On Thursday, December 27, 2012 10:15:18 AM UTC-4, ESAD wrote:
On 12/27/12 8:59 AM, Eisboch wrote:





"GuzzisRule" wrote in message

...





Here ya go!



http://www.rvwholesalers.com/resourc...aptor_2012.pdf



Everything you want in one place. Keep clicking the down arrow. This is

what's called a 'Toy Hauler'

fifth wheel.



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Looks familiar. We had the 377-SE version. Went "camping" once with it

and had the most miserable week of my life.



My daughter started it all. She and her husband were into camping and

were purchasing a new travel trailer. She convinced Mrs.E and I and my

older son and his wife to get a trailer as well for "family" camping.

I saw it as a good excuse to get a new truck, so I bought the Raptor Toy

Hauler along with a Ford 350 Diesel and had the fifth wheel hitch

installed. I had a Harley at the time and figured the toy hauler would

come in handy. My son bought a slightly smaller fifth wheel and a Ford

250 with the V-10. We all picked up our new RV's the same day at the

dealership.



My daughter made reservations for all of us for a week at a campground

in New Hampshire that they visited often. I forget what the name of it

is. I call it "Marty Moose Land". We all had sites beside each other..

The trip to the campground was uneventful. The Ford pulled the Raptor

with no problem and I thought this was going to be pretty cool.



Well, that particular week in the mountains of New Hampshire was the

hottest, most humid week I've spent anywhere. Big thunderstorms every

afternoon kept us all huddled inside our respective RV's with the AC

units running at full blast. When it stopped raining and we ventured

outside, the mosquitoes were waiting to draw blood.



One humid, sultry afternoon, we were sitting at my son's site trying to

have a beer while swishing away the bugs and mosquitoes. His young

daughter was playing inside his fifth wheel. As we sat talking, I

looked up and saw water seeping out of the storage area door under the

master bedroom of the RV. Got up, opened the door, and gallons of

water started pouring out. His daughter had plugged the vanity sink in

the bedroom and had the faucets turned on full. It had filled the sink

and was overflowing everywhere, soaking the carpets and draining into

the storage area. I took off to find a hardware store to get a wet

vac while the rest started sopping up the water.



Gracefully, the last day of our camping adventure arrived. My son and

his family left, and then us by early afternoon. My daughter and her

husband wanted to stay a little longer, so we said goodbye and hit the

road.



By 8pm, I had just arrived home and backed the fifth-wheel into it's

spot at our house when the phone rang. It was my daughter. They had

just left the campsite, got a mile down the road and their vehicle

snapped a tie rod. They were sitting on the side of a busy road with a

broken SUV, their new, 28' travel trailer and two crying kids.



So, dear old Dad heads back to the New Hampshire mountains in his truck

to rescue them. Finally got back to their house by 2am, towing the

trailer.

Their truck was put on a flatbed and taken to a repair shop.



The next day I listed the Raptor "For Sale" in a couple of the RV

classifieds. Sold it a few weeks later to a buyer in Canada.



BTW, that wasn't our first attempt at trying the camping scene. When I

first retired and we wintered in Florida, we thought it would be fun to

make the trips back and forth in a RV. We tried a 37' Pace Arrow class

A motorhome, a Chinook Glacier and a Dodge Sprinter RV. Of the three,

I liked the Sprinter the most and we owned it the longest, but we

eventually sold the Florida house and rarely used the Sprinter. We

ended up selling it to a guy in Missouri who flew out and drove it

home. He and his wife still send us email pictures of their travels in

it.



Camping is great for some people. It's just not for me. I'd much

rather live on a boat.









We've been to Maine a few times. On one of those trips, we rented an RV

and loaded it onto a ferry to take us to an island campground for a few

days. The RV, the island, and so forth were fine, but the island was

infested with biting bugs. They weren't mosquitoes, they were much

bigger, and it was hot and humid, too. Misery most of the time.



The next time we went to Maine, we stayed he



http://mainestayinn.com/



No annoying insects indoors or outdoors, beautiful rooms, great

breakfasts, and within walking distance of lots of sights and shopping

and the waterfront. My wife was *much* happier! We ate too many meals at

Mabel's Lobster House, purportedly where President and Mrs. George H.W.

Bush had many meals when he was healthier. Lobsters at the dock were

about $2.50 a pound. I braved walking into the water at a local beach

and got in about halfway up to my knees before the cold chased me out. I

love the Maine coastline.



On the way back, we stayed at a B&B in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to see

relatives and old friends. Nice enough place, but no match for the Maine

Stay. No bugs.

That spot looks nice. I've always wanted to get down to the Seashore Trolly Museum in that area. I was serious in the summer of 2011 but after contacting the museum found out that the main attraction for me (Birney Safety Car) was judged too run down to put on display or even to fix up in the immediate future.
The birney car was the only streetcar used in Halifax from about 1921 until 1949..the year I was born.