SeaDawg

We often leave Florida at 2 am, to avoid traffic. It's not fun, at 2, but gets us there.

Congratulations, and safe travels. Test every system before you leave. And I hope you enjoy your trailer as much as we've enjoyed our 2008, #12

I'd agree, by Oliver standards, yours should have been connected.

A friend is camping with us tomorrow with a really big lab. We'll see how it goes. I know from history, it's doable. Dogs and humans must adjust. Our dog is tiny.

Our 2008 le, shorty, is set up in bed mode, all the time. I'm really not sure where the pedestal leg is anymore, for the big dinette. As @ADKCamper said, we are totally ok with the smaller crawl-over bed but not everyone is. The tradeoffs for us are great. Again, everyone has different ideas,, and camping styles. I'm the one in the inside against the hull spot, so I can tell you, it's not a big deal for me. If that's not ok for you,, I'd look at the bigger le ii, and twin beds. Towing the smaller LE opens up a range of tow vehicles. Towing the bigger II requires a half ton, and Anderson, or bigger truck . Take your pick. We've camped in vans in Australia and lceland with beds in the 42 to 48 inch width bed, rentals in foreign countries. . Not my cup of tea, for permanent, but doable, for a month or so. In those cases, I took adventure over comfort. My Eite I offers both, imo. With a wider, better bed. Not a queen, more double or full, in the shorty. When I can no longer crawl over my husband on the rare occasion, I will reconsider.

@Mainiac, I know one of my friends has a "I ❤ my Casita" sticker in her back window. Not a bad idea. We see a lot of Olivers on the road when we're not towing.

How cold does it get where you are in the winter? Fla, sla, or lithium? Our trailer typically winters over in Florida, so we don't pull batteries. I doubt that I would consider it, outside really frigid zones, if I could plug the trailer in and keep temps at 32 or better. My opinion. I'm sure you'll hear others.

It's good to take your time. We went to rv shows, private sellers, and looked at well over 150 campers before we settled in our oliver, 14 years ago.

That "stranding" actually happened to my friend's brother. A neighbor heard his calls. Not a great situation.

We set our city water at 45, also, though we rarely use it.

100k is just barely broken in, imo, with a modern truck. 😃

Yes, I think that's what jd was asking. We've been talking about both types of softeners, rv and home in this thread. My question was more fore future readers.

Sak, that's at your home, not the Ollie, right?

Good question, Mike. Tesla builds their batteries in Nevada. I don't know about the others.

Do you carry that often? @Overland Some dishes, I use a pie pan to (sort of) seal the wok skillet. Your cataplana would be much more efficient, I'm sure, with the "globe" convection effect. Yes. I'm a cooking nerd. I'd love to hear more on how you use it. Does it reduce time in cooking? I've never used one.

I know. Rivian in Illinois. Ford in Tennessee. Tesla truck in California or Texas? I'm super excited to see manufacturers coming back to their roots, with evs, in the US. And then, all the other benefits of evs. Let's think about it. ..

When we had Albertson's in our county, my daughter and I would do similar. Sometimes, half a loaf would disappear, on the way home. No butter. I also love local bakeries and farmers markets.

And, I heated the heel of a rustic baguette, cut almost halfway through, on the side of the wok skillet.

@Landrover, great idea to stock the evacuation pod ahead of season. I do a bit of camp kitchen shopping at the dollartrees, too. Boxed milk, shelf stable, is $1 for a quart, and the thin aluminum pans , 3 and 4 for a dollar, are great for some types of campfire cooking.

Love that custom spool, @Mcb. Everything in one space!

In remote areas, there are few choices. In Alaska, if I can find a 3 bears, in a smaller town, I'm really happy. At home, in Florida, most of my grocery dollars go to publix and aldi. In North Carolina, I love ingles, and aldi. On the way up, we often stop at the Lidl in Spartanburg. Not a huge fan of Walmart, food lion, and some other chains. Chains are usually regional. Though we've shopped at aldi stores in many countries, they're not present in many parts of the USA. Do you have favorites you watch for?

Tonight was what I call heat and eat camping dinner. Last week, I made about a gallon of gumbo. Sent some home with a friend, froze a quart for camping. The three of us enjoyed it, first time around. We often get up at 2 am to avoid traffic. Gets us to North Carolina from Florida by early afternoon. By dinnertime, after setting up, I'm not very motivated to cook. Gumbo was great. And quick, and easy. Especially, since we were tired.

I agree with that, entirely. So many of our current Oliver upgrades and options have come, at least in part, from customer custom requests, and successful owner upgrades. Starting with the solar package in 2008, continuing with instantaneous water heaters, and lithium batteries, today, among others.

Congratulations! We picked up #12 in February, 2008. Just the beginning of 14 seasons, and counting, of travels and fun with our Oliver. Hoping you, too, enjoy many years of fun with yours.

It's official. Rivian is the first all electric truck in the US. First customer launch edition rolled off the assembly line this month. https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/14/rivians-first-production-r1t-electric-pickup-truck-rolls-off-the-line/