April 22, 2007 by steve.

April 20, 2007. The good motorhome Itasca 35J set rolling from the driveway toward the Ft. Desoto Campground in St. Petersburg. This being the maiden voyage of the motor home, the entire Curbcrusher family were on the edge of their seats with anticipation. Although Mr. Curbcrusher’s knuckles were white as the tightly gripped the steering wheel, and he hoped he wasn’t going to sideswipe anything.
Mrs. Curbcrusher rode most of the trip in the passenger seat, and didn’t complain too much about feeling like she was over the white line, even though I probably rode a lot closer to the line than she would have liked. The drive down was uneventful. We traveled from Orlando to I-75 on I-4, and then took I-75 South to I-275. Then across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to St. Pete and the Ft. Desoto campground. This was done primarily to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic in Tampa, and partially because I like the big bridge. Driving the motorhome, pulling the Saturn, was different. The only other trip had been the one from the dealer to the house a week earlier. The first 80 miles of the trip (the part involving I-4) was fairly tense. I decided early on that I didn’t feel comfortable driving over about 60MPH. So I set the cruise at 60, and stayed in the right lane. Once I made that decision, things got easier. By staying the right lane, I only had to worry about people coming up on the left side of me (along with the people getting on the Interstate that don’t understand that an acceleration lane is for accelerating ), I didn’t have to worry about passing people, and I felt in control of the coach. Once we turned South on I-75, I actually felt fairly good about the trip, and was able to relax.

Going over the bridge is different in a motorhome. When pulling the fiver, the truck, while higher than a car, is still fairly low to the ground. In the motorhome, your sitting up another couple of feet above where you are in the truck. When you look out the right window, you don’t see the barrier on the side of the bridge, you only see water. At least in the truck, you felt like you were even with the bridge, but in the motorhome, you know you’re above the bridge. It didn’t help that they were working on the very peak of the bridge either. This meant that the normal right hand shoulder was non-existent because they shifted the lanes right up against the barrier. As Mrs. Curbcrusher said “I only see water, I can’t even see the road. Could you please move to the left lane? ”
Ft. Desoto is an alright campground. Our last trip a year ago led to our introduction to the “roof eating tree,” a close relative of Charlie Brown’s “kite eating tree.” So it was with some trepidation that we returned with the Florida Pop-Up Camper group. Nearby in the park (about 3 or 4 miles from the campground) is the North Beach, which has been rated as one of the top beaches in the USA. The park has a good number of waterfront sites, but unfortunately we’ve been unable to get one when we’ve reserved. The non-water front sites seem to all have a certain narrowness in common. So this time, while backing into the site was easy, we were unable to put out the awning as a tree was pretty much right in the way. The sites have 30 and 50 amp service and water. There are two dump stations in the campground, and we haven’t waited to use one on our Sunday exit on either visit. There are two well equipped playgrounds in the campground, and Little Curbcrusher has given them her approval. The are a number of waterfront sites that appear to be wide enough that you could use your awning and on a future trip we’ll probably shoot for one of them.

In addition to the beach, there is an actual fort there also. Both times that we’ve been, there’s been a WWII re-enactment going on. There were a number of static displays, and we wandered around the camp that was set up for about a half hour and then watched a battle re-enactment. Since Little Curbcrusher had been studying WWII in school this year, it made for an educational field trip tacked onto the recreation of the weekend.

Driving home was easier. It was Sunday morning for one thing, so there was less traffic on the road. We came back via I-275 through Tampa to I-4 and then Orlando. Driving through Tampa wasn’t bad. There was only one time I almost got trapped in a right hand exit only lane. Even I-4 wasn’t too nerve wracking.

The Itasca made it’s first trip to storage this afternoon, but didn’t get into what will be its regular home. Since we sold the fiver, the two people on either side of us have squeezed over and taken about a two feet each off our storage site. So, we are in a temporary site until they move their stuff at some future date.

All in all a great inaugural trip for good motorhome Itasca. Some pictures are here.

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April 19, 2007 by steve.

Well, its almost time to go camping. We’ve spent most of this week loading the motorhome with all the stuff we took out of the fiver. Since most of the stuff ended up spread around the house, I also spent a lot of time looking for stuff that got “put somewhere I’ll remember it.”

