July 16th, 2016
So, we are about to commit to a very big lifestyle change. I did not sleep well last night. I had a ton of anxiety about driving the rig home for the first time. I could sense Ginny was in the same headspace as I was. I decided to just occupy my time in the morning with busy work organizing the items we had pre-purchased for the RV. Which by the way where numerous, sewer pipes, freshwater hose, grill, and most everything you could think of for a new home on wheels. Little did we know at the time there would be endless amounts of “stuff” you need or might want to have on your next trip.
Around 11:45 am we left the house to begin the purchase process and sign on the dotted line. The tension in the air is obvious and I feel that Ginny is beginning to have second thoughts about the purchase. It turns out we are both a little uptight, we made our peace. Thinking we could use a little something to eat prior, we head to Chick-Fi-Le. Talk about a hard time trying to get those sandwiches down, our stomachs were doing flip-flops. Between the RV purchase and the news that Kate was having some serious complications did not help.
We arrive at 1 pm at Dunlap RV our designated time for delivery. The first order of business is our pre-delivery walkthrough. Greeted by Mike our sales rep and Wes the service manager we sit down and take a deep breath. The first question to come up was “how long do you want the generator muffler to be cut”? Frankly, I have no idea where that should be cut.
1:30 pm – Now for the walkthrough. We were greeted by a young man who was about the age of Kate. As the information tour began both our heads were spinning from the information overload. Ginny actually asked some great questions, I, on the other hand, was just overwhelmed. The walkthrough actually helped us take our minds off of Kates condition for a moment. After about 2 hours or so of a walk around we were ready to sign the papers.
3:00 pm – Papers signed the rig was now ours, but the information blitz was not over. Over to the Parts & Service department for our orientation and warranty review. Of course, this leads up to purchase a few mores accessions and a rather expensive $425 Surge Protector. Little did we know that it would come in handy the very next day. Now for a short walk through on how to use our new fifth wheel hitch, seemed easy enough. Add the backup camera, slight drama over getting it to operate and now the moment of truth – driving it out of the lot and home.
5:00 pm – I asked them to get the rig and truck pointed in the right direction given it was backed into a tight turning spot. There were a number of very expensive rigs parked on either side. I could not have gotten out of there before dark J.
5:30 pm – With the truck and rig sitting in the front lot, it was time to go. I got in the truck and off we went just missing the mailbox by inches as I turn down the road to get to RT 109. I feel pretty good but still not sure about the trailer brakes. I had no idea how to set the truck up properly, they were going to help but as late as it was it got skipped. I pulled into the Park and Ride lot just prior to 109. Took out the manual on the truck and figured out the brakes. As a side note, Ginny was trailing me in the Subaru. The half-hour drive up 109 to RT 25 went without incident. I was feeling pretty good and confident in my abilities to handle the towing job. I hit Liberty Lane with no traffic, thank god, because there was only room for me. I headed toward the house. As I got closer to the house I was feeling pretty cocky. That was of course until I turned into the drive, I ran over the new edge reflectors we installed. Ginny cheered me up indicating that at least she was not the first.
We thought it best to turn the rig around and back into the grass spot we had prepared. This was located next to the sidewalk and just of the driveway pad. This turned out to be a major challenge as I had no idea what I was doing. Ginny and I did not have our communication down and this took a while to get done after a very long day. We finally get the rig in the spot and now it’s time to unhook. Killing time earlier I had prepared some 1X6X6 blocks to put under the jacks. I place them as instructed just under the legs.
As we begin the process of unhitching, putting the front jacks down, opening the hitch lock the truck jumps forward a few inches. It scars the shit out of both of us not knowing what would happen next. Nothing we find out, so we pull the truck away and begin the leveling process.