In 2017 Colleen and I had a busy year. Colleen retired from work, and I took on a new role so I could work from home. For the next year I would work during the week and we would run in races on the weekends. On the surface, everything was good in our lives, but something was missing. We were about to start an adventure that would show us what that something was. During the first week in August, 2018 we received a letter from a realtor asking if we would consider selling the house. She had a client looking for a home similar to ours in the neighborhood. I sat on the letter for a few days pondering the idea. After Colleen and I discussed it, we decided to call and let her know we were open to showing the house. After the showing, the family commented that they liked it, but it just wasn’t right for them. I began to seriously entertain the idea, “what if” we sold the house.
Crazy Thought
Colleen and I always enjoyed traveling. When I would travel for work, she occasionally would fly to see me for a long weekend. When her symptoms got worse, traveling was no longer an option. A few days after the showing, half-joking I presented Colleen with a crazy question: “Why don’t we sell the house and buy an RV to travel the country”? She gave me “that smile.” I often receive when I have an off-the-wall idea. I laughed off the fool notion and put it out of my mind. After a day or two passed, she sent me a text message with links to RV’s that are wheelchair accessible. I walked into the kitchen where she was at the time and asked if she was serious? Her face lit up! I knew our life was about to change.
Time To Shop
All excited, I was off to the races researching wheelchair-accessible RVs for us to begin our journey. I quickly found out there weren’t many wheelchair-accessible rigs on the market. There was one manufacturer, Dune Sport, that markets custom-built rigs. They have a strong web presence for building wheelchair-accessible rigs. I did not want to buy a new rig due to the depreciation upon driving off the lot, so I continued searching for used rigs.
After a few weeks of scouring the web, I found a few rigs that the owner had modified. These leads did not pan out. It struck me if we buy a used unit, I will be spending my time finding someone to fix it when it breaks down. When we got on the road, I wanted to focus on building memories on this adventure with Colleen, not busy repairing our rig.
We Found The One
I decided to give Dune Sport a call. I spoke with a salesman and explained the options we wanted in a rig. After a short discussion, he emailed pictures of a unit they had just completed. When I showed them to Colleen, her face once again lit up. That was all I needed. I emailed the salesman back and told him we were looking to place an order. The ball was in motion for our adventure to start in Mid-December.
