In case you’re new around here, you might not know what our summer vacations look like. I wrote a little bit about why we camp the summer after Sophie was born and again the year after that and you can read about last year’s adventures here and here. I’ve never not camped at the beach during the month of June with the exception of the summer before SK was born. That is 34 summers in Gulf State Park. I am so lucky that when Josh was introduced to this road trip almost seventeen years ago, he didn’t run screaming. 30 people, 7 travel trailers and one beautiful beach makes for quite a memorable vacation.
We owned a small trailer after we got married, but we sold it after I got pregnant with SK. It wasn’t large enough for a family of four, so we’ve been renting the last several summers. Our plan was to start looking for a new trailer after the first of the year, but circumstances intervened. The rental agency didn’t have anything available the week we had reservations and you can’t exactly ask six other families to reschedule. We talked about staying in a tent or doubling up with other family, we looked at other rental agencies and ultimately realized we would spend less on payments for the remainder of the year than we would on a pricey rental.
We set out a few Saturdays ago and looked at more than ten campers at three different dealerships in the state, not to mention hundreds of Craigslist ads. It’s funny how things work out because on Saturday morning, we bought that very first camper we had looked at and we couldn’t be happier.
Wanna tour? This is our pretty little 32 foot travel trailer. It won’t even fit in our yard (we’ll store it during the off season) so it’s hanging out in our drive for the next few days. It has a nice big awning on the front and a huge slide-out on the back that makes it extra roomy for our family. It is several years old, but the family took great care of it and it looks virtually brand new on the inside.
Of course, every time we head outside to put something away, or to take photos in this case, a small child follows along to see what’s going on. Ella decided to model almost every shot.
To the right of the door when you walk in is our “room”. There is a queen sized bed, two decent sized windows and tons of storage. One of our requirements was a bedroom with a door. I don’t love the idea of a curtain separating us, I want at least a little privacy while we’re sleeping!
You can see here how the bedroom is situated and there are two pocket doors that slide together and latch to separate the bedroom from the living area. In most newer models, there is an entertainment center here with a smaller door or curtain on either side. Since our family doesn’t watch too much TV, this actually works to our advantage. We can leave the doors open to make everything feel much bigger when everyone is awake and enjoying family time.
Directly across from the door when you enter is the living area. This whole section of the camper slides out about four feet to make a huge amount of space in the center of the camper. We have a huge couch and a dinette that seats four and I love how many cabinets we have over both! Forgive that they are all open, we are still working to stock everything before we leave on our trip.
Across from the couch and dinette is a great little kitchen. I have a double-basin sink, three burner stove and oven, a microwave and a full-size fridge. I love the amount of cabinet space we have here, too, since we’ll be eating at the campsite for breakfast and lunch most days. Forgive the case of DP in the corner, we’re already stocking up. Vacation is not a time to count calories!
Here is a shot of the of the rear of the camper looking from our room towards the girls room. The door to the camper is just to my left. The girls room is at the end of the trailer and the bathroom is there on the left where the door is open. You can see we have a small TV and DVD player for movies and there is a small pantry just underneath the entertainment center. It’s hard to tell, but where the edge of the dinette is is where the side of the trailer ends, the dinette and couch are completely slid out in this shot.
The bathroom is tiny, but fully functional. We have a tiny toilet (for emergencies and middle-of-the-night potty breaks for little girls), there is a bath/shower combo on the left and a ton of storage above AND below the sink.
Our second requirement for a camper was that it must have a bunkhouse, preferably with four beds. We want the girls to be able to spread out and maybe one day have room for friends to tag along. The beds on the left are standard twin mattresses and those on the right are a little smaller. There is a ton of storage under both beds and a small wardrobe between them. The door behind Ella’s bed is actually an exterior door that allows us to store larger items inside while traveling since Ella’s bed folds up flush to the wall. Don’t worry – that door locks with a key from the outside, so there will be NO sneaking out when they get older!
They each have a nice sized window and I love that there are curtains instead of blinds here and no cords to get tangled in. They also each have a small bunk light to read or play by at night.
We are beyond excited about our trip this summer. Having our own trailer will make such a huge difference in how we travel and how many days we get to stay! We’ll be pulling out before you know it, but I’ll probably be back to share a few tips for packing and organizing before we hit the road.
