Here She Is...Olivia...My New (to me) RV!!!

Before I start with all the details about Olivia I want to welcome Jo Jo to my blog.  We have a Tucson connection and while she'll be up north while I'm down south (seeing if I can stand the heat again in Tucson), maybe we'll meet some day.  Something I hope to do with all of you that follow me now and the ones to come.

OK...here's the skinny.  She's a 2010.  She has a Mercedes 6 cylinder turbo-diesel engine, 5- speed automatic transmission, and 4-wheel ABS w/skid control.  I'm amazed at how quiet her diesel engine actually is.  She's been driven a little over 5,000 miles and her generator has been used 3 hours.  

This picture shows her with the slide out...out.  The whole left side of the RV, from behind the driver's seat, is the slide out.  The couch converts into a queen bed with an inflatable mattress.  

The cab can be blocked off at night, or whenever.  I'm not a fan of brown so I'm going to be looking for a colorful piece of fabric to make a replacement for this curtain and probably all the rest in the RV.  There's also a smaller curtain that goes in front of the bed over the cab.  Because of where she's parked at my house, I'm not able to open the slide.  I tried to put the upper mattress down and couldn't reach it because of the slide being in.  Please note that the sun was shining a bit when I took this picture.  Finally, a slight break from the rain and gray skies.  

Facing towards the back is the kitchen.

Microwave/convection oven

.

Nice pantry

Bathroom

Shower stall 

It was a long day Friday when I picked her up.  My friend and I arrived at 9:30 AM and I drove away about 2:45 PM...and I drove away happy. The getting to know her tour took about two hours and I know I don't remember everything.  As I was getting ready to leave a man was looking Olivia over and I started talking to him.  He's from Canada and he and his wife are looking to ship one similar to mine to New Zealand, where their daughters live.  They have to convert it so the steering wheel is on the right side...to the tune of $10,000 and that doesn't include shipping!!  

The previous owner of Olivia is a commercial fisherman and he wanted a different floor plan, so now I'm the lucky owner of her.  Winnebago doesn't make this floor plan anymore so I feel extremely blessed to have found her at the RV show, since this is my favorite floor plan.  

What do you experienced RVrs think of resorts, i.e., KM Resorts of America?  Do you think they're necessary?  Apparently, for the price of an "annual maintenance/publication fee", I can belong to KM since it came with buying my RV.  I don't know what that fee is yet.  Because I bought an RV the $1,995 enrollment fee is waived.  It looks like quite a few camps are included, so I'm just wondering what you think.  

I joined RVing Women awhile ago and today I signed up for Harvest Hosts.  HH is the one that excites me.  I learned about it from Donna at 2 Taking a 5th.  Thank you, Donna.  Harvest Hosts includes wineries and farms that allow RVrs to park for 24 hours at their facility...for free.  I love wine but never go to wineries because I don't feel comfortable driving after a wine tasting.  Now I won't have to drive...I can walk or crawl to Olivia and drive away the next day. 

I'm ready to talk about the downside of the day I picked Olivia up. Specifically, when I got to my house.  The day before I went to get her we had fairly decent weather, i.e, no rain.  I begged the powers that be for the same type of weather on Friday and I got it until I reached my house...then the heavens opened and it poured.  The street I live on (don't blame me, my parents picked this house and 40 years ago it was quiet) has 7,000+ cars drive on it daily.  Needless to say, there aren't too many breaks between cars.  The noise drives me crazy but that's not part of this story.  I'm good at backing up, I do it all the time.  I think it's easier to pull out of any parking spot face forward which is why I do it. Piece of cake in my SUV.  

In the first picture shown on this post, showing my RV, on the right side of the rhododendron bush is a gravel parking area that I had put in a few months ago.  I did it so that I can back out of my garage, back onto the gravel so that I can pull out face forward to, hopefully, avoid being hit by the cars speeding down the street.  That's where I want to park Olivia. But I have a problem...wires, specifically cable and phone.  They're too low.  They sort of show in the picture right in front of the air conditioner. Somebody was on my tail when I got to my house so I pulled partially onto the sidewalk to let him go by...big mistake.  It felt like a disaster from that point on.  I was aware of traffic being stopped both directions and that didn't help my discomfort.  My neighbor who was helping me was being drenched, as was I, because my windows were open to be able to hear him.   I think if I hadn't pulled up on the sidewalk it would have been a lot easier.  I've backed U-Haul trucks up here without a problem so now I think I know what to do next.  Did you notice that my driveway has an incline?  Yep, just to add to the fun!!  If I can get my SUV out of the garage without moving her, she might just stay there until I come back from housesitting in California in May. 

OK, enough already.  I have my RV, I'm thrilled and I can't wait to hit the road and meet up with you fellow RVrs.  

Sunshine please,

Jeana