Can I Show You My Dinghy?

Now that we had the RV all set, our next task was to get the Subaru ready to tow. We learned on our test visit to Shenandoah that the RV is not that difficult to drive over long distances, but it is very inefficient for short trips to go sightseeing or to the grocery store. So once again I started my internet research to find out what I needed to do in order to tow the car. I learned two things fairly quickly. First, a small car towed behind a large motor home is known as a "dinghy." Second, getting a car that did not come from the factory tow ready is not easy.

First, you need to have a trailer hitch on your RV. Check. Then you have to have a tow bar that connects your RV to your dinghy. Okay, no problem. However once I started looking around I again discovered that there is an incredibly large industry in this country devoted entirely to RVs and the many accessories that go along with them.

Turns out tow bars are not cheap, and they are fairly technical. Oh, and don't act too quickly if you think you found a good deal. You need to be sure that the tow bar you are getting matches up with the tow brackets on your car. What? Tow brackets? What's that? Oh, you mean your car does not have tow brackets installed already? Uh, no. Well then you have more work to do. Yea!!

So before I get the tow bar I have to get the tow brackets; and before I can get the tow brackets I have to get the tow bracket mounting kit. Turns out only one company out there still makes a mounting kit for a 1993 Subaru. A few benjamins later and there is a 75lb box on the porch. I love the internet!! (BTW, if your interested eTrailer.com had the best prices I could find for everything I needed.)

But wait, you can't just tow your car. Highway safety regs say your towed vehicle's brake/turn lights still have to work while it is being towed. That means I need to wire my dinghy's taillights. This way that idiot barreling down the freeway three feet behind my dinghy at 65mph while texting his girlfriend with one hand and drinking his coffee with the other will have a split second of warning and hopefully not learn the hard way what a safe following distance is. So back to the internet I go for a wiring kit. No problems there, the tech support guys at these mail order places are actually very helpful.

Once I finally got everything together I enlisted the help of a great friend (who happens to be the head mechanic at a local car dealer). He put the car on the lift and had the thing installed in about 15min. I was in awe; that job would have taken me at least a day and a half and 5 trips to Home Depot. He got the wiring installed too, very professional.

So the Dinghy is ready for it's close-up. Next we have to hook everything up and give it a test drive! Stay tuned!

Maiden Voyage

Well the snows finally melted and I figured it was time to take the RV out of storage and give it a test run. What better opportunity that the Leesburg Baker's Dozen Moutain Bike Race. Mark, Brent, Tim and I were all racing so I brought the rig home to get it all set up.

Okay, so who ever heard of "de-winterizing"? Well, I am now an expert. After reading and re-reading the owner's manual 15 or 20 times I finally felt like I was ready to tackle the job. Turns out it is not that hard, just intimidating for a newbie like me. I only had to drain the tank and start over once! Not bad for my first try.

So after that, the guys stopped by and we loaded up all our food and gear for the weekend and headed out to the race site. It was on a farm and so we got to test out the RV's off road capabilities as well. Without any problems we found a great spot for our pit area for the race and set up camp:











We successfully cooked dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. We had fresh coffee and best of all, a hot shower after the race! We did learn some lessons though. For example, the fridge has an automatic shutoff safety feature if the rig is more than six degrees out of level; good to know. Looks like we will be buying some leveling blocks. All in all I would say the trip was a rousing success. I am pretty confident that I can work all of the systems in the rig. Next challenge: setting the Subaru up to be towed as our "dinghy!"

Where should we go?

After much debate, we finally firmed up our route. We will pretty much be driving every mile of I-90 across the northern portion of the lower 48 states. Not included in the map at the link are all of the minor spots we are looking forward to.

We will of course be going through Canada, which the girls are very excited about. This will be their first trip to a foreign country. They had lots of fun getting their passports, although they did not understand why they were not supposed to smile for the photos:-)

Deciding which things to see was actually a bit of a challenge. When John and I first sat down to plan we just brainstormed and wrote down all of the places we wanted to go. Well as you can imagine the list got long pretty quickly. So we had to whittle it down some. Oh well, guess we will have to save those places for our next trip!

It's All In the Name

Now that we had decided to take the ultimate RV vacation, we set out to find the perfect rig for our family. We went to several dealers and some RV shows. We also did a lot of research online. Come to find out, there are A LOT of different RV makes and models to choose from. New or Used? Class A or Class C? Slide-out room or not? Gas or Diesel?

Once we finally narrowed things down we were able to settle in and search for our specific desires. We eventually found the perfect motorhome, in Ohio of all places!

We bought a 2008 Winnebago Chalet. It is a 31ft long Class C motorhome with a Triton V-10 engine on a Ford F-350 chasis. It sleeps 6 people comfortably and has a slide-out room on the drivers side for extra living space. It has an awning for shade, and trailer hitch so we can tow a car.

So now we need your help. We can't have a yacht without a name, so we are having a Naming Contest! Submit your entries any way you can think of; comment here, email us, call, sky-write, whatever. Please keep it clean ;-) We will announce the winner at our going away party on 19 June!

Taking the Plunge

After so many moves for John's career in the USMC, we thought "Hey, since we have to drive all the way across the country anyway, why don't we make a vacation out of it?" Well, this time we are finally taking the plunge. We have our orders back to Southern California and the girls are the perfect age for a big trip like this. So, here we go!

The hardest part was committing to the decision to actually buy a "land yacht". John particularly did not want to be that guy. You know, that guy with the 50+ foot long diesel pusher barreling down the highway in between stops at RV Campgrounds to dump the waste tanks and stock up on beer and hot dogs.

To help allay our fears about living the "RV Lifestyle", we rented a rig from an outfitter near home and took a trip to Shenandoah National Park. Checkout this slideshow to see some photos from that trip.

Well, with that done we were satisfied that we could make it across this great nation without killing each other. Next step was to find the perfect rig for our trip. After much research and some RV shows we found our baby. Check our next post for all the details!