The Arrival

"Harriett" comes home October 2007

There aren't words that can express how I felt this day. Either of us. I for one can remember having the brochure as a child of the Foretravel 1978 units. I would have been about 9 years old and I got it in the mail after submitting that "more info" card in the back of the Motorhome Life magazine when I was a kid. That was 30 years ago. It kindof took a while to acheive that dream but it's sitting in the driveway now with the help of God.

We arrive at the storage lot Sammy and his wife, Harriett not too far behind. We pull up to the coach and I start to get a little overwhelmed. Here it is. Just as awesome as it was the first time we saw it now almost two weeks ago at that point.

We pulled up to the house. Neighbors gawking due in part the previous weeks fiasco of people coming and going with looking and test driving the Travco almost constantly. Now here sits the fruits of our labor. Although you must admit, those older Foretravels had one hell of a front cap!

We did it! We are now the proud owners of a Vintage Mint Condition 1978 Foretravel Motorhome built by Foretravel Industries of Nacogdoches, Texas

Well, in all honesty it must have just been God because to this day, every time I look out the big picture windows of our home we moved into just after purchasing the coach I wonder just how we did it.

We sold the Travco rather quickly actually to a local man and wife who were both eager to get it home and begin playing with now their new toy. In addition we emptied any savings we had, begged and borrowed and even dipped into, well pretty much emptied Carls inheritance but we managed to scrimp it all up in just a week. It had to be one of the most stressful weeks of my life. We couldn't sleep or eat anticipating it being in our possesion.

We called Sammy on that following Friday, met him at his bank, deposited the funds directly into his bank account, signed the title over in front of a bank Rep and followed Sammy to the storage lot where he kept the coach.

It was about this time we asked Sammy if we could name the coach after his ailing wife, Harriett. He looked at us like, what are you guys full of...then grinned and said that would a nice thought. We agreed and so the Foretravel is named Harriett. We were on our way to pick her up and bring her home.

"Thanks for showing us your coach, it was nice. Have a great day."

Well, that was that. Time to go home and let someone come look at this coach who is going to really buy it, I thought as we left. On the way home, not a single word spoken. Shock filled the car. We were exhausted from the overall thrill of seeing such an awesome vintage coach, one that looked just as nice if not better overall than something we'd seen at the RV show built in 2007. At this time we were still very much familiar with our vintage Travco. There was no comparison between the Travco and the Foretrave, none. It was like comparing a Yugo to a Porshe. You can't. It's just not even remotely close to even being on the same planet.

After we got home, we still sat there in silence, our minds racing mixed with every emotion you could conjur up. What the hell did we go do that for? Now we're a mess. Getting through the day was going to be hard to say the least. Especially for me. Carl was still new to the RV lifestyle but I'd dragged to enough RV shows, shown him enough vintage RV brochures (I collect those), talked on and on and on about them till he knew what we just saw was something not to be easily forgotten or disregarded. Still our minds raced.

Sammy called and said he wanted us to have it. Now I know we've all heard that from people trying to sell something, but this was different. It sounded different. He said if we brought him $100 he'd hold it for however long it took to gather the rest of the money. Damn! I thought. Why'd he have to say that. We didn't have $7500. Not even close....but there was a Travco sitting out in the driveway...."are you thinking what I'm thinking..."nah, we couldn't. We've spent far too many hours and energy on the Travco, we just couldn't sell Blanch. Could we?

The following day we called Sammy. Another look over the coach was scheduled for the following day if he hadn't sold it in that time. How could he not? Who in their right mind wouldn't snatch that up in half a second?

We showed up earlier than planned and as we stood there looking at each other then back at the coach our minds had already secretly been made up.

Sammy came out of his house, chipper and pleasant like the day before smiling ear to ear while yet you could still feel a sense of loss of his pride and joy soon on the horizon.

