Yes, yes, I think our being locked up for a year has driven us crazy! We decided to buy one of these

Now don’t get me wrong, we still have the boat, but after we spent a full summer down here in the heat and captivity, we decided we wanted to spent a little more time up where it is a little cooler but we also didn’t want to wear out our welcome at our home base.

If you don’t know, RV’s, of a reasonable price, are very hard to come by in these days of Covid. Gary did his usual search for many, many months before we were fortunate to found this one.

We did find another one that was practically identical to this one but it was on the East Coast. We wanted to check that one out….that was quite a trip.

We called the owner and asked if we could see it. We told him we were very interested in buying and then told him where we were coming. He told us it was at his brothers house and that he would let his brother know we were coming. Little did we know he wasn’t even in the state!

So we hop in the car and do our 3 1/2 hour trek to see this RV. We finally get there and see the RV on the side of the road, partway in a ditch. That’s kind of weird. You’d think they’d have it someplace we could really check it over. There was a bush close to the rv so we wouldn’t be able to open the slide all the way. Well we get out of our car and start checking the thing out expecting someone to come out of the house and meet us. When no one came, Gary finally called the brother whose house we were at. He apparently didn’t know we were coming. He told us he was not far away and would be there soon.

Eventually another guy comes out of the house. He is the nephew of the guy selling the RV. He knew nothing of us coming either but he did have the keys. He went inside to get them. In the mean time the brother showed up, pulling a boat that had a ‘For Sale” sign on it with another truck following him. He stops by us and wanted to know how serious were were because he was busy making a sale on his boat. Gary told him we just drove 3 1/2 hours to see it. Oh! Well, he’d help us as soon as he got done with the boat sale. What???? Maybe we should just go. As we were pondering whether to just go or stay, the nephew comes out with the keys, apologizing, “I can show you around”. I ask him why his Uncle is selling it, his says just his uncle used it used it only once and decided he didn’t like it. We asked him where his uncle was, he didn’t know and he didn’t know when he’d be back. He opens all the doors so we can check it out. When we try to push the slide out a little we find out the battery is dead. The nephew dinks around with the battery for a little, decides it must be dead and then goes in his garage and comes out with another battery. He hooks that up but apparently that one is dead too. (we found out when we bought our current one that there is a batter shut off switch that just needed to be switched LOL). So anyway, he goes back in the garage to get a generator. While he is doing that, Gary and I are checking out this thing. It is packed with a bunch of useful stuff. A lot of it brand new, still in it’s original packaging. This is looking better and better for the price, providing everything else checks out.

The nephew gets a generator out of the garage and trys to start it. While he is doing that, the brother of the guy selling the RV comes over and starts talking to Gary. While they are having their conversation I am watching the nephew. He’s pulling and pulling and pulling on that generator and nothing is happening. He is eventually huffing and puffing. I’m standing there watching him….I’m thinking “I bet there is no gas in it”. Sure enough, the light bulb eventually goes off in the nephew’s head and he checks the gas, nope, no gas. He apologizes some more and offers to go get gas. By this time we are thinking maybe this stuff is stolen, this whole cituation is really weird. No body calls anybody by their name. When the dad tell son to do something, he doesn’t call him by name. He calls him “son”, when he talked to his brother on the phone, he called him “brother”…who does that? Are they in the witness protection program and don’t want us to hear their real names?

The brother is apologizing, says he didn’t know we were coming but wait, he’d get his brother on the phone (who is up in Illinois BTW) and he could answer all our questions. While Gary is talking to the guy selling the RV, the guy RAISES the price! We decide we are going to pass, too many weird things. Gary hands the phone back and the brother and tells him we aren’t going to buy it. He starts tells us that his brother is a little wacky that the reason he isn’t here is because his wife got sick and he had to take her home. (Don’t you think that the nephew would know that his aunt is sick and that is where his Uncle is?) The brother went on and on about his brother and said he’d help us better after he took care of the sale of the boat. No thanks.

We thank the nephew for his time and trouble and we head out. Shortly after we leave we get a call from the seller. He is apologizing for the way we were treated. He was appalled that his brother, after our long drive, didn’t offer us come coffee and donuts. That they were raised better than that, if someone traveled from a great distance to see you, the first thing you did was give them coffee and dounuts. What??? Yah, okay buddy

He told us he was selling it because his wife got sick and he had to take care of her (That’s weird, don’t you think the nephew would know his Aunt was sick?). Then he said if we wanted, he’d come back tomorrow and meet with us (What? You’re up in Illinois and you are going to..to..what? Fly down just to meet with us?) The whole conversation was weird, we decided to pass on that one. Although by this time we figured there was definately something fishy going on there and we better pass. Although the coffee and donuts did sound awfully good right about now.

So we found a nice older couple that could show us how everything worked. They actually met us to show us the RV. This one had an extra battery, an extra propane tank and solar panels on the roof. We were sold. Turns out that after they had this one decided they needed a bigger “pusher” as they call them. We think after living on a boat together for 3 years and then living in a tiny condo, this RV would be just fine with us. But ya never know………