Saturday, September 14, 2013

What are we up to now!?

Hi All,
Stephen, Lulu and I went to Santa Fe NM this summer in Bigger Betty
For those of you who don't know we have been Rving for more then 20 years, all of our RVs have been named "Betty" of some sort. 

There was:
1)  Betty-a 1988 Winnebago Superchief 31 ft
2)  Trailer Betty-a 1967 Airstream 32 ft
3)  Little Betty-a 1992 Westphalia Volkswagen Van - tiny!
4)  Betty 2-a 2002 Itasca Suncruiser 33 ft
5)  Big Betty-a 2005 Magna 40 ft Country Coach
6)  Bigger Betty-a 2011 Tiffin 44 ft Allegro Bus with 1 and a half bathrooms, washer and dryer, dishwasher, his and his sinks, 2 full sofas and 4 tvs, I could go on....
7)  Welcome 2012 Butch Betty-Earthroamer 28 ft
Generally Erica, our store manager at Rittenhouse Needlepoint, writes our newsletter after I email her photos and a brief description. 
Since our store is growing beyond what we imagined I felt it best to relieve her of this task, even though I know she loved doing it :-).  She has done a great job keeping everyone in the loop on our crazy adventures, and there have been quite a few.  From breakdowns in deserts, tire issues in Nova Scotia, crazy towing stories of tow trucks trying to pull a 24 ton RV on highways, hail storms and close calls of tornados.

Our RV travels include all the continental states, Alaska, all the Canadian provinces that connect to the USA, and New Foundland, Central Mexico and the Baja Peninsula.

So, back to summer of 2013.  We drove Bigger Betty out to the Southwest for the Santa Fe Opera festival as we have done many other years and came back with Butch Betty.  We have been dreaming, planning and thinking about downsizing for quite some time.  Our future goals include travels to South America, Europe and beyond.  Finding the right vehicle for this type of travel has proven to be very difficult but we finally landed and bought a used 2012 Earthroamer.  Pictures are attached of Bigger Betty and Butch Betty.  Most people that know us know the type of travel we have enjoyed and are concerned for us and how will we deal with such a small RV but we are committed to a more adventurous type of travel that just can't be done in a bus style motorhome.

Our next big adventure is winter of 2014.  We will drive Butch Betty to Nogales AZ and meet up with 9 other RVs and drive together in caravan style to Guadalajara, Mexico.  This trip will be for 2 months and then an additional month in Texas for the migration and education of a birding get together. Stephen will write about that as it is his 'new hobby.' He has many hobbies.
We look forward to hearing from you.  Drop us an email and let us know what you are up to.

More later,
Fondly, Russell, Stephen and Lulu too of course.

The Switch
 
What We gave Up



 
Butch Betty
 Yep, that is all there is to the interior! Bed is above the driving area.  There is a (well sort of) a toilet and a stall shower of sorts.  The vehicle is capable of being off the grid for months at a time.  4 large solar panels on the roof, all appliances are either 12 volt or diesel gas powered, no propane tank.  It is quite an interesting vehicle.  The camper portion made by Earthroamer is built on top of a 4 door Ford F-550 4x4 chassis with a 6.7 L turbo diesel engine.  There is more then enough power to be out in the craziest places. When we are on the road I will send some more realistic interior pictures with all our stuff crammed in there.  These photos are the day we purchased.
 
PS. As you can imagine Lulu is very upset.  When we got home we took out the rear bucket seats and our friend Steve Smith made a lovely pet platform so that she has her own cockpit all to herself complete with bed and toys.