March 27, 2007 by steve.

Ok, it’s not as exciting as a trip to Hawaii, but a free weekend with no scout or church obligations meant a road trip. So the Curbcrusher clan loaded up with a friend of little Curbcrusher and drove the two hours to St. Augustine. Sort of a field trip, and in the absence of an RV the first trip out of town we’ve taken in a few weeks.

First stop was Anastasia State Park to see if we might can camp there. A number of people that we’ve talked to that have rigs with a length over 30 feet say they refuse to go there, so we figured we’d check it out for ourselves. A quick drive around the campground proved that most sites are small, but there are probably at least half a dozen or more that you could get a 35ft motorhome in. But of course I’ve never backed up a 35ft motorhome, but I think that I could have gotten the 35ft fifth wheel in those spots, and I hope I can back up the motorhome at least as well as I was able to backup that fifth wheel.

After the park, we went over to the Castillo de San Marcos. This is the old fort that the Spanish built to hold onto the Florida territory. The park rangers were great, and we got to see the firing of the cannon. The park ranger was trying to recruit people from the audience to sign up to help with the cannon firing. If I lived closer, I’d probably try and volunteer. It would be fun to make a big bang like that on the weekend.

Following the Castillo, we walked over to St. George’s street. The girls wanted to see the World’s Oldest Schoolhouse. So we went in and they got to see what it would have been like to be in school 200 years ago. Of special interest was the dungeon, a small closet under the stairs that the bad students were put in. I told my daughter that we should see about setting up one of those at our house for when she’s bad. Needless to say she was unimpressed. We continued wondering down the street until the girls started complaining about walking too much. At that time Mrs. Curbcrusher said she didn’t feel like listening to the whining, so we’d head home. And so we did.

Posted in Travel Review | No Comments »

March 15, 2007 by steve.

Not much going on, still waiting for the new motorhome to arrive. So, as I noted I’ll post some more about the trip to Hawaii.

On Sunday, the 21st of Jan we got up early, we were still on east coast time. Off to Captain Dan’s Whale Watching trip located right near Kona. I have to admit is was not what we expected. Since this was advertised as a three hour tour both Mrs. CurbCrusher and myself thought that we’d get on the boat, spend an hour bouncing out to the “whale habitat” and then an hour looking around, and if we’re lucky seeing one whale, then another hour heading back in. Boy were we WRONG!

As soon as we left the harbor, there were spinner dolphins and a group of about 4 humpback whales. We watched the whales for awhile, none breached, but they flipped their tails a couple of times and surfaced to blow air/water out of their blowholes.

We moved up the coast a bit and found a group of four whales that were fairly active. We watched them surface and flap the water with their tails a bit. They swam back and forth under the boat, and then tired of us.

We moved a bit further up the coast, and found a mom, calf and an “escort” whale. These three were just swimming along, surfacing occasionally and blowing air out.

One of the things Cap’n Dan did that we have had fun with since is “count down” the whale showing its tail. A whale would surface, and then start to submerge. Cap’n Dan’s narration was something like this:

“There he is. Now he’s going down, and tail in 3 ….. 2 ….. 1….. no tail.” that’s what happed most of the time. When the whale showed his tail it was: “There he is. Now he’s going down, and tail in in 3 ….. 2 ….. 1… take it! take it! There goes the tail.”

We ended up being on the boat for about three and a half hours. It was well worth the price of the trip. In addition to seeing the whales, we learned a bunch about them.

Posted in Travel Review | No Comments »

March 1, 2007 by steve.

Well, I got a comment! How about that? Someone found there way here and actually looked at this mess. Thanks JohnW.

The difference in price between the OH dealer and my closest dealer was a little over $5,000. I really didn’t expect a FL dealer to be able to match the price from OH, but this was in the range that I was shooting for. I did however hope that the guy 35 miles away could beat the guy 75 miles away. There was about $1,200 difference in these prices. What to do what to do?

Well, I really didn’t want to, but I called the local guy and asked what he could do about providing all the paraphernalia to tow an ‘06 Saturn Vue behind the Motorhome. He called back a little later and said he could split the retail cost of a tow bar, base plate and brake buddy with me. From talking to a few friends that seemed like a good deal.

So, we’ve placed an order for our 2007 Itasca Sunova 35J from Suncoast RV in Cocoa. They say Winnebago will ship the first week of April. So now we wait.

The reasons for going with the dealer closest to the house came down to:

1. By asking them to all give me their best price, he was competitive with the other dealers. By going back and giving the guy a chance to throw in other stuff (the tow package), I think he came out very competitive.
2. If I get over there the first week of April and there is some problem with the coach, I only have a 45 minute drive home, not a two and half hour flight.
3. So far this is the only dealer that hasn’t made conflicting statements at some time during the sales process.

You will note that I did not include the reason that JohnW commented on which was getting warranty service. JohnW made a good point that I am pretty much an RV rookie, the CurbCrushers have only been RVing for the past three years or so in our 5th wheel. We put a lot of emphasis (or thought we did) the first time around on a local dealer and how we felt they would take care of us during and after the sale. Over the first 18 months of our two year warranty, we faithfully went back to this dealers and took their abuse. They kept the rig for weeks on end, they never called when it was ready or to give you a status of ordered parts or the repair. They returned it with the same or more stuff broken and so forth. After 18 months we called another Forest River dealer down in St. Cloud (LePage RV, who has now gone out of business) and they happily agreed to do our warranty work. They were the opposite of our dealer, and we even had some regular maintenance done there as well.

As I’ve sat around campfires over the past three years, I’ve asked others how they like the warranty service they have received from their dealer. I have yet to have anyone tell me it is great. The best reaction I’ve gotten is that it is “OK,” and most people seem to have real horror stories, what I’ve experienced are mere inconveniences by comparison.

So when we began this quest, Mrs. Curbcrusher and I decided that we weren’t going to believe what anyone said about their service departments. The decision would be primarily made on price. Of course with the out of state dealer (OH) being 935 miles away, there would be some concrete cost to contemplate (airfiar, hotel before delivery, gas, campgrounds for return trip), and there would be some opportunity and soft cost (days away from the office, the hassle making a trip to OH for no reason other than picking up the motorhome, the risk of getting 1000 miles away from home and something major not being right).

So I don’t know what the Suncoast service department will be like. I’m sure I will have some experiences with them, and I’ll post them here when they happen. For right now, I have the same low expectations I would have had if I’d picked either of the other dealers.

Posted in RV Stuff | No Comments »