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We took delivery of our trailer yesterday. Because of the unusual weather, a large portion of the Natchez Trace road was closed & locals highly discouraged driving on the part still open. We stayed at the Fall Hollow B&B, which was fine, nothing fancy, but it's clean & the breakfasts are delicious! They're only open Thursday, Friday and Saturday for dinner so we didn't get to experience that. Noel, the new owner, (2 years?) is a gracious host. I'll confess, I wimped out & we didn't stay in our trailer the first night. It was FOUR degrees. What can I say, I've lived in FLA my whole life & have never experienced temps that cold. We're in it now at Wind Creek State Park in Alabama, it's 22 degrees & I'm as comfy as can be.

Wind Creek State Park in Alexander City, AL. It's 24 degrees & we are toasty warm while peering out the window at billions of stars.

It sure looks beautiful :) You will really enjoy having the 4 season ability. Be sure to leave the water heater on at night when the temps are low :)

We went with the Penquin II A/C because of there being a built in drain line. The Atwood runs down the outside of the trailer and leaves streaks. We also went with the storage box rather than the microwave and made a great looking bar. We had no wood finishes in ours so we had them mail us the door and we had a cabinet shop paint it white like the fiberglass. We have removed the hanging bar in the closet as we feel that is a real waste of space. Who needs to “hang” camping clothes. We bought a shelf unit to hold a mini ice maker, toaster oven, drinking water and other beverages. Also took a back of the door shoe bag and trimmed it up to fit the closet door for small items. We picked up 12/19, love it! Have fun...

Myself, Paul, and my wife Donna have a deposit down for an Elite II. We went to the factory last week and placed the order for our trailer with a scheduled delivery of May, 2018* in anticipation of our pending retirements in December of this year. Donna has worked for a utility company here in VA for almost 40 years (but too young to retire until this December) and I am going to depart from Federal service at the same time with just over 39 years of service. I could have fully retired several years ago but Donna (who works from home many days) advised me that she "married me for-better-or-for-worse, BUT NOT FOR LUNCH!" To that end, I have continued to commute 150 miles a day and enjoy doing so. (I am told, that's how I feel). *(We have since changed our production date to a 2019 delivery due to significant tax considerations which actually works out best since we won't have much free time in 2018 anyway.) Having never owned an RV before, we are intending to attend the rally this year (staying in a cabin) so we can meet other trailer owners and get some ideas/suggestions of the essentials that we need to obtain before taking delivery of our trailer next year. We don't want to show up and go to the complimentary overnight campground the factory provides and look at each other and say, "Honey, did you bring something to make coffee in?" or "I thought you brought the toilet paper!" When we took the tour last week, Bill and Elaine (from NM) were taking delivery of their new Elite II and we noticed literally a truck load of things they brought with them to put into the new trailer based on their experiences from having owned several trailers. We apparently have a lot to learn. Again, looking forward to meeting up with current Ollie owners and if anyone has suggestions to pass on even prior to the rally, please feel free to send them our way. Interior items, exterior items, "must-haves", "nice-to-haves", and "it's just plain decadent but this is something we really like...". Thanks in advance for any insights. Paul & Donna (near Winchester, VA)

Chris & Duke, it was surprisingly cold here, too. Yesterday, temps in the 20s and a leaking water truck caused black ice on the Veterans Expressway, leading to a crash and shutdown of a portion of southbound lanes. First time I have heard of black ice in Tampa in almost 40 years of living here. Congratulations on your new camper! Wishing you many miles of smiles. Sherry

Yesterday we were in the mid 60s. The forecast was for 20s and freezing precipitation for today and tomorrow before getting back up to normal. Yesterday here in San Antonio school closings were announced for today in anticipation of bad weather. Same in Houston. Today, I-10 and I-35 have been closed. We have maybe 1/16” of ice. It snowed for 10 minutes. It’s 25 degrees. Most folks are home for a day or so and everything is basically shut down. We have some chili in the crockpot. Fire in the fireplace. Is this how you’re supposed to do winter? ???? Mike

Hi Paul and Donna, Like you, our Ollie is our first camper, and we had a lot to learn. Also like you, we delayed our pickup, in our case because of work obligations. During this waiting time I did a lot of research on what was needed for a trailer, as well as where we wanted to camp. The anticipation was lots of fun! There have been many discussions on this and other forums as to what to bring for pickup. Rather than putting my list up here, I am posting the sites that I found most useful in making my list of what to buy and bring for pickup. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/preparing-for-your-oliver-pick-up-day/ http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/supplies-for-picking-up-oliver/ http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/buzzys-delivery-day/#post-34668 http://www.airforums.com/forums/f48/things-to-get-started-144940.html http://rvroadtrip.us/library/what_do_i_need_in_my_new_camper.php http://www.backroadtravelers.com/outfittingrv.html http://www.rvtechmag.com/tech/45_outfitting.php http://travellogs.us/Technical%20Info/Essential%20equipment.htm http://travellogs.us/Technical%20Info/Check%20list%20RVing%20Things.htm Our tow vehicle was packed to the gills on pickup, and we brought the must-haves, and some nice-to-haves. In our household coffee makings things are must-haves! In the past year and a half, the number of nice-to-haves and decadent-items has certainly increased, but that has been part of the fun. The search functions on this forum are certainly lacking, and hope there are improvements when Jason rolls out the new forum. Try the search to answer your questions, but if that fails ask away on the forum. This is an incredibly knowledgeable and helpful group. Look forward to meeting you at the rally.

Welcome! We picked our Ollie up December 19th and were in the same position as you are, it being our first experience in owning an rv. I am big on being organized and having the right things for the right places so I set about reading all I could and researching items on Amazon as their ratings tell you all you need to know about what the item is supposed to do or perform and in actuality, how it rated. We are really happy with how everything turned out for us. I will send you some detailed pictures later today to give you some idea how we approached the set up. It is a very exciting time for you, our retirement started in 2017 but we haven’t started our traveling yet because of some health issues we are getting out of the way that began with Jack breaking his leg in late November. Best of luck, we will look forward to following your journey!