The Smith Adventures: Deciding on a new home

When we took the kids to look at RV's for the first time we thought we wanted a 5th wheel or a class C. We knew the class A's were nice, but there are WAY more then we wanted to spend.

We looked at a few 5th wheels first. Those are the ones you attach to the truck bed. They were really nice and some even came with washer and dryers. They had a bunch of space and great floorplans that would work for our large family. However after looking at them, even some used ones we quickly realized that they were out of our budget as well because we would also need to buy a truck that was powerful enough to tow the 5th wheel AND could fit 6 people. The cost of the 5th wheel and the truck was more then we wanted to spend to get started, esp since we wanted to pay cash for as much as we could

Next, we looked at a Class C. Those are the ones with the little van cab and then it juts out into the RV. As soon as we walked into the first one we knew it would not work for us. First, they are expensive since they are a car and an rv. Second, it is just one open space and we wanted bedrooms. Since we will be living in these full time we wanted it to feel as much like a house as we could. What might work for weekend trips and a few vacations here and there would NOT be ok for every day living. Plus we could tow a small car behind it but we don't fit in a small car. So we would still need to drive 2 vehicles everywhere which is fine but kinda defeated the purpose of getting one that can be driven.

We went home after the first day of looking and did more research. We though we knew what we wanted but we were wrong. We now knew we wanted a U shaped dining table, a BED for each of the the boys (some have couches you can fold into beds ect but we wanted them to have a 24/7 bed), a bedroom for the boys with at least 1 bumpout but ideally 2, a bumpout in the living room, an outdoor kitchen would be nice but not a need, and as many cabinets as we could get. So we took the knowledge we gathered that day and hit the internet. We decided that a travel trailer was our best bet. A few days later we had a list of models we wanted to look at and we went looking again. We hit 3 dealerships in VA that day. 2 of them the salesperson was NOT helpful at all. They just kinda took us to the ones we asked to see and that was it. The 3rd was great, He was new at very excitable. You could tell he was still enjoying this unlike the other 2 who were just showing us units because they had to. He showed us a rig we LOVED. Everyone talked about it all the time. Since we wanted to pay cash we needed to wait till we sold off some stuff before we got it. Oh course you see what is coming, just DAYS before we were going to buy it, (I am NOT kidding it was like 2 days before), I went on-line to check for the unit like I did EVERY day, and it was GONE. I knew they had 2 so I quickly called to put a deposit down on it, The guy on the other end said he had JUST got an e-mail from their other location that they had someone to buy it. In less then 24hrs the 2 rigs had sold that had been sitting there for over a month. We were CRUSHED.

I searched and searched the internet for that same unit. Of course I found a couple but they were all for $4,000 or MORE then the one we were looking at. No go! We were considering another model site unseen and having it delivered. I just wanted something before there was nothing. Yes, I was flipping out a bit. We had sold almost everything, The hubby had started his new job about 1 1/2 hrs away, and we had no RV. Logically I knew it would be fine but logic goes out the window when you are in the process f flipping your life upside down. The Hubby took to the internet again and came upstairs saying get everyone ready we are heading to Richmond. So we did, I had no clue what he had found and I am not sure he was 100% sure either. We returned to a dealer we had been t before and got a MUCH better salesman. He showed us the unit we wanted to look at, went inside with us and pointed stuff out, answered questions, and was very helpful. We LOVED the unit. Even more then the one that we lost out on. The kids were bouncing off the walls saying BUY IT, BUY IT NOW BEFORE SOMEONE ELSE DOES!!!, So, we did!

The rig. Keystone Cougar X-Lite

We went inside to do paperwork. The Hubby and I were excited and wanted to be sick all at the same time. The kids were just plain excited! The Boy must of made me assure him at least 20 times that it was our rig now. The whole way home I would just randomly yell out, "Oh My God we bought an RV!!!!!". We ended up with an Keystone Cougar X-Lite.