Terry and I are starting our sixth year of fulltiming. We began with an idea and now live a dream. The evolution of the dream has been a wonderful adventure for both of us. We have learned so much over the years that it is hard to recall life “before”.
In early 2003 we went to Nashville, Tenn to pick up our new Freightliner. We incorporated that event with our annual Alfa National Rally, which was held in May in Sevierville, Tenn. We also took a quick trip to Mason Neck, VA to visit Terry’s sister and her husband. After the rally we headed for Ohio, where we would spend the summer.
Prior to leaving California for Tenn. we had accepted a position as camp host for a state park in Ohio. While in Sevierville, we checked in with them to give them a firm arrival date. I talked with the host coordinator and everything was fine, I thought. Two years before, we had visited the park and seen the host sites, which were beautifully landscaped and had full hookups. I asked about the host site we would be using. He said that we would be happy to know that the electric had been upgraded from 30 to 50 amps. Great, said I….what about the sewer and water? (I had never asked that before! Just assumed that when they say full hookups, that is what it means…) Uhhhhh….said he, all our VIPs (volunteers in parks) use blue-boys and there is a common water faucet that you all use……I did a double take. I asked……what happened to the full hookup sites? Ohhh….we now have rental units on those sites….Well, needless to say, we did not accept the position. I later found out that none of the hosts they had lined up, showed up. They ended up hiring folks to do the host jobs.
After realizing that we did not have a place to spend the summer, I immediately started making phone calls for reservations, found a little park in Butler, Ohio and arranged to stay the summer. It was farther away from our son and his family, but only 10 miles from a nice lake and we could keep our pontoon boat there. We were set.
During our two weeks in Sevierville, we experienced some rather severe (no pun intended!) weather. A major storm went through and flooded the park we were staying in. Our Alfa group, 36 rigs, evacuated to a church parking lot and had an impromptu pizza party. The night before the evacuation a tornado touched down a mile from the park. The next day the water receded and we returned to the park. We had a wonderful time in Tennessee and we are looking forward to spending more time in that beautiful, historic state.
We left for Ohio in the pouring rain and arrived in Butler none the worse for wear. The Freightliner pulled the Alfa beautifully. We met the owners of the park and got settled in. Two days later we liberated our boat from the storage facility and settled in for a quiet summer. We spent a lot of time on the lake and with our son Brent and his family. Friends came in with their motor home and spent a few weeks with us. During that time we made plans to go to Alaska the following summer. We bought books and did a lot of research on the Internet. We were already looking forward to the next summer!
In August, we decided to haul the boat back to Apple Valley, California. We knew that we would not get back to Ohio for a couple of years and wanted our other son, Brian to have the chance to use it. What a trip that was! Four days to get there, one day spent buying a house for Terry’s Mom to live in, (that is a story to be told another day!) and three days back to Ohio. We were so glad to get back to our little house on wheels and our own bed! (Motels are why we haul our fiver with us, after all…) One week later we hooked up the Alfa and headed to Colorado for an Alfa campout for a week. Then on to California and our fall position as camp hosts at McGrath State Beach.
In 2001 my father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given 6-18 months to live. It was now late 2003 and he was still with us. Dad is a fighter and has a wonderful support system of family and friends. We like to make plans for the coming year, but realize that with his health so fragile, those plans may have to change. During our stay at McGrath, Dad’s health was getting worse. We decided to take a host position in southern California for the winter. We did not want to be too far away. We spent the winter at Agua Caliente Hot Springs Regional Park in San Diego County. Four months of quiet solitude in the beautiful Anza Borrego Desert made us realize how great it is to be able to live this life-style.
