Campa

In my old office I used to keep a notebook on my desk to record interesting or funny quotes. My friends Tim and Kelly we major contributors and when I left my office for the road, I gave them each a copy of my quote book.
My habit of writing down quotes stayed with me on our trip. My favorite so far came a few weeks ago when we stopped to fill up on propane. The gentleman topped off the tanks and while putting away his equipment said, "I been doin' this a lotta years, and I ain't neva seen a campa pullin' a campa."
It wasn't the first time we had been asked about our two campers, but it was the most expressive. It also made me think that I should explain our reasoning behind our "campas".
Reason one is simple, our driving vehicle had to have a bathroom. A four year-old's bladder only allows you to drive so far before a bathroom break. This ruled out pulling a travel trailer with our pick up, or using a 5th wheel.
Reason two, there are several hours between the time that the kids go to bed and the time Becky and I fall asleep. As all parents know, this is extremely valuable time. Most of that time is spent talking, planning, updating the website, writing, relaxing and listening to music. We wanted to be able to do all of those things each night without disturbing the kids.
To resolve these two issues, we looked at a lot of RVs and then we looked at more. We finally found the trailer we wanted on a lot in Findlay, Ohio. On the day we went to check it out I noticed the Cruiser tucked away in a far corner of the lot. We test drove it, were assured that she had the power to pull the trailer and made one salesman very happy.
Since our purchase and in the first couple months of the trip, we have found even more advantages to our travel train. Having two refrigerators, two bathrooms, extra storage, and the ability to chop 17 feet off our overall length are all things that have been useful at one time or another. Pulling the trailer also gave us an area to entertain my brother when he met us near New York City. If it weren't for the trailer, we would have been sleeping in the RV at the transmission shop, rather than spending the week at a beautiful state park. Now that Abby has started on-line school it's really beneficial to be able to take a four year-old distraction to another room.
It may not look conventional, but our "campa pullin' a campa" has served us well on the first leg of the journey.