"The Hard Side"

As Luke explained in his post we have finally "Gone to the Hard Side".  A few weeks ago we purchased a 2000 Fleetwood Tioga Class C camper.  Fully self contained with all the features you would expect and even a few extra's.

Some of the high points:
Sleeps 8 (if four are children)
Slide room (adds 3 feet to the interior room)
Fully self contained:
Bath/Shower/toilet
Hot/cold running water
Ford E450 Chassis (V10)
Generator
20ft awning

This is a purchase we have been thinking about for a long time.  We have been researching and watching craigslist for over a year.  We finally found this unit for sale in Wilmington VT.  The price and floor plan were what we wanted.  The unit needed several repairs both on the coach and chassis, but after having it thoroughly checked by both a truck shop and an RV shop we made the leap.

We are now officially "RVers".

New camper (again)!!!

We were always dreaming about getting a big, new, drive-able camper and guess what?? We got one, and we just camped in it Memorial Day weekend! Good thing Turtle, the camper could stand it. Our friends, the Soupans couldn't camp in the hideous rain-but that’s just because they only had a tent. We don’t camp in tents anymore.

--Luke

The first Camp-out of 2012

2011 End of Season Recap:

Hello and welcome back.  Looking back on our camping blog I can see forgot to make an entry for our last trip if the season last year.  As it turns out we went back to New Discovery SP.  It was a nice but wet weekend.  We were joined by Andrea's parents.  We did most of the usual stuff.  Campfires, smores.  We also experimented with some new food options.  Grilled Pizza.



2012 A new camping season has begun!  This year we tagged along with our friends the Bowers, to Sugar Ridge Campground in Danville Vt.  Chris had invited back in December, but we couldn't plan that far ahead if we had to.  The good news is after two phone calls we were able to get a site in the "quite" part of the campground.  With W/E/S (water, electric, and sewer).  What you ask?  "No cable TV?"  Nope sorry.  Not for us.



Sugar Ridge is a full service camping resort.  Pool's, Mini-Golf, trails, bouncy houses, and a whole lot more.  Its not the kind of camping we usually do, but boy was it nice.  Having electric the whole time was a small difference but a nice one.  The kids could charge their toys and we could have a regular nite-lite plugged in all night long.  For some reason my kids all like to have lights on when they sleep.

Day One:  I took Friday off so we could pack up and get out to the site before the weekend started.  It turned out to be a wise decision.  The first camping trip always takes longer to get going.  We pulled out about 4pm, after the kids got home from school.  We checked in and set up camp.  Shortly after poping up the camper we were eating beans and hot-dogs.  The two bigger kids took turns trying to find the Bowers camp site.  But they had no luck.  Turns out they were looking in the wrong place.  Chris, his son Aidan and his nephew soon found us.  Before we knew it the kids all wanted to go to the playground so off we went.
The playground was way better than average.  A castle, pirate ship, and monster truck were only three of the play structures.  A little something for all the different ages.  Bed time was a little challenging with Rachel, she wanted to jump up and down in her bed.  But the "big kids" had no problems.  Reading w/each other in the bunks until they got tired.

Day two was more of the same.  The Bowers came down to our site for Breakfast.  We made breakfast sandwiches on the grill.