We’ve taken a real liking to this empty nest thing. Our kid-lets are all married and living in their own homes.This past year we ‘down-sized’ our home and moved to the ‘country’. Our rural palatial estate (I jest) is perfect for us. The yard and gardens are taking shape and although we are not practicing 100% sustainability, we enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of our labor.
This March, while incubating some horrendous colds in our trailer on the Oregon Coast during Spring Break, we starting contemplating the much larger rigs parked around us. These thoughts progressed into ‘what ifs’ and once we had the strong wi-fi reception of our homebase we found ourselves checking out motorhomes on the internet. YouTube is fabulous for research.
We have spent much of the past year paying off bills, and by April we were in overdrive. We had a plan. We hoped by next Spring to have our own Class A motorhome.
We decided to put the truck and trailer on the market to test the waters. Well, the waters were perfect for selling a truck. It took all of 24 hours. Suddenly we were left with a trailer and no means to tug it around. All of our late spring/early summer adventures were put on hold. We traded in our reservations on the Washington Coast for two round trip airfares to Chicago for a visit with family, and continued our extended RV plan.
Things continued to fall into place. We are firm believers in karma and having faith that if it’s meant to be, it will work out. Several opportunities came to us to increase our down payment and pay off accounts. We felt pretty good about where our preparations were headed.
Mid-July one of our dealer contacts in Idaho Falls called to say he had located two RV’s exactly like we wanted. One was in Akron, OH and one in Denver, CO. The prices were about $15k cheaper. The dealer would broker the deal for us if we wanted to make it happen. Several phone calls back and forth and we made a deposit on a 2016 Thor Palazzo – and then I hyperventilated into a paper bag. What had we done?
Mike flew to Denver, picked up our new RV and drove home. As he pulled up in front of the house I thought “holy heck…” It looked huge! As I spent a couple of days cleaning and loading, I gradually became use to it’s size. Technically it’s 35′ is shorter than the truck and trailer were together.
Naturally it arrived just in time for our cancelled trip to the coast, but we enjoyed our visit with family in the Midwest and I am back to work this week. It’s quite a step up for this pair of Empty Nesters who, just three summers ago,were still sleeping in a tent!
Our daughter made note recently that her dad lasted almost 70 years in a tent (and two in our travel trailer) so the change was well deserved. Our upgrade includes three slides, a queen size bed, shower, toilet and many other creature comforts we will enjoy on our road trips. We also have room for five additional guests – which permits quite a slumber party!
We are already discussing my plan of where we will be spending the 4th of July next summer. Meanwhile we are looking forward to our maiden voyage and several other weekend trips planned before winter takes over.
Empty Nest Full Hearts 