Year 1 Day 3: Making The Transition – Part 2

We left San Francisco very early in the morning to make our escape from the city before the morning traffic began.  Plus, our goal for the day was driving to Las Vegas which was 550 miles away.  Our sweet little Fiat was packed to the hilt, loaded down with every conceivable thing we could take with us.  For the last 10 years we have been storing stuff at each of our children’s places knowing that someday our sailing days would end and things that one needs to live on the land would once again become useful.  We had given away most of our “stuff” before moving on to Leu Cat but we still kept certain treasured keepsakes

We were very impressed with how much stuff we could cram into the little Fiat.  Every time Mary Margaret came to the car with another treasure, my eyes would roll as I was sure there was no way we could squeeze it in.  Time after time this happened and by the time we were through and had packed ourselves into the car, I felt like the little car in the circus that is jammed full of clowns.  Nevertheless, the little Fiat handled all of the load just fine and we put-putted up and down the steep hills of San Francisco making our escape.

We arrived in Las Vegas in the late afternoon and stayed with our dear friends the Kennedys.  We last saw them in April when they came and visited us on board Leu Cat when we were in the US Virgin Islands.  We had such great memories of this visit and we all reflected sadly on how hurricane Irma has destroyed St. Thomas, St. Johns and, of course, Leu Cat.  Tears well up in our eyes each time we think about it.

The next morning we were off again in the early morning darkness so that we could miss the horrible Las Vegas rush hour traffic.  Our goal now was reaching Mesa, Arizona, just a short hop for our “husky” little Fiat of about 350 miles. We had agreed with the dealer to arrive there by noon so they could start work on installing the towing and supplemental braking system on our car that is required so we could tow it behind the RV.

Once we arrived and handed over our car, we got the grand tour of the RV which included 4 hours of detailed instruction on operating every little gizmo that it comes with.  Our heads were swimming with details well before the 4 hours were over.  Added to that overload of information was our excitement of actually seeing our new home and how beautiful it was.  Wow!  The beast is massive and our eyes widened to the max as we kept walking and walking and walking to go from its back end to its front.

The beast (we still have not named her and would love to get some suggestions from you to help us out) has 4 slide outs which greatly expands the room inside.  I will post some photos that I have copied off the Internet to give you some idea of what our home looks like.  In the not too distant future, I will take photos of our actual unit since we have some features that are a bit unique to most other units.

By 5 PM we were exhausted and rather overwhelmed with how much we still needed to know before we could feel comfortable with what we were about to move into.  For example, there are over 110 switches and buttons (at last count, I am sure there are more as we discover more and more each day) that control a vast array of operations.  Sheesh!

Here is a photo of our bus.  It is a Tiffin Allegro 40Sp.

Here is the floor plan of our bus.  Note that we have the table option with the two upholstered bench seats.

I will try to post interior photos tomorrow.