Hi, I'm Wendy, a former Compuserve RV Forum member, although it's been years since I looked in on this forum there. I'm glad to see at least a few familiar faces around here.
I don't presently own an RV, nor do I have plans to buy one, at least not yet, but it's something I've always wanted to do, so who knows, maybe one of these days I'll actually get around to it - probably sometime after I get a new job and actually start making enough money to hopefully be able to afford something decent (although lord only knows what I'll do for time to use it by then) <g>. I've sure been wishing these past few months that I did own one, though, since I had a fire in my house and then found mold elsewhere back in April, and it would have been nice to have someplace familiar to move into instead of dealing with hotels and rental houses and apartments since then. Oh, well.
I did, however, grow up with one RV or another, so this is not an alien world to me. As a result, I at least have a few ideas about what I definitely don't want, and what I must have when the time comes. My first experiences were with an approximately 23' trailer (can't remember the brand) when I was 8 years old that my parents rented to take us all to the New York World's Fair. I will never forget getting pulled over when we hit New York state for some violation (no inspection sticker, I believe - it was a brand new trailer), and having to spend a full day trying to get the violation taken care of, and my parents fuming because the rental place hadn't seen to all of that.
Years later, my mother bought a fairly large Starcraft tent trailer, and we had many years of fun with that, despite the trials and tribulations of dealing with things like PortaPotties and breaking cables in the middle of the night trying to get set up at some campground somewhere. You quickly learn with a beast like that to make sure you always, always, always have a few good, strong dowel rods on hand, just in case, because those cables *never* break during daylight or on weekdays, anywhere near any sort of service facility, or in dry weather <g>.
I came of age to drive while we still had it, and so cut my teeth towing something with that attached to a 1972 Chevy wagon, and nothing I've ever driven since has even begun to daunt me. Since I've always looked much younger than my actual age, it was always a lot of fun watching the shocked faces of bystanders when we'd come out of a rest stop and I would get behind the wheel of the car and actually drive away, because at 17, I still looked about 12 <g>.
What I'm dreaming of now is an approximately 34' class A that I can schlepp around at all times of the year in - big enough to stretch out in and give my dog room to turn around and move, but still small enough to manage and take through hopefully all the parks and twisty turny roads I can drum up and hopefully not run into *too* many problems finding a space big enough to park in. I have visions, among other things, of using it as a base for skiing in the Sierras and elsewhere, and a lifelong dream has been to wander around the wild west in a leisurely fashion, taking in the sights. I can't say as it would be an unwelcome way to get to spend some more time on the east coast and the midwest with my family, either, without going broke on hotels.
I've done some research, but it's been on hold for a few years, so I'd have to pretty much start all over again when the time comes. I do know I wasn't entirely thrilled with either of the primary brand options that seem to be available around here, for one reason or another, though, but the one I liked best was a lot more expensive.
I learned a lot of what I knew when I was researching about what to look for as a result of reading the Compuserve forum, so my thanks to everyone who made it as great as it was. I'm sure this new home has continued the great traditions started there, and I look forward to participating, although it will likely be intermittently due to other time commitments. I can't remember offhand who pointed y'all out to me (Robin Garr or WDave, most likely), but I'm glad to be gradually finding all the old folks from the CIS days scattered here and there on the 'Net.
Wendy H.
I don't presently own an RV, nor do I have plans to buy one, at least not yet, but it's something I've always wanted to do, so who knows, maybe one of these days I'll actually get around to it - probably sometime after I get a new job and actually start making enough money to hopefully be able to afford something decent (although lord only knows what I'll do for time to use it by then) <g>. I've sure been wishing these past few months that I did own one, though, since I had a fire in my house and then found mold elsewhere back in April, and it would have been nice to have someplace familiar to move into instead of dealing with hotels and rental houses and apartments since then. Oh, well.
I did, however, grow up with one RV or another, so this is not an alien world to me. As a result, I at least have a few ideas about what I definitely don't want, and what I must have when the time comes. My first experiences were with an approximately 23' trailer (can't remember the brand) when I was 8 years old that my parents rented to take us all to the New York World's Fair. I will never forget getting pulled over when we hit New York state for some violation (no inspection sticker, I believe - it was a brand new trailer), and having to spend a full day trying to get the violation taken care of, and my parents fuming because the rental place hadn't seen to all of that.
Years later, my mother bought a fairly large Starcraft tent trailer, and we had many years of fun with that, despite the trials and tribulations of dealing with things like PortaPotties and breaking cables in the middle of the night trying to get set up at some campground somewhere. You quickly learn with a beast like that to make sure you always, always, always have a few good, strong dowel rods on hand, just in case, because those cables *never* break during daylight or on weekdays, anywhere near any sort of service facility, or in dry weather <g>.
I came of age to drive while we still had it, and so cut my teeth towing something with that attached to a 1972 Chevy wagon, and nothing I've ever driven since has even begun to daunt me. Since I've always looked much younger than my actual age, it was always a lot of fun watching the shocked faces of bystanders when we'd come out of a rest stop and I would get behind the wheel of the car and actually drive away, because at 17, I still looked about 12 <g>.
What I'm dreaming of now is an approximately 34' class A that I can schlepp around at all times of the year in - big enough to stretch out in and give my dog room to turn around and move, but still small enough to manage and take through hopefully all the parks and twisty turny roads I can drum up and hopefully not run into *too* many problems finding a space big enough to park in. I have visions, among other things, of using it as a base for skiing in the Sierras and elsewhere, and a lifelong dream has been to wander around the wild west in a leisurely fashion, taking in the sights. I can't say as it would be an unwelcome way to get to spend some more time on the east coast and the midwest with my family, either, without going broke on hotels.
I've done some research, but it's been on hold for a few years, so I'd have to pretty much start all over again when the time comes. I do know I wasn't entirely thrilled with either of the primary brand options that seem to be available around here, for one reason or another, though, but the one I liked best was a lot more expensive.
I learned a lot of what I knew when I was researching about what to look for as a result of reading the Compuserve forum, so my thanks to everyone who made it as great as it was. I'm sure this new home has continued the great traditions started there, and I look forward to participating, although it will likely be intermittently due to other time commitments. I can't remember offhand who pointed y'all out to me (Robin Garr or WDave, most likely), but I'm glad to be gradually finding all the old folks from the CIS days scattered here and there on the 'Net.
Wendy H.
