“USA 🇺🇸 ~Arizona “Here Comes Bella Coach-Ella!”

• February 12, 2022
• By Pen n Daryl
• 14 Comments

UPDATE:
even though we did not end up purchasing this Tiffin Class A; for many reasons….. mostly because the RV dealership made a mistake by putting it in the RV show to begin with! Antwayzzzzz, I’m keeping the blog. It was quite an experience “Shopping” for our upgrade!

We would like to introduce you to our “new to us,” home on wheels!
We have affectionately named her….

“Bella Coach-Ella”

As you can see, we are making a serious upgrade from “Tiny,” for our current lifestyle! No more “popping-up,” for us, as we will now be “sliding out,” (four slides).

We are completely giddy.

YES, this is really happening.  But, luckily we had time to think it over, with no pressure, because when we unexpectedly found this beauty, we were five days away from signing on the refinancing of our home of 30 years; which we had been working on over the last few months. Obviously, we did not want new banking business started, until closing on that was complete.

(you know, it’s never dull for us).

We are now, officially finished with the Re-Fi on our home in California, and very quickly, just like that, we became proud owners of this second home!

It all started when we went to an RV show in Phoenix, over a week ago, with no actual intentions of buying anything, as we’ve been RV shopping for awhile, now. But, we both, absolutely fell in love with this coach! We took her for a spin and everything.

I had previously told my hubs, (because he wanted a Class A)  “No Class A, unless you can get me a kitchen with decent counter space.” This is why I was leaning towards the fifth wheels with their many great floor plans and lots of working kitchen space.
Well, by golly, Daryl found us a Class A with a lovely kitchen! It has a pull-out drawer/counter top section for addition space! Even the dining table pulls out, very cleverly, to accommodate seating for four (extra two chairs store, nicely, under the master bed).

While at the RV Show, the salesman slapped a “sold” sign on the coach! It felt VERY real!

So, a Class A it is!

This Luxury Coach is a 2012, 43.5 foot, diesel pusher, with a one-owner history. They came to the same RV Show and traded it in for another brand new one.
We saw this trade-in, (before any detailing by the RV dealership), within an hour! 😂 so it was clear the previous owners took excellent care of it….AND the moulding and cupboards are real wood. (the new models no longer have this top quality wood)

These new Tiffin models sell for upwards of $650,000! Of course, we had no intentions of ever upgrading to a new RV, no matter what we ended up getting. That was for certain.
The sales rep told me, in negotiations, if we come back in a year, because we, for some reason, change our minds about this coach, they will give us the same money we payed them for it, to buy it back.
The Tiffin reputation is second to none.

Tiny, our trailer, served us very well, as we had to return from overseas, a year earlier than planned, due to two deaths in or family; a week apart from each other. With that kind of urgency, we flew home with no living plan back in the USA. Our home and studio are leased out. So, Tiny did get us out of hotel-ing and into our first RV, together. We have had a ball with our tiny set-up all over the east coast, from Maine, down, and cross country, back to the west coast. So we know, the full-time RV-ing is a wonderful life for us, and desire to continue.
Yes, we did get into some of the cutest camping sites, because we could fit anywhere, and we are very clear we will not be able to do the same in “Bella.” But, Belle is a game changer for us, as we are more than ready. Consider NOT living with any creature comforts for about five years, all around the world, off the beaten path, like we have, with suitcases. No regrets for all our adventure travels; and lack of ease and comforts, but we are SO happy for this new chapter in our retirement life!

We truly are entering into this purchase, like we are buying a second home; including an independent qualified inspector we lined-up, who will go over the Motorhome with a fine-toothed comb, next week, before our final signing at the dealership. We do not have any concerns, but want assurances, to avoid any unwanted expenses.

We will be trading Tiny in, and of course this is both exciting and bittersweet. Currently, we’ve decided to keep “Rusty” for the time being, because the trade-in offer was too low for our vehicle.
Eventually, we will sell Rusty to acquire a “toad,” for behind Bella. Rusty is an AWD, and because of this, she can’t be towed.
In the future, we will be looking for a fixed-up 70’-s era Volkswagen Super Beetle to be our toad. I’m super excited about this. It will all come in time.

In other news, we will continue to lease our house out in California, as we have no desire to go back to “stix and brix,” as they call them in the RV world. As far as world travel goes, we are definitely NOT done. The difference now, is, we will go overseas for three months at a time, then return to Bella in the states.

When will we go back overseas? This will not happen till there are no longer ANY mandates in place, worldwide, restricting travel. We do not have a date, nobody does, but we feel it is not too far off!

Another reason we love Bella, is because after so much travel, and all our stories and photos to compile, (89 country visits so far) we have an office space in the coach! So this means, guess who’s going to work to publish our first book? I can put my large monitor up, and my printer. It will be a great start!

We will remain in Arizona till next month. From there, we will travel back to California to our storage unit and fully outfit Bella. I mean, we have a real kitchen, now, with a full sized refrigerator! We have a real bedroom, full bathroom and a 1/2 bath. We have a living room, the office and a full laundry! I could go on and on about all the bells and whistles. Do we really need four flat screen TVs when we don’t even watch TV? No, but we weren’t going to let that be a deal breaker. 😂

We won’t be in California very long, because we will then make our way back to North Carolina, again, to register Bella at the DMV, there (just like we did with Tiny and Rusty)….and spend a few weeks with the Grands, (as well their parents of course), 😉 before returning to Williams, Arizona to complete our Arizona stay!

These pics are from the RV Show in Phoenix, without any of our personal touches, but you can still see why we are so excited!

A King Bed for the Big Guy and I