I’ll still keep my old Wanderlodge

[Redeyedtreefr0g]

I had Jamie take me to the big RV place in Daytona Beach. I was having trouble letting go of Blub's really damaged interior, trying to save everything. Jamie just simply does not fit inside the shower, which has no cracks or anything so I wanted to save it. We know absolutely nothing about "real" RVs and I didn't want to just rip everything out when we don't even know what some of it does or if it works/how to test it. So after an emotional breakdown and some crying and breather I said let's go look at the ridiculously expensive "real" ones. I'm not that creative unless I have some inspiration or things to look at first, I've discovered. I wanted to see and feel and touch. And get away from Blub for a while. I wanted to know what kind of shower he liked and could fit into to see what we might need to build for him.

1) I did not realize RVs were *that* expensive. My actual house is valued less. My house comes with a 5 acre yard and a detached garage/shop and a reliable unlimited water source, and so much storage I hate it for all the clutter we've accumulated that I'm really looking forward to having a finite tiny space inside Blub. $400,000 isn't even the most fabulous rig you can get.

2) RVs are... so cheap. Flimsy. Fake. It's all show and no substance! Not even a great show. Walls flex and plastic is misaligned and you can't open cabinets properly and you can see where so many mistakes have been made. They are all laid out the same. They don't have enough windows. I'm annoyed at advance features like an automatically extending step. Why would I want to pay more to have to wait to get up and down my bus!? Jamie and I recently went to Tulsa, Oklahoma and were installing systems on brand new IC buses in their own shipping yard and so I know that shoddy craftmanship is allowed to happen on school buses and rigs like ours, but when it does it's just like, ok that sheet metal isn't perfectly smooth but it's still actually attached with rivets and you can just see a little hump and extra sealant on the seam, but it's sturdy and I know it will last the next 10 years no problem. These were brand new RVs we were looking at that were still in the dealership being sold but already broken. No thank you!


Turns out there has at one time been a big water leak allowed to rot out the bathroom floor under the sink and bugs loved it, so I'm glad we've gone down to bare metal in Blub. The visit to Daytona has shown me some cool things, but mostly that I can literally do anything to Blub and it will be of a higher quality than today's standards. The shell that is currently my bus could roll down the road right now without interior walls, with a pull-out couch in it and no plumbing, and it is better than a new RV. Everything extra is just a convenience and a luxury, and I don't have to try too hard to achieve that at all, it turns out.

[Ernest Ekberg]

If I wasn’t enamored with stainless steel sides, I would have and should have kept our 97 wlwb43.

[AP 1986 pt-38]

Originally Posted by DirtDigger

My wife loves the look of the newer coaches out there...me, I am more than happy with our BB build quality. STILL the best kept secret in coaches.

https://youtu.be/AZVRbMnnDz0?si=59Vj1OIBC803VD82

What a Bleepin joke. I feel sorry for those people. If that dish washer fell out like that on a coach I bought it would have been thrown through the companies garden view window.

30. Years of my life have been traveled in a blue bird. Won’t be a change in that anytime soon

[Randy T]

I've had my coach 9 years now (full-time 7) and I would not change a thing. To think of anything else camper related, it'd be a downgrade and I'd rather just go a different direction in life