RV Done Yet?

It’s January and things are slowing down.  The Christmas rush is behind us, Helen (adorable wife) is in the final stages of celebrating birthday month, and cold days and nights are keeping us pretty buttoned up. On Sunday of this week, the skies cleared, temperatures warmed, and the rain finally moved out.  This delightful weather motivated us to move outdoors so we took the opportunity to attend the annual RV Show in nearby Sevierville, Tennessee.

Readers may remember that last year we went to this same show and a new 26-foot travel trailer followed us home. This year, we vowed not to repeat that event, but we did want to see the latest and greatest of new models for the upcoming season. We also wanted to put our names in all of the door prize boxes.  Maybe we would win a free trip to a fancy RV resort in someplace warm. We made the forty-mile drive under blue skies and the mountains soon came into our view.  

Sunday is the last day of the show and it ends at four o’clock. We arrived at two that afternoon. Nevertheless, the parking lot remained crowded and people still lined up to purchase tickets. Helen and I hustled inside and filled out a few slips for some attractive door prizes (Florida vacations).

Once inside, the new RVs glimmered in the bright lights like well-polished gemstones. There were motorhomes, fifth-wheels, and travel trailers of every stripe. We walked into a motorhome in the first aisle with a list price of over $302,000. The picture below gives a view of the living area all the way to the bedroom. I liked the reclining chairs and the comfortable seating for the driver.  Helen liked the cozy dinette for a place to work puzzles.

The second motorhome (top of page) was a bit larger and featured a fireplace and a cedar closet in the bedroom. It had tons of storage and closet space, a great feature in RVs where storage can be a scarce commodity.  Helen does a great job of organizing our trailer, but more room would be nice.

We toured a fifth-wheel trailer near the rear of the exhibit hall that was about as nice as it gets, although there seems to be no end to the features or floorplans found in modern recreational vehicles. Unlike most fifth-wheels that feature the master bedroom on the “second floor”, this RV placed the living room in that space. Helen cozied up on one of the couches and let the fireplace lure her into thoughts of a nap. I loved the kitchen that featured a full-size refrigerator and lots of very nice cabinetry.  The bedroom also had nice cabinets and a large closet. I could get used to this one…list price $105,000.

In all of the RVs we toured, the one feature that I appreciated most is how well-lit all of them are on the inside. All of the pictures shown here are good examples of the lighting in each, and most of it is efficient LED lighting placed around the RV both overhead and along the floor. An abundance of windows help, of course, but good lighting inside of cabinets, closets, and storage spaces are must-have as far as I am concerned.

As the afternoon wore on, we toured a few of the smaller RVs, such as the Mercedes Sprinter vans, and the smaller coaches known as Class C RVs.  They are all nice and preferred over trailers by some, but we like to park our RV, hook up the utilities, then shop or sight-see by a separate vehicle. We went across the country almost two years ago in a rented Class C that we named Sherman.  We have a lot of fond memories of that trip and both agree that it is a great way to sample RV living without having to make a purchase. We rented that one from Cruise America.

By the time the show closed at four, we had made our way in and out of a lot of RVs but left convinced that our RV suited us as well as anything we saw that day. We managed to keep our vow that a new RV would not follow us home, as well we should because we purchased a new fifth-wheel three weeks ago. I even handed out a slight hint.

We wrote recently about having cocktails in the “annex” during our annual meatloaf party. Well, the annex was our new fifth-wheel parked behind the house and hooked up so that we could share it with our friends.  We love this new trailer, and, after several tries at various RVs, we both agreed that we have it right this time. It has plenty of room, plenty of storage, and is so easy to hook up and to tow. We plan to take it on a “shakedown” trip to the mountains next week to prepare for our trip to Arizona. Please come back for a complete review.

For now, we are naming this trailer Gracey II because we like the name and Gracey I gave us a great deal of fun. Nevertheless, Helen and I are open to suggestions for a perfect name for our new family member.  She is pictured here. We feel so very blessed and are very eager to take our readers with us as we begin another year of just…Easin’ Along.