Road Trippers

Last year, right before the pandemic roared into our lives, we bought an RV. Well, we bought a third of an RV. My brother and his wife, my sister and her husband, bought a third of it too.

Three couples, one RV. A timeshare on wheels.

Now, that could have been a great idea, or a terrible one, and we didn’t go into it without some test runs. Before even thinking about an RV, we wanted to know if the six of us got along in tight quarters and on long road trips.

So we took an eight hour drive and camped together in the desert, with no potable water, and no air conditioning–in August–in a tiny metal Conex box. I’m happy to say we did NOT kill each other. As a matter of fact, we had the time of our lives and ended up with a nickname: The Travelin’ Rats.

The desert trip sparked another trip involving dino suits in the snow, snowmobiles, and the Charleston.

It turns out we all love road trips, camping, boondocking, and travel. And we want to do more of it. An RV was discussed as a way to travel cheaper, and more comfortably.

None of us had ever owned an RV, but we knew what we wanted. Our perfect rig would be a used vehicle small enough to fit in any National Park camping spot, and large enough to sleep 6. We wanted a bathroom, kitchen, and table. We wanted a vehicle easy to drive.

Enter the Rat Rig (a.k.a Sugarlump)

She’s a 23 foot 2005 Fleetwood Tioga, that sleeps 6, has a kitchen, bathroom, and table. She’s easy to drive (I drive her!) fits in all the camping spots and only had 27,000 miles on the odometer. We fell in love at first sight and bought her on the spot.

We went into the purchase knowing a used RV would need maintence and repairs. Luckily, the six of us have plenty of skills to keep her shipshape and the maintenence and repairs have all been pretty easy so far.

We’ve RV’d together three times (before the pandemic really took hold and we adopted even smaller social bubbles), and have taken her out as couples or couples with plus one or twos at least once a month.

So…was it a good idea to buy an RV timeshare for six road rambling, star gazing, horizon hunting, wonder seeking travelin’ rats?

It wasn’t a just good idea. It was the BEST idea ever.