Moving From The Hitchhiker Into Our New Excel

After owning our Hitchhiker for almost seven years it was time to make a change. After a year of researching fifth wheels, in April, we placed an order with Bennett's Camping Center in Granbury, Texas, for a D37IKE Excel Winslow. The factory, Peterson Industries, in Smith Center, Kansas, is a high quality, low volume manufacturer of full time units. As such, there is a three month turn around time from order date to delivery. We took possession on July 19th. We are very pleased with the trailer and all of the many customizations we had requested.

Bennett's runs a full hookup campground behind their facility, called Bennett's RV Ranch. They provided two sites for four nights. We parked our Hitchhiker backward so the door faced our new Excel. This way we had AC in both units, since the temperature was in the upper 90's everyday. We worked from early morning to after dark for three days moving, organizing and disposing of all of our "stuff". As our first move as "full-timers", this turned out to be very much like moving from one stick house to another. It was a lot of work and we fell into bed each night, exhausted.  

A Final Farewell to a Faithful Old Friend
The Final Disconnect

After leaving Bennett's we traveled to East Fork Army Corp of Engineer Park on Lake Lavon near Dallas, Texas. We have signed up to volunteer here for the next six weeks or so in exchange for a beautiful lake front campsite. We plan to work half days to avoid the afternoon heat. Steve, our supervisor, has a long list of jobs to choose from. Our time here will also allow us to get settled in our new rig.