What does that new rig look like??

I'm sure you've been asking that question (yeah, sure!).  It's been a couple of rough months since we bought the new RV and we're still not completely out of the woods yet.  The replacement leveling jack system was ordered mid-December and expected to be here before the end of the year.  Then ... the weather back east took a turn for the worst of the worst and all shipping was severely delayed.  It's January 4th and still no parts have arrived.  How sad is that? 

But enough whining and complaining.  There's nothing we can do about it until the parts arrive.  Then once again, we pack it all up, move the RV to Bob's Performance (hopefully for only three days), get it fixed once and for all, and then move back to Comstock Country RV Park until April when we're back on the road again ... to Colorado for our six month Workamper assignment.

A peek inside our new motorhome

We'll start with the very front with the driver and passenger seats.  Really, not too different from our other one.  It has one feature I really, really like and use often when we're traveling (that our 2003 also had).  That's a pull-out table in front of the passenger's seat.  Love that feature!  The 2006 has the addition of the two fans below the main TV (which is also bigger than our last main TV ... thank you Jesus!).  Other than that, very much like our old one.  Of course, they are both Southwinds, so there will be features that are similar.

 

Next is our main living area.  This is where two of the three slides come into play.  The couch and dinette move out one way and the kitchen (sink, stove, refrigerator, and side cabinet) all move out the other way.

 

Here's the driver's side slide-out.  You can see the depth of the slide by the small window to the right of the couch.

 

Here's the passenger's side slide-out (partial refrigerator and no side cabinet showing).  This slide is not as deep as the other slide.  The result of two slides in the living area is (obviously) more room to walk around in your coach so it has a much more spacious feel.

 

Putting the two sides "together" below is a photo of the middle area showing the living area looking towards the front of the motorhome.  In this photo you can also see the nice lounge chair (it belongs to Gary!) in the living area.  Another difference between this coach and our last one is that the entry door is between the passenger's chair and the lounger (in order:  passenger's chair, door, lounger, kitchen).  In our other RV the door was next to the kitchen (in order:  passenger's chair, lounge chair, door, kitchen).  We actually like this configuration better because Gary sits a little further away from the TV for better viewing enjoyment.

 

The photo below is looking towards the rear of the motorhome (or towards the bedroom).  This also shows the large lighted kitchen "hutch" (middle of the photo).  The lower part of the hutch is actually a "table" top that flips up for additional work space.  To the right of the hutch you can see the hallway that goes to the bedroom which we'll look at next.

 

Moving from the living area into the bedroom is a longer hallway passing the bathroom and going into the bedroom where Gary is seated at his desk working on his computer.  The windows in the hallway (on the right) let in a lot of additional light and heat during the day (hey, it's winter here in NV and we need all the extra heat we can get from any available resource!).  The door on the left goes into the bathroom.  And YUP that's a case of Corona on the floor by Gary with a case of wine behind it :)

 

The larger bathroom is another big bonus for us in the newer RV.  Now two of us can be in the bathroom at the same time.  Not that we want to always crowd ourselves into the bathroom like that (that's not our idea of party time!) ... but at least it's a possibility now!  Here's a photo of the sink and medicine cabinet.  To the left is a nice, large corner shower.

 

In the 2003 Southwind the bath was a tub/shower combination which was a little clumsy (in my opinion).  Let's face it, bathtubs in RVs are just too small for a bath unless you're a tiny tater tot.  This shower offers much easier ingress and egress (no "climbing" in and out).  Plus, remember that "Cool Tip" I shared with the plastic clamp I secured to the shower doors to eliminate their slamming around while traveling?  That's not needed anymore :).  This shower door has a simple push down tab that keeps the door snugly closed while in transit.

There's also this great bank of additional storage cabinets (above) and drawers (below) in the bathroom.  These are located just left of the shower.  Love this feature! 

I bought plastic containers for the top drawer to keep all my "stuff" (like make-up, blow dryer, brushes, etc.) organized.  Now I can easily and quickly find anything (well, not anything ... that's a bit of an exaggeration). So far it's working perfectly (well, not perfectly that's also a bit of an exaggeration) just like I thought it might (that is not an exaggeration!).

Now onto the bedroom which features more closet and drawer space than our 2003.  The additional space has been a tremendous help to our clothes storage situation since we are full timing.  I have six drawers underneath these closets where I only had two drawers in the 2003.  The closet door on the far left has built in wire basket drawers for easy storage of additional bulky clothing items.

In this photo there's a small TV above the drawers (these are Gary's three large clothes drawers) and to the right of the drawers is Gary's desk.  The cabinet right under the bank of drawers is where we keep the wireless printer and other miscellaneous stationery and paperwork items ... so convenient!

Here's a close-up of Gary's desk area with a nice window which lets in ample light.  It is a bit smaller than the previous one (he's still grousing a bit about that), but at least he has a desk and this one has a nice drawer below which the other one didn't have.

Across from Gary's drawers and desk is the bed with much nicer looking light fixtures overhead.  I  changed out the bedspread so we could use the new quilt we bought in Montana.  It is perfect and very warm for these cold Nevada nights!  These two bed pillows are the only Christmas "decorations" I got up this year.  Too much chaos in our lives to do anymore than that.

As a closing shot, Gary just took this great photo of the new RV in our site at Comstock Country using his Windows phone (which has a really good camera!). 

 

Hope to have more news to write soon.  It's been slow since we're not traveling to exciting places every week, but I do want to write a story about the amazing Carson Valley Swim Center!!  So look for that in the very near future.