In Pursuit of The “Dream House” Part I

During my Active Duty years, I would tell people that I worked to finance my vacations.  SO, if they wanted to motivate or reward me, a gift certificate didn’t mean much, but some free days off?  Sign me up!  It was during some of those vacations that this idea or dream we are about to embark upon took shape.  We first began talking about touring the country in an RV during our mid 20s…it really has been a dream for a very long time.

We have camped and hiked most of our adult lives.  Our last camping trip before moving to Okinawa, where the  ‘stars were like the diamonds in the night of West Texas’… inspired us.  We took all our backpacking gear and tents with us to a small, densely populated sub-tropical island in the South China Sea.  I know, on paper it sounds ridiculous, but in your head...a much different picture.  Alas…the jungle is no place to camp, and the beaches that allowed camping not only had certain seasons and fees, but most didn’t allow quad-peds.  SO…our gear sat untouched while we dreamed our dreams.

We did a little bit of research before our departure from Okinawa and began to squirrel money away to finance the “dream house.”  Once we began looking online, the choices were simply overwhelming.  If you’ve ever been deployed, you may be able to appreciate when back in “the land of multiple choices,” a simple Walmart trip can quickly become overwhelming.  Well, this also holds true for a small island…as well as an uneducated recreational vehicle purchaser!

Some of the best times in my life have involved blisters on my feet, bruises on my hips from a heavy pack, and rings of salt on the brim of my hat.  Under the stars…oh how I love to fall asleep to the symphony of nature while looking up at a sparkling, starry-filled sky.  So I was convinced for our extended trip around the country that a pop-up or hybrid style trailer was our answer.  We could bring in the sides if it was raining or too cold, but also feel like we were in a tent and zip open to look at the stars at night.  Heck, brand new trailers like this were not only in our budget, but came-in under budget!  When I floated this idea to Wes he reminded me of the times camping in pop-ups and waking up with wet pillows from the wicking rain, or drips of condensation hitting us between the eyes.  In researching a remedy for this, I found that this was such a common issue that there are special covers designed to go over your canvas sides to “help prevent” the wicking situation.  In the end, it was clear that the pop-ups and hybrids would have some water issues…even if limited; so they were off the list.

Ok…what about a motorhome, travel trailer, or “5th-wheel?” Motorhomes were never on the table after we saw one on the side of the road near Marathon Texas many years ago en route to Big Bend National Park.  Now those poor people were out of a place to sleep and a vehicle.  Not to mention being at the mercy of whatever the guy up the road charged to fix the problem.   With travel trailers or “Fivers” remaining on the list, Wes recommended light-weight so we didn’t have to sink half a fortune in a big ol’ pickup truck.  He was working on researching the hauler and gave me weight parameters.  Once I had those and a budget, the searching began.

Now, initially space for the two of us seems like an easy equation…but add in a couple of Golden Retrievers that weigh near 150 lbs total, and space becomes important.  Especially since we have traveled with The Boys in the past and some small hotel rooms required them to be on the bed in order to walk around the room.  No one was happy in those cramped quarters.  Travel trailers have come a long way with multiple slides and home-like amenities…but the blogs all said the sway with winds and semi-trucks passing was challenging, if not dangerous.  SO, another window narrowed down to fifth wheels.  My Aunt Judy had a fifth wheel many years ago and they can be compact for travel and spacious when in use.  They had traveled in Motorhomes, travel trailers, and fifth wheels, and I recall her saying how much easier the fifth wheel was to maneuver.  Finally—a basket of choices my mind could handle!

I began sending e-mails to dealerships stateside based on what we could see online and thought we liked.  While in Okinawa, using our smallish apartment for comparison, we measured out what kind of space requirements we thought we would need.  I had read that in order to be able to get into any park in the country, your RV needed to be under or at 30 feet.  Seemed reasonable…until we learned that before the ‘07 crash, RVing had a huge resurgence and manufacturers were meeting demand with monster fifth wheels.  It seemed no one made anything under 32 feet.  In fact, if you wanted to “full time” they almost all were 36-40 feet with multiple slides.  This means not lightweight and not cheap!  I never knew you could spend as much for a fifth wheel as a new home…lots to learn.

Once back stateside, the touring of RVs began to gain some speed.  As we both reached out to people we knew who had owned fifth wheels, based on their experiences, it seemed that our local choices, were the “Kia’s of fifth wheels.”  Damn! What now? Consumer Reports didn’t rate RVs.  Thank goodness for the internet as countless hours spent on blogs revealed an answer.  Consensus online was purchasing the one and only ratings database was money well-spent to help weed out the poorly made RVs on the market.  SO, we took the “old-timers” advice and bought the database.

WOW!!!  I mean WOW!!!  Eyes wide open now!  It seems that just like classifications for vehicles as in “family-friendly” or “off-road,” RVs also have a classification system.   Recreational Vehicles are classified according to usage and conditions as in ‘”weekenders”, “snow-birds”, “full timers”, and off-road adventuring.   Since we anticipated being on the road less than a year, snow birding and full timing rated vehicles with ratings no lower than 80% for value, safety, and reliability were our criteria.  Suddenly the window of thousands of choices was limited to about 20.  Ok, I can handle this!

 Now that I was armed with a more manageable list, sticker shock set in.  The choices were well outside of our initial budget and I began to realize that due to inexperience, we based our budget on pretty and not functional.   The book that came with the database titled,  “How to buy and inspect an RV,” taught me that sometimes in the RV world- not always- but sometimes- you get what you pay for.   SO I stopped looking at price tags and began to search in earnest for a “dream house.”  The few remaining RV manufacturers out there that survived the “great recession,” made the search even easier.  While there are a few “Full time” and “snow bird”  RV manufacturers that make 30 ft long fifth wheels, they didn’t make many.  SO, we compromised on shooting for a used, 32 ft. long “fiver” that met our criteria and the list is now down to only 5 or 6 manufacturers.  Whew!  I know…a lot  of writing (and months of our lives) to finally come to a decision.

And now that we have made a decision and come to some conclusions, it’s time for something (sort of) completely different.  We decided to rent an A-frame trailer from a local base and go camping for a week or so.  Not only to get away to the mountains, but also to look for a used truck, and see if maybe, just maybe we can live in something smaller.   It was quite a trip!

- klw