Good Sam Camping Blog » Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie, or Farewell Crusty Hotel Bedspreads, Hello RV!

Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie, or Farewell Crusty Hotel Bedspreads, Hello RV!

Posted By Patti F. On November 4, 2010 @ 8:17 pm In Preparation & Readiness,Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Flying in sardine cans and paying exorbitant rates for the privilege of sleeping under some guy’s dead skin cells (even in good hotels) had long ago lost their charm; yet, the longing for our grandkids was overwhelming. The solution was to buy an RV: our schedule, our food, our dirt. Class B vans seemed a good way to go until we poked our heads into one. We pictured the three of us bellying up against each other all the way to Montana and passed. Our teen has a four foot wingspan, I kid you not.

A different salesman endured our brilliant Class C questions. Class C’s seem like football fields compared with Class B’s. I got a wild hair and drove a Class C monster. I actually did a great job; the white knuckled sales rep said so. It seemed perfect until we discovered it’d cost us a couple hundred a month for five thousand months. Don’t think so.

^[1]

Heeeere's Patti!

Last, we dutifully trudged beside a rep determined to show us every gargantuan 5^th wheel on the lot. Those things are incredible; cathedral ceilings, marble fireplaces, and disco dance floors. OK, maybe no disco dance floors. But, an affordable 5^th wheel did seem perfect. Then we realized we’d have to buy a mammoth truck just to tow it. I personally could have analyzed RV purchases forever, but after weeks of looking, I could see burnout in Ray’s bleary eyes; he’d had it.

We ultimately bought a Jayco travel trailer, putting our beleaguered sales rep on permanent bed rest in the process. We also made helpful internet ‘RV forum’ friends along the way. If I ever know anything, I want to help new RVers , too.

Check in with me next week for the results of “the walk-through.” My husband, Ray (a saint and genius, but he’d never even been in an RV until our search), plans on operating every feature of our new trailer alongside a techie who’s done thousands of pre-delivery inspections and is desperate to get home for ribs. My job is to take notes on every word he says. I can tell you right now, whatever they pay that guy, it won’t be enough.

Turned out getting our first RV wasn’t a snap, but now all that’s left is conquering black water. Piece a cake…doncha think?

Last 5 posts by Patti F.

Patti’s Saga of a Former RV Rookie :Give a Mother’s Day gift she’ll really like: an iPad docking station. ^[8] - May 2nd, 2012
Patti Faustini: How you can benefit from the Eastern Montana/North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom, Part 3: housing and cost of living ^[9] - February 9th, 2012
Patti Faustini: How you can benefit from the Eastern Montana/North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom: Part 2 (Two Sides to Every Coin). ^[10] - February 5th, 2012
Patti Faustini: Part 1 of How you can benefit from the Eastern Montana/North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom: There's oil and jobs! ^[11] - January 30th, 2012
Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Christmas Eve Salad, Tlaquepaque style… ^[12] - November 28th, 2011

^[13] ^[14] ^[15] ^[16] ^[17] ^[18] ^[19] ^[20]

Article printed from Good Sam Camping Blog: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com

URL to article: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/11/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv/

URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Patricia1.jpg
[2] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie, How to Eliminate…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2010/11/pattis-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-how-to-eliminate-blackwater-problems/
[3] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: “The RV Lot: Do’s…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/02/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-%e2%80%9cthe-rv-lot-paradise-not/
[4] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: “Ode to a Salesrep:…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/02/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-%e2%80%9code-to-a-salesrep-here%e2%80%99s-to-the-good-ones-%e2%80%9d/
[5] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Benefits and Liabilities of…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/10/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-benefits-and-liabilities-of-rv-consignment/
[6] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Lose 55 pounds in ten…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/01/pattis-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-lose-55-pounds-in-ten-minutes-for-149-00/
[7] Contextual Related Posts: http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/contextual-related-posts/
[8] Patti’s Saga of a Former RV Rookie :Give a Mother’s Day gift she’ll really like: an iPad docking station.: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2012/05/pattis-saga-of-a-former-rv-rookie-give-a-mothers-day-gift-shell-really-like-an-ipad-docking-station/
[9] Patti Faustini: How you can benefit from the Eastern Montana/North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom, Part 3: housing and cost of living: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2012/02/patti-faustini-how-you-can-benefit-from-the-eastern-montananorth-dakota-bakken-oil-boom-part-3-housing-and-cost-of-living/
[10] Patti Faustini: How you can benefit from the Eastern Montana/North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom: Part 2 (Two Sides to Every Coin).: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2012/02/patti-faustini-how-you-can-benefit-from-the-eastern-montananorth-dakota-bakken-oil-boom-part-2-two-sides-to-every-coin/
[11] Patti Faustini: Part 1 of How you can benefit from the Eastern Montana/North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom: There's oil and jobs!: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2012/01/patti-faustini-how-you-can-benefit-from-the-eastern-montananorth-dakota-bakken-oil-boom-part-1/
[12] Patti’s Saga of an RV Rookie: Christmas Eve Salad, Tlaquepaque style…: http://blog.goodsamcamping.com/2011/11/patti%e2%80%99s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-christmas-eve-rv-salad-tlaquepaque-style%e2%80%a6/
[13] Image: http://slashdot.org/bookmark.pl?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F&title=Patti%E2%80%99s+Saga+of+an+RV+Rookie%2C+or+Farewell+Crusty+Hotel+Bedspreads%2C+Hello+RV%21
[14] Image: http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F&title=Patti%E2%80%99s+Saga+of+an+RV+Rookie%2C+or+Farewell+Crusty+Hotel+Bedspreads%2C+Hello+RV%21
[15] Image: http://reddit.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F&title=Patti%E2%80%99s+Saga+of+an+RV+Rookie%2C+or+Farewell+Crusty+Hotel+Bedspreads%2C+Hello+RV%21
[16] Image: http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F&title=Patti%E2%80%99s+Saga+of+an+RV+Rookie%2C+or+Farewell+Crusty+Hotel+Bedspreads%2C+Hello+RV%21
[17] Image: http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F
[18] Image: http://technorati.com/faves?add=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F
[19] Image: http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&output=popup&bkmk=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F&title=Patti%E2%80%99s+Saga+of+an+RV+Rookie%2C+or+Farewell+Crusty+Hotel+Bedspreads%2C+Hello+RV%21
[20] Image: http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.goodsamcamping.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fpatti%25e2%2580%2599s-saga-of-an-rv-rookie-or-farewell-crusty-hotel-bedspreads-hello-rv%2F&title=Patti%E2%80%99s+Saga+of+an+RV+Rookie%2C+or+Farewell+Crusty+Hotel+Bedspreads%2C+Hello+RV%21

Click here to print.