It is almost ours!! 24' Excella, here we come!

[PuffinPotter]

My husband and I just made an offer on a 24' 1979 Excella and if all goes well we'll be picking it up on Wednesday!! I am excited and scared too as we've never been motorhome people so it is a whole new world! I have been reading on here like crazy over the last few weeks and I know that I have a lot to learn. I've never done any mechanical work, but I am pretty handy so I think I'll be able to work on smaller things....hopefully with the help of these forums I'll be able to figure out the front end from the back anyway. I have a whole bunch of questions that will be answered just by walking in the door of the AS...but then there will be a whole lot more. Hopefully they're questions that will seem like old hat down the road.

Its funny because or the last few weeks since we saw the unit for sale all I could think about was how to get it into our driveway, but now that it is finally going to be ours I am just scared! I haven't even seen it in person yet, but had a mechanically savvy RV long-time RV owner friend of ours check it over and test drive it. It passed inspection, so that's a start anyway! The drive home is about 6 hours, so hopefully it will make it that far with no major problems. Sadly we don't have a tow setup, so only one of us can go home in the AS, the other (probably me) will have to drive along behind. So if you see an old MoHo with a red smart car trailing along in the rear, heading back to Cape Breton (Nova Scotia, Canada), that's us taking our new beastie home.

So basically I just wanted to say hello and thanks for all the entertaining reading I've been doing here. Seems like a great crowd of people, and sure helps with the buyer's jitters to know there's a resource like this.

I'll post some more after our inaugural journey,
Sarah

[Becky B.]

Welcome! This forum is a wealth of information & support. I'm sure you'll have lots of questions, but you'll have lots of answers from the nice people here!

[John H.]

Good Luck

Please stay in touch and keep us posted.

[ScrapIrony-2]

Sarah,
I hope you are going to become 'another' one of us...It's an adventure, and sometimes really frustrating, but worth every minute...the forums has a wealth of information, provides entertainment, and helps maintain a sense of sanity...note I said a 'sense'...hope to see you down the road...mike

[345bill]

Hi- Just in case you haven't already, sign up for some type of emergency road service. Good Sam ERS, and AAA are two that come to mind. There's plenty of info on both here on the forums.

We personally prefer Good Sam and the one time we needed them for a jump start they were very timely in getting us back on the road from a spot out in the boonies.

Hopefully you'll never need a tow but needing one even one time will offset the cost of membership.

[ScrapIrony-2]

I feel like I'm repeating myself from thread to thread(Oh, wait, I AM...)...GS has been our best investment...was AAA for over 25 years, but GS has been on the spot in a timely manner, and no hidden or extra towing charges...towing a 345 is not a simple or cheap process, but all I had to do was sign a piece of paper, after having a flat tow truck travel >100 miles to haul us another 50 miles to a mechanic that had us back on the road the next day...just an observation, not a sales pitch...mike

[PuffinPotter]

The owner (Soon to be PO!) is delivering it to us in about 1/2 an hour...I hardly slept last night! I'm sure I will be on these forums a lot, I've already read all the threads I could find on classic motorhomes. We already have CAA, so changed to an RV version. Hopefully we don't have to use it today. Especially since this is more my idea than my husband's, I don't want any excuse for I told you so's!
Thanks for all your comments, look forward to making new friends here.


Sarah

[John H.]

good Luck Sarah

please post some Pictures soon

[PuffinPotter]

We're home, a pretty uneventful trip. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. It is definitely in need of a good scrubbing, both inside and out! But we're happy! Definitely my style!!

Sarah

[blmitch5]

Originally Posted by PuffinPotter

We're home, a pretty uneventful trip. I'll take some pictures tomorrow. It is definitely in need of a good scrubbing, both inside and out! But we're happy! Definitely my style!!

Sarah

Congrats! We can't wait to see her!

[ScrapIrony-2]

Well ALL RIGHT Sarah!!! Prepare for a continuing treat for the rest of your travel years. Yeah, some speed bumps are ahead of you, but they also will appear in your rear view mirror...look forward, ...that's where yer headed...mike

[Waipio Rim]

An uneventful trip home in a 31 year old truck means that you made the right decision when you decided to buy it. Congratulations, and welcome!

