A roadtrip west has been on our wishlist for quite some time, but the cost of hotel stays and food and all of the logistics have deterred our plans up until now. Our 15th wedding anniversary is coming up in September, and we really wanted to make this trip happen. We've started watching a YouTube channel about a U.K. couple who are traveling the circumference of the world in their camper van. Yes, you heard me correctly ... in their camper van. They have it shipped from one continent to another so that they can continue their travels. It's been fascinating to watch, and it triggered a question of whether or not it would be worthwhile to look into RV or camper options for our trip. It would be a larger investment up-front, but over time would pay for itself so to speak. We started looking into what was available for sale in our area, and eventually we settled on a pull-behind pop-up style camper.
It's not one of the very small pop-up campers I remember occasionally staying in as a kid. It really does have a lot of home comforts. It has a king size bed in each end pop-out. It also has a slide out dinette area that makes the inside seem so much more roomy. There is a galley kitchen with a sink and a three burner propane stove. There is also a couch. Both the dinette and the couch fold down to become extra beds. It can easily sleep 7-8 people. It has both a rootop air conditioner and a propane heater.
On the outside there is an awning on each side of the camper, and on one side there is a water spigot and a place to use an outside grill. It doesn't have a bathroom, but it would be easy to put an outdoor shower and cassette toilet in a changing tent if we wanted to do that. For the first few stays, we are planning to stay at campgrounds with bath house and restroom facilities. This for sure is not "camping," and I am okay with that. I want somewhere comfortable to sleep with some semblance of temperature control because my internal thermostat is on the fritz due to perimenopause and thyroid issues. Having both an inside and outside stove/grill for cooking also gives nice options for not having to eat out all the time on a trip. It is pretty easy to tear down and pop-up as well. The beds and the dinette all slide in, and then the top cranks down. The prior owners left some of their supplies for us, and a couple of friends gave us a few totes of RV gear that they weren't using anymore.
We've ordered the supplies we think we'll need, and we've made reservations for our first trip. Hopefully it will be the first of many. We plan on driving from Minnesota to West Gate area of Yellowstone National Park. Our route there and back will allow us to stop along the way to see the Dignity of Earth and Sky statue, Badlands National Park, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave National Park, Devil's Tower, and Grand Teton National Park. There is so much to do around Mount Rushmore, I could definitely see making a second trip to just this area in the future.
