Weinstein Travels

August of 2021, we picked the boys up from 7 weeks away at sleepaway camp. They had a blast, for the most part, but Carter seemed… like the spark was gone from the joy of camp. He’s 15 years old and Spencer is 12, and so Spencer said “if he’s not going back, then I’m not going.” Of course, the wheels in my head started turning. What could we do with all that money and time that we spent on camp? A family trip across country, of course!

At this point, we had been living through the Pandemic and experiencing disappointment after disappointment. The idea of a self contained trip in a camper of our own sounded liberating. I have never driven west of Ohio, and doing a cross country trip is a bucket list item for me. Luckily, my crazy idea was well received by my crazy family. Jason, Carter & Spencer were just as enthusiastic about it as I was. So we began researching… and planning… and researching…

Hours of googling, talking, reading… envisioning this trip. We had a minivan, and it’s towing capacity was not large enough to even tow a pop up (that has a bathroom). We had some priorities: I have to pee in the middle of the night, at least once. I need something with a bathroom. The lightest weight trailer required a different vehicle to tow it than what we had. So while researching campers, we also had to research vehicles. And while I didn’t want to put the cart before the horse… we did just that. We found the perfect (hopefully) used camper at a dealer in Vermont. Oh, and yes, we looked into renting. It would cost almost as much $ for a 6 week trip to rent as it would to buy.

OK, yes, we bought a new car when new car prices are through the roof. I don’t want to write so much about that, as I want to say: Jason is in love with our new car. We got a Kia Telluride. He’s like the recent college grad I met in 2001 who was obsessed with his car back then. So, I think it was worth it, and it will be fun to put the miles on it this summer. 

Now we have the vehicle and the camper. Tune in next time to hear about how we are planning this trip!