I'll clean it if you buy it.

RV shopping.  When we devised our plan to travel around North America we put in place a budget, basically the proceeds of the sale of Sea Monkey, Craigslist stuff, and our 350z would be what we used to buy our coach. When everything was said and done we had a little more than 26k. Oh silly me, to think I can find something decent for that. Looking at Craig's list and RVtrader I could see around a dozen or so coaches that met our criteria. Apparently everything we can afford lives in the I.E. (inland empire) no small distance from our house in some godawful traffic.

Here is what I learned about used RV shopping.  If the owner starts a sentence with the phrase "me and my buddies camping in the desert" the carpet will be covered in unidentifiable stains and it will smell vaguely of piss and Coors Light. If it is thousands below book value the owner bought it at auction, put a thin coat of lipstick on that pig and will try to shove it down your throat. If you point out some obvious flaws he will become sullen and send you a bunch of crazy and insulting texts. (Enzo, next time try saying that shit to my face you coward)  Then there was the guy who would gladly clean the coach if we bought it. Nice try.  I was at the point of despair. Do we need to finance something to get a decent coach? The whole point of this is to be debt-free, and everything we finance now will be paid of at the sale of our house. Less cash for us. There was one bright spot. The first RV we looked at was spotless, diesel, and within our budget. We didn't make an offer for three reasons. One, it was the first thing we looked at. Two, it was over twenty years old. Three, it was listed right at the far end of our budget, any modifications would put us over. We looked over our priorities and decided that condition is more important than age. We didn't have to pay his asking price, it couldn't hurt to make him an offer.  Everything else we looked at was faded, stained or smelled like the dumpster behind Goodwill. So off we go on another 80 mile round trip to Fontana. Turns out he accepted our offer, and for a little extra he agreed to deliver our new coach to us. Arriving Sunday: our 1996 Allegro Bus, pictures coming soon.