Wed, January 19, 2022
6:30 am
Well, Gini has been scouring the used RV listings of CraigsList, Facebook, and anyplace else she could find somebody selling an RV and has located one!
Unfortunately, it's in Coburg, Oregon (a half-dozen miles north of Eugene), which is—according to Google maps—an easy five-hour drive. Robert, who used to live in Oregon says, "It's more a six-hour-really-boring drive."
Which is how we ended up piling into Gini's car in the dark and taking off down the road. At least we'll miss rush hour...
8:30 am
We did miss rush hour, but boy, we sure didn't escape the rain. It was supposed to be cloudy, but no rain today. Ha. It's varying between drizzling and light downpour (we're from the Pacific Northwest, we can describe 32 different types of rainfall).
It's exactly the sort of rain that causes every car (and truck!) on the road to have a giant roostertail that makes it delightful to drive behind.
12:01 pm
Robert estimated our arrival at Noon. "Noon o'clock plus one minute!" . Gini points out that this is a dealership and they stay open all day, but Robert is so busy patting himself on the back he's in danger of dislocating his shoulder.
Anyway we're here and ready to check out this RV!
Our RV in its natural environment
1:00 pm
We really have little idea of how to evaluate the suitability of an RV, so we just clamber through looking at everything and trying to nod knowledgably (Robert flips every switch, and makes a satisfied sound, even when nothing apparently happens).
Now it's time for the test drive!
We get the RV out on the Freeway and notice right away that we are encouraged to keep our speed at 65 MPH, because above that the entire front end begins to shake like it's been entered in a polka contest. The dealer mentioned that the front end needed alignment and promised to have that done at the same time he replaced the tires.
We think our spines may need alignment, also...
On the way back, a black pickup truck pulls alongside us. The driver is frantically waving at us.
Well, hello, fellow traveler! A pleasant day, yes? We're happy you appreciate our stylish vehicle! We give him a cheery thumbs up and continue.
Gini suggests we might want to pull over and, just for fun, see if there's anything that might have prompted all that frantic waving. Robert reluctantly concedes.
Oh look--our on-board batteries (apparently, we have two) have slid out of their little compartment and are enjoying the view! This doesn't seem safe, but we can't get the latches to work, so we pretend it's a feature. Air-cooled batteries!
We do ask the dealer to maybe make the batteries stay on-board...
9:00 pm
We agreed to purchase the RV (at this point unnamed) and Robert spent an hour trying to transfer money for the deposit using some high-tech bibble-de-bobble, which involved sitting on hold for 45 minutes and then getting hung up on. Gini finally just wrote a check. for the deposit
It'll be a week or two until we take delivery, but we're excited! And terrified! We just spent $30,000 on a 25 year-old RV! And neither of us knows anything about RVs!
What could go wrong?