Final decision, yes or no to Escape for young family?

[Fun&Sun]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

I've been camping south of the border lots over the years, so know of the masses. Fortunately for us camping types, they tend to be mostly congregated in high density areas that are relatively easy to avoid if desired. Most of where I have camped in the US (so far) has been in the NW, where the density is not that much greater than in much of Canada. I am sure I will find that I am amidst more densely populated areas as my travels continue, but I will adapt. I can handle lots of people, but do like to get away from it at times too.

Hi Jim this is interesting, My wife and I commented on this the other day. We are on our first trip to Arizona we are staying with friends who full time RV and are in a resort. Everyone is packed in here without much room but they have lots of things to do, pools, out door games, indoor games, arts and crafts and meet and greets. The approach to the RV lifestyle is different in some of souther California and Arizona than what we are used to in B.C. The full time RV parks are like small communities, people all say Hi and are very friendly but you are at times crowded. We are enjoying the experience, the rent for 2 months is around $1,100.00 and Arizona is much cheaper to live than home (plus the weather is great).

[SouthernCamper]

All excellent points! I've actually camped a ton growing up. We tent camped until we woke up enough times with our feet soaking wet in the middle of the tent that my parents bought a pop up. We brought that thing all over and banged pots and pans with the best of them at bears in Yellowstone. My husband not so much. He loves going to national parks, etc, just not in soft sides

Good point that boondocking may not have internet. Some of the timely husband will need it for work, have to keep that in mind!

Finances are a concern, although we are extremely blessed, only WE could mess it up I feel like. So we try to be extremely careful. At the same time, I mentioned the finances bc I wondered if others felt like we could reasonably do this without blowing too much away with still a young family. We are very frugal at home, so I'm nervous about hitting the road and getting hit with costs constantly here and there.

The space will be fine I think. It's a 21' we're looking at, we have spent almost every second together at home every day, first bc of needing to be closely watched as a younger child, now bc we're overprotective after all he's been through. Fortunately though, as long as we have his medicine, we don't have to worry about staying close to medical care or anything like some people may need.

Donna made a great point very well too. Between that and a previous poster saying they remember few average days at home, but they remember vacations with their parents well, I think I've found my answer to why take him travelling!

[cpaharley2008]

The 19 Escape offers an optional front bunk set up, ideal for a family whereas the 21 would mean getting the kids up to make the bed to sit fo breakfast, now that I think about, same thing for the 21! Either Escape is good, what is your tow vehicle and it's limits?

[Marry]

Adrienne, "Together" is the magical word here.
Like being pregnant, expecting your son, together you did that. Together you raise him, together you take the "hurdles ". Which makes you two happy and content.
Same for the decision on an Escape. Make the decision together! And whatever "escape hurdle" comes on your way, together you tackle it.
Best wishes for all three of you!!! Let us know the outcome!

[Aspinner]

We have no kids, but after buying a Scamp 16 years ago, my partner and I have spent 4 to 6 weeks at a time out adventuring. In fact, the reason we're getting an Escape is to extend the seasons, since we've had ice inside our camper in the fall, at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. In the west you can usually find places to boondock on BLM land totally free. Of course you have to be self-sufficient, but your view can be 360 degrees people-free, vehicle free, and quiet. We saw the eclipse with no-one in sight. There are many campgrounds in the west that are free. The National Forest Service is amazing. Our first stop in any place is the Forest Service office. The rangers there know the most beautiful campgrounds, know the condition of the roads, where the snow has cleared from the roads and trails. We often refill our fresh water tanks from their hose bibs with their permission. The forest service maps are gorgeous and full of info. We recently discovered the beautiful booklets that describe the places and things to do in the various forest service areas. These can be had in advance by going online. The only time we ever stayed in a private campground (belonging to a casino) was when we had car trouble that required leaving our SUV at the dealer for investigation. It was awful -- living on a parking lot-- but we only overnighted. I don't know how things are outside of the western states -- the furthest east we've been has been Colorado. Our only problem has been that we've found so many places we've loved that we keep returning to them, year after year, and only have a little time left over to explore further afield!

[John in Santa Cruz]

one comment on RV rentals... when we rented several times, different sorts of RVs, about 20 years ago (initially to go to a music festival when my wife was pregnant with our 2nd kid), the rentals almost always had lousy batteries, and weren't very good for boondocking.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

one comment on RV rentals... when we rented several times, different sorts of RVs, about 20 years ago (initially to go to a music festival when my wife was pregnant with our 2nd kid), the rentals almost always had lousy batteries, and weren't very good for boondocking.

