I did a ton of research for an RV and we decided to get a class C toy hauler. a toy hauler is an RV with a garage in the back, it limits our space somewhat but it allows us to take motos which important to us. i plan on partitioning the garage to make a mini office and dog room. so it will be a bit more functional to us than a normal bedroom would be.

as with all things i buy i start out with intentions of being frugal, but soon ignore all common sense and drop serious coin on something cool. we started looking at 31 foot RVs based on E450 van bodies. these seem to fit our size needs fairly well, although the garage space would suffer. after further research though we were not impressed. the 450 was limited in hauling and load capacity which is important since we will have all our stuff it in, all the time. plus, we will be pulling the vanagon which is a hefty toad (RV slang for towed vehicle) that weighs in at over 4000lbs. so we soon started looking at super-C’s which are class C RV’s based on larger truck chassis.

I had found one that i liked that was diesel and 39 feet long and a -great- deal but i was not sure about something so huge. nevertheless it was such a deal i contacted the seller, but it seemed like it was going to get bought up so i forgot about it and kept looking.

then i found a 35 foot gulf stream endura max. it’s a 2006, but new and never sold. priced at 63k from an original 125k MSRP. the size seemed right, the price was actually pretty good, and we liked the layout. the only turn off was the gas motor and beige and oak nightmare of an interior. plus the brand has a bad rap for poor quality, but i didn’t mind that so much since i think most RVs are built like crap.

at this point we liked it enough we started getting loan info and got pre-approved from wells fargo and i was ready to go for it….until….i got an email about the 39 footer. it was still available, but i had to move fast. so we tried to get the loan stuff squared away and then at the last minute we decided to make it happen this weekend. this is the story of that decision and the hellish saga that has been my last day and a half.

so this RV is far away. east of LA in what is apparently the sweaty armpit of california. we decided to leave friday night and after some delays we got out the door around 9:30 PM on friday. at this point ingrid had been sleeping since about 7 and i knew she was due to wake up. she made it in the car mostly asleep but woke up fully when we hit our first stop at In ‘n Out around 10ish. After that she was on -fire- singing, yelling, screaming. it was perfect for our collective headaches. we headed down the 101 and made our way to highway 5, via 152. as we got onto 152 i commented, “when will they make a real highway connected 101 and 5 in the south bay?” 152 is just a stupid country road. of course not long after i said that we came up on a bad accident. the east bound lane was moving freely, but the westbound lane was completely stopped for a few miles. i’m not sure why the CHP couldn’t direct traffic to let both lanes pass, but we figured at least we weren’t stuck and happily motored away. then we came into what looked like a scene from a disaster movie. traffic was moving but for MILES upon MILES trucks and cars were on the shoulder and traffic was at a crawl. this delay added about 2 hours to our trip and killed our distance for the night. we did make it to highway 5, but pooped out around 3am, at which time of course ingrid was still wide awake.

saturday morning, 7:30am, about 4 hours after we went to bed we get back up and get back on the road. even this early in the morning it’s already getting hot and the dogs are hatin’ life (oh, yes, we brought our stupid dogs, please don’t ask me why). i let them run in a field for all of 5 mins and they were panting non stop for the next hour or more. on the way out of the hotel i spoke with a woman who got stuck on 152 as well, but she was stuck there for EIGHT HOURS and had left her house at 5pm!

so now we’re heading down 5, timing looks good. then i try to call the seller, Rob. turns out i got the wrong number when i wrote it down. The address he gave me doesn’t really compute with the GPS but we figured we just keep going on what i thought was the right address or at least the right area. i emailed the seller to get his number but didn’t hear from him right away.

meanwhile i get a call from our loan guy. turns out we still need to fax one more doc, a proof of residency for silvia. since apparently being married to me means nothing. after a brief moment of panic we decide we can take our laptop to a kinkos and fax off something. so we plugged it into our GPS and 20 min later we had the fax sent off.

by this time a few pit stops and ingrid bathroom breaks had made us a bit late. our major time crunch was the bank, we had to go into a bank and have them cut a check for the seller so we needed to be at a bank by around 3. while at kinkos we looked up the address again on google and found the “correct” city for it. plugged it into the GPS and sure enough we had gone too far so we had to back track a bit. to add insult to injury it sent us on this crazy mountain road littered with CHP.

at this point the stress was getting to me. otto was constantly in my face panting, ingrid was yelling something about nothing, i was hauling ass on a mountain road swarming with cops, silvia was on the verge of puking and i still hadn’t heard from the seller. however,  we were still looking doable on time.

after we got out of the canyons we got the sellers number and gave him a call. we confirmed the city we were going to and followed our GPS faithfully. he had told us we would turn onto a dirt road for 5 miles so when we turned off the pavement onto the dirt road our GPS led us to we thought we were going the right way. we weren’t. soon we found ourselves on a crazy off road sand pit. ignoring dead end signs and following the GPS is NOT a good idea. we got lost in this maze of roads and at one point had a National-Lampoons-like moment as we hit a huge bump we didn’t see coming that slammed the front end of the car into the ground which sent dirt and plastic parts flying. when we finally got to the “destination” per GPS we were truly in the middle of fucking nowhere.

then i fumble around until we get a signal and we call the seller. he has no idea where we are, but tells us how to get there if we get back to the main road. so we try, but spend 20 mins just figuring out which way we came, including one turn on a sand pit road that we reversed out of when we saw a sign that said “DO NOT ENTER STUPID”. by now we were cutting it really close on time, we would have just enough time to look at the RV then make a balls out run for the nearest bank…25 miles away.

so we did just that, checked it out in a rush then took off like a mofo. thankfully ingrid was asleep at this point and we jammed to the nearest town calling the bank in advance so they could get started.

then we get to the “bank” which is a damn mini branch at a grocery store! at this point we have 25 mins until they close to seal the deal so i run up to them and tell them who i was. then i get this….”oh, well the loan still says pending”. WHAT! i check my voicemails and sure enough the loan agent left me a message saying the fax we had send didn’t have our physical address on it, only the mailing address!!! puzzled i ran out to the car and looked on the computer. there it was on the PDF, 90 memory ln, but then i looked on the printout. IT WAS FUCKING CUT OFF!!!!! the top 3 inches weren’t printed. i faxed the damn thing off and didn’t double check it!!! FUCK!

at this point we were hosed. i called the seller and first thought we’d leave him a deposit and come back in a few weeks (since i’ll be in st. louis next week). then later decided to just stay in town and buy it monday since i doubt someone will pony up 60k on a sunday and i’d rather not shell out a cash deposit.

so before we leave the grocery store we hit the bathrooms. on my way out i hear over the intercom “would the owner of a red vw golf come to the front counter”. i knew what it was right away – the dogs. it was hot out, but the car wasn’t actually that hot. i wouldn’t have left them out there all day, but i knew they were fine. of course someone was out there to berate us, but i remained calm and thanked him for his concern. little did he know i was having a day from pure hell and that behind my seemingly uncaring exterior was a white rage the likes of which he will never know. oh and he had also called the cops, so we left. fast.

oh and to add to the adventure, after we got a hotel room i went out to get us some dinner and as i pulled into a spot some guys broke out into a fight on either side of me. i jammed into into reverse and punched it out of there in case anyone was packing. luckily i was unharmed, but i can’t comment on the dude who was pulled out of his car.

so here i am, in the armpit of california. in the crappiest ramada in i have ever seen with an AC that’s warmer than a dead mans fart. stuck with the dogs so we can’t even do anything fun tomorrow to kill time. i think we will at least go check out the RV again and really check it out do a test drive. for now i’m going to bed, my goose is fully cooked.