Home again, home again, jiggity-jig. Home again, home again, ain't got no rig.
Lazy Days was great. I drove a 40' rig around the place under the supervision of Barney Alexander. It was amazing, and amazingly easy once Barney showed me how to find the reference points on the mirrors and the body of the coach. Now, I'm not ready to tackle Washington D.C., but I am certain I'll have no trouble taking 30+ feet and my toad down to Sebastian Inlet to start. I may need to have a couple of trees in my yard trimmed to park it here. I'll spend a few days at Lazy Days anyway, when I do buy, because there are roomy and fairly safe places to learn there and a certain tolerance for rank beginners.
I looked at a nice 2006 Gulfstream Independence 35'6" V10 w/3 slides and 34,000 miles on it. It was pretty, but I have not been able to find out a whole lot about that model and am not crazy about the 3 slides. It has a lot of bells and whistles..... but I can't help but wonder why other RVs FLY off the lot and this one hasn't. I also saw a National-something-or-other, which I wouldn't consider at all because of the bed configuration, and a couple of Fleetwood Bounders which did not impress me. I wanted to see a 2002 Tiffin Allegra Bay, but IT had a deposit on it before it even came onto the lot. One thing I knew for sure about it was that it belonged to a woman who traveled in it alone with her dog. She bought it new, and was replacing it with exactly the same 2012 model. Thought that was a pretty good comment on the quality of the motorhome.
Lazy Days is a super place. My Salesperson, Lily Rodriguez, was very nice and extremely attentive. She really listened to me and gave me the feeling that I could trust her judgement. She is an occasional RVer, alone, and understands my concerns very well. By the time I left on Thursday afternoon she had 2 pages of notes on me and my likes and dislikes. Due to my experience with the Tiffin, I decided to leave a credit card number on file with Lazy Days so Lily could place a hold on an incoming motorhome with just a phone call or email to me. She is expecting a 2004 Winnebago Adventurer 33V in mid December that I'll probably go to see.
They fed me, filled me with coffee, filled me with information, gave me lots of smiles and hellos and can I help you find somethings, personal attention, and generally treated me like a prospective Crown Club member for 2 days. I've been other places where I felt like I was being pressured to buy. Not here. Yes, Lily was so nice to me I was a little sorry I didn't find an RV to buy, but my satisfaction is far more important in this matter than hers is, and I feel like she'll do her best to find me a suitable RV AND back it up.
Being the lazy bum that I am, the one-stop convenience of Lazy Days can NOT be beat.
So here's to the hunt ~~