The big advantage of something like doing deliveries is that you can choose to deliver to places that you couldn't ordinarily get to in a certain time frame. We got to finally, after years of wanting to, attend the Albuquerque Ballon Festival on a delivery from LA to Phonix and go to places in Florida that we couldn't do otherwise, or at least not at that time.

The real shock is that even though CruiseAmerica has 4,000 plus RV's on the road the little things that were missing was quite surprising. Little things like not a single place to hang a towel or dish towel. Made us appreciate our trailer even more.

Batteries were never an issue. They all have generators but we never used them.

Ron

[SouthernCamper]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

The 19 Escape offers an optional front bunk set up, ideal for a family whereas the 21 would mean getting the kids up to make the bed to sit fo breakfast, now that I think about, same thing for the 21! Either Escape is good, what is your tow vehicle and it's limits?

My husband has a 2013 v8 tundra. I can't remember the limits, but we checked it all out a few months ago and we're fine. We're going to put trailer brakes in for the camper.

We settled on the 21', which is what our deposit has been on since sometime early 2017, due to the window/table height issue, and the general size for our growing family. The bunk issue isn't a big deal for us now, as if we're up we'll either have to go outside, or he'll just get up too. He's not a heavy sleeper. If another comes along, we'll figure it out. The windows around the table are what drew me to the Escape when I first ditched the Airstream idea due to poor insulation. I would be sad to have the high windows over the table in the 19'. I know there's alot of back and forth on that, but for me it's a sticking point I think.

We'll just get the Springfield pedestal and make it work!

[rbryan4]

I have been commenting under a false impression. You already have a deposit down on a 21 and a build date in January I gather. That's great! I thought you were deciding whether to purchase.

The 21 is an excellent choice for more than 2 people for several reasons. Although it may not be readily apparent, the dinette is much larger and feels more spacious than the 19. Alot. You can raise the dinette however on the 19, as we did, so the height isn't a factor. But, the size certainly is.

I don't really get what you mean about insulation on the Airstreams though. They're well insulated, more so than the Escapes are.

[SouthernCamper]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

The big advantage of something like doing deliveries is that you can choose to deliver to places that you couldn't ordinarily get to in a certain time frame.

Ron

I just checked out the deliveries option, and it's pretty neat! If we were just my husband and I, I'd be all over this! I wish I'd known about it years ago, and I'm definitely going to spread this info! I think for us it might just be a little too much work to get to the pickup, then from the drop-off when traveling with our son and dogs. We may just need the simplicity of hitching up and taking off, and driving us right back home without having to make other travel accomodations.

[SouthernCamper]

I don't suppose I made it clear, but our build sheet deadline is Jan 25. We've pushed it back twice, and this time we can only either finalize or cancel. Cancel doesn't mean can't ever do it, but it does mean we're put back at the back of the line.

I would really like to do a week long trial trip to our neighbor, Texas, next week. I don't know if that can give us our answer, but it may help! Too bad there's nowhere balmy and breezy we can escape to!

[SouthernCamper]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

I have been commenting under a false impression. You already have a deposit down on a 21 and a build date in January I gather. That's great! I thought you were deciding whether to purchase....I don't really get what you mean about insulation on the Airstreams though. They're well insulated, more so than the Escapes are.

Yes, sorry, my fault. Deposit down for a long time now. We're sweating now bc ours tune to submit our build sheet and start production. If we're backing out, now's the time! If not, we're excitingly close to April 25th!

My reading online may be completely wrong about Airstreams. We found three lines of thought on Airstream temp regulation/insulation. 1. We camp in perfect weather and don't notice any problems. 2. We love our Airstream so much we gladly freeze to death inside while camping in the snow/we avoid hot areas where we'd bake in our aluminum roaster. 3. We have to avoid very high or very low temps bc it's miserable in our superconductor camper.

I know that aluminum is a great conductor so we said, well, maybe we could sleep in two sleeping bags, but with a child, and living in South Louisiana, it's not for us. Maybe we got bad info, but we found Escape and we're sold

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by SouthernCamper

Maybe we got bad info, but we found Escape and we're sold

Don't get me wrong, I'm sold too. I dislike Airstreams for a number of reasons, like cost, maintenance, leak potential and weight.

But as far as insulation goes, any thin skinned camper is going to get cold or hot depending on the conditions. Stick built trailers like the Airstreams have inherently more wall insulation than a single hull molded fiberglass trailer however, because the walls are thicker.

