Saturday, February 9, 2013


2/09/13, Saturday:  What a wild month this has been so far. We started looking at motorhomes the end of January; there’s a lot of them in Quartzsite for about 5 months in the winter from the larger cities in Arizona, and also from other states. The RV tent show was the last 2 weeks of January so there were lots of people going through them, and lots of salespeople tracking you down. It was fun going through the different brands. One of the dealers had some nice looking units: Monaco, Country Coach, Prevost and Newell. (Prevost and Newell being 2 of the most expensive.) Curt was looking for certain things, engine size, etc. which none of the previous places had what he was really interested in (at our price range) and we were just looking, not really planning on trading yet. Well, we got caught. There was a 2005 Monaco Signature, 40 feet (same length as ours), had the specs he was interested in, has 3 slides, etc.  So we did some dealing; figured out it can’t hurt to see what ours is worth. We went back home and listed the pros and cons of trading; con, of course, is spending money. We talked ourselves in to it, talked ourselves out of it. Back and forth. We went back and looked at it again, found things that needed fixing, dealt again. It's been some sleepless nights. Needless to say, we have a new home (new to us).

It may be the same length, but we did lose some storage. I have less cupboard space and Curt has less room in the basement. We also used the space underneath both couches which we can’t do now, but we did squeeze some in under the bed. So we spent this last week cleaning house and deciding if we really needed everything we’ve got. The pictures got stuck back in the Jeep again; I have got to get them scanned in!  We’ve been learning an AquaHot system (electric heat), EatonVorad system (collision avoidance), trying to get TVs to work, wiring, batteries, solar, etc. We had to get 8 new house batteries and still has some issues with electrical. The schematics book is huge – about 18 x 11 x an inch or more thick.

Did we do the right thing? I hope so. We still have some issues that we have to get checked out when we get to Oregon (that’s where the dealer is from).  Hopefully all is well until then.




















3 comments:

  1. That is awesome! I'm happy that you guys got one. Now you just need to bring it out to the east coast so we can see it! :)

    Val says she's sad though... we took the old one to Maine and back! But then again, she still misses the old old one :)

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  2. p.s. Val says to double check ALL tvs before you drive it anywhere... we hear they are dangerous!

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  3. We were kind of thinking maybe you could fly out this way to help set up the entertainment center again! And, yes, TVs are dangerous. This one is a fold-down by the windshield, so if that falls down, it'll take us both out!

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