Finally, Our Dream Realized

Well, readers.  What do you think?  "R V Crazy?"  (Thanks, Marriah.)

Having made up our own minds that we are not, indeed, crazy,  we set about to making this dream come true. 

First step, find out what RV's are all about.  Lots of material available on the internet, but basically we learned that we had about 5 choices when it came to selecting a motor home, Class A (too big, like a bus), Class B (converted van, too small), Class C (just right size, meets our needs), 5th wheel trailer (never liked the idea of having a 30-35 foot tail on attached to the bed of a truck) and travel trailer (same objections as 5th wheel, except that it is attached to the end of the truck).

Next we checked out the safety rating of the various types of Class C homes (our preferred choice).  This material is available by manufacturer and model. Having picked out what we considered the safest models for our purpose we set out trying to see actual models.  We visited one dealer and saw what looked nice but the ones he showed us weren't up to par for our safety standards.

Fortunately there was a RV show scheduled in Greensboro about this time.  We were dazzled by all the shiny new coaches but were still concerned about safety and like cars, there is a huge depreciation on new models when you drive them off the showroom floor.  So, we decided we wanted a used, Winnebago Access, which was about 30 feet long and had a pretty decent floor plan (just like looking for a house or apartment.)

One of the wonders of the modern day world (in our old minds) is the internet.  Don't know how or why it works  but it does.  We managed to learn how to conduct a search for the perfect vehicle.  We found we could search by manufacturer, model, year, price range, location, private seller or dealer and many other features that didn't seem too imprtant to us at the time. 

The problem now was timing.  We planned for all of this to take place so that we could leave on our "Epic Journey" about the time we both retired in August, 2011.  So we just kept searching and seeing what was available and by looking at this on a regular basis we could identify how long some of these motor homes had been on the market.  It gave us a pretty good idea of what we did and didn't want.

Finally, it came time for us to consider actually purchasing a vehicle.  After we got a preliminary approval for financing from our credit union, we began searching in earnest.  We believe that God knew what we were doing and he put the perfect vehicle on the market at that time.  We found a used Winnebago Itasca Sundancer (very similar to the Access but with more features) in our price range, located in Rock Hill, South Carolina, only about 100 miles from home.

So, on a bright, sunny but cool, day in January, we made a road trip to Rock Hill so see this perfect vehicle.  We were thrilled with what we saw and immediately made arrangements to have the vehicle inspected so that we could be assured that there were no hidden flaws.  This perfect vehicle passed inspection with flying colors so we made a deal with the owner to take it off his hands.

Now came the hard part.  We went back to the credit union and had to jump through numerous hoops over a couple of weeks and finally got a loan approved.   Next, we had to get the seller's loan paid off and the title signed over to us.  Long story short, this took another couple of weeks and ended with another trip to Rock Hill on a Friday afternoon to get the seller to sign off.  FINALLY,  with all the paper work in place we were able to stop at the DMV in Charlotte and get our dream registered in our name.

Things still weren't going to be that simple.  We still had to find a place to store it and have some repairs made.  Again, we got past these minor hurdles and we were ready for our first trip.

When driving around locally, getting used to driving a truck and showing it off some, we got our first jolt of reality.  Filled the gas tank (55 gallons) and the pump stopped at $75 and still was nowhere near full.  Apparently the credit card companies or stations want to limit their exposure so they limit the amoun to be charged on a single purchase.  (As gas prices have continued to rise, that limit has gone up and is now about $100 at most stations.)  We had prepared ourselves for this so neither of us suffered a heart attack or even a panic attack.

Now we are legally registered, road worthy, and extremely eager to make our first trip. It was a long  struggke but certainly worth all the effort.  With these thing in mind, we christened our new (used) motor home with the name Finally.

Tune in for our next post which will tell you about our shakedown cruise and first solo and some of the lessons we learned, sort of the hard say.  We also hope to be adding pictures of some our stops and the people we are visiting.

Also note, a page with our itinerary has been added.

Let us hear from you all.