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Hi J-Rhett and All, Very interesting thread. Laura and I have just finished our first season RVing with our new-to-us 05 Casita. We love it and plan to use it several more seasons. We wanted to start small and used to make sure we liked RVing as much as we thought we would. I love to research and I discovered that molded fiberglass egg campers were going to be my choice. In my opinion, the Oliver represents the gold standard within the molded fiberglass niche. With 8.5 years of work left until retirement and two kids in college, an Oliver is not in my immediate future! ;) However, we attended the Oliver Rally in September. The tour of the plant and the opportunity to see our first Olivers (14 of them) and to meet the trailer owners further confirmed our interests in the Ollie. It also helps that we only live 2.5 hours from the plant. Laura and I both LOVE the interior of the Ollies when compared to the drab brown of most other RVs. However, Ollies are SO MUCH MORE than just pretty faces. The quality of materials and construction are top notch. Plus, I think the Elite II represents about the perfect size being as small as possible yet large enough to to live comfortably for extended periods of time, including full-timing. I also like the idea of doing some winter camping, hiking, cross-country skiing, etc. One of the great things about RVng is chasing the 70 degree days, but I am open to some camping in the cold weather as well. Despite being 100% happy with our Casita, the Oliver is our aspirational rig and the standard by which we measure all other RVs. Happy Holidays, Dean

We have camped at many sites within 100 miles of Hohenwald. This (Laurel hills lakes) isn't one of them. Their site says primitive camping, which sometimes means just tents. Have you spoken to anyone there? I'll look forward to your review, as experienced campers. Closer to town, and Oliver sales office, is the campground by the Meriwether Lewis monument. Free, big sites, often empty.right off the Natchez Trace parkway. Long walk from one section to the tiny brick lavs. No power or services, but it's free.and, quite beautiful.

The Fiamma Privacy Room does not come with a skirt. Fiamma makes several different ones but we are making our own to get a better fit. Otherwise it is surprisingly tight. Another issue concerns the poles that go up against the side of the trailer. Since the sides of the Oliver are curved rather that vertical and flat, you need to drill an extra hole in the bottom of the rafter to accommodate the pin at the top of the pole. We were on Schoodic Peninsula in Acadia National Park. The NPS has built a new camping area there that is only about one year old.

The Technomadia people (http://www.technomadia.com), former Oliver owners, recommended the frugal-rv travel guides for boondocking at http://www.frugal-rv-travel.com/RV-Travel-Guide.html. They have 6 boondocking guides, on New Mexico, Southern Utah, Southern Texas, Arizona, California Sierras and Coast, and California Desert and Eastern Sierra. I looked for reviews before I bought the Utah book for $17. The reviews were excellent and I bought a copy. It comes as a pdf file. I loaded it onto my computer, iPad and iPhone. I put it in the Kindle app on the iPhone and iPad, but the iBook app works also. If I am driving, my wife will be the researcher / navigator, and she likes paper, so I printed out a double-sided copy and put in a report binder. The book is 140 pages. I bought the book a few weeks after our trip to Capitol Reef last October, and so I have not used it yet to find a campsite. I did look thru the descriptions and directions for the sites near Capitol Reef, and the information looked good from what I had seen. One good thing is that the GPS coordinates are hot linked. If you click on the GPS coordinates it opens up in Google Maps, on the computer or on the phone. Very cool! The web site says "It is a copyright violation to share these files with anyone other than the purchaser," and I respect that. However I doubt the author will object if post one page from the Capitol Reef section to give you an idea of what the descriptions look like. Boondocking-in-Utah.pdf

Thanks :) I don't mind you moving it :) I talked to Jason this morning and he is looking into ordering ours for us from them. I really like the way that they secure the sides with the clamps all the way down the canvas. We're getting the "Privacy Room", not the Ultra Lite - http://www.fiamma.com/EN/products/fiammastore/winch_awnings_enclosures/privacy_room/ He's checking on prices and everything because we want the side supports and hold downs for wind. Then on the Fiama we had on our Casita, we put straps over the top and then put poles or in this video just a broom and our rake on top to help hold the canopy down in the high winds along with double anchored tie downs with paracord. Jason said there's only been one person that's had the canopy blow up and do any damage and I've had ours our in some serious winds. On the Casita you had to worry about it pulling right out of the fiberglass, tearing holes into the camper, but on the Oliver it's designed to break off the mounts... hopefully. Strapping it down is a big deal and the extra room really adds a lot of strength when you get it complete with the wind supports :)

We now have the, edit, reply, and quote buttons. Thank you...

When you look at your post above right now, it should show you the changed top menu and it should say edit now on this post above. Is it working for you?

Test for Sherry