New Life Chapter: The day has arrived!!!

After the year plus of taking steps towards this day, it finally has arrived. Sue drove me down to pick up my van on 9/5 in NJ. Steve gave me an hour + run through and answered my questions. All the while, Sue waited for me with the 2 dogs. Then I drove to the Mercedes dealership to learn how to drive it and use all the fancy technology. Unfortunately, I only absorbed about 20% of what he told me. Griffin was great. We went for a drive as I had been hearing a vibration in the passenger side. Of course, we didn't have a chance to get up to speed enough to hear it. I hoped it was something in the seat and it was quiet since he was sitting on it. After driving to Sue's, I'm pretty sure the noise is in the dash and not in the seat. Driving alone makes it very hard to troubleshoot. What a bummer to have this issue, but I'm going to get it resolved, though not sure when... I wouldn't have expected this from a Mercedes. :o( Other than that, the van is super easy to drive. I only drove over one curb, but I think I get it now - and honestly I wasn't paying attention as I was focused on the noise in the dash.

While I did all this, Sue tried going to the campground, but it was 95 degrees and decided on a brewery instead! She picked up the most amazing sushi and we enjoyed a really good beer at Artis Brewery in Freehold, NJ. Picking up the van was NOT a great experience for Sue, but she did it anyway. We stayed at the campground close to the builder so that I could test things out and go back if necessary. I did go back for a couple of little items, but glad I stayed close so it was easy to do that!

Early this morning (9/7), Sue left on her trip to Oregon to go to Cora's wedding. I would have liked to have gone as it is family, but it wouldn't have been fun for me knowing that I just got this new van and now I'm away. Right now I wish I had gone. I am in the process of trying to figure out where everything is going to go and it's not easy!!! I want to remove as much of my stuff as possible from Sue's so she doesn't have so much of my crap. I have to admit that I am super stressed today. Trying to do all this in this heat wave is hard! I'd like to ask John, a friend of Sue's the help me troubleshoot the rattle, but everything is in disarray in the van right now, making it hard to drive without everything falling all over the place. Also, I'm going to try to sell my car quickly so that it's not in Sue's way. I'm going to go to a dealer tomorrow and hopefully they'll give me a decent price. It's sad to part with it!!! I can't wait until I'm all packed up and head out and enjoy myself!! Going through this process is harder than I realized.

Poor Zoe is struggling as she wants action, but there is no action to be had in this heat, with all I need to do, and my stress level.

I've had the AC running in the van, which is in full sun, and it's doing a good job. Not super cool as I have it in eco mode, but it's ok. AND it is not plugged in. It's just running off the batteries, which is getting some recharge from the sun, but not as much as it's drawing. Overnight it cooled down enough to turn off the AC, open the windows, and just run the exhaust fan. I do have a fan over the bed as well.

I'll get more and better photos soon, but here she is. In spite of how stressed I'm feeling right now, I'm very happy with the van and excited to get started!!! What should I name her?

This is when I showed up to the builder, Nomad RVs

Found a parking spot where I could just pull in and hang over. Phew!

At Turkey Swamp campground in NJ.

Zoe used the step to get on the bed!

And then off. I pull her front feet and place them on the step so that there isn't a lot of jumping going on. I've been doing that on normal beds for a while, so she's used to this. Intermittently she gets a limp, especially after doing big jumps. She doesn't realize that she isn't a pup, so I have to guide her!