North Bound And Down! 🧭

So we were headed North! The alternator was running strong and we made our journey past our last hiccup point and beyond. I worried we had pushed our luck too late into the season for this last trip; because as we hit “The Pass” snow flittered down from the sky and began covering the road. I had always avoided driving Serenity in snow- but we steeled on and took our time. With careful driving and the weight of the RV- she handled just fine.

That night we rolled into Girdwood- which we were both pretty excited about because we had never ventured past the Girdwood Gas Station on the main highway. It actually doesn’t take long to drive around the Girdwood vicinity, and it turns out it is a beautiful little resort town. The cabins and the ski-lodges were all gorgeous, and the community seemed to a bustling tourist attraction. Since we generally live the thrify life, we found a nice little parking spot, backed in, made our own dinner, and settled in for the night.

The next morning we arose to find the temperature had drastically dropped while we slept, and everything was covered in a thick layer of frost. As we brewed and drank our coffee- the sun began to beam out and offer some warmth to the environment. I messaged the seller of the 4×4 Odyssey and he gave us directions to his home. Not even 10 minutes later we were pulling in his driveway. That’s when we met him and his baby. Needless to say, we were impressed. Seeing a 4×4 Toyhome in real life is a pretty cool sight- and this one had a lot of work that had been done to it. The motorhome itself looked pretty rough- but I was pretty positive that if we could give it the Gaco treatment next summer it would seal up and reinforce the camper just fine. He had some supports made that held up the bed area above the cab- and the passenger one had broken. It would need to be re-welded- and he let us know this. This issue caused the passenger side door to rub heavily on the bottom of the camper. This wasn’t the end of the world- but it would need to be attended to. He fired the engine up for us and she sounded great. After checking out his rig, we gave him a tour of Serenity.

Needless to say I could immediately tell he was impressed. I could see it in his eyes as he looked her over and talked to us about what we had done that he thought we would be a great home for his girl. We parted ways and thanked him for his time. As we headed out he messaged us and asked us to research the wood stove he had installed in it. It was a Kimberly Wood Stove- and was a $5,000+ stove.

He let us know he had showed the rig to another interested buyer- but the buyer seemed young and yet he offered immediate cash, he didn’t look like he wanted to take care of it like we did. Also- he didn’t want the wood stove so that would lead to large drop in selling price. The owner explained to us could go either way. He was going to buy another Kimberly for his next project, but thought it would be a shame to take it out of The Odyssey when it was in and all set up for it. We told him we would think on it. 😉

Laura and I talked about it- and after viewing the rig had to make a decision. It had what we wanted, either what Serenity would not have or didn’t have yet; it was hooked up on solar, it had an alternative heating option with the wood stove, Laura loved the layout of the camper, it was lifted (more clearance than my pickup!), 4×4, upgraded 3.4L V6 engine out of a Tacoma, a very strong roof we could easily spend time on, beefed up bumpers, a diamond plate storage box on the rear, and even a better stereo. It came with some features I wouldn’t have to bend over to re-do that I had done in Serenity- like a bigger and better bathroom layout or comfy seats. Serenity could make our planned trip around America for sure- it was just that this one was set up and could even go more off-grid if we decided we wanted to.

We spent the majority of the evening in Palmer, making a trade and playing games with our new friend- Josh Krull, and it was a great time! Earlier we had caught word via Facebook that one of our favorite Alaskan bands was playing just the next town over in Wasilla– a ska band named Nervis Rex! There was a nice little park by the tracks just across the street from where they were playing- which made the perfect landing pad for the night! We parked, laughed, and danced until late- and then crashed in our bunk. 😴

The next morning we made plans to meet my Salmonfest Mechanic buddy, Nick Tucker, and quickly found out he was out of town. Instead we made plans to meet up with his lovely lady for some Breaky at the Village Inn in Anchorage. As we drove back from Wasilla we gritted our teeth and finalized our decision- we would move forward on even seeing if we could do it. We needed to establish 2 things before we would finalize anything;

1.) She needed to check out mechanically for sure- the seller seemed to know what he was talking about but I wanted to get a thumbs up from somebody I trusted. I would need to get Nick Tucker to check her out.

2.) We would need to find a way to finance it. We had already sworn we wouldn’t go any further into debt. 😖 Our focus in our lives was to pay down and get out of debt. But… a 4×4 like this wasn’t going to come often, if every again, or last long. We decided on this one we would do it- and look at it like investing in our future home. 😁

I let the seller know we were interested, pending an inspection and financing. I let him know we would keep him updated all the way- as we did want her, but did not want him to lose out on a sale if we couldn’t follow through. He was really nice about it- letting us know he was willing to wait a bit if we thought we could make it happen.

After we enjoyed a great breakfast with our friend, we decided to take Serenity by the car wash. We wanted to give her a spray down so we could take some nice pictures of her- in case we were going to list her for sale. It was a beautiful morning when we took the pictures- and a bitter sweet one at that. We are so proud of how Serenity turned out! 💖

We asked the seller if on our way down we could swing by and look at it again. He gave us the go-ahead, and let his know he might not be home but he would leave her unlocked for another look-see. When we got there you could tell he was getting ready for her to sell- as he had begun the process of cleaning her out. Here is some of the pics Laura took:

Where could we borrow the money- and then pay it back ASAP so we could get back on our original track? So as we drove home we had plenty of time to dream and scheme! We knew where we wanted to go- now it was just time to try and figure out how we were going to get there. 😏

Geoff Murphy 3/17/2020