Pulled the Trigger

Well it happened.  After nearly two years of research, study, leg work, and listening to knowledgeable RV'ers and less than  knowledgeable salesmen, we pulled the trigger and bought our first fifth wheel.  It is a Grand Design (GD) Solitude 369RL.  It is thirty-nine feet of pure RV joy.  At least that is the way we feel today. 
We found the GD in the normal way, RV Trader.  It stood out because number one, it was a Grand Design and in my price range.  Grand Design had come to the top of my list because of a series of articles by Greg Gerber called the RV Industry Death Spiral which he documents and bemoans the precipitous drop in quality of RV manufacturing in this country over the last few years.  In the article, however, he cites one company which has kept up their quality at a time when the RV manufacturing industry is in a downward quality spiral, Grand Design.   By the way, GD was purchased a few weeks before we bought our fiver by Winnebago.  We took that to mean that GD would not be disappearing too soon since they paid $500,000,000, and the quality of service might just stay high for the long term.  Anyway, we went to look.  Only one hundred and fifty miles away, We made a day trip to look at this individually owned RV and a few others we knew about along the way. 
                                                    

Of course after looking at the GD the rest of the pack faded away.  In fact, things even got better as we looked, because we discovered it was not a 2014 as advertised, it was 2015 and less than one year off  of the sales lot.  It was, as Gerber declared, very well built, and very lightly used.  In fact if you told us it was brand new we would have believed you.  No dents, no scratches, no worn spots and no weird odors. It was perfect for two newbie RV’ers.   If you are wondering why he would sell such a gem, I can only speculate, but I suspect, his new fiance' did not fancy camping in this rolling honeymoon suite.   Love makes you do strange things.  Anyway after the required bargaining ritual was complete we were the proud owners of our first RV. 

Now comes the rest of the story, which has not yet happened.  We still need a tow vehicle, we need to let go of our stuff and house, we need to tell the rest of the family, and we need a place to keep it in the meantime.  That doesn't seem like so much.  :)

Until then, these are just some ramblings from a Rockin’ RoVer.  Rockin’ and RoVin’ on.


PS. Solved that last one and next time I’ll tell you about finding a place to keep it.

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