One of the things we really liked about the floor plan is that the driver and passenger seats pivot so that they can be used for seating in the “lounge” area of the camper.  The Navion IQ doesn’t have a slide, but the seats rotating really opens up the space making up for the additional space created by a slide.

There are plenty of cabinets in our IQ floor plan.  The manufacturer touts the curved design as European in style.  I guess I don’t really know what that means, but I like it.  The galley sink and cooktop both have hinged glass covers over them that increase the available counter space when they’re not in use.  The galley faucet is hinged and is raised for use when the sink cover is open.

The dinette at the back of the coach folds down into a what seems to be a fairly comfortable bed, though we have yet to try it for a night of camping.  The dinette table slides to either side and is lifted out of the way and stored under neath when the dinnette is made up for a bed.

There is a nice entertainment system.  The TV can be oriented to face to the rear or to the front.

More images of the inside can be seen in in my Navion IQ set on Flickr.

I’m sure that we will be using this RV a lot more than our old one.

Yesterday, we picked up our new Navion IQ.

The IQ is a class C motorhome, built by Itasca, a division of Winnebago.  It’s built on a Dodge Sprinter chassis and has a Mercedes-Benz diesel engine.

This is quite a a change from our previous camper.  We traded in a 31′6″ high profile fifth wheel.  We had found that the fifth wheel was just not suited for the kind of camping that we are interested in and that it would not fit in many of the campgrounds we would like to go to.

It will certainly require some adjustments. We carried a lot of stuff in the fifth wheel that we really didn’t need because we had the room and we had adequate margin to our weight limit.  In our new camper, we’ve got a lot of margin to the weight limits, too, but there is a lot less room for storing things.  There will be much more of a focus in only taking the things along that we really will be using or that we need,

Our first shake-down trip will likely be this next weekend.  We’re going to go for a night or two at a nearby state park.  We’d like to go for longer, but my schedule doesn’t allow it for the next few weeks.  However, the contract job I am working on will be over in about 6 weeks and then I’ll be back to the retired life again.

Our first relatively long distance trip will be to Wisconsin, where our youngest daughter and her family lives.  We’ll probably take a few days to get there, stay a week or so, and then take a few tays to meander back home.

We still have a few things to get in order before we take off on that trip.  We need to get our CRV set up for towing.  I’m going to have to come up with some sort of modified shower curtain so I’ll be able to use the shower — I’m a big guy and the shower is not quite big enough with the installed “door.”

Buffalo National River, Arkansas

Composite of images taken on November 7, 2005, with a Kodak DX4530 Zoom

Henry’s Fork of the Snake River, Idaho

Mesa Falls Recreation Area

September 16, 2007 at 10.31am MDT

Devil’s Den State Park, Arkansas

March 1, 2008 at 12.51pm CST; Pentax K10D; Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250); Aperture: f/9.5; Focal Length: 55 mm; ISO Speed: 100

Canyonlands National Park

September 23, 2007 at 12.13pm MDT; Pentax K10D; Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250); Aperture: f/9.5; Focal Length: 50 mm; ISO Speed: 100

Arches National Park

September 24, 2007 at 10.43am MDT; Pentax K10D; Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180); Aperture: f/9.5; Focal Length: 55 mm; ISO Speed: 100

Teton Mountains

Grand Teton National park, Wyoming

September 19, 2007 at 9.21am MDT; Pentax K10D; Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180); Aperture: f/8; Focal Length: 35 mm; ISO Speed: 100

Park Ranger with Youth

New Visitor Center at Moose, Wyoming
Grand Teton National Park

September 19, 2007 at 8.38am MDT; Pentax K10D; Exposure: 0.033 sec (1/30); Aperture: f/3.5; Focal Length: 18 mm;
ISO Speed: 400

Moose lying down in brush just off short trail
between Maude Noble’s cabin and Menor’s Ferry,
Grand Teton National Park.

This bull moose, along with a cow and a calf, was laying down just off a trail we were walking on. Karen spotted it, and thinking it would be a great picture, got my attention. When I saw it, I figured that we were way too close to it, even though it was laying down, so we left the trail and looped away from it to get back to the trail at a point further down where there was an old barn. As we got back to the trail we saw a young ranger gesturing to us to where she was standing, which was in the direction we were going anyway. The moose had apparently already been reported and, since they were in an area with frequent pedeatrian traffic, rangers just arrived to keep people away from the animals. Though the moose were obviously used to the presence of people, they are still wild animals… and they are big and can move very fast. As well, according to the ranger we, some boys had been throwing rocks at the moose the day before.

While we were there, the rangers strung a yellow plastic barrier tape — the kind you see at crime scenes in movies and TV shows — to keep the public at a safe distance from the moose.

This picture was taken from a window inside the old barn.