As we looked about the coach again, Sammy told me to "sit!", pointing to the drivers seat. I obeyed and in one swift movement he had the key in the ignition, turned it and started right up immediately. "Your going to drive it now" he said never missing a beat.

We were on our way. We hadn't come to drive it but he insisted and we were soon out of his suburb and not just around the block but on the highway. His area is located in a very hilly area and it'd been several years since I'd driven a coach at highway speeds and on slightly hilly terain.

My immediate notice was that this is a very heavy coach. You can tell when you accelerate from a stop. The amount of pressure on the gas pedal needed to move is noticable. Once on the highway we were at cruising speeds of no more than 55mph for which you couldn't even hear the engine sitting there right inbetween us. Just a slight hum but hardly noticable at all. Wow. It took the hills in his area like we were on flatland. The coach as a whole as quiet. No creaks, rattles, moans or groans in the slightest. No windshield shimmy either. For those of you who know coaches and drive them, I've seen windshield shimmy in all makes, models and years of coach even down to brand new ones. None here.

As we headed back to his house I was still again crusing at just a mere 55mph when Sammy blurted out "DRIVE BOY DRIVE", he continued on with "I didn't just spend all this money on this engine and drive train for you to drive like your afraid of it, DRIVE!". I obeyed. I got up to 65mph this time and he again spoke, "OMG, if you can't drive move over so I can." With that I looked over at Carl sitting in the drivers seat, eyes bulging (he'd never ridden in a motorhome as an adult before now for one his grandparents bought a new Winnebago every other year when he was a child) and poor Sammy was now pacing the floor disgusted at my lack of need for speed. I edged it up to 70mph to simply please Sammy. I have never had a motorhome up to 70mph before. The thought of driving a house at 70mph simply was unacceptable for me. It or any coach is far too heavy and large to drive it like your in a hurry to get...no where but I managed to swallow that thought and continued on.

It was about this time I begin to again realize, I hadn't still heard the engine. It was practically silent under my feet. We were moving at 70mph but couldn't hear the engine. Now, I know your thinking, that's just impossible, same thing I was thinking, but trust me, I'm telling the truth. You could hardly hear anything but a slight hum. The ride too was smooth due to the brand new air bags he'd had installed less than 500 miles ago. The front axle had also been redone as to reduce if not illininate any road vibration.

Upon pulling up to his house, shutting down the engine and taking a walk outside to see if the engine was giving off any serious amounts of heat I noticed there was very little, hardly any heat coming from the front of the coach exterior. When looking at the temp gage one can never be too sure on a vintage coach so the nose is a very useful tool here. The temp gage on the dash read in between cold and the middle line. Again, wow. I guess this is where the brand new cooling system and radiator came in and the newly installed vent fins on the sidewall on either side of the front passenger and drivers side at the engine area. Produced a noticeable difference in temperature. These same vent fins are on the door of the generator compartment.

Oh yeah, that's another thing, the generator, immaculant. Purrs like a kitten and as if it had been cleaned with cleaner or degreaser regularly. I hadn't had a working gen in the last three of my coaches. That, I thought, would be a treat.

So, there we stood. Grinning from ear to ear. Sammy with his arms folded across his chest. "Well boys?"

Without so much as a slight hesitation, Carl walked over and handed him a crisp $100 he'd apparently retrieved from the bank account unbeknownst to me. Looked at my face which was a mixture of Betty Davis in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" and Joan Crawford in "Mommie Dearest" and joy (yeah try to picture that). He said to Sammy while handing him the bill "We'll take it".

"YOU'D BETTER!" he said in a stern fatherly or grandfatherly voice. "I didn't want anyone else to have it so I took it off of Craigs List yesturday. I was just going to bug you till you came back."

From this point on we put our brains together brainstorming ways to purchase this coach and we'd promised Sammy we could do it in about a week. Yikes! What were we thinking!

Over the last three years over $10,000 in repair bills.

