An American RV in Paris

Landshark "the concept" has a whole new lease on life.  Not the old Landshark.  That one has been sold after getting a whole "new to her" engine to replace the one that blew a sparkplug, sucked something into a valve and effectively made it unsellable according to California law.  Of course, I didn't know all that before we bought new Landshark, or I might have held off.  But as they say, in for a dime in for a dollar.  Or in the world of RVs, in for 20k, in for another 20k.

We have a whole new-to-us rig (and much more than 20k entry point *shudder*).  A lovely 36' Tiffin Allegro QBH.  It has bunk beds, thus the boys have their private domains for our next adventure.  And now Sarah gets to sleep on the couch instead of clearing the table.  Also, it seems to double in size when the slides are opened up.  Sure, it doesn't have much storage (I think it has been weighted down a bit too much for the chassis, so in an effort to minimize the weight people add to it, they skimped on storage), but that's OK.  It is a Class A RV weighing in loaded close to (and hopefully not more than) 24,000 lbs and standing a proud 12'6".  Driving past Semi's I look down on the other driver.  I have yet to be passed by anyone who is sitting higher in the air than me.   Yes, tunnels can be alarming.  So can construction.  And trees.  But I have a truckers GPS and faith in our ability to find some fun adventures while sleeping comfortably.

Speaking of, the biggest adventure lies in our very near future.  We've rented our house out, I've given notice, Martha soon will give notice and we're pulling the kids out of school to go on a year of homeschooling adventure.  And if homeschooling for a year in an RV doesn't sound like enough, we've decided to ship Landshark to Europe.

Yes, Europe.

Yes, it is an American RV.

No, we haven't lost it.

We've found at least 1 other family on the internet who has traveled with similarly sized RVs apparently successfully (the Scherer family sold the RV after a full year and returned to Washington).  We've found private label books that specialize in cataloging "pitches" (RV sites) which can hold a 24'+ RV.  And it does point out the ones will hold the size we have.  I comfort myself with the fact that there are people who have 45' RVs in Europe.  They don't blog, but they exist.  At least in rumor.  Or perhaps as cautionary tale.

Our plan is to drive across the country, load it on a roll-on, roll-off ship (RORO, not Scooby saying Ruh-Roh), wait 3-4 weeks and unload it in Southampton, UK.  After that, things get a little vague.  But we know that we can move back into our house in August 2014.

That's the plan, and we're doing it.  More about how we've outfitted Landshark and our shakedown cruise to the Tetons tomorrow.  Or maybe just later tonight.