There have been so many people that have shared their knowledge with us on our learning curve, I am sure to forget some but . . .
Mr. Petrie at Mike Thompson's RV in Southern California. He started with us in the pop-up trailer section and stayed with us as we navigated from pop-ups to 18' caravans to the bump-out caravans (aka slide outs.) All of this took at least three different visits (all of which were multi-hour campaigns.) Unfortunately, Thompson's did not sell Airstreams and once I had walked inside an Airstream, I'm afraid all others just melted from memory. But Mr. Petrie's time and what he taught us was invaluable--both of which we shared with his manager.
The great folks on the Practical Caravan website! The best advice we were given early on was "get a rig with a fixed bed, if you are going to be gone full time, you don't want to make the bed up every day/night." So true. Our bed is tiny, but it is fixed and boy do we love to just jump into it at the end of the day! The blogs and advice on the website are great (and answered so quickly!) and we felt welcome right away. Undoubtedly we will turn here very often, especially once we land in Europe.
The Caravan Club Magazine and website. Although the website is less approachable from a human contact standpoint than the Practical Caravan, there are great white papers on necessary items like pairing tow vehicles with a caravan. We are hoping to take great advantage of the on-line booking service when we hit the shores of Europe--armed with a list of adventures we have gained from reading the magazine.
And last, but not least, Rod and his wife at C&G Trailer Service in Bellflower, CA, for their fast and thorough work getting us fit for the road!
So the count-down is on! September 1st, 2011, we leave for the North American tour, and if all goes as planned, we'll hit Europe early Spring 2012.
-K
