We're RV People Now, Dee!

Hey, look at that - I still have a blog!  Since we now have a greater than normal amount of free time on our hands, I figured it was more than time to sit down and practice my writing skills again, and to keep all of you interested parties informed on what the Arizona Olsen contingent was up to these days.

By far the most exciting thing on the list is that we finally joined the world of RV - recreational vehicle - owners!  Since this whole COVID business began, we've had to cancel four different trips (not to mention several that were still in the "thinking about it for the future" stage), and those of you who read the blog (when I bother to write it) know that we are travel fiends.  We'd been thinking about a travel trailer for a few years now, and since road-tripping will likely be our primary mode of travel for the foreseeable future, we figured it was time to take the plunge.

After doing some research on sizes, options, and payload capacity on our current vehicles (the Tesla's torque is great, but its towing options are sadly limited), and visiting several dealerships (all of which seem to be waaaay on the outskirts of town), we decided to go with this beauty:

Ta da!

We also took this picture,

because we thought it was funny

and will serve as a good reminder of this weird year - 

not that any of us will forget it.

Wear a damn mask, people!

Our little dude is a 2021 KZ Sportsmen 160QB, and its dry weight (before adding water and filling the cabinets with food and whatnot) is around 2800 pounds.  With the trailer, hitch, and all that, it's about 22 feet long, and we think it's just the right size for the two of us and our two fuzzballs.  

We bought the trailer from Patty at Always RV way the freak out in east Mesa (it is literally 35 miles from our house - one way), and we can't say enough good things about our experience there.  Everyone from Patty to J in finance to Mona in the front office to Dave in service has been truly awesome - so friendly and willing to work with us - and if you ever need their services, we can't recommend them highly enough.

At the time of this blogging, we've already taken Arlene on her maiden voyage (yep, that's her name!), to the cooler climes of Flagstaff for a weekend.  I'll blog about that in the future, but for now, here's a whole host of pictures from inside and out (some of these are ours and others are from other dealerships selling the same model):

First, a floorplan:

We liked that this model had a permanent, queen-sized bed with "walk-around" access as the sleeping option.  We saw several that had shorter/smaller beds, murphy beds, converted dinettes, or that were situated 90 degrees the other way (so one person would always have to vault over the other one to use the loo in the middle of the night), and we're getting too old for all of that business.  We value sleep, so this was a must-have for us.

We also liked that this one had the bathroom in the back of the trailer with the dinette and kitchen across from one another.  This wasn't the deal-breaker the bed situation was, but it seemed really weird to have your bathroom directly across from the kitchen, with the dinette tucked way into a back corner (keeping in mind, of course, that the trailer is maybe 7 feet wide, total, so it's not like anything is that far away).

We also went with this one because of the full-sized bathroom; so many smaller trailers have marine style bathrooms where the entire bathroom is essentially the shower, and you hose down everything in there when you need to bathe.  Again, we're old and finicky, and we're beyond those years of our lives (unless we're on a true sailboat trip, in which case, fair game).

Another selling feature was the inside height.  Many trailers of this length top out at 72 inches, which is 6 feet flat.  That doesn't work when half of the human occupants of the trailer are 74 inches tall.  This one is a whopping 78 inches, so we're both good to go!

Okay, time for more pictures!  Outside:

On the service pad at Always RV,

ready for our walk-through

The main exterior storage compartment,

which is near the front

(you can see the flap up near the hitch in the picture above)

Not Arlene (one of her sisters) - a picture of the back and entrance

Ooh, stairs!
Actually, these are pretty nice stairs - 

they're called "solid state,"

so they don't fold all up into themselves,

and thus, they stay nice and sturdy.

They do fold into the trailer entrance, however -

we don't drive around with them hanging down.

Combo pet leash holder and bottle opener.

Both are essential in our house,

so, winning x 2

With the awning out

Time to head inside (again, most of these are from other RV websites/dealers that did a better job of taking shots than we did):

This is essentially what you see when you walk in the entrance door -

closet/cabinets behind you, bathroom door on the left,

fridge and sink along the left wall,

dinette on the right, and bed at the end.

Turn around 180 degrees and see this:

Again, ours looks like this,

except for all the green outside the windows.

We don't see that here.

There's lots of space for all the things we need, although we are pretty good packers, but it really does have a huge amount of cabinets for the space it takes up.  Some inside detail shots:

Not a lot of counter space in the kitchen - 

so far, we've been doing most meal prep at home

before we head out, and then just cooking/reheating/grilling

our food on site.

The sink on this thing is nice - 

all stainless steel, completely round, and pretty deep.

Some cabinet space under the sink,

and a tower of drawers to the right

Above the sink, another cabinet

and the microwave
(which we haven't used yet,

so I guess, yet another cabinet, in a pinch)

Close-up of the sleeping area - 

it has a little corner shelf on each side,

and there's a big wide cabinet spanning

the width of the trailer above the bed.

The closet/cabinet situation at the back of the trailer - 

the closet itself has a bar for hanging clothes,

and there's a shoe cabinet below and one above, too.

What am I forgetting?  Ah yes, the bathroom!

Whoever is responsible for pictures at Lerch RV.com

is due for a raise.

How they were able to get this aerial shot in

this tiny bathroom is beyond me.

Maybe they climbed on the roof and took it through the vent?

Seriously, if you visit us and step inside the bathroom,

you'll see how impressive this is.

Anywhoo, from left to right -

toilet, shower, sink.

The shower's not huge,

but it's big enough,

and the toilet is real porcealin,

which is awesome for a number of reasons.

Plastic sink, but you can't have everything.

Laying on the floor of the bathroom (I assume),

looking toward the vent.

The vanity cabinet - 

there's a medicine cabinet with a big mirror

and decent storage above this.

That's the tour!  Honestly, it probably took longer to read this blog and scroll past those pictures than it would be for us to give you the tour in person.  More blog updates later on the first trip in our new toy (spoiler - we had a great time), but before we go, a special thank you to our amazing neighborhood delivery guys for not writing off our house over the past month as we've had SO MANY various and sundry boxes of RV crap shipped here.  Here's a shot of our biggest delivery day so far:

I thought this was a cheaper way to vacation?!?!?!

Later!

Amy