Don't forget about Part 2!
After 2 1/2 days of driving and 1500 miles, we made it successfully to the Great American RV Superstore location in Hammond, Louisiana, where on Saturday at 11am, we kept our appointment to do a walk through, sign all the paperwork for, and finally get the keys to our new travel trailer, Zelda!
At a rest stop, somewhere in Texas
As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series, Zelda is an Imagine XLS 23 LDE, made by Great Design. We really liked the layout of this trailer, as it had a residential queen size bed (most "queens" in travel trailers are shorter than the ones in a real house - not so great when you're 6'2") in a separate bedroom, which could be closed off from the bathroom and living area by two sliding doors. This meant that when I got up way earlier than Chris on our adventures, I could sneak out of bed and into a comfy reading nook without bothering him. This model also has a rear kitchen with a large window. Most of the time when you park somewhere, you back into the spot and your view is at least partially out the back of the rig. Many units, including our previous one, have a solid wall there, as it's often where the bathroom is located. That's kind of a bummer, as you miss out on some great scenery. In addition to those awesome features, Zelda is also about 6 feet longer than Arlene, and it has one small slide out on the driver's side of the rig, which holds two theater style chairs and our fridge setup. It also has a little television, which we've already put to good use, as you'll see in upcoming blog posts.
Oh, yes, a word on the name Zelda. The new truck is red, so when it came into the family, I started kicking around names like Ruby, Scarlet, and so on. The problem was the truck wasn't really red, red, it was more of a darker red, almost like an auburn color. I went, aha, we'll name it after the Auburn mascot, Aubie the tiger.
War Eagle!
When we pondered what to name the camper, Chris said, "well, we have dogs named Auggie and Zoe, and if we have a truck named Aubie, then the camper should start with a 'Z' to be fair. How about Zelda?" We waited to ensure she truly was a Zelda, and since she didn't seem to have any objections, the name stuck.
Anywhoo, upon our arrival in Hammond, we were greeted right away and seated in some comfy chairs to await our technician for the walk-through. That went well, and before too long, we were signing our finance paperwork (not the best time for a good interest rate, but them's the breaks, I guess). After just a short wait, we were handed the keys and turned loose! We spent a few minutes in the onsite Camping World Store (that was convenient), then headed across the parking lot to Zelda.
First things first -
Chris hadn't eaten lunch yet,
so he put the table and bench to use
for their trial run.
I, of course, had already eaten lunch
in the truck on the way to Hammond,
at about 10:30 in the morning.
We spent some time ensuring the rig was ready to go and learning the in's and out's of hooking up with this particular trailer and truck. Before too long, we were underway - back west on the 12, then intersecting with the 10 once again. Making it through Baton Rouge and thankfully avoiding most of the traffic from the conclusion of the LSU/UT game, it wasn't too long before we pulled into our home for the night, the
Lafayette KOA Holiday, actually located in Scott, Louisiana. Most KOA's are pretty convenient to local freeways, and the Scott location wasn't any different; it had a great fishing pond, playground, and mini-golf course, none of which we used, of course. The folks were friendly as I checked in, and it didn't take long to find our site (#145) and partially set up the camper.
When we parted ways with Arlene, we knew we planned to get another travel trailer someday, so although we sold a few pieces of gear to friends, we kept several items. Before leaving home on Thursday afternoon, I'd crammed the truck with as many of the essentials as possible, so although we still needed to make a run to the Wal-Mart in Lafayette, it didn't require a complete outfitting. Once that was done (a Wal-Mart on a Saturday afternoon during high football season - this was a true delight), it was back to the KOA to finish setting up and figure out what to do next.
As we drove through the greater Lafayette area on the way to Hammond earlier in the day, we'd seen tons of billboards for boudin and cracklin's and all other sorts of delicious Cajun foodstuffs. The city of Scott bills itself as the Boudin Capital of the World; we figured that when in Rome, etc, we should find some ourselves, and a local, well-reviewed outpost of
Billy's Boudin happened to be within walking distance of the KOA. It seemed like fate!
Golden brown, deep fried fate!
(my favorite kind)
Eating dinner our first night with Zelda
Happy but extremely full, we started a load of laundry in the KOA's facilities (clean and well maintained) and decided to try out our in-camper television. Since we have ESPN+ and it was a Roku tv, we were quickly logged in and watching college football!
Sitting in my recliner,
watching the part of the game
before FSU started to lose.
Glad we didn't stay up to see that.
Filled with fried food (and yes, mint Oreo's, as seen in the above picture) and tired from our series of long days of driving, we sacked out before too long, excited to camp in the new trailer for the first night!
Later!
Amy
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