Sometimes Changes are Good!

I haven't written anything for a very long time, maybe because I didn't feel I had anything worthwhile to write about.  My writings up to this point have been primarily about riding and seeing the country from atop my motorcycle.  Since my accident I just never could find a satisfactory replacement machine that was as comfortable as my wing and I was beginning to feel that the part of me that yearned to travel, to see different things, to wake up someplace new was dead.  Well, I'm happy to report that none of me has succumbed to the bliss of non existence, I have discovered  a new portal to get back into traveling and seeing the nation and getting out there and really living again!

I'm going to back up to July, 2015 and tell my story.  Cindy and I have been able to maintain a good life and have been able to be happy with our meager incomes and had pretty much accepted that living in our rental home and being close to our grandkids was going to be our life from now on.  I had accepted that my  traveling days were pretty much over.  We didn't have the money to buy a trike and if we did get one, we couldn't afford to travel and with her physical pains, any type of distance travel on anything less than four wheels would not be a pleasurable experience for her, thereby not being a pleasurable experience for me.  

I was perusing Ebay one night, just dreaming more than anything, about getting a decent camper so we could at least get away once in a while.  Until just a month prior, June of 2015, we didn't have anything to even pull a camper with but I managed to purchase a used 2002 F350 Ford Dually and had hopes of maybe someday being able to travel again.  I was looking at fifth wheel units and dreaming, placing a bid here and there to satisfy my mind that I was at least trying.  I knew that I would not be the winning bidder on any of these units because the funds I had available were not near enough to buy a decent fifth wheel, but it at least kept me involved and hopeful.

This particular evening I got brave and placed a bid on a very nice fifth wheel camper that had no reserve.  I figured that it would go far beyond my maximum bid but at least I tried.  With each passing night I would check  the status of my bid and to my amazement, no one else was bidding!  The auction was entering it's final hours and the inevitable happened, I got outbid.  Without consulting Cindy, or knowing where the extra money would come from I took a chance and raised my meager bid as much as I dared, sure that I would not have to come up with the extra money anyway because, let's face it, there was no way a unit as nice as this was going for the ridiculous amount of $3800.  This was a unit that was worth, according to fair market, at least 8 grand and that would be cheap.  
I entered my final bid and went to bed, at least I was trying and that seemed to satisfy my heart's urge to once again travel.  
The morning sun began to shine through our back window and the day was forming to be a very nice day, a day to go do something around the yard or maybe fix a kid's go cart or something to just stay busy and by staying busy, maintain my sanity.  I checked my emails and about fell on the floor when I read the email from Ebay.  "you are the high bidder".  Just to clue you in on how sure I was that I would never win a unit for that price, I had not even looked to see where the unit was located.  When I discovered that I would have to go to Albany, New York to get my winning, I knew that this was definitely going to be the beginning of a new era of traveling for us!  You see, motorcycling was the last thing that Cindy and I had done together that we had truly enjoyed  up until this miracle.  During the time we had lived in a 28 foot fifth wheel before we got our rental house we had often talked about how much fun it would be to travel with one.  Talk was all we could do, we didn't even have anything to pull one with.  We never gave up our dream of someday being able to travel the country again, we just had no clue how we would ever be able to do it.
Wow, now I was obligated to travel 1800 miles one way to pick up a camper that I had only seen pictures of and had only been told that it was road ready.  I contacted the seller, a very nice gentleman, that told me over the phone that the unit was everything he had stated in the ad and he understood the reluctance I had to drive that far, spend that much in diesel fuel and not really know what I was getting into so he did something very unusual for a no reserve seller, he told me that if I got there and it was not what he said it was he would release me from the contract AND pay for my fuel to get there and back home.  This truly was a miracle that was meant to be!
I rounded up the money for the purchase, some of it was borrowed from my mom, and made arrangements with the seller to pick up the unit on Monday at 8 am.  I was as excited as an expectant father!  The auction had ended on a Wednesday and I wasn't going to get my unit until Monday!  I had a real hard time sleeping the next few nights.  This was it, our opportunity to start a new part of our lives, to travel again and do something that we both enjoyed, again!  I originally had planned on leaving early Saturday morning and heading out to Albany.  Well, Friday night came along and I just could not sleep so about 10 pm or so I told Cindy I just had to get going and she, as usual, understood.
I drove all night and crossed the Indiana state line and was finally calming enough to stop in a rest area sleep, for about 3 hours, then  I had to get going again.  I was high on adrenaline and drove all the way to the last service plaza on the New York Thruway before Albany.  I pulled in and climbed into the back seat of my truck and went to sleep for the first real rest since leaving Kansas City, except for  my 3 hours in Indiana.
I remember  the brightness of the sun as it peaked through the windows of my truck parked there in that service plaza in the beautiful mountains of upstate New York on that Monday morning.  I had set out in a truck with over 300 thousand miles on it headed halfway across the country to pickup a trailer that I had only seen pictures of, hoping that it would be the new deliverance that Cindy and I so longed for.

I drove on into Albany and the heavy rush hour traffic didn't even bother me for I was on a mission!  I arrived at the location and the seller had not yet arrived.  I went over to the unit and proceeded to look it over.  It WAS everything it had been represented to be and more!  Here was this 1998 Damon Magnum 30 foot fifth wheel camper that was ours!  It was clean, straight, and very nice, inside and out.  The seller showed up and we finalized our business.  Just as I was getting ready to head back to Kansas City, he stopped me and added yet another surprise.  He asked that I wait a few minutes so that he could go and get a new battery for the camper because the ad had stated that it would come with a new one!  Could you ask for a more honest seller?  
I obliged and was really getting anxious to get on the road.  He promptly returned with a new battery and we said our goodbyes.  I was really impressed a couple hours later when my phone rang and it was the seller asking if the trailer was pulling OK and sincerely concerned how I was doing.  That is an extreme rarity and to me, another indication that this was all supposed to be for us.

I motored on across the thruway, praising God for the miracle that had been bestowed on us and dreaming of the outings that Cindy and I would be making in this RV.  I drove until I got to northern Ohio and the excitement and tiredness of the entire event finally hit me so I pulled into a truck stop and proceeded to climb into my camper and went into a very relaxed and peaceful sleep, dreaming of the adventures to come!
We have already made a 2400 mile trip with our RV and I will be posting more on that trip soon.  One thing about traveling with in a RV, time  to write and the comfortable surroundings in which to write will abound!