Hello everybody,
Please forgive the English writing of a Frenchman living in a Spanish speaking country of South America.
Next year I’ll be fully retired and so be able to fulltime. But I can’t wait any longer and, without having all the time (and the money) necessary, I’ll start RVing seriously part time as from next month.
I have some RV experience (owning a 28” foot class C while I was living in Canada, renting a few times class A in the USA and so called “camping cars” in Europe).
Mainly due to the economical limitations of the moment (and also to test a maximum of “quite full time way of living” parameters), I plan to buy a C (10 to 12 years old) and a second hand jeep (we are 4x4 addicted), use it until end of 2009 and then sell it in order to get a second generation rig.
We are just two of us and we love wilderness, backcountry, and rustic camping. In order to be able to reach this kind of places, I’m thinking to choose a 25 to 28” C. What do you think, you full timers?
I’ll arrive in New York mid August, just for one short month, buy the MH and store it somewhere till November. How to find it in such a short time? Apart of the internet ads, what do you think about visiting a large RV reseller such as PLP? Are there others in the North East (more or less near New York)?
Of course I’ll join SKP. Hoping the invaluable club and forum support for the whole administrative path linked to this new life for a non American citizen.
Any comment and opinion very welcome.
Alain

One thing that I would recommend, if your plans stay as written, is to find storage for your rig, BEFORE you do anything else. Storage is very difficult to find on the East Coast, especially the farther north you are. If you are familiar with the East Coast, I would travel south and west to try and find a rig. Using the right roads most of the coastline, is accessible within a days drive from NYC. As far south as Virginia Beach is only 8 hours away from New York, by automobile. There are several dealers in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, quite a few in Pennsylvania, and some large dealers in North Carolina. There are probably several more that I am not familiar with. Most Camping World stores usually have a large stock of units to choose from. Dewalt's in Bethlehem PA. is a dealer who used to sponsor the ice cream social for the LOW conferences, when they were held in that area. If you have your choices narrowed down, most dealers that sell a brand new will have used units of that brand. If you want to travel west look at DeMartini in Indiana, I've never heard a bad word about them, and they do deal over the internet.

One more thing, in your time frame, there is a huge show in Harrisburg PA, in the middle of September. It would be a great way to make contact with dealers from the northeast. You should also plan on attending the Life on Wheels Conference that is held right before the show, you get free tickets for all days of the show, plus more knowledge than you can get with several years of experience. Just google Life on Wheels and you'll find out all the info.

First, let me say to you, welcome! both to the Escapees forums and to the USA when you get here.

If you have not done so, let me suggest reading this page from a Brit who does this sort of thing as his experiences can probably be of help to you. You are probably pretty well aware of most things you need to deal with but there have been changes since 9/11 that you might not be aware of.

It sounds to me as though you prefer to spend most of your time in the "less traveled" parts of the USA and if so the size and type of RV are probably a good approach. I suggest that you research the site of America's Byways before you come as this may give you a great deal of information about places that you will wish to visit.

I would also suggest that you check out the US Forest Service & the Bureau of Land Management for remote camping ares that you may want to spend time in.

In addition, there are campgrounds that are lees well known than our major parks with agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers, Recreation.Gov site, Tennessee Valley Authroity for lakes with camping areas that are less known.

In addition, the USA has many national parks and monuments that few citizens are aware of which you may want to research here.

One thing that I would advise is that you need to get your Escapees address, before you come to purchase an RV as you will need that in order to register it for license plates and to buy insurance on it. I also believe that you might be better advised to fly into Houston or even to Dallas to do your RV purchase. Texas has a far better RV market and as such also have many more dealers and more selection. It would also make registration more easily done and take less time as well as storage being much more available.

Do keep us posted as you make your plans and we will be happy to help as much as possible.

I was just down in Texas Hill Country (Bandera, Lake Medina and Boerne areas) and happy to see all kinds of rv facilities: resorts, storage (even indoor/garage) and service/repair and cusotmization shops.

AF593 - Welcome to the discussion forums. Please make yourself at home here. We would love to hear about your adventures.

Kirk - what a great post. You have provided AF593 with lots of valuable information with your links. I especially like the America's Byways site as I haven't seen that one before. Thanks.

Thanks a lot everybody for your feedbacks and warm messages, specially for you Kirk for the richness of your data.

Alain

Kirk, you made me dreaming...
I made a few clics on recreation.gov and got wet eyes due to emotion. I REALLY can't wait any more.
Should I get a pass or a kind of pre inscription ?