Ok, rest day today – a forced one. First, a lot of smoke, and second, we need to do something about PUP.

Headed into Boise, to the Camping World we visited the other day, to see if they’ll take our offer on a camper we liked. They still think we want a hard-sided trailer, but we saw a really unique popup we like, that will fit our needs and lifestyle. We go, we look – it’s in worse shape than we thought, but nothing major we can tell, other than it needs new tires. It still has the originals (from early 2006!) and they are cracked all over – no way I’m taking these on the freeway! So, that’s a grand we’ll have to spend right off the bat, if we buy it, so they need to really drop the price. Our sales rep is out to lunch when we come back in, deciding what to offer, so we have to deal with another guy. He tells us asking price is $15.995. We counter $10,000. He goes to talk to his boss – they drop to $11,655. We counter with $10,000. They say, “Oh, come on! We came down – you come up!” We counter with $10,001, and state we don’t NEED to buy, would like to, but it’s a chunk of change, with lots of problems, so meet our price. Besides, try selling a popup trailer in Idaho in the winter – you’ll still have it next April! Sales guy takes me in to see financial guy – They’ll have to take a loss of almost $50 if they sell for $10,000. I said “OK, make it $10,050”. Yeah, but sales guy makes no money. I reply – “I don’t know him, $10,050”. I was kidding, but they didn’t realize it, so Barri steps in and says “Ok, $10,300”. We have a deal! SOLD!

Then, I shock the crap out of all of them – I offer to GIVE them the old PUP, for FREE. They are truly stunned, as NOBODY has ever given them an RV before. Canoes, tents, other small items, but not this. Remember, we paid almost 3K for it three months ago. It served us well, and the two sales guys do deserve something, and I’m not really that much of an asshole, so they should be able to make a couple grand off of PUP. We have a new trailer (well, we pick it up Thursday), and they take the old one off our hands. Life is good.

So, what did we buy? I call it “The Beast”. I’m quite certain it’s the biggest popup ever made in the free world. Seriously. It’s a Starcraft Discovery 36RT. On PUP, the living part of the trailer is 11 feet long. On the Beast, it’s about 15! So we have about 50% more floor area! Plus, the dinette slides out about a foot and a half, for even more room! PUP was 24 feet in all his splendor, tent end to tent end. The Beast is a shade over 32! There are two King beds (well, RV King, anyway – 67×78), a shower, a toilet, a microwave, a three-burner stove, and a real oven! Quite a bit of storage inside, BUT – on the outside, they hung a box  off the back, like the ones you put behind the cab on a pickup truck, the ones at the front of the bed. Lots of room there. BUT – the REAL piece de resistance is the front cargo area – six and a half feet wide, by eight feet long! Room enough to haul TWO Harleys up to Sturgis one of these years! Its carrying capacity is almost equal to its own weight! It weighs under 4,000 pounds, and can carry over 3,000! Here is a photo from the original brochure (because I cannot yet take a photo of it not surrounded by other RVs):

That photo doesn’t really give you a sense of scale. Closed up, it’s taller than I am! Here’s a shot of the outside with The Bear standing beside it:

Yeah, the MIDDLE of it is as high as her head! And she’s not short! Here’s another shot showing the slide and the cargo area:

Hmmm. Maybe that slide actually goes out two feet. The interior (where in PUP I’m used to brushing my head up against the ceiling) is seven foot three inches! I have over a foot of clearance – woohoo! Here is a shot of the front part of the interior:

And here is a shot of the rear half:

Showing the sink, stove, oven, microwave, and YES, refrigerator – kinda small, but it should hold a case of Guinness! I can’t wait to go pick it up, of course, first thing on the agenda after is the new tires, which are already on order, and also rotate the tires on Junior. Can’t wait, but first things first – tomorrow, we ride again!