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Preaching to the Choir

Well done, Steve. A great bog. I think you pretty much hit them all, but I am sure others will chime in with their special loves about Teardropping, such as:

Lying in bed, looking through the little windows and counting the falling stars.

Meeting all the lovely people and making new friends because the CI is just so darn cute they had to stop by.

Fitting into a tent campsite when all the trailer sites are full.

Setting up camp by dropping the trailer and pulling out two chairs. Done.

All the crazy comments about the trailer, ie: "You must really be in trouble with the wife to have to drag your doghouse around with you."

Love this life.

Camp on,

Sue and Jim
 
Thanks! It'll be great when we can start blogging about traveling, instead of blogging about making plans to travel. We are trying not to be too optimistic that our new tow vehicle will arrive soon. If the new van arrives on time, then we have about three and a half weeks before we head out (obviously we can't head out without the van).
 
Some interesting and good points on your list!

What van did you order? Read some of your blog and I know it's a Ford but that's it.
 
A 2015 Ford Transit Connect XLT with the long wheelbase, as described in this post:
http://tagteambike.blogspot.com/2015/06/making-it-ours.html

At this point, we figure that every day that passes increases the odds that it will show up on this end. Of the handful of TCs where I've been able to find a special order delivery timeline, the longest has been just a tad over six months. In our instance, that would be the last week of July. We're hoping that it arrives by the beginning of next week, but then we've been hoping that for three months now. ;-)
 
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Thanks for the info....Nice van--being something of an automotive enthusiast I'm familiar with it. Hope you get it soon.
 
It should be a great tow vehicle. We're getting the EcoBoost engine, which has great low RPM torque, which should make a huge difference for us when we are towing in the mountains. And all the reviews say that it is as nimble as a car.
 
Oh please, please, please keep the polka dots! I want to put WWII nose art on Spamalot, but Jim just won't go for it.

Chicken

Sue and Jim (cluck, cluck)
 
We'll definitely add the polka dots, provided the shows up early enough to allow us sufficient time to get that done before we head out. It shouldn't a problem, since having the installer design and apply the graphics should take half a day at most. If we can't get the graphics done before we head out, then we'll find an installer elsewhere along the way. We'll be in Grand Forks, ND for a week, so we could probably find an installer there. If not, then we'll have it done in Florida while we are waiting for spring to arrive before continuing our travels.

You should check with a firm that does vehicle wraps about doing your nose art. The vinyl graphics come off fairly easily with some coaxing from a heat gun, and they actually protect the van's paint. On your CI the main issue would be the difference in oxidation of exposed aluminum and that covered by the graphic (but only if you later remove the graphic). But that is nothing that can't be solved with sufficient time and Walbernize.

But if you are thinking about painting the nose art on your CI, then I echo Jim's clucks. It sort of like getting a tattoo - will it still be as cool years from now?
 
Hopefully you'll be in Florida this December, as it would be good to arrange a brief rendezvous (if you'd like). Our route will be more inland, but we're thinking we'll depart from the bike route at Mt. Dora in order to spend time with Alea's family in Oviedo. Once we're done there we'll return to Mt. Dora and continue on to Palmetto, our final destination for this year. We don't know when we'll get there, but probably some time between mid-November and Christmas.
 
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