I had to put together a new sewer hose. I left the 20ft one in the bumper of the fiver. The dealer provided a 10ft hose, but I know from experience that if I just go with that one, I’ll find myself about 8 inches from the dump and going “Dang! Wish I had a longer sewer hose.”  Also the motorhome doesn’t have a bumper to store the sewer hose in, so I’ve got to figure out a way to store it in one of the compartments. I stuck it in a Rubbermaid container and it fits up in the dump compartment.

One of the things that we’ve been doing this week is reading all the manuals that came with the motohome. Winnebago/Itasca get credit for doing manuals right. When we bought the fiver, we were given a pile of paper. “Here’s all your manuals.” the dealer said. Forrest River just installed stuff and passed on the paperwork. Winnebago takes all the manuals, re-prints them and GVC binds them for you. In addition, they remove all the non-English pages and the installation instructions from most of them. What you’re left with is what you need, instructions on how to use the stuff installed in the rig. Kudos to Winnebago for doing this right.

Well, we’re excited. Tomorrow’s the first camping trip. More on that when we get back.

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April 16, 2007 by steve.

Friday the 13th was the big day. Delivery day. Up early and the CurbCrusher family headed over to Cocoa and Suncoast RV to pick up the motorhome.

We arrived and met with our sales rep who introduced us to Jim, the tech that would walk us through the pre-delivery inspection. They had the rig in the garage, so we were out of the sun, and it was easy to walk around and climb underneath. We went through all the systems and operations inside and out of the coach. Then we learned how to hook up the Saturn to the motorhome. That part is fairly easy. You hook the towbar to the pins on the car, you plug the wire in from the motorhome to the car, and hook up the safety chains and the breakaway chain. Now its all ready to go.
Finally we went into the office and signed all the papers and then we owned a motorhome.

It took a bit of getting used to on how to center the rig on the road, but I think I finally quit weaving all over the road. I was feeling pretty good about half way down the 528, then realized that I had a toll booth to drive through. So I started sweating All was well, I just slowed down in the E-Pass lane and aimed for the middle. I didn’t hear any scraping or tearing noised.

Finally at the house I backed the rig into the driveway. We never had the 5th wheel in the driveway, I always parked it in the street. With the motorhome I was actually able to back it in. It barely fits, with the front almost at the street. This way we can put the slides out and load it up. All the stuff that had been in the 5th wheel has been living in the garage and on the porch for the last month and a half. It’s like reclaiming room in the house.

Hopefully we’ll get it all loaded by the end of the week so we can head to Ft. Desoto for the first camping trip.

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April 10, 2007 by steve.

OK. Had some time to get some of the paperwork done, so some further info.

I didn’t write a chapter, but after selling the 5th wheel, I no longer had a need for GMC 2500HD Duramax. I did have a need for something that I could pull behind the motorhome. After doing some research, and taking Mrs. Curbcrushers requirement that the vehicle had to have OnStar, we decided on a Saturn Vue. I took the truck to the local Saturn dealer and left with a Vue.

To get the Vue working behind the motorhome will require a base plate, tow bar and braking system. I negotiated some of this into the price of the motorhome earlier.

So yesterday afternoon, I too the Vue to the dealer. They looked at it and figured out what base plate to order, and we discussed braking systems. The parts guy was real big on the BrakeBuddy. This is a device that you have to place in front of the drivers seat and then hook up a pole to the brake pedal when you want to go somewhere. When you get somewhere you have to pull all this out of the drivers seat before you can drive anywhere. My folks have an Allegro Bay, and pull a Jeep with it. They just hook up the wiring harness from the coach to the Jeep and away they go. Nothing to put in the front seat, the braking is handled by some gizmo that was installed under the hood. I’m not sure what brand their using (and neither were they when I asked), but I had found the Unified Tow Brake that works this same way. The parts guy said I really didn’t want that kind of system. When I asked him why it basically boiled down to is that it takes a lot longer to install. We spent about 40 minutes discussing it, and I think I finally convinced him I really wanted the Unified Tow Brake.

Most of the time yesterday was spent talking with the parts guy about the base plate and brake system. We got about 10 minutes to walk through the rig. Suncoast had not processed it though the checks yet, but it still looks good.

Spent part of today arranging insurance and financing. I had already done all the application and approval for the financing, we just had to go sign the papers and stuff this afternoon.

Target day to take delivery is Friday. First camping trip the next Friday.

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April 10, 2007 by steve.

Got a call yesterday. The motorhome is at the dealer in Cocoa. Went over yesterday afternoon and dropped the Vue off so it can be fit with its towing parts. Delivery is scheduled for Friday.

Woo Hoo!!

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