This particular unit is a bit different than the one we had reserved, and so I did not get a chance to look up the specs on it. I would guess that the total length is around thirty three feet. Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive about driving something that big. But, once we got the mirrors adjusted, we were on our way. I drove the RV back to the house, and Deb followed me in the car.
Once on the road, it wasn't so scary. It is wide and long, but honestly, it didn't seem that different than some big U-Haul trucks I have driven in the past. It has a rear facing camera mounted on the back with an LCD display mounted where a rear view mirror normally goes. As we drove down the interstate, I saw that I couldn't see. The camera was pointed nearly straight down. But, once I got to our house and tried backing into the driveway, I got it! They don't call it a rear view camera; they call it a backup camera. It was very helpful in the backing up process and the camera has to point down so that you can see up close to the vehicle. Once you understand what it is supposed to do for you, it works pretty well.
Once in the driveway, we began to load up. It was very hot inside. I didn't realize how long it would take to load, so rather than trying to run an AC cable, I started up the generator so we could have some air conditioning. There was more than enough storage underneath the unit for our needs. On the other hand, if one was storing everything they owned, I'm sure it would be tight. Once loaded, we tried to make sure everything was secure, and we were on our way. We left the generator running for about an hour with the living space AC unit still running. Once we cooled down, we shut that off. The vehicle dash AC was adequate for the rest of the trip.
Once on the north side of Chattanooga, we filled up with gas. We were getting 6.4 mile per gallon. I expected it to be a bit better than that, and I'm sure that it really was. For one, I don't know that the gas tank was completely full when we picked it up. Also, the generator ran for about three hours. That probably consumed three gallons or so of the gas. With that in mind, we were probably getting more like 8 miles to the gallon.
We were hoping to get into the camp area before dark. Although it was still twilight when we reached the state park, it was quite dark when we were actually pulling in to our space. In fact, we stopped and got out to look around and get our bearings. We thought we were stopping in the road, but were in fact in a pull through camping space that turned out to be where we camped, once we moved the RV about a foot to the left. Note to self for future, at Fall Creek Falls, the camping spaces are gravel, but the actual roads in the camping area are all asphalt.
Since it was so dark, we just hooked up the electricity and water and decided to leave the sewer hookup until morning. This is not a problem, since the normal way of operating is that, even when you have your sewer line connected, the waste goes into holding tanks. You manually empty the tanks only after they are at least two thirds full. This helps to ensure that the solids are flushed out. By the way, there are two holding tanks; one for black water (the toilet) and one for grey water (the sinks, and shower). You want to empty your black water tank first, and then the grey water tank. Doing it in that order helps to keep your dump hose a bit cleaner.
Inside, we moved out the slider for the dining and living area, stowed things away, and put up the privacy curtain in the cab. After a bite to eat, it was lights out and time for bed.... Hardware
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