Imagine never having stepped foot in a sailboat, or know anything about sailboats but you purchase a 38ft sailboat, put her in the water and then attempt to sail off into the sunset, but you don’t know how to sail and have to learn as you go!

That was what buying our RV, our 5th wheel was like for us.  Why did we buy so impulsively?  Because we needed a home to live in now that we had moved back to Canada from Qatar.  Click here to read more about that.

With GPS and our rental car, and suggestions from Michael’s family, we started driving out of Ottawa to begin our RV shopping. To read more about Ottawa, click here!

After visiting one smaller yet recommended RV dealership in Ottawa, we were told to travel the hour and a half drive to Gananoque,  a town in Ontario on the Saint Lawrence River, to an RV dealership called 1000 Islands RV Centre. This RV dealership was one with a great reputation and a lot of selection. There we could shop a wide variety of RV’s to help us make our decision.  As well, we were warned that one man owned most of the RV dealerships in Ottawa and his reputation was not a good one.  We trusted this advice, and drove to Gananoque.

Both Michael and I were excited and nervous at the same time with making such a large purchase without really knowing what we were looking at. We decided to purchase a 5th wheel because we already owned an inherited 3/4 ton truck (stored in Northern Ontario) that could haul it, a 5th wheel was less expensive than an A-Class RV and allowed us the freedom of a vehicle when unhitched from the RV.

We decided on a 38ft 2017 Keystone Cougar 337fls. It was previously owned, not too old and appeared to be in great shape.  We were told the previous owner buys and upgrades every year.  It sounded like this RV wasn’t used very much.

We loved the interior layout – it felt homey, cosy and spacious! There are 4 slide outs – two for the living room, one for the bedroom and one for the kitchen.  The bathroom has a skylight over the shower! There is a hide-a-bed in the living room loveseat and an electric fireplace with a heater.  There is lots of storage space!

Exterior

Living Room

Kitchen

Hallway

Bathroom

Bedroom

New Home Selfie!

Our New Home!

Now, this blog makes it appear as if we walked on the lot, purchased the 5th wheel, then attempted to drive off into the sunset on the very same day!

But not so!

This entire process took a week in the making that included Michael’s 1000 kilometer bus ride from Gananoque to Kapuskasing to pick up our truck in Northern Ontario to then drive the truck the 1000 kilometers back to Gananoque! The truck then had to be installed with a 5th wheel hitch to be able to haul our new home!

As well, Michael had never hauled a trailer before, let alone a 38ft, 10,000pd RV!! Michael’s driving our new 5th wheel off the lot was his first time doing so!  Did I mention our truck is a standard shift!

Add another learning curve too… buying an RV, like buying a sailboat, is learning an entire new language!  Michael and I now had to learn the language of RVing!!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself because there was that entire week in Gananoque before we started our journey from Ontario to Nova Scotia!

S, 🙂