The CR-V is serviced and ready to go. The little car had a bit of a setback (more like a push forward) in December due to a "rear ender". Hard to believe the insurance claim for this came to well over $5000, which was getting very close to a write off.
But they fixed it right (my choice of body shop, not the insurance company's) and you would never know it had been hit.
We are planning to take 3 days to travel to Austin, overnighting in Terre Haute, IN and Little Rock, AR. These are the places we stopped at on the way home last November. They break the trip to Austin nicely into thirds and we know the hotels (pet friendly) and some good restaurants.
Our loosely planned itinerary for the next 6 weeks includes Padre Island National Seashore at Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley near Brownsville, TX, Big Bend National Park , Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Branson, Missouri, Nashville (again) and a stop in Charlotte MI at the Spartan factory for what American Coach owners jokingly refer to as "the $5000 oil change". Spartan, the manufacturerof the Unit's chassis offers a 44 point inspection for $100, but I'm guessing it doesn't end there. (I'm definitely not planning to spend 5K, but we'll
have to see what they find.) They're not cheap but nobody
knows these machines like they do.
So with the exception of the first destination, this trip will be desert rather than beach.
Oppressive heat, wide open spaces and stunning vistas are some of the things my research tells me we can expect. And maybe the occasional rattlesnake, scorpion or tarantula. Comes with the territory.
Last year I promised to tell you how the unit got its name, "The Unit". There was a forerunner to this unit, you see. The original UNIT.
The story on how it got its name isn't terribly interesting, or even funny, but here it is anyways.
I bought it at a large RV dealership near Stoney Creek in 1998. When I asked the salesman (who was also one of the owners) to tell me truthfully if this was a sound motorhome (I know, as if...) he replied that this was "a good unit" and they would stand behind it. A few months later when it started going through antifreeze at an alarming rate, I took it back to them. Broken head bolt, $1500 cost to me. Long story short, after I reminded him of the "good unit" conversation (now in writing) he begrudgingly agreed to do the repair and pick up the cost.
A few "Original Unit Stories"
I bought it in spite of the threat of divorce. I think she over reacted.
The drapes needed to be replaced due to sun damage. I asked Darlene if she would sew a new set for "our new toy", which was no small task.
Big mistake. Little did I know, I was about to have to learn how to sew. They didn't turn out bad. Unlike welding, in sewing you can easily undo your mistakes with scissors. Who knew?
We towed a motorcycle on a trailer for local transportation. We were younger then.
We took a 3 week whirlwind tour of the USA in the fall of 2001. Until last fall, this trip was often referred to as our best vacation ever. We covered more ground in those 3 weeks than we will in the 12 weeks of the fall 2015 and this trip put together. We made it all the way to the Grand Canyon. We were younger then.
I sold the original Unit in 2002, knowing our careers wouldn't allow us to spend enough time travelling to justify keeping it.
It was a "good unit" and we always knew we would get another one some day.
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