We recently decided to bite the bullet and embrace our current socially distant world by planning more “vacations” at the campground in lieu of an airplane flying us to a new domestic or international destination. My dream of eventual sailboat ownership continues to be postponed until after I sell my Steinthal home and my Hatteras – Take Five. In the meantime and having regretfully outgrown the 1986 Airstream Excella with the growing children and addition of two 140+ pound Great Danes, we decided to go big with the next camper and have finally entered the realm of “glamping” head-on!
The Airstream was just sold this week to a wonderful young lady who recently graduated from college and wants to use it as a “small home”. It was a bittersweet moment to see the Airstream rolling out of the driveway because we really did enjoy the more earthy and visceral feel of camping in an antique and I loved working on the various repair and upgrade projects over the years making it better all the time. However, it became very clear that camping in our “silver bullet” simply wouldn’t work for us in the near term. Someday we may get another Airstream albeit a smaller one, but only after we permanently wave goodbye to the kids and dogs.
We are now the owners of a 40-foot fifth-wheel Keystone Montana camper. Its called a 3740 FK which means nothing to me except that it’s got a kitchen in the front of the camper and we opted for the dual-energy refrigerator (LP and electric) so we have more opportunities to be camping off-grid away from any electrical hook up.
I drove it home this past weekend from a local dealer in Saukville, Wisconsin and I managed to maneuver it down our winding country drive and onto our Steinthal property for provisioning. I’ll admit to feeling a little out of my league hauling this and while I am very confident backing my Airstream, the thought of getting this safely into a campsite is daunting! I have been secretly watching various YouTube videos to learn all that I can about dealing with this behemoth and just need to find an empty parking lot to spend a half-hour practicing so I know how it handles. It’s plush, to say the least, and should fit our needs quite nicely now that we have “grown” over the years.
With Natalie now nearly recovered from her head concussion, we were able to spend some time this weekend packing and organizing our camping gear into the new camper making future camping preparations a breeze! In the past with the Airstream, we always had to pack our supplies the night before leaving since we never had a lot of extra room for everything (much went in the back of the truck), but now our hope is to have everything stowed away more permanently so we don’t have to spend so much time preparing prior to our departures and with all the space available in this camper, it shouldn’t be a problem at all.
We plan to head out to the Wisconsin Northwoods in the near future where we will be enduring a week of off-grid living and social distancing. Specifically, we are planning on visiting Boot Lake and Boulder Lake, both located within the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and we can’t wait to share some pictures of our first real camping adventure this year!
Let’s Go Glamping!
