3 years or so ago the seed was planted. That was when we started thinking about retirement (it’s closer now, look at the timer to the right). On our trip to Alumafandango, the seed was watered further when we stopped in Redding. A couple of weeks ago the seed finally blossomed.

What is the fruit of the seed? This:

 

Knowing that we would be on the road a lot I knew I wanted a newer truck for our retirement. The current truck would have done it but would be 12 years old by that time. By getting it now we have at least 2 years to make payments on it and get ahead of things.

When we were in Redding I went for a drive with my friend Mike who has a new F450 to tow his 5th wheel. That is when the seed got watered.

Right now the 2013 models are ending and the 2014’s are coming in. There is no differences between the years except higher prices. So we thought we would see if we could get one. Our credit union approved us and the search was on.

I probably contacted 8-9 dealers in different ways, AAA, CostCo, TruePrice, etc. It was fun wrangling all these dealers, not! My son loves it but I don’t. We test drove the Ford and also the GMC model but liked the Ford better. I started dealing with two in Fresno but one was more aggressive in pricing and communication. When all was done we had worked out all the numbers via email. I love that!

This truck ended up costing us more than our first house we bought in 1986! OUCH! A friend and I were talking and he mentioned about wanting a new truck but not wanting to spend that much. I told him if we waited longer then he would be paying even MORE!

We were able to get great financing from our credit union and did not have to trade anything in. But that means we have to get rid of the old truck. Off to Craigslist!

We waited a week to post the old truck as a family friend was trying to buy it. Unfortunately it did not work out. I posted it on CL. We had a few nibbles. One guy that seemed very interested but fell off the map.

We were parking it wherever we thought there was good traffic to get exposure. I was only asking $12000 with room to negotiate. One day I took it to work and got a call the next day from a guy that saw it driving by.

Today they came and put a deposit down on the truck and should be bringing the rest in a day or two.

We are planning on a trip with the trailer the first weekend in Oct with Aaron and family. This will be the first trip for both of us towing our trailers with our new trucks. Should be fun!