[Beaufort NC]

Well, we woke up this morning with no thoughts of a new motor home, and wound up the day with a Crescendo 8356.

This after four years with a Holiday Endeavor 36, which has served us well. But we are planning a trip to British Columbia in July, and just decided that it was time to trade before the trip, rather than waiting until after, which had been our original thought. I think I just got cold feet about taking a home with almost 60,000 miles on it across the country and back.

We had been having our HR serviced by our Gulf Stream dealer for a couple of years now, so when we made the decision, the choice was easy. And we had also been visiting all of the models each time we stopped by his lot.

We like what we see. The quality looks pretty good, the layout is functional (with the exception of the bathroom, where we would have preferred the shower to be seperate), and we negotiated what seems to us to be a reasonable deal (net someplace around the asking price for 2005 models on RVTrader).

I am particularly impressed by the handling characteristics. The coach appears to be very stable, and the 330 Cat is quick! I'm looking forward to getting on the road with it.

We take delivery on Tuesday, and will drive to Charlotte for a shakedown. While there, we'll have our DataStorm dish installed, then drive it back to the coast.

Saturday, we leave for BC, towing our rail motorcar with us. We expect to be back after seven weeks and about 9000 miles.