PICKING UP OUR RV IN DETROIT

May 28, 2011…Bringing Shasta Home

Way back in May of 2011 Linda & I purchased our first RV, a 1995 ‘Shasta’ Class C motor home about 24’ in length. We had both done a fair bit of back country camping, largely in sea kayaks but we also had done a some car camping. While back country camping was and is still on the books, car camping was becoming a chore and we though how nice it would be to have a hard shelter to live in, especially when the weather was bad. It also saves all that setting up of tents, sleeping gear etc.

Our 24′ Class C Motor – Our Shasta on a 1995 Ford Chassis

Since this was our first experience with RV’s of any kind we didn’t really know where to start. As it turned out, Linda’s sister and brother-in-law, who lived in the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan at the time, had RV’s of various types over the years and in fact were planning on selling their Class C motor home. They offered us a great price and to make long stories short, we thought, why not? So we packed a few camping essentials that we could carry on an airplane, boarded a flight to Detroit and thus began our first RV adventure.

Of course there was much to do before all that, including getting all of our paperwork together which would allow us to import the vehicle back into Canada. The process turned out to be pretty straightforward, especially since it was an older vehicle. If you want to learn more about how to do that check the Transport Canada Website.

May 29th…A short visit in Detroit

On arriving in Detroit we had a short, but good visit with Brad & Carol who actually lived in Warren, a suburb to the north of Detroit. We had to keep this trip short as we were coming into the busy season of our rollshutter and awning business and we didn’t want to be away for much than a week. They took us out to purchase all the necessary accessories that we would need, such as a power cord, water hose, sewer line, leveling blocks, camp chairs etc. Brad was a great help making sure we had everything we needed then making sure we understood all the proper procedures for operating the RV like draining the tanks, operating the electrical system etc.

Brad & Carols home in Warren, Michigan

We also had an interesting day beyond the shopping. We had stopped for lunch at a brewpub and were sitting outside on the patio enjoying our beers and waiting for the food to arrive when the tornado warning sirens started blaring. That was a first for me for sure. We all had to head inside until the warning ended…no tornado was seen.