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.