RV show and a road trip (or two)

This summer we're going on a road trip, but before we go, we need to buy a travel trailer.

Why is it a need and not a want?

Because LMS and I like to eat :)

Seriously, though, trying to find safe places to eat while traveling is very difficult (we're down from 3 restaurant options to 2, and even those are a little iffy as to how "safe" they are for us), and cheap motel rooms are not equipped so you can prepare your own food.

The trailer we'll buy is small, we don't need a behemoth, but it does have a frig, freezer, microwave, and two burner stove top. Everything we need to cook our own meals. Well, except our rice cooker and crockpot, but we'll be bringing those with us.

It also has a toilet and shower, which will be great for showering after a long day driving. Even if I don't do anything I feel grungy after spending all day in the car.

The beds mean we can park in a truck stop and go right to sleep (we experienced this a couple years ago with Mr S's parents and their trailer, and it was an epiphany). So much more flexibility as to how far you go and when you stop. And you don't have to pay for a hotel room every night.

Last week I researched travel trailers to find out what our options were and what would work best for us. I was able to narrow it down to 8 or 9 models, some of which were very similar to each other. I then realized that an rv show would be held in just a few days. It was several hours away, but would give us the opportunity to check out some of the trailers on my list and talk to some of the dealers across the state (there's none close to us).

So we took a road trip to the rv show and had fun walking around looking at the trailers and rvs. LMS wanted to go inside every. single. one. I managed to distract her enough to do every other one :)  After you look at several, you realize that the floor plans don't vary that much between manufacturers- the basics are the same, it's just the details that differ. There are some cool ones though- the coolest was the fifth wheel with the elevated porch that folds down from the side of the trailer. Very cool.

We also realized that a lot of the rvs and trailers are bigger than our first apartment, which was tiny  :)

The show was close to the coast, so we headed to the beach the next morning. LMS was all ready to start building sand castles, but I convinced her it was too cold and windy for that.

We walked along the waterline, instead, looking for shells. We found a few, along with some crab parts, which made for an interesting discussion on the life cycle of a crab. We also noticed that seaweed on the east coast is different from seaweed on the west coast. East coast: short and stubby, green and red. West coast: long and ropey, green and yellow. I'm sure that has something to do with differences in water temperature.

It was a fun little road trip and we narrowed our search down to one trailer. Now the hard part is finding one we can afford: it happens to be a popular floorplan, and there's not a lot for sale, new or used.