One Big Kiwi

A few months ago I bought a camper, a Jayco Kiwi to be exact. Now my wife's idea of camping is staying at a roadside motel that doesn't offer an indoor pool and room service. She comes from a long line of non-campers who now think I'm completely nuts. They all seem to be treating me the same way you would treat a new mother with an ugly baby, nice but noncommittal. "Well Ken, that's some camper".

It's okay, I pretty much expected the reaction but none the less, I've finally made the decision that my kids are going to get a chance to experience the camping world. It's my belief that all kids should at some points in their early lives learn to make Smores, hike trails, build a campfire and pee in the woods. Last year was the break through year for us. The kids were finally both old enough to go on a camping trip, so on two different occasions I borrowed a camper and we hit the road. My wife was a good sport and I even think she might have actually enjoyed herself. Leading up to the trips she would ask "what do we do when we get there". My reply? "We relax". This was a new concept for her but she did surprisingly well.

We began talking about buying our own camper. It needed a few things for her creature comforts, all of which basically boiled down to needing a place to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. No problem. We're not going to be heading out on big trips and probably only a couple weekends a year so we decided to get something small...very small. Please scroll up and look at the picture again. It's only 17 feet long until you lay down the beds, then it spans about 24 feet. We didn't want a pop-up because we wanted a bit more room and the idea of peeing behind a curtain didn't have much appeal. That's when we learned about hybrids, a regular camper with all four walls but the ends lay down for the beds.....perfect.

We actually found a used one that was only a few years old, in great condition and very clean. Here is another picture of the camper, it's not mine but it is identical.








I took it out of storage and brought it home to get it ready this week. Every night we would all go out to the camper and pretend to camp by sitting around the kitchen table and playing Uno. I can't describe how much fun that was. This week I also read the owners manual cover to cover, filled, drained, then filled and drained again the water system just to learn how it works and I'm currently learning about the LP gas system. One wouldn't normally think such things are fun but.....well, you'd just have to know how weird I am to understand. I'm having a blast.

Best camping story so far (even though we have yet to leave the driveway): Our neighbor Tom who lives across the street, owns a massive 40-some-odd foot camper with every bell and whistle known to man. It's really amazing and we've always enjoyed seeing it parked outside his house and watching him get it ready to take his family on their next big adventure in the giant camper. The day I backed up the little Kiwi in our drive just happened to be a day that Tom navigated his trailer down our street to get it ready for the weekend. Reid and I were standing outside our camper watching Tom drive up when Reid motions me to lean down so he can whisper in my ear. He said, "Dad, Tom's gonna be soooooo jealous!" I laughed hard and replied "No doubt, he's gonna want our Kiwi for sure!!"

Can't wait to head out on our first adventure.

As always, thanks for reading.

Ken