Planning Started Long Ago
Although Sonya and I had been discussing a North American Tour off and on for the past 6 years, we really got serious last year and decided to buy a new truck and trade in the 28foot trailer that we had owned for about nine years for a larger fifth wheel. The truck purchase was a bit of a fiasco. I did not realize at the time how much weight we would be towing so when given the option to buy a one-ton gas fueled truck, rather than a diesel job, I went with it. I figured that even though it was not rated to pull as much as the diesel, it was still a one-ton Ford 350 - it's a monster! Should be able to a pull our new fifth-wheel, no problem. Then we really started looking at fifth wheels and quickly realized that the gas engine was not going to cut it. Ended up going back to the dealer to trade-in a 2-month old truck. Of course, the dealer was very happy to see me and gave me full-value for this truck that had hardly been driven. Just kidding! The dealer was actually happy to see me but let's just say it was an expensive lesson in how much a vehicle goes down in value the day it's driven off the lot. Yikes!
The good news is that we were able to get a really good price for a new 38foot trailer. We bought it from Mynards in Weyburn Saskatchewan. Last year, we made a mini-vacation out of the trip to Weyburn to pick it up. On the way back, we stopped in Regina and did a tour of the Parliament building.