Hi Jeremy,
I'm Wisconsin born & bred, graduated from Alverno, but have lived in the West for 52 years now. Still get back frequently but I'm not a winter person, so what can I say.
Going to a
rally will be just the thing for you. We are newbies, just got our tow vehicle (2012 Nissan Frontier SL 4x4 long bed crew cab) and my husband was dragging his feet on the TT until I dragged him to the rally in Quartzsite, Arizona, this past week. At first he literally wouldn't get out of the car - said it was MY thing. Met the best people there, and by the time they showed me the second Scamp, I was able to coax Bob out of the car. Once he got with the program, he was hooked. "If" became "which one" and "when".
When we started thinking about a
fiberglass rig, I did a lot of research and really wanted a
Lil Snoozy. We even had plans last
fall to visit the factory in South Carolina when we went to Kentucky for a family reunion. Alas, health problems intervened, the trip was cancelled, and I figured I had better settle for a used rig. Like what you can afford beats what you dream about but won't get. Anyway, new research, and without ever setting foot in any
fiberglass trailer except the
Lil Snoozy (because the owners of one live 90 miles from me), I tended toward a 16 foot Scamp - my non-negotiable requirements are a bathroom and a permanent bed.
The Quartzsite rally is on BLM land, no fees and no hookups.
Boondocking, with dump stations and water available in the town of Quartzsite. No defined camping spaces. Co-host Earl described the scene as marshmallows thrown out in the hills (brown hills - this is Arizona desert). It was kind of like a loose flock of a lot of sheep.
After we had seen a number of Scamps and met a lot of nice people, someone suggested we look at an
Escape. Made in Canada. I'd never researched them. 2 feet wider than a Scamp and very, very nice.
So we finally broke away from the party (it was happy hour and Ukulele Mark was leading the singing), and went to supper in Quartzsite. My husband was no longer avoiding the subject of a TT. He brought it up!
The next day on our way home, we stopped back at the rally to say goodby again. The
Lil Snoozy from Mesa was at the rally but had been closed up the day before. Saturday morning Dave was outside and I brought Bob to meet him. We spent probably an hour with Dave and Paula, really nice folks, and Bob was really impressed with the Snoozy. To sum it up, as we drove into our driveway at home he pointed out how our Snoozy will fit right between the carport and the garden shed.
So I didn't mean to write a book. But I'm sure the people at your rally will bend over backwards to help you find the rig that's meant for you. And when you bring it to Arizona, we'll be happy to show you the sites in our Grand Canyon State.
Jeanne