Our camping days started with the rental of a small motorhome back in 1976 followed by the purchase of an 18 foot trailer to accommodate all 5 of us. It wasn’t long and we upgraded to a 23 foot Wilderness that we thought was the cat’s meow. We kept that and moved it to MI in 1981. By the mid 80s it became apparent that Ted’s weekly travel schedule plus the girls’ school activities and the need for a third car made selling the trailer and truck a good decision. We just didn’t have time to use it. Life went on and about two years before retirement, Ted had chosen a HitchHiker 5th wheel and new truck to re-enter the camping world again. That 2004 was replaced later with another 2008 HitchHiker, a little bigger. By 2014 he had his eye on a dually truck to pull a 2014 36 foot Mobile Suite since HitchHiker was no longer in production.
We traveled extensively in the HitchHikers and Mobile Suite with 2009 our banner year. We traveled out West covering 11,000 miles, over 109 days visiting 17 states and a bunch of national parks. In 2020 we decided to check out motorhomes. After much research and knowing our needs, I set my sights on a 2016-19 Newmar Ventana. The 2016 was the first year for the added Star frame and Ted wanted a tag axle and Comfort Steer. I wanted two recliners opposite a couch, a table not a booth, and light colored furniture. Black and gray were coming into vogue and I didn’t like it.
At one point I knew every Ventana fitting some of that criteria for sale throughout the entire US. I finally joined Newmars For Sale and put an ISO ad to narrow down selection. No one had everything I wanted. It took 15 minutes for Jim to write to me from Maggie Valley, NC. He had exactly what we wanted but couldn’t sell until April because he needed to use it in March. Covid was just shutting everything down so we had many conversations until April when our Mobile Suite sold and we told Jim we were coming. We ended up buying the motorhome and a Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit set up for towing. We enjoyed it for 3 years but much has changed. Most of our traveling companions have stopped traveling or sold their rigs for medical reasons. There is no place in the US we particularly want to go or see. We have visited 49 states for Ted, 46 for me. That is coupled with our 44 countries visited that will be 49 when we return from Dubai next December.
A nice couple is all excited with their new motorhome and we have coached them from start to finish to help them enjoy it for a long time to come. Ted took Rusty out driving, followed him to a local campground to go through setting up and tomorrow we will both go back over to go through departure protocol. We leave for Florida Saturday in our new Expedition to meet up with the girls for our “girls gone wild” (on a Disney cruise) long weekend. And a new chapter begins.
Here are some memories.
In Missouri heading north.
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