What Did We Just Do?

And a little bit of context as to why this blog exists

Much to my surprise, we bought an RV. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who has been researching* RVs off and on for several years, and even planned ahead for this highly unlikely event (at least that was my thinking at the time) by installing some RV related infrastructure in the backyard during our recent remodel/landscape project. While we even went so far as to nickname a particular part of the backyard as the “RV Parking Spot”, we made sure to laugh a little whenever we said that to indicate we were always mostly joking.

So why did I think we’d never actually cross over into the land of RV ownership? That would be due to my lovely and also fiscally conservative wife.  RVs are neither cheap nor rock solid investments.  After she saved us from spending a small fortune on a system that would drop a 65” TV down from the 10’ ceiling in our family room**, I came to the conclusion that I would always give her complete veto activity over any extravagant spending decisions, even if I think she’s 100% wrong (which happens quite a bit).  This near fiasco almost occurred mid-way through our remodel when I was struggling to figure out the perfect place to stick our family room TV.  But I digress…

I’m sure by this point you’re all wondering how this surprising but not really surprising chain of events occurred. The short answer is – the Covid related shutdown. Due to Covid taking away so many of our regular activities, especially travel, we all found ourselves with a severe case of cabin fever. At some point, Lana finally had enough and came up with a probably ingenious plan** to visit my parents in Florida and make a real experience out of the trip. What better way to do that than in a RV. While Covid took away many things, it also gave us this opportunity, which would have been difficult at best in the days of in-person school, work, and all of the kids sports programs.

While we looked into rental options we ended up deciding the mileage of a cross country trip would make renting a bad deal, so we decided to buy our own RV***.

At that point we were left with the question of what type of RV to purchase. Because we were going to be staying in the RV for an extended period of time we decided on a Class A, which maximize the interior space (more so than a Class C) and would allow us to use all the amenities while in transit (unlike a trailer).

We found out quickly that we were not the only people in the market for an RV in these days of Covid. The two local dealerships we visited didn’t have much in the way of inventory. Fortunately, after some more Craigslisting (this time with real intent) we found a good deal on a used privately owned Class A that checked all of our boxes in terms of budget and features. After a two hour drive into the Central Valley, we were the proud owners of 2017 Thor ACE 29.3.

After that it was a matter of outfitting the RV, learning the ins and outs of RV operations (including how to carefully work the stinky slinky), going on a couple of practice overnight runs, and planning our cross country trip. And of course we can’t forget internet, it was critical that we figure out how to stay connected the entire time so the kids could attend their remote classes and Lana and I could work.

After all the planning and preparation, it’s finally go time! On September 10th we begin our cross country (and back!) trip.

So why does this blog exist?  After learning about our planned trip, friends and family asked us to keep them updated about our travels.  Rather than just using Facebook, Instagram, or email, Lana asked me to go with the more complex approach of building a new blog from the ground up.  Since that would have been a rather time consuming endevour we came to compromise, which was me building a new blog from the ground up (and now you also know why we were a week behind on our updates).  In addition, we see this as something to build on, even after our current cross country trip, something to keep track of our future adventures that we can look back on in later years.

*In this case “researching” really just means occasionally pursuing the RV section of Craigslist.  Never actually setting foot into a RV dealership, let alone an actual RV.

**Why “probably ingenious plan”?  Ask me in two months and I’ll give you the definitive answer.

***Yes, I know this is probably an even worse deal then the bad deal that is renting, but we’re pretty selective on when we do math and when we don’t.