I've been camper-trailer shopping lately and it's financial/emotional roller coaster. This photo is of a 1982 used one I found on Craigslist for $3700. I like it well enough and the owner has taken great care of it but it is lacking a few modern cushies, like air conditioning and a microwave. NoDak gets majorly humid in the summer - much like New York - so this would be mandatory.
I'm looking forward to 'roughing it' but I also don't want to be found dead of heat stroke in a giant metal box, y'know?
Kirk and I took all of Wednesday to nail down a purchase and we ended up at a few big RV lots. My horizons were expanded - or should I say "popped out" - and my budget went from $6K to $17K a bit too fast. Those new trailers with the pop out beds are swank! I learned that sometime after 2000, air conditioners and microwaves became standard so it's probably best to get something from this century.
Eventually, I ended up putting $3K down on a used Jayco 2006 trailer that I scored for $10,500 -not a bad deal. However, the financing fell through this morning so I'm back to square one. Seems banks won't loan money to poor people (that's me) unless they buy something new, even though we're trying to save money (because we're poor) and buy something used. This ass-backwards philosophy is the cornerstone of the American economy.
In the end, this is as close as I've ever come to a home purchase, so even though it would be in storage half the year, the camper-trailer is going to have to be comfortable for me and house guests, like you. As I told Kirk, "I want to live my life, not hate my life."
I did think it was an odd coincidence that the nice guy who owned this older trailer was wearing a North Dakota t-shirt. Seems his buddies take a hunting trip there once a year. Despite the remaining challenge of my housing problem, I thought it a curiously good omen:
No comments:
Post a Comment