My wife and I have been looking for a camper for a long time. We didn’t want a fancy, shiny, new one with slide-outs, TVs and satellite dishes. All we needed was something we could tow behind either of the vehicles that had a couple of beds, a sink, a stove, and a place to sit down and eat. We didn’t even need it to have a bathroom.
We also didn’t want to spend a fortune on a camper. We won’t be spending a lot of time in it. We just want to have a comfortable place to sleep when we take the kids up to the woods for a weekend camping trip or a hunt. Most of the time we’re out there, we’ll be exploring the great outdoors, rather than lounging around in a camper.
We looked at a few campers in our price range, but most of them were either too small or too run-down. Then we found one that was perfect. Well, mostly perfect. It was a 1968 Aristocrat. It was small enough we could pull it with the 4Runner, but big enough all four of us could bunk out in it. It had a fridge, a sink, a stove, and even a microwave oven. There was no bathroom in it, but that’s fine, because where we’ll take it, the bathroom will be just a few steps out the door. And that leaves more room for us, anyway. And because it was 47 years old, even though it was in pretty good shape for its age, the price was right.
The only problem was, it was all the way up in Deer Lodge, Montana. I had to get a quick education on how an ancient camper tows, and we broke it in with an overnight stay in a rest station parking lot. But now that I’m a camper owner, I’m excited to take it out for a real camping trip. Maybe I can do that on a deer or elk hunt in the next couple of weeks.
