The first RV I bought cost about $2,500 and was propped up on cinder blocks alongside a ribbon of uneven blacktop south of Cumberland, Wis.
This was a pickup-camper that to someone without my keen eye for potential would have been considered a really bad investment. But I’ve bought a lot of stuff on impulse and figured a surprise purchase might salvage a deer hunting weekend marked by barren meat poles, with no bucks swinging. Cocooned in a sea of blaze orange and high on junk food, my two young sons, Trevor and Cole, were in the truck’s back seat, sleeping.
The camper’s seller couldn’t believe his luck when I knocked on his door. Wearing too-tight coveralls and between puffs on filterless Camels, he put a yardstick to his timeworn RV, measuring it against my truck. “It’ll fit!” he declared. When I asked if he’d take a check he said, “Why not?” For tie-downs we tossed cargo straps over the camper’s top and anchored them to the truck’s chassis, good enough for now.
“It’s yours!” the seller enthused.
“Can’t thank you enough!” I shouted, and I angled my dream rig toward home, the open road sprawling before me like a winning lottery ticket.
In my defense, I would later tell my wife, Jan, I had been to a lot of RV shows, such as the Ultimate RV Show, which runs Feb. 13-16 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and the Northwest Sportshow, also at the Convention Center, which will feature RVs in addition to boats and vacation destinations, March 13-16.
At those glitzy exhibits, I had honed to a fine art the chucks and feints of the would-be buyer, alternately kicking tires of travel trailers and bouncing on mattresses of fifth wheels, as if those assessments alone would determine whether I reached for my wallet.
Pickup campers were a particular weakness of mine, because their fantasy purchase offered the rare vacation combo of interstate travel plus we could pull our boat.