You are more than welcome, Ruth.  It was a pleasure and honor to meet both of you and the grandtwins.  While we've had the good fortune to meet some of the folks we "meet" online, there are many more that we hope to someday see in person. 

Now, I have a question, and if it embarrasses you to answer here, please answer in the form of a private message.  Was driving the F450 all that intimidating?  You certainly didn't seem to be bothered with it.  You both did quite well, considering that neither of you had ever driven a dually.

Congratulations on your new Suites and good luck on the search for your tow vehicle.  Oh, and congratulations on having two well-behaved grandchildren.

Terry

I agree..pulled a 14,000lb 5th wheel with my 08 Dodge dually and although it was very comfortable I would not have wanted to pull any more weight with that truck.

Do you recommend a long or short bed on the F450?

Terry - the F450 wasn't too intimidating on the back highway outside of Norman OK. I'm more concerned about driving it around the bigger cities and having to park it anywhere with tight parking. Luckily, I think I can leave most of that driving to Dale. Really do appreciate the chance to meet you and Jo, thanks for putting up with us!

Thanks everyone for all the advice on the F450, that's really the only option we're considering at this time due to needing to carry an extra 1K of weight in the truck for all the art show stuff. Can't really imagine a bigger truck than that for the art shows we do, we already have some shows where bringing our current Tundra into the show is a really tight fit so anything much bigger than an F 450 would require us to dolly into shows which really adds to the time and effort, not to mention wear and tear on our bodies.

Terry - thanks again, BTW, you made my husband chuckle when you mentioned our "well behaved grandtwins!" They certainly have their moments, as all kids do.

We certainly want to avoid large city driving as much as possible, but 2 of our best shows in 2012 were in the Bay area, one in Silicon Valley, one just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, the shows were good enough that if we could find 8-10 more that were that good, we would reduce the number of shows we do per year, so, as much as we'd like to avoid the traffic, we can't always do that and make a living. We do try to plan that part of the driving for times when traffic is lighter, this past year we managed to drive in between rush hours or on a Sunday and will continue to take that into account as we plan our art shows and associated travel.

We're still debating the second vehicle, right now, with my regular job, as long as we're somewhere with data / cell signals, I can sometimes work in the cab of the truck while Dale does the driving. Saves my vacation days for the fun times as well as the art shows and enables us to change locations between art shows without my losing time at work. Driving a second vehicle would definitely change that part of our work schedule.

I'm sure we'll find the right balance for us and our lifestyle, it may look a bit different or appear to be crazy to others, but I think that's why Howard & Linda have one of their RV Rally Seminars entitled "There's no right way to full time" or something along those lines!!