Now That I’m Home

Got distracted by life, so forgot to do my last post. Actually, I’ll do one more with stats, books, and maps. But it may be a while.

Our camper is made by Safari Condo, a small company in Quebec. Jim first heard about it while exploring small, light trailers when he was retiring. He joined the Alto (our model) Facebook group and saw a post by a new owner bringing his Alto home to Maine. We recognized the spot where the photo was taken. This was November 2019. Since we hadn’t seen one in person and there were no US dealers, Jim got in touch and asked if we could see it when we were visiting Tom. In January 2020, on our way to visit for MLK weekend, we got a text from the owner asking if we were still interested in the camper. Turns out, they were going to sell it and were we interested? We took a ride to Poland Springs and really liked the brand new camper, sitting in the snow. Back then, the wait after ordering was over a year, and the owners’ situation had changed. Hmmm, went back to Tom’s, thought about it and decided sure, we could have a camper now, not in a year. Little did we know the world would change in a few months and make our decision seem brilliant. Prices went up, parts were hard to find and wait lists were over 2 years, but we had our Alto. We took our first trip in mid-February 2020, got home the day before the world closed. That year we also brought it up to Falmouth and parked it in Tom and Laura’s driveway for two months, watching the boys while T&L worked from home. It gave them an extra room to work in and us some space, plus the boys loved it. Anyways… It’s a great camper, five years old and probably could sell it for close to what we bought it for. It has exceeded our expectations.

Alto owners are a nice group of people. When we meet Alto folks on the road we always have good conversations and many things in common. We’ve become good friends with folks we’ve met, even parked in their driveways along the way. There are Alto get-togethers (Altogathers, get it?) and we’ve done the New York State one four times now. The first year was learning and exploring modifications and asking questions, now it’s more social (for us). It’s fun to meet new folks who have the same questions we had. We didn’t go to a few of the sessions, but did go to the trip planning one, which was fun. We had some good thoughts after our 10 week journey. Good campfires every night and conversation.

We walked the Glen. If you’ve never been to Watkins Glen, go! This was our second time there and with the recent rains, it was flowing hard. The whole area is lovely, with many waterfalls, wineries and places to explore. We went to Ithaca to the Botanic Gardens at Cornell and to Ithaca Falls with friends. At that point the weather was changing and looked pretty lousy for our last two days. Having been on the road so long, both of us felt okay leaving early to get home. Little Calvin had his first piano recital on Saturday too. So early Thursday afternoon we headed out. I found a Harvest Host brewery in Westfield MA. We pulled in shortly after 7, there was a food truck with great German food and the beer was good too. Quiet night in the back lot and out early the next morning. We were home shortly after noon on Friday May 30th. Luckily it was a sunny bright day and our neighbor took a swipe at our lawn with her tractor mower. Jim got the front lawn done before the Saturday rain. The recital was delightful and we had a nice dinner with the crew that night. Great trip but good to be home!