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Operation Sea View

No, not the 60s Richard Basehart TV show. I’m talking about our newfound interest in a 2001 National RV Sea View after Operation Sea Breeze failed . . .

But first, Operation Sea Breeze failed pretty much from the get-go. For example, let’s start with our drive to the Sacramento RV dealership to see the 2001 Sea Breeze . . .

PART I – THE DRIVE THERE

We had several routes to chose from, and since we were in no hurry, we decided to take the “scenic” route – Highway 49 / 120. I mean, according to the Google map below, the scenic route was only 20 minutes longer.

What a mistake.

The Good News about the Highway 49 / 120 route is that we drove it for the first time. So we’re now familiar with another fire evacuation route. Also, great mountain scenery, especially if you like STEEP DROP OFFS & HAIRPIN TURNS. (Check the map insert below.)

The Bad News about Highway 49 / 120 – besides some white knuckles – is that the route added more than an HOUR (not 20 minutes) to our drive. C’est la vie.

So after 3 1/2 hours of driving, we arrive at our hotel room near the RV dealership. We eat lunch, freshen up, and walk the dog (oh yeah, Flirt is with us).

After lunch we drive over to the RV dealership to check out the 2001 Sea Breeze.

PART II – IT’S DEFINITELY A SELLER’S MARKET

As soon as I walked into the RV dealership, I knew buying an RV here was going to be difficult.

The Guy at the Front Desk just kept talking on the phone when I came in. Would not turn around even after I dropped a large RV catalog on the desk behind him.

Then, after finishing his phone call, he walked away without looking at me and got some kid to help me.

Zow!

PART III – THE 2001 SEA BREEZE WAS A POS

It reminded me of RVs returning from the Burning Man Desert Festival – Dust Mobiles that looked like they had served in Erwin Rommel’s Africa Corps or in Breaking Bad. Let one picture tell the story . . .

PART IV – THE OFFER

Definitely a fixer-upper, so I thought I’d offer less than asking price when I met with the RV dealership’s finance officer.

Our short meeting was classic Failure to Communicate. When I told Mr. Finance my offer, he asked “You mean the ‘Out the Door’ price?” I didn’t know what that meant. However, I said yes. What a mistake. I was talking about just the RV price and he was talking about the total cost (RV + tax + fees).

After he turned down our offer, Jan and I went back to the hotel, checked out, and drove back to Mariposa – the fast way this time.

PART V – WHERE’S MY HOTSPOT?

A few minutes after returning home, we realized that we had left out Internet hotspot in the hotel room. Long story short, the hotel staff found it and will mail it back to us.

Lovely.

Operation Sea Breeze

On Thursday we’re going to look at buying another RV. This time it’s a gas Class A and much shorter than our former Newmar – 30′ 5″ compared with 41′.

Also, the Sea Breeze doesn’t have any slide outs which is one less thing that can go wrong.

We’ve been looking for another RV for several months and used RV prices are still high, just like the housing market. We don’t want to spend much, so that really limits our selection. C’est la vie. We were going to wait until next year to buy, but this “deal” came along.

We’re excited, but also wary as this Sea Breeze has been driven. It’s definitely a fixer upper. Since our RV choices are limited by our budget, for any RV we ended up purchasing we figured that we’d end up replacing the tires, fridge, and ACs in pretty short order . . . and that’s what it looks like for this 2001 Sea Breeze.

More info after we come back.