Fleetwood Mac? No. Cadillac Fleetwood? No. Fleetwood Flair? YES!

Sunday morning June 23rd .....

Yup.  Yesterday I bought a 2001 Fleetwood Flair!

I had seen it on craigslist a few days ago and emailed to find out more about it.  A very nice gentleman returned my call and we had two or three conversations and emails going back and forth.  The background story is that his wife's parents [in-laws] owned it; his father-in-law passed away at the age of 87 a couple of years ago and his mother-in-law considered learning to drive it, but decided against that idea.  Then, he and his wife had hoped her mother would give it to them; but she's decided it would make her feel too sad to see it all the time and she'd rather sell it.  So, John, who has had lots of maintenance work done on it, put the ad on craigslist.

Well, after our conversations and lots of my questions were answered I asked if I could see it on Friday.  John said, he'd planned on driving it to Rocklin (about five miles from my house!) on Saturday morning to show it in an RV Show and would I like to see it then.  [I'd never heard of this kind of show; but it's a great place to see lots of different kinds of used RVs for sale.  Sometimes the owners are right there or they've left contact info].  We agreed to meet yesterday morning before he paid the fee to be included in the show.

Thank goodness I had an appointment because as I stood watching my soon to be new RV driving into the Sierra College parking lot where the show is set up, several people starting following the Flair to where it parked, with comments like, "Wow, Charlie, look at this one.  It looks fantastic."  As I got to him and his wife, they told folks, "This lady has an appointment.  If she decides against buying it we'll register it for the show."  In other words, "Come back later."

Well, I bought it.  We spent over an hour going over every little detail and I was very satisfied with how honestly he presented all its good points and its foibles too.  John has had the Flair on his plate, so to speak, since December 2012.  He showed me all the paperwork for how it's been maintained before and during his possession; he's put just about $5K into it since December - hoping his M-I-L would agree to let him have it.  NOT!  I've checked pretty thoroughly and feel his asking price is fair.  When we got down to it, I asked if he'd take ___ dollars and he said, "Yes."  It was that easy.
I gave him a deposit, telling him that I'm in process of refinancing my home with cash out.  He said he'd be  happy to allow me the time for that to occur.  So, I don't have the new RV in my possession yet, but God willing and the creek don't rise, she'll be mine!

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/rvs/3878569137.html

Why a Fleetwood Flair, you ask.  When I met Renate at Hacienda Contreras in Valle de Juarez, Mexico several months ago, I fell in love with her 1994 (I think) Fleetwood Flair.  She, like me, is a single woman adventurer, who has been just about full-timing it in her RV for several years now.  She travels with her pooch, Rocky, and they are very comfortable in the Flair.

I have looked at so many different RVs of Classes A, B and C.  And, I certainly considered keeping Daphne Dolphin and fixing her up, as I've talked about before.  The two real sticking points for me with my Dolphin have been the not being able to have an attached awning and not being able to tow or carry anything heavier that a bike.  Many of you have sent lots of suggestions and I've really appreciated all input.  I'm relatively new to the blogging life, but I really love getting others' opinions and encouragement along the path of decision-making.

I'll be blogging more as this process continues ......