The Toad

We had our new Lazy Daze on order but we still were not quite convinced we wanted a toad. So back to the message boards. Reading of others’ experiences and pro and con opinions on towing a car, we made up our minds; we needed a toad.

We started out thinking we wanted a Suzuki or maybe a Jeep. Both seemed rather hard to acquire. We looked at Motorhome magazine’s list of best tow cars and compared features. We knew we wanted to flat tow. We had towed with a dolly before and it was NO fun.

Then I noticed a little gem called a Fit. Made by Honda, this little dude is flat towable and weighs in at a whopping 2500 pounds. We have never been fans of sub-compact cars but when one was advertised the very next Sunday in our local paper, we decided to have a look. We followed the owner’s directions to the house and as we turned the final corner we saw a small red car sitting at the curb. Now, I don’t have anything against red, it’s just that it wouldn’t look very good behind our charcoal and gray Lazy Daze.

I was so relieved when we got closer and saw that the red car was not a Fit and was parked a couple of houses down from our destination. The Fit we were looking at was parked inside a garage and it was (drum-roll please) dark GRAY. Perfect. The car was two years old with less than 15,000 miles. It was clean and shiny and looked like new. I drove it and what a kick! It drives like a sports car – responsive and sassy. My 6’1” Russ had plenty of leg and headroom.

"Wee Fit"

We bought the little bugger and brought it home. With the rear seats folded flat and a new foam mat installed, it is perfect for the two of us and our two furry kids.

We wanted to name it. We thought of all the obvious: Miss Fit, Hissy Fit, well you get the idea. But none of it sounded quite right. We picked up two of our granddaughters from school one day and put the question to them. What should we name the car? With not a moment’s hesitation, ten-year-old Cailin stated the obvious, “Wii Fit”. This is one of the grandkids favorite activities at Grandma and Grandpa’s so it had a lot of meaning for us. We changed it up a bit and got a license plate holder that reads at the top “Wee Fit” (well, it is a small car but we do still fit) and at the bottom, “I Go Where I’m Towed”. Corny, maybe, but it works for us. It’s all about having fun.

Happy travels and God’s Blessings.

The Decision

The decision to make a major purchase is never an easy one and so it was in the case of our decision to purchase a new motorhome. We have never, in our entire lives, made such a large purchase. Even our home did not cost this much.

And so we struggled. We have always been savers. When we started our careers, 401(k) accounts and IRAs did not exist, and with four kids to raise, we probably could not have made contributions anyway. As we became more established and the kids became older, we began to fund our 401(k) and retirement accounts. We did not save as much as we would have liked but we did our best. Unfortunately, I had to retire at age 50 due to a serious medical problem.

Then, at age 62, my husband’s job was eliminated. Not only that, the employer dropped all medical insurance and so COBRA was not an option. With his poor health and his age and the state of the economy, my husband was not able to find another job. We finally decided to just bite the bullet and call it early retirement. Thankfully, he had enough years in at a former employer to qualify for retiree’s medical insurance, albeit at an enormous price. With his diabetes, we had no choice.

We were prepared to pretty much sit in our rockers and do nothing more than a few close trips to see family every so often. After all, we couldn’t touch our retirement savings as that was for our old age!

Well sitting around got old really, really fast! We started getting the travel bug again, and made a few very enjoyable trips. But staying in hotels and eating in restaurants gets pretty expensive and is not my favorite thing to do anyway. Then came all the talk about BED BUGS! EWWW YUK! Just thinking about them made my skin crawl. I started carrying a flashlight and inspecting the mattress with a magnifying glass when we checked into a hotel. Call me crazy, but I just can’t stand the thought of bed bugs.

When we sold our class “A”, we were so glad to be rid of it that we thought we never wanted another motorhome. But seems that travel bug is as hard to kill as a bed bug. I talk in another article about how we came to decide on a Lazy Daze, but this is about how we came to the decision to actually make that purchase.

I think a lot of people our age must go through the same struggles that we did. How do we justify purchasing something so EXPENSIVE, just so we can enjoy life? After all, aren’t we supposed to save money and not spend it? Shouldn’t we spend it on our kids, our grandkids, our church, the homeless, the hungry, World Peace? Shouldn’t we leave it for our kids or save it for medical expenses? These thoughts chased each other ‘round and ‘round in my head like some crazy merry-go-round on steroids.

And it is about more than just having fun. We have lived in this big old house since 1976. It is full of memories and it is also full of “JUNK”. It just seems to accumulate over the years. We are tired and old and don’t want to spend our remaining years tied to ‘stuff’ and moldering memories and yard work and housework and ….. We want less of everything. When Russ dumped the hanging baskets and flower pots at the end of the season I knew I had planted my last – I had 47 baskets and pots that I had tended over the spring and summer in addition to the flowers and vegetables in the ground! That’s just crazy! So although this house and land have served us well over the years, it’s time to move on. We plan to sell within three years and either full time it or rent a small apartment for when we need to come “home.”

Finally we came to this conclusion: We don’t need to justify our decision. If it is right for us or if it is wrong for us, it is our decision to make and we will live with the consequences.

I had planned to detail here all the justifications for our purchase, but that would mean I am still feeling guilty and trying to make it right in my own mind. There will always be alternative ways to spend money. There will always be need, and we have never been stingy in our charitable giving or in helping our kids. But as we have watched our retirement saving eaten away in the last several years, we decided we wanted to have something concrete to show for part of it.

