Remember the Travato Owners and Wannabes group I mentioned a fellow traveler had referred me to? Well, I had joined the group immediately after. It became a wealth of information on “mods”, hacks, storage solutions, system information and ideas, many of which I applied to our van.
I had also been more avidly following Go Small Live Large (GSLL) Scott and waiting for another Roundup at a time and place I could coordinate to attend. Both converged on the Tampa RV Super Show in January of 2022. I bought a ticket with a camping pass for the Florida State Fairgrounds parking lot over the weekend, where there was going to be a huge Travato owners meetup sponsored by Winnebago.
What a great weekend! We toured all the RVs in the show on display. A couple notables:
We walked through a Marathon Coach on a Prevost bus chassis. Holy cow! It was beautiful and amazing and WAY out of our price range. But wow.
We also looked at the not-yet-available new entry to the Class B stuff – a Wingamm Oasi from Italy. Super cute, super small! I loved it. The storage space seemed ample. The design really maximized the smaller space inside, and it didn’t feel as small as it is. If I had my dream wish, it would be on an AWD chassis and not have a cassette toilet.
And finally, since we had spent quite some time in the van together at this point, we were kind of wishing for a little more space and a washer/dryer. KT likes to watch TV at night when I want to sleep and there’s no escaping the light/sound from the TV. We also have to shimmy past each other if we need to pass. A shower that doesn’t soak the entire bathroom would also be nice. I generally hate the dark wood look in Class A RVs, but we looked at a Coachmen Encore that was more modern/bright on the inside, offered a lithium package (something I was really thinking was necessary at this point), had an outdoor kitchen and TV (appeals to me who lives largely outside) and a washer/dryer option.
We thought hard on it and came very close to pulling the trigger. But ultimately decided it didn’t make sense since we were supposed to go back to California soon and wouldn’t be traveling/living in an RV much longer. And the van was perfectly fine and wonderfully flexible for travel. We like that we fit in parking spaces and can snag smaller spots at parks. So we sat in it for quite awhile and worked with the salesman, but ultimately walked away. At that time, anyway. We’ll come back to the Encore model later 😉
At night, Winnebago had a pizza party for the large amount of Travatos who converged in the parking lot. A friend of mine from high school (who I had just seen at the 30th reunion) was also there. She had bought a Solis Pocket. It was really great to see her. She’s trying to figure out what her life looks life after becoming widowed. I wholeheartedly endorse trying out the van life thing. She named her van Boots. For some reason, I seem to be seriously deficient in the creative naming space.
Another bonus was that Scott from GSLL was there and happened to be parked right next to us. Bonus for KT was that they both enjoy a good bourbon. They were fast friends. Scott was very busy with everyone he knew there, but we did get a nice tour of an Embassy coach with a composting toilet and a tour of Scott’s Lilly. (Side note: potty talk becomes a primary topic among van lifers 😂)
