We would only be staying two nights in Pensacola: arrive Saturday and set up camp, spend the night, spend Sunday at the air show, break camp and depart Monday morning. Since we were single-minded about this stay, we chose an inexpensive RV park very close to the navy base. In fact, as we pulled into the park on Saturday afternoon, we saw the Angels flying right over the RV park multiple times during their Saturday show.

Team AeroDynamix, the world’s largest air show team

Sometimes things don’t go as planned

Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a simple and fun stay didn’t get off to a good start. Within minutes of arriving at the RV park, we had two big problems. As usual, Kathie went to the office to sign us in, and I got to work disconnecting Red, our Honda CR-V tow car.

We quickly learned that even though we had called ahead and made reservations, they had no sites available for us. They did have one “last resort” site behind the office that they don’t use under normal circumstances, so we ended up there. The site had its water and sewer connections on opposite sides, and was very sloped. Even after driving Rover’s lowest wheel up onto three layers of boards and using our leveling jacks, we couldn’t get close to level. We moved to a slightly different location on the lawn behind the office and changed Rover’s orientation, and were able to get level but with our water connection now almost 25 feet away. Our water hose barely reached, and after turning on the water, there was almost no pressure, certainly not enough to be useful. Instead of relying on the city water pressure, we left it on for a long time to slowly fill Rover’s water tank, and we ran our own water pump during our stay.

Meanwhile, I found that while towing, Red’s battery had become almost completely drained, and I could not start the car. The process of towing does put drain on the battery: we need to leave the key in “accessory” mode so that the steering wheel turns, and our auxiliary braking system uses electricity to operate our power brakes remotely every time Rover’s brakes are activated. However, when we had Red set up for towing, we had our RV dealer install a “charge line” from Rover to Red, which would keep Red’s battery charged up while towing. For some reason, the charge line has stopped working. Another camper gave us a jumpstart, and we let Red’s battery charge back up.

After two hours more setup time than usual, we were finally settled in, though a little tired and cranky.

CH-53 Sea Stallion, a really massive helicopter

On to the air show and Blue Angels

Sunday turned out to be a great day for the show. Since it was quite cold in the morning, we had to dress warmly in layers, but by noon we were baking in the sun and trying not to get sunburned. We wandered around looking at all the impressive planes and helicopters arrayed on the tarmac. We paid a small fee for bleacher seating, which turned out to be a good idea, since anytime anything interesting happened, someone at the front of the viewing area would stand up, so the people behind them would stand, and so on, until everyone was blocked. Being on the bleachers meant we had a pretty good view of the show!

Team AeroDynamix

While the Blue Angels are the highlight and finale of the show, there are hours of events leading up to their performance. One of my favorites was Team AeroDynamix, a group of ten pilots flying precise formation in their home-built kit planes. We were also wowed by wing walker Teresa Stokes, who performed maneuvers on the wing of Gene Soucy’s plan while he did loops and twists and dives.

Wing walker Teresa Stokes and pilot Gene Soucy

Also on the agenda was some drag racing by Neal Darnell in the Shockwave Jet Truck. We expected this to be pretty silly and cheesy, but it was actually great, and we’re glad we got to see it! The truck’s top speed record is 375 MPH, and it gets to that speed extremely quickly, overtaking and passing the planes flying overhead during the staged races.

The Shockwave Jet Truck accelerating from zero to 350+ MPH in a few seconds

Of course the Blue Angels were extremely impressive. We saw them perform in Virginia a few years back, and this year’s show was just as good. Once again we were blown away by the noise from the F/A-18 Hornets, especially when they unexpectedly flew right overhead while we were distracted looking in some other direction! If you haven’t been to a Blue Angels show, check the 2015 schedule and try to arrange your travel plans to coincide with a show—they’re not to be missed!

The Blue Angels flying in tight formation, just 18 inches between each plane

The grand finale

We knew this week would be busy and we didn’t want the dogs underfoot during the entire process. We did some research on Tampa dog daycare locations beforehand and decided on Fuzzie Buddies due to a lot of positive reviews and all the vaccinations that were required for every dog. We put the dogs into daycare early each morning and picked them up in the evening during most of the week. It worked out great for us and the dogs—during our second day’s drop-off, Opie charged into the place and didn’t look back!

