Andrea, Devi, Thanks for your kind responses... what I'm doing seems to be Most unusual in many peoples eyes, no matter where they live..
We do have the trailer now in the driveway outside the house, The wife and I regularly, "pretend" camp , hooking up the service , sitting around discussing /trying out different aspects of the trailer...After a while , it became obvious what we liked and didn't like , and what would make the wife more comfortable...We've discussed many options ,changes, and settled on the few changes presented previously...
Around here , Everybody has developed their own style of evac, you see many forms of tents,popups, pickup campers,etc on the slow drive outta' town... There are probably quite a few folks around here who would be interested in an evac trailer,and Many who now have experience with FEMA trailers would be particularly "picky"about their evac accommodation's...
The RV dealers around here are just into the traditional trailers/motor homes , and are more concerned with a quick profit, than actually fulfilling peoples actual needs...so some type of evac trailer web page might be helpful to the area.
I'm all for traditional camping , being a Primitive hunter and fisherman. Most of that camping has been very basic..involving as little equiptment as possible (backpack).. Done lots of that, but the wife doesn't share my views(non-sportsman)... Evac proved to be a different sort of scenario , more like urban camping with a million other folks..Grocery stores overcrowded (the National guard was outside the Wal Marts only letting in a few people at a time ) Most goods in short supply (Propane especially) and everyone competing for what would be normal purchases..Tensions ran high in stores with lines sometimes 25 people deep...empty shelves, and the general stress on most everyone displaced, especially those that were un prepared...For Katrina, everyone left , prepared for the usual 3 day evac, not thinking that the Corps of Engineers designed levees would fail and flood most of the city for a month... After three days , there was panic ...when supplies ran out and everyone was forced to buy everything they didn't have to survive for the month it took to drain the city...Who knew???
On our adventure, we saw quite a few folks that had trailers/motorhomes/etc. that were quite comfortable living in someones driveway..hence the idea ...
I now have the TT and my TD, both fully equipped and ready to go...But the changes , we feel, would make the bigger one more livable ...I'm going to the store today (Grocery day) and will check out energy efficient appliances in order to plan an energy budget for whatever service we have available ..
Note: even with the TT as is, you still need to plan your energy usage as their appliances (stock) draw over the limit for most electrical service, they mention it casually in their instructions...
I guess asking any more if anybody has any experiences like this , will have to be done carefully ,and only limited to the particular piece of equiptment considered...not wanting to offend anyone .
Being an Artist for a living , I've always been a sorta' alternative guy, thinking waaaay outside the box (creativity).. So no idea is too far out to be at least considered... so ideas like solar cooking and Rocket stoves , really work for me (tried em', like em' )...This trailer thingie' is just more of the same...fitting a space to our needs... simple , but inflammatory to those used to doing it in the "normal" manner...
I was just hoping to get some ideas from others that had similar needs/experience...even the negative feedback was helpful, generating further thought...so all was not wasted...a Big Thanks to all!!!
I know you can find the single eye electric plates around Wally World. I imagine that one (or two) of those, a microwave, and a coffee machine could cover most of what you'd need for the short-term evacuation.
