We Pick-up our Sprinter and hit the road!

OMG! We own a Sportsmobile Sprinter!

Monday July 22 we flew into Austin, took a cab to Sportsmobile and there waiting in the delivery bay was the Mercury "in the flesh".  As I look back, the entire process took about 7 months from order to pick-up. The most difficult part, of course, being the waiting and anticipation. 

After getting a thorough "walk around" by Kevin, we had a few last minute additions and we were given the keys.  Having never driven a Sprinter I was advised by Kevin that they were on a city block and that by the time I went around once I would be good to hit the road.  He was right, we did, and set off for a 9 day trek to return to Silver City.

We would be camping in the van every night:

Here we are at the Winfield Kansas City Lake.



Our trip took us through the hottest part of the country, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas before we would get back to the cool elevations of New Mexico.  So we chose camping in places that we could operate our portable air conditioner (more later).  That meant we stayed in KOA Campgrounds, City and State Lakes, friends and relatives driveways and did not get to sleep without the A/C until New Mexico.

So, let me give you a tour:

I always like to start with the platform.  The highest priority we had was to be able to store our bicycles inside as we travel.  Couple this with the desire to have a full time queen sized bed and the design was fully compromised.  This meant that we had to start with an Extended Body Sprinter.  But look at all of the storage space!

And such a nice bedroom.  We both slept very well and as long as we remain agile enough to crawl into bed everything will work great.

Directly behind the driver we have 5 large drawers.  We found this to be plenty of space for our clothes and gear.

This photo, colored by the overhead LED lights, shows Jackie preparing our first dinner at the galley.

I, personally, found that at 6'1" I had no problem using the shower.  The porta-potty turned out to be well worth while as the condition of some of the City and State campground facilities showed why our guests appreciate our KOA.

The living room is cozy and comfortable although I am going to add a footstool.

Kevin had done a great job of adapting our portable A/C unit.  He made a Plexiglas adapter for the exhaust duct that rolls up in the passenger side window.  All through Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, the A/C ran all night.  At 105 degrees F in the daytime the van A/C worked great, just what you would expect from a Mercedes!  But often at night it would not even get below 80 degrees F by morning.  We have a place to store the A/C unit under the platform when we are traveling when and where we will need it.  Otherwise (most of the time) we will leave it at home.

So, just for the curious:

We weighed the van in Boise City OK at what I would consider to be a "light" camping load with 1/2 tank of fuel at 8120#.  With a GRVW of 8550# that leaves a comfortable margin.

We traveled about 1950 miles and I have never had a more comfortable ride.  Average fuel consumption for the trip was 17.7 mpg and we had tanks that got us 18.6 mpg and they say it will get better!

We love our Motor home (yes, a very small one!) and can't wait for our next trip.  We will be going to Durango, CO for the first stage of the US Pro Bicycle Race, Aug. 20.

So, we will let you know how that goes...

Jim and Jackie