Before reporting to Agua Caliente, we headed to Quartzsite and our annual Alfa campout. While there, we decided to invest in the DataStorm Internet satellite system. We wanted the permanent mount on the roof. We made an appointment to have the system installed the day after the campout. We spent the night at the installer’s lot and prepared to leave the next morning and head for Agua Caliente. Next morning, after making sure everything was working with the DataStorm, we got ready to leave. I proceeded to pull the main slide of the fiver in. Hit the switch and heard a terrific sound…grinding and a bang! That slide was not going anywhere. Terry got out his tools and started taking things apart. The motor had burned up. Got out the handy-dandy slide crank and announced that we would soon be on the road! Not so…the gears had destroyed themselves. (We had had many problems with that slide from the day we got the fiver. Several motors later, we thought all was fixed…wrong!) We got hold of a mobile RV repairman, and that wonderful man spent over an hour cutting the gears out so that Terry could manually crank that slide in.
Before we called the repairman we had been in contact with our RV technician and he had talked Terry through the process of trying to fix the problem. Once on the road, we called the service center again and told them we were on our way in to have them fix the slide…again. They were waiting for us when we got there. We spent three days there, for a partial fix and then headed for Agua Caliente, knowing that we would have to go back to Colton at some point to complete the repairs. It took three more trips to Colton to get that slide repaired. A lot of aggravation and traveling, but the slide was working.
While in Agua Caliente, we decided we would rather not go to Alaska for the summer. We did not feel good about being that far away from Dad. I got on the Internet and started applying for summer host positions. It was definitely late to be looking, but we did not want to spend the summer in Apple Valley. Too hot for us! We accepted a position with the South Dakota State Park system beginning in late May. The timing worked beautifully, as we had the Alfa National Rally in Welches, Oregon in early May.
We spent two weeks in Oregon. It is a beautiful area that neither of us had been to since we were kids. We will go back and hopefully get the chance to do some hosting there. The rally was a time to see old friends and make new ones. We had a great time hiking and touring the area. After the rally we would head directly for South Dakota and our summer job.
We left Welches early on a beautiful May day. After driving about an hour, we stopped at the first rest stop to check things out and stretch our legs. I did a walk around the fiver and noticed that the main slide had crept out about 2 inches. We thought that problem had been fixed! I told Terry and then went inside to pull the slide back in. I turned on the main switch and then pushed the switch to start the slide back in. POOF….smoke and flames started coming out of the wall!!!! I immediately turned off the main switch and yelled for Terry. He came on the run! I told him what had happened, and he went to the truck for his tool belt. He took the wall apart and we saw that the wiring to the switch had burned up and melted the switch. He replaced the switch with one of the other ones and replaced the wiring, got the slide in and we went on down the road. We stopped at Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for the night. Went to put the slide out and a bigger POOF…smoke and more flames. Terry was at my side that time and we got the fire out, again. Now he is seeing red…and it wasn’t just flames! He called Alfa and told them what was going on. They gave him some suggestions, which he carried out. POOF…again. By now, we are ready to grab the important stuff and ”let ‘er burn”! But we didn’t. He disconnected everything so it wouldn’t burn up. Out comes the crank and got the slide in. We ordered new switches and wiring from Alfa and when we got to South Dakota, he installed them…didn’t work! Same results. We made an appointment to take it to the factory in the fall when we went back to California. For the rest of the summer he cranked that slide in manually.
We had a wonderful summer in South Dakota. We were right on a big lake and did a lot of exploring in the area. We saw Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood, and avoided the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. We took a trip to Sioux Falls to register to vote in our new state. We had made the switch the previous winter.
One of our trips was to Casper, Wyoming to the Teton factory in July. Many years ago when we first started to dream of fulltiming, our dream fiver was a Teton. We knew that we would need a Freightliner type truck and it just wasn’t the time for that rig then. But now we had the truck…let’s look at the Teton! With all the trouble we were having with the Alfa, it was a no-brainer. We contacted a dealer in Casper and phoned and emailed many times, working on what we would like in our dream home….including the dual paned windows, artic pack and Big-foot leveling system.
