Why a campervan for us?

We absolutely love being outdoors, especially when there is some kind of activity like hiking or biking involved. Camping was another activity that we enjoyed … until it just got too uncomfortable for me. Or let’s face it, until I got old. I used to be fine sleeping on a therm-a-rest, which we then had to upgrade to an air mattress. Now even an air mattress just doesn’t cut it. The whole sleeping in a tent with only a thin layer of nylon protecting you from “the elements” (read: from the giant raccoon that just a minute ago stared you down and is probably right on the other side of the almost sheer nylon fabric) is a bit unsettling. Then there is the whole bathroom issue. Getting up at the crack of dawn (trying not to step on anyone) while you frantically put your jacket on to run to the bathroom was not my idea of leisurely getting up, but that seemed to be just me. Also, two words: pit toilet. No, I was done with camping. But, as we started the conversation about potentially, possibly, maybe, even thinking about a campervan, we got excited about going camping again. We could visit all the parks that we had written off because we didn’t want to camp and we could even go off-season when it was less crowded. It opened up a whole new world! For us (fine, just me), geriatric wimpazoids, the campervan was the answer.

The biggest concern we had was whether it would be worth it to own a campervan with our lifestyle. Would we use it enough so that we wouldn’t feel guilty for having it just sit in the driveway? We started making a list of all the things we normally did on the weekends and concluded as long as the campervan was easy to drive with good gas mileage, we would definitely use it and choose it over a car. And we definitely have! The gas mileage seems to stay around 20-25 mpg using diesel gas, so that’s not bad especially since diesel is around $2-2.50 a gallon.

We drooled at all the pictures on the Roadtrek and Leisure Travel Vans websites and looked longingly at all the beautiful interiors of the campervans. We started imagining and dreaming about what we could do and where we could go with a campervan. So many possibilities! We were looking for a campervan that was able to sleep 3, but was small enough to comfortably drive anywhere. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find exactly what we were looking for and the base price for those lovely beauties was a bit steep for us. So, disappointingly we put a pin in it and decided to think about it as a possibility in the future. A few months later I had this panic attack moment when I realized my daughter is 11 yrs old (how did that happen?!?) and we needed to get the campervan yesterday if we wanted to have time to travel and enjoy the campervan with her before she thought it was no longer cool to hang with the parents. This is something we would regret in life if we let it fall through and didn’t at least seriously consider it. This time we knew what we wanted and had a budget in mind, so we quickly realized that custom built campervans was our best bet. Sportsmobile seemed the way to go for us.