The Great Adventure
Following a debilitating back injury in the spring of 2021, I decided that my upcoming retirement would be a celebration of freedom and adventures — starting off with selling our home, paying off all debts and moving into a 5th wheel to try out the RV lifestyle, as I counted down the remaining months to retirement.
As soon as I was able to get back on my feet, it was off to find the perfect RV (something I promised my rather reluctant spouse, when discussing this idea for an ‘adventure’). We spent the first 2 months narrowing down our options, and after viewing one of our 3 top contenders we agreed to put down a deposit to reserve an incoming model.
A site to move the unit to was not as straightforward to locate, when we discovered that local RV sites were all booked up for months in advance. To accommodate the availability date we had to specify a delayed possession date for our house sale — thankfully an explosive real estate market allowed for a fast sale with all requests met and a great return.
It was with this sale that we were able to firm up a date for the purchase of our 5th wheel, as we were paying cash for this transaction (requiring the house sale to be completed first). When our sales rep notified us that one of the models we most wanted was incoming, we popped in to finally do an in-person viewing and subsequently brought in a deposit.
Our unit was expected to arrive just in time for our RV park reservations, so we began the process of downsizing, delegating some belongings to a storage locker, and donating plenty to local non-profits. Back surgery was arranged to be completed shortly before the adventure was due to begin…..we were set!
Or so we thought.
Everything seemed to be falling into place. Our house sale brought in such a windfall that we were able to decline the highest bid, instead opting to accept a lower offer that helped house a veteran who was in a bind. Our donations to the local Legion and Restore-It (Habitat For Humanity) organizations were significant, as our furniture would not fit into our storage locker. We felt like we were doing special things in our community!
Believing that this added to creation of good karma, we thought we were about to start an adventure of a lifetime. And so we were — just not at all the adventure that we were looking forward to.
With two weeks remaining before we were due to vacate our house, we finally were notified that our 5th wheel had arrived at the dealership, so we happily skipped off to finally view our new accommodations. That was to become one of the last moments of ‘great adventure’ happiness, as when we arrived on the lot there was no dream unit anywhere in sight!
There seemed to be confusion around what model we were meant to be looking for, as staff on duty brought us to a completely different unit (that we had never seen before) while the model we had viewed when leaving our deposit could not be found anywhere on the lot.
Thinking that there was a simple miscommunication as our own salesperson was not on duty when we arrived onsite, we headed back home to wait while this confusion was sorted out. A surprising call from the salesperson as we drove home informed us that the unfamiliar unit we had been shown was actually the one he “has in mind for us all along”!
He could not explain why he had shown us a model that we had expressed considerable interest in, advised us that he could help arrange a correction to the one small complaint we had with said model, and never mentioned any other model in the entire exchange — or subsequent wait of almost 3 months!
We were devastated. I felt like I aged 10 years in that one day — and now we had very little time to make a decision to ensure that the two of us and our 11 year old dog would not become homeless the day we vacated our house. Oh — and my back surgery to correct my injury was also scheduled in that two week window leading up to the move!
As I mentioned, an adventure of a lifetime. Just not at all the adventure that we were looking forward to.
NEXT UP: Living the RV Life
