Yesterday Steve and I went and checked out a 22 1/2 foot RV in a town not far from us. My mom lives in the town so she did a “drive-by” the night before and said it looked “cute.” It was at a small local dealership and the guy who owns the place apparently had to go let his dog out, so his friend handed us the keys to the RV and said for us to go check it out. He even said we could take it for a spin!
Our first impressions were that it had a lot of wear and tear and was quite small. Even though we have a pretty tight budget, we had envisioned something a little roomier. When the dealer – a portly, red-faced man – did get back to the lot, he came over to greet us. He was very friendly but not knowledgeable about RVs at all. We’d be on our own figuring out the ins and outs of the thing. We left feeling like we had a better sense of what we wanted for the trip, but also a little deflated because even that small, 7-year-old RV was out of our budget.
We checked out a dealership on the way back to Ottawa. They had one RV and it was a 31 foot – it was huge! It had a dining/sitting area that, when the motor home was stopped, would extend out another 3 feet! It was also pretty new (only three years old). So it was *way* out of our price range. The sales guy said it was still pretty early in the season and that he expected to get more RVs in towards the end of April.
So we saw the two ends of the spectrum in terms of size and think that somewhere in the middle would be ideal for us. I have to say that I was pretty bummed by the selection out there right now. It’s slim pickings and what little there is, is out of our price range.
On our way back we were feeling pretty hungry and didn’t feel like having to go home and cook. So we used a really cool app on Steve’s iPhone called Yelp, that uses your current location like a GPS and finds restaurants around you. The restaurants are rated by other users and often even have reviews written about them. We found one called Zuni Grill which had a great rating and review. It was tucked in a little strip mall, very unassuming. We walked in and it was filled with colour, and funky decorations, and little sparkly white lights everywhere. As soon as we sat down Steve remarked how much the place reminded him of my style. For some reason, being in that little restaurant inspired the both of us. I talked about how whatever motor home we end up with, I want to decorate it like that little restaurant, with colour and sparkly lights and rich textures. Then we got talking about our impressions of the vehicles we saw and how it was just so expensive for even such a small motor home. Then suddenly we were talking about just buying a big van that has a bed and possibly a toilet and using the money we save on the vehicle to pay for eating out. We thought we could bring a tent and sleep in that when we’re at campgrounds and even bring a small gas stove so that we can cook some meals ourselves. Suddenly we were excited again about the trip and it seemed even more adventurous.
I came home and immediately looked up what’s out there. My first choice, and what I’d been picturing the whole time we talked at the restaurant, was a VW bus. I’ve always wanted one and I’d absolutely love to drive across Canada and the U.S. in one of those things. They’re quite hard to find though! I might have to settle for a non-VW bus, but there’s definitely that type of thing available out there, and for such a fraction of the price of a motor home that we’re seriously considering it now.
I can’t get over the image of a VW bus, painted with big colourful flowers and rainbows on the outside, and me grinning ear-to-ear in the driver’s seat…
It makes me happy to think about it.
The blogfriend who inspired me to take Mondo also has the dream to travel in a vanagon, thought I would share:
http://mamiemondobeyondo.blogspot.com/2010/02/making-mondo-tangible.html
Crazy! Thanks for sharing!! I’m impressed that your friend is doing it with two small children! I’ll definitely have to follow along on her adventure.
i love it!!
via MB 🙂
Hi Carla! Didn’t I read somewhere about you going camping in a yellow bus??
Hi! I am a fellow MB’er and came by to check out your blog.
This, too, has been a dream of mine for most of my life. I can’t wait to read along as you find the perfect vehicle!
Dream on!!
Hi Jen! That’s great that we share this dream 🙂 thanks for following along!
It makes me happy to think about it too! I’m so excited for your adventure.
🙂 thanks Natalie!
A VW bus is much more kick-ass than an RV 😉
I have faith the universe will send the right vehicle your way!
Ohhh I hope I hope!
Love the VW bus. My friends in college thought that if I had a vehicle, that’s what I should have – it would be so “me” apparently! But mine was supposed to be yellow or orange, I think. 😉
Would you mind playing some Grateful Dead while starting out your journey?
Hehe, awesome! 🙂 I think my dream one is a robin’s egg blue, with flowers all over it.
Grateful Dead – on it!
Oh, and oddly enough, I started looking for an RV a few months ago, too. I wanted one converted to run on vegetable oil, just like the Janssen’s RVs – their original one had been for sale (in Tennessee). I did inquire, and was told they had been asking a little less than 20k, but had found some buyers.
My husband’s job dictates that we stay in the city 9/12 months, too – so we’d have to find a play to store the RV once we got one. Chicago isn’t RV-friendly! Alas.
I really, really hope you guys find what you’re looking for so that I can live vicariously through your journeys!!!
Yeah, I love the whole veggie oil thing! I looked into it when we first started talking about the RV but it didn’t seem so do-able in Canada.
Crazy that you’ve so recently been thinking along the same lines. Hey, a VW would be a lot easier to store than an RV 😉 …just saying…