Meet “The Camper”

When I was about eight years old, I boarded a plane in Detroit and flew across the country by myself to San Jose, California where I was received by my aunt and uncle who lived there and my grandparents who were visiting there (they lived back in Michigan too).  After about a week of visiting with my California cousins, I loaded into my Grandma and Grandpa’s car to begin the long DRIVE home.

At the time, I thought it was kind of fun yet I don’t think that I truly valued the experience for what it was.  I didn’t realize at the time, what it was planting inside of me, the bug that it was feeding.

I remember walking on the salt flats in Utah, spotting and counting antelope, wondering around Wall Drug, and staring in amazement of how large those presidents heads were at Mount Rushmore.

Through the years, I’ve always held on to those memories, but I wanted more.  I wanted to see more.  I wanted to do it again as an adult.  But I didn’t just want to do it myself, I wanted my kids to do the same as me.  I wanted them to experience a drive across this beautiful country.  But I didn’t want to stop and haul kids, food, clothes and more in and out of hotel rooms.  I dreamed of loading it all up in a pull behind camper where we would have our own little traveling home.

So in 2014, I finally decided to make the dream a reality and began shopping for a camper.  What I wanted was something as small as possible that had everything we needed including designated beds for everyone without converting a dinette or such.  As I dove further into my search, I furthermore decided that I wanted hard sides, with no popups, no foldouts, and no slide outs.  Just a compact self contained box.

And what we got was just that.  A 17 foot bunk house unit.  It has a queen bed, two bunks, a table for 4* (One child and one adult per side with a little overhang), dorm size refrigerator, sink, 2 burner stove, microwave, bathroom with tub and shower.  And the dinette does convert to a bonus bed (we’ve never used it as such)  It is a tiny space and we get under each other’s feet, but I love it!  We have everything we need (and more) loaded up and at our disposal on our adventures.  I absolutely love being able to jump into it when we make a pit stop on long road trips to use the bathroom (I’m kind of a germaphobe) or make a quick lunch.

Unfortunately we’ve never given this trailer a name, we just always refer to it as “The Camper”.  She’s been with us on road trips along the coasts of Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie.  Over the the Mackinaw, Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges.  She’s been from Michigan to Washington and down the Pacific coast to California.  She’s been with us up and down the Atlantic coast from Maine to Georgia.  And she’s been to the Grand Canyon and back.

Check out just a few of the places she’s rested across this country: