Off to Greener Pastures!

A month ago, I posted T@Bitu for sale with the desire to not let her spend another lonely summer at the storage lot. I got a number of inquiries from far and wide-- one couple even drove all the way from Houston to come see her (they'd never seen a T@B before, and unfortunately realized it was not going to be the kind of trailer they'd be happy with-- they actually were looking for something SMALLER!).

This was also my first time posting something for sale to Craigslist. As expected, I did get a fair share of "spam" and fraudster kind of replies. Fortunately, I set up a new gmail account to handle all of that stuff, but some of them were pretty crazy--- one email told me they wished to pay my full asking price sight unseen-- all I had to do was send them my PayPal account information (yeah, right!). Another said my T@B looked perfect, but they had found this other one cheaper and gave me a hyperlink to click that then wanted my Craigslist login and password (uh huh, sure!). Yet another, inquired like a normal person, but then sent me a "form letter" kind of email with all sorts of grammatical errors and odd sentences (sort of like the old Nigerian bank account scam, so again, "no way, Jose' !").

About a week ago, mixed in with all these crazy inquiries was one from a very nice young couple from Wisconsin. They came down to see the T@B and ended up making an offer that same night. T@Bitu got everything she ever wanted in her new owners-- they love to camp, had been tent campers who were looking to upgrade and appreciate all the T@B's comfy features, and were excited at the prospect of longer cross-country trips. To top it off, they have a nice matching silver car to match the T@B's exterior, and also have a nice light brown dog about the same size as Millie who will be right at home with the T@B's tan interior!

Today, I gave the new owners a crash course in T@B operations, and then got T@Bitu hitched up to their shiney new hitch ball, and off she went to her loving new home! Happy camping to T@Bitu and her new owners for many years to come!

Meanwhile, I'm still planning to attend future T@B rallies with my remaining T@B trailer....and this one really IS a small T@B!

I'll probably just post future updates to my Winnie Views blog from here on out, so be sure to "Follow" me there to hear about my first "post T@B" T@B rally next month!

Lonesome T@B looking for a new home

Hello everyone-- This is T@Bitu. Ever since Lynne bought that big white View motorhome two years ago, I've waited patiently at the storage lot with all the other lonely trailers for her to come hitch me up and take me places. But she only took me out once last year!

Well, Spring has now sprung again and I'm tired of waiting any longer! I want a new home with owners who will take me camping to see all the pretty places again. Can you please help me? Please!!!

I just got a whole bunch of new pictures taken of me this week. Lynne is including lots of my favorite things such as my matching silver T@B awning, Olympian Wave 3 heater, and more.

Me and my extra things are located in suburban Chicago. If you'd like to know more, contact Lynne via Comments below to come take a look at me!

Westward Ho! The voyage begins

Here's the departing shot of Tabitu and the BluRu ready to leave on our 6 week adventure to the Pacific Northwest. Millie and I left after work and drove in a blinding thunderstorm through Wisconsin, but we made it to the hotel just fine to meet up with my mom Sue.

She drove her own car because she will only be with Millie and me for part of the trip before she leaves to attend a wedding in Las Vegas, but after our last trip together last summer, we also thought it might be wise to travel with 2 tow vehicles this time....just in case!


Only downside to towing a trailer is the lousy gas mileage. Here we are in Fargo, ND filling up right across the street from the Space Aliens Bar & Grill.

T@Bless No More!

I picked up my replacement T@B yesterday from Vacationland RV (Big Rock, IL). It's the second T@B and third camper I've bought from them in three years, and I also have stored my campers on their lot during the winter, so we know each other pretty well now. They're a terrific dealer with excellent service and low prices.

While I waited for them to install a hitch on my blue Subaru, I looked at their new T@DA trailer (the "bigger" version of the T@B). It was about the same as the one I had seen at the Minden rally last summer. It was a nice trailer, especially for a couple with a child, but a bit excessive for my needs. I was still glad a chose to get another T@B.

Here are a few more pictures of my T@B's homecoming... the interior is a golden tan color with brown accents (matches Millie's fur quite nicely!). I really LOVE the new stove and sink. Both have flush-mounted black tempered glass covers, and the stove now has an auto-ignition so you don't need to fool with matches or a lighter. So good to be a T@Bber again!!!

Three Strikes, You're T@Bless!

After our glorious weekend at Glacier, we returned to Great Falls where I worked a few days while waiting on a complete new transmission to get flown in compliments of Subaru (the previous dealer had failed to discover a loose part rolling around inside the transmission which had done all the damage, so they deemed the entire transmission defective and needing replacement). Mom had run out of paperback novels, but was thrilled to find plenty more at the Sam's Club in town. Meanwhile, Millie discovered a new river to swim in-- the Missouri!

Try as I could to be patient waiting for parts to arrive, our vacation had now stretched out nearly a week longer than had planned, and Mom and I both had obligations to attend to back home within the upcoming week. After daily update calls between Bob and Jody, and my transmission getting shipped to Minneapolis instead of Great Falls, it was now time to cut our losses and get home. Jody agreed and said for me to go ahead and make plans to go home and that Subaru would ship me back my car once it got repaired.

