In
2005, Clyda and I purchased a 2003, 32 foot Mirage 5th
wheel built by Thor Industries. This was the perfect RV for us and
our life style. When we first looked at it on the RV Lifestyles lot
in Quartzsite, AZ, Clyda made the comment that “I can do these
steps.” Because of her knee problems, that sold me.
The
unit was clean and little used, in fact it had originally been sold
by Lifestyles to a customer in Scottsdale, AZ who brought it back
after a year and said “sell it.” They just didn’t use it.
We,
however did use it. In all we pulled it over 70,000 miles with
multiple trips to Lynden, Washington, trips to Wisconsin, and many
trips to Houston. So many to Houston in fact that Clyda said “Never
again across West Texas.” We also did a trip cross country to the
Florida East coast and Savannah, GA in 2014 with our good friends
Budd and Brenda.
A
year or so after we purchased it a small crack appeared at one corner
of the front bedroom slide. I was told that it was a “design fault”
whatever that meant.
Later,
a crack appeared at the other corner of the bedroom slide. I tried to
determine if the frame was giving out but that effort proved
fruitless. So we continued to use the trailer. This past month, as I
was starting to get ready for our annual trip to Quartzsite, AZ, I
found the carpet between the bed and front closet was wet. Not only
wet, but soaked. So after soaking up as much water as I could with
towels, I put in a small electric heater and a fan. It still took the
better part of a week to dry the carpet completely.
Son
Craig discovered another crack at the top corner of the slide this
time. We caulked it as best we could and hoped for the best.
So
on to Quartzsite where it rained for a night and all the next day.
Again, a wet carpet. Now all I had was the small electric heater and
a generator for power to do the drying.
It
was obvious we needed to do something. My friend Jim and I saw a
small 5th wheel trailer at a consignment lot in Quartzsite
so stopped to look at it. It did look promising so the next day Clyda
and I looked at it and eventually made an offer.
Long
story short, we bought a 2012, 29 foot Cougar 5th wheel
built by Keystone. Our friends Jack and Judy who own property near
Bouse told us to park our old trailer there, empty it out and bring
the newer trailer to transfer all of our substantial belonging’s
into it. It took 4 days to remove everything which filled Judy’s
sewing room and left a truck load of stuff for Goodwill.
We
swapped the trailers, bought new 6 volt batteries for the new trailer
which already had solar installed, thank goodness, and proceeded to
move as much into it as would fit. When we were done there remained
much that we need to take home so we left that at Jack and Judy’s
and it will be picked up on our way home.
We
are getting used to the new RV but lament not having the old one as
it was set up the way we wanted it to be. Will we get to like the new
RV? Maybe. It does have a lot of electrical advantages, for instance,
a small remote device controls both slides, the front and rear jacks
and the awning. That is pretty cool. The lights are not to my liking
as the old rig had all LED lights which were easy on the battery. I
need to do some work on drawer slides and also to install a propane
line for our propane heater. I need a new awning cover which I hope
to get when I get back to Quartzsite. All in good time.
We
have left Jack and Judy’s, camped with Jim and Michelle at Usery
Mountain East of Mesa AZ, traveled with them to the gourd festival in
Casa Grande, and moved on to Yuma, AZ for a week.
*The header photo is the new camper.
