“This Family’s Adventure” is brought to you by Marc, Nicole and Rebecka.
At the time of writing this post Marc and I have recently celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary.
Rebecka is 8, two months until 9. We live in San Diego, CA. I work at a car dealership in the AP/AR (Accounts Payable/ Accounts Receivable) department. Marc is full time as active duty in the Navy.
We are an anomaly in the military family world, as we have been lucky enough to stay in one city for 14 years. Marc’s retirement is less then a year away. We had a plan. Retire, leave San Diego, move to Texas, buy an affordable home. The cost of living in Texas is more manageable then San Diego, CA. Marc is from Texas, so it’s “home” to him. It’s a plan, yes. Honestly though, we both were feeling a little uneasy about different parts of what the future held.
In our 14 years in San Diego we have acquired a lot of belongings. We knew moving all these belongings would be a daunting task. The military will help us move, however after a certain weight limit we pay the remainder of the fees. In preparation for this we started to research cargo trailers with a ramp. Something we could fill with some of the heavier items, like motorcycles, tool boxes, the table saw, stuff like that. Something we could tow behind our truck and drive to Texas ourselves.
Used Cargo trailers in San Diego are hard to find. Then we looked into new cargo trailers. New cargo trailers can cost about the same as a used toy-hauler. (a Toy-hauler is a travel trailer with a ramp door. A Travel Trailer is a camper you pull/tow behind your truck.) A Toy-hauler became the new idea of what we wanted. How cool to be able to have something that we could use to help move us as well as something we can take out on trips. Marc and I had a cargo trailer as well as a toy-hauler prior to the birth of our daughter. We used to go out on weekend trips camping and riding 4 wheelers.
We ended up selling all of that when we realized going out and riding on the weekends wasn’t practical with a newborn. (Photos with old Toy-hauler lost in a computer crash) Rebecka is at the age now where she can enjoy adventures like Marc and I used to have. The decision to get a toy-hauler was made.
After searching locally at available used toy-haulers we were feeling frustrated with the options. When shopping around for something like this it is important to consider the weight of the vehicle. It is important to know how much weight your truck can pull safely and the weight of what you are pulling both empty and full. These are things we didn’t really pay much attention to in the past. (we burned through a transmission or two in the old truck in the past). We were NOT going to make that mistake again.
Then we started looking at our options for buying new. Wow there were so many options. We were entranced with all the possibilities. We spent weeks looking at all the different brands, styles and designs. We decided to make more of an informed decision we needed to go see some in person. One weekend we decided to drive north of San Diego and visit a large RV dealer.
…….. We only went to look…… but then……
(Next post: Our Toy-hauler Purchase)