Our search for an RV started about 8 months ago with a lot of grand plans and a little savings in the bank. Most Saturday mornings were spent driving to dealerships all over the state of Illinois, attending RV trade shows and reading any and all the information we could about types, styles, makes and models of C Classes, 5th Wheels, campers and trailers until we narrowed the field to what we felt fit with our life now and most importantly, the life we hoped to have.  A travel trailer was the one we were after, preferably 25-28′, with a walk around bed, an outside shower and outside storage.  What we ended up with was a 22′ Airstream International CCD with no outside storage or shower, a bed at one end and a wet bath…

Looking at RVs every week, I felt pretty confident in what would work for me. Although I’d never been a big camper, I’d traveled to third world countries, backpacked around Europe and spent many years living with no TV or computer. I could occupy myself with books and be happy with a roof over my head and running water — hot or not. Deke had pretty similar requirements as I did, he leaned a little more towards finding a trailer that would accommodate the more hi-tech needs of a video game developer — a little more wall space to put the TV and maybe some extra storage for the Xbox and Wii. What we discovered was a lot of travel trailers are meant for people who want to live in the same manner as they do now, just on wheels. New trailers have double sinks, large closets and even larger flat screen TVs. In some extreme cases, they even have washers and dryers. We weren’t looking for these things, in fact, we wanted to head in the opposite direction having just enough space to live in and carry the essentials that each of us needed, even if those essentials were video game consoles and two dogs.

Aside from rounded roofs for water run-off, reach through storage and bike racks, what we noticed the most and what kept bothering us with each and every trailer we saw was the decor. There seems to be one company that makes all the fabrics, decal wallpaper and bedspreads for all RVs, and they don’t do it well. The fabrics are cheap and feel like sandpaper, the colors are brown and brown. And more brown.  Brown doesn’t really work for us, so every time we looked at a trailer we mentally had to calculate the amount of money it would take to redecorate. Practicality-wise we had what we wanted, what was missing was the Apartment Therapy-worthy clean lines, minimalist drawer pulls and lush fabrics.

Then we found The Weasel.