How did we get here? Part 2...
Yay! We are buying an RV!!! Whoohoo! Now what? What kind? How big? How much? Where do we go? By this time, we have been recording and binge-watching all of the RV shows. Going RV, Big Time RV, Buying RVs, we've seen every episode twice (at least). I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted a comfort coach with all the bells and whistles something along the lines of a Prevost Emperor Sauna Suite, but as usual, Rickey had to reign me in and let's face it, I probably couldn't afford the down payment on a Prevost but goodness, they are fun to explore. WOW. It's hard to imagine that you could have such luxurious accommodations on wheels but back to reality it was and back to the search for our first RV.
My vision for our family was to have a coach, a diesel pusher with a tow vehicle (this is often referred to as a "toad") where you can see the world from the big windows, make a sandwich while on the road and not have to stop for all of the potty stops along the way. Rickey had a different idea altogether. Since we were just starting out, he felt it was important to dip our toe into RV'ing with a towable or a bumper-pull rig. At first, I said, "forget it." Pulling a trailer was far from the Prevost I've been dreaming of and I was not trading all of our vacations (which often included high-end hotels and pampering amenities) for a camper trailer. Rickey contended that he did not want to purchase "two more engines" to maintain (the coach and the toad). By now, we've talked about camping and RV travel for months and Greyson was so excited about the possibilities. I knew I couldn’t squash idea and I'd need to compromise. That is exactly what I did.
Getting serious about options, we prioritized the importance of features. While I was compromising FAR from the luxury coach, I was adamant that if I was uncomfortable, I wouldn't like it and wouldn't want to go; however, we both agreed that priority number one was space for all of our kids. Now the big brothers have graduated college and starting their own careers and beyond, we knew it would be impossible for them to come with us on all of our trips but we wanted space for them when their schedules allow. A bunkroom made sense. Greyson is at the age where friends could come camping and having dedicated space for him and room for others was important to us. Size/weight was also important. We had a nearly new Ford 150 with great pulling power and wanted to use it for our towing vehicle. With these ideas in mind, we started shopping.
One of the first dealerships we visited was in Katy while visiting Nick in Houston. This lot was coach-heavy so we peeked in several. The first one was a Fleetwood 40G. I was giddy. It wasn't a Prevost but it was NICE. Very well-equipped and had a pseudo bunk room that was bigger than the side-wall "closet-style" bunks I'd seen on TV. It had everything I could want. High-gloss tile floors, a dishwasher, washer/dryer and a large U-shape dinette that I could already see our family playing games around. We saw another that had a high-end feel but the bunks dropped down over the living area which was a little odd and would be bothersome if you had kids that needed to hit the hay while you wanted to relax or cook in the main space. I was starry-eyed as we perused the lot but it was not what we agreed on and I knew I had to reel it back in, AGAIN.
We hit the trail in the metroplex over the next few weeks. One of the earlier trips during the summer of 2017, we scoured a lot in Denton. Greyson had a toy lizard that he loved and happened to have it with him. He left it in one of the trailers. Oh my. If you have ever walked these lots in the Texas SUMMER, you know how blazing hot it is. Amplify that by retracing your steps through trailers that begin to look the same to find a silly toy. You want to persevere but it's HARD.
Over the next few months, we covered a lot of ground at dealerships and even attended a RV show in Dallas. RV shows are fun. There are many styles and brands to sample and sales teams ready to answer questions. Just attending these shows, you can feel a sense of community with the shoppers. Patrons are eager to tell you about experiences and the RVs they own and stories of how they came to be here too. As we began to ask more questions and see more varieties of rigs our preferences really started to take shape. We also recognized that the information we were receiving from sales teams differed greatly from the personal experiences of owners, especially in the area of TOWING capcity. It was becoming painfully clear that we did not have a truck large enough to pull our desired options. Ugh. Rickey and I would discuss our preferences and needs and I would go back to wanting a coach and we began to bicker. We were both getting tired and discouraged. We made the decision to buy an RV but the process was bigger than we thought. At one point, I thought we should just forget the idea altogether but then there was Greyson. He just wanted to go camping. We had to take a break, regain our composure and figure out how we were going to make this happen.