[PuffinPotter]

So the trip home, as I said, was pretty uneventful. We drove down to Moncton, New Brunswick, on Tuesday and stayed overnight with some friends who had been helping us check out the motorhome over the last few weeks. We were over 6 hours away, so needed someone to check things out for us before we made the trip down to make the final decision. My husband Paul and I are both fiddle players, as is our friend Eddie in Moncton, so we had a great night of tunes together with Eddie's grandson, who is shaping up to be a pretty sharp multi-instrumentalist! Anyway, it was a great evening and then I hardly slept all night, thinking about the day to come. Don, the PO and a total character, delivered the AS on Wednesday morning. He gave us a rapid-fire tour of everything and Paul kept asking him to slow down. He said, "sorry, I'm French, I talk fast!". Anyway, Paul, who had reservations about the whole purchase, asked me a few times if I was sure, and I finally said "Yes!!". We had to drive home in tandem, and that job fell to Paul as I was a bit nervous to drive the big rig...I will practice on empty roads. We left in a rainstorm, which got worse as we drove. At one point I thought, "Wow, I think this is the worst rain I've ever driven in", at which point, and I am not joking, the rain doubled!! Cars were pulling off to the shoulder left and right, but Paul kept forging on ahead, so I didn't want to stop. I could barely see the back end of the motorhome in front of me, but we got through it safely, and relieved! At one point during the drive I noticed that there was something hanging down underneath the motorhome and I could smell exhaust. Paul pulled over at a toll both parking lot and I got down and looked underneath. Sure enough the tailpipe, which looked like it was made in the Iron Age had broken at the weld to the muffler. No loud noise though, and it wasn't touching the pavement at all, so we jumped back in the vehicles and kept going. We stopped for lunch at a rest area/truck stop and went in to buy some snacks. As we crossed the parking lot a big truck that we had parked next to pulled away and I looked back to admire our AS. What was parked two spaces away? A nice new truck pulling a nice new airstream trailer (2008)! We came back and had lunch in the motorhome and received a salute from the other Airstream owner. (Very thrilling!) He came over for a chat and we had our first Arstream bonding moment. Sigh. Anyway, the rest of the trip was great and we were about 200' from our driveway, Paul ahead in the AS and in his lights I saw a Big Moosie. Fortunately it was standing off to the side and Paul Sailed right by (didn't even see it actually, they do blend in at night!). I slowed down a bit and of course the Moose, who had been awestruck by the glory of the motorhome wasn't so dazzled by my car, which he's probably seen many times, and decided to cross right in front of me. Luckily I had slowed down, so I was able to stop and let him cross. And that was it, Paul parked the AS and I went and got Lola, the dog, who had stayed home and introduced her to the new member of the family. She LOVES it!! Sniffing into all corners and exploring everywhere. She has decided that the shower is her spot and I have found her curled up in there a few times already. Right now I am sitting in my pottery shop, trying to be nice to customers when I am just LONGING to be across the road getting things cleaned up. I have posted some photos on a public facebook photo album and will post some on here too. Here's the link to the facebook album.

I'm sure I'll have more to tell as I start the cleanup inside. I already found some nasties...oh well, nothing a bucket of hot water and soap won't put right!

Sarah

[Keyair]

Great Story Sarah, and welcome!
I totally get what you are saying about that moment when you walk back to you new Airstream, and get that amazing feeling!
For me it was coming back to my 345 on my drive back home to California from Kansas, when we stopped at El Morro National Monument.
The full force of my almost shiny new steed, and the possibilities hit me...

[stevelou]

Hi Sarah congratulations. We have a 1984 Excella and we shipped it to Australia. We flew to Melbourne and then started the 4 day journey to the other side of Australia to Perth it was unreal and lots of fun so we know how you feel. We have owned ours 2 years now and go away when ever we can. You have some great journeys to come can't wait to hear them
Louise

[Sonia]

Nice pictures Sarah!

I am looking for a nice 24 footer myself, maybe one of those days I will find the right one.

[PuffinPotter]

We haven't done too much with it yet, except sleep in it in the driveway! It needs some work done on the engine and we're too busy at the moment to get that organised, but soon I hope. Yesterday a group came into my pottery shop and asked about the airstream (parked across the street at my house). Turns out they are part of an Airstream caravan that has been touring Atlantic Canada. We had a good time and went over and I got to show off the moho. They gave me some good pointers and it was sure great fun to talk to them. Wish they lived closer!! I'll enjoy following their blogs now.

[crazeevw]

Originally Posted by PuffinPotter

We haven't done too much with it yet, except sleep in it in the driveway! It needs some work done on the engine and we're too busy at the moment to get that organised, but soon I hope. Yesterday a group came into my pottery shop and asked about the airstream (parked across the street at my house). Turns out they are part of an Airstream caravan that has been touring Atlantic Canada. We had a good time and went over and I got to show off the moho. They gave me some good pointers and it was sure great fun to talk to them. Wish they lived closer!! I'll enjoy following their blogs now.

Hi, if you would, could you post the URL links for their blogs?

Thanks, Derek