New GD Owner and back to RV'ing! VA to AZ and all points in between soon

**Stealthfixr** · 10-08-2019, 06:14 PM

I lurk here no more!

From 2010 to 2016, we owned a gas Class A and used it fair amount--many beautiful family memories made in that RV. We sold it because I was going away for a year on my last military remote and I did not love driving it on anything other than an open, uncongested highway with little to no weather. And, it was getting older and had a constant stream of problems, some little, some not. But, we knew we wanted to return to RV'ing, just not that way.

I starting looking more at smaller, half-ton towable TTs since the kids were all grown up and out of the house. GD caught my eye and then I found this forum about a year ago. My wife and I waited for the right time, always dreaming of RV'ing after I retired from the military. That retirement happened last Friday, and the RV dream is coming to fruition.

Today we bought a 2020 Imagine 2500RL from General RV in Ashland VA; we pick it up this Friday! Incidentally, this unit was delivered from GD to the dealer only a few hours prior! I will be towing it with a 2018 Ford F-150 with the 3.5L ecoboost engine and the max tow package, and an Equalizer WD hitch. The 2500RL really sold itself--just a beautiful RV layout and clearly higher quality than most of the many other brands we've looked at over the last couple years. Perfect for the two of us and a dumb Golden Retriever.

After a couple shake-down trips this month, my wife and I will pack up the house and set off in the 2500RL to "Life 2.0" in AZ. We plan to take our time and end up in Tucson about 5 weeks after leaving our current home in Alexandria VA, starting ~ 1 Nov. Beyond Acadia NP ME and Niagara Falls NY as the first two places to go, we don't have any other 'along the way' stops planned. Any and all suggestions welcomed. Beyond those two, northern stops before winter comes in full force, probably going to take a more southerly and warm route to AZ. I also think I would rather only hit 4-5 other places along the way and not be rushed.

Any nearby RV experiences to Alexandria VA that you all would recommend for the inaugural couple trips this month? We were thinking about Shenandoah NP, but not sure where. We like hiking and the outdoors. I've also never seen the Civil War battlefields and would really like to see a couple before leaving the area.

And, a big thank you to the many active members of this forum that helped sell me on Grand Design through the many stories shared here. We made the jump today with a lot of help from this forum.

**Papahoosh** · 10-08-2019, 06:18 PM

Congratulation on your retirement and welcome to the forum. Sound like a great plan you have. Enjoy.

**DougW9876** · 10-08-2019, 07:50 PM

Bull Run Regional Park is not far from Alexandria, and is close to the Bull Run (Manassas) Battlefields. Pretty nice park, sites were plenty big enough. We found a day to be enough to tour the battlefield.

If you have not yet been there, Gettysburg is place everyone should visit. We did the self guided tour with the audio tape which we got at our campground, we stayed at the KOA while we were there but other RV parks in the area also get good reviews.

Also, if you want to get a spot in AZ during the winter reservations are highly recommended and likely to be difficult to get at this point.

**Stealthfixr** · 11-06-2019, 08:02 AM

Question for those more GD experienced: does GD read this forum for suggestions and improvements?

On the whole, we are very happy with our 2500RL. There are just a few things that we’d like to see improved, but we do not know how best to provide that feedback.

**Canyonlight** · 11-06-2019, 08:18 AM

Originally Posted by Stealthfixr

Question for those more GD experienced: does GD read this forum for suggestions and improvements?

On the whole, we are very happy with our 2500RL. There are just a few things that we’d like to see improved, but we do not know how best to provide that feedback.

GDRV was very active from the beginning of the forum up through last year. They are very attentive to customer feedback and appreciate social media feedback and personal conversations. This can be done by going to the main GDRV website and following the links to the various sites to share feedback.

Dan