That’s right, we are THOSE people. We are living the cliché….sell the house and belongings, close the business, buy an RV and hit the road and see the country, enjoy life. Here’s how the journey began…
THE BIG PURCHASE
We had talked about it and planned for almost three years and the time had finally come. In September of 2021 we headed south from Rochester, NY to Hershey, PA to find the RV of our dreams. We weren’t planning on buying at the show, RV pricing skyrocketing in 2020-2021, we did not anticipate any really good deals at the show, but it’s a great place to see all of our options all in one place and compare the different makes and models. We pretty much knew what we wanted but it was a good excuse to walk around a large RV show and look at new RV’s and RV accessories.
So we headed to Hershey, and checked into our hotel room. The next day (Thursday, Senior day because yes we are that old and cheap!) we headed over to the show along with thousands of others, holy moly was the line long. The Hershey show is one of the biggest in the country, certainly the biggest in the Northeast. Also the show was canceled in 2020 because of Covid so we expected it to be crowded, that’s one of the reasons we went during the week rather than on the weekend. We made the most of our time in line and had a nice conversation with the others around us and the time passed quickly.
We were in the market for a Super C, specifically a Thor Magnitude XG32, it ticked all the boxes for us and we really liked the look, the layout and the features and the Ford F550 chasis. We also planned to look at similar styles of Super C’s from other manufacturers just to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
So we headed straight to the Thor section which was being manned by General RV. We immediately spotted the XG32 and made a b-line for it. We had walked through this model before at the last Hershey show in 2019 and we test drove one in Buffalo earlier this year so we knew what to expect. Now, as we said before, we didn’t intend to buy at the show because the way RV prices were in 2020-2021 the price of new units was crazy high. But when we saw the show price for this model we were shocked at how low it was (relatively speaking of course). We went inside and sat down to chat. Should we make an offer? Do you think they will come down from that price? Are we ready to take this step? What if we can’t sell our house?
Just about then a salesman came in(they always have good timing, lol) and asked if we had any questions. We asked him how firm they were on that price and he gave the typical salesperson answer “I’ll take any reasonable offer to my manager, but if I do and he agrees you have to purchase today.” He also said that the show model had been sold but he had others at his other dealerships in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida that we could purchase. So we looked at each other and one of us put a number out there that was pretty much what the used models were selling for online. He said to give him an hour or so and he would have an answer.
So we walked around the show and looked at similar models. Another dealership that had a similar-looking Super C and also sold the same model we were looking at asked us what their selling price was and when we told her she was surprised that they had it priced that low. So we were pretty confident that if we could negotiate a price close to what we offered, we would be getting a good deal.
We went to the vendor area and looked around, ate an overpriced hamburger and gradually made our way back to the Thor area. We got the attention of our salesman who went to retrieve our paperwork and we all sat down to have a chat. They didn’t accept our offer (which we pretty much expected) but they did meet us halfway and came back with a price that we considered very fair given today’s climate and pricing. The salesman gave us some time to discuss it, after all this was the biggest decision we had ever made (ya…buying a house, a boat, a motorcycle, a cabin none of it was as stressful as this). Finally, we said you know what, let's do it. We can buy used for maybe a few thousand less, but we will have to travel out of state to go pick it up, arrange financing, and who knows what problems we will inherit. This is brand new, and yes there will probably be issues, but that’s what the warranty is for.
Finally, after a short discussion, we looked at each other and said “let’s do it, go big or stay home!”. We tracked down our salesperson and told him we had a deal. Then about two hours later and a little shell-shocked we walked to our truck with a signed sales order in hand for a brand new 2022 Thor Magnitude XG32. The unit was in Akron Oh and we had to go pick it up in a couple of weeks. We got back to our hotel room, looked at each other, and said “what have we done!” After the initial shock, we got cleaned up and went out to dinner to celebrate.
The next day we headed home with mixed feelings, we were happy with our purchase and excited to be starting this new chapter, but a lot still had to be done. After all we hadn’t even listed our house on the market yet. We still had to finish getting that ready and get it sold. The ball was really rolling now, hopefully, it wasn’t a snowball about to burst.
The following week the house was listed and started showing that weekend. On Monday we headed to Akron, OH to pick up our new “home” and on the way there we got a call from our realtor that we had seven offers on the house over the weekend! We were jumping for joy as we headed down I90. The other drivers must have thought we were nuts! All of the offers were for more than our asking price! A few days later we sat down with our realtor and selected the offer that made the most sense, not the highest, but the most reasonable. It was finally done, the house was “sold”, on paper anyway and we were picking up our new home. Little did we know that the work was just beginning.
There is a big difference in getting the house ready to show and actually moving out! So far we had made numerous trips to Goodwill and sold lots of stuff (for pennies on the dollar) on Facebook Marketplace, just to get the house in “show condition” but there was still lots of stuff to get rid of.
PICKING UP OUR NEW HOME
Once we got to the dealership we did the PDI (pre-delivery Inspection) walk-through and made sure everything was working properly and that everything looked good. Then the dreaded meeting with the finance guy and signing our life away. After about four hours the RV was ours. The dealership has an area with electrical hookups so that you can spend your first night in the RV in their parking lot so you can make sure that everything works and there are no runs, drips or errors so to speak. I highly recommend everyone buying a new RV do this, even if you have to go to an RV park nearby. You don’t want to get hundreds or even thousands of miles away from your dealer and find out there is a problem.
Everything went well overnight. We tried all the systems, ran the water, took a shower, lit the cooktop, fired up the microwave/convection oven, and turned on the TVs; we went through it all. We did find one small problem with the city water connection but they fixed it the next day and we were good to go. Back home we went.
Our driveway was not big enough for the new rig so our good friends were nice enough to let us park it in their parking lot (they used to run a kennel out of their property). Once we got there and got it leveled we headed back home to begin the final purge.
Finally, on November 27 (about 5 days behind schedule, and about 72 days after we purchased the rig) we got rid of the last of our stuff, got the RV loaded, said goodbye to our awesome neighbors, and headed out for the next chapter of our lives. Living just over 30 years in one place you would think it would be tough to leave, but to be honest, it really wasn’t. We made a lot of fond memories in this house, but it was time to move on. We were more than ready to make this move and it’s something we had been looking forward to for several years and it was finally coming true.
Be sure to join us as we wander around the country.
