A very upscale thunderbox
Since the day we were married, I’ve wanted a way to camp with our kids. In a way that did not include having to use the nearest bush (or thunderbox) in the middle of the night. As a camp counselor in the BWCA during my teenage years, I’d been there, done that.
Bret was completely against the idea of buying a vehicle for camping, since vehicles depreciate immediately. He thought a cabin was the way to go. Luckily, so did my sister and brother-in-law. After 10 years of enjoying their cabin and realizing the tremendous amount of work that goes into maintaining one, Bret was willing to consider a camping set up on wheels.
There are so many things to consider when deciding what type of RV is right for your family. It is amazing how much of a back and forth process it can be… having grown up with both a motorhome (which has its own engine) and a travel trailer (which has to be pulled behind a car or truck), I preferred a motorhome. I love being able to sit at a table and play cards, or being able to fix lunch, while driving. Our finances, however, definitely favored a travel trailer. Since we knew we wanted to take a roadtrip out west at some point, we decided that a travel trailer would suit our needs best. We could unhook from it and leave it behind while sightseeing and climbing the tallest mountains.
So, for now anyway, a travel trailer it would be!
Our next major hurdle was the fact that we were driving a Honda Accord and a Honda Pilot. Neither can pull the type of trailer we would need for our extended road trip. Since both of our Hondas had over 100,000 miles on them (we LOVE our Hondas!), a new vehicle was in the plan anyway, but now we needed to consider how much our new vehicle would be able to pull. I’ve always been a fan of trucks, and a truck would have made perfect sense for pulling a trailer. The rest of the time, however, it made absolutely no sense at all. Both of us drive primarily in the city, and both of our dads have trucks we can use when necessary for jobs around the house. With gas prices above $3/gallon, we needed to think smaller.
Sightseeing with Lewis
After doing considerable research, test driving, and waiting for exactly the right used model to come our way, we found the perfect tow vehicle in our Ford Flex. We love our Flex so much, we named him Lewis. The Flex is huge on the inside, gets pretty good mileage and, best of all, can pull a small trailer. While we traveled, we had three teenagers, a standard poodle and a fair amount of gear in the Flex and were completely comfortable.
Now, even though the Flex is large, and it can pull a trailer, the trailer it pulls has to be fairly light. Hence, the search for the perfect trailer began.
