Ok, So We Bought a Motorhome - Now What Do We Do?

As you can read from the title, we’ve bought an RV.   That’s exciting news in and of its self. But how did we get to this point?  It’s really not a long story.  Almost spontaneous, in fact, and probably not very well thought out.  

Both Chris and I are at crossroads about what to do as we grow older.  Being opposites, we can never agree on much.   I find myself getting more and more bogged down with work while Chris is more and more relaxing into full retirement.   We have thought about selling our home and being debt free so we can be more spontaneous, but I am still committed to my career and retirement is not imminent.    Early retirement means selling the house, but then what?  “Hey, we both said, “if we had an RV, we’d always have a place to live”.   And its true, no matter what comes up – if we sell the house or I quit my job, and life changes – we can always be camper kids.   

We did not do a lot of shopping around.  We looked at a 1992 Class C motorhome this spring that was for sale on Bowen and we really liked it.  Good shape, low mileage etc – but we didn’t pursue it. Do we really need a motorhome?   We talked about how there are many RV’s from the '80's and the 90’s that are in great shape, they are just cheaper because they are simply old.   No matter how nice it is, the sheer fact that it's old drives the price down.  People with these RV’s often just want to get rid of them, and not necessarily because there is anything wrong with them.  The point is, there are a lot of nice ones out there, and if you're willing to watch the market and be patient, you might get lucky. 

That's what we did.   I was browsing the internet last month on Kijiji, and came across a similar model to the one we saw on Bowen, but this one was in Langley.  Chris humored me and we went to look at it.  Inside was like new.  We didn’t even check out the engine, we bought it:  a 1992 28ft  Tioga Monterra, Fleetwood with $120,000 kms on it and the price was right at $9k.  We paid cash.  It's done!   

Now, we are sure there will be things come up that will need to be fixed.  It's got brand new class E tires and a new fuel pump.   I'm sure there are brittle pipes that will break, etc.  These things happen in old models.  We will deal with it.  Interior-wise – there is nothing to be done – even the upholstery is like new – and all appliances and furnace etc work fine.

We got her home and she has been in the driveway until today.  She is now out back near the pond and boat shed.  We are fortunate we have the space to park it.  We never, in a million years, thought that we'd make use of our space for "RV parking"   It's a miracle that Chris  and I are still speaking after the stressful nail-biting scenario of me directing him back between the house and the fence and the driveway.   He did it – nothing damaged. 

So what now?  Well, likely we will take it to Campbell River next year and park it for a few months.  Chris can tow his boat (it has a brand new trailer hitch for towing) and spend the summer fishing like he enjoys and I can come up on the weekends or days off.  A summer getaway.  Not sure if we would go south to the USA in winter. I don’t fancy it myself.

There you have it. Go figure, eh!