“Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone- Those that are now, and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river: the ‘what’ is in constant flux, the ‘why’ has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here.”-Marcus Aurelius
It’s official. We are exactly one month from departure. Which is creating all kinds of feelings.
We have spent the past year planning our route and determining where we would like to camp. We picked up our home for three months, the Cricket Trailer, back in May. This was Mark’s major input for this trip. He had done some real research over the years in anticipation of an opportunity like this and narrowed it down to a minimalistic travel trailer vs the luxury Mercedes Benz Sportmobile. The Cricket appealed to both of us due to its simplicity of design, it’s efficiency and yes, it’s cool factor. First, neither of us are fix-it people, in other words, if something breaks, we yell mild expletives first and then scratch our heads. So, the less bells & whistles, the better. The Cricket is designed by a NASA engineer, every inch of space is designed for maximum efficiency. And a lot of space there is not. I have to be honest, when we picked up our trailer in Wisconsin and I walked through some of the mammoth Rv’s out there, I felt a little twinge of regret. Our Cricket is exactly 15 feet long and almost 7 feet wide. It has a queen size bed, plenty of storage, a fridge, a 2 burner range, sink, hot water & heater. No air. No toilet. No shower(although we do have an outdoor shower hook-up). BUT, it’s easy to tow, it has high clearance to off-road, and it’s pretty darn cool.
We tested our Cricket out this summer by camping in our backyard and trying out all our gear. One thing you will notice is Mark likes gear and though we have a tiny trailer, we will be traveling in comfort. Our inaugural sleep in the Cricket(we are being told by the travel trailer community that we should name our home. Mark is not a fan the idea but I’m thinking about it) was cozy until our lawn sprinklers went off at 1 am and within seconds we were drenched. Our first mishap. Certainly not the last. I think our sense of humor will be the most important thing to pack on this adventure.