(The Fire Chief’s Class A Fleetwood Excursion Motorhome in his usual position in the parking lot adjoining Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium yesterday).
We were tailgating at Byrd Stadium in College Park yesterday. People were throwing footballs and getting in the mood for a three-thirty kick off. The smell of grilling hung in the humid air under mostly cloudy gray skies. We sat in back of the Surbaru Outback in folding chairs and talked about the world, and what was going to happen next.
No, this is not going to be an essay on football. I am not sure any of us cared about the ultimate result of the game- the Terps were going to win, that was a given, but in the spirit of the America on Wheels theme of the current stream of stories, we all got to the game on wheels, and wheels and what was mounted on them was the preoccupation of the afternoon.
Then a big silver truck approached us and turned into the space a couple down from where we were parked, pulling forward to take the front space for the truck and the rear space for the trailer. The owners hopped out, screwed down the leveling shaft on the hitch and began to transform their world.
No kidding. The awning rolled out. The grill swung out to the side of the rear. The door to the private bathroom was unlocked. The queen size bed on the other side of the trailer was not deployed- not enough drinks had been served from the full bar and flatscreen media center on the side facing us with the drop-down stainless steel counters.
A Terrapin, the mascot of the University of Maryland, was painted on the sides of the trailer and flew proudly from the flag raised on the telescoping pole on the side of the trailer. Two Honda generators provided full 60-hz power to run everything. Not bad.
The owners were pretty proud of their new toy. They had picked it up from an outfit called “Ready 2 Roll Trailers” just a week before, and were breaking in the new tailgate capability.
We were chumps, and had been talking about trucks and the things you can tow with them, we went over to scope out the rig. We joined a tour in progress as the Honda generators went efficiently about their business of powering the cooling system, operating the satellite dish and powering the television.
Lile, one of the owners, gestured at the mural that covered the side of the trailer over the fold-down bed. “This is the Hall of Fame model,” he said proudly. With the twelve foot bed, went completely custom on this one.”
I was impressed. I looked it up later- the base Hall of Fame package went for over $20K and you could certainly push that north with the custom paint and the rest of it.
I kept going after the tour and walked over to the Class A motorcoach and introduced myself to the Fire Chief, for that is what the proud owner used to do before retiring. He was not drunk- not yet- but was expansive and proud of his rolling hobby. I got the complete run-down on the rolling home- I could call it a bus, but that would do no justice to the two-bedroom, two-bath rolling palace.
The Chief had bought the Fleetwood Excursion new in 2007 at the big RV convention in Hershey, PA. $175 grand,” he said. “But if you are looking for one, I recommend searching in Florida. The folks retire down there, the guy dies and the widow doesn’t know what to do with the motorcoach. You can get some real deals.”
We went on to discuss the custom garage he had built on his property to house the monster, and the dual wash racks to fill and clear the holding tanks and the general excellence of the Fleetwood, except for the electric level motors which totally suck and cost $400 to fix every time he looks at them crossways.
It was a great visit, and I realized as I walked back towards the tailgate trailer that the key to all this is exactly like boats. The best thing in life is not owning a boat- that is an immense amount of work, and essentially just a hole in the water that the owner attempts to fill with money. The best thing is to have a friend who has a boat.
We decided that we were going to park next to the tailgate trailer the rest of the season, and really get to know our new friends. With the big screen display under the awning, there really was no reason to have to walk all the way over to the stadium at all.
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayarte303