Just Ordered Our 560 Ultra

My class A hold 132 gallons of diesel. Multiple that by $4.79 a gallon. Beyond the cost to fuel it the big motor home just wasn’t my style. I drove Route 66 from Kingman to Gallup and there weren’t many places I could pull over to enjoy where I was at. My Outback pulling the Raindrop can turn around on a dime and give you a nickel change.

 

Yep. So glad I chose to go minimalist too, vs a standy, which would have required a new tow vehicle...

Now I just gotta figure out where to put all this extra cool gear I am bringing along...

 

Best thing I've found is a SUV cargo area. We generally take "nice" clothing by hanging it in the back seat, which as a bonus get an additional layer of dog hair for extra protection.

The Cargo area gets the laptop bags and the biger items that we won't necessarily need --- the camping toilet and generator for example. Everything else gets stuff into the nooks and crannies.

I have found a 5x8 tarp (walmart sells them, not like its a 'find') that we put down over the bed. The chairs, tents and such get stowed in the camper itself. The only thing we really havn't found a place for is the gas grills -- a weber Q. We have a carry bag for it, but I'm still paranoid about grease soaking through if something falls over. 99% of the time, we won't need the generator or toilet...the grill will probably go back there too.

But compared to the Class A --- its a pretty Spartan lifestyle A deck of cards, and a portable scrabble board is about it --- I just wish they still made the TV --- not having to tote around a laptop would be awesome....

 

Ours (#1003) was the second-to-last TV. While we are very much into the minimalist side of camping and even spend a significant amount of time practicing primitive survival skills while we're out and about, it's REALLY nice to crawl back into our trailer and either watch a movie or pop the antenna up and see what the local TV channels have. We tend to like both nature AND technology...they're not mutually exclusive. And the fact that our TV is a 12Vdc version is icing on the cake, since it is better in terms of power efficiency. The sound system and ham radio are nice to have, too...we enjoy the music a lot (very quietly when we have neighbors, louder when we're boondocking), and the ham rig came in handy when we had to evacuate due to the tornado threat in Missouri on our maiden voyage coming home from Wisconsin. It's also not uncommon for us to sit outside gazing at the natural beauty of the stars in the night sky, and then go inside and turn on our USB widget that puts blue laser stars on the inside ceiling of the trailer.

 

Not much to tell. Fire, food, water, shelter. We've been through quite a few natural disasters and seen some crazy things over the years, so we built learning and practicing into the camping routine. We always pick something new to try or find some skill we've acquired previously to practice.

There's a lot of different ways to start a fire. Lots of different shelters to build...though it's better to do this while out boondocking, since the RV resorts get mad when you build stuff at their establishments! ;-) Navigating is obviously super important if you're lost, and there's an art to that. Recognizing medicinal and edible plants, and actually trying stuff with them. Medical skills (my wife and I and two of our kids either are or have been EMTs, but it's different in the wilderness). On one of our trips, I worked on carving spoons. On another, I worked on making a fishing net from paracord (usually not legal to use, though...only for real emergencies!). My two youngest daughters even taught me something one time: we were camped in Montana, and they managed to boil water in a plastic water bottle! You really have to put it in the Goldilocks zone, though; to close to the fire, it will melt...and too far away, it will never boil.

Lots of fun stuff on YouTube to try. For us, it never gets old. And if you spend a lot of time camping in remote areas like we sometimes do, these are good skills to have if something goes wrong. For what it's worth, I really liked the "Alone" series. "Naked and Afraid" is pretty good, too.