Details on Our Big News

One of the weirder things about 2020, from my perspective, is how time seems to have compressed or collapsed in on itself. Things that happened last week seem to have happened months ago. Looking back on events in February 2020 feels more like looking back on 2019. Revisiting events of 2018 can sometimes feel like a lifetime ago. Anyhoo…

I’ve finally decided to stop trying to figure out the why behind everything and just start living, for better or worse. I’m going with the flow and trying to exercise a little faith. Fingers crossed my resolve lasts. As for those details, I figured it was about time I shared.

A Bit of Backstory

Hubby, Mike, has been counting-down to retirement for quite a while. When I asked him how long he’d been counting, he said “like, 11 years now.” For most of that time, I was not really paying attention to his countdown. I am much younger than him (he’s about 11.5 years older than me). As his retirement nears, we’ve started talking about what life will look like for us once that date hits about 68 weeks from now. It’s a good thing to talk about because his vision and mine were sorta different.

One thing we were both firmly on the same page about was buying an RV to replace our house. One day. We’ve been going to RV shows for the past couple of years, looking at the many different brands, sizes, and styles of motorhome, narrowing down the search. We each had some likes and dislikes. He had some must-haves (diesel engine, residential fridge, king-size bed, washer/dryer, and a dishwasher) and some nice-to-haves, like leveling jacks, generator, swiveling captains’ chairs, and tag axle). I didn’t have any must haves, but I was REALLY wanting a ceiling fan in the bedroom, a half-bath, and a dinette table with free-standing chairs instead of a dining booth.

Mike’s been looking at RVs, window-shopping as he says, since we started seriously discussing the nomad life. He saw one that was being offered at a good price, seemed to be in good shape, and, most importantly, had almost every feature he and I wanted.

He asked if I thought buying now would be a good idea. After all, the plan had always been to purchase one after we’d sold our house. We still own our house, but the way I see it, buying now will give us time to practice. We can just camp in the thing over random weekends for a while to figure out how stuff works, determine what we need/don’t need, get used to various types of camping, etc.

Long story short, I said yes. He ramped-up the negotiations and preparations, and, before we knew what had hit us, we were driving to Kentucky to pick up a big-ass, new-to-us RV.

Picking Up Our New-to-us RV

Relatively speaking, it all felt very spur-of-the-moment. From the time he started negotiating to the time we left to pick it up, only about two and a half weeks had passed. In that short span of time, he negotiated a deal we both felt comfortable with, purchased insurance, secured a loan, found an inspector, scheduled the inspection, reviewed the inspector’s report, requested some repairs, and pronounced the unit safe to purchase.

All I had to do was ponder some questions, deliver some answers, and figure out how to get away from work early enough on a Friday for the 8.5-hour drive to Kentucky.

I was excited to be able to take Belle along for the ride. She’s getting older, and I’d really like to have her with us to start this next chapter of our lives.

She did really well on the long drive south and west, and she settled right in on Saturday morning while the dealer’s tech was giving us a quick walk-through.

Truth be told, she doesn’t love riding in cars, and she’s only slept in a hotel once or twice, so she was probably exhausted from traveling the day before.

It is a 2016 Entegra Coach (make) Aspire 44B (model). Entegra is one of the higher-end brands, so it comes standard with a bunch of bells and whistles, including four slide-outs. I haven’t taken many interior pics yet, but here are some more views of the outside.

Oddly, we both remembered it having more red on the exterior. We were wrong, but I still think the paint scheme is pretty awesome.

Mike drove it like a pro, despite heavy downpours crossing a couple of the mountains and a faulty windshield wiper, which we didn’t discover until we hit said rainstorms.

It’s hard to tell how ginormous the thing is unless there’s something alongside of it for scale. As it happens, when we stopped at a rest stop to walk Belle, one of us snapped this pic with my Toyota RAV-4 parked behind the beast.

Our First Camp-out

Rather than drive the whole way home on Saturday, we stopped at a campground just outside of Wytheville, Virginia to spend the night.

And here we are sharing our first meal together in our new camper.

I did not cook, we just drove to a nearby Burger King. We’ve clearly fallen off the healthy eating wagon, but not for long!

All went well that night. We all slept just fine.  And the next morning, Belle and I said hello to the campground’s neighbors.

The drive the rest of the way home took about five hours, give or take. Mike continued driving the behemoth like a pro. I still have not ridden in the thing, unless you count going from our parking spot at the dealership to the propane tank.

I’d already planned a getaway with a girlfriend for the week of Labor Day, so we still haven’t had any other camping adventures. But we do plan on going camping next weekend.

That’s a pic with two of the slide-outs extended. I’ll get some interior pics next weekend when we are camping.

The paint job on the back-end is my favorite part. Maybe because I got to stare at it for hours on end while driving?

We’re pretty sure we will be buying a convertible car to tow along. I’m not sure why, but I haven’t really been into riding the bike lately. I’m just as happy cruising along in a zippy convertible. Time will tell whether we keep the bikes or not. Crazy, right? I never would have thought I’d be saying that at this point in my life, but 2020 has been such a weird year in so many ways.

I look forward to blogging again and sharing this next phase with those of you who still care to read.

Those of you in the CA-OR-WA fire zone and those nearby in Canada, stay safe! We are thinking of you and sending all kinds of positive vibes your way. Please take care. Perhaps by this time next year, or soon thereafter, some of us will be able to camp together.  Imagine all the campfire stories!