No checkbook allowed

Most of the group met again at Point Beach State Park and were joined by more people that did not make the trip to the UP. Sandy and John set up camp in a site that we had never stayed in before, the site was some what removed from the rest of the group but was located near the beach and had electric and water hookups; there was a well and pump house located on the site. The site was paved which eliminated the usual sand and dirt that were common at the other sites we like at this park and although it was not very level we liked this location.

Our site next to the mouse convention center.

The fall temperatures we enjoyed in Michigan gave way to an early winter cold wave that curtailed our outdoor activity; at night there was a big crowd around the fire which made it even colder to sit out. The forecast for Saturday was not an improvement so Sandy and John decided to take a road trip to Milwaukee to look at a motor home floor plan that interested us.

We had already begun to plan our move to full-timing and had decided to buy a new motor home before we took that step. We had been very happy with our gas powered Vacationer but felt that our next one would be on a diesel platform; we also wanted something with more slide-outs than our single slide . We were  happy with our Monaco product but we were also looking at other manufacturer’s models online.

While reviewing floor plans John liked the Vacationer with the curb side bathroom that had a hallway along the roadside wall with two large floor to ceiling windows, this eliminated walking thru the bathroom when you wanted something in the bedroom. Sandy had noticed that one new floor plan had moved the kitchen to the front of the coach with the living room behind the kitchen in the middle of the coach; while checking the inventory of our friends at Burlington RV Sandy noticed they had a diesel powered Ambassador with three slides, the side bathroom and the kitchen in front; we wanted to see this unit but Sandy informed John that her rule for attending RV shows applied to this visit, no checkbook allowed.

At Burlington RV we found a sales person and went out to inspect the Ambassador. To help us envision where and if  all of our stuff would fit into this unit Sandy planned to take photos of all the cabinets and drawers inside and out; back at home we would look at these photos and rough out a storage plan. We liked the floor plan, options and the colors the coach was decorated in. After our walkthrough the sales person offered us a test drive so the slides were run in and we were off on a variety of roads with John at the controls; we were impressed with the ride, power and how quiet the coach was, on the road it was a definite upgrade from the Vacationer.

Examples of the storage photos we took.

After the demo we felt obligated to listen to the sales pitch, we were not impressed with the initial price so we thanked them for their time and headed down the road back to Two Rivers. We liked the motor home but felt we were still a year away from buying one so we were not going to leap into this deal.

Back at Point Beach we visited the group around the fire and then headed back to our site, during the night John thought he could hear something rummaging in our trash can. The following morning his suspicions were confirmed when he found evidence that we had been visited by a mouse so the traps were baited. The following night we got our first victim and reset the trap and got another. We then realized that the pump house we were parked next to was heated and probably like a mouse convention center with the weather turning cold; our heated motor home parked next door probably seemed like a nice hotel to move into for the winter. After we trapped a few victims our vacation was over and we put out the no vacancy sign and moved on.