Chapter 54....Frankly, We Ain’t Campers

In our 2018 recap, I mentioned that Vinny turned  out to  be a tad too small for our needs.  You see, it had one small room and a bathroom with toilet and shower.

This was it...period.  The living room was also the bedroom.  A Murphy Bed was recessed into the wall...

King Size Murphy Bed

Leslie rises early each day.  Your intrepid Captain rises later, sometimes much later.  This floor plan is a challenge for us...There is really no compromise here.  Either EVERYONE is up and out of bed, or NOBODY is.

So we sell little Vinny to a nice couple from Nebraska who will use Vinny to commute to their vacation home in Salida, Colorado. (Also the summer home of our friends Bruce and Carri from Oklahoma City.)

Then we buy...

...Vinny II, he’s a 2019 DynaMax ISATA 5 with 4 wheel drive and a Cummins Diesel engine....

Vinny II also has a separate bedroom and living room.  He has an 8KW generator.  He has TWO huge rooftop air conditioners.  He is 32 feet long!!!  He’ll be big enough for our demanding needs.

...gratuitous interior pics of Vinny II...

During 2019, V2 carries us 17,500 miles around our great nation...

...one of our jaunts in Vinny 2...

Scenes from that trip:

...We visited our friends Valerie and Don at their ranch In Tucson...

... enjoyed a great dinner in Tucson with cousin Jean, a retired Federal judge...

...a huge Saguaro cactus at Jean’s house...

...Sedona, AZ has beautiful vistas in all directions...

And heat!  I know it’s a dry heat, but we can’t even walk Opie on the pavement because it would burn his paws.  Daytime high temps reach 111 degrees ( in the shade, if you could find any).  One early afternoon the forward air conditioning unit surrenders to the superior forces of nature, and simply quits.  A quick internet check finds a really local Coleman a/c licensed independent repairman.  He comes to see us within 2 hours.  He looks at the carcass of what used to be our a/c unit and declares that my diagnosis is, in fact, correct.  The damned thing is as dead as a certain Biblical sea.

The repairman returns the following morning at what I believe is 2 AM. Leslie insists that it was really about 7:45AM.  Who you gonna believe???

 

...your Captain and the Angel of Sedona, the A/C repairman...

...hoisting the 200 lb. A/C unit up to V2 roof...

All work was done under warranty and cost us nothing at all.

We also saw

...Chimney Rock...there must be another one somewhere, cuz this one is epically unimpressive...

We crossed the great...

...Death Valley.  We’d drive for hours on this barren wasteland without seeing ANY sign of life anywhere.  I was happy that we brought along the family Jeep as a spare escape pod.  A breakdown here could end it all for the unprepared.

On our way to Las Vegas we passed through the desert metropolis of...

...later I learned that I know someone who lives there...on purpose.

At Yosemite, we actually drove through this natural tunnel...

...believe me, you drive very carefully here...

Then we saw:

We visited Gary, Janet, Ruby and Jacob in Sand Point, Idaho.  Gary conducted the symphony there...(me being a virtuoso guitar player, I taught him all he knows about music.  Prior to our introduction, Maestro Sheldon was limited to a barely passable rendition of ChopSticks on a toy piano).  Now he conducts all over the world.

We decided to go see the Space Needle in Seattle and to have dinner there.  Those who’ve been there in the last decade or two know what I did not...namely that the revolving restaurant atop the Space Needle has been replaced with a touristy revolving clear lucite floor.  (not worth the drive, if you ask me.  Driving in Seattle is like playing bumper cars with a meth addict.  And, of course, an uneasy peace is enforced by the gentle hand of ANTIFA.

Between Sand Point and Seattle...

one of Vinny’s tires began to disintegrate.  

Be aware, these tires were UNDER WARRANTY. They are Continental Tires.  They were replaced at no charge beyond the normal retail price for the tire, mounting and balancing which I was required to pay with credit card.  I was promised reimbursement for my costs once the warranty coverage was approved.  Not my idea of how a warranty should work.  By the way, months later after I badgered them relentlessly, they refunded less than half my costs.

Earlier in our journey, we visited my dear Aunt Iris who is 93 in Lynchburg, Virginia (my hometown).

...Aunt Iris is sharp as a tack and twice as cute...

...with one of her best friends, the lovely Janice...They laugh a lot when together.

We also visited Leslie’s Aunt Millie, who is 102.  Get this, she lives alone in her own apartment near the Las Vegas strip.  She worked there for decades.

...Opie (our navigator) and Aunt Millie...

We also were able to drop in on our good friends from Naples at their beautiful Heartland, Wisconsin home.

...Tom and Jenny.  (Jenny is the beautiful one).

This chapter could go on for ever, because we did so much on this trip.  But I’ll cut to the end.

Despite our best efforts at loving Vinny II and his considerable comforts over little Vinny I, the love just ain’t there.

Moreover, and I’m being serious here, Vinny II is equipped with a hanging closet in the bedroom. Leslie hates this closet.  It appears that the closet is not deep enough to accommodate a standard clothes hanger.  At the end of every leg of every trip, all the previously hanging clothes are in a cedar scented pile on the closet floor.  

By the end of this particular trip of thousands of miles, the decision has been made.  Vinny II will be fired from his position as the family getaway vehicle...