Welcome to our Camping Blog!

I wanted to start a blog about something that I LOVE and that is TRAVEL! I love all means of travel, but I especially love getting in the truck, hooking up the Pineapple Pod and taking to the open road! I ALWAYS have an itinerary, but am open to making tweaks here and there when something cool or interesting crosses our path. So here we go!

First... we started off this journey with 2 Jeeps, so our towing capability was maxed out at 3500 pounds. That includes EVERYTHING! The trailer, the stuff... ALL of it! That's not much! So we purchased a brand new Forest River Pop Up for $18K from a nearby dealer. We were in HEAVEN!

BUT... we quickly discovered that Pop Up life was NOT our life! We are not stay-at-a-campsite-for-several-days kind of people. We are more the stay-here-for-one-night-on-our-way-somewhere kind of people. We quickly discovered that we are NOT 20 years old anymore after popping and un-popping that puppy ELEVEN TIMES on a trip to Michigan and back.

So... we did a thing and upgraded to a hard side camper. It was TINY! But we could tow it with the Jeep as long as we kept our 'stuff' under control. We purchased an R Pod 178 locally from a previous owner for $20K and took it on a maiden voyage to nearby Canyon Lake. We had a great time! Long weekend. No plan. Just living life on a whim and it was fabulous! Except that the bathroom is so small that you have to pee with the door open and we have to crawl over each other to get out of bed. There's also no barrier between the bed and the rest of the camper, so me reading or sleeping in bed while Julio watches t.v. or plays his video game isn't working either. Well, the Jeep pulled it, but it struggled. It struggled enough that we just didn't see putting that kind of stress and strain on the vehicle. Not to mention the size issues we were having that were really keeping us from being completely comfortable... So we upgraded the Tow Vehicle to a brand new (VERY SEXY) blacked-out Chevy Silverado I named Black Betty (Bam Ba Lam)!

Well... you KNOW what comes next... NOW we have the power to tow something BIGGER! So bigger it is! We don't want to go too big, so after a LOT of research and some perfect finagling, I purchased a NEW 2022 R Pod 202 for $30K. I pretty much STOLE this thing! I just went by one cold, rainy, miserable December day to actually walk through the camper and see if it really checked all the boxes. Well... it did! So of the course the salesman is trying to make a sale and tells me that it is last years model (It's the end of 2022 and they already have 2023's on the lot) and it's been there for a bit and they may be willing to take less that the $36K they are asking for it. So I offer $30K, which is honestly as far as I wanted to go on a new camper, but knew I would realistically need to go higher. But why not? I wasn't looking to buy the thing today anyway, so why not just ask for what I want. He goes and asks the Sales Manager and what do you know? He agrees to take $30K for it. WHAT?!?! SHIT! I need to call my husband and tell him I just bought a new camper! He showed me the original invoice. They paid $30,700 for the camper. They made $700 off me! SCORE!!!!

I didn't trade in the 178 because I knew I could get more for it by selling it privately. What a joke! I listed it in February and dropped the price 3 times. I had ONE serious buyer, but the things we didn't like about it were the exact same things they didn't like about it. Don't blame them. So in April, I decide I'm tired of weeding through the scammers and no-shows and I'm going to sell it to a dealer. They offer me $16K pending inspection. No problem! Everything works and there are no issues. WRONG! They call me and tell me that the roof seals have failed it's taken on water. $6K for a new roof plus several other little things and they still need to repair some water damage from the water intrusion. UGH!!! So NOW... $10K. The dealer has a guy who purchsases used campers and repairs them to resell and he hooked me up with them. He said I may be able to get $11K from him. Long store short... I sell it to the 'guy' for $10,500. We took a HUGE hit on that!

Moving forward... we are combining the 178 loss with the 202 win and settling with a WASH. We broke even and are moving on and enjoying our new 202 and looking forward to all our future adventures!

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And be sure to check out our CAMSIT MAPS at the top of this page for a link to our interactive Google Map that exactly pin points each campsite. Not just the campground, but the SITE!