A Bittersweet Goodbye!

Monday, February 9, 2026

On Friday, January 23, 2026, we got up and readied the Stinter "B" for the last ride Tom would take in her by the end of the day she would no longer be ours. As of that date we became the new owners of a 2014 Tiffin Phaeton. 

Our New Home

A couple of inside pictures.

Kim took one last picture of us next to the Stinger "B" before Tom got in and drove out of our spot at Roadrunner BLM after our last time boondocking in her.

I have taken pictures of us leaving this area several times over 
the years but this one was both exciting and sad at the same time.

We signed the papers and took delivery of our new home later that day. Yes, we had a very nice walk through.

Our well loved Stinger "B" nose to nose with her replacement.

Within minutes of taking this picture Tom had to move both motorhomes to a different spot in the parking area. Then the fun began. We spent a few hours doing some cleaning, yes they cleaned it but I still needed to wipe down the closet and drawers before starting to move things over.  Saturday brought friends: Melissa and Lyle, Kim and Ken, plus Joan and Dave to help with the move. I am not sure how we would have ever gotten all of it done without their help. Tom and I continued the fun through Sunday. Monday we said a last goodbye to the Stinger "B" and Tom moved our new home to Park Place RV. 

Tom's last picture

and the picture I took just before getting in the
Jeep and backing away.

We are parked at our site at Park Place and now the fun begins
as I/we try to find a place for all of our stuff. 

So the question is was this in our plans for this year? The answer would be NO! We had been seriously talking about the possibility of downsizing over the last few months, at some point, possibly next year. So after walking through the big tent on opening day, January 17th, we decided to take a walk over and look at some RV's. They had several Super C's and a few smaller Class A's which is what we had been talking about. We thought lets just look and see what is available, as far as floor plans, so we would have better idea of what is out there as we planned for the future. As we all know it is one thing to look at pictures and another to actually walk through and get a feel for the space. As we walked into the area a very nice young man came up and asked what he could do to help us and we explained all of this to him emphasizing we are just looking. So after spending some time looking at several different rigs we ended up back in a Super C we both really liked. So, of course, he said why don't we see what kind of a deal I can get you on this rig and your trade in. We again emphasized we were just looking but agreed to let him go ahead. The thought being lets see what our money will buy.

We were sitting in this Super C.

The young man was going back and forth "negotiating" while we sat there. The longer we sat and looked around the more we knew this was not the rig for us. If we did not fulltime, it might have been, but once we picked up the bed and found out there was no storage under it we definitely knew it was a NO.

Just after we had come to that conclusion he came back with an older salesman and the first thing he said was, as fulltimers this is not your rig and we replied we had just came to the same conclusion. Then he said we have a really nice rig we just took in a trade for a little less money can I show it to you. We said sure and the rest is history. So instead of downsizing we went from 40 foot with two slides Class A Diesel Pusher to a 40.5 foot with four slides Class A Diesel Pusher.

Back in 2016 when we headed out we knew we were looking to trade in the 5th wheel we owned for a motorhome so before we left home, we owned a home back then, we took a lot of stuff out and left said stuff behind knowing we would need to transfer from one rig to another. This time we made no such preparation because we had no intention of moving out of our rig. Plus, for the six years we have been living in the Stinger "B" fulltime and we have accumulated stuff. The other part of the fun is our old motorhome had more storage then the new one. (I guess you could say technically we did downsize.) So we have begun purging and it will continue but until we get back to the UP and our storage unit we will be living with some boxes hanging out on the floor.

So after nine years we said goodbye to the Stinger "B" and hello to a new home. As exciting as it is to be able to make this move we will miss the old girl. She took us on many adventures over these last nine years. Some we would prefer to forget, some detours that we are glad we took, and more than once we were both encouraging her to make it up the "hill". All in all we only leave her behind and take all the good memories with us.  

Picking up the Stinger "B" January 2017

 If you have enjoyed the pictures I have put out there 
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