And so, we made the decision to purchase a used motorhome, and that decision morphed into purchasing a new Lazy Daze and we couldn’t be happier. Yes, it took a very large percentage of our retirement holdings, but we could let that money sit and perhaps disappear altogether or we can have ten years or so of enjoying our “golden years”. Some may not understand our decision but for us, at this moment in time, it is the right one.

The Quest

Okay, we knew we wanted a Lazy Daze. I found one on Craigslist that was only about 50 miles away but by the time we called it was sold. We searched our immediate area for weeks and found NOTHING. We expanded our geographic search area and still, NOTHING. We found several on the Lazy Daze Yahoo site but they were all quite a distance from our home in Eugene, Oregon.

We had decided to buy used. We had a budget that we wanted to stay within. As we looked and looked, that budget began to grow. We read up on all the changes to the Lazy Daze year by year and finally decided we wanted something no more than five years old. Oh boy, these Lazy Daze people seem to want to hang on to their coaches for 10 years or more. Hard to find a newer model.

Finally, we found what we thought we wanted. It was out of our area but we paid an expert to go look at it for us. The online photos posted by the owner were beautiful and the report from our expert showed only minor problems, along with the note that it needed a good detailing. Looking at the pictures we thought, how bad can it be? The owner assured us that he would have everything fixed and the coach would be ready to go when we got there. Being cautious, we told him we were 99% sure this was the one we wanted but insisted on a personal inspection before making a formal offer.

To make a long story short, we walked into the coach and walked right back out again. If the owner could not even bother to wipe old breadcrumbs from the counter, drain the murky water from the sink, or clean the mold from the frig, what else had been neglected? It just did not leave a good feeling. This was likely to be the last major purchase we would ever make and it had to be right. No time for another mistake.

Since we were already in So. California, we went to the Lazy Daze factory. Oh my, what nice people and everything so fresh and clean! We inspected the models they had, and drove a 27’ since they did not have a 31’ floor model. I could not believe how easy it was to drive. Just like driving a pick-up truck (well, almost!). I know the mid-bath is their most popular model, and has a wonderful CCC, but by now, we knew our two dogs and our two selves would be happier in a 31’.

This is a 27'.  Ours will look like this only a little longer.

And so the next day we were back, check book in hand and we ordered our 31’ TB in charcoal and gray. Over budget? Yeah, guess you could say that. But we got what we wanted, it should last as long as we do and it’s all going to be “our” dirt on the inside!!

Happy Travels and God’s Blessings

Due Diligence

When we first starting thinking about getting another motorhome, we decided we wanted something small, easy to drive, good gas mileage, and we definitely did not want to tow a dinghy. So we started out looking at Sprinter based models. They certainly look good on the websites. Those Mercedes diesel engines get up to 20 miles per gallon and are easily good for 100,000 miles. The coach is small enough to drive and park anywhere, negating the need for a tow car (toad). From the looks of the pictures, there was plenty of room for two people and two medium dogs.

And so we went shopping. Oh my goodness!! Those Sprinters were indeed easy to drive, until you get passed by an 18 wheeler going 65 miles per hour. Then it’s hang on for an E-ticket ride. And they are indeed space saving. I stood at the two burner stove and my behind was practically touching the bathroom door! The passenger bench was just that: a bench! Where would both dogs sit? So while I am not denigrating those who would be comfortable in that type of vehicle, we found right away it was NOT right for us.

I was ready to give up on the dream. I had driven some larger class As and Cs and just could not feel comfortable with the drivability, the quality, the safety, or the price. Then Russ started investigating Lazy Daze. We had looked at a small one years ago and been impressed, but it was too small for us. So we joined the Lazy Daze user group on Yahoo and started doing our research. We ordered CDs and books on motorhome ratings. And we really paid attention to what current owners had to say about their coach. Quality, drivability, safety, and price seemed to come together in the Lazy Daze.

So our direction changed. Having done our due diligence, we set about looking for the perfect used Lazy Daze. How hard could that be? Well, that’s another story!

Happy Travels and God’s Blessings

A New Beginning

Okay then, I may as well get started! I toyed with the idea of writing a blog several years ago and just "never got around to it!" How often have I said those words in my life time? So now I am going to begin. My life has changed/is changing and I will be traveling to some exciting destinations in the near future.

Russ and I with our SOB (that's Some
Other Brand in Lazy Daze talk) taken
around 1998

My husband, Russ, and I have always traveled as much as we could, and at one point even owned a Class A motorhome. However, constraints such as working and helping family members tend to take a large chunk out of the travel time. Not to mention the fact that the motorhome turned out to be, shall we say, not the ideal travel vehicle!!

Now we are both retired, the grandkids are grown or halfway there, the kids are all doing just fine on their own, and it is finally OUR time. We struggled a long time before we made our latest decision but we figured if not now, when? We went to California in September of this year (2010) and visited the Lazy Daze Factory in Montclair, California and ordered a brand new motorhome. We did our research this time and decided that, for us, the Lazy Daze was the only way to go.

If you are unfamiliar with the Lazy Daze brand you can go here www.lazydaze.com/index.htm and see what they are all about. You can also google Lazy Daze and find all kinds of user groups and owner comments about the brand. These motorhomes are not in the "fancy-dancy" category, but they are safe, extremely well made, and easy to drive...all things that were lacking in our other motorhome.

So now we are waiting. It takes about four months for the coach to be built on a Ford E450 chassis. While we are waiting, I'll share some about how we got to this point in our lives, what we are doing while we wait, and perhaps go back in time a ways and share some of our previous trips. Wherever you are on your own 'travel-quest', I wish you happy travels and God's Blessings.