costs a fortune to drive. But, if you can afford the price of the coach, it's unlikely you are bothered by $4.50-a-gallon diesel fuel.
Jo and I sometime participate in seminars together and sometimes we split up and go our separate ways. I took in the electrical seminar in my endless search for understanding the mysteries of amps and current and voltage this morning while she was off creating stained-glass. Two nights back, we took a dinner cruise on Lake Champlain. We sat with a young couple and had a wonderful time swapping stories. We endlessly hear how envious people are that we are living aboard full-time. They always claim that's their goal but they have to work another five or 10 years. And we always tell them not to wait too long. This lifestyle is not for the feeble and infirm. It's for folks who believe in living out on the edge while they can.
I found a mechanic who specializes in stabilization issues on these coaches. The more we drive, the more we are aware of being rocked pretty badly when massive trucks pass us on the interstates. They push an invisible wall of air in front of their trucks and when that wall hits the coach we are pushed to the side and do some nerve-wracking roll-n-roll. The mechanic says he has the answer to our problems: a much-strengthened anti-swaybar and bushing system. So we asked is he could add it while we attended the rally. He said he didn't have one with him that would fit our coach. However, we have arranged to meet him in a parking lot in Danbury, Connecticut, in five weeks when he heads south after another rally. He said he'll bring the swaybar and bushings and will fix us in the parking lot. I had a hard time believing this but he assures me he hauls along a complete workshop and can do everything on the run. So we'll see how this adventure plays out.
Jo and I attended a line dancing class and had a great time until my bad knee gave out. But she kept on dancing. Afterwards, we joined daughter Stephanie and the family at a Vietnamese restaurant for a wonderful meal. We took the whole gang for a drive through the rally grounds so they could get an idea of the astonishing variety of motor coaches that currently are attending.
When we leave here on Sunday morning, our plan is to head southeast and visit with old friends in Concord, New Hampshire. Then we'll head for the coast of Maine.
No comments:
Post a Comment