Gores Landing

This weekend was supposed to either be a kayaking weekend, or the weekend I bought my RV. Neither happened.

I did at least get a deposit down on my RV, and I did drive up to Ocala National Forest with my kayak and camped out with the gang.

The RV process is obviously going to take a lot longer than I expected. I have researched the options pretty thouroughly, but assumed I could just walk onto the dealer's lot with money in hand and drive out in my new purchase. Not so. My research identified the RV model I'm interested in. I don't want anything too long, so preferred the models below 25', but I'd like to live in the RV eventually so I wanted a model with a cabover bed, which will eventually become my storage closet. I was surprised to find how many of the privately owned used models have entertainment centers, not beds, over the cab. The other two "must haves" for my RV are a seperate bed and eating area, and a bathroom with a shower. If I am going to be living in it, I don't want to have to collapse a table every night to go to bed, or pack up the bed to have breakfast. The bathroom, well I could probably make do with washcloth baths and a cassette style potty, but for full time I'd like the luxuries of flushing and a shower.

The purpose of living in the RV is to be able to travel a bit more and see some of the States. Travel means miles, so I wanted to get a used RV with reasonable existing mileage, and had pretty much established that I wouldn't likely find that in a private sale for a reasonable cost. So I started looking at used ex rental units, though doubting that I'd find anything in as good a condition as I wanted, at the low mileage I wanted, but at a reasonable price.

To my surprise, while looking at Cruise America's website I found an online inventory for their Orlando location that showed an RV the perfect length, layout, mileage and price! I didn't expected it to be in great condition, but figured it would be worth a look. Unfortunately, after scouring Cruise America's sales lot, we determined that my RV is lost.

Actually, lost is a little strong. Mislaid is more accurate, and it appears that this may work in my favor. After some creative computer searching, the missing RV was tracked down to a small garage/storage facility somewhere in Georgia. It appears that back in 2005 when all the hurricanes kept coming through Orlando, this particular unit, only a year old and with 34k miles on it, was rented out. When a hurricane was due to hit Orlando and the unit was due to be returned, the renters called for advice on whether it was safe or sensible to drive back to Orlando and into the path of the storm. They were told to drop it at the nearest Cruise America affiliate, in a small town in GA. They did so. I'm sure similar situations have happened before. In this case, the affiliate it was dropped at don't actually do much RV rental business, and for some reason the "available for rent" at the location did not get updated. The upshot is that it has been sitting unused on the lot in GA since 2005. Low mileage, little use, but a 2004 model that needs to be de-inventoried as Cruise America doesn't rent out vehicles older than a couple of years.

It seemed like serendipity, or a match made in heaven. For a $500 fully refundable deposit Cruise America would pay to have the RV returned back to Orlando for me to inspect and decide if I wished to continue with the purchase. I have to say, having created quite a bit of panic when I pointed out (with inventory printouts in hand) that they were missing an RV,the staff were actually quite pleased at the idea of recovering the vehicle. I was a little cautious about paying the deposit, sight unseen, but they manager assured me that if I decide not to persue the purchase he would have no hesitation returning my deposit as he would not have any problem selling this RV with such low mileage.

So I kind of have an RV, but I still have to see it. I did at least test drive another RV of the same model and year. It actually didn't feel as big to drive as I had expected. Rather like a UHaul truck, but with the added advantage of beig able to see out of the back window. It was a much smoother drive than I expected.

After all that, I set out to meet up with the gang at Gores Landing in Ocala NF. They kayaked today and will again tomorrow, and are camping overnight. I got there just before dark, and the rain, which poured down when we were about half way through cooking dinner. It was one of Charles' masterpieces, pork loin in some exotic sauce, delicious. We rigged up a tarp to eat under, enjoyed a pleasant eveing and headed for the tents in the rain. Hmmmm, it would have been nice to be able to retreat to a nice dry RV in such a storm!

The storm kept me up a good long while into the morning hours, and I slept fitfully the remainder of the night. Something about being in a tent under trees in a storm just makes me nervous I guess. To cut a long story short, I decided not to kayak this morning. I helped the guys shuttle their cars to the take out and just spent the remainder of the day wandering around in Ocala NF, took a couple of short hikes, etc.

So. Not a whole lot achieved this weekend, but it felt like a lot.