Every year at about this time Charlie comes up with a bunch of money from tax prep work that we find necessary to spend. It’s our way of stimulating the economy.
You’re welcome, America.
This year, Uncle Joe Biden is helping by shipping us some funny money to add to our Spring windfall. And it’s a good thing, because The Beast (our RV) needs some repairs and renovations before we head out to Colorado in May and, later, on our 3-month Summer hiatus to Oregon.
We have the motorhome at National Indoor RV in Las Vegas where they are going over the rig from stem to stern. The main issues are the washer-dryer (replace), the refrigerator (fix), and the Blue-Ox towbar package (replace). Some minor items include interior trim repair, a few hinges here and there, A/C service, and some minor electrical repair.
We’re getting this work done now before inflation really gets going and prices this stuff out of our reach. I read today that the lumber required to build a small house in one market rose from $30,000 to $70,000 within the past six months. That sucks. Diesel fuel cost has increased about 33 percent in the past several months. That suckage hits close to home, seeing as how we are motorhome owners. But, as the saying goes, if you can’t afford the fuel, you can’t afford an RV.
We’ve had our Monaco Windsor for about six years now. It was a 10-year-old when we bought it (it’s a 2005 model), and we’ve put approximately 25,000 miles on it. The underlying chassis is a Freightliner, powered by a 400 h.p. turbo Cummins diesel, which is commercial grade, so the 83,000 total miles on the rig mean that it is a veritable teenager in terms of useful life. As long as we keep everything in good shape, it should last us (and our progeny) for a long time.
I recently walked through a few “on consignment” motorhomes at NIRV in Las Vegas. Of course, the newer rigs have updated technology and a few extra bells and whistles that 2005 vintage motorhomes lack. Still, to get a new 40’ diesel pusher motorhome with four slides, real wood cabinetry, new furnishings, a new refrigerator and new washer-dryer, and all the goodies that we have in our rig, the cost would be somewhere between $150,000 and $300,000. That’s a lot of dough. I think we owe $60,000 on ours, so it is a bargain, at this point.
Last year, because of Covid-19, we hardly traveled. But, normally, we will put 3,000 to 6,000 miles on the rig. This year we have four trips planned already, totaling about 6,000 miles of travel. We could do more, as some neighbors are buying a motorhome this month and might want us to join them in a “shakedown” cruise to somewhere.
Anywhere would be good: the 2020 lockdown sucked.
We can hardly wait to hit the road. It’s time to stimulate our lives…again!