While exhaustion from shock from not finding a single thing wrong with this coach I sat now on the factory installed Lazy Boy Recliner, that anyone who has a Foretravel vintage or otherwise knows quite well. I must have looked shocked when Sammy then sat himself and brought out a file. A nice sized file containing every single receipt he'd ever recieved with any and all repairs he'd made or had done to the coach over the last 25 years. As he passed it to me to look through it was the receipts from the last three years that caught my eye.

Over the last three years, he had the entire engine rebuilt from scratch. An expense I am slightly familiar with as my 1982 33ft Allegro, three coaches ago, the one that burned to the ground from arson, had to have done too but at 24,000 original miles on a Chevy 454. This coach didn't have it's engine rebuilt until 150,000 miles. Go Dodge! In addition, entire steering redone, new carb, new headers, new lifters, new...well the entire engine was rebuilt as if it was a race car so that it wouldn't have a single issue climbing the 7% grades that rule the mountains here in the Denver area west of the metro area while he towed his late 90s boat of a Buick. He climbed those mountains in the last three years at no less than 55mph. Anyone who's ever had a vintage or newer gas coach even realizes that's next to impossible, normally.

In addition, all new tires, rims and wheel liners. New exhaust, brakes, all master cylinders. New fuel pumps all around, new transmission (new not rebuilt), new drivetrain as well. Good Lord, was there anything "under" this coach that hadnt' been replaced? Nope! All of it. Well over $10,000 in just three years of repair.

As if all of that wasn't enough to send me into a freak fit, the entire interior of the coach had been "remodeled" in 1985 at the Foretravel Factory in Texas. All of the window treatments, carpet, furniture, some appliances replaced with brand new in 1985 straight from Foretravel Industries. Wow! The curtains on this coach are the heavy kind, the ones that are backed with backing and not a plasic backing but the kind your grandparents had on the back of their curtains, a heavy fabric backing. Again, not even remotely damaged by sun in all these years. Something else a bit of a shock to me were the drawstrings that open and close all of the curtains. What an extra nice touch. There are sun shades too that pull down on every single window. Still there and in like brand new working condition.

He had also had the two max-air vents replaced as well as the microwave, water heater, water pump and electrical system in that time. And in the last three years the carpet again had been replaced. So recently in fact is still smelled like new carpet in there mixed with the smell of a brand new coach. How do you keep that smell of a brand new coach over 30 years? Omg! That's an accomplishment all of it's own.

The inspection of the coach and work previously done.

After the intruductions, brief history of us, he and his wife and the coach we were instructed to walk about freely, inspect the coach and ask whatever questions we had. Now, keep in mind at this point we still aren't thinking of a new coach or could even comprehend the expense of $7500. We were there to just "look" at his coach. To see one in person, basically "lookie-loos" nothing more. Well....it wasn't long before I began to realize omg, this coach is HOT!!!

As I walked about in the enterior of the coach looking at the usual things I look at in a vintage coach that almost always show it's age, cabinet installation (whether or not they are beginning to fall off the ceiling), walls meeting walls (gaps from road vibration and softness or wobbliness again from road vibration and ceiling falling), water leaks in over head cabinets (from years and years of weather and travel and not sealing around the entire perimiter of where the roof meets the sidewalls), softness of the coach floor (from years of heat exhaust melting or wearing down the styrofoam on top of the exhaust pipes inbetween the floor boards), wear and tear on original window treatments in this case curtains (from years of sun damage, rotten fabric, falling apart due to use, age and materials), water spots on the ceiling (again from not properly sealing the roof around the ACs and roof vents), carpet (from years of use), upholstery (from years of use and abuse in many cases from sun damage), dashboard (from years of sundamage leaving the not plastic dash with rips, tears and snags, and cracks in the foam backed vinyl padding used exclusively in vintage coaches), missing screens (which would be expected after 30 years), tire rot on the exterior as would be expected on any vintage coach from years of just sitting, sagging and soft counter tops (from years of water getting under and around the faucets in the kitchen and bathroom), smell of smoke, or any discomforting smells like mildew (as is almost always the case in a vintage coach).