On Monday, a Lazydays service technician came over to our delivery intake area to go over Rover with us. Some RVers state this is usually the inspection checklist time when the technician will test everything with you, and also use this time to explain how it all works. We didn’t find this to be the case. Our technician did some explaining but didn’t do a lot of testing or checking. It was more of a “this is how you fill up the water tank, this is how you flush the hot water tank, this is how…” Good thing we spent most of sunday evening going through our own checklist. We did tell the technician the various issues we found and he documented them all for when they would take the coach in to do the work. After he left, we continued to explore the inside and outside of the coach (including the roof).

We spent Tuesday at the new Tax Collector’s office in Lakeland (Jason warned us to stay out of Tampa) to get our Florida driver’s licenses and get our vehicles registered. The building was originally the headquarters for Publix supermarkets, and the Tax Collector’s office kept most of the original structure and styling. It was surprisingly comfortable in the waiting area although I can’t be certain since our wait was all of five minutes. We worked with the nicest person I have ever encountered at any DMV office EVER. It did take a while since we had to get FL licenses, register Red, register Rover, pay sales tax on Red since we moved it into the state less than six months after buying it, and register to vote. After about 1.5 hours, we were officially Florida residents!

The nicest DMV we’ve been to in our lives.

Wednesday was our RV Driver’s Confidence class. If you buy from Lazydays or stay at their campground, they offer a free driver confidence class, with classroom time in the morning and driving time in the afternoon. It’s a good class that takes a lot of guesswork out of driving, turning (without clipping corners), and backing into camping spots. It helped assuage some of my fears about driving such a big vehicle.

By Friday, Lazydays had finished most of the work on Rover. We only reported a few major issues, and they fixed them all: the bedroom keypad wasn’t working, one leveling jack was leaking fluid, and one basement storage’s lock popped right out (the entire lock). The majority of the other items were pretty minor: a small area around an antenna wasn’t completely caulked, some cabinets didn’t lock into place properly, some paint scratches on the outside, staples sticking out of the carpet, and a few other things. I don’t feel like it should have taken them a week to finish all the work but they do seem awfully busy and a little disorganized. Often we were told they would start work by 9am but nothing would get started till at least noon or later.

 Sunset over the 220 Lazydays service bays.

Since they finished most of the work we wanted, we decided it was time to take this puppy out and test our skills at the nearby Lazydays campground.

Also on Monday Lazydays set up Red for flat towing—that involved taking apart the whole front-end, installing a tow base plate, a supplemental braking system so that when we hit the brakes in Rover, Red’s brakes activate too, and a kit to sync Red’s brake lights and tail lights with Rover’s. On Friday we hooked up the two vehicles for the first time and tested everything out before driving across the street to the Lazydays campground.Mike

Our new tow bar and umbilical cable set up to tow Red.

At the Lazydays delivery area, Seffner FL.

We’ve finished all the inspections, repairs, furniture removal, and clean-up at our house in Virginia. That’s a huge weight of our shoulders, and we’re looking forward to completing the house sale next week. We’ve acquired reasonably affordable health insurance in Florida, as well as Florida full-timer’s RV insurance for Rover and auto insurance for Red. We’ve collected all the various paperwork needed to get Florida driver’s licenses—Florida doesn’t recognize Virginia licenses as a primary form of ID, so we have to go a bit overboard on proof of ID and residency.

2-inch Curt tow hitch installed under Red, to carry our bicycles.

Our bicycles have been tuned up after a year or two of sitting in the garage untouched, and we installed a tow hitch on Red to carry them after Phase 2. (More on phases later.) Red’s windows have been tinted to prepare for the hot southern sun, our tax return has been filed, dog daycare is arranged in Tampa for Max and Opie during our RV delivery and driver training, we’ve signed up for several RV campground discount clubs, and we’ve ordered some nice outdoor chairs and a portable BBQ grill for the RV. Whew! All in all, the last few weeks have been much busier than I expected!

