Hurry, Hurry, Hurry...

Looking for the perfect RV was an interesting project.  I read everything I could to see what was what with different brands.  After reading tons of articles, I decided that Newmar was just the right level for me.  It's basically better-than-entry level to the higher end coaches and I read more glowing reviews than the scathing complaints of other brands.  Knowing I did not want to buy new, I was scanning the various advertisements for the mid-level Newmar Ventana.  I was pretty convinced that I wanted the Model 4037.  It seemed to have what I wanted and there were many of them available around the country.  Good.  Settled.  Just need to find the right one.

Then as I am looking in RVTrader I came across a different model, the 4041,  and I was hopelessly in love despite its being in Oregon!  Much more pantry space that the other model (one of my big loves in life is cooking and baking) and a BIG window in the kitchen that felt more like a sticks and bricks house than an RV.  I tried to find others closer than Oregon only to find that this was the only one of that model for sale anywhere on any website.  I have to think that all the other people who have this model love it so much that there are none for sale!

The owner was a great guy and I actually enjoyed learning about his pride and joy and felt genuinely bad for the reasons he and his wife had to give up full-time RV'ing.  We came to terms pretty quickly and I was committed.  Now I just had to figure out how to get to Oregon and pick it up.  My older son Adam thought that it would be a good idea to bring the old RV out to him in Northern California, banking on the market being better there than in the east.  Hmmmm....

On Tuesday I started scheming how I could do this.  Then a good friend agreed to travel with me (since he was currently unemployed),  with the only issue being he only had three weeks to spare before he had to be home for an appointment. With those parameters and not too much other thought, we were off for Oregon.  We packed quickly and were on the road only two days after the plan was hatched.  We hit the road on Thursday April 18th, 2018. 

By Friday we had reached almost reached Nebraska, but 12 hours of driving was enough.  1200 miles in two days...whew!  Saturday, Wyoming.  Sunday, Utah and the continental divide, then Idaho and finally Oregon.  Wanting to get to Oregon as fast as we could in the old RV, we high-tailed it across the country in three and a half days.  While we enjoyed the changing landscapes, basically that part of the trip was a blur.  We stayed in Walmart parking lots, woke up, ate, drove, peed, ate, drove, peed, and ate... and would repeat it all again the next day!  Coffee came back into my diet with a vengeance,  joined by Monster drinks and lots of iced tea throughout the rest of the day.

Relatively unscathed, we got to Oregon and prepared to camp out on the street outside their house with the new RV on the street in front of us.  WOW, it dwarfed the old RV.  I did not realize quite how big 40 feet was in real life!  It was quite the Beast... and that became the name that stuck.  

The old RV and the new... quite the difference in size.