The One....

After weeks of online searching, attending RV shows, talking to Dealers and corresponding with private sellers we finally find "The One".... It is a 1998 Fleetwood 37 Diesel Pusher located 4 hours from us near Chicago at a dealer.

Since it is so far and our weekends are very busy, we negotiate from a distance contingent on our inspection for a price.  If we drive 4 hours and like it, we want to take it that day to avoid making the trip twice.  Deal seemed great!  $4000 under NADA, has all the options AND  they are throwing in a used tow dolly... Yes... I said a tow dolly, it is not enough that we will be driving a 37 foot monstrosity with absolutely no experience, WE have to add another 13 feet or so to the dang thing making something like a 50 foot train going down the road...  I never said we were intelligent....

So... we drive to the dealer last Saturday...  The salesmen neglects to tell us until 3 hours into our trip, even though we have spoken first thing that morning, that the unit is actually not going to be ready that day as they have to replace some part...  Of course we are not thrilled, but since we are 3 hours into the trip we push on...
The unit is supposed to be Pristine!

We inspect it and indeed it is in a very clean condition...  Being very thorough researches we come armed with a checklist of things to inspect.  We spend 2 hours or so going over the unit from wheels to roof.  We find, some rust which is to be expected, some seals on the roof that were a bit old and worn and more alarming was a bulging ridge running vertically to the left of the window by the door...  This was coupled with some mild water damage evidence inside at the same location.  This was obviously concerning.

But we take it in stride and press on...  We inspect the interior... very clean.  Minor issue with the dinette table.

We drive it... No issues, huge but we survived, however it took my wife and the salesmen to pry my fingers from the armrest after Mary finishes her test drive....  Why are we doing this?  Because we started it and hey, we always finish what we start....

We leave with a list of issues that we want checked out, chief of which is an explanation of the water issue...

13 hour day.... and a Saturday gone forever....