Becoming RV owners

Hey, Y’all!! Curious about what lead up to us FINALLY deciding to pull the trigger & buy our first camper?? Well, I’m about to tell you right now.

Like I said previously, we had been discussing purchasing an RV for several years. I honestly have no idea how many hours Tom spent during those years doing research & checking out the various options available, but I know it has to be a crazy number of hours. We always seemed to gravitate towards a fifth-wheel type RV, mostly for ease and safety of pulling behind a truck. But, the problem for me was the sticker shock. Most of them that we looked at online were $60,000+!!! And, I just wasn’t comfortable spending that kind of money at the stage of life we were in. So, it was really just a dream/goal in my mind….something we’d do when we were closer to retirement age (for us, Lord willing, late 50’s), and were debt-free. Even though that was where we (I) would always land on the subject, Tom was still looking into it and checking local RV dealers’ stock rather often.

Then, 2020 & Covid-19 came into all of our lives, changing every normal thing we had done or had planned to do! There were so many unanswered questions and, honestly, we were more concerned for our more-mature aged family members than we were for ourselves…and, still are. Our main goal was to protect them as much as possible. So, we made the hard decision to stop visiting them in person. I had been picking up my parents’ groceries through the winter months, preparing a few meals to help them out, and spending Mondays with them. After COVID became an issue, I started just dropping everything off in their garage, only speaking to them from a distance or by phone/text. For Tom, he spent every Saturday morning with his Grannie Annie….until COVID. With the work he does, and the number of different people he is exposed to on a daily basis, he decided it would be in her best interest if he temporarily stopped his weekly visits. As hard as that decision was, it would ultimately end up being one we both regret making.

Then, on April 13th, the worst of 2020 for us happened (please, Lord, let it be the worst….). We lost Tom’s Grannie Annie. Not to Covid-19, but to another very sudden, very tragic condition. We were not only devastated by this loss because we lost her, but because we (he!) lost time with her because he was trying to protect her. And, we lost her anyway…

Losing Annie so suddenly, seeing my parents in the mature stage of life they are in & wishing they were physically able to travel like they yearn to, and realizing that any vacation plans we had for the year were now likely going to be impossible made us re-evaluate our then-current life. There are so many variables when it comes to everyday life. In a split second, it can all change. So, ultimately, we decided to start living for TODAY and not for a tomorrow that wasn’t even promised to us. With having made that decision, we started a search for our first RV purchase.

We really only intended to travel within the Land Between the Lakes area for weekend getaways, so there was no reason we HAD to purchase the big, beautiful (and pricey) fifth-wheel as our first camper. After checking the online inventory of a local RV dealer, we headed out one Saturday in early June to try and purchase a small travel trailer we’d seen on their site. That didn’t work out, so we decided to make the drive over to Mayfield, KY where there were 3 more RV dealers. The biggest problem we ran into, though, was the limited stock available. Because most of the country (and other countries, too) had been in a shutdown state for like 3 months, production was backed-up at the manufacturers, making inventory & purchase options quite limited. Another contributing factor was the record number of folks purchasing RVs, likely after coming to the same conclusion we did…life is SHORT, why are we waiting?!

After spending the entire afternoon looking through available travel trailers at all three dealerships, we decided on a 2019 Jayco Jay Flight, model 235RKS. At just under 28 feet long, she was a little gal. We didn’t need much, and felt like the layout was perfect for the two of us, and Coonie. But, for me, the biggest selling point was the final price. This being our first camper, and the fact that we hadn’t camped as adults to know if we’d still like it, made committing to a large purchase completely outside my realm of comfort. Also…spending large amounts of money in general makes me queasy in most instances. Anyone else?

Two weeks later, on June 20, 2020, we picked up our little gal. First stop? My parents’ house! We surprised them with our purchase. Since they had been KOA campground owners from 1976-2019, I’m not sure anything could have tickled them more than to see we had made this purchase, continuing the camping legacy they’d instilled in me. Side note…my brother also has an RV! I guess once it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood for life!

Our next step was to get this little gal to a campground ASAP, and see if we’d made a good purchase or a not-so-good purchase. But, that’s for another time.

Thanks so much for stopping by! “See” you soon!

XOXO, T

Our 2019 Jayco Jay Flight ready for her maiden voyage!  Destination?  Come back soon to find out!