From Bessie to Bertie: Who trades RV’s in the middle of a trip?

All the time we were on the East Coast, we were talking to our neighbors at campgrounds. One gentleman, who was 87 and still avidly camping, told us his story of downsizing to a smaller RV. He waxed on about the merits of ease to drive; accessibility to smaller spots and more remote locations; and the fact that both he and his wife could drive. 

We were thinking of the driving issue starting about three weeks ago, when Gary’s cortisone shot in his shoulder to treat his torn rotator cuff began wearing off. I could drive Bessie, but it was like driving a huge kite down the road on any kind of a windy day, so Gary preferred to drive.

 In our spare time, we got the RV guide online for smaller rigs and started doing our research. Just as part of the trip, we thought it might be fun to stop at RV dealers across the country to see the different stock and models.  We knew what we were looking for, but finding it we thought,after the first several dealerships through Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Eastern New York had nothing, was going to be difficult. 

We found one online in Churchville, New York and I called and got Mark Rogers, a longtime sales manager, at Myers RV. He suggested we go a little out of our way, because he thought, after hearing our "must haves" that he had a couple of rigs that we should look at. 

Unbeknownst to us at the time, this short conversation would lead to a weeklong adventure of saying "yes" to the RV dress; packing our belongings up from Bessie, and then on one of the hottest days recorded (heat index 107) transferring our stuff to the new RV, which we promptly named Bertie. What were we thinking?? 

We have been in the new, MUCH smaller Bertie for two days and now we think we made the right decision. The dealership gave us a great trade-in price (a couple of thousand less than we paid for it almost 9 years and 50,000 miles ago); Mark and the finance manager helped pack boxes from one rig to the other; and now I drive the RV as well with ease. As we think about the gentleman from Maine and how our conversation with him really made us think about how we continue to enjoying RV’ing as we get older, we feel lucky that he spurred us on to do this. 

For the last two days, we have been in a blur - just like moving to a new house - not knowing where we put small items and to begin with not knowing WHERE to put them in the RV.  

While we had to wait for three days for them to get the RV ready and get insurance figured out, we spent two of them at Niagara Falls. What a great place to have to be staying for awhile!

We also took an afternoon, because it was too hot to be outside, to go to the JELLO museum in LeRoy, New York. It was SO much fun! Who would have thought I could see some great artwork at the birthplace of Jello.😊

So this is Bertie...I have several other adventures written in my journal from Maine to New York, but those will wait for another blog. For now, we are back in Canada heading West!