A big part of our retirement plan is to travel. We intend to take advantage of the military hops and see parts of the world we have not yet visited. We also plan to see this wonderful country by schlepping campground-to-campground across North America (and maybe even parts of Central America). The mode of travel for our American journeys will be a travel trailer.
We wanted something that would pull a 30-foot trailer without problems so we looked for a very long time and decided upon a Chevrolet 2500 HD (heavy duty), diesel powered pickup truck. We searched almost every dealer on the east coast only to find one that would get us what we wanted. Except……they wanted $2,000 over MSRP. “Find another sucker, pal”.
Having made several trips to San Antonio, Texas, for business and to visit my brother, Don, we started looking in that area for we had noticed the car lots abundant with pickup trucks. They seem to be the preferred method of transportation in that part of Texas. It did not take long to find a dealer who had the exact vehicle we were looking for with all the options for $8,000 less than the MSRP. Folks, that is over $10,000 less than the east coast dealer wanted to sell it for. A no brainer. And to beat it all, my brother found a dealer who would get that truck and sell it to me for $300 less than the dealer who had it on their lot. What a deal. That paid for the airline tickets to San Antonio.
Don picked up the truck and was gracious enough to drive it for several weeks to put some mileage on it before we drove it back to Baltimore. The trip was 1660 miles and it took us two and a half days to make it. We did not push ourselves and we stayed off the main interstates until we got to Memphis. Didn’t get any of their good B-B-Q, but we did see Elvis (see Texas Trip picture album).
Our next step is to find the trailer that suits us best. We do not expect to get that until spring of next year (2007). This trailer is where we will live for however long it takes for our house to be built. We are expecting up to six months. Sooner would be better. Christmas 2007 is our target date. Stay tuned. There is more preparation that we are planning for this summer.