Having said that, another advantage of a small fiberglass trailer is that it's small. There's less interior volume to heat or cool. Just don't expect any camper to be insulated like a house. There are double hull or foam core designs in molded fiberglass trailers, such as an Oliver or an Armadillo. That kind of construction does however come at a premium.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by SouthernCamper

I just checked out the deliveries option, and it's pretty neat! If we were just my husband and I, I'd be all over this! I wish I'd known about it years ago, and I'm definitely going to spread this info! I.

Yah, for us it was a super deal "Rolling in or out of Phoenix". 12 bucks a night which probably just paid for the insurance. Nothing stays the same forever though, I see it's $24 a night now.

For us, even with the trailer, it's perfect. We can leave here and be somewhere a fair ways from Phoenix by nightfall. If the delivery is to an area that we want to see. One future one still on my wife's bucket list is Graceland. If we see a delivery that works out then we'd do it unless we do it by trailer first.

Ron

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by SouthernCamper

I don't suppose I made it clear, but our build sheet deadline is Jan 25. We've pushed it back twice, and this time we can only either finalize or cancel. Cancel doesn't mean can't ever do it, but it does mean we're put back at the back of the line.

I would really like to do a week long trial trip to our neighbor, Texas, next week. I don't know if that can give us our answer, but it may help! Too bad there's nowhere balmy and breezy we can escape to!

You may want to update your avatar info to reflect the above

[SouthernCamper]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

You may want to update your avatar info to reflect the above

Done thanks

[jennykatz]

Southern Camper if boon docking is your choice ask ETI if you can go with a nature head composting toilet then dumping is not a problem . Then carry extra water and you can go for weeks instead of days . We have the 21 and have camped for a month with 3 of us and we ended up dumping 3 times .That was using the camp facilities as much as possible and letting Grey water just release into gardens ( with campgrounds permission ) Jim
Good Luck in your decision .

[h2owmn]

One other thing to think about: You have dogs. If you allow them up on the benches, the U could be great because they can perch along that back wall bench, out of the way of your use of the table. If you don't allow them up, you might think about the regular dinette and put their beds or resting spots on the floor up against that back wall, again, out of the way of people's feet.

[Ruthe]

First off, our daughter used the GAPS diet for her kids with reflux and other issues. If you haven't tried that and want more information you could pm me. We homeschooled all five of our kids -- and travelled with 4 of them in a 31 foot airstream and did make wonderful memories. We stopped traveling when #5 came along -- we rented houses in the mountains a couple of times which didn't work out so well and then bought our own second home, which has provided great experiences, but I'm sometimes sorry that we put the trailer life on hold after that.

When we went on our first camping adventure -- 3 months in a tent -- we'd never camped with children and my husband kept asking if we should go on a "trial run" before leaving for so long. I told him that if we "tried it out" we'd never go camping again. In truth, once we set off on our adventure it took us 6 weeks to get into a rhythm -- to figure things out. There are so many variables with camping. You could rent an RV and have a week of rain or go somewhere that isn't so exciting or have noisy neighbors and that could cloud your idea of camping.

Three years old is such a good age to start. Usually they are somewhat civilized by then -- don't run into the street the minute your back is turned -- so relaxing might even happen for you. And it's more exciting for everyone to play in the mud in a different location. With homeschooling you can travel in the off seasons when things are cheaper and less need for reservations. And it totally is a way to learn naturally.

I never found going out to eat with young children to be particularly relaxing so vacationing with my own kitchen was a bonus for me.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[skyfree]

Originally Posted by SouthernCamper

Yes, sorry, my fault. Deposit down for a long time now. We're sweating now bc ours tune to submit our build sheet and start production. If we're backing out, now's the time! If not, we're excitingly close to April 25th!

My reading online may be completely wrong about Airstreams. We found three lines of thought on Airstream temp regulation/insulation. 1. We camp in perfect weather and don't notice any problems. 2. We love our Airstream so much we gladly freeze to death inside while camping in the snow/we avoid hot areas where we'd bake in our aluminum roaster. 3. We have to avoid very high or very low temps bc it's miserable in our superconductor camper.

I know that aluminum is a great conductor so we said, well, maybe we could sleep in two sleeping bags, but with a child, and living in South Louisiana, it's not for us. Maybe we got bad info, but we found Escape and we're sold

We found the Escape to be great in snow and cold weather. Our last trip had temps down to 19F, and it snowed for 2 days straight when we were at higher altitudes, and rained pretty solid for another 2 days when we were at lower altitudes. Moisture buildup is the biggest issue. Being cold is not. We kept the heater at 67F and no special bedding was required. I don't want to start the "running the furnace while underway" debate again, but when it's down into the teens you have to or your water lines will likely freeze, so we set the temp at 60F while travelling and never had a problem.