About 15 years ago some friends of ours (that also had 4 kids) asked if we wanted to try camping with them. Hotels for families of 6 were not that cheap and they’d been camping with their family for a long time. Sure, how hard could it be?
First couple of trips consisted of us packing up the Suburban with 4 kids, dogs, and all the gear. Then drive two and half hours to my parents to pick up their 1974 Class C and unload all the gear once we arrived. The older boys shared a large tent. TWO trips like that and I was DONE with the back and forth of all our stuff with four children under the age of ten. Ha-ha. Camping was not fun. It was STRESSFUL!
We wanted something we could pay cash for so I scoured Craigslist and we found a 1970 Fan Lee Liner Travel Trailer (15′) for sale in Michigan. Drove home with no chains, mind you. The angels were carrying us home safely for sure. We had no clue what we were doing, people! That Fan was ugly on the outside but original on the inside and had only sat at the couple’s seasonal campsite. We did a lot of work to that little thing and the older boys still stayed in a tent. After all of our work on it, it tripled in value and we sold it to someone in SEATTLE, of all places!! (Remember, we live in Indiana. More info and the reveal later.)
We decided we needed an RV to fit all four children inside in case we had inclement weather. So we went to Camping World and paid cash for a 2003 24′ Trail-Lite (GVWR=5349 lbs.). Not the greatest of experiences but we were excited about it and the closet had so much space. We drove this one clear to Maine and had some truck engine issues in New York on the way. That’s a whole other blog post (or book). I got tired of making beds each night for all the kids and our youngest kept falling out of the bunk on top of us. Ha-ha!
We traded our Trail-Lite in on a new 2013 Keystone Bullet 286QBS (GVWR=7575 lbs.) at Modern Trailer Sales. Aaah! This was SO much better! It had 4 bunks so each kid could have their own space and I don’t have to make beds twice per day. There was so much storage (we thought at the time). This was the bomb for us because we had a bedroom at one end with no children randomly falling on us and they could all have their own bed at the other end. We took this Bullet out west for TWO weeks. Wonderful times and the kids didn’t want to hurt each other until day 11! After 5 years with it, Jon was having a hip replacement (from a childhood injury) and we decided we wouldn’t be camping for a while. We sold it on Craigslist in less than a week to a young couple. I might have shed a tear or two.
Six months later we couldn’t stop wishing we were camping and Jon’s hip was WAY better than it had been for decades. PTL! So we thought a bunkhouse with enough space for all our teens stuff (with an extra bath for our pre-teen daughter) might be the best option. We bought a 2019 Keystone Passport GT 3351BH (GVWR=9580 lbs.) from D & D RV Sales. We went wanting to look at their used ones they had rented out and he showed us the new one (for only $3K more!) and new style and we fell in love. This worked out really well for us and had enough space until we had 8 sleeping in it, then it was a bit tight. RV’s may say they sleep 10, but it means if you have a family of munchkins they will sleep 10. Don’t believe the numbers because the beds are never standard sizes. Teenagers are not munchkins nor are their friends. Their stuff (like guitars, 5 wardrobe changes, and drones) tends to take up more space as well. Ha-ha. Thankfully we only had to deal with this once per year when we camped with friends annually over the Fourth of July in Michigan. This TT was ridiculously LONG and I had to be very cautious about every site we picked.
So why on earth are we keeping a BUNK HOUSE for one time a year? Teenagers leave the nest and are too busy for camping. So now we are left with the youngest and the dog and even now the youngest is too busy sometimes. So we caved and traded in the Passport on a “Couple’s Coach” like retired folk. Ha-ha. (No offense.) We had been looking at used fifth wheels for months at Walnut Ridge RV. Our salesman kept saying we should look at new (likely because we were extremely picky!). Hence the 2021 Keystone Cougar 316RLS (GVWR=12,300 lbs.)–our first fifth wheel. Went in that day looking at used and came out with an offer on a new one. Are you seeing a pattern here? (We actually sold our 2500 Chevy Silverado to a local dealer so we could buy a 1 ton GMC Sierra to have enough payload for any fifth wheel we were looking at. More on that later.) We love the new Cougar with white cabinets even–I would have never believed it! Two years ago I thought people with white cabinets were unrealistic or parking in a parking lot resort with no mud ever to grace their RV. I’ll save that rant for later.
So there you have our beginning to current RV list. Stick with us as we will have some throwbacks and will talk about some of the pros and cons of each length and layout or more of their stories and memories with lessons learned!
SOLID OAKS RV TRAIL 