MOTORHOME OF OUR DREAMS

WE'VE FOUND OUR DREAM RETIREMENT HOME!

WHO TOOK THIS PHOTO?
We've seen it on any number of webpages but no one seems to have any substantive information about it.
If you have any information please contact us here.

LAST UPDATED ON 2010-March-09!

**HEADS UP, GANG!**
INTERNET HYPERPLASTICITY While this tree on our website is 99% finished there will doubtlessly be minor changes over the next few months that will arise from the following. Comments, suggestions and questions from people like you. New information that comes to light. Obsolete content that must be weeded out. "Never leave well enough alone" tinkering. In any case, you can readily see the last date on which any particular page was last edited at the top, in magenta print. If the information on this set of webpages is of importance to you (i.e., you're thinking about importing your own RV), you probably should check any important pages frequently just to be sure you have updated information.

BACKGROUND

You can gain a lot of the background behind this story by referring to the original webpage that we posted, announcing our desires and intentions.

For the last 15 years we have owned a Class B (van conversion). It's a 1984 Vanguard VC-4 on a Ford chassis. At first this vehicle gave us no end of problems and a few major crises. The Vanguard part was done well but 1984 was not a good year for Ford vans. After several years we had replaced nearly everything that Ford had anything to do with. Those first few years were bad enough that we even firmly declined allowing one of our best friends from using it for a two week vacation in the Canadian Rockies. Thereafter the rig turned out to be very nearly the perfect machine for trips and vacations up to a month long for two or even three adults.

The Vanguard was compact enough to allow us to move through city traffic and park in grocery store parking lots with little more trouble than with a normal car. At the same time it was large enough and designed well enough that we could comfortably live in it for rather extended periods of time. (We've travelled and camped in it for up to a month at a time, on several occasions with our teenaged grandson!) However, our intentions are to move into an RV full time after Stan retires, and that will require something a little larger if for no other reason than to maintain our sanity and marital bliss. Thus we began searching for an RV of somewhat larger proportions.

GAME PLAN

The time was getting close to where we would have to start looking for our dream retirement home. Partly by brilliant (?) strategy, partly by shear serendipity, partly by pure, dumb luck we developed the following plan. Some was programmed well in advance. Most was developed as we went along, flying by the seat of our pants as it were.

(Each of the following subjects turned out to be excessively long and complicated. Many of them overlapped a bit in time or even operated concurrently making the story still more complex. Thus, we decided to break them into their own pages to save you from acute brain damage.)

Decide on what we really wanted.
Go on a quest for the perfect motorhome.
Negotiate the purchase with the owner.
Financing. Doing battle with the financial dragons.
The expedition to Texas.
Big deal goin' down. We finally get to see the motorhome and meet that lady on the phone!
Importing it into Canada. The trip home and doing battle with the revenuers.
I AM CANADIAN!
Final Words. A discussion and important points about the whole project.