10th October 2016 - RV shopping day

With help from David we'd identified some local trailer/RV retailers. The plan was to start at the largest one, Flagg, and walk around as many different models, sizes and styles as possible.  This worked perfectly. We weren't bothered by a salesperson and the RVs on the lot were all unlocked so we just let ourselves in and spent at least an hour getting a feel for the differences.  We quickly noted issues with storage space in some, living space in others and started looking at larger and larger mobile homes! RV may stand for Recreational Vehicle but we were looking for something to be comfortable in as our full-time home for the next 9 months, not something just to use on the odd weekend away. When we finally spoke to a salesman he gave us a tour of one of the RVs and gave us an insight into the basics that we should expect from any we might want to seriously consider – useful for a couple of novices like us!  For example, you need a separate generator to provide electricity when you don’t have the option of plugging in, the size of water tanks that would meet our demands and of course, the slide-out! We had noticed the popularity of these on the internet at home and I don't think we saw an RV without one – the basic and genius idea of being able to expand your living space at the touch of a button without having to drive the largest bus on the road, awesome!  You don’t need to have just the one slide-out…. You can have several!  Your bedroom can expand, your living room area, your kitchen space…. Many options.  Though our concern was - the more electrically operating slide-outs you have, the more potential for things to go wrong with the mechanisms etc.  We had a budget in mind and a limit to the funds from our house sale.  Thankfully it became clear that we would be able to afford an RV, however, the more space and gizmos we wanted on it would decide whether we took it to the maximum that we could afford.  Our Political timing was also poor, the value of the British pound being rock bottom post-Brexit was going to make the transaction more expensive.  Here's an example of one we liked at Flagg:

We had agreed we would never agree any purchase on the first day but we started to get an idea of how much we would need to spend and what age of vehicle we wanted for our trip.  After leaving Flagg we looked at an RV at an independent, smaller business. We loved the model, a Sunseeker, but were concerned about buying from a small business - without the back-up of a warranty or the chance of being able to re-sell the RV back to them on our return.  Here's the Sunseeker (spot the difference!):

We then headed into the neighbouring State, New Hampshire, towards another larger, RV business, ‘Campers Inn’.  It was en-route that we experienced our first contact with American law enforcement! In keeping up with the flow of traffic, Simon was pulled over for speeding, along with the female driver he was following behind! Thankfully, by being apologetic and explaining that we were new to US roads the Officer issued Simon with a warning notice rather than any ticket or fine.  There is video footage…. Me being incredulous that Simon had managed to upset the law within barely 24 hours of setting foot in the Country – quite an achievement! Luckily, we still managed to make it to Campers Inn with just enough time to meet salesman Joe, an ex NYPD cop who still can't believe that Police in the U.K don't all carry guns.  Campers Inn had a very large range of brand new trailers for sale, basically oversized caravans, that are extremely popular here.  It appears that the first choice for life on the road is to use your powerful American truck to tow a trailer to your chosen campsite and then you can use your truck for local travel whilst the trailer stays put. We briefly considered this option but it was beyond our price bracket along with the fact we would have to find, register and buy TWO vehicles instead of one.  These trailers must be seen to be believed, if money was no object you could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Slide-outs galore, satellite TV dish, jacuzzi… they looked like mobile 5-star hotel rooms.  But for us, a single RV unit would make more sense if we were moving on every day or so.  We explained our intentions to Joe and he showed us three self-contained campers on or near our price range.  Our earlier research paid off and between us we seemed to realise which one would suit our needs best.  The main problem was that it was out of our price range, and I was also a little nervous about it being 30 feet in length causing us difficulty driving and parking.  But the Countrymen Freelander 29KS we’d found was immaculate inside and only had 3800 miles on the clock despite being two years old. 

We sat down with Joe and had an honest discussion.  In our research before leaving the UK I’d read that you really need to haggle when buying from one of these dealers and you never accept the list price.  We levelled with Joe, we were interested in the Freelander but what money could he get off it to make it affordable for us? He disappeared to talk to his Finance Manager…. he may have just walked round the block, I don’t know.  But when he returned he had sliced $15,000 off the list price!  Still over budget, but it was amazing how much room there was.  We pushed it a bit further, could he round it down to the nearest 10000 dollars?  Two minutes later, yes, they could do that.  Joe wanted to help us out and cut a deal and we had also agreed that on our return from our travels Campers Inn would gladly re-sell the Freelander for us.  As per our agreement at the start of the day Simon and I thanked him, took the paperwork and left, explaining that we needed to go away and do some sums.

Our minds were buzzing on the journey back to Westford. As with all major life decisions, it’s always best to sleep on it, so that’s what we agreed to do.  And to discuss it with Tash and David for second opinions.  Sadly, they’d had a shocker of a day.  Their eldest daughter, Eleri, had been feeling under the weather when we arrived and had been uncharacteristically quiet.  A trip to the doctors that day had confirmed that she had pneumonia and so her parents were understandably concerned.  Our deliberation over which RV we might buy was trivial in comparison, but bless them they still happily listened to our dilemma before we all succumbed to tiredness and called it a night.