Am I an RV person? I had to ask myself this several times before I could answer my husband as he sat across the table from me. He’d been doing some online research and had come across a blog written by a couple that owned a sailboat and an RV and were traveling the world and blogging about their escapades.
He thought it sounded fantastic. I couldn’t remember if I’d told him how much I hated the idea of “camping” after spending 26 years in the military. To me, an RV meant cramped conditions, a hand held shower over the toilet, and cooking on a barbecue grill outside beside your RV. Little did I know that I couldn’t have been more wrong, however, to help quell my fears we decided to go take a look at RV’s at the RV Convention in Austin in February of 2018.
Who knew there were RV Conventions? Not this gal and boy was there a plethora of RV’s to look at. Every brand that you can think of was represented; Airstream, Lance, Winnebago, Jayco, Coachman, Dutchman, Gulfstream and finally the ultra- luxe Chalet RV. We grabbed a couple glasses of wine and started to make our way through the units.
The difference in sizes and amenities was astounding and a lot to take in. What we wanted to do was discount the ones that we knew were priced higher than what we'd budgeted, as well as the ones that were motor coaches meaning, we wanted a trailer, not a driving RV. Our thought with regard to this is that wherever we travel to, we may want to stay a few days or sometimes it could be weeks and we’d want to be able to park the RV and then use our vehicle to tool around the area. Pulling a car behind a Motor Coach just didn’t appeal either of us.
Once we narrowed the field to trailers, we had a “must have” list of things that we knew we wanted. For me; a good size kitchen area, storage, and a bathroom that had its own shower stall.
I also wanted something that felt roomy and had space in the kitchen for s few small appliances that I knew we would need to have on board for lengthy trips.
For him; small bedside tables and plenty of under storage for a grill and bicycles as well as a solar panel for powering the RV.
After several hours of walking through unit after unit, we left feeling much more informed about size, amenities, and pricing than when we’d entered. We also realized that we would need to purchase a bigger vehicle that could pull the trailer since he owned a Ford Focus and I owned a Kia Optima. So, the search was on for a vehicle that would work.
We thought about the RV thing for months, and after months of more online research on his part, came up with a pretty good idea that we wanted to purchase the Lance 1995 19 foot trailer.
Before we actually pulled the trigger, I knew that II wanted to walk through it again and the opportunity arose the following February at another RV Convention. That is when we really comparison shopped between the Airstream and the Lance. The Airstream was nice, but almost triple the price of the Lance, and they were both outfitted very similarly. So, the Lance won out and we both felt really good about the decision.
Here are a few of the amenities that swayed me:
The bathroom had enough storage for the small appliances one would need and the shower was big enough for my 6'1 husband to stand in with his elbows out stretched and twirl around without a hitch.
My only complaint: I wasn't super fond about how flimsy the shower curtain seemed, which meant that we would need to be careful when pulling it open & shut.
I was happy that there was room enough for towel storage as long as you didn't bring too many and for various things such as toilet paper and additional items ie: shampoo, conditioner, & soap.
We were both very happy with the layout of the bedroom. Almost every other model that we looked at had the bed butting right up to the walls at the head of the bed on either side meaning, no place to set an alarm clock, your watch, or woe is me, a glass of wine while watching television. As you can see in the photo, there is a television mounted at the foot of the bed on the wall and it is on a rotating mount so that when seated at the dinning table you can swing it around to see it as well. Very convenient!
The dining table seating is part of the "pop out" area of the trailer and sits 5 comfortably. It also converts to additional sleeping for two however, a large man may find it a bit constrictive.
You have three choices in decor in the 1995 Lance and you can see all three if you click here
One of my favorite things about this trailer is the 16' powered awning with LED lights attached. Your bedroom mounted television set can be mounted on the exterior so that you can set up a small space for cooking & entertaining under the shade of your awning. We've already purchased some super cool metal, folding, rocking chairs to sit in! We can add a small outdoor rug on the ground for Berkeley (our dog & mascot) to lay on if the ground is rocky or just dirt, and we are all set for an evening of cooking and television viewing.
Part of the lure of this new adventure is being in the outdoors and experiencing all that that entails so having a space to use that will keep us shaded from the heat of the sun while being able to enjoy the outdoor spaces is a fantastic plus!
As we embark on our first trip, we are both sure that there will be things that we love, and things that we want to add/change as we go but we are both excited to take off on our
first adventure and figure the rest out as we go.
Like......where are we gonna store the wine?
XOXO
The Two Wandering Winos
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