With that in mind, we asked good friends of ours, Dave and Christine, who own an RV dealership to keep an eye out for a good used unit with the features we were looking for.  It took about two years since we first started discussing it, but our "ship" has finally come in.

I like the colour scheme and Gary seems happy with all the mechanical aspects.  He's already been out to buy a complete set of tools to carry in the new rig.  I guess I shouldn't make fun of him though . . . I have already picked up dishes, pots, pans, linens and even a few small appliances.

It's pretty exciting for both of us.

We will probably have a few short trips, short in both duration and distance, until we become familiar with motor home travel.  Our first long trip will be to the Fort Wilderness Campground at Walt Disney World (where else?) in April 2006.

We have enjoyed our first four years of RVing so much that we have recently started to talk about some longer trips we would like to take over the next ten years.  We pretty soon decided that our 1999 unit, which has served us well these last four years, would not last us ten more years.

I made up a list of things we needed and wanted in our next rig and we let our dealer friends, Dave and Christine, know we were in the market.  Within a week we were in their lot looking at a trade in that had just arrived.

Wow . . . what a beauty!

Within two days the deal was struck!

It's a 2007 Windsport Model 35B.  It's built on a Ford truck chassis, just like our last one.  The engine is a V10 and it only has 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) on the odometer.

It's three feet longer than our first unit and there are three slide-outs which greatly expand the living area.  It's just loaded up with extra features like a convection oven, central vacuum and a computer work station.  It's even "roughed in" for a washer and dryer and a satellite dish if we decide we need to add them.  I just love it and can't wait to get on the road.

Our next scheduled trip is April 21st when we leave for a week on Florida's Gulf Coast and a few days at Walt Disney World.

Gosh, can I wait that long or will we have to take a test run locally?

Decisions . . . decisions!     

So if you see us on the highway - give a honk and a wave!

All good things come to an end . . .

After a dozen years and almost 90,000 miles we managed to complete our RVing "bucket-list".  We had a great run, we really enjoyed travelling with the dogs, but there were no more "big trips" in our plans.  We talked for months and months about selling the rig . . . but we were both sort of reluctant to make the final committment.   Then in May 2017 we mentioned to some fellow Disney fans that we were thinking of selling.  Their eyes lit up immediately . . . within two weeks they drove away in their new rig.

We both had misty eyes as they drove away.  It's always tough to close a chapter in your life!

Motor Home Trips

(click on the blue link below to see more details of these trips)

As you probably expected, we just couldn't stay away from Fort Wilderness.

Trips in a rental trailer

(click on the blue link below to see more details of these trips)

March 1 - 23, 2018	EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL
February 13 - March 6, 2019	EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL
January 20 - February 15, 2020	EPCOT Festival of the Arts, Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL

You just knew it wouldn't last . . . didn't you?

We were both very happy with renting a trailer for those three trips to Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.  Even the dogs enjoyed it!  In fact we were so completely satisfied that we reserved the same trailer for trips in February and October of 2021.  Then Covid-19 struck in March 2020 and we were stuck at home in self-imposed isolation to protect ourselves from the virus.  During the first five months of self-imposed isolation our frustration just grew and grew.  We are so accustomed to travelling that it now seems to be etched in our DNA.  In May 2020 we were booked the stay at Disney's Aulani Resort in Hawaii and then cruise around the Hawaiian Islands, making landfall across the Pacific in Vancouver BC.  It was painful when Disney Cruise Line cancelled the cruise.  Just a few months later, in August, we were booked on a European River Cruise, sailing the Rhine from Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam in The Netherlands.  We hoped and hoped, but as the months passed it became obvious that that trip was doomed as well.

It was about the same day we would have been returning from Amsterdam when Carol turned to me and said, "I think you should buy another motorhome."  I hadn't really been thinking about it, but it took absolutely no persuasion to convince me.  Within hours we were both online looking for one that would suit us.  Alas, the good friends who owned the dealership where we bought our first two units have retired and closed the business.  We looked at a couple of other local dealerships, walked through several motorhomes about the right size and always came out saying, 'Nope, that one won't do!'  We saw one listed online that looked about right so we drove west for about three hours to have a look.  Yeouch!  There was duct tape holding the veneer on some of the interior cabinetry and every door or hatch for the exterior ''basement' storage area was battered, scratched or dinged.  It was a wasted day!

Finally we found exactly the right one, about 10 miles north of home.  It was 6 years old with 35,000 km or 22,000 miles on it.  It had been extremely well cared for and it showed!  Carol fell in love with the interior . . . and all the mechanical aspects worked for me.  We made an offer and by August 6th we had a firm agreement to buy a 2014 Georgetown XL 334QS.  The paperwork was all done very quickly and we took possession on August 19th.  Just a few days later we pulled out in our private little 'Covid-19 bubble' and enjoyed a shakedown voyage in a nearby campground along the St. Lawrence River.  It was wonderful to get away again!  We'll be staying in Canada with the new beast until the border with the USA reopens and we feel that it's safe to return to Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground.

Once our southern neighbours have the virus under better control we hope to avoid some of Canada's cold weather and spend a greater portion of the winter way down south in our new home away from home!

McLaren Campground - The Long Sault, Ontario

The St. Lawrence River

Smuggler's Cove Campground, Prince Edward County, ON

The sunsets over South Bay were stunning every night!

Trips in our third motor home

(click on the blue link below to see more details of these trips)