Why a Trailer?

That’s what someone asked us when they saw our first trailer parked in front of our house. “WHY?!” As if to say, “Are you insane?! What could you possibly be thinking?” I’ll tell you what we were thinking. We were thinking we wanted to go places where airplanes don’t land and hotels are scarce. We were thinking that we wanted our kids to have memories of family trips and adventures that they’d tell their kids. And, we were thinking that tent camping was getting to be a big hassle….

Let me tell you about our last tent camping trip. It was to Big Sur, California. We were to drive from our home near Seattle, Washington to meet our California family for a camping trip. Sounds fun, right? We spent an entire day packing our mini-van to the brim with camping gear, coolers, stuffed animals, favorite blankets, juice boxes, snacks, a TV/VCR combo, headsets that plug in to the TV/VCR thing, and enough VHS tapes to keep a 3 and 7 year old happy for 18 hours on the road and the parents sane. We were ready to go! It only took about 20 hours, but we were ready!

Our first night, we stopped at a hotel in Redding, California. When we got out of the van, it was 108 degrees outside. We now refer to weather over 100 degrees as “Redding Hot” in our family. My daughter had finished her book and we decided to leave Dad and little brother at the hotel to rest and we set out to find a new book. My husband suggested that when I get back that I park under a tree so that it doesn’t get too hot in the van. And, that’s what I did. Good job me!

We had a lovely evening! We went to dinner, played in the pool, and let the kids stay up late so they’d sleep in the car the next day. We did everything right! We got up early to get a good start for the rest of our drive. When we opened up the van, we discovered that we had about 1,000 new passengers. ANTS! It turns out, I had parked so that the nose of the van was on an ant hill. Way to go me! We stood there trying to figure out what to do. It wasn’t like we could stop at the hardware store, spray a can of Raid, and then lock the family up in the car. We found a can of hairspray and dishtowel and began a spray, kill, and flick routine and got as many ants out of the van as we could. We got on our way about 30 minutes later. That was only the beginning of a ridiculous day.

We lost the map when we got it mixed into our Denny’s menus. Then, a car came careening straight at us and crashed into the jersey barrier. We were a little shaken up and weren’t sure where we were so, we stopped for gas and a new map and flicked out some more ants. We arrived in Big Sur later than expected and tired only to have to unload the van and set up camp.

We got the tent set up while the kids played with their cousin, aunt, uncle and grandparents. The next thing was to blow up the air mattress. Of course, it popped as soon as we got some air into it. My husband had had enough and said, “I’m going to Monterey. Don’t wait for me to do anything. I’ll be back later.” My California family was worried about him. I wasn’t. I was sure he was A) buying a new air mattress B) getting a Starbucks, and C) standing with his feet in the ocean.

The rest of the camping went without any major incident except for the typical hassles of camping. For instance: fetching water to do dishes, heating water to wash said dishes, and finally, washing said dishes. It can take 30 minutes just to wash a cup! Oh, and let’s not forget how much fun it is to camp with a three year old who loves the dirt and try to clean him up in a shower that you have to feed quarters into. Not to mention, he was terrified of the shower and you could hear him screaming all over the campground! (That part, was a little bit funny and some of his shower commentary has made it into family vernacular!). We also really enjoyed having to take turns to go up to the bathroom to brush our teeth so that one of us could stay behind because our kids were in the tent – NOT! Then, there were some of my personal favorite daily tent camping chores like draining the water out of the cooler, filling it up with ice again, and loading all of the food in and out of the van ever time we needed to make a meal. We were really getting done with tent camping.

My parents were camping in a camper on the back of my dad’s truck. After the campfire, marshmallows, and hot chocolate, they’d just say good night and climb in. No taking turns to go down to the bathroom to brush their teeth. No blow up mattress. No cooler. It seemed so much easier.

On the drive home we started looking at what towed what. We made up our minds that we would begin the search for a trailer and a tow vehicle that this preschool carpool mom could drive. When we got home, we put the tent in the attic. I’m pretty sure it’s still up there having never moved.

We spent the next 8 months going to RV shows, checking out trailers on RV lots, checking out tow vehicles with passenger space, and crunching numbers. In the spring of 2004, we bought our first trailer and a Suburban we called, “Clifford the Big Red Burb.” That was the beginning of 14 great years of family trailer adventures that we wouldn’t trade for anything! Our kids are now 19 and 23 and we’re on our second trailer. We’ve done just about everything wrong over the years and have learned a lot!

I hope you enjoy this blog and I share what I’ve learned along the way (that you can’t find in my favorite Magazine, “Trailer Life” – you should subscribe! My first bit of trailer advice). Fair warning! This blog will be somewhat “girly” in that I know almost nothing about hitches, sway bars, back up cameras, etc. What I know and will be sharing are things I’ve learned that make trailer/RV life more comfortable and fun … like which kind of towels to buy if you want to use a dry towel …ever and how not to burn the bottoms of your cookies in your RV oven. The little things that make it more enjoyable!

Coming up in my next post: Trailer/ RV Shopping – The stuff you really need to know!