Rocky Mountain Salute!

[LonnieOfTheRockies]

Hey all,

So, about 10 months ago the wife, dogs, cat, and I got evacuated due to a fire near by. We had to stay at a friends house, and it wasn't fun. The fallout from this adventure is that I decided to by a motorhome in the event that we should once again be evacuated. We purchased a nice 2003 Sun Voyager with less than 30k miles on it. The seller was the original purchaser and due they would take it out for a 600 miler round trip twice a year. The generator had just 150 hours on it!

Since then we've taken out Sun Voyager out for one short trip, and one long. the short trip was a blast. The long was not so much.

Anyway, I'm here to learn more about this lifestyle that the wife, dogs, and I have stepped off into, and hopefully actually be an asset to the community!

Lonnie of the Rockies

[muleman]

Originally Posted by LonnieOfTheRockies

Hey all,

So, about 10 months ago the wife, dogs, cat, and I got evacuated due to a fire near by. We had to stay at a friends house, and it wasn't fun. The fallout from this adventure is that I decided to by a motorhome in the event that we should once again be evacuated. We purchased a nice 2003 Sun Voyager with less than 30k miles on it. The seller was the original purchaser and due they would take it out for a 600 miler round trip twice a year. The generator had just 150 hours on it!

Since then we've taken out Sun Voyager out for one short trip, and one long. the short trip was a blast. The long was not so much.

Anyway, I'm here to learn more about this lifestyle that the wife, dogs, and I have stepped off into, and hopefully actually be an asset to the community!

Lonnie of the Rockies

Just wondering what your problems were on the 600 mile trip were to where people might be able to help you with the troubles with your camper or travel experience/

[LonnieOfTheRockies]

Originally Posted by muleman

Just wondering what your problems were on the 600 mile trip were to where people might be able to help you with the troubles with your camper or travel experience/

Well, on the day that we left our hydraulic system went out. We didn't realize that until we got to our first stop. The next day we drove from western NM to Phoenix. We decided to stick to the interstates, and paid a heavy price because a big chunk of drive down I17 was a nightmare. The road appeared to have been shelled heavily with mortars. It was easily the worst stretch of road that I have ever been on in my almost 50 years of driving. We ended up with all sorts of stuff broken, from window shades to our dogs nerves.

The stay in Phoenix was pleasant even without being able to run the slides out. At least we were sitting level (hydraulics out, no levelers). The weather was warm and we had a good time there regardless of the issues with the motorhome.

The return trip to Colorado was a bit too eventful. We decided to not give I17 a try on the way back, so we took some back highways. The drive was nice until we hit the snow. When I say snow I mean SNOW! I used to drive a semi back in the day, but this was a bit of a white knuckler. Thankfully, we crested a pass, and somewhere down the back side we got out of the snow.

Wind... D-A-M-N! From Phoenix to Albuquerque we had a nice tail wind that helped out greatly with the fuel cost, but from Albuquerque to Colorado Springs on I25 it was a 30 mph wind from the left side. Coming out of each cut was an adventure as we would get hit on the left side and pushed a good 8-10 feet to the left. Not Fun! Finally, I couldn't take it any more and we stopped for a few hours at a truck stop to let all of our nerves to settle. Once the sun went down so to did the wind. The drive north from there was dark, but without any wind surprises!

We learned a lot from the trip, and while it was a bit more of an adventure than I would of liked, I still enjoyed the trip. The next one of tap is a trip to Vegas and then on up to Norther California later this summer (ya, I know... Vegas in the Summer?????)

Lonnie