Still Travelin' (Bridgeport, TX)

A lot has happened since our last post as you can see from the picture below.  Yes, we sold our Bluebird.  A shock, we know! 

Sutherlin, OR

While staying in Silver Creek, WA, Dan started talking to Foretravel owners on their on line discussion board/forum about their motorhomes (he had studied Foretravels on and off for several years).  We had also been looking at a few new motorhomes at dealerships trying to get an idea of what we would like to have in our next home.

We were planning to wait another two years to trade coaches....

Mt. St. Helens

when one of the Foretravel owners started talking about selling their 2003 with many upgrades and updates because they wanted to get a younger model.  However they were in traveling in the coach and would not return to their home base in Texas until mid November.

 That was the beginning of deciding how we were going to swing this as Full Time RVers without becoming homeless or worse having two motorhomes at the same time.  We decided to try and pre-sell our Bluebird for a November pickup in Texas.

A wee bit closer view of Mt. St. Helens

Dan generated For Sale blog with all the Bluebird's upgrades and pictures which were posted in the Bluebird Forum with hope that someone would become interested in pre buying our home early enough.  We had plenty of interested people.  One couple showed up only a day after the postings while we were still in Silver Creek.  Two more interested people lived in Colorado and California.  They wanted to know if we would be driving through their area on our way south.

old church outside of Eugene OR

The one from Colorado decided not to wait for us to be closer to his home and traveled to Sutherlin, OR.  After spending over four hours with Dan and then a long test drive, he said he wanted our motorhome when we acquired the Foretravel in Texas several months later.

Confusing?  Yea, it hasn't been an easy couple of months for Dan trying to juggle three different schedules.  He also spent a lot of time working on preparing the  Bluebird before the sale and pickup.

Low clouds in the morning - Eugene, OR

It was agreed by all three parties that we would make the trades in Texas.  This was made even smoother by our long time Bluebird friends Ernie and Brenda.  They agreed to let us use their side yard for as long as we needed to move our stuff...so much stuff to the Foretravel.  This would also give us time to clean the Bluebird and for the new owner to fly down from Colorado to spend time with his new motorhome.  Did we mention this was his first RV?  Yes, he has a little learning to do, but he seems to be a quick learner.

Williams, AZ

With all four parties in agreement for meeting in Texas, we needed to start moving south!  So we were on the road again.

This time as we headed south, we decided to drive through northern Arizona.  We spent a couple of nights in Williams, AZ at the Grand Canyon RV Park.  We had planned to ride the train to the Grand Canyon, but time got away from us.  That means we will have to go back, right?

Desert Moon

Of course, we had to stop in Albuquerque, NM.  It has been quite a few years since our last visit.  We had a great time visiting with a couple of our friends and eating green chile breakfast burritos.  No one makes them as good as Golden Pride!

New Mexico!

 You were probably beginning to wonder if you were going to get to see our new home...well, here it is!  Our new 2003 Foretravel!

Photo from previous owner

After spending the day learning all we could from the sellers, we drove our new Foretravel straight over to Ernie and Brenda's place.  A little closer to the Bluebird and we could have tossed things through the windows. 😉

Door-to-door moving day

It took us three days to move all our stuff over.  This became interesting because the Foretravel had more storage spaces, but it was more cut up.  We finally found a place for everything and we got rid of a few more things that we realized we did not need. 

 Here's a few photos of the inside.  Our slideout includes the dining booth and sofa.  Sandy is quite happy with the color scheme.  It is almost a perfect match to all our pillows, bed cover, and blankets.

We are both in love with our new 2-door residential refrigerator.  So much more room!  It is so nice to have the extra room for more food and to be able to find it once it is stored in the fridge. 

Kitchen

The bathroom is larger with three clothes closets and one laundry closet. 

The second slideout includes the desk.  The bed is a little taller and we have a ceiling fan for those hot humid nights when we are dry camping in Florida.  We thought our older cat Squirrel would need help getting on and off this bed.  As usual, he has found his own way to get on the bed without our help and yet he begs for help to get on chairs.  Maybe he wants us to feel useful.

We are still getting used to our new home.  We are quite happy with our purchase.  So far, the Texas winter has not been too cold.  We have stayed quite comfortable with the aqua hot heating from the floor registers and the ceiling heating pumps.  

That's it for now until our next post.  Yea, not sure when that will be.  Until that time....

Happy Trails and Happy Holidays!