Jenn and I had been talking about it for awhile and finally did it; we bought an RV.  We had been looking at conversion vans like a Roadtrek but found them rather expensive.  In our searches we came across the Rialta, which is a tiny Winnebago.  We got a ‘98 RD, so it has four chairs up front and a dinette in back.  It can seat 8 with seat belts.  It has an expandable bathroom with a toilet, sink and shower.  There is a 2 burner stove and a small refrigerator.  The dinette folds down into a double bed and 2 of the seats up front fold into a smaller than double bed.  For an RV, it has rather small waste tanks- a 13 gallon black tank and a 6 gallon grey tank (the shower drains to the black tank).  It can hold 20 gallons of fresh water.  I’ve done a bit of work to it, and I’m afraid I failed in my pre-purchase examinations; finding many water leaks (a week after purchase) during a storm.  I’ve started trying to find and repair them but so far they aren’t going away.

This weekend, Walnut and I took the Rialta on it’s maiden (camping) voyage! (I drove it back home from Connecticut, about 800 miles)  We went to Lowden State park, near Oregon, Illinois.  We stayed in the White Oak campgrounds.  It was lovely.  Though the ground was a bit soft from recent rains, Walnut and I did a few miles of trail from our site to the Black Hawk Statue.  The statue is about 50 feet tall and it’s supposed to be one of the tallest monolothic statues in the world.  It was a feat of engineering at the time to create it.  They are doing repairs to it so we didn’t actually get to look at it….

The main camping area was pretty full and had rather little space between sites.  We opted for the more private area with no hook-ups.  There are facilities here but part of the point of this adventure was to use the RV’s facilities so I get the practice in preparation for next weekend’s trip to Michigan where we hope to meet other Rialta owners from around the country.  I’m not sure if we will head home today or move to another park.