The Beginning

The first step to going on an extended road trip is to have something to take you on said extended road trip!  Thus began the search for the perfect camper vehicle.  We knew it had to get good gas mileage (i.e. more than 15 mpg), be solid, and NOT be the kind you tow behind your car.  Greg spent hours online, researching and researching and researching.  The first one we looked at was this:

It was near by, not super old (90's), and had a great layout.  Sounds perfect, right?  Wrong.  Test driving this thing was like driving a top heavy tank.  It swayed and groaned and the wind whistled through it and it felt like it was going to fall apart any minute.  And the faster we went, the worse it got.  Eeeek, no thanks.

So, the search continued.....

We looked at conversion vans......

....but they're bigger than we wanted.

And we looked at Sprinters, which are a cooler version of your run-of-the-mill conversion vans.  Like this:

But as cool as this one was, it was still a little bigger than we wanted and the layout wasn't going to work for two people and a dog.

So, the end result is............The TIGER!!!!! 

(BTW, the Tiger is in the front.  That's a Car-To-Go behind it.  Big & old vs tiny & new!)

Here's the Tiger all pumped up:

The bed is over the cab.  When you pop up the top, you can stand up in the camper and get into the bed.  Here's Debra's son, Jett, showing off all the room up there:

(Check out Debra in the front passenger seat.  Notice how the seat SWIVELS to face the back of the camper!!  The driver's side does that too.  Cool! )

The rest of the camper has a dinette...

(me, enjoying my first cup of coffee in the Tiger!  The roof is NOT popped up in the picture)

.....and a small kitchen, with a stove, microwave, and fridge.

So, now we get to make it fit our needs.  Besides all the stuff just to get the Tiger registered and inspected, we need a mattress for the bed, figure out what to do about the fridge (the one that's in there right now is questionable), clean the carpet, put in a shower, and give it a good cleaning!

Oh, but first, before we do any of that, we have to go to Arizona and pick up the Tiger!  That's next.............