After months and months of searching and dreaming, we finally found it, our very own RV.
Dylan and I spent the last few months scrolling through Facebook Marketplace, browsing Craigslist, and keeping our eyes peeled as we drove to new places. We spent hours per day in the last few weeks searching for the perfect RV, driving to go visit the ones we sort of kind of maybe liked even a little bit.
We found our RV on Facebook Marketplace after searching specifically for "Holiday Rambler", a type of RV that we had fallen in love with. This RV was located in Pennsylvania, about a five hour drive from our home in Oswego, New York. It was being sold by a woman named Debbie who we spoke to on the phone before we decided to drive the five hours to go and see it.
The 48 hour story of how we got our RV starts the night before we were supposed to leave when my 2004 Subaru, the car we were supposed to be taking to Pennsylvania, wouldn't start. We banged on the starter, tried to use the neutral safety switch to our advantage, and jump it using Dylan's car. Nothing worked. (Side note: it was fixed a few days later and just needed a new battery!)
Dylan's car is substantially over his allowed miles on his lease so we tried everything to get my car working but in the end we decided that we better just suck it up and take his car.
We woke up early on Monday morning and left the house around 4:45am. The drive down to Pennsylvania was so easy, we jammed to music and stopped every hour for me to pee. We got to Debbie's house around 10am which gave us plenty of time to take a look and figure out what we wanted to do.
When we first saw the RV I'm pretty sure both Dylan and I just kind of knew it was the one. The layout was just what we wanted; one bed on top, a dinette, a couch, a large bathroom, and decently spacious kitchen. We took it for a test drive and it drove great.
Once back from the test drive we told Debbie we were going to grab some lunch and talk about our decision. Dylan and I headed to Pizza Hut, sat at a booth and discussed some pros and cons and what our plan was. We had obviously decided that we wanted this RV and went back to Debbie with an offer.
Once we had the financials figured out we had to figure out the legalities of buying a vehicle out of state. Thankfully Dylan had done some research and made some calls the week before we were supposed to go so we had a decent idea of how to handle everything. Dylan had previously set up insurance for the RV so he just had to make a phone call to activate it.
We went to PA's version of a DMV and we were there a total of 20ish minutes, a huge difference from New York's DMVs which the line itself takes roughly 40 minutes. The woman at the DMV was helpful and we were out of there with the vehicle in our name in no time!
Once back out in the parking lot Debbie said her goodbyes to us and the RV, we took a couple photos and we promised her we'd be in touch. We were and will continue to be so grateful for Debbie and how easy of a process she made this for us. There is no one we'd rather buy an RV from.
For the drive home I drove Dylan's car, a sleek sports car with very bare tires, and he drove behind me in the RV, a huge vehicle neither of us were used to.
At the start of the drive everything went smoothly, we stopped for gas and we were left wide mouthed at how much gas this baby could hold. About 20 minutes into the ride I called Dylan and told him to turn the RV headlights on as it was starting to snow and get a little darker. Dylan and I spent the next two minutes saying "how 'bout now?", "nope now they're off", "wait go back they were on", "nope, they're off again", "Oh wow okay those are your brights". We eventually figured it out thank goodness.
About one hour into our ride home through the Pennsylvania mountains we started to hit a really bad snowstorm. We had no where to pull over since they were mountain roads and I think we were both pretty nervous. On the way up one huge incline we passed a snow plow that had gone off the road on their way down.
At one point in the storm we passed a sign that said that truck over 7,000 lbs must go a different route and that no cars were allowed on this route. We had a slight moment of panic because we had no clue how heavy the RV was but Dylan was a quick thinker and remember seeing something that said 8,000 lbs on the title so we took different routes. Luckily his route emptied back out to the main route so I just had to pull over and wait for him.
The snowstorm added an extra hour onto our journey home. But we were just grateful to be back in weather that we could actually see in.
We planned on bringing the RV to my mom's house since we live in an apartment in the city and don't have a driveway. My mom's driveway has trees that run along it so we were super cautious with the overhanging branches.
Once we were parked we just kind of sat in relief and disbelief about how we had actually bought an RV. It was the start of our journey. We will be leaving shortly after Christmas time so we can spend time with family.
As for the RV, we've decided to name her Bernadette, Bernie for short.
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