Well the 22nd of this month will be the one year anniversary of us buying the Bighorn. It has been a interesting year.
The plan was that I would retire in August, sell a house we had in Anchorage, and leave in September to spend the winter "outside" visiting friends and family. It worked well until we hit the road.
In Tok, just before the canadian border, the landing gear failed and the 5vr dropped about 6-7 inches. We got it jacked up and back on the truck and continued on. Two weeks later, by the time we made it to Tacoma (we were headed to sequim), it became obvious that major damage had been done. After 3 months in a shop, and a substantial payment by the insurance company it was fixed. In the mean time, we had bought a utility trailer, unpacked the 5vr (took insurance a month to decide to fix or total the unit and we couldn't wait in a hotel that long), and driove home. In March we drove back out, picked up the bighorn, and continued on the trip to Texas to visit Tina's family.
In Northern California, we came around a corner headed down a hill, when a semi decided he needed to pass another semi coming up the grade. Two lanes, three rigs, and we were the smallest. Luckily there was a gravel bail out area, unfortunately, there was a 5-6 inch drop off the pavement. At the time we didn't realize the damage that had been done, on we went and had a great, but wet visit in Texas. Headed for home, we stopped for the night in Salinas, KS. The overhang was seperating on the side, and the front cap was sagging (again). Hauled it back to a shop in Wichita. Found a GREAT shop there (Kellog RV), and the insurance is covering the repair, again. Currently wife drove back home with our big dog, I took the little dog and our cat to Sequim to visit my parents. It should be repaired by the end of June, and I will go pick it up and head for home again.
We love the bighorn, and especially the layout, but there have been times this year we would have traded it for a VW camper van!
This forum over the past year has been invalueble to me fixing or understanding the various systems. Now that we are keeping the Bighorn, we upgraded our membership from the free to a full time!
If anyone has questions about Alaska, let me know, and if you come by Moose Pass or Seward, let us know.
Scott