Many people bought RVs during the Pandemic. That means there are far more people out camping, particularly during the summer. Now, to travel during the summer, we'd need to make reservations months in advance. We tried this for summer 2023. It did not work for us. If we ended up somewhere wonderful we couldn't stay over, likewise if the CG we picked sight unseen was terrible we'd have to stay through our reservations. Also, if we have problems, such as mechanical trouble with Sassy (Bigfoot trailer) or Larry (RAM tow vehicle), we'd be off schedule and without catch up reservations. Just not for us.

But if we mainly boondock, staying off road in the wilderness rather than campgrounds, we could still travel without reservations. Our Bigfoot/RAM combination does not work well for any but the mildest off pavement travel. So what would?

Well, there are options. After some thought we decided a pickup camper or a camper van (Class B RV) could work. Other criteria include easy to drive and set up by Denise alone. She needs a place to escape from time to time. Resorts and B&B are now so expensive she doesn't go. With a camper or van she could easily escape for a few days or more. Likely booddocking away from everyone. Another criteria is we'd like to tow Brutus (side x side) and explore back country where we travel.

A pickup camper is feasible, but has several limitation. 1) The steps involved to get in and then climb into the over-cab bed could soon be problematic. 2) Larry (RAM) offers enough payload for only a small camper. To go bigger would easily lead to a new truck as well as the camper. 3) It's difficult to load and unload a camper so we'd likely keep the camper on the truck. We'd essentially be back to one vehicle, or need to buy a second small vehicle. 4) Very top heavy and bad in the wind. 5) A camper and new truck would be quite expensive.

A camper van would also work, either built up by us for camping or already configured.The down side to a van is the very low ground clearance and lack of four wheel drive. Buying a new camper van is pushing $150K so that's out. But a used one shows promise.

After a year or so we decided to look for a camper van. To get around the ground clearance problem we'll likely add a lift kit raising the vehicle some 5" ($10K). That also allows larger than stock wheels and tires to get the axles up a few inches. Vans can be converted to 4x4 but the cost is about 4 times the cost of a lift kit ($40K). We're too old and tired to build out a van ourselves so it's a used Class B RV we looked for. We viewed at a 2010 Pleasure-way locally in Prescott. It was very nice with low miles. Not the layout we most wanted but could be modified for twin beds. We passed, thinking it would fly off the shelf. Several weeks later it was still for sale and they lowered the price. We did a lot of Internet shopping since the first look and found this Pleasure-way to be a good deal. Went back and carefully checked all the RV related equipment. It checked out, mostly needs some TLC. We didn't think we could do better so we bought it.

Ta Da.