The original plan for picking up the 2016 Winnebago Brave that we ordered in September at the Hershey RV Show was to head up to Camping World Syracuse on Thursday with our travel trailer and drive home Sunday with Jon driving the Brave and me (Heather) driving our truck.
We got a call on Wednesday night that my grandma passed away, we'd know when the funeral was on Thursday sometime during the day. So, we changed our plans as we went. It was a long weekend of driving 2311 miles, emotional as all get out, and stressful as anything. But, we did everything we needed to and it all worked out in the end. By the time we got home Monday night, all we wanted to do was sleep!
Thursday, December 10
Finished packing truck
Dropped off David the Dog
Picked up the Lance
Headed up I-81N to Syracuse, NY
Pulled in & Mike was waiting for us. We chatted with him about our upcoming weekend.
Checked into Comfort Inn Fairgrounds, Syracuse, NY
Friday, December 11
We were able to move our appointment up from noon to 10:30am.
Went to Wegmans to get lunch.
Did our walk-through.
Recorded it - here's the link to watch on
YouTube.
Met with Mike to go over the purchase & to sign the papers.
Did a drive (with someone from CW since we'd never drove a Class A before).
Had lunch in the Brave.
Started transferring everything from the Lance to the Brave.
Came up with a small list of things that needed to be fixed.
Back into Camping World to buy a few things that we had on our list.
Left for Cleveland, OH. Realized about 30 minutes outside of Syracuse that we forgot Jon's suit & dress shirt in the hotel room. Called hotel, they were less than helpful.
Arrived in Cleveland around 10:30pm.
Saturday, December 12
Got up early to get on the road to Cadillac, MI.
Stopped in Ann Arbor, MI at a JC Penny (thank goodness for holiday hours!) to pick up new dress clothes for Jon. Called Syracuse hotel back to hopefully get good news about the shirt & suit. They called saying they found the shirt, but not the suit that was right next to it. (I call shenanigans. I've been in contact with their GM and basically one of the employees is lying and no one's going to do anything about it.)
Made it to Cadillac, MI at 12:45. Checked into the hotel, got changed, and headed to the church for the funeral.
After the funeral, we headed to the burial site. Something interesting to note is that 99% of the cars pulled over to the side of the road to let the processional pass - even on the other side of the road. Being in the Northern VA area, that just doesn't happen near us.
My mom, sister, and brother got back on the road to get a head start on the next day's worth of driving.
After going back to the church, we went back to the hotel to change and then went to grandma's house to spend some time with my aunts and uncle.
I picked out a couple of items I wanted to bring home with me to remind me of grandma. Around 9pm, we went back to the hotel to crash for the night.
Sunday, December 13
We left Cadillac, MI super early (I want to say no later than 7am), knowing it was at least a 10 hour drive back to Syracuse. Nothing of note to really talk about other than it was a LONG day of driving. When we got back to Syracuse, we stopped into the Comfort Inn to collect the shirt they found and got more information about the general manager to be in touch with her. We then picked up the keys for the Brave and then headed to Wegmans to pick up dinner and got gas in the truck so we wouldn't have to do it in the morning. Thank goodness for the Camping World staff. The Brave was exactly where they said it'd be, hooked up to electric already, and all was well. We collapsed in bed and called it a night.
Monday, December 14
Another early-ish morning.
Got everything unhooked & put away.
We pulled out of Syracuse & got on the road back to NoVA.
Stopped in Frackville, PA for lunch (at Cracker Barrel, yum!)
Got stuck in early Baltimore rush hour traffic and HEAVY DC rush hour traffic.
Pulled into our storage facility & parked (in the dark).
Stopped at the grocery store on our way home.
Picked up David the Dog from the sitter's.
Collapsed.
