When we first started planning this whole adventure back in the Fall of 2019, we had all kinds of plans. We started making RV Park/Campground reservations in January. Six months out and we still had a hard time finding reservations near the National Parks!
We had planned to have a RV tour and to have a going away party with our friends, family, and the kids’ school friends. The boys were going to finish out the school year strong, go to the ice cream party that happened after school on the last day, and we would leave a few days after that.
Plans of course changed. Covid-19 delayed getting the RV, delayed our leaving, had us stocking up on masks for the trip, and then we had to reschedule and reroute several stops and/or campgrounds we had wanted to see.
We still want to share this adventure with our family and friends, so instead of an in-person, IRL tour, we are going to do a quick virtual tour. Here is the link to YouTube! We are still making changes as we settle into the RV.
The dog is not adjusting quite as quickly as I had hoped. She was not a fan of the lack of carpet in the RV, even though her bed is super plush. To help her with the hard and slippery surface of the linoleum floor, we put down the foam mats that were originally in the kids area in basement of the house.
It just slid past midnight as I write this, so I guess it’s technically Friday. I am exhausted. “Of course you are”, you may be thinking, “it’s late, go to bed.” I am actually laying in bed writing this on my phone. It’s been a day; I can’t shut off yet.
Thursday started out with more clearing out of the house. The oldest still had school stuff in his backpack (wrappers, old assignments, etc.), toys were out in the basement, etc. We cleaned it up and made some progress on the house. I patched and painted, filled and spackled all the natural wear you don’t notice normally when living in a home, but will stick out when you go to sell it. Like all those pictures we took down or changed positions over the years.
After having a late lunch, we bought an RV.
What?! Wait! Go back.
Yup, we bought an RV today. Well, officially a travel trailer. We had a 2:30 pm walk-through.
We went through a dealer. I will go through why we picked this RV in a different post. I loved our sales guy Eddie. Now, I know sales guys are supposed to be friendly, but he answered texts and emails and didn’t seem to get frustrated with our thousand newbie questions. I’ve had sales people who just didn’t care. But, this was actually a pleasant experience.
We had looked at this RV a few times and had already negotiated the price. We ordered a few extra things and were waiting for them to come in before the walk-through/paper signing was scheduled.
The walk-through itself was interesting. Our sales guy was onsite, but the walk-through itself was done by the service department. At first the service guys seemed friendly. We had Nate and Tom. Tom, the trainee, had recently retired and was doing this as a post-retirement job. Nate was younger than us, but had lots of experience since he had been doing this since he was a kid. We also had John there as our inspector, who we had hired through the NRVIA (National Recreational Vehicle Inspector Association). We are going to be living in this full time for a year, so we wanted to make sure to catch anything obviously wrong with it before we signed the papers. The dealership did not seem happy that we brought in an inspector. They made a few little comments along the way. We went over the outside, we went over the inside, we opened drawers, we checked doors. We checked the second A/C unit we had installed, as well as the MaxxAir Fan in the bathroom we had upgraded. We asked questions and John taught us along the way. Tom also added a few things he had learned in his years of RVing. Nate was pretty quiet.
The walk-through is also called a PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection), which is a checklist the manufacturers want the dealers to go over before a sale. John informed us it is generally 1 piece of paper the manufacturers create.
We were there about 2 hours. Nate and Tom were getting antsy and tried to hurry us along, especially Nate. He was impatient and if he had been our salesperson, I may not have gone back for a second look at this dealership. He said things like “PDI’s normally only take 20 minutes” (we did tell the person who scheduled it that we were bringing an inspector), “You get a $50 voucher but it’s good for today only and the [dealer owned] store closes soon”, and finally “I want to get home…”.
We were almost done anyway, but it felt like they were really rushing us along.
One of the last items to be looked at was the roof. I was so glad John climbed up there. I am not looking forward to having to do that to check the seals. There were several spots that had bubbles, which when he pointed this out to the dealership guys, was told it was normal. We did get pictures of it thanks to John, and asked that it be noted on the dealer paperwork for the walk-through.
We finally met up with Eddie, our sales guy, when the walk-through was over. A friend of ours and my father-in-law drove over to be the lead and follow car for our caravan home. It was my first time driving anything being towed, so the extra help was extremely useful and appreciated. They also installed the back up camera while we were waiting on the finance part of things. (Thanks Dad and Doug!)
We mentioned the roof to Eddie and he called the local Keystone rep, who also said with the new roofs, that was normal. While Eddie dealt with a car sale and we waited for the finance department, I walked over to the store to spend my $50 credit and pick up the WeBoost we had ordered with the RV. John walked over with me and we talked a little bit there as well.
I had plenty of time before the store closed and picked up a couple of things that were on our list that we hadn’t bought yet.
The finance part of it was surprisingly easy. There was the normal GAP insurance sales pitch, but otherwise it was easier than when we bought the truck. Maybe it was because we had already negotiated the price of the RV before the walk-through and paper signing. Whatever the reason, it went pretty fast, and we were on our way home.
Now, Ben will tell you I did a great job. I think I did ok, but man you could hear my hands letting go of the steering wheel when I finally pulled it into our driveway and turned the truck off.
Our friend Doug stayed to help us level it in our driveway, which was an enormous help because the drive slants downward at the end.
Dad stayed to help install the new microwave in the house. When the house heard we were selling, the microwave and the garbage disposal quit out of defiance within weeks of each other.
After everything was done, I remembered to call John. He was going to send a report, but mentioned I could call him as well. He thought it was going to be a fine RV. He and his wife gave me lots of knowledge and advice they’ve learned through their journey. They were a very friendly and helpful couple.
What a day! It took 6 hours to get it inspected, purchased and parked in the driveway, but it felt like it flew by. I guess the nerves, stress and fear of messing up really accelerates time. Happy to be done…for now.
~Sarah
Shout out to Eddie Holmberg and John Addington ([email protected]): Thank you for making this such a great start to our journey!
