I might have referenced a Tom Petty song with today’s blog title, but I feel as if that phrase sort of sums up our RV buying experience.
That’s right–we are the owners of a RV.
For a little over a year we’ve entertained the thought of having our very own camper. And for someone who never really went into the great wide open, tent camped, or spent a lot of time outdoors, the thought seemed so unrealistic at times.
Oh, and for the record—the person who was not super outdoorsy was me.
When we are out on the road and see campers, we would say, “that one.” Or, if we saw someone attempting to deliver a camper we would chuckle and say, “we’ll be home in a bit, just drop it off for us.” And the more we talked about it, the more we wanted to have a camper became a reality.
We travel a lot. As some of you may know, our daughter plays travel softball year round. In fact, some of the tournament venues have RV hook ups at the ballpark (perfect). We have family in northern Illinois, friends in various parts of the state and U.S., and we always said, “well, if we had a camper, we could just load it up and go!”
So that’s just what we plan on doing.
About three weeks ago, I stayed in a camper for the first time. What a rookie, right? We had an opportunity to check out a camper and figure out what we liked, what we wanted/needed, and it was nice. If you would have asked me three years ago about camping and a camper, I probably would have laughed or said, “I don’t do that.”
Sam and I even tossed around the idea of renting a camper, you know, taking a RV, out on the road for our vacation. While that sounded amazing and really interesting, I always had the thought of “why not buy one” in the back of my mind. Of course, I had that thought not really knowing how that processed worked, so it seemed easy.
And when the time came to try and find the perfect RV, it was—easy.
If you live in the tri-state area like we do, you should definitely check out Tri-State RV in Anna, Illinois. Once you get there, you should ask for Chris in sales, and if you end up purchasing the camper that dreams are made of, then you’ll visit with Mindy, and hopefully you’ll have Lupe show you the ins and outs of your new RV.
I’m telling you, these folks made this whole process a piece of cake.
Genuine, good people. Chris must have took us around the lot and in about eight different campers before he said, “I think I have the perfect one.” And it was. This Cherokee had everything (and a little more) for our family and for our first camper. We thought about it, walked through it again, and then I think the thought it’s all about the memories (a phrased used often in one of Sam’s tours of Iraq) came to our minds and we said “okay. Let’s talk.”
Going through the camper and learning about it was actually fun. I know that may sound wild, but we had the best technician in Lupe. He was funny, he was serious, and he was kind. He knew everything about that camper and he wanted to make sure we could operate it and be safe when traveling. He helped us get some accessories and we shared a lot of laughs.
Now, in our driveway, sits a beautiful RV. We can’t wait to see where we can journey in this, because, after all, it’s all about the memories, and the future is wide open.
