Back in 2014 we took a leap and purchased a 1990(ish) Skamper that we have come to love and took on many an adventure – mainly the month on the beaches of Baja. We have loved how easy it has been to pop her in the back of the Ford and go on our merry way. Plus, for what we paid for her, you can’t beat it – I believe she was under $1,500. But the years have not been kind. The heater broke and we came to learn that replacing or repairing was nearly impossible. We also slowly came to the realization that while we didn’t mind a little leak here or there, the roof becoming more and more concave was letting even more water in, and it was time to say goodbye.
Don’t get us wrong, we love the pop-up, grab-and-go aspect of her, and we plan to get another at some point, but with our growing family, currently 3 dogs deep, we have decided that it is time to move on to “different” and bigger things. In the winter of 2019 our wheels began turning. Travis works 2 weeks on/off as a helicopter pilot and I work remotely. We wanted a way to be able to go anywhere for extended periods, but still have enough space that we wouldn’t want to kill each other. Life goals.
We hopped around a bit in the travel trailer realm. At first we wanted something around 17 feet with bunks that could be turned into an offices, then we wanted a separate living/sleeping spaces, but soon realized that those options were far too large. Slowly we narrowed trailers with about 21ish feet and various layouts. Here are some spec pics of the trailer that we really ended up liking…
We finally decided on (drum roll) the Forest River Flagstaff Micro Lite (21DS). Sister trailer Rockwood Mini Lite was also in play. Year didn’t really matter, but the price had to be right. We liked that there was a bathroom (BIG factor in why we were looking at travel trailers all together) and that the layout had the option of a murphy bed, which added to the amount of open space in the trailer when the bed wasn’t being used. PLENTY of room for pups. So, with that we took to looking – and then the pandemic hit.
In case you are wondering, yes, prices do go up on certain things during a pandemic. Travel trailers would be one of those things. We had been seeing pretty great prices through February and then they all started disappearing and prices… just went up. It was disheartening, but we really weren’t in a rush. We knew the right thing would come along eventually. Then one day, we saw a Craigslist ad. These are hit or miss as everyone knows, and we’d had a great opportunity sold out from under us, but Travis messaged them anyway and sent another one of his famous emails. “Hi, I know you are asking $X for this, but wondering if you’d take $X? Here’s our story, what do you think?”
Turns out the sellers liked said story and said it was ours if we could get out lives together to buy it (meaning funds and travel arrangements as it was located in Massachusetts – we’re in Colorado). So, we got our finances together, made a plan and 2 months later we are now the proud owners of a 2019 Flagstaff Micro Lite. Game on, let the adventures begin.
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