Bringing Home Our 2003 Winnebago Adventurer

Going to pick up our 2003 Winnebago Adventurer turned out to be more of an adventure than we’d planned. We knew it would be convoluted to get there, but had a little surprise wrench thrown in the works.

Getting to Murphy, North Carolina

We bought our Winnebago Adventurer in the small mountain town of Murphy, North Carolina. It’s not far from the Georgia/North Carolina border and is almost directly North of Atlanta. And if you don’t drive a car, there’s only one way to get there. No train, no Greyhound bus, no place to drop off a rental car.

Saturday, May 14th we got up early, dropped the dog off with her sitter, and then took an Uber to a bowling alley in Marietta. A bowling alley? Yep. That’s where we caught a casino tour bus to the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino right outside of Murphy. They didn’t care if we got back on the bus, so we hitched a ride with them. And the bus wasn’t even half full, so I’m sure they were happy to have our fares. By the way, the fares were cheap, too!

When we got there, we didn’t linger at the casino. Instead, we called a cab (no Uber or Lyft in town, of course) and headed straight to the RV to complete some paperwork.

When we got there, we found out some well-meaning person set the fresh water tank to fill and then went away to have breakfast. Oh yeah, it overflowed. The windows were all open, and they had a fan going inside. Whoops. We weren’t happy about this, but at least they caught it and dealt with it quickly. The seller felt so bad he lent us a car until we left on Sunday. The loaner car will become important later in our story.

Run For the Border

After we had finished the paperwork, we took our loaner car to get some Taco Bell. That was way easier than trying to find decent vegan food in Murphy. The options seemed questionable at best. Sometimes you just have to run for the border. Then we headed back to the RV to take measurements and just generally check things out.

The helpful desk clerk at the hotel said we could use their microwave, so that night we headed to Ingall’s to pick up food we could heat and eat. Gardein sliders, Amy’s mac & cheese, and Amy’s pot pie pocket along with a hastily thrown together salad made as they tried to take the salad bar down. And maybe there were Oreo’s. It was a long day, so we went to bed at a decent hour.

Trip to the Hospital

At around 1 AM Kevin wakes me up. He’s got a kidney stone and needs to go to the hospital. Boy, were we glad to have the loaner car! We didn’t panic or anything. We’ve done this before. And I’ve even had a kidney stone, although it’s been many years. The challenge was getting to the hospital on pitch black country roads. I don’t see well at night. Or during the day, for that matter.

We got there without a problem. I watched TV shows on my phone while they did whatever they were doing to Kevin in back. The hospital released Kevin within a couple of hours with some medications. So we headed back to catch a little sleep before we had to meet the driving instructors at 9 AM.

Learning to Drive the Winnebago Adventurer

Graham and Melody from Just Driver Training met us at the RV. They would be with us all the way back to Atlanta. First, we went over inside and outside checklists before heading out on the road.

Next, we went over to a school parking lot to practice. We got used to driving it around, then did crazy things like parallel parking it next to a pole in our blind spot. We learned how to communicate with the driving only using hand signals. And even though we have radios (they came with the RV) we still haven’t used them. We’ve been doing well with just the hand signals.

Getting On the Road

Kevin didn’t take any pain meds in the morning, so he drove a little first. I think we got both of our dash alerts while he was driving. One might have been in the parking lot. Sometimes you think the parking brake is off, but it isn’t all the way. If that happens, don’t worry, your RV will tell you. The other alert was one of the jacks slipped down about an inch as we were driving. The springs that hold them got old and stretched out so that can happen. We pulled over, brought it up, and then I started driving.

Driving such a large vehicle is weird. But as long as the roads are decent it isn’t as hard as it seems. We drove through a couple of cute little mountain foothill towns and then the road opened up more. Eventually, we landed on the interstate, and it was easy as could be. I ended up driving the rest of the way to the storage facility, about 200 miles. It was pretty tiring! I tended to grip the steering wheel at 10 & 2 o’clock and was obsessively watching my mirrors making sure I was keeping straight and in my lane.

Graham and Melody left us at the storage facility, and we used our new-found skills to get gas at a regular gas station. This time, Kevin drove. The first time we pulled up to the wrong side of the pump. So we had to maneuver again and get the other side over there. But we filled it up and didn’t hit anything, so I call it a win.

Storing the RV

Our storage facility is inside what used to be a Target so it seems like it might be tricky getting in there. It’s  easier than it looks. And even though it’s expensive it’s nice to have it parked in a climate controlled area. It’s not baking when we get in, and we don’t have to worry about covering the tires. Sometimes I think our Winnebago Adventurer is living better than we are at the moment. 🙂