Welcome to the Family, Little Red Caboose!

 For years, I've wanted a camping trailer. I grew up with a pop up Steury camper:

That's my fabulous late aunt. This picture was probably around 1980. My parents bought this trailer around 1976. It's totally a statement to the 70s decor principals. Green and white striped canvas, the big orange tarp... (this photo is a picture I took during a slide show...you know like the old days...)

Yellow-orange curtains, yellow panel on the fridge, cushions in a matching green with giant flowers. This picture was the summer of 1988 (I'm pretty sure, because I had cut my long hair short for our band trip to Florida that May).  

That trailer was a fortified tank. We took it off roading, and camped on Crown Land (land that is owned by the government of Canada and is just wilderness....accessed often through hydro line access roads...hydro is what we call electricty in Canada). 

This was at the far end of the hunt club my Dad belonged to. This would have been around 1987-1988. My Dad (the man closest to the truck, the other one pulling the winch cable was my boyfriend) and tried to turn around by driving in the shallow water, and the truck got stuck on a submerged log. That's an International Scout II, 1974? It used to be all yellow with wood vinyl sticker panels. What a beast. The woman on the log is my Mom. After they killed the truck battery using the winch, my Mom and Dad took the canoe across the lake (they had a small motor) to get to the hunt camp and find help. My boyfriend and myself (17?) were left to look after my 3 year old brother.  Yup. It was as crazy as it sounds. My parents didn't get back until after dark (and I think they ran out of gas for the motor). I honestly don't remember what happened after that. Keep in mind too, that my Dad had had a quadruple heart bypass the year or so before this!

In 1989 they bought a second hand Coleman trailer that would be easier for my Dad to manage. We took it on a 3-4 week road trip to Newfoundland and PEI. It was nice to be modern finally but it had it's own issues.

Like getting flat tires frequently. When I went off to university in the fall of 1990, I got to take the fridge from the Steury. It was great! 

When Rob and I started dating, we bought a tent. I had tent camped on canoe trips, but I missed having a trailer! My parents bought a Hi-Lo which we borrowed in the fall of 1999 for a road trip, and while it was great, it wasn't perfect either (Rob is too tall to sleep widthwise in trailers!). 

When our kids were little, his parents passed their tent trailer on to us. It was an ingenious little trailer. 

They had used it all the time when the kids were going up, in the 70s. This is the back of the actual trailer, it opens up to be the kitchen, and hence, the front of the camper.  The roof tips open to one side and became the floor.

This is the tongue, or the front end. There is a zip on room covering the kitchen area at the back, and to the right is where the roof opens, laying on the ground and providing a second bed. 

This was during set up. You can see the hard floor, which is actually the roof. I don't remember exactly how the bunk worked on that side. I believe the other bunk slide out, as seen in the picture above. 

It was a cool tent, but there were issues with the zippers--it was 30-40 years old when we were using it. We considered getting new canvas made, but our kids were not the happiest campers when they were little, and we passed the trailer on to an eco-retreat/farm. 

When the kids were a bit older, we bought a second, larger tent (our first was very small, 2 person). That lasted for awhile, considering we didn't camp that often. Years later, 10 years ago, we bought another large tent, and went on a 10 day road trip to Quebec with the kids. We used a box trailer that Rob had, and he built a shelf at one end to use as a kitchen, complete with a bracket for our patio umbrella, and a cord to plug in a fluorescent light fixture. Yes, like from the garage. He rigged it up in the patio umbrella. However, we found out they don't like bright lights in Quebec "national" parks! 

For years, I tried to get him to invest in another trailer. The pod or teardrop style became popular, but there was always the issues of where to store it, and how would he fit in it anyhow. We went to the RV show and camping show a couple times. I loved the Safari Condo by Alto. Expensive. Rooftop tents became popular but I flat out refused to sleep on top of the FJ Cruiser. Rob saw a few off road trailers, but they were so expensive. It felt like we were going to be tenters forever. 

I still kept my eye on Facebook Marketplace, to see if anything interesting would come up. A little red trailer showed up last summer, but I didn't pay attention. Rob saw it though. He felt it was more than he wanted to spend.  It was still available this winter, and the price dropped a little. We decided it was time. It was unique, rugged, off-road capable. We drove the 1.5 hours to go see it. 

The cabinet in front of Rob opens downwards, and it's the kitchen. There's a two burner stove that slides out, and the back of the door has a cutting board. There's also storage. There's a large water tank with faucet beside the cute little propane tank.   The awning is also really good quality.

We have called this cavity, The Crypt. It will be where our fridge goes, on a slide out.

I've been against getting a roof top tent for on the truck, but this one isn't nearly as high. It is small though.  That cabinet is the same as the one on the other side, but no stove or cutting board. 

They moved very slightly on the price, and we went for lunch to discuss it. Of course we were going to get it!! We've named it the Little Red Caboose.  We went back last week to pick it up, from Mobilife RV in Kitchener. 

They cleaned it up SOOOOO nice. I thought the cutting board would be trash, but it's spotless. The stove had been a little disgusting, but it's like new. A new battery. And, the previous owner dropped off a brand new side cabinet!! No hardware for it, but we can get that. Rob was trying to figure if there's a way to mount it as a 3rd cabinet, but he might just keep it in the garage for storage until we need it.

This company, AT Overland made this model up to a few years ago but this one is from 2006.. This is the Horizon. They have another model without the side cabinets, but they do mainly truck conversions now.

First purchase was a hitch thingy so it would tow level.

The next upgrade was a new rooftop tent. I suggested we try this one out first, but Rob wasn't interested. It's considered 2 person, but yeah, it would be tight. We went to the Sportsman Show so we could see a variety of tents in person, and decided on a Amber Adventure tent, a ginormous one. The bed will be bigger than we have at home I think!

In other news, I've started a YouTube Channel, to chronicle our adventures, and to go along with our Instagram. I'll let you know once I start to post.