Phase 1 items must all fit inside the Roof Bag to make the trip to Tampa next week.

We’ve started sorting through what’s left of our belongings, separating things into phases. Phase 1 will be the bare essentials that we’ll need for our first week, and will come with us on our drive to Tampa inside our Roof Bag. The back of Red will be mostly reserved for the dogs during the drive. Phase 1b items will be packed up in a box or two and shipped to my mom’s house—she lives about 90 minutes from Tampa, so it will be easy for us to pick them up shortly after moving into Rover. Phase 2 is the rest of our things, which will stay in Jen’s basement until we return here in a couple months and we can load them all into Rover. We also have a few boxes of “semi-permanent storage” items that will live in Jen’s attic until needed. Thanks Jen!

Phase 2 items we’ll pick up from Jen’s upon our return to the DC area with Rover.

After going through all our remaining things, we’re pretty sure that everything we have left (except for a couple pieces of furniture we’re keeping for a possible future home) will fit into the RV just fine. The trick will be taking the right things with us during Phase 1 (or shipping to Florida in Phase 1b) to make it through the six weeks or so until we arrive back in Maryland with Rover. Phase 1 will likely be a small selection of clothes, a subset of plates, cups, and utensils, a few bathroom supplies, lots of dog supplies, and of course a mountain of electronics.

I have a feeling the coming week will speed by as we take care of all the last-minute planning needed for our trip. We’re getting more excited every day, but we do have occasional moments where we look at each other and say: “what the heck have we done?”

 Test video from our new DashCam installed in the CR-V. Click the gear icon to change to 1080p to view the original high definition version.

The two web sites I did most of my research on were Dash Cam Talk and Car Cam Central. Cameras range from $50 to $250, and have a variety of features. Some include GPS tracking, so you know exactly where the car was at each moment in the video. Most have screens so you can view the video as it’s being recorded. Some have better night vision, while others have very wide-angle views to capture more of your surroundings. I eventually decided on the Mobius based on its relatively low price ($80), its very small form factor (it’s around the size of a tic-tac box) which makes it less noticeable, and its high-quality HD video. The camera is configured to start recording as soon as the car is turned on, and stops recording 15 seconds after the car is turned off. It will record continuously by deleting older video segments to make room for newer ones.

I still have a few wires to tighten up, but the install is nearly complete and was easy and straightforward. Below are a few photos of the installed camera, with most of the wiring easily hidden from view:

• Approved for flat towing
• Large, flat cargo area that comfortably fits two large dogs
• Comfortable enough for many long sightseeing trips
• Good fuel economy
• New vs. used models
• Automatic vs. manual
• All-wheel drive or two-wheel drive

To complicate things, a car that’s approved for flat towing during one model year might not be approved for the next year. The manual-transmission version of a car may be approved, but the automatic version of the same car might not be. The base trim-level might be OK but the upgraded model with a different engine might not. Add to that the normal changes in car features from year to year and things get difficult. We discovered that quite a few cars change the way their back seats fold down when the model year gets updated. One year the rear seats may fold completely flat (great for dogs!) and the next year they may fold only partly flat.

As with most research, a spreadsheet was quickly born. Starting with approved cars from 2009-2014 (we didn’t want to go too old), their weights, fuel economy, and cargo capacity, we were quickly able to narrow the field. We found 10 cars that weighed under 4,000 pounds, got 25 MPG or better (combined city/highway), had a trunk large enough for the dogs, and didn’t get summarily rejected because we knew we didn’t want one. I’m looking at you, Chevy HHR!

The cars that made the list were: Ford Escape (2009-2012, manual or automatic), Honda CR-V (2010-2013, automatic), Hyundai Tucson GLS/GL(2010-2011, manual), Kia Sportage (2011, manual), Subaru Forester (2009-2013, manual), Honda Fit (2009-2013, manual or automatic), Hyundai Elantra GT/Touring (2010-2013, manual), Kia Soul (2010-2011, manual), Scion xD (2009-2012, manual), and Scion xB (2009-2012, manual). The Escape was the only vehicle where the Hybrid version was approved, which was particularly appealing.

