How we found our Jayco Hybrid Camper

    So for years we have toyed with the idea off and on of a pop up camper or something similar. We have rarely vacationed and when we do it was always to a relative's condo in Branson, MO (since sold) or to St. Louis to stay overnight in a hotel. We had one random trip to Orange Beach, AL for my oldest (then an only child) to see the ocean. We have always had about one week a year for vacation. Which means we can't go far or if we do the one week is used up in one trip. 

    2020 is a crazy year. If you are reading this you probably camp or have some interest in camping. 2020 has produced a lot of new campers. It's hard to find affordable used campers as well as new campers or even camper parts due to Covid shutting down a lot of things. We had plans this year. We now have an 8 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old. The youngest has been fully potty trained for awhile and travels well in a car. We had big plans for a fun vacation...

    Then March of 2020 happened.

    I was at Target at an eye doctor appointment with that sense of something happening, you know the feeling if you have lived through this year. Things were starting to be cancelled. Little did I know that would be my daughter's last day in a 2nd grade classroom. It would be my last trip to Target for over 3 months and the last to date without a mask. School was cancelled indefinitely. My husband was furloughed for 2 weeks... that turned into a month and into him yet being able to return despite being considered an essential employee. As we speak my daughter should be sitting in a 3rd grade classroom. Instead I scheduled a one on one meet the teacher and learn how to remote learn appointment today for the upcoming weeks. I have asthma and have limited my outings. The girls and I didn't go anywhere for about 3 1/2 months. We did order pick up and my husband David was the only one to run the errands. 

   

    Before all this happened David had just started a new job in January. He was enjoying it. Finally feeling like he was valued and making more money than he had to date. All of this happened and our plans to take a long vacation, something we hadn't done since our youngest was born went out the window. Everything was closed we couldn't even go to the zoo. We have always enjoyed outdoor activities and hiking around a local park. Come June we managed to find a campground where you could rent cabins. Some people from our town we went to school with had bought it about a year ago. We decided to rent a cabin in the middle of the week. There is paddle boats, put put golf, hiking trails etc. They have a really nice pool and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it was open. We stayed 3 nights and came home with the thought of finding a camper my Jeep Liberty could pull. We found the small Jayco Hybrid on Facebook Marketplace listed by Gander RV. I didn't realize up until this point that they sold used campers. We called, they said it was pending sale. We figured it wasn't meant to be and moved on. The next day it shows up again so we call and they say the people decided against it... we now know why. I am a little embarassed to tell our story as we look very dumb. We went in knowing it would be the perfect size for our family. It looked pretty decent to us, had a soft spot in the floor of the bathroom, fixable. They were asking $5,000 we got it for $3,000 out the door, tax, title, etc included. This was June 20.  We had only looked at pop ups before. We didn't have much knowledge about delamination or problems with the beds in hybrids. They also hadn't fully popped out the bed tents and had a board over the soft spot in the floor. Told us the musty smell was the AC unit having sat. We will never shop at Gander RV again. On the plus side I contacted them later about the bad business of taking advantage of new buyers and they gave us $1,000 back. We have put at least $3,000 into it possibly more. If you are reading this because you are looking at buying make sure you know what to look for. They knowingly sold us something the previous owners insurance company would have totaled out. It was worth about $500 simply for the trailer frame. It became our quarantine project. Took everyday of a month and a half to get it up and useable.We still have things that need done. I'll talk more about that in my future post and include photos. The water damage that you couldn't see was so bad I couldn't enter it for weeks. I have a mold allergy and it ended up having so much mold my husband had to wear a mask to tear it out. I was inside and had a headache for days. This story ends fairly well, the outside is clean and looks fine however you can still see the de lamination that's something that will always appear that way. We don't have the factory capability to vacuum seal it to look normal again. What we do have is documentation of the renovation. We rebuilt the entire floor and bunk ends. redecorated the inside and took the camper from a frame to a beautiful space. I'll include some before and after below and show the process in my next post.