I first tried to rent a truck or SUV that might be able to tow both us and the T@B home, but no such luck-- rental companies don't want you towing anything behind their vehicles. So, next I looked into getting a one-way car rental for us and shipping options for the T@B. I only found one rental car company willing to do a one-way rental, but fortunately it was Avis, and would be easy for me to drop off in Chicago.

For the trailer shipping, I found an online service, uship.com, that lets individuals bid out their shipping jobs to small, independent carriers (a booming business with all the eBay car and boat sales going on around the country). I posted my shipping job, and within a couple hours was getting a number of bids from drivers with pick-up trucks who specialized in hauling boats and RVs cross-country. I selected one who said they could pick up my T@B the next night.

We picked up the rental car (a big cushy Chevy Impala ideal for a 2000-mile road trip!), and then met up with a very friendly driver named Dave who would take my T@B back to Illinois. He was a retired guy helping out his son-in-law who had just started their shipping business. Dave was so thrilled to be towing my cute little T@B that he even asked to take a picture of us in front of it hooked up to his brand new pickup truck. He started on his way that evening, while we returned to the hotel.

The next morning, we left Great Falls and headed for home across the vast wheat fields of central Montana. As we rolled into Billings (and back into cell phone service), I had a voice mail from the son at the shipping firm asking me to call right away.

I couldn't believe what he told me, it was so surreal. Mom and I had worried about getting the Subaru back and wondering if it's transmission would blow again on the way home, so when it turned out that we'd be driving a rental car home and getting the T@B shipped, all our worries had seemed to disappear. But now, the shipping firm was telling me that there'd been "a terrible accident"....and my T@B was completely destroyed!

Dave had been driving on the interstate in eastern Wyoming doing the speed limit of 75 when he came over a ridge to find a dump truck in his lane only doing 35 mph. He drove off the shoulder of the road, flipping his new truck and the T@B so severely that the T@B's tow bar sheared in half at the hitch. The truck and the T@B were completely destroyed, but fortunately, Dave suffered only minor injuries.

It took a few days for us to finally get connected and hear what had happened (then it took weeks to sort it all out with the insurance companies). But, finally, it appeared that our lightening had finally struck three times on this vacation, and our bad luck was finally over!

Day 1 - Frozen Sticks on Route 66! (Chicago to Litchfield, IL)

Millie and I packed up the T@B and took off for our journey in frigid, bitter cold, single-degree temperatures just as the sun was beginning to set. I had to make a quick stop to the post office, and couldn't believe that I got my first T@B gawker within 5 minutes of leaving the house!

T@B trailers remarkably bring out the inner child in people. I've never owned a camper that has attracted so much foolish attention from otherwise normal intelligent adults! Every trip thus far has had literally dozens of people comment on the trailer, and today was no different. A lady had followed me all the way through town to the Post Office, just to ask me how I liked the T@B, and to see if she could take a peek inside. She was looking to retire in another 5 years and had already started dreaming about traveling the country in a T@B. Guess snowbird fever hits everyone pretty hard on cold February days.

Once on the road, Millie and I made pretty good time down to southern Illinois. We knew the route well from going down to Springfield Clinic a number of times in the past year to do their software install project. We had actually stayed in Litchfield for their first clinic's go-live last June, so I figured it'd make a good pit stop for the night. Even though the temperatures were still hovering around zero, and that nice new Hampton Inn I had previously stayed at looked like it had plenty of empty rooms, I decided to take the adventure route and boondock in the T@B for the night at the Wal-Mart parking lot. I figured I had my super-hot LP gas heater, so I'd be fine.

Well, the heater was on high all night long and I was under 2 sleeping bags with sweat pants and sweatshirt on, and still was cold. The wind was blowing so hard that it would actually rock the trailer from side to side and at one point, even blew the roof vent open! When I got up the next morning, I was never so glad to quickly retreat to the car and it's heated seats to warm up! The car temperature gauge showed 3 degrees (without wind chill), so with wind chill, it likely easily got down to -20 to -30 degree range. No wonder we were so cold!!! Brrrrr!

Driving home from Colorado

On my way home from Colorado, I stopped at a rest stop, and laughed when I walked back to my car to discover a big Airstream trailer had pulled up next to me.

They say T@Bs are Airstream wanna-bees because they're both made by the same company (Thor) and both are silver.

I just thought it looked like "Me and Mini-me"! Maybe one day the little T@B will grow up to become an Airstream!







I decided to try camping at Wally World for the first time. Wal-Marts allow RVers to park in their lots overnight, and at this Wal-Mart in North Platte, Nebraska (only about a 1/2 mile off the interstate), there were plenty of RVs staying that night.

Lynne & Millie's T@B adventures!

Well, I've done it.... gone out and have started a blog. In the next few weeks, I'll be traveling the U.S. to photograph nature images and anything else that happens to look interesting. I'll be joined by my spoiled rotten yellow lab, Millie, and we'll be living (hopefully comfortably) from Millie's new rolling doghouse (otherwise known as my new T@B trailer).

This blog will be a way to keep all my friends & family updated on our discoveries and whereabouts. Stay tuned!

(interior photos courtesy of Tab-RV)