After months of discussion, i decided to test
two (originally three) vintage cars at the Brian Redman Targa 66 event at
Moroso in Jupiter FL.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a Motorhome to use trackside, i wondered? This
is not as farfetched as it seems; i'd thought about this a lot in the past,
so deciding to move ahead now isn't that surprising.
For a few weeks i visited the very useful Yahoo Group for the Winnebago View
(and Navion) here
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/View-Navion/ and learned as much as
i could. I went to an RV show. And i called my 'local' dealer to discuss
ordering, and inventory. When the dealer told me that both the J and H units
were in stock, i drove the almost 2 hours to visit them; however, i found
that the H i likely wanted was off to an RV show. I told the salesperson
that i was REALLY serious and would like to hear if that unit actually was
at the show, and if it actually have the seat covering option i was
interested in. She said she'd call me from the show in a day or so.
I never heard from her. No follow-up whatsoever. Not concerning inventory,
nor in an attempt to get me to consider a 2008, if the H i wanted was
unavailable. Nada.
This has happened to me so many times with luxury automobiles, that i've
simply come to the point of saying: i will not buy from such dealers. If you
can't get them to call you for a sale, what will the service experience be
like?
I won't bog this down with the rest of my 'sales experience' with other
dealers. Generally speaking, it was poor: characterized by a lack of
knowledge mixed with a general sleaziness.
Then i happened upon Suncoastrv in Cocoa FL
http://www.suncoastrv.com I dealt
with Richard Short who was knowledgeable, friendly, helpful, and wanted to
make a sale! I had a deal in hours. They had the unit i wanted. And i could
pick it up in a few days, before taking it to Palm Beach Gardens for my car
event!
Picking her up
I arrived on schedule, was greeted at the airport by a really nice guy from Suncoastrv, and taken to the dealership, where i signed papers, paid, and got the overview of the View. This is the one knock on Suncoast...that 'overview' was sadly lacking. the (very nice) fellow who briefed me knew very little about the View. He had never prep'd one, and made errors, and left me frustrated and confused. This might be an unusual occurrence owing to a lack of staff? don't know, but that needs improvement.
Richard took me out in her to show me a trailer park (i'd never seen one!), explain further the hookups etc, and then i drove her a bit with him in the unit. All was well. We shook hands and off i went, heading to West Palm and a Walmart for provisioning (and sleep!).
Over the next few days i stimulated the local
economy (mainly Walmart, but also Target etc). Note full cart.
140 miles later, my impressions were:
. very manageable size
. comfortable
. sways a LOT
. love the diesel
. good overall quality level
First Night @ Walmart
I asked a security guard 'where should i park for overnight' and he directed me to the brightest (and i guess noisiest) part of the parking lot, presumably for security reasons. I slept in the upper bunk and it took some effort for me to get adjusted. What little sleep i had was disrupted @ ~ 2am by the sound of a track vacuuming the parking lot. this persisted for about an hour, and believe me, it sounded like a 747 was taking off. i've told this to a few people now and they too have had this Walmart experience lol.
Other than that, awoke to this:
Off to the Track
Three days spent enjoying Brian Redman's Targa 66 event at Moroso Raceway
http://www.morosomotorsportspark.com/Newsite/Default.asp
Tested a Porsche 914/6
and a Chevron B-21
but this isn't about vintage car testing, it's about the Winnie. So after three days of driving around Moroso, i headed off to Jonathan Dickinson State Park with her. After one night of boondocking @ walmart, on to the luxury of a hookup!
The park consists of 11,000 acres, and two 'full facility' campgrounds. I was in the Easterly more barren one. It's what was available at the last minute. I'd suggest staying in the more attractive, and secluded, river campground further west. there are plenty of pictures here http://www.floridastateparks.org/jonathandickinson/Photos-Park.cfm so i won't post my own.
Observations of this well regarded state park. The campers are a friendly crowd. Everyone makes eye contact, and say hello. There was a wide range of camping types, from small tents through diesel pushers, with a good distribution of Class B's and C's in between. The park has the feeling of being secure. The bathroom facilities were spotless. As you can see from this photo, the site required my leveling her, which i guess i could have avoided with a little more parking skill.
The park has biking trails, canoe rental, boat tours, lot's of bird watching...see the website. I would visit here again.
That night i spent more time with the manuals, and more or less got the hang of things. I did make newbie mistakes. But you do learn from them. I brought dvd's with me, fortunately, as the tv reception here brought in only one station. No, no wifi, and no catv!
This night i slept on the extendable sofa. It too takes some adjusting to, but i did. It's actually quite comfortable. However, the next night i was back to the upper bunk, and i do like this better. The one downside is the ladder. Trips to the head in the middle of the night are an adventure.
I must say that i couldn't live without the slide. The difference is night and day in this 23.5 foot marvel.
On Monday, i dumped the tanks for the first time. Again, lessons learned, but really not a difficult process. However, it's important to buy a good hose and fitting kit (while on that, i had also bought a longer 'white' water hose.).
I tested all the systems too. The heat, a/c, heat pump, water pump, hot water heater...etc. And the appliances, which are super. The refrigerator is great, with good cooling, and ample room. Likewise the convection/microwave oven, which i used each night.
On to Melbourne Beach
On Tuesday morning, i left for Melbourne Beach RV Resort http://www.outdoor-resorts.com/mb/
I figured that this would round-out this brief experience of newbie RV'ing. And it did.
This is an almost $60 per night, very crowded facility. Many permanent residents. Immaculate.
and
Included are a full hookup (sewer, what a pleasure!), catv (i think), wifi...etc. There were ample TV stations OTA in the Melbourne area.
The beach is a 5 minute walk away from my
site, but there are sites along A1A, directly across from the beach.
The resort has a pool/beachside facility for guests
But i preferred the beach
The feeling of this facility was full service, very clean and secure. However, it had no 'ambience'. The average age was retirement. Nothing wrong with this at all; simply pointing out the differences among these places to stay.
The next morning, i disconnected, cleaned her, and threw away all perishables. Having the sewer line is great in terms of cleaning lines too!
Last Day, back to Suncoastrv
On my last day, i took winnie back to Suncoast in Cocoa for service. Richard was waiting for me with a copy of the lists that i had emailed to him. I explained the few little things that needed attention to the service tech, and nice and knowledgeable guy.
Here's where things get complicated. Another very nice and knowledgeable guy led me to the nearest Sprinter dealer for a service appointment they had arranged for me. I was having some brake issues, and a few other things, including the need to check front end alignment (and possibly set some toe-in, as she is wandering a LOT!) and they can't do that as they can't handle a duelly, or a tall unit. Ugh. So now we are investigating how to get winnie to another dealer capable of the alignment. I am sure Richard and his colleagues will help me out here.
After that, i plan to do some more rv'ing in FL, then head north for the racing season. stay tuned.