Our RV journey started in early 2014. We were planning a family pilgrimage to Tabusintac (or as the locals call it – Tabu) New Brunswick Canada. Every five years the town hosts “Old Home Week” and people from all over the world come “home” to Tabu. My grandmother Edna McCallum Hageman was born and raised in Tabu – the farm house is still there overlooking the banks of the Miramichi River. I decided it was finally time to bring Dave and the kids to see where one of my favorite people in the world was from.
We had the brainstorm of renting an RV – tossing 10 people in it and heading on a Clark Griswold type adventure. The research began and we were shocked at the cost to rent a Class A for 10 days – the fact that we were bringing it outside the US added to the cost.
We then had the brainstorm of buying one instead of renting. Dave and I both knew a couple RVers and one business colleague of mine was an almost fulltimer so we started asking questions. We learned a lot – the biggest was most RVs can be financed for 20 years and the interest can be deducted as a second home.
This was a no brainer. We buy an RV – go on our Griswold like vacation and if we hate it – sell it.
Rick ( my business colleague) directed us to LazyDays RV outside of Tampa Florida to begin our search. They have a large inventory, good prices and Rick had a positive experience. That recommendation was good enough for us.
The search began.
We started with writing down must haves – including size and amenities. Of course we didn’t know what we didn’t know – so Rick guided us on a few things. We ended up choosing a Newmar Baystar 3305 Class A RV. We didn’t know at the time, but Newmar is one of the top brands in the industry – known for quality workmanship. Our “Newman” was gently used – only 9 months old when we got him. We grabbed this gem for about 15K under bluebook and about 40+K under the new price. These puppies depreciate A LOT when you drive them off the lot.
Since we were buying in February – LazyDays was nice enough to let us store Newman there at no cost until the spring when we flew down to pick him up.
Once we went on a few adventures in Newman – including the grand family vacation – we knew this was the life for us. We started plotting our Full Time Life – and tossed out the date of 7/24/2019 – Dave’s 50th birthday. The rest shall we say…is history.