Back home to the barking, no view & cold

For 3 days we tried to out wait the bad weather but gave up on Thur. The consequences were a severe headwind (20-30 mph) all 370 miles on the last leg home. Top speed was 40-45 at times, twice in the 25 mph range climbing steep hills into the wind. 9 hours. And we paid for it with 6.5 mpg. At least 2/3 of the trip was into winds. Still ended up with 9.0 overall, so we could get average 10+ in moderate winds and temps. Better than to 6-7 mpg range I expected before leaving.
Linda has a better handle on where we went and did, see here blog. RV ran great, no major problems. Came back with a list of fixes needed. It was a rental and somethings were abused. All probably will be fixed before we go out on our next trip in Feb? Mildred's going in the hospital in early Dec and Linda has federal jury duty in Jan. Linda's also off the Israel and we have our yearly family reunion late Nov.
Was 84 in Brownsville yesterday, in 40's here. Was warmer in Madison and St. Paul than here too. 2' snow in Denver so I'm not bitching (much).
I enjoyed our trip. Wished there had been more to see in south Texas. The red tide prevented us from going to the sea shore. Coughing was bad, felt like a sore throat too. The roads were flat and straight. The wildlife in the preserves starts in Nov. thru April. The tourist season is the same time and RV parking is scarce. We now know where not to go. Texas is a dang big state. We drove 2140 miles never leaving to perimeter.
Looks like Florida or AZ is the winter spots. Summer is mountains or north USA.
The Venture really gets dirty in rains behind the RV. A problem needing a solution. I bought a cover but would just shred apart in the turbulence behind the RV.
Sincerely, your nomad friends (or family)
See Linda's photo album for more pics http://picasaweb.google.com/linda.french

No barking and a moving view from the picture window

Damn this is the life. Should have done this years ago. With 20 dogs around us at the house and only a view of neighbor's houses, is no life. Even though we are in one place we did not expect to stay more than one day it's better than El Paso. No traffic, I'm under even less stress than at home, I'm sleeping better, all the comforts of home including our own shower and a new soft pillow top bed. We're eating better because we're not eating out. Only twice in 2 weeks

The RV is running fine, getting 50+% more MPG than I thought before getting it. 9.5 mpg so far. RV monthly lot rents are $200 per month plus electric (<$100?).

I took the Venture and will be taking a 2nd bike on the next trips. The V10 in this puppy has 368 hp and 450 ft# torque. It does not even know it's pulling a trailer.

The cost of gas, lot rent or park fees, maintenance, license, inspections and utilities will be about the same as taxes ($3500), upkeep, & utilities on a house. No garbage & water fees, free Wi-Fi most places, no phone land line, no DSL, and no large house to heat/cool. Best of all NO POOL!

Sell the house and CD it. Interest alone could pay the gas.

Winter in the south, and summer in the north. We can visit New England, and many National parks we wanted to for years, staying days or even weeks where I haven't ridden the same roads a hundred times before.

It's time for a change. I'll miss my riding friends but we got to do this before we can't. LIKE due to the economy, age, health, global warming, Christ's return, an asteriod, a super volcano, a super nova....... did you see the bill boards in Dallas, watch out for 2012!

Oh it's big!

At 34.5 feet long, 8.5 wide, 12' high and 15,000 lbs it's almost intimidating. We sit as high as Semi-trucks, it is a house on a truck chassis. The slide out is 14' long. The Queen size bed will have to be replaced, it terrible. It was a rental so many small things need fixing, covering up or replacing.
If it wasn't a rental it would have been $37-47k. But we got it for $32k including 5 new tires, @ $325 each. It has 51,500 miles. For a truck this really not that much, but like cars are hard to sell if over 100k miles, when we do want to sell it. It's a 2005 Ford Fleetwood Fiesta 32S (32' on inside?)
It has much storage space. Enough to live in. We took all of the STUFF out of the 88 Dodge RV and put it in the new to us RV and have many empty compartments.
Now the bad. With a Ford 6.8 liter V10, even with Overdrive and Fuel Injection will only get 6-8 mpg. Has a 75 gallon gas tank. At $3/gal and a 60 gallon fill up = $180 for 400 miles.
It takes up the entire front yard from drive way to the north end of the lot.
The other bad, Camping World. Disclosed it was a rental when I called about picking it up, bad start. Went to pick it up, promised gas and LP, not done, no inspection sticker, no instruction manuals, no clock, wrong chassis battery, asked them not to clean it and they did. Drove it home everything seemed OK they did not have anything to do with.
The other good. We will be seeing family more and be out of the house more where I can ride the Venture in newer places. I'm really bored riding anywhere near El Paso. Sorry friends your leader is leaving you. You should have showed up more on Sat's.
Don't be surprised to see Linda's mother also on our wonderings.
When do you want to see us? You Yankees will have to wait for spring. 1st trip is to Garland and South Padre Island.

Too many options

We're thinking of upgrading our 16.5' Conversion Van RV Class B to something bigger. The fold down couch/bed is barely big enough for Linda and I to sleep on. It's like 30" wide, slightly wider than a twin bed. See Pic. Every time we want to roll over at night we have to wake up to do it. To get to the toilet we have to scoot to the bottom of the bed, turn around and lean backwards onto the toilet, up one step. A full size (double) bed would be like luxury.
The kitchen sink is in the corner hard to reach. The stove is out where it can be used but we don't use it, we don't fry foods, it's bad for you. We do have a microwave and toaster oven to cook in.
I like our present RV size and it get's good gas mileage even pulling the trailer and motorcycle. Easy to park anywhere, even at home. We only have room for a 24 footer at the house.
Most Class A's are 30' and up. They get 6-10 mpg compared to our 15-17 now. There are a 100's for sale in Dallas, Albq. , Tucson and Phoenix. Very few in El Paso, of course.
We started out looking at diesels but most are $40-50k. Gas engines are much less $10-30K. You can buy a lot of gas for $10,000. ~4000 gallons! or 30+k miles additional. Most RV's for sale have about 50k miles on them. So the drive train still has lots of life left.
Then if we ever wanted to live in it we need a washer/dryer combo. Most do not have one, most are not wired/plumbed (prep'ed). But I can do that. For $1200!
Then our health insurance is only good in El Paso. Linda's elderly mother is another problem.
But we want to get out of El Paso and do something else, other than just sit here on our lazyboys.... And then there's selling to house and doing something with all this "STUFF".
Nothing has jumped out at us to buy, YET!