… without any photographs. But I did manage a couple in the end.
This is the coast of Massachusetts at a town called Beverley, and the fact that I am here shows you how far I’ve travelled.
And all to no avail either. I’ve seen one Palomino Bronco 600 in a dealer’s, but it was already sold and had been sold for a week. Mind you, he does sell new stock and he has one coming in next week. But not a Bronco – another make. Brand-new and I’ve seen second-hand Broncos sold for more than a new one of this other make would cost.
Trouble is though that it’s not a folding variety. And that’s not much good to me. The wind resistance is too much on a truck with a narrow track and the weight distribution is all wrong too. A high wind or a bumpy road and that will be on its side in seconds.
I’ve seen something else that might have been of interest and made me question whether or not I had made the right decision in buying Strider. I’ve seen for sale a Chrysler Astro or something like that – a seven-seat luxury minibus rather like the VW microbus, and that was a 4×4 too. Stripping that out to make an even better camper than the Dodge Grand Caravan would have been an afternoon’s work, but at $3200 for a 1994 vehicle, even low mileage, is living in the realms of fantasy.
That was on sale at a dealer’s – the Seacoast RV at Saco in Maine, and I do have to say that if I were ever to see any customer service that was worse than that which I received here, I would be horrified. Totally disinterested in the customer, to the extent that “there’s a customer here in reception to see you but on the way in, will you go and check over this caravan that has just arrived?” And when he did turn up and I asked about slide-in campers, I received a curt “no” and that was the discussion over.
Contrast that treatment with other places where at least the staff has tried to be helpful, and I’ve had coffee and bottles of ice-cold water as well as friendly chats and assistance. But not a slide-in camper for the Ranger.
And so all of this has made me realise thatit’s time to put Plan B into action. Starting tomorrow I’ll be out looking for a truck cap – a high-capacity one, and I’m also going to pick up a tent and sleeping bag. What I had to pay for last night’s motel at Auburn, comfortable though it was, was outrageous and I could have been with my rent and sleeping bag on a campsite for half the price. This is all getting completely out of hand.
At least tonight’s motel is much more reasonable, even if I did have to travel about an hour to find it (I declined the offer to stay at the Hampton Inn for reasons that only those born within the sound of Bow Bells will know).
It’s another motel run by a family from the Middle East, who seem to be taking over all of the motels on the east coast as I have said before. Pretty basic, 1970s style yet again, but with kitchenette and diner and the price a very modest $64:00. No complaints from me.
But I am realising (isn’t hindsight wonderful?) that I’ve done this trip backwards. I should have gone to Montreal first, picked up some of my stuff and bought a tent and started from the top of the USA and worked down. That would have been much more sensible, although maybe not as practical.
