5 weeks in review

encantotom · 08-09-2008, 06:13 AM

hi all,

my wife and i just finished 5 weeks in the coach and 4200 miles. it was a ball. no major issues (a few small ones, but fun to fix) and for fuel mileage i was close to 7mpg for the trip. the last tank i went over 1400 miles and got just a bit over 7mpg. (btw, paid 4.05 per gallon for diesel at flyin j's just at the arizona border of california on I-10) this afternoon. never thought i would think that was cheap. most paid was 4.80 in oregon. didnt get fuel in British Columbia because i would have had to sell my house to pay for that....

more than that, it was fantasically fun to drive (even down the coast highway from Washington to California) and a pleasure to use in the evenings. i know it is a golden oldie, but it sure doesn't drive like it or look like it. even have a picture of the laptop gps showing us in the ocean as we took a ferry with the newell and the car attached.

we arrived home tonite and will spend a couple of days taking care of a few things then head off for another couple of weeks to go around new mexico.

we met so many nice people and gave lots of tours of our newell. people seemed to be drawn to it and we were always eager to show anyone who wanted to see inside.

we spent a full week talking newell talk day and night with Michael and Georgia Day (and patrick) who were incredible hosts. Clarke and Elaine came down and spent an evening doing the same (all in newport beach) and we enjoyed that.

i am grateful to all the people on this site who have helped me as i learned about my coach, both during the initial purchase last year, the refurbishing and then the past month of actually using it. ( i found out i knew a ton about the actual systems, but not as much about using things....that has been fixed during this past trip)

it is a unique crew of people who love these machines and it has been a pleasure to be counted amongst y'all.

thanks again

tom and darlene mccloud

chockwald · 08-09-2008, 01:57 PM

Good morning Tom! Glad to hear you arrived home safely. I'm jealous of AZ diesel prices....we finally got down to 4.25/gallon here in Ontario yesterday. Glad I waited to fill the tank again....got home last trip with about 2/3 tank, and decided to wait to fill up anticipating that prices were going to start falling and they did! You're right, I never thought I would be "happy" to pay 4.25/gallon...LOL!

I really agree that even as old as our rigs are, they are a blast to drive. When we're on the road I'm almost disappointed each day when it's time to stop and hook up for the night. Driving is like floating on a cloud.

Happy travels!

zcasa · 08-10-2008, 01:56 AM

Hey Tom:

Congratulations on an awesome trip and it has been a pleasure hearing about your adventure. Thank you for your willingness to help us as well. Tomorrow we will make Anacortes. We are 150 miles out. We will post a little more of our adventure soon. We are three weeks in and have five to go. Just like you, we are loving it and enjoying seeing new places and meeting people of all backgrounds. Fascinating.

Safe travels to NM.

David

chockwald · 08-10-2008, 05:35 AM

David....hope you will be able to post some pictures of the rally. Looking forward to your report!

encantotom · 08-10-2008, 06:15 AM

hi guys,

here is a couple of fun pictures. on the ferry in washingstate leaving whidbey island.

tom

Newell on a ferry....the blue honda crv directly behind is our toad and is still connected.

Newell on the water....while on the ferry.

chockwald · 08-10-2008, 02:18 PM

Now, see Tom, we all knew you could walk on water.....

zcasa · 08-11-2008, 04:36 AM

Hey Clarke, Michael and Tom:

Love the pics' of Tom's Ferry adventure. We are now in Anacortes and one other Newell is here. It is a 2006, very nice. I will post pics' next week when I can take a picture of the 16 Ocean front spots full of Newell's. Should be a cool picture. So, in the meantime, guess we'll just wait for Karl Blade to knock on our door???? LOL.

Chat later,

David and Denise

encantotom · 08-11-2008, 04:53 AM

while on our trip, we bought this motorized cooler and tow behind cooler. it has a 500 watt electric motor and will go for miles. does about 15 mph. this picture was taken in front of the coach when we were staying in vancouver, bc. the trailer is a full blown cooler. the motorized one has motor and battery in half and a useable cooler in the front.

my son-in-law is driving and my oldest son is the passenger. you can see they are not small dudes, so it pulls fine. i weigh 280 and i pulled my daughters boyfriend tonite and he is 6'4".

they fit in the bay just nicely and they are the hit of every rv park we were at. rode them around all over the place.

tom