Ladies and Gentlemen … I own an RV (almost).

For you faithful Bear Feed Followers, you know that I have had as much success camping as Iowa has of not smelling like one big pig farm.  We made it out for one night of camping, and woke to 40° temperatures.  The other times the pup and I got chased home from mosquitoes, rain, and snow.  Each time I kept thinking that with an RV, I would still make it.  So that’s what I did (almost).

Today, I bought a 20-foot Class C Recreation Vehicle.

It can sleep four in two queen sized beds, so me & the pup would be more than comfortable.  Runs on normal gas, has propane heaters, stove & stove top, refrigerator, and battery enough to plug in all the necessities.  Hold your hats for the next part …

It’s a 1978 Dodge Mobile Traveler.  1978!  When that RV was built, I was still 9 years away from being old enough to drive it.  The older vehicle I owned before this one was the 1980 Chevette, and that was back in 1991.  I took it for a test drive, and it runs … well … like a old truck.  Honestly, it runs like something half it’s age.  After it warmed up (because it did dip below freezing last night), it could smoothly move about with out a very noticeable chug (compared to what I was expecting … a very noticeable strain  to be put down).  No one is going to mistake this for a spring chicken, and if they do they need their eyes checked.

For the record, it was really cheap, and I mean REALLY cheap.  Someone asked today if I put down enough for a second mortgage when buying it, and I couldn’t stop laughing.  I payed cash for it without having to touch my savings.  If you are in the market for a 35 year old RV, you aren’t going to need a loan for that.

So why would I buy something that old and cheap?  Well — nothing is more Alaskan than buying cheap RVs in the fall.  No seriously.  Everyone I know up here who owns an RV bought one that was old, cheap, and in the fall.  It’s a buyers market.  Every year there is a flush of people who rather sell their RV than put it into storage for the winter.  These are people who are either not using it like they did, know they are moving out of state, or upgrading to a bigger or better one.  This one was bought by this family just this past spring when the previous owner got in some financial issues.  Their selling it because the principal owners has moved to Massachusetts to expand a business and the rest of the folks that own it are trying to move to Australia.  Because they are spread around, we have some title issues to deal with — that’s why it’s not a done deal yet — but it basically is a done deal.

Now … to come up with a nickname.