Next came lots of research on Edmunds.com, reading reviews and summaries of what changed from one year to the next on each car. To get a feel for whether the dogs would be comfortable in the back we looked at pictures from Google Image Search and owner videos on YouTube. Since manufacturer fuel economy numbers are often unrealistic, we looked at real-world numbers at Fuelly.com—a site where thousands of people track their fuel fill-ups and fuel economy.

By early October we’d narrowed our field to three cars:

• Honda Fit, 2009-2013, auto: 2,500 lbs., 28/35 MPG, 57 cu. ft.
• Honda CR-V, 2010-2011, auto: 3,400 lbs., 21/28 MPG, 72 cu. ft.
• Honda CR-V, 2012-2014, auto: 3,300 lbs., 23/31 MPG, 70 cu. ft.

Since all were Hondas (perhaps we were slightly influenced by our great experience with our 2005 Honda Pilot), we headed to our local dealer to check them out.

We really wanted the Fit to win, since it’s gotten great reviews, has great fuel economy, and looks very practical. Unfortunately, the cargo space was a bit too small for our two big dogs, and the very low ground clearance had us a little worried about towing through potholes and unpaved roads. We were optimistic about the previous-generation CR-V since its back seats fold completely flat whereas the current generation does not. However, the way the older CR-V’s seats fold forward towards the front of the car, instead of folding down, creates a cargo space that’s less suited for the dogs.

At the end of the day, the winner was clear: The 2012-2014 Honda CR-V! Thanks to some great deals during Black Friday, we traded in our 2012 Kia Optima SX for a 2014 CR-V LX AWD for minimal cost. We even made sure we picked a color that would match our selected RV paint job!

In reality, and especially with larger coaches, you set up your RV at your campground, and don’t move it again until you’re ready to depart, hopefully at least a week later. When camped, your slide-outs are extended, hydraulic leveling jacks are deployed, awning is opened, water and electric are hooked up, and interior is arranged for living instead of driving. And the thought of driving and parking a 35-foot rig for a quick trip to the supermarket is not a relaxing thought. As for exploring, while a campground can be a destination in itself, more often it’s a home base for exploring a region. Keeping your house stationary for a week or two and exploring a 100-mile radius in a small car opens up a lot more options. In fact, most RVers we read about put far more miles on their towed car than their motorhome!

And in the RV community, a car that’s towed behind you is called… a toad! Or a dinghy. The terms are completely interchangeable and used about equally. We haven’t decided yet which term we’re going to use. I’m leaning towards toad since it’s one syllable. Efficiency!

Digging a little deeper, cars can be towed in three ways: 1) on a trailer; 2) with the front wheels on a small dolly and the rear wheels on the ground; or 3) with all four wheels flat on the ground. For a variety of reasons, but mostly because “less is more” when it comes to RVing, flat towing (option 3) is the nearly universally preferred option. There are two main considerations when flat towing. First, only certain cars can be towed flat for a significant distance without damaging their transmissions. Second, each motorhome has a weight limit for what can be towed behind it. Fortunately, Motorhome Magazine publishes an annual Dinghy Guide: a list of all flat-towable vehicles for the model year, including each vehicle’s weight, fuel economy ratings, and any special instructions needed for flat towing.

After a quick scan of the guides, we learned that our 2012 Kia Optima is not towable, but our 2005 Honda Pilot is. However, after some thought we decided that the Pilot would not make a good toad for us and would need to be replaced. We’ve been extremely happy with the Pilot, but it delivers about 18 MPG overall. Since most of our driving will be in the toad rather than the RV, we’d like to improve our fuel economy significantly. The Pilot also weighs in at around 4,400 pounds. While a gas-engine motorhome can tow up to 5,000 pounds, anything over 4,000 tends to cut into the amount of cargo you can carry inside the RV. A heavier toad also means worse fuel economy for the RV that has to pull it.

With the understanding that we’ll be giving up both our cars, and shopping for a new car, our research shifts towards what that car will be.