When I was young, my family did a lot of camping. The first experiences I remember were in a large tent. This was fun, but I remember one particular morning where we woke up with several inches of water in the tent. I think that was the final straw for my parents. Soon after that, they upgraded to a pop-up camper. We traveled all over the Eastern US and even into Canada with that little camper. At the time, it was just for the adults, so I still spent my nights in a tent. Eventually, the pop-up was replaced by a bunkhouse camper, and our camping adventure trips were done. We parked that camper in a permanent location and rarely traveled with it.
I wanted to revisit those adventures in the pop-up with my family. I started looking into the options and prices of small campers on the Internet. I boiled the choice down to two brands. When you choose a specific brand, you narrow your choices dramatically. Sometimes the nearest dealer is hundreds of miles away. In our case, one dealer was in Winter Park, Florida, and the other was in North Carolina.
On Friday, we drove to Winter Park to look at the Rockwood Freedom, by Forest River. We went with the idea that if we didn’t like it, we would drive to North Carolina, buy our other choice, a Jayco, and continue on to the Smoky Mountains. Well, we liked the Rockwood, but not enough to buy it on the spot. But then, the dealer sent in their secret weapon. A woman invited us into her office and started telling us stories of how much her young daughter loved camping in their pop-up. I knew I was being fed an emotional sales pitch, but it worked. We bought the camper. We asked for one optional feature that is a must in Florida – an air conditioner. They needed time to install it, so we arranged to come back on Saturday to pick it up.
Today, we went back to Winter Park to get educated on how to operate all of the systems in the camper and to take it home. A sales rep showed us everything, from opening the camper, to turning on the refrigerator – either by battery, electricity, or gas – to running the heater, and to storing and pumping water. That’s about it; it is a pop-up after all.
At lunch time, we decided to run into town and grab lunch. Winter Park is a very fancy little town with a lot of nice places to eat, a college, and an Amtrak station. After parking and checking out the train station, we walked along the main street and came across a place called Burger Fi. It is an upscale burger joint that serves burgers made with the finest meats and shakes made with real ingredients and frozen custard. We ordered burgers and a strawberry shake. I think this was the best strawberry shake I ever had. I’m sure we will be visiting this place many more times.
After lunch, the dealer wired up the Honda to have electric trailer brakes. We walked around the nearby neighborhood until they were finished. Afterwards, we determined that we didn’t have the correct trailer hitch, so we drove over to the nearest U-Haul and bought the proper hitch. Then back to the dealer to pick up the camper, then finally back to Melbourne. But we didn’t go back home.
| Honda pulling the Rockwood Freedom into Wickham Park |
In Melbourne, we went to Wickham Park instead of home. We really had no choice. How can you buy a camper and then not spend the night in it? Besides, we needed to practice setting up and tearing down the camper, else we might forget the details. And when I say 'we', I mean me and Susan. Andrew, on the other hand, doesn’t forget details. He helped me get everything setup just right.
| Rockwood Freedom at Wickham Park |
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