Well!  Since we never seemed to have time to use the LeSharo, it stands to reason we'd go ahead and buy a newer model, right? Ha! 

I sure never expected to buy an expensive vehicle through eBay. Previous purchases hadn't always been cheap - the helicopter and parts must be near $1000 by now, and some of the electronics were pricy ... but a vehicle? So, there I was, glancing at eBay every once in awhile ... looking to see if I was going to find a good deal on the next toy I was planning on (check the golf cart page to see why) - a Kubota RTV900 Utility Vehicle to join the Kubota L3710 tractor. I guess I was bored and decided to see what else was around and - imagine my surprise when I typed Rialta and there were 6 for sale. Who sells $40,000 motorhomes on eBay? Well, actually it seems like a fair number of people do.
So, I checked out a few, printed off the info and took it home to Carolyn ... and kept looking in between searching for RTVs and riding suits for the motorcycle. Then, a couple of weeks back, what should appear but a 2003 Rialta at a dealership in Dallas. The specs were outstanding - it was an HD model which mean the rear dinette turned into a double bed - hopefully as comfortable as the LeSharo''s bed. The layout was pretty close to the older LS, except that the kitchen was moved forward replacing the passenger seats in the LS. This left more room for a much larger fridge. The description showed that the mileage was quite low - 5393 miles ... and when Carolyn phoned for additional information, we learned that it was even newer than we thought - making it a better deal since we still had almost a years warranty on the whole vehicle plus 3 additional for the power train. I placed a bid, and then suddenly it was gone. They must've removed it. Then it was back again with a lower starting price and a lower "buy me now" price. I thought it was easily worth the "buy it now" price, but decided to see how it would go. There were only a couple of bids ... with the only serious contender appearing to be another dealer (based on the screen name). And the reserve hadn't been met yet. I decided to check out to see what the reserve was .... and, wonder of wonders, that's what I took it for.
It took us awhile to get things straightened out since the lady that listed it was off with her husband (they're the owners of the dealership) had gone to Phoenix to pick up another motorhome. We wanted to get some additional details as well as determine whether we would/should/could take the LS down there to trade or consign. Due to the age of the LeSharo and the location of the dealership - Plano is north of Dallas and Dallas/Ft. Worth is money, money, money. Much better chance of selling a high end motorhome than an older cheaper one. Carolyn finally settled all the details, put a 10% deposit down using a credit card and I started making plans to get to Dallas. I was stuck for another week on a project, but I had the odd free moment to check flights ... and we still have over 100,000 miles on Northwest. I had been saving that for a Hawaiian vacation, but ...
So, just for laughs, I check with Greyhound and then think of trains. Checked out Amtrak. They have a great website - it was easy to see the closest depot to Bay City - Flint - and it was easy to find an itinerary that worked for me. Bought the ticket online - one way from Flint to Dallas. And I could even use my AAA membership to get a discount. The trip was a cheap $107.10!! Alright, a cheap trip ... takes about the same time as driving ... and I can relax after all the pressure of that doggone endless project. Saturday afternoon I signed off on the testing of the upgrade (that was the project) to the system ... and I was free, free, free! So, a little bit of light packing late Sunday ... after making sure everything at the barn would be ok until I got back ... and we left here a few minutes after 5:00 AM on Monday. Carolyn returned with the van after I got off at the station in Flint ... and, at 6:45 AM the Blue Water Express (ha ha ha, express, ha! Milk run is the correct term!) pulled out of Flint. We stopped at anyplace that looked like there was a sign of life - but still arrived in Chicago 10 minutes or so ahead of the scheduled arrival. No biggee ... the Southern Chief to San Antonio, that would take me the rest of the way, wasn't scheduled to leave for another 3+ hours. Wandered around, had lunch, wandered around, got some sun and fresh air and lots of exercise ... and then I headed back to climb on the train. When the train is called, there's a fair crowd climbing on ... I found a decent seat and made myself comfortable, grabbing the first of 4 books I'd brought along. First train ride (other than a steam excursion in Vancouver (the Royal Hudson) and a Kentucky steam train a few years ago) since I took the C.N. Transcontinental back in 1970. Recommended - if you like to just relax and watch the scenery go by. Supper in the dining car was quite good - steak and a half bottle of wine. The wine helped me sleep, LOL.
So, 22 hours later - just after noon Dallas time, we pull into Dallas. I'm an hour early, so I called Carolyn and had her alert the folks at High Country Motors - they'd kindly agreed to come and pick me up. After about 45 minutes wait, my ride arrived (the owner) and off we went to Plano. At 2 PM, I'm at the dealership, looked the Rialta over and went in to hand over the cashiers check (cheque) for the remainder of the price ... and at 2:45 PM I was on the road. I felt a little bad zipping in and out - but I knew Ron would be working and I wanted to get back home since we were still having lots of work to do because of Carolyn's mother's health.
So - north on 75, then 69 to somewhere east of Tulsa where I got on I-44. I managed to dodge some tornadic weather ... did get some extremely heavy rain and bad crosswinds ... but dodged the bad stuff. I-44 turned out to be a TOLL ROAD (doggone I hate those things) but the couple of bucks covered me to the Missouri border. On to Springfield, although I stopped before that to hit a truck-stop for food. Stopped at the rest stop east of Springfield and stretched out for about 7 hours. The bed was as comfortable as I'd hoped although I had too much light streaming from the front. Unlike the LeSharo, the Rialta doesn't seem to have provisions for front curtains ... I'll work out a windshield/side window cover soon.
Started off early in the morning, stopping in Cuba, MO for breakfast and somewhere east of Lansing for supper. Easy and fast roads -- I-44 into St. Louis, then I-70 to Indianapolis and then I-69 north to Flint. It looked like I'd be home before 8:30 PM on Wednesday - everything was going so well. Too well as it turned out! Took the exit ramp off I-69 onto I-75 in Flint, got back up to speed and ... uh oh ... handling is going squirrelly. Hmmm. Pulled off at the only safe spot I could find - just before the first exit ramp and, as I'm climbing out of the cab, a Highway Patrol car is already pulling up behind. Sure enough ... flat - right front. Front flats aren't much fun with a front wheel drive! The officer tried to get his dispatcher to call AAA for me, but AAA will only talk to the client, so - after the officer suggested I might be a lot safer getting off the highway, I slowly took the exit ramp and then pulled over. Didn't like the idea of driving on the flat, but it's always best to obey the guy with the badge ;-).
I called AAA and logged the problem and an hour later I get a call back saying they're having a hard time finding someone to handle an RV. I advised the nice lady that all she'd have to do was tell them it was a Volkswagen Eurovan (which the front end is) and the GVW was only 6400 pounds. 10 minutes later a truck pulls up, and 5 minutes after that I'm on my way. Got home 2 hours later than I'd planned ... but I guess flats are to be expected.
The upside of the flat was that after I called Discount Tire to bring me in a replacement, Carolyn talked to Continental and talked them into a claim. When I took the flat in to be replaced, the service writer too a look at it, called Continental with the claim file number and told them what the tire looked like. Continental really surprised me by covering the total cost of the replacement - I paid for mounting and balancing (and bought Discounts warranty on all four tires!).

