New Camper

After many years in a pop-up, we finally made the jump to a bigger camper.  We had talked about buying something new but were very much in the "just looking" phase when we stumbled across a great deal.  Last Wednesday we became the proud owners of a 1994 31' foot Cobra Sierra.  The inside was completely customized by the last owner and we immediately fell in love with it.  The only requirements we had were a master bedroom, bunks for the kids and air conditioning.  :)  This camper met all of those requirements and had so much more to offer.

So here's the new camper story...

Friday night (the 11th) I was poking around online and found this listing on Ebay of all places.  Mind you, I was a little skeptical.  I mean, who buys a camper on Ebay?  Did some Mapquesting and found the location was within a few hundred miles (144 miles to be exact) of our house.  Did some sweet talking and on Sunday morning, Toby, my mom and I headed to Verona.  We left our house before 8:00 am because I had to be back to work at 2:00 pm.  As I said, it was love at first sight.  This camper was absolutely amazing and had everything we wanted.   We had it bought within 30 minutes.  As we only had my Mom's van with us, we arranged to pick it up the following Wednesday.  Tuesday was spent cleaning out the pop-up and loading everything into the Freestyle.  My car was so full, I'm not sure I could have fit an extra toothpick in there.

Wednesday rolled around and Rod, Dad and I left (again bright and early!) and arrived in Verona before 10:00 am.  This is the point where I might mention that Rod is a professional truck driver and WOW am I glad he is.  He did all of the backing up, hooking up, wrestling with wires, etc.  We were back on the road within an hour and headed for Clayton Hills Campground.  (As a side note, six hours in the truck with my Dad and Rod...pure comedy).

Again, thankful for Rod and his driving skills, we arrived at Clayton Hills and quickly got the camper pulled into our new spot.  All in all, set up took around an hour - including leveling and hooking everything up.  Rod and Dad did a few tweaks to the awning and to one of the jacks while I hauled (and hauled and hauled) totes into the new camper.

By Wednesday night, all was set up, everything was put away and we were enjoying our new camper.  The first night Emily, Nate, Hunter and I stayed.  Thursday night, I had to work until 10:30.  I swung by home, picked Hunter up and he and I stayed.  Friday night, Toby came up, Hunter went to an end of school party and Emily went to Nate's, so it was just Toby and I.  Saturday morning, I worked.  Toby and Hunter came up, so it was the three of us.  Sunday, we all came home, having spent an amazing weekend camping.

Highlights - a fish fry Friday night and several beanbag tournaments.

Loving my new camper and it's new (permanent) home.  :-)

A huge HUGE thank you to Ron from Verona.  He is one of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

First Trip of 2012

Finally, FINALLY back to camping!

Hubby and I took the camper up Friday morning so we could attend our son's track meet Friday afternoon.  After much debate, we settled on the perfect spot - shady but not too much, close to the road but not on it, close to the bathrooms but not too close...you get the idea.  For the first pop up of the year, things went remarkably well.  We set up rather quickly, unloaded the groceries, then headed to the track meet.

Fast forward several hours and we're back at the campground!

This trip was interesting in that I had 4, count 'em, 4 teenagers with me.  Hubby decided to stay home this weekend, so it was my two children, daughter's boyfriend and son's friend.  My sister, her husband and my 7 week old niece camped with us and as always, my parents, aunts and uncles were across the way.  (They have permanent spots at the campground, my sister and I are weekenders).

Friday night we had a little rain, but nothing too traumatic.  They had predicted some pretty heavy storms but we didn't get much.  Just enough to chase us inside early.  Saturday night, we got to see a few glimpses of the Super Moon - very cool!  We played dominoes and beanbags, cooked some smores, talked a LOT and in general, had a very fun, VERY relaxing weekend.

On the menu:

Friday - brats, beans and chips.  Saturday morning - cereal, Saturday noon - maidrites, beans and chips (see a theme here?), Saturday night - chicken fajitas, Spanish rice (Cinco de Mayo!), Sunday breakfast - cereal and bagels, Sunday noon - leftovers

Things Forgotten: hose...seriously, towels...again, seriously (we typically shower at my Mom and Dad's, so somehow I completely forgot towels - no biggie, Mom had plenty), hand soap (I always seem to forget this)

Lessons Learned - camping with 4 teenagers takes some MAJOR organization.  Night one, we had clothes and bags everywhere.  Night two, we shoved everything under the dinette.

Things to Tackle/Mods - still working out some sort of clothing storage.  I've found a few ideas I might try but still definitely in the planning stages here.  Water heater - leaning towards a 30+ cup coffee pot.  Need to drill another hole in the door track to hang the new light.  Canvas repair - we unfolded the awning this weekend to find a rather sizable tear.  Fortunately, it's along the seam, not in the canvas itself.  Unfortunately, it's still a repair that needs to be made.  We also found a small hole in the bumper that will need to be patched.  New curtains - definitely not a "must" but something I would like.  I bought all new bedding (and pillows) for the camper this year (that actually stays in the camper) and I might do some curtains to match.  Also thinking about adding privacy curtains.  Again, with taking extra kids, being able to close a curtain would be a nice idea.  The privacy curtains were gone when we got the camper but the track is still there.  Nothing major.

Wish List: flat screen TV (yes I know there are people that cringe over TVs in a camper, but when you have kids and rainstorms, you quickly find a tv can be a sanity saver), more storage!  :-)

And finally...the view from my "bedroom" window - this is what makes it all worth it.