...And In With the New

Yup, the new camper is here.  We are both excited and recovering.  Excited, because it is the camper we have searched for and selected after many look-sees and several camper shows over the last five years.  Recovering, because - well I'll get to that later.

The husband/lover/best friend took his brand spankin' new Ford 250 Diesel Heavy Duty truck down to the RV dealer the night before to have the fifth wheel hitch installed in the bed of the truck.  A friend drove down separately with him to give him a lift home, after a dinner stop at the Outback Steakhouse, of course.

Then the next day I accompanied my husband in my car and we went back down to get the truck + camper.  What a stunning couple they were, sitting there next to each other.  Now I don't get this:  my husband cannot match his clothing to save his life.  He always asks me if this goes with that or not.  However, when he ordered the colors on his new truck to match the colors of the camper, allbyhisownself, the match is perfect and the two vehicles go together so well.  Hmmmm.  Boys' toys, I guess.

Let's take a look at the interior, starting with the entrance and kitchen sink area:

To the right of the entrance is the expandable table (a table leaf stores neatly away inside of it), and chairs with storage in their seats.  The queen size sofa bed is the air mattress variety, which seems to be the way they all are nowadays.  It has a handy storage drawer under it to store bed linens or pillows.

At the rear of the camper is the entertainment and living room area, with television, CD/DVD player and an electric fireplace that has several effects and puts out quite a lot of heat if needed.  I can easily imagine curling up with a good book, a cup of coffee, and a cozy blanket on a rainy, windy camping day. I will press the ON button on the fireplace, and all will be right with the world, at least in my own little corner of it.  My husband will be happily watching a movie (usually with lots of gunfire, explosions and intrigue) and nodding off whenever the mood hits.

The refrigerator is larger than the one in the camper we traded, and has the ability to control the temperature with settings 1 - 5, unlike our old one which was basically ON or OFF.  The oven here is certainly not big enough to cook a 25 pound turkey, but surely a smaller one, if needed.  We will probably use the bit of counter space by the stove for our coffee pot and toaster.

Here is the hallway to the "upstairs." The control panel for slides, awning, lighting, water pump, etc. is in the cabinet to the left of the stairs.  The connection for the central vacuum is also right there on the side of the kitchen unit.

The bathroom feels spacious, and has a corner shower with a skylight dome.  Since my husband is quite tall, this extra head room is a good thing.  There is plenty of storage room with a large medicine cabinet, a roomy cabinet under the sink, and a three shelf towel cabinet above the toilet.

And finally the bedroom, with king-sized bed.  This room is wired for a 2nd air conditioning unit, if we should ever be traveling in areas of the country that require two AC's.  There is a 2nd television with a swivel arm, which seems kind of extraneous to us, as we are not much into TV watching at all.  Having two in a camper is, well, crazy!  

And last, here is the view in the bedroom of the very large closet.  You could sleep a small child in there!  The closet has hookups for a washer and dryer should we ever want one.  For now, I'm just thrilled with all that storage space.  

So there she is in all her glory.  And we are still recovering, as I mentioned above.  

The truck runs fine.

The truck pulls the camper easily.

The camper is awesome.

The pair look stunning together.

We got home without incident.

But.

The process of getting the unit into our tight alley and then parking it behind our home and next to our garage took the better part of 1 1/2 hours.  In the dark.  In the rain.  In our inexperience.  At 9:00 PM when the driver had been up for work since 4:00 AM.  It was a big heapin' pile of stress right there, folks.

Unhitching the fifth wheel didn't go smoothly either, as we had only heard the spiel at the dealer of HOW to do it, but hadn't actually done it there ourselves.

Anyway it's here, it's parked, and we are happy.

Now to make some NEW MEMORIES!