OK, so that's the story of how we got the LeSharo's baby brother and how I got it here. You can see the pictures below. The first 3 shots are the two sides and a front view. There's a shot of the bed - the dinette seats fold flat and meet to give you a queen sized bed. Comfortable, too. You can see the fridge in the pictures of the bed and dinette ... it's on the left and has the TV on top of it. At least twice as large as the LeSharo ... I'll take some more pictures this weekend.

If you've never seen a LeSharo or Rialta inside, they have the neatest bathroom. As you can see in the "open door" picture, there's no room in there to sit down. But, if you take a look at the closed door picture, you can see a knob on each side of the door. Pull these out and keep pulling and you have a slider that pulls out to the step. There also a plate on the floor covering the shower pan ... yep, a shower.

Oh, and just for a laugh ... while I was on the train to Dallas, all hell was breaking out back in the office. Something in the Production system wasn't working as it should and it appears that little problem I found wasn't as little as the systems folks had told me. Of course, nobody bothered to call me so I didn't find this out until I got back a week after they roiled the entire upgrade back out .... heavy, heavy sigh!

I'm going to be checking out the Rialta with Carolyn over the weekend ... we need to see what's what and give her a name too. While we're doing that, I'll take the camera along and let you see more of the wonderful world of miniature motorhomes.