It all started with a camping trip to The
Great Smoky Mountain National Park in early Summer, 2006. We
were tent camping in
the Elkmont Campground in the Park.
Next to our site was a pull behind camper. It was hard shell (a Kodiak by Skamper) but at each end the beds pulled out like a pop-up tent camper. An advantage to this model was that it could be used with the beds deployed or not. When camping in places like Yellowstone where canvas tents are not allowed the unit could still be used.
On the
way home Sharon suggested that we sell the house and travel for
a year or so. We have previously discussed building on the property
Sharon inherited; we could build after we have traveled for awhile. It
didn't take much to convince me. Since before I retired I have said I
would like to drive across country stopping where and when I want to -
possibly following US 50 across America.
The next weekend we drove to a Kodiak dealer in Commerce, GA. We checked out several models and got to thinking that the size that was comfortable for us is longer than we wanted to deal with. Also it seemed to us that a pull behind would be limiting our flexibilty in going where we want and stopping where we want.
Sharon
found a website for a couple, Phil and Carol White, who retired
and traveled for a year in a Class B Van conversion. Their web site is www.roadtripdream.com.
We bought their book Live Your Road Trip Dream and
it has become a guide for our travel preparations. Armed with new
information about Class B and Class C van conversions we again visited
RV dealers in north Georgia. We quickly decided the Class B's were
smaller than we wanted for long term living. Now our search had a new
focus - a Class C van conversion. Once you start looking you find there
a lot of different layouts and options to consider.
In
the meantime through discussions at work Sharon found out about Workamper
News. This is a "help wanted" service for campers.
It provides job opportunities for full and part
time RVers. For example, in return for 20 hours work an RVer might
receive one week's free campsite with full hook-up. Here is an
opportunity to travel and reduce expenses. One more interesting piece
to fit into the puzzle.
One day on the way to work it occurred to me I had been going by Georgia Mountain RV everyday and we had never even stopped there. The next day off we stopped in. There were several Class C vans on the lot; one of which caught our eye. It was a 21 foot Itasca by Winnebago conversion of a VW EuroVan. After some delibration we agreed to buy it.
We took delivery on a Friday. We both worked on Saturday. On Sunday morning we headed out for Pennsylvania.