After several days of delays, we were finally able to move into our new RV. We pulled the old coach up to the new one and started the transfer. We were able to get most of it moved within a few hours, making it the fastest move ever:
Trying to find a place for everything:
Our first night, everyone tucked in their beds:
The next morning, we gathered up the last few remaining items. We were all excited about the new RV, but also a little sad to be leaving the old one. After months of calling it “home,” that’s exactly what it had become to us.
We were faced with a bit of a challenge with the bikes and how to hook them and the car up to the new RV (it had to do with the hitch of the new RV being higher and messing up the clearance necessary for everything to work safely). We solved this by donating Carrie’s and Natalie’s bikes to Goodwill, and strapping the remaining 3 to the back of the Scion (now we can bang up the back of the Scion the way we’ve banged up the front!):
In planning for this trip, I think we did a pretty good job with what we took and what we decided to leave behind with one HUGE exception: those bikes. Those cursed, wretched bikes. We’ve barely used them, yet they’ve bounced around on the back of the RV for thousands of miles and dented up the front of the Scion in the process. I regret ever taking them. We should have left them at home.
Here we are, ready to depart on our maiden voyage:
…right into December 23rd traffic. Ugh:
Here’s Em in what she calls the “first class seat:”
Even with the slides in, there’s still quite a bit more room than what we had in the old RV:
These chairs are like home theater seats. I want to watch a movie while driving down the road. It’s also pretty cool being eye-level with the truckers.
Nat, hard at work at her desk:
Boon-docking in a Walmart parking lot on the 23rd:
The next day we made it to Las Vegas:
Our first sit-down meal in the new rig on Christmas eve:
This was just one of those moments that hit me: “It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m in a WalMart in Las Vegas. How delightfully strange.”
That evening, Carrie hung some Christmas lights:
Amy and Em made some Christmas cookies:
I helped:
Despite our attempts to evade Santa Clause, he managed to leave a few items for us on Christmas morning:
Later that morning, Aunt Sherry and Uncle Clint arrived! (They flew in from Ohio.)
Chilling that evening:
On a recommendation from one of the guys at the RV dealership, we drove out to the Valley of Fire State Park on the 26th:
A picnic on the red rocks:
It was a lot of fun, and a great warm-up for our trip to Death Valley.