Over the past year we’ve been going through the not so short process of deciding what type of an RV we wanted to buy (read about how we chose a Class C motorhome here). For about 6 weeks Stefan has been religiously searching online and watching the prices for used (and also late model new) motorhomes in the 24-27 feet range. We attended an RV show and walked through numerous floor plans so we’d have a feel for what we think we’ll like (as newbies we can only make our best educated guess what we hope will fit our needs! 😉 ).
After returning from a vacation in New York City, Stefan found a 2012 Fleetwood Jamboree for sale at a dealership in Arizona. It was one of the floor plans we liked, in our price range and low miles – almost seemed too good to be true! This was a Saturday night… we slept on it that evening and in the morning were mostly focused on deciding what to do for Stefan’s birthday that day! During our talks about going to Breck for lunch the topic of the Jamboree came up again. In the matter of about an hour we had ditched the birthday plans, searched for a rental car and decided to road trip to Arizona to check out the motorhome (yes after less than 48 hours home from vacation)! Unfortunately it being a Sunday, the dealership didn’t answer our phone calls to see if it was still available. Stefan and I knew the big chance we were taking in hitting the road – not knowing if the website was up to date (maybe it had been sold!) or if it wasn’t as in good of condition as the photos showed! We decided that the worst that would happen is we spent a few bucks and enjoyed a last minute road trip! 🙂
Again – being a Sunday we were unable to rent a car where we live in the mountains, so we drove to the airport in Denver to get our rental car (we wanted to be able to drive the motorhome back home together). Luckily – no shortage of long term parking at an airport, so we stored our car and were on the road – Arizona bound – by 3:30 that afternoon! Knowing we had over a 900 mile drive, we were prepared for driving well into the night before stopping for the evening. It was already dark before we crossed into New Mexico (we’ll have to visit there again some day in the daylight for Stefan!). At 1 am we pulled into our hotel in Gallup, NM I had booked us (yeah for Marriott points!) while on the road. In the morning we got a fairly early start (also knowing we would gain an hour entering Arizona) after some work, dog walking and breakfast at the hotel.
I drove us the 4 1/2 hours to Phoenix while Stefan worked (we know how lucky we are being able to work from the road!!). We drove through such beautiful landscapes – next time I’ll drive slower to enjoy it (still thankful no speeding ticket 😉 ). We had a Jamboree to claim! As we descended out of the mountains and drove closer to Phoenix I was fascinated with the number of cactus – gorgeous!
The closer we got to the dealership we talked about how we couldn’t let on that we just drove 1000 miles (spur of the moment no less!) to look at this RV – there would go any negotiating leverage if they knew how much we wanted it! 😉Scottsdale RV was easy to find on our drive into the city and we had the first glimpse of “our” motorhome in the back shop area! We did our best to be casual while we checked it out even though we were both so excited in the great condition it looked for being a 2012! 😉 When the GM came out to help us (yippee it was still for sale!)… he knocked off $2000 – agreed to a new mattress, a full check and cleaning details. We had a deal! In less than two hours we had bought our “Dutchie”, finished the paper work and were off to our hotel for the night (still trying to figure out how it takes three to four times longer to buy a car!)! Our months of decision making and last minute road trip paid off and we couldn’t be more excited!
See ya on the road!
Kris & Stefan