Bandera and Back

Today we drove to Bandera, Texas. It's east of San Antonio, in the Texas Hill Country, but we didn't go to enjoy the Hill Country wineries or kolaches or the beautiful countryside. We went to look at a New Horizons fifth wheel to see if we might want to buy it (to replace Venture--shhh, don't tell!).

Bandera is over 300 miles and six hours fast freeway driving from our current home at Lake Lewisville. We got up at 4:30 a.m. (gasp) and were waiting at the gate when it opened at 6:00 a.m. It was nearly noon when we arrived at the home of John and Ginny Howery, who have their lovely 36' New Horizons for sale. They fulltimed in it for two years before deciding to come off the road because of John's health issues. He's been much better with regular medical care and supervision.

John showed Ken around the outside of the rig while Ginny showed me around the inside. We appreciated the many quality and convenience features of this custom designed rig. It has many features that make us drool (bigfoot leveling system, macerator, solid countertops, solid wood cabinetry, full extension drawers, slideouts with insulated and fiberglass covered bottoms, and much more). We checked out every nook and cranny and ended up deciding to sleep on a decision.

Large basement storage area.

Bigfoot leveling system can raise the entire trailer off the ground.

Four AGM deep cycle batteries in their special battery compartment.

Storage under the wooden steps to the bedroom--much better than carpeted steps.

After our tour, Ginny served some delicious tuna salad sandwiches and cranberry bars for lunch while we shared stories of our lives. Then we hit the road for the six-hour drive back. We're just not used to spending twelve hours driving in a day, so even though we managed to miss most of the rush hour traffic in the major urban areas, we still found the long trip stressful. We were glad to get home.

We're making notes on what we learned today. We knew when we started out that whichever way our decision went, we would definitely find out more about exactly what features we really want in our next rig. At this point we're leaning towards sticking with Venture and continuing a search for something we might like better, but with no sense of urgency. We have time.