Our Rig
To us, her “model” name describes her beautifully: Journey.
When we decided to retire early — at an age where we were still active and energetic — we wanted to be able to see and do what we could while we had our health. I hate the cold, Peggy loves to be outside and after a few months of soul-searching we decided that balancing the nest egg we had and the desires we could NOT afford that transitioning from a brick and mortar home to one on wheels was the perfect solution for us. Will we RV for a year, or ten, or until we kick the bucket? Who knows. But as soon as we sell this wonderful old school of ours we are off to find out.
We started out looking at “little” things….
Like this Roadtrek 190. This is a vehicle that my dad turned me onto years ago. (His dream always had been to RV around the country — I guess I inherited some of his genes. Mom, however, like the comfort of her motel rooms and would have none of it.
Actually, I took Peggy to see one of these, thinking that it was more than she would be interested in and she surprised me. The more we talked the more it sounded like maybe instead of just buying a van that would make it easier to visit wildlife refuges in, that maybe we would think about a more permanent change to our lifestyle.
The second step in our process was to look at something a little larger. The 190′s were barely tall enough for me to stand upright. We checked out several of these Sprinter Van conversions…. the Roadtrek and several others. Now this was living in style — well, in a CRAMPED style. But we might have bought one of them had it not been for one big problem — my camera gear. There was no way we could bring on-board both our living necessities AND my camera gear.
Another possibility down the tubes…..
So we tried looking at Class C motorhomes; units like this Freelander. They were all very nice but the camera gear issue still plagued us and the total carrying capacity was quite limited as well — to say nothing of my being afraid of that long overhang in the back. I have always done some un-improved road roaming and the chances to get stuck were simply too overwhelming.
I should hasten to add that at this point we were convinced (read that as: “Peggy was bound and determined”) not to tow anything behind the RV. She was adamant that she would not want to do that. So we were looking for something that would go-everwhere-do-everything; and we were gradually finding out that there was no such vehicle like that for US. There might be for someone else, but not for our needs.
All of which eventually brought us to looking at the dreaded Class A motorhomes….
These are the ones many people think of when they think “motor home” and they CAN be big enough to BE a home. Ranging from 32′ to 45′ in length, many of them are equipped with motorized slideout rooms and all the amenities of home — just in compact form.
At any rate between them all, we walk up into, down out of, all around, and peering under about 100 various different RV’s and coaches. When we were all done we happened to be in Forest City Iowa, at Lichtsinn Motors. We realized that of all the units we’d looked at that there had been three that we liked. And after some confused comparisons of our notes we further realized that all three of them had been (essentially) the same model. Winnebago and Itasca are built on the same line and the Three coaches we liked were either the Itasca Horizon or the Winnebago Journey. A few minor differences aside we were sitting next to a 32 foot Winne Journey Diesel pusher coach that we really liked, at a price we liked and we decided to buy it.
So, here she is, our Journey
She’s a 2002 unit with 48,000 miles on her. At 32’9″ long, she’s the shortest of the Journey line, and with a Cummins 300 hp diesel she’s got enough power without being a fuel hog. We’ll see how we do on fuel consumption but we’re as light as reasonable and short enough to get into places I want to go — so we’re happy with our choice.
From the Driver’s side
From the Passenger’s side
Amidship looking fore
Amidship looking aft
A cozy bathroom
She’ equipped with an Onan Diesel generator for when we need added power, and 50 amp electric plug ins for when we have access to “shore power” (which is to say if we are in a campground or RV park)
She’s new-to-us, meaning there will be repairs and maintenance to be done — but after the initial replacement of the three house batteries (which we anticipated) she’s been pretty reliable. We’ve only got about 1000 miles on her thus far — we took her out for a shakedown cruise after purchase. But until the house is sold our wings are clipped and we’ll be sticking close to the school
There she is. And we love her.
