The day finally came for us to pick up our brand new Grand Design Reflections 303 RLS 5th wheel! We were beyond excited! As we were driving up to the Waco area to the Crestview RV dealership we talked about how many things had been accomplished to get us to this point. We had purchased our Pullrite Superglide hitch online and Papawizzy and a friend had installed it so it was ready to connect to our home on wheels. We were able to get our house rented to a wonderful family who are excited to take care of our house while we were traveling - including keeping our chickens! We sold my car for a decent amount. We were able to rehome my sweet Scout to a wonderful young lady who fell in love with her immediately (this was the hardest thing for me - I cried when she left). We felt the Lord had helped us in many areas as we ran into road blocks and saw them fall away.
So we completed the walk through of the trailer, signed the paperwork, made our downpayment and prepared to hook up to our new home on wheels. As we walked out I said, "you are going to help us get this thing hitched up, right?!" They said of course because they knew that we were "newbies"! So they handed us our RV starter kit, complete with sewer hose and connectors, drinking water hose, and gloves of course - haha! And off we went to hook-up! We were so excited that we almost didn't notice the two open doors to the wet bay and pass though storage compartments! Once we had that corrected we headed out onto the open road!!
Things were going well and Papawizzy was happy about how easily the truck was pulling the trailer. He was testing out things like the trailer brakes and the towing gears as we went along - I'm sure anyone behind us must have thought we were crazy! Anyway by this time we were famished! It was about 2pm and we hadn't had anything to eat since an early breakfast before we left. So we decided that we'd stop for lunch. And where else would we stop with our new RV but Cracker Barrel, right?! So we exited the freeway and started slowing down to make the turn, because of course the restaurant was on the other side of the freeway. We were just about to make the turn, going about 10 MPH and all of a sudden, BOOM! and BOOM again! We thought we had dropped the trailer! Every time we made a turn there was horrible crashing and jerking! Needless to say, we were scared to death! In all our research and Youtube watching we knew that there would be troubles, but in the first hour of ownership!!
At this point we decided we were not going to be able to stop for lunch and it didn't matter to our stomachs because the adrenaline was flowing! We made the decision to get back on the freeway and head straight home, trying to make the least amount of stops and turns as possible. I got on the phone with the dealer and told them what happened and it was determined that we didn't have a very important part on the trailer! We didn't realize that we needed a capture plate with our slider hitch! (newbie error)! The service guy said to drive carefully and once we got it home to contact the local dealership about getting the capture plate.
Once we got home and were able to disconnect the trailer (very difficult in this stressful situation), thanks to my brother who helped us over the phone. We contacted the service department at the local dealership (Crestview RV) and they had a capture plate in stock! We drove over and picked the capture plate up and installed it! Whew!! In the process of disconnecting the trailer we discovered the damage those BOOMS had caused! Our poor brand new (to us) truck!
By now it was almost 8pm and we haven't had anything to eat, we are exhausted and starving! My sweet daughter and her boyfriend came over to see the trailer and took us to dinner. They even bought our meal! Once we got back home I promptly crawled into bed and after praying that the Lord would work out all the details, I crashed!
The next morning dawned and Papawizzy had an email from the dealership that we bought the trailer from apologizing for what had happened and letting us know that they would take care of replacing our tailgate and that we should bring the trailer into the local dealership so they could look everything over. So now the trailer is at the dealership (yes, we practiced hooking and unhooking the trailer a number of times to relieve some of the stress, lol) and the tailgate is on order!
We are now the famous couple at the dealership because they all know our story! But in all of it we can see how the Lord has taken care of us. We are pleased with the response of the dealership and feel that they will be a good resource as we start on our Adventure! We even have our first camping stay booked in a few weeks! At a local campground so we're not too far away from help!!
Blessings,
Mamawizzy
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