As friends and family undoubtedly know, Josie and I bought a 33 foot National Motor Home and we are using it to go "camping" this winter. Camping! It has two air conditioners, central furnace with ducted air, a separate bedroom at the rear with a queen size bed, a separate bathroom with a shower, gas fired water heater, convection microwave oven, 5.5 kilowatt generator, two televisions with DVD/VCR player, two stereo systems, GPS, a slideout that doubles the size of the living space and a huge awning. Not finished yet. It also has a basement, well, lower level storage that is accesible from the outside. What else? Heated rearview mirrors and a video camera for monitoring traffic behind and for reversing into places, a hydraulic jack system for leveling the beast, antilock breaks. Sleeps four plus two children. We have even added the Jeep as a shuttle craft that we pull behind. In RV speak that is known as a toad (towed)or a dinghy. Strangely enough the power cord that permits us to connect to external electricity is known as "shore power". For those of us that have sailed that is funny.

Josie and I flew to South Carolina to pick up the RV from the dealer and we took a quick vacation in the process. Because of where we were and the time of year we headed to Florida to watch the shuttle take off on the 10th of January. Sadly the mission was delayed by some weeks due to a problem fueling. I knew that this same problem had cropped up before so I did a quick diagnosis. I told Josie that it was the connector where the wires for the hydrogen fuel sensors exited the external fuel tank. Some weeks later it was announced that this connector had been replaced. Lucky guess? You be the judge.

Let's see now, our first days in the RV. At the start we had nothing in the RV. No bedding, crockery, cutlery or food so we headed to a Super Walmart, just six miles from the dealership. We asked the people at Walmart if it was OK to spend the night and got the OK. Most Walmarts or Kmarts will let you spend the night if you ask. We shopped the store for most of what we needed. Much shopping and much storing, unpacking and experimenting later we were duly fed and had a bed in which to sleep.

When we finally got on the road I found the vehicle difficult to handle and very unstable in crosswinds or when being passed by a semi. After a couple of quite uncomfortable days, it occurred to me that we had a full water tank, full lp gas, full fuel and at least half full gray water and black water tanks as a result of the dealership testing everything. Emptying both of the holding tanks and dumping three quarters of our fresh water made a huge difference. While it is still not easy to drive under adverse conditions, I have been comfortable at 75 under good conditions and I maintained 55 mph without too much stress under extremely bad conditions of wind gusts to 35 plus and passing semis. Important note to anyone considering a similar purchase, the duel rear axle or tag exle is highly desireable and improves handling and load carrying a great deal. That is the number one reason that I will sell this motor home and get a new one with a tag axle.

We made it to Cape Canaveral and as we headed for our campground we passed through the docks area where the cruise ships load and unload. I could not see that we were going to have a very nice campground as we drove through parking lot hell. We did arrive at the campground only to be given an already occupied site. It was evening and we had been assigned a site by the night guard on the main entry gate. We duly returned to the main gate and reported our findings. The guard asked if we had noticed any empty sites and as we had, he immediately said "well take that one" and off we went. The guard station had warning notices about the feral cats. You know the sort of thing. "Do not feed the feral cats they will tear your arm off." I must confess they did not look like feral cats to me. They looked like very sleek domestic tabbies. A quick look around revealed that the guard fed them and later on we found that the staff at the campground fed them as well. So much for the warnings. The campground proved to be better than I had at first hoped. We were just 50 yards from the beach and possibly 400 yards from the fishing pier.

It was not long before we had to put on the air conditioner and that was a fantastic thrill in January. We spent several days at the site and apart from our three hour naps there was not much to report. You can see pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvict the one thing of note is as follows. Many years ago, when I first started treatment for high blood pressure, I was pressured to take a vacation. Josie and I went camping in South Dakota. During one of our long walks in which I was taking the lead I stopped because on the trail ahead of me was an Emu. Now remember that I was simultaneously taking large quantities of new medications. Well I got teased about the Emu for years. During our recent trip to Florida, Josie repeatedly saw Penguins. I think she was talking about Pelicans but I will never admit that. In future if she brings up Emu's I will mention Penguins and that should be that.

That's all for now. Much more to follow.