On The Road Again...

"On the road again. Just can't wait to get on the road again. 
The life I love is making music with my friends."

Willie Nelson

Traveling is like flirting with life and yet another event has once again been manifested! "Webegone" has finally arrived in Grass Valley, CA and so we headed up north to formally adopt our new ride, a Dynamax Isata 3 motorhome. Several campfires, few glasses of wine, a shot or two of Crown and then the timing of our pickup led us to the name Webegon. This will be our transporter to unknown lands, our tipi in those still wild places, the escape pod from the toxic clouds of politics...our portal to new experiences.

Dynamax's annual week-long dealer show, backordered parts and an appointment from Mercedes Tech to diagnose a faulty sensor, set our pick up date back three weeks. But since time was not of the essence and we were committed to demonstrating the virtue of patience (patience is the key to concealing my impatience), we pledged to make sure that the production of completing a blemish free rig would not be compromised by a pain in the ass impatient buyer. In truth though...we were like expectant parents waiting for "the water to break."

We arrived at the dealership the day prior to our appointment, so we dropped in for a glimpse of our new rig. We found it snugly hidden among other motorhomes and secured in the pre-delivery area of the dealer's lot. Just beautiful, perfect and everything we had hoped it to be!

We left, eager for tomorrow to arrive. Our appointment had two priorities... first, complete all the necessary paperwork, transfer a couple of bucks and take possession of the keys. And second, participate in a thorough walk-through of our new motorhome with a dealer tech. Although we are experienced rv'ers and quite familiar with LP, water and electrical systems on a motorhome, a new model year may feature some new advanced technology. Therefore, we treat every walk-through as our first, because we believe that if our willingness to learn is strong, any difficulties will be subdued. But our experience was disappointing to say the least and our knowledge of the manufacturer, model and features far exceeded that of our dealer salesman.  Fortunately, we have a very accessible and knowledgeable Dynamax factory representative who will be able to help us with any future questions.

We spent our first night "camped" at our dealer's mini rv park. This gave us a chance to load it up with all the basic gear we crammed into our CRV and brought up with us. Note the priorities, liquor box for Imkelina, vacuum for me and a dog blanket for Sydney.  Plus we did some local grocery shopping and prepared the motorhome for our two-week shakedown cruise. We also were able to touch, experiment, explore and question everything within this new toy, but still had much to review.

The next morning we battened down the hatches, hooked up the CRV and headed north. We continue to take only memories, search for everywhere, quit worrying about potholes and stuff our eyes with wonder.

Thank you Webegone for drawing us to you...thank you Imkelina for your steadfastness and dedication...and thanks Sydney for always demonstrating how to enjoy the ride!

Webegon!!!!!!!! 

At Waypoint 40.741895 -73989308

Changing the Course...Once Again

"Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end"
Robin Sharma

Our hopes have always been that our posts have inspired you to create your own adventures. You know...seduction isn't making someone do what they don't want to do...it's enticing someone in doing what they secretly want to do already. So for those that have had that inner desire "to be here now"...we hope BlaNicS Waypoints has seduced you.

Well our natural wonderlands are drawing us like the wisdom of an ancient sage, for the call of adventure has been the soundtrack of our souls. So it is not surprising that after months of listening to those lyrics, we have began composing another arrangement. 

After a brief 7 month hiatus, we are once again planning on traveling the byways of the West (of the Atlantic), sooner than later, for the best place I want to be is always "somewhere else". 

Months ago we decided to change our mode of exploration..the Fox was the best travel trailer we could have owned and our RAM 2500 the most beautiful steed to pull any wagon...but...we realized we are just and always will be "motorized" rv'ers. We are thrilled to report that the Fox was quickly adopted and embraced by a wonderful couple who specifically looked for Arctic Fox Trailers and that particular floorplan. She has already experienced several new adventures...a spoiled rig for sure.

We decided we wanted to downsize even more (you recall we started with a 40' Country Coach diesel pusher and towed our CRV behind it). The Fox and RAM combined length was close to 50' and although our trailer was able to get into almost all campsites, we sometimes still needed a shoehorn and multiple passes to get our trailer parked. 

So we decided to go back to our first love, Motorized, and chose a Class C Motorhome on a Mercedes Sprinter Chassis with a "short" 25 feet length. And if we decide to tow a "toad", we would still be less than 40 feet and can disconnect when parking the motorhome.  

Yeah, we gave up a lot of carrying capacity, gear and holding tanks, but we are pretty confident we can still experience our adventures quite comfortably. And knowing that this rig drives and handles like a small SUV will enable us to be even more aggressive in seeking out those hidden natural gems to camp in.

After some intense research, manufacturer dialogue, model walk throughs, price negotiations and then doing it all over again "we" decided on a manufacturer, model and floorplan. We chose the Isata 3 RW by Dynamax.

We were very fortunate to connect with the Dynamax West Coast Manufacturer Representative who not only has been able to answer all of our questions and provide technical strategies to the build, but also offered to send us photos of our rig being assembled through the production line. So here is a pictorial walk thru of our new rig.

This is how the chassis arrives to Dynamax after upgrades to the chassis were completed by MORryde Engineering. We were surprised to see how small it's "footprint" was. After having huge capacities on the Fox, the small black holding tanks will be an adjustment. 

The box was attached next. Included were cabinetry, appliances, plumbing and electrical.

Slides, frameless windows and aluminum storage compartment doors being installed. Interior living areas are coming along nicely.

Getting ready for Dynamax's legendary full body paint job, taping, color sanding and buffing. Side panel ghosted graphics are airbrushed over multiple times with the exterior color of choice. The front bumper is painted and all the rubber stripping is removed so the inside door jams can also be painted. We were told the entire painting process from start to finish alone takes two weeks to complete.

Painted, color sanded and buffed. Final finish is all that is left of the painting process.

Next a few exterior options were added, than the Pre-Delivery Inspection and the "rain" bay test. Our rig is now ready to be delivered to our dealer. We have already planned a two week "Shake Down Cruise" to make sure everything is in working order prior to driving it back to our Central Coast Hidey Hole. Here is the finished product!

Visualize this "big kids"...you life is a mirror of a vintage Disney Slide View-Master with every National Park slide at your disposal. Well soon, we will once again be the storytellers...creating memories and leaving our footprints within those beautiful realms.

At Waypoint 41.7223487 -85.9357524