Back in the summer we started toying with the idea of buying a camper. Because of Covid, all of our travel plans had been cancelled for the year, and we wanted a way to go places but still be safe. My main requirement was that it had to have a bathroom.

Understand that we’d never hauled anything behind our car…nor had we ever slept in a camper before—so we were filled with uncertainty. Would we use it enough? Would we like doing this? Could we learn how to do this? But these questions are ones that we can just decide. Yes, we will book our spots and take it out on trips. Yes, we will decide we like this new way of travel. And yes, we will learn the ins and outs of camper life.

But most importantly, we needed something to challenge us. We needed to learn some new things like …how to back a camper into our driveway and how to deal with all the hookups and sewage (which is not fun, by the way). Most importantly, we needed to get out of our rut of doing the same things all the time.

We visited a local camper store and walked around in a few different sizes to get a feel for the space. Then, I started hunting down options on FB Marketplace. Before long, I found this Shasta Reissue Airflyte camper. It’s a new version of the vintage camper and it had a bathroom…so I was sold. This one was only 16 feet, but big enough for just the two of us.

We named our camper Willie after Willie Nelson and his popular song, “On the Road Again,” since we were going to be on the road again, too!

The past several months were spent re-designing the interior of the camper. If you want to know where I got all of this decor, I’ve got a complete resource downloadable on my Freebie page (scroll down to the Camper Revamper option). If you missed my previous blog, you can read about the design plans by clicking here. And last week I shared all the interior pics of the camper. It was a fun undertaking. You can read more about that by clicking here.

Since August, we’ve been on two big trips and a few overnight ones. For the most part, we feel we’ve learned the ropes. It’s much more fun now that we know how to hook everything up and feel more confident hauling the camper.

In October, we went to Big Bend National Park. Here, we hiked, gazed at stars, and enjoyed nature at its best.

We went to South Padre Island right after Christmas. It was 75 degree weather and clear. Gorgeous for anytime of year. We had the best spot on the lot with the water just on the other side of the road. I sat on the beach all day and watched people parasailing on the horizon. At night, we left the door and windows open and slept the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore.

Our next big trips include the Grand Canyon and Colorado. And in between we will take some overnight trips to various state parks just to get away. (Did I mention my adult children are back home for a while?)

So, here’s to new adventures and taking on new challenges that stretch us in 2021! If you want to see a tour of my newly made over camper, click here to watch it!