Oh My, the decision to buy a RV NOW seemed so spontaneous, yet there is nothing spontaneous about Nomad. We have talked about RV'ing ever since our children were small. But about a week ago Nomad mentioned maybe would should get an RV. WoW! It didn't take me long to run with all the possibilities of place to go and experiences waiting out there to be experienced. And run I did, dragging my willing Nomad right along with me...This is a post to journal our process to figure out what our first RV should be.
It took us three days of hitting all the RV dealers up and down I-25 between Denver and Fort Collins. It's amazing how much the sales tactics vary from one to the next. And something that we discovered for ourselves that the better the RV product the nicer the sales person. We now know that a good product sales it's self and the inferior product seems to need the unscrupulous sales person, the creepy time. This may seem like a no brainier, which it is, however I give most people the benefit of the doubt. And we did like the 'inferior' products, they were excellent RV's. We did seriously think about them as being a possibility. They were an excellent product at their price point, however the sales person wasn't so trustworthy. It was so obvious that some of the sales people were giving us a lot of lip service. If the sales person gives us iffy info, we could only think of what the after sale service might look like.
Between the first two days we climbed and explored every ultra lite and short travel trailer and a few small motor homes. Each day my Fitbit recorded well over 10k steps and by the end of the day we would go home. There Nomad would unwind with his news double time through the TV and multimedia. And, there I was in the middle of all the brochures scattered around me and the laptop, I was on a mission to find out about each travel trailer (TT) was worthy of being in the running. No matter how hard I tried to keep everything neat and organized so when we got home I could recall everything from the day..it didn't happen and it never does. Thank You! for my Nomad who remembers details. While I was scattered all over the place he helped me to focus as we discussed and eliminated all of what we saw and experienced.
After what seemed like hours of sorting & sifting, we were able to narrow our search to two dealers. We loved their product as much as they did. We sat side by side on our couch with four TT. Each had something we loved, wanted or needed. The price points were all in the same range. It seemed being able to determine with TT would be the right one seemed impossible. Once, I took out the fear of choosing wrong and replaced it with faith a huge pressure was taken off. With Nomads feet stretch out on the couch and mine on the table we played the house buying game. We looked at the four as I asked, "Which one is a no?" then boom! in a matter of 30 seconds of elimination we were left with the best TT for us. Yeah!
My excitement was undeniable and Nomad just sat there as his mind started working on all that we (he) needed to do. The fun part was over and the serious part was coming into sight. And he went to work inside his mind, and he was lost to me for awhile while he processes all of it. And me? I am the Mystic and my mind wonder off into the future, then I started the planning and research what we need to get to make our first RV camping an awesome one. He had his work and I had mine.
I had my rose colored glasses on about buying a RV, but Nomad did not. He knew, well I did too but I kinda skirted some of the obstacles 'cause they were kinda downers. In my perfect world wearing my rose color glasses I saw us buying our beloved first travel trailer and bringing it home the same day, just like buying a new car. Nope, it didn't happen, ugh!
My Nomad had to burst my bubble and remind me, like he does, of all the things we had to do first, oh phooey.
The Action Plan:
It took us three days of hitting all the RV dealers up and down I-25 between Denver and Fort Collins. It's amazing how much the sales tactics vary from one to the next. And something that we discovered for ourselves that the better the RV product the nicer the sales person. We now know that a good product sales it's self and the inferior product seems to need the unscrupulous sales person, the creepy time. This may seem like a no brainier, which it is, however I give most people the benefit of the doubt. And we did like the 'inferior' products, they were excellent RV's. We did seriously think about them as being a possibility. They were an excellent product at their price point, however the sales person wasn't so trustworthy. It was so obvious that some of the sales people were giving us a lot of lip service. If the sales person gives us iffy info, we could only think of what the after sale service might look like.
Between the first two days we climbed and explored every ultra lite and short travel trailer and a few small motor homes. Each day my Fitbit recorded well over 10k steps and by the end of the day we would go home. There Nomad would unwind with his news double time through the TV and multimedia. And, there I was in the middle of all the brochures scattered around me and the laptop, I was on a mission to find out about each travel trailer (TT) was worthy of being in the running. No matter how hard I tried to keep everything neat and organized so when we got home I could recall everything from the day..it didn't happen and it never does. Thank You! for my Nomad who remembers details. While I was scattered all over the place he helped me to focus as we discussed and eliminated all of what we saw and experienced.
After what seemed like hours of sorting & sifting, we were able to narrow our search to two dealers. We loved their product as much as they did. We sat side by side on our couch with four TT. Each had something we loved, wanted or needed. The price points were all in the same range. It seemed being able to determine with TT would be the right one seemed impossible. Once, I took out the fear of choosing wrong and replaced it with faith a huge pressure was taken off. With Nomads feet stretch out on the couch and mine on the table we played the house buying game. We looked at the four as I asked, "Which one is a no?" then boom! in a matter of 30 seconds of elimination we were left with the best TT for us. Yeah!
My excitement was undeniable and Nomad just sat there as his mind started working on all that we (he) needed to do. The fun part was over and the serious part was coming into sight. And he went to work inside his mind, and he was lost to me for awhile while he processes all of it. And me? I am the Mystic and my mind wonder off into the future, then I started the planning and research what we need to get to make our first RV camping an awesome one. He had his work and I had mine.
I had my rose colored glasses on about buying a RV, but Nomad did not. He knew, well I did too but I kinda skirted some of the obstacles 'cause they were kinda downers. In my perfect world wearing my rose color glasses I saw us buying our beloved first travel trailer and bringing it home the same day, just like buying a new car. Nope, it didn't happen, ugh!
My Nomad had to burst my bubble and remind me, like he does, of all the things we had to do first, oh phooey.
- Needed a break controller put on our SUV,(we already had the hitch ;)
- Find a place to store it. (not a fun task, everything was full)
- It had to be cleaned before they would give it to us. (which is a good thing)
- We had to go through the walk through, just like with buying a new house.
- Listen and learn everything about our new RV. (yikes! info over-load!)
The Action Plan:
- Started making numerous calls to find a secure place to store our RV. The list happened :-)
- Made an appointment to have the brake controller to be installed
- Next, we went back to the RV dealer and closed the deal.
- Went to the RV storage facility to get our spot.
- Googled for RV list of essentials
- Price compared RV & camping supplies online.
- Drove around town to see what the camping supply scene looks like near us. (dismal :)
- Ordered our initial essentials for our TT.
Then it was hurry and wait for the RV to become ready, supplies to arrive and the break controller to be installed. It was time to rest...
Well, not so fast! We then started sifting through all our stuff from around the house that we could use (fill) our camper with. The only things we had to buy for our dry run camp out were some soup bowls, pillows and small set of pots/pans. Yeah!
We knew going into this that our investment into this adventure would be more than just the cost of the travel trailer. However, I was expecting it to be a lot more. I feel all the time we spent on searching for the best and really thinking "do we need vs do we want" paid off. We have stayed in a couple of cabins and vacation rentals with only a basic kitchen and we did fine. As I was feeling up our list of needs/wants, I did keep in mind of weight. I was adamant to keep our belongs (junk) to a minimum and I think we did. Now, the outside stuff well a generator is just heavy, folding chairs, portable drill, bbq and other odds ends can add up pretty quickly. However, we are confident that we are still well below our comfort weight. Again another yeah!
Look Out! Here we come, the Mystic & the Nomad are out and about as we join the amazing RV world!
