We're officially the people at the campground that people pick on, because earlier this year we purchased <a href="https://casualweirdness.life/micro/1964">a third camper</a>, affectionately named "Charlie" because of it's brown color.

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Unlike the <a href="https://casualweirdness.life/articles/blog-posts/stories/third-travel-versary-a-side-quest">tiny camper we bought earlier this year</a>, this rig is closer to our <a href="https://casualweirdness.life/articles/essays/our-camping-rig-coming-into-2023">bigger fifth-wheel</a>. We love our Leela, our small rig, for when we're traveling, but when we're not moving much, it starts to really feel crowded. I find myself missing my proper desk, the kids start to wish they had their own room, and it all just kinda starts to wear down on us.

We lived with this dynamic for nearly two years in our original 26' rig, but now that we've started to understand what our needs actually are, it became clear that we want different campers for different scenarios.

Now that we've established a seasonal lot in Vermont, and have a consistent place we visit in the Winter, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to:

Leave Charlie in Vermont year-round. Set this up as our Summertime home base, install a nice deck, storage shed, and a few other things to make it comfortable.

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Leave Ricardo (the big fifth wheel) in Texas. Set it up as our Wintertime home base, and put it in storage when we're not using it.

Use Leela (The traveler) to travel, and use this camper to help migrate us between Texas and Vermont each year. This allows us to take "massive detours" in the shoulder seasons to places like Glacier National Park, and the west in-general.

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The thing that makes Charlie so nice is largely because the camper doesn't move. Because of this, we get to have a deck, and were able to install a storage shed on our lot. This gives us some much-needed storage, and a personalized outdoor space.

The current deck is just cobbled together from leftover decks from previous campers, but we intend to build our own deck next year, one that's elevated properly, and allows me to use the outdoor kitchen comfortably.

It's hard to overstate the value of this. In the northeastern US, seasonal lots are quite common, and many campgrounds are mostly filled with campers that have been there for several years, stationary, and equipped with nice decks, storage sheds, and other nice semi-permenant structures that you simply can't do unless you know that the lot belongs to you, and you only.

One of the challenges we've had since we hit the road is that everything we own has always had to come with us. This means that all of the tools, and any equipment I've needed in-order to maintain, and build things that support our lifestyle have had to be able to travel with us. This lot doubles up as a summertime location, as well as a place to store the essential items that we need, but don't necessarily want to travel with all the time.

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In all of our campers, the cats need litter boxes. In our fifth wheel Ricardo, we built a custom cabinet that houses the litter boxes and is set up to minimize the amount of litter that gets tracked throughout the camper. It's cool and all, the whole "custom desk" thing was <em>a lot</em> of work. We kept it a lot simpler with this rig, and just got one of these litter box covers, which doubles as a coffee table for our recliners. It took a fraction of the effort, and honestly we're thinking about doing this in Ricardo instead.

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The setup in Ricardo intended to double-up as a shelf, spot for their food, cat tower, and litter box. It just tried to do too much, and ended up not doing anything as well as I hoped. I think if we get rid of this, I can put my recliner in this space, and get a coffee table out of the deal. Much nicer for this living area.

By far the best feature of Charlie's setup is the kid's room. It's a quad-bunk setup, but one of the bunks is a small dinette instead of a bed. This is an ideal scenario for Kate and Ben because Bennett has a place to set up his laptop, and they can do school in here. The opposite side is a nice big play area for Devin. Both kids sleep up-top.

Our winter rig, Ricardo, has a mid-bunk house which ends up being a bigger room but it doesn't use the space as well. Owning Charlie has made it clear that the "killer feature" of this space at this point is a desk area for the kids so they can do school and use their computers without spilling that into the living space. We're definitely reflecting on this to see how we can change this with our other spaces.

If it 'aint broke, don't fix it. Ricardo has an awesome desk setup, and I besically duplicated it for this camper, as well. The only difference is I used a store-bought cheap-o WalMart desk instead of the crazy custom desk I built for Ricardo. Again, simplifying the process, and it honestly is just as good.

Charlie features a bedroom that's really not that different than Ricardo - it's a private room that's just big enough for a bed, and a TV. It's not as nice as Ricardo's though, mostly because it doesn't have a proper door, just a pair of curtains, and the mattress in Ricardo is a residential mattress - much more comfortable than the RV special you get from the manufacturer. You can't win 'em all, but it doesn't bug us, mostly because we don't go to our room to get privacy anymore. The kids go in their room, which has a door. We've found this to be sufficient for managing noise in the camper.

In spite of that sentiment, As I sit here in Charlie, looking at photos of my fifth wheel Ricardo I am drooling at the simple pleasure of a comfortable bed, a wall, a door, and a tv.

Charlie doesn't have a kitchen table. This is kind-of a bummer, but it's another non-essential thing that we honestly haven't missed much. We didn't have a table in our original camper. It was fine then, and it's fine now.

This camper has a large pantry, and a lot of kitchen storage. So much so, that it actually has more storage than Ricardo has. Counter space is tight, but it's always tight in campers. We get by just fine - especially since we can use the outdoor kitchen setup that Charlie has for cooking larger things.

The biggest thing we lose in this camper compared to Ricardo is the space for Devin to do his creative things like painting, or working with clay. That all gets relegated into their room, but the table isn't quite big enough for all of that. I kinda wish we didn't have the outdoor kitchen and instead had two tables in their room instead of one. Someday, perhaps.

Owning, and using 3 campers while traveling full-time sounds crazy on the surface, but now that we've taken this approach on, I don't think I would want to go back to a single rig again. Each camper has its own strengths and weaknesses, and those weaknesses build up like pressure that can build up and make us want to run to the nearest town and get an apartment. (grass is always greener, right?)

But by having these different rigs, we're able to change up the space in which we live, which rounds out the weaknesses of each camper, and gives us a better sense of what works, and doesn't work. By being in different spaces, we can experiment in the different spots to see what works, and what doesn't work, and then implement those changes when-possible across all of the spaces we live.

I'm starting to think we're never going to stop this RV life. I'll never say never, but this multi-camper approach feels revolutionary for us.

Meet Charlie, Our Summer Camper

Outside

Cats

Kids

Office

Bedroom

Kitchen/Dining

Learning As We Go