Greetings From North Carolina

[Bigdumbhick]

(WARNING: I am long winded)

We just purchased our first Camping Trailer, a 2020 Viking Express 9.0TD. We are new to Trailer Camping. My camping protocol for the past 10 years has been an air mattress in the back of my 71 GMC pickup, underneath a cheap 10x10 pop-up awning, but my wife, "The Princess", DOES NOT sleep in the back of a pickup like some common inbred hillbilly, nor does she sleep on the ground like some kind of Bigfoot. The Princess believes believes camping should involve room service and an ocean view, and there had better be a Garden Tub in the room too, and good restaurants nearby. So I have camped by myself for the last 20 years.

Typing that just brought a tear to my eye thinking of what I am giving up...

but I love her, and after almost 30 years of marriage, I want to spend more time with her

She likes to travel, but renting cabins, campers, and hotel rooms gets expensive. After much discussion, she warmed up to the idea of an RV (honey, it's a hotel room on wheels!) and we went looking. All the ones I liked were 30yrs old or more, while she loved the newer models with slide-outs. We decided that we didn't have an extra $100K laying around to buy us a new one unless we were to sell the house and everything in it (I'm okay with that), and that the yearly maintenance/repair costs on even a good used Motorhome were cost prohibitive, but we could probably afford a Trailer.

My truck would require quite a bit of restoration to even qualify as a beater. It is not comfortable for long rides and my wife tells me she prefers the exhaust to be on the outside of the vehicle instead of the inside, so we would need to find something that we could pull with my Honda CRV or her Honda Element, That limited us to Pop-ups or Teardrop.

I'm a full grown man 6'7" and 350# so I am going to need something that will accommodate someone of my superior size. Crawling in and out of a hatch was something I regularly did in the Navy, 20 years and a 100lbs ago, and I wasn't real excited about trying to do it now that I was rounder and much less flixible. After quite a bit of looking, I stumbled across the Viking Express 9.0TD. It looked big enough to fit me and nice enough to satisfy her.The Princess watched several walk-through videos of the 9.0TD and felt it was something she could enjoy. It had a heater and air-conditioner. She was raised in Colorado and cannot take the humidity of the Southeast despite having lived in NC for the last 20 years. She can't do without air-conditioning

We went to go look at it. These are never as large in person as they are on video. they must use tiny, tiny little people for their videos She was disappointed that the unit we found didn't have the sink with hot & cold running water or the outside shower, like the video's showed, it also seemed to be missing the attachable grill, and the optional awning/screenroom addition (she has a thing about mosquitos) I could fit inside, we could both fit on the bed (although my feet overhang about a foot) The price they were asking was reasonable.

Then reasonable became too good to pass up.

We take delivery this weekend.

There is a remote chance that the grill and the awning/screenroom are in the storage crypt underneath the bed. That Awning/Screenroom was the main selling point for The Princess. She does NOT like mosquitos although they have a particular affectation for her. I went to the Coachmen Website and could not find an exploded view Illustrated Parts Breakdown, a parts price list, or anything at all about available accessories (Their website blows) I sent them an e-mail and found out that the grill (part# 2605232) sells for just $187.40 plus shipping and the Awning/Screenroom (part# f100175502) sells for just $663.10 plus shipping, What a deal!!

I hope they are under the bed.

Please, Lord Jesus, let them be under the bed

We are excited to take delivery and go try it out.

[rjgimp]

Welcome to the nuthouse! Reassure your lovely bride that you are among friends. We don't bite. Much...



...you knuckle-dragging neanderthal!