Yard camping

So I decide to take the Viva to my son's house to spend the night and "driveway camp" with 2 of the grands. Cole loves the "ahh v" as he calls it! Spent the night with no hookups but I had water onboard and really wanted to see how the batteries would do with no hookups.

Turned out great had fun...Until...got in the next day to crank up and an alarm started going off! A LOUD alarm. I thought, oh great, Cole has pushed some button while pretending to drive ( he loves doing that) and I don't have a clue what he did. My son and I spent 30 minutes trying everything and pulling out the manual/ encyclopedia to figure it out. No luck.

I finally call roadside assistance/no assistance when my son lifts up on the emergency brake and it stops! Turns out, lifting up all the way on the emergency brake the alarm went off, let it down, alarm on, but a slight lift ( not enough to click) and it goes off. Hmmm what to do...can't drive with brake on, can't drive listening to alarm (it was very loud and I had a 2 hour drive)!

So...my son suggests putting something small under the brake to lift it slightly so alarm would go off and I could get home. We did that and my son and his family leave to go to a friend's house. I put up all the manuals, get things ready and hit the road. When I get to the end of the neighborhood, another alarm goes off, this time in the dash probably because the brake light is on in dash but brake is not engaged. Well nothing I can do about it now, just drive...tried the radio on loud to cover up the alarm the it was double noise! I stopped 4 times for my nerves and once to eat! Lol. Made it home with my last nerve barely in tact.

Took it to service the next day and they discovered it was the sensor on the swivel seat! They fixed it and noticed a new recall was out on it so I told them to do that too while it was there.

So I'm still waiting for my Viva to come home so I can clean her up and get ready for the next trip for two weeks in July to the beach! Hmmm, that's a long time...I need to find another trip in June!

Why I Chose My RV

It occurred to me that I haven't posted the reasons I bought the Viva.  I researched RV's for years.  I had a list of must haves and looked at MANY RV's online for the one.  Originally I had in mind to purchase a class B.  This was my wish list in no particular order:

• I wanted small, no more than 24 ft.  I wanted to get in any campground and park in any place without anguish. I also don't want to tow a car.  There's only 1 of me, so I don't need big.
• No slides.  Again, don't need big, don't need the worry of a stuck slide.  Just didn't want to deal with them. Less hassle
• No trailer.  I didn't want to pull anything, hitch or unhitch, or back up a trailer.  Been there, done that and NO. I wanted to be able to get in and drive off in my pajamas if I wanted to. Also wanted to park in any driveway (like my kids'). Less hassle
• A dedicated bed, nothing to "convert" to a bed. Less hassle
• A dry bath, or at least a shower with a curtain that contained the water and didn't get the entire bathroom wet.  Less hassle
• Tanks as large as possible for boondocking later.
• Onboard generator.  No hauling a generator or gas. (Hope for solar later)
• Batteries that didn't need maintenance and that charged from the chassis engine.
• Gas, not diesel
• Gas mileage as high as possible

Originally I finally narrowed it down to a Travato, class B.  Had it set in my mind.  Was a little concerned about the bathroom but felt I could deal with it. Looked at it every day for a year online. LOL.   THEN...

While at the beach with my Mom last summer in her RV, we went to a nearby dealership just to look.

They didn't have a Travato, but they had a Roadtrek and I wanted just to go inside a class B and look around.  As soon as I walked in the door it hit me.....I have 7 grandchildren, they are going to want to go........there is not room to sleep but 2 people.....I started having doubts....I told the salesman, "gee, I love the size, the compactness of it......but I have 7 grands"....He said, "Come with me, I have just the thing you are looking for."  He took me to the Viva and I walked in the door and immediately felt "this is it!" THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR!  I fell in love with it! Dry bath, big shower, dedicated bed, and the coolest thing ever.....the loft bed.  It lets down from the ceiling with a push of a button!  Retracts up when I don't need it! I love it! The Viva sleeps 6 or more if small kids, like the grands, 24 ft. like the Travato, larger holding tanks, and best of all gets ~16 MPG.  I left, went back to the campground and read the entire user's manual that night! I was so excited. 

Went back to the dealership 2 days later and looked again, every drawer, cabinet, nook and cranny.  Sat in it about 2 hours just dreaming. Another couple came in also, and the 4 of us sat comfortably and talked.  They wanted the same size RV.  They had just toured out west and provided a lot of information about what I needed and didn't need.  They confirmed my thoughts that small was better.

The one thing I couldn't wrap my head around (or maybe my budget) was the price.  I left still dreaming..

Fast forward to November......I kept my eye on the Viva online for four months and checked all over for a better price. It came down........kept checking.....came down again.  It was a 2016 and 2017 units were rolling in.....it kept dropping.  When it got close to my price range, I called......haggled some.  He called back...."We can only do so and so...blah blah"  BUT he made the mistake of saying they needed to get the 2016's off the lot for the 2017's.  So I said "Ok, well, when you get it to this ALL IN, call me back." He did, and the rest is history.......I love it!

It has everything on my wish list and more.  Refrigerator is fairly large, convection oven/microwave combo, cute little kitchen, wardrobe cabinet with 3 large drawers.  Three more drawers in kitchen.  Lots of overhead storage, under bed storage.  2 TV's (although not on my wish list, I rarely watch TV) the grands like them for movies though.  Swivel front seats for sitting at dinette.  I can seat 6 there or more.  Moon roof, which I love.  2 large AGM house batteries.  I love the tank sizes too!

Eight of us in and out at Wales West and still didn't fill up the tanks even cooking every meal.

 I could probably stay a month if it was just me on the tanks! 

I think I could live in it.........

MARCH TRIP

In March, I took the RV to Wale's West in Silverhill, AL.  Wales West has a campground and a steam train ride.  I wanted a trip for my grands during spring break.  What fun it was!  Wales West has 2 trains and it was decorated as the Cottontail Express for Easter.  They had an indoor swimming pool, nice playground, pond with a man made beach, petting zoo, pony rides, face painting and of course the Cottontail Express to see the Easter Bunny where the grands made Easter masks and went on an egg hunt!  It was a great time!

Cole was not happy about riding the "big train" at first, but he loved it once we got going!

I AM TERRIBLE AT THIS!

Yikes! I haven't written a post since the shakedown trip! Maybe this blogging isn't for me...anyway, to catch up....

Had to take the RV back to dealership several times to get the warranty issues taken care of.  In January I took it to my son's for a day trip.  I just love driving it!

In February, I took my son and his family to Miller's Ferry Campground for his birthday weekend.  I wanted to see how it would work with 3 adults and 2 kids.  It was a great weekend!  We slept comfortably with my son and his wife in the loft bed and me and the kids in the permanent bed.  Campfires were allowed this time and that was nice.  We cooked all meals outside. We had a great time and the grands caught their first fish! I am having a terrible time posting pictures but maybe I will get some on here eventually.

I love Miller's Ferry Campground and it will probably be my "go to" campground for weekend trips in between longer trips while I am still working part time.