Well, here's where we are so far...

I called the place in Louisiana where we'd ordered the B&W Turnover Gooseneck Ball hitch and Companion Fifth Wheel hitch to see if the items had shipped yet (as you will recall, we'd ordered them for the Chevy we were supposed to get, but since we're now getting a Dodge, the Chevy version of the Turnover Gooseneck Ball hitch won't fit). "Fortunately," every place the salesman had contacted was out of stock on this hitch; therefore, it hadn't been shipped...whew! We explained what had happened and told him to change the order to the hitch for the Dodge...but DON'T send it out until we call and tell him we actually have possession of the truck! The Companion Fifth Wheel hitch had been shipped, but that's OK since it will fit any truck...it's just the gooseneck ball hitch that's truck-specific.

Earl called the Blythe dealer about the Dodge truck we're "supposed" to get to verify that they did, indeed, have it. Apparently, it's one that they own, so the truck will be at their lot sometime this afternoon. By the time they get it cleaned up and detailed, it will be tomorrow before we can pick it up.

We also received a quote back from the Albuquerque Excel dealer...it was higher than the Mesa dealer's original quote!!! So we called the salesman at the Mesa dealer and told him to put the order in. When I asked how much he wanted us to send as a deposit, he said "20%." I told him there was NO WAY we were sending that much money to them since we were planning on only putting 10% down (we're going to pay off the loan on the RV and the truck when the house sells, so want to shell out as little money as possible up front). He said, "Well, you'll receive the money back." "Sorry, that ain't gonna happen...maybe we need to rethink this whole deal" says I. We finally agreed that I could send him a check for 10% -- which is what I had in mind to begin with! I guess they think we just fell off the turnip truck, or that we're newbies that know nothing about buying an RV (hard to believe since we drove onto their lot in our Lazy Daze).

Of course, this is only our second experience with dealing with an RV dealer. Our first fifth wheel, a New Horizons, and our Lazy Daze are both factory direct...you pay the price they ask and there's no dickering because there's no middle-man trying to make a profit. And when we bought our small Arctic Fox, we told the dealer what we were willing to pay, and they met the price. The Excel dealer wouldn't go as low as 25% off MSRP, but we can live with 20% off (and it sure as heck beats the 12% off MSRP they first quoted...so they came down more in their price than we came up).

There are lots of other Excel dealers out there, but there's only one in California -- in Sacramento -- which would be a PITA having to take out-of-state delivery from there. There are a few in Texas around the Ft. Worth/Dallas area and farther east which we could have contacted if we weren't really willing to take the 20% that the Mesa dealer offered. And then there are several farther north...in the Salt Lake area, Colorado, Wyoming, etc., but who wants to travel there in mid-January (our expected delivery date)? However, it would have meant traveling quite a bit further, so the discount would have had to been pretty close to the 25% -- or more -- that we originally wanted to make it worthwhile.