No news is eventually good news! Our first home!

All’s been quiet on the nomad front, at least from your point of view perhaps!  While longer term goals of becoming location independent were pushed to the back burner, we held to our original goal of 1) buy an RV and 2) get to Burning Man this year.  If we didn’t buy one, we couldn’t afford the trip as it would eat away at the funds for the RV.  While in past years we borrowed most things, including shelter and transportation from a generous friend, this year that wasn’t possible.  So it’s a darn good thing that we accomplished step 1! 😀

I wanted to blog when we thought we found our new home, but I didn’t want to jinx it or speak too soon.  And I would have spoken too soon, as that one slipped through our fingers to a seller who had cash on hand!  However, that led us to another lead we had ruled out early on.

We originally looked for a Class A or C RV, about 30′ in length, diesel to convert to WVO.  The one we almost bought was actually a fifth wheel trailer and diesel pick up truck – a number of things about the ad made it intriguing to us, and the logistics of vehicle and trailer grew on us.  When it fell through, we were looking at a short time frame to accomplish the impossible.

Our generous friend, who lives in Reno, had put out a call on the local Burning Man email list about our search.  One reply was a friend of hers whose father was selling a fifth wheel.  We ruled it out initially as we had our eye on a Class A or C, but when I came back to it with a new appreciation for the benefits of a fifth wheel, it only had one major drawback.  The pickup truck is gas, not diesel.

We didn’t have time before Burning Man to purchase a trailer and tow vehicle separately and figure out hitches ourselves, so we made the decision to consider this opportunity with the idea of upgrading the truck to diesel later on.

The more we talked to the seller, the better things sounded.  This one was much larger than the one that slipped away, so it’s much more suitable for living or traveling long term!  It didn’t have some of the bonuses the first one had (already had a dish for internet service), and it would need a generator and upgrade to electrical system for extensive boondocking or living, but the price was lower allowing us to budget more for improvements as we go.  It does have solar panels though!  It’s been with one owner who is meticulous about keeping records and original paperwork – the owners manual binder includes notes they asked the dealer when they originally bought it!

Through the help of our network of burners, we had the Trailerburn* crew do a visit in person to check it out on our behalf.  We got a big thumbs up, and thus we dived into purchasing a trailer and pickup truck in Reno, sight unseen!

* If you need any assistance with buying or renting a trailer in the Reno or CA area, please look these guys up! Good people!

Well, not unseen, but we have only seen photos.  And so here we are.  As of last week, we are the proud new owners of “The Palace” as her former owners called her – we may be renaming her the Playa Palace, but we’ll see what sticks!  We are flying into Reno on August 25, making the Palace our home while we prep for the burn, driving out there for the week and then driving across the country home to New Jersey!

In the meantime, I’ve been shipping bedding and supplies to Reno to furnish the Palace, and we have the joys of DMV we still have to finish — we went on Friday but they RAN OUT of license plates, so no new car registrations!  Seriously, they did.  Everyone I tell is shocked 😛  A big box of plates had severe water damage, and over 1,000 plates were stuck together to the point where they are unusable.  Cross your fingers that this week goes smoother (did I mention we finalized the sale just as Mercury went into retrograde? Oh yeah…)

We’re planning our route across the country home – we don’t want to be on Route 80 the whole time, but have our eye on the Badlands of South Dakota, the House on the Rock in Wisconsin, and who knows what else.  If you have suggestions, please share!

Without further ado, here’s the Palace! It’s a 2001 Alumascape 33SKT by Holiday Rambler with a 1995 Dodge Ram 2500.

YES IT HAS A KITCHEN ISLAND! Can you tell how excited I am about that?

So, a huge thanks to everyone who helped us in any way – from giving advice, to inspecting RV’s on our behalf, to handing off the check to the seller, and to the seller himself for being a fantastic guy! We promise to treat the Palace well and have some great adventures with her 😀

If you are coming to the burn, be sure to visit us at camp New Jersey in the 4:30 Plaza.  Ask for Hunnybear and Random or come knock on the Playa Palace door!

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