We stayed at North Fork RV just outside Front Royal, VA. David and Terry met us there and after time on the coach chatting we went to dinner at the Stonewall Jackson Tavern which was pretty average, although it seemed better than most of the alternatives.  We had a great visit with David and Terry, although the beginning was not hopeful as the GPS mislead us and sent us on a wild goose chase that cost almost 30 minutes in getting  to the campground.  Terry and David were patient, waiting for us and convincing the gate person that we had made a plan with someone on the phone to reserve a space.  We would need to see the place in better weather as the site was wet, not quite underwater and quite unlevel.  Being in a hurry to set up I left the right front tire hanging in the air with several inches between it and the ground.  This made for some sway, even with Carol walking around.

We moved on to Roamers Retreat Campground in Lancaster County for a couple of nights.  Dinner at Millers after walking through Roots Market and Auction provided the entertainment as did watching Michael Clayton from Netflix.  We were in touch with Mike at Camping World in Churchville and Ron at Colton’s RV in Niagara Falls.  Ron won as he had the Phaeton we were interested in on the lot.  Mike was still waiting for the Journey to arrive from someplace.  We are camping in Colton’s lot for a couple of nights.  We spent an hour or so walking through the Phaeton when we arrived and then had dinner on Gee 2.  We arranged to meet Ron at 9:30 to tour the exterior and get down to business.  At 8:30 AM he showed up at our door with Tim Horton’s Bagels and coffee for me and tea for Carol.  Nice touch! The next morning we expect champagne and lox (vegetarian for Carol)!  He spent several hours with us including a driving experience on the coach.  Finally, after a late lunch we sat down to the classic car/RV salesmen’s closing experience in the subject coach at our soon to be kitchen table.  By then it  was clear that the only question left was how much.  The answer was, as always, too much from our standpoint and . . .  well Ron was smiling when all was said and done and so were we.  In about ten days we will exchange money and Gee 2 for Gee 2 V 2.0 or what ever name it earns for itself.

We are elated, we are a bit sad, we have mixed emotions.  Gee 2 has given us a wonderful 8 years and although you have read of our exploits self caused, mechanical, and bad luck, for the most part Gee 2 has not failed us nor have we lost any significant time or money to any serious failure.  Certainly it has provided us with secure, comfortable travel for 100,000 miles, crossing the continent 8 times round trip and traveling to Alaska, Nova Scotia and the other corners of this continent reachable by road.  And yet, and yet it has been well used and needs to be put into service by people with less need to roll up the miles or who have as great a need as ours but fewer resources.

We are elated because the new coach is a Phaeton QSH 36 with stuff we thought we never wanted.  It has a Washer/Dryer (sorry Pat) and a table and chairs instead of a booth.  It has too many TVs for people who seldom watch – four! – and two sofas and no easy chair.  It is a diesel pusher which means the engine is 30 feet behind us, not under our feet and so seems very quiet.  We will have to add solar panels when we get to the desert.  But there is not much else it needs.  We look forward to several short exploratory trips this summer to get to know it and to shake out the kinks.  Then come the Fall we plan to resume our usual travels.

I suspect this will be the last post from “Gee 2 on the Road”  well, I will keep the blog name anyhow.  Since many continue to refer to Goliath, which has been gone for 8 years, I expect the name will go on into family history.