Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of you who have stopped by. Wonderful comments from some of you and I feel very welcome.
It was 7/25/17 when I made my first post. Now it is 9/1/17 and this is my first time back. Never intended it to be so long, but life happens.
The van I was looking at turned out not to be "the one". I thought it odd that the pics of the van posted online were of front, back, and driver side only, no passenger side. I was cautious, called the seller and had a long talk, then thought for a $6,000 investment it would be worth buying the CarFax. I learned there were no wrecks on the history, the van was being sold in FL, but it had not been in FL long. It had spent it's first 16 years on Long Island, NY. This prompted me to call the seller again and inquire about rust. They admitted there were rust issues and poof, they disappeared. Great outcome really as I would never have been happy personally with a rusty van.
I did make a purchase of a 1999 Volvo V70 Station Wagon with 150,000 miles and I love it. I payed a whopping $700 knowing I needed to spend $400 more for a timing belt and drive belt. I also had an alignment done. So for $1,200 total I had my new ride. For an additional $110 I got cross rails and a cargo box off of Craig's List adding another 20 cu ft of storage. The gas mileage is great at 28 mpg highway and 24 mpg city.
On Aug 15th I set out from the east coast of FL heading for Central Texas where my twin boys live with their mother. I allowed myself to sleep in hotels the 2 nights on the road. I got here on the 17th, which is two weeks ago. I rented a room for the first two weeks because I was making so many adjustments. But today, TODAY, I put my things in my car and said goodbye to the room. Tonight will be my first night in my car and I am thrilled. Everything is working out very well.
I suspect this post is long enough already so I'll sign off. Thanks again to Bob and CheapRVLiving, and thanks again to all of you who I have learned from and will continue to learn from.
Drive and Thrive!
Les Moore