NOTHING. I mean, absolutely NOTHING of the sort in this coach at all. In all seriousness and all total honesty, it was as if this coach was somehow frozen in time. Stuck still in 1978. As if it never left that year and time. As if it was still sitting on the sales lot brand new from the Foretravel factory. I couldn't find one thing wrong. Not one. I had never, in my life not seen at least one thing wrong or showing signs of age or disrepair. I had never walked over a vintage coach floor and felt soft spots up front. I hadn't seen upholstery that wasn't hideous, worn, torn or damaged in some form or fashion. There is almost at least one water spot on the ceiling, usually around the Air Conditioners of one of the ceiling vents. Not one thing. Nothing. Anywhere.

The more I couldn't find any thing wrong, the more I frantically looked for some the more Sammy, the previous owner smiled. The pride of ownership for 25 years beaming from his face. As I looked at his face, into his eyes, I knew this was a blessing. An enourmous blessing that only God could have arranged. I was being handed a coach that had been well taken care of beyond any I'd ever seen and trust me, I've seen hundreds and hundreds of vintage coaches over my 38 years of life yet I'd not seen a coach like this before. What makes it more amazing this coach had been on Craigs List here in Denver for quite a while, yet no one had taken it away yet.

We meet the proud owner of 25 years!

What a great guy! We had called before we came so the previous owner of the coach, Sammy, had owned this coach for a whopping 25 years. In that time he and his wife of 61 years (yeah, I know-if we all could be so blessed) had traveled to 48 of the 50 states in the coach. Had logged a total of 150,000 miles on the coach in that time. Saw many wonderful things and made countless memories in it. The georgeous solid Walnut walls wreaked of family history, births, deaths, life, sights, smells and wonderful love filled memories. It was like when you walk into your Grandparents home. That feeling of warmth overwhelmed you and without realizing it we were seated on the couch as if "home" from a long journey or as if we hadnt' visited our Grandparents for a long time. Sammy made us feel not just welcome to their second home but comfortable in a way that only a older man who'd seen as much as he and his wife had seen over their 80+ years.

He began first off by talking about he and his wife and thier many journeys in the coach, then about himself and his life, then wanted to know about us. Who we were, why were we intersted in his coach and why younger guys like us would be looking at this coach of all things. Did we know what a Foretravel was?

He was both shocked and amazed at my knowledge of vintage RVs, their overall impact on society even back then and what an honor and privelege it is to own such a marvelous man made accomplishment such as a vintage Foretrave Motorhome. High luxury for it's day and even today Foretravel Motorhomes are amung the most impressive Diesel Coaches I've ever been Blessed to see.

His questioning was nice. He wanted to make sure his coach went to a good home. Wanted to make sure it went to people who not only understoood the amount of money he'd invested in just the last three years on the coach, but the fact that it was more than just a motorhome for he and his wife, but their passion, their excape from their long years. In a sense, you must respect "my" coach, please. As if he even had to ask.

The First Time I Saw Her! Love at first sight if ever there was one!

It was October 2007 and I was in the process of selling my 1971 Dodge 270 Travco that we had just spent the last 10 months restoring back to its original condition. It was a labor of love for sure but it was time to move onto something bigger. It's not like I didn't enjoy the Travco, I did. It was a great coach, however when I saw the Foretravel posted on Craigs List for an astonishing $7500 including tow dolly I had to go see it. Well, this is where the story begins. Parked there in front of the owners house it was magnificent to say the least.

On the way there to look at the coach we hadn't even considered the expense (even though not a bad price at all) of another coach. We were just getting ready to start new jobs, had just moved to a temperary living situation and the last thing we needed was yet another coach. That was the thought on the way there to see the coach first hand.

We got there, rounded the corner of the house of the previous owner, camera in hand to just take pictures and save to my huge collection of vintage coaches when whatever previous thoughts we had suddenly vanished.