Our New Toy!

You're alive. Do something ~ Barbara Hall

We have gone through a few stages of our lives, graduating from high school, graduating from college, our Peace Corps years, our New Jersey sojourn, starting our working careers, having three kids, getting kids through college. Now the kids are (mostly) out of the house, and we are looking forward to the retirement stage, and thinking about what we want to do. Of course we will live in Birch Bay in the decent part of the year. Boating will be a big part of what we do. And we think RV'ing will be too.

Many years ago we enjoyed RV'ing in an old but comfortable Automate travel trailer. A couple of years ago we bought a "disposable" fifth wheel, a 1991 Alpenlite that came with a 1993 Ford F250 tow vehicle, both in excellent condition, to keep in Omak so we would have a place to stay when we visit our daughter Lydia and precious granddaughter Harper.

We discovered we really liked staying in the fifth wheel at the Omak Stampede Ground RV Park, and that traveling in a fifth wheel to sunny climes when the weather is rotten here is likely to be a big part of our retirement. So we were planning to buy a new fifth wheel just before retirement.

Well, we went to the Tacoma RV Show a few weeks ago "just to look." We did that for a couple of Seattle Boat Shows too! I had sort of zeroed in on the make and model that seemed just right for us, a Fox Mountain 265RLS by Northwood Manufacturing from LaGrande, OR. Sumner RV is a local Northwood dealer, but they did not have the 265RLS at the show, so we asked the salesman. He said they had one, a brand new left over 2011 model, at their lot in Sumner, and he would call over and tell them we were coming. And most importantly, he wrote the RV Show "Special" price on a piece of paper! It was a great price.

The long and short is that we drove out to Sumner and signed the purchase order about a year and half before we had planned to. A trip the following Monday to the Sno Falls Credit Union, and we owned a new RV! We brought 'er home last Saturday, and we are headed out to Dash Point State Park for our shakedown trip this weekend. We think a lot of long weekend trips are in our future in the next year and a half.

But what we are really excited about is when we retire, and take off in the fifth wheel, no Monday we have to be back for! There is a country out there to explore, and that is exactly what we plan to do!