The kids and I just got back from our inaugural camping trip with our new-to-us tent trailer!
We’ve been looking for one for a long time. Three years, perhaps? And in the mean time, we tented. But every time I hauled all the gear out from the various closets, and dealt with malfunctioning air beds, torrential down pours, and a car that had to be packed with Tetris-like precision, I longed for the day that I could avoid all that and get off the ground at the same time.
We needed one on the lighter side, which are hard to find used. We debated a newer one, or a camper, or a camper van, or converted bus (aw, why not, Jack?), but when it came right down to it, we just wanted to get off the ground and have somewhere to store our gear so it’d be easier to take off whenever we wanted.
And then I was looking on Craigslist, and saw a brand new ad for a trailer that weighed 975 lbs, and was only a few kilometres away. Yes, please! I emailed right away, and low and behold, we were first in line.
We went to look at it the next day, cash in hand. The women who were selling it walked us through how to set it up, and even before it was fully up, we decided to buy it. The owners’ kids are older than ours by about ten years, and they’ve upgraded to a Class C (swoon), so even though they were ready to sell it, they were sad to see it go. But delight to have it go to another queer family. And in keeping with the world being small, we know about two dozen people in common, and two of our neighbours saw the trailer in our parking spot downstairs and said, “Hey, did you buy that from Janet and Tracy?”
It’s a trailer with a sparkly, rainbow reputation and two decades of family fun under. Good times!
We were already supposed to meet our beloved Rainbow Tie-Dye Camping Fairies at Porteau Cove for the day on the Sunday after we bought the trailer, so I decided to reserve a couple of nights and make it a proper — if short — camping trip instead. I stuffed all of our camping gear into the car, so that I could sort it out and organize it into the trailer while we camped. There’s nowhere to put it up here, so I couldn’t work my organizational magic on it before we left.
I managed to book the site closest to the cabin Pam and Robyn rented, and so we were close enough to them that we could come and go easily, and enjoy their brilliant company and yummy food. (Thanks for feeding us, G-Mas!)
We love Porteau Cove, and with so many good memories made there already, it was the perfect place to launch our new tent trailer awesomeness.
How did we sleep? The first night I worried about the kids falling out of the bed (which is higher than our family bed at home), and fretted about whether or not Hawk should sleep with me instead of Esmé. The second night, Hawk bunked with me, and other than the 2am train rumbling through, it was great!
Thanks to the 2am train I was awake to check out the meteor shower. I only saw one shooting star, but that was all I needed to make a wish before going back to sleep in my cozy, elevated, home-away-from-home. Thanks be to ceramic heaters and electrical hook-ups, this was one excellent glamping trip, to be followed by many more.
ps. We’ve been leaving illustrated rocks all over the place lately; owls in playgrounds, hearts on beaches. If you find a rock with a heart on it at Porteau Cove, it’s likely from us. Enjoy!
