Hi Questees,
It is the morning after the day before. Not the night before obviously, that's for young people who do things at night, but yesterday was quite tiring enough. We got up at, wait for it... 7 AM!? That's right, you know it's going to be a big one when we have to get up at normal people time. Mind you if we had gotten up that late back in employment land we would be seriously tardy. We had arranged to go and see 3 campers, all a good drive into Illinois, and all about as cheap as you can expect to get a camper whilst it's still refurbishable.
This is the one that very nearly became The One. And possibly might still become The One, if the large house of a camper falls through.
After heading over the Mississippi and sending a few texts we were not confident that the fellow that we had been in contact with was actually going to wake up and send us his address. We were on a pretty tight schedule so decided to stop in at Steak-n-Shake (for all the Brits out there that is exactly what it sounds like, a meat and milkshake chain), give him until 9am and then get under way to the second stop. Luckily I called him and he woke up. The camper is pretty great for the price he is asking, but lots of little bits of damage which we were optimistic but not confident in our ability to repair. A good fix up project.
Next one was a bit too dinged up. Probably good for someone who wants to do weekend camping trips, but not suitable for everything we need (no shower, tiny water tank, no generator etc). The last one was a total wreck, as expected with a $600 pricetag, but laughably so. It was a 1970's era box, missing one of the jacks and clad in this horrible dark wood and bachelor-stripe upholstery, all stained and misshapen. But the guy who showed it to us was nice (and owned cute sheep). One the way back we took the scenic route through some smaller farming towns. Really nice little places with that stereotypical town square and diners, and the faded quality of former wealth subsided.
This is the weekender with the bad roof. The guy was nice but spat a lot. Did have an absolutely enormous dog who was the sweetest that Zora seriously wanted to dognap. No photos of the $600 wonder because it was too cold to get the camera out (as in we shivered with our hands in our pockets and got back in the car as soon as possible).
Then we got back and watched the Superbowl. How good was that match!? It was almost as good as a substandard game in the six nations!!!
So, the end result of all our searching and rolling along the highways of the Midwest, other than getting to see a large number of dead Raccoons (AND SNOW!!!!), is that this morning we were all prepared to put in a bid on the first camper that we saw. We came in low, and the fella gave us a counter. I said I would talk it over with Zora, who decided to have a last look on the computer before we pulled the trigger.... and found another camper. Of course she did! And this one looks fan-freaking-tastic. Ugh.
Anyway this new contender is a huge Lance. It's got more space than our Hawaii home and will need a bloody big truck, but it is at a more than great price, and Zora managed to get in contact with the guy before anyone else, made sure that we would be the first people to see it (on Friday), and generally sweet talked him. So, after all that we have yet another camper to see.
So nothing new to report!
Insert town square for effect.