Before we left for Casper, we contacted our Credit Union and told them what we wanted to do. We knew we could handle the financial end, so off we went to Casper. We stopped at the dealer’s first, to see what was on the lot. The unit we were interested in was not available. We went on the factory tour and then back to the dealer’s. We placed the order for our new home that afternoon. Wow……that was quick! It should be ready for us in late November. That was okay with us. We traded the Alfa and the dealer was aware of the problems. We were going to haul it to the factory to get the repairs done, but he told us not to. They would fix it after we had moved into the Teton!
Now, we played the waiting game….changed the order several times, made arrangements to have the DataStorm moved to the new fiver and got the truck striped to match the Teton. This was fun! We stayed nearly three months in Casper, and did a lot of exploring. Independence Rock was one of our favorite places. We saw much of the immigrant trail and walked in the ruts that the pioneer’s wagons left. What an awesome time we had. The campground we stayed in was right at the spot where the Mormons put the first bridge over the North Platte River. In September we went to Ririe, Idaho for another Alfa campout.
While there, we announced that we were no longer going to be Alfa owners. We would be SOBs, now…(some other brand). They all knew the problems we were having with our Alfa and understood. We also were offered a job for the next summer at the campground we stayed at in Ririe. I will be the “flower lady” and Terry will do the weed eating. We will be right on the Snake River. We rafted the river and loved it, so we will be doing a lot more next summer. After cranking in the slide, we went back to Casper to wait for our new home.
On Halloween we had the first snowfall of the season. Six inches fell and was gone in a few days….my kind of snow. Our move in date was set for Nov 16, and we were ready. Off we went to the factory, where we were to make the switch. As this was the first time we have had a factory delivery, and we really didn’t know what to expect. Wow! What an experience. We were parked door to door with our new home, and given all the time we needed to move in. A technician was assigned to us and all the little issues were taken care of. One of the guys built a ramp that went door to door so we wouldn’t have to go up and down the steps! We arranged to have the DataStorm dish moved from the old fiver to the Teton while at the factory and the Teton guys used their forklift to move the dish. We have never been treated so well. There was nothing that they wouldn’t do for us. Thank you, Teton!
We spent three days at the factory and planned on leaving by noon, Friday, to begin our trip to California. After having beautiful weather on Tuesday and Wednesday, partly cloudy and cold Thursday, Friday dawned with clouds and snow. When the last of the work was completed on the DataStorm and the Alfa was turned over to the dealer, it was well after noon and snowing. We called the RV park to get a site for the night and headed back to Casper. We set up and turned on the computer to watch the weather and road conditions. During this time we also tried to get things somewhat organized on the inside. While moving in, we found things that we had thought were gone forever, and lost some that probably are gone forever! You would think that in a space this small, things would be easy to keep track of…not so!
By Saturday morning we had given up the idea of leaving Casper and getting back to California by Thanksgiving. Snow was falling but the roads were still clear. The stretch of highway between Casper and I80 was our biggest concern. By late morning there was a break in the weather, so we hooked up. The leveling system made that a five-minute operation! Push the button and watch ‘er go! We pulled out and headed south.
Snow, ice and freezing weather were to be our traveling companions for the next four days and the truck-fiver combination proved to be up to the task. Our new home is built to handle the weather extremes and pulled like a dream. We never realized that there would be so much difference in fivers. The decision to change was a good one.
We arrived in Apple Valley by noon on the fourth day and were greeted by…snow! The storm we skirted all the way from Wyoming had dumped two feet of snow on the area during one of the earliest snows on record. We thought the weather would be better in California, but we were wrong! Oh, well, at least the fiver would get a good test in the cold. It has proved a winner. Propane use has been almost nothing. We use the heat pumps and our electricity usage is about one third that of the Alfa. This is truly a four-season fiver.
Christmas has come and gone and we have begun the New Year. In a few days we will head for our host job at McGrath State Beach, once again. Life has been good to us and we look forward to many more years on the road. We have seen so much and there is so much more to see, people to meet and stories to tell. Now it’s time to hit the road, again!