The Kidz Travlin: FREE PANCAKES=NEW TRUCK & TRAVEL TRAILER?

Okay so you want to know how Free Pancakes can equal a new truck and travel trailer? Well here is the answer….

Every year here in Quartzsite AZ Le Mesa RV puts on free pancakes and lunch Mon-Sat. All you have to do is fill out a simple quick form and get a name tag and then enjoy the food. It’s usually not much but hey, while in town why not enjoy their wonderful pancakes, after all it is free.

Well it was no different for us on Saturday, Jan 5, 2013. On this cold morning, we went in to have breakfast, get some drinking water, a few groceries and then head back out to the BLM. EXCEPT-after eating the pancakes, Brian says let’s go look at the travel trailers….Now I had found another Winnebago Aspect that had 3 slides that I became partial too, but Brian didn’t want to deal with anymore slides-specially when we boondock like we do and every thing inside was that pleather-not doggie friendly.

Anyways, we looked at what travel trailers they had and nothing jumped out at us. We had to laugh at one, they literally put the back door right in the bathroom! The salesman came over to talk with us. showed us a model that he thought would be perfect for us. The back bedroom was a bunkhouse and he thought we could convert the bunks to a den area. Not practical for our living style, so we walked away.

Next stop is Camping World. They also a lot here with both new and used RV’s. We were greeted with a salesman and we jumped onto his golf cart to look what they had. Again, nothing really jumped out at us. Except maybe one would work; only thing, it had bunks in the back. So we went into the office and in one of their lots up by Mesa AZ, they had a similar model without the bunk that they could bring down for us to look at. They wanted money down-with the understanding there would be no pressure on our part and if we didn’t like what we seen, the money would come back to us. I was a bit leery on the deal-but we did it and the Travel Trailer would be brought down on Monday-January 7th (yes, my birthday).

Now we needed a truck to pull a travel trailer with. It’s after 11am and there are no dealers here in Quartzsite. Nearest dealerships was either in Parker AZ or Blythe CA. Since we had great dealings with the Ford garage in Parker, we would head there. But we needed to beat the clock-because the dealership closes at noon. Brian made a quick call, talked to a salesman and told us to go ahead and come on over and take a look. He had the truck that Brian knew he wanted to pull our new home with, and they actually had one in stock!

We got there, just a few minutes before noon and true to his word, the salesman had the truck in front and was wiping the windshield off. Without blinking or asking much questions, he threw us the key and told us to take it for a spin! Now where else can you go and be handed keys to a brand new truck without the salesman going with you?

We did take it for a quick spin around the block, and it felt it was made for us! Went back and the they took the Chevy Tracker for a spin. Came back and we closed on the deal. They gave us Blue Book value on the car and we can pick up our new truck on Monday Morning-my Birthday!

2013 F-15o, Super Cab

Did I mention that earlier we had moved our wood pile and both Brian and I had our grubs on and looked pitiful?

Now it’s time to grab a quick lunch and head back. Poor Leah probably wonder what happen to us!

As we get back into Quartzsite, Brian remembers there was another RV dealership down the road and wanted to make a quick stop to see what they might have.

The salesman told us where the new ones were and told us to go look at them. He didn’t follow us and he allowed us to go at our leisure.

We stepped into each one and nothing again jumped out at us. Then I notice a brand new Jayco White Hawk sitting off a little from all the others. We both went in and right away, knew this is what we were looking for!

We go to look for the salesman to ask about this particular model, he too started walking our way. First question was that unit sold and why was it sitting off by itself. He just got that one in and hasn’t been what he calls “cleaned”. We went in with him asked a few questions and made a deal! His deal was 10 times better on the trade in than what Camping World even offered us! For the first time ever, we received money back-enough to almost cover the truck cost! Our new home would be ready for us Tuesday Afternoon.

Next step was to bring the Motorhome in to him so that he could make a walk through. That was being done the next day, Sunday morning.

We brought the motorhome in, the Salesman, Jeff, was very pleased at what he saw and was impressed on how clean we kept it. Also the main selling factor was the low mileage on the motorhome.

Brian had promised me Chinese in Lake Havasu and was planned to go on Monday, but instead we did it that Sunday instead, Along with some shopping.

On Monday Jan, 7, we picked up our new truck and said good-bye to “Ole Red”. We need now to make arrangements with a another business to have some things done to the truck; like window tinting and bug visor along with rain visors to be put on.

Next stop was to make arrangements for the Solar Panel to be put on our new rig later in the week. We first planned on taking off the original solar off the Motorhome and have it placed on the travel trailer. Brian went to go on the motorhome to remove the panel that he noticed that it couldn’t be removed without putting holes in the roof. It was first agreed we could take the panel off, but leave the brackets.

Brian and I finally came to the conclusion that we would leave the solar panel on the motorhome and we would have a new one put on. Brian has always questioned whether Camping World installed the solar panel in right or not. It was later discovered that they did not do it right and also learned we paid for a much higher dollar solar panel, wiring and did not get what we paid for! So never again will we do business with Camping World! But that’s another story….

Tuesday rolls around and by afternoon we now had the keys to our new home! The let the real fun begin…moving things from one to the other. Since it was getting late in the day-we would start the move in the next morning.

Since all this began, we have been going on very little sleep, excitement won over on both of us. Yes we have traded in the past, but for some reason this one felt so right to us! Again we were up bright and very early and started the moving process.

On Wednesday afternoon we had everything moved over to our new home and said good bye to “Big Bertha”.

We spent majority of Thursday, re-organizing and straightening things out. Of course it called for another trip to Parker to buy a few new things for our new home.

Friday would be my first time pulling our new home on the road. After purchasing the truck, we discovered it had no break unit on it and the truck was to come with a complete towing package including the break unit. So we have to wait for Ford to order the break unit and have them put it on. So it was a bit scary pulling the travel trailer knowing I didn’t have the break unit. Don’t worry we weren’t going far and went slow at it!

Our home had to go to Discount Solar here in Quartzsite for a new solar panel and new invertor to be put together. That would become all day job. We upgraded the solar panel, invertor and the controller. We now have state of the art equipment!

So you ask why we changed? We liked the motorhome, it was nice driving down the road and having the convenience of the bathroom inside without leaving the rig. It was convenient to just pull over, unhitch the car to go look for a spot. Those two things will be missed.

However, we didn’t have the space that we will have in our new travel trailer. We are basically the same length as the motorhome-just without the driving compartment. And hooked both truck and travel trailer is just about the same length as what the motorhome was with towing the car.

In our new travel trailer we have a couch, more kitchen area and the bedroom is separate from the rest of the living quarter. the bathroom is much bigger with a much bigger shower (so no more hitting our elbows!). We went from a full size bed back to a Queen. Brian says that he now “looses” me in bed! More room to move about with plenty of storage both inside and out. Brian has a huge basement compartment that goes across the whole width in the front. Oh and did I mention it comes with a stove and microwave????

Also insurance and living expense will drop making our budget a little more easier to live within our means! We went from two driving vehicles to one. Maintenance will be easier to keep on one than the two as well.

The travel trailer came with covered underbelly with glacier insulation, keeping us warmer inside on cold days and keeping outside noise-outside.

Leah our dog, is adapting really well with this. She has taken claim to one side of the couch. Her only downfall is there is no carpet, all linoleum floors, so we have to lay rugs down so she don’t slip and slide all over the place.