On Tuesday, we packed up the camper to check out of Seawall Campground and head to Bar Harbor KOA for the night. It was a last minute decision to extend our trip for one more night and we were so excited to have an ocean front campsite… Except we never made it there.

We started having some mechanical problems with the camper. We found a trailer place and stopped in to see if they could help us determine the problem. It was a bent axle, just as Chris suspected. We decided it was best to head back to my grandparents house and figure out our next step. It would take time to order and replace the axle. Or we could just buy a new camper, we joked.

We got back to my grandparents house on Tuesday and spent Wednesday playing on the beach, doing some much needed laundry at the laundromat and hitting up a local playground.

On Thursday, Chris and I drove to Scott’s Recreation in Turner, Maine (about an hour away) to look at a camper. We were always looking online for what we wanted next. We knew what kind of floor plan we wanted and what amenities we needed for our next camper. So I wasn’t surprised when Chris found a potentially perfect camper at an RV dealer in Maine. We left the kids with my grandparents and went to look at it.

It was perfect. All the upgrades we wanted — private bedroom, bunkhouse for the boys, more counter space, ample closet space, outdoor kitchen, awning lights — and it fit into our budget. We went into the office to talk business and were informed that our perfect camper wasn’t actually available. Another family was in the process of buying it, they were just waiting on their loan/credit approval before finalizing the sale. We were devastated but we were told it was possible the deal could fall through. We went back out to the camper to look at it again, keeping our fingers crossed. Don, the salesman, came out awhile later and told us that the deal looked like it might not go through and he would call us in the next 24 hours to let us know for sure.

We continued our vacation, playing on the beach, kayaking, and painting beach treasures, while waiting on pins and needles to hear about the camper.

The next day, we went to LLBean to get the boys new backpacks for school, and the check engine light came on in the truck. Now we had a whole other problem on our hands. Chris called the local Ram dealer in Freeport and they were willing to squeeze us in. While we were checking out at LLBean, Don from Scott’s Recreation called — the deal fell through and the camper was ours! Woohoo!

While we were waiting for the truck, Chris was on the phone with his dad working out all the details. Chris’s parents were co-owners of the camper and the title was at home in New York, so they needed to come up to Maine to finalize the deal with us.

On Sunday, Wynn and Judy drove up and met Chris, Carter and I at Scott’s Recreation. They also loved the camper and so we finalized the deal on the 2015 Forest River Sandpiper.

We all went back to my grandparents house for crab and lobster before hitting the road back home. Our vacation had already been extended a few days and Chris had to go back to work the next day.

We switched vehicles — We took Wynn and Judy’s truck home while they stayed at Cedar Haven Family Campground in Freeport with the truck and old camper. They stayed and explored Maine while the truck got fixed on Tuesday and to trade in the old camper for the new camper on Wednesday.

On Wednesday July 18, 2017 this Forest River Sandpiper was officially a part of the Herron family!

Wynn and Judy decided to extend their vacation and camped at Twin Mountain/Mt. Washington KOA in New Hampshire for a few days.

So that’s the story of how we bought a new camper while we were on vacation! Everyone does that, right? 😉