The DiGennaros: on the brink of full-timing

Outfitting the coach for full-timing

Before selecting a motorhome for full-timing — they were set on an Itasca by Winnebago — Paula and Nelson toured the factory several times.

Two toy poodles and a caged lovebird are their constant traveling companions, so they kept that in mind when evaluating floor plans.

They located a dealer in Homestead, Fla., that had the model they wanted: a 2006 Itasca Meridian with two slideouts.

“Paula insisted on having a wireless Internet connection and a big-screen TV, so I got to make sure we had a diesel pusher,” Nelson said.

The dealer worked with the DiGennaros on several options to make the Meridian more suitable to their needs, Paula said. For instance, a booth dinette was replaced with a custom-made computer workstation.

Then, Paula and Nelson went to work.

Across from the sofa, they replaced the overstuffed recliner with a 32-inch widescreen high-definition TV. And in place of the TV overhead in the driver’s compartment, they built bookshelves.

“We remodeled the bathroom too,” Paula said. “There weren’t enough medicine cabinets.”

Throughout the coach, they removed mirrors to allow more wall space for hanging items. Pictures are up. Community service awards are up. Die-cast cars, autographed by race car drivers, are on display. “It’s home now,” Paula said.

In all, they spent a year and approximately $10,000 to customize the coach to their liking.

Driving considerations

Nelson drives the motorhome while Paula prefers to work on the computer or tend to the pets. But on the way home from buying the motorhome, up in the mountains of West Virginia in their brand-new coach, a stark reality shook her.

“We’re driving along and Nelson comments, ‘You know, I really ought to talk with the doctor about the problems I’m having’ and I’m thinking, oh, maybe an infected toenail or something and he says he’s been perspiring a lot and having these pains in his arm. Within three weeks he was in the hospital having five bypasses.”

Nelson recovered, but his illness made Paula realize she should at least know how to stop the motorhome or get it off the road safely.

“It’s the idea that that’s how quick something can come up,” she said. “It was kind of scary in the hills of West Virginia to think, oh, this is good, we just bought a $200,000-plus unit and I don’t know how to stop the thing.”

At the Florida dealership, Paula had completed the written portion of a driving class. She never took the road test because she and Nelson had an appointment to sign the final paperwork completing the sale of the coach.

The length of the DiGennaros’ motorhome, with their black storage pod attached to the hitch, is about 40 feet. And much of the time, they tow a 2007 Saturn VUE using a tow bar.

Paula said she’s considering signing up for the RV Safe Driving Course, which is offered at FMCA international conventions and many FMCA area rallies.

Motorhoming to Alaska

Prior to the Itasca Meridian, Paula and Nelson traveled throughout North America in three smaller motorhomes.

In 1989 they took their 21-foot 1984 Winnebago Phasar, which had a four-cylinder engine, on a 45-day trip to Alaska. “I took all of our provisions, all of our food,” Paula said. “And let me tell you, we were overloaded. But we had a great time. The storage pod was a savior.”

During the trip, on the way to Dawson City in the Yukon, they came across a road called Dempster Highway. “Believe me, it was not a highway,” Paula said. “It was a two-lane, gravel, washboard road. There was a sign there that said, ‘No medical facilities for the next 450 miles.’ And Nelson and I looked at it on the map and said, ‘Next trip, we’re doing that.’ ”

Nine years later, in 1998, they did.

Dempster Highway begins about 25 miles east of Dawson City on the Klondike Highway and extends 457 miles to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. It was definitely a more rugged journey.

At this point they were traveling in their second coach, a 1989 Winnebago Chieftain. Twice they ferried across rivers. Once they had to be towed after getting stuck in a remote area; it took three days for an emergency road service truck to reach them because of a forest fire 10 miles away.

“Nelson kind of learned through me, vicariously, that going from point A to point B is not the most satisfying part of traveling in an RV. It’s the journey in between. That’s something RVers just have to get used to.”

Paula and Nelson plan to return to Alaska, but not all the way back up the Dempster Highway to Inuvik. They don’t want to put their new motorhome through that rugged type of terrain.

“We left a sign up in Sign Post Village [Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada], but we left room on the sign to add on dates of at least two or three more trips,” Paula said.

Planning an Alaska trip is half the fun, she added. “We planned our Alaska trips for years. The second one, in ’98, took a lot of planning. We didn’t carry as many provisions because we kind of knew the ways to do it at that point. “But the planning was just as exciting.”

The Winnebago Chieftain served them well on the Alaska trip and many others. All told, they logged 136,000 miles on it and replaced the original engine. When they traded it in the dealer told them it was the most mileage he had ever seen on an RV.

“Our belief was, and still is, if you have an RV you should use it,” Paula said. “Don’t let it sit by the garage. Get it out there and have fun with it. And we did.”