Our new to us 5th wheel is a 1999 33" Terry with three slide outs. We have a full kitchen, a split bathroom (toilet across the hallway from shower), a washer and dryer, a bedroom with a full size bed and closet, a couch that pulls out into a bed, two recliners (soon to be one to make room for Graham's pack n play), an entertainent center that plays music throughout the 5th wheel, and a dining room table that we want to convert to a traditional rv bed/booth. We took some pictures when John's family and dog were checking out our new home. We cleaned out our bank account to pay cash for it, but we still think it was a good purchase. Graham has floor space to crawl around on, the shower has a little tub for his baths, and there is space for his pack n play to be his crib.
Now we need a truck strong enough to pull it. We sold my Mustang to a Ford dealership for $9500 and found an 02 F350 super duty crew cab 7.3 turbo diesel dually short bed with 130,000 miles for $12,000. We further negotiated to pay $10,400 for the truck plus $600 dealership fees and to pay taxes in Florida later. That's below trade in value by the way. So today, we are waiting on the ford dealership to let us know our check is ready for deposit, so that we can go pick up our beast of a truck. Because it is a short bed, we need a slider 5th wheel hitch instead of a normal gooseneck.
John is becoming a cave diver and starting a new job. I was hoping that he would hate his cavern course so that I would stop having nightmares of his body being pulled out of a cave, but now he's in love. It's such a dangerous activity; I really don't want him doing it. But of course when he does something, he does it all the way. He has contacted the best instructors in the industry. This weekend, he is diving with Lamar Hires, who was trained by and dive buddy to Wes Skiles. Both men are major icons in the cave diving community. The Yucatan has a lot of cave diving, so maybe I could use his new love of cave diving as motivation to get us to Mexico. John's latest fantasy is to build a rebreather for diving. I am hoping the expenses of this project will prevent him from actually attempting it, because faulty rebreathers kill both inexperienced and very experienced divers. John starts his new job in May, which will require him to go to an office once a week. I am now trying to volunteer as a camphost within an hour of his work, but haven't heard back from anyone yet. It may be awhile until we are actually mobile in our mobile home, but we'll figure it out.
