Taking delivery of the new motorhome
Friday was the big day, starting a whole new direction in our lives. No more leaving the 3 furry members of our family home, and a whole lot of exploring the North slowly, in great detail.
I took a few photos from my 6th-floor room at the Aloft Phoenix Airport Hotel starting at 05:35, but the light had gotten really nice when I took this one at 06:45.
I had really hoped for a big sit-down breakfast, but the only restaurant within walking distance was closed, so an egg sandwich from the snack bar in the hotel lobby had to suffice. That’s the only negative about the Aloft, though – in every other way it’s been perfect for my purposes.
Any hotel that greets its guests this way gets top marks from me, of course 🙂
I had the desk call for a cab at 07:30, and for a $40 bill was at La Mesa RV for the scheduled 08:00 delivery. La Mesa is a huge company, which has its good and its bad aspects. The bad that I keep running into is that every little part of a sale is handled by a different person – on the phone in particular, it’s like dealing with the federal government, trying to find the right person. The good includes infrastructure like this air-conditioned Delivery Center…
…where my rig was shined up and ready to go. It’s a 2007 Fleetwood Terra LX 31M, a 31-foot-long Class A motorhome. Another of the good parts of La Mesa is that everyone is very good at their little part of the deal. After we got a stack of company and state and federal government paperwork signed, Ken spent almost 2 hours showing me the rig and how everything works.
La Mesa has obviously done a lot of sales to Canadians, and has the process down pat. By doing the actual delivery of the rig 2 hours away via Highway 10 in Blythe, California, no Arizona taxes have to be paid by out-of-state buyers, saving a couple of thousand dollars. While Steve drove the motorhome, Bruce drove me in a pickup, and we had a great chat along the way.
Welcome to California. Neither the motorhome nor the pickup fit whatever profile the Agriculture Inspectors were looking for, and we both got waved through the inspection station.
The notary that usually does the paperwork in California was off sick and it took a while to find another one, but we got it all done, the 3 of us went for a fast-food late lunch, and just after 3:00 p.m., I was off on my Adventure 🙂
I didn’t have a firm destination for that night, but went back to Quartzsite on Hwy 10, then north on 95 towards Kingman.
If I come back as a desert rat (the human kind!) in my next life, I’ll be okay with it – I really like this stark world. Reading a lot of Edward Abbey’s work a few decades ago no doubt enhanced my appreciation for the beauty.
I had a long list of things to buy to set up house properly, and as evening came, I pulled up the Kingman Walmart on the GPS. By the time I made 3 trips through the store and back to the rig, it was nearing 8:00 p.m., and I decided to just camp there. Easy, stress-free, and free – all good for a short stop when I didn’t need any campground services.
The very basic plan for Saturday was to go to the Camping World store near Flagstaff to buy a bunch more stuff, then stop at the Grand Canyon.
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