Newbie from PA

Hi everyone. Ed & Bev here. Currently living in Alexandria VA. I'm a retired AF Col currently working for Booz Allen Hamilton. My wife (Bev) is a retired registered nurse.

We plan to full-time retire this coming Sep and will be relocating to Hummelstown PA.

We currently are just in the drooling stage for a 550 Ultra. We plan on doing a lot of camping once I completely retire. We tent camped when our kids were growing up but in the last 40 years the closest we've gotten to a camp site was driving by. Hampton Inn had become our preferred mode for abode on the road.

We want to get back to the great outdoors. We love hiking and had some of the best vacations ever when we were tent camping. We've done lots of research on travel trailers (Casita, Skamp, Trailmanor, Lil' Snoozy, Airstream), but we will be buying a new Subaru Outback 2.5i and we just don't want a huge camper lugging around behind us or be forced to buy a large SUV just so that we can pull the camper.

The Camp-Inn really impressed us. The quality of the construction, fit, and finish strikes me as making it the "Airstream" of teardrops. Now the only down side is going to be convincing my "Absolute Leader" that hiking in the rain, with a flashlight, in the middle of the night to take care of Loo business is, in itself, part of the great spirit of adventure. Wish me well with that.

 

Welcome, Ed and Bev. Since you've been "lurking" you've found that a lot of us got too creaky to be sleeping on the ground but weren't sold on the big camper idea. We've been nothing but happy with our 550 Classic. We kept it pretty simple: no sink, DVD player, AC, mostly because neither one of us are very handy and wanted any complications kept to a minimum. The Camp-Inn folks are wonderful people to work with, even in the exploratory stage.

BTW, RNs, retired or active, should always be referred to as the "Absolute Leader" in any household.

Kathy

 

... well it sounded better than "She Who Will Not Be Defiled."

 

The loo issue is solved by the side tent and a porta potty.

 

Yep, Joan is right. Put the PETT toilet in the side tent at night.

 

Joan and Evan are right. My SWMBO wasn't too sure about the facilities issues but she's on board with the side tent solution. We motorhomed fulltime for 6 years and I usually used the campground supplied rest rooms but Carol stuck with the MH supplied solution. It might have had something to do with dumping the black and gray tanks (my job). I figured if only one of us used the MH bath I could go twice as long w/o dumping!
One reason the teardrop campers got our attention was the fact we missed many great camping opportunities since we were too big to fit in many of the out of the way campgrounds. Now we can go back and see what we missed! We lurked here for about a month before deciding this is the camper we wanted. Check went off to CI yesterday!

 

Ed & Bev your making a great choice and the loo wont be a problem there are many alternatives.Everyone who has a Camp Inn is a happy camper.Anna&Steve

 

I think we are kind of like Kathy & Bob, as to no heater, AC or TV, but that is all a personal preference and we have yet to retire (also we are still the weekend camper w/an occasional extended vacation). We find we aren't inside much except to sleep or if it is a rainy night. If on the cooler side of camping we have a portable "little" space heater that BLOWS us out w/heat, an electric matress pad or blanket do great also if needed. We have spent time where it has been hot (90 -100) and the Fantastic Fan does great. As to TV, don't miss it at all. We take movies with us sometimes and play them in the laptop but not that often. One thing wish we did have installed is a good sound system for the ipod but ...

We have had our camper since April 2006 and don't regret a day of it, rather wish we had more time to spend out with it.

 

Welcome to the Forum Ed and Bev! You'll find the folks here welcoming and with a good sense of humor. We've got a 550 Ultra and love it. When it comes to tear drops, it just doesn't get any better than Camp Inn.

 

Ed and Bev,
Welcome to the formun. As an old creaky RN I can atest to the fact that the side tent and a porta potty works great. Its close and clean.

 

We bought the side tent and PETT porta potty and have yet to set it up! For those middle of the night #1 "gotta goes" I use the Little John with female adapter and Bill locates a tree. At 2 or 3 in the morning everyone's asleep and it's "hard dark" so with a little adeptness my business is taken care of quickly. I slip a ziplock bag over the top that I keep there and set it on the ground by the tire. In the morning hubby takes care of it and I slip that ziplock back over the top and put it back in the cabinet on my side.