Looks like a great place Ray.

My wife and I bought a camper/toyhauler, and we have been able to take it on a few trips this summer.....our trip to Arkansas was the first time we loaded up a motorcycle and took it with us.

My truck is a 2002 and I only get about 9 mpg so we cannot ecomonically take it everywhere we go....we have to weigh the low fuel mileage in with the length of stay to see if it is worth hauling the camper - or should we rent a cabin, tent or stay in a hotel.  It is far more relaxing if we can sleep in our camper in the wilderness.  I believe we are done hauling the camper anywhere until warm weather returns....but maybe we could get one cold weather trip in November for some fall camping without the motorcycle!

My truck is a 2002 Chevy Avalanche with a 5.3 liter gas V8 that does not have the latest technology for good mileage - it gets around 12 mpg empty - it drops to 9mpg with the trailer.  Our trip to Arkansas was 600 miles - so we took 2 days to get there, same for coming home.  While it is possible to make that trip in a single day - we chose to go at a more relaxed pace and enjoy the trip more.  We found very nice small family run campgrounds for all the stays, and prices were $28 - $30 each night with hookups.  Not all of the roads we drove were interstates and a few were 2 lane roads with towns - so our average speed was not very high.

When I first bought this camper I expected that while traveling we could overnight in the Rest Areas along the interstate - that however seems to be impossible in this area.  The number of trucks on the road is overwhelming, and most rest areas are completely full at night, the parking areas smell like urine as the drivers don't walk to the bathroom but choose to pee on the pavement instead, and the noise from the idling trucks and freezer trucks is obnoxious........and there is always the occasional cattle truck (full or empty they are smelly).

On our last trip I tried doing a comparison of mpg of my truck and trailer (9mpg) vs. my car (30mpg) and a current $2.50 fuel price.  Then include the cost of food for the camper vs. eating out, the cost of the camping spot vs. the cost of a hotel, etc. - the end result is that my wife had to give me a Dope Slap and tell me that this was not an economic exercise.......we have chosen to enjoy our senior years by going camping, hiking, motorcycle riding, and sightseeing in the USA - and as long as we are not being wasteful with our money it really doesn't matter if we prefer camping more than we like staying in a hotel!

I still think that there are trips that won't warrant taking the camper, and we will still take the car occasionally.  Someday I want to travel on Route 66, and part of the fun would be staying in the Tee Pee hotel and other vintage places that still exist.  We also may not always have the luxury of being able to travel slowly - or we may travel in the winter and I really don't want to pull the trailer on snow covered roads.  Towing the trailer is not unpleasant - however we do slow down significantly on steep hills as the truck doesn't have any excess power - I just run the engine between 2,000 - 3,000 rpm and let the speed vary as needed.

So.....I concur with your thoughts - we are enjoying our camper, we have stayed in some really nice campgrounds and met very nice people (so far none of our neighbors have been loud or partied late into the night like they do in the tent areas).  And like the current motorcycle market - the used camper market is huge and you can find good bargains as folks always seem to want to trade up and get bigger/newer campers.