Central Wisconsin newbie

[Backroads4me]

Hello everyone! My name is Deb and I've been lurking on this site for some time. My boyfriend Bob, our two border collies and I have been tent camping for years, the more rustic and out of the way, the better. While Bob and the dogs don't mind sleeping on an air mattress and hogging all the covers, I just plain cannot get a decent night's sleep when we camp. He wakes up fit as a fiddle, and I'm all stiffened up like a spavined old racehorse, with creaking knees and a stiff back. We knew we didn't want an RV or travel trailer. So after years of thinking about it, and drooling over photos of teardrop campers on the web, we finally paid the down payment on a teardrop that will be ready for pickup in February 2013. Bob retires next spring, and I get middle of the week time off from my job---so our favorite camping destinations will usually be quieter in the summer and downright deserted in the early spring and late fall. Hooray!!!

We had contemplated buying plans and building it ourselves (Bob is an excellent woodworker), but we have other hobbies and things that keep us busy (to include HO model train layouts for him, and N Scale trains for me). While looking for information on TD builders, I was pleasantly suprised to find that 50 miles down the road, TCTeardrops LLC in Wausau, WI builds custom TD's of various sizes. Since Bob and I are both very tall, we opted for the 5 by 9 model. I'm glad that our building slot/delivery time is slated towards Feb. 2013 as I've already changed my mind on some of the options and will probably change them yet again. Bob and I are really thinking about how we camp, what we use and where we go, so that we wind up with the best TD for our needs.

We're really looking forward to camping adventures in the new TD.

My avatar is a photo of one of my border collies in Courtney Lake, upper penninsula of Michigan. She just loves water. The photo reminds me of the border collie version of that Loch Ness monster photo.

[bobhenry]

Too bad ya could have built a caboose....





Welcome to the insanity !

[bc toys]

Deb I would like to welcome you and Bob to this great site and good luck with your trailer enjoy it

[Junkboy999]

Hey Bob and Deb. Welcome to the forums.

I hope you enjoy your TD when it arrives. As for your avatar, The first thing that came to my mind was the loc ness monster. Ha Haha.

And bobhenry how could you? They will be dreaming about build that caboose tiny travel trailer.


Terry
Junkboy999

[Backroads4me]

Too bad ya could have built a caboose....





Welcome to the insanity !

Oh wow, that is way cool---I'll have to show that to Bob.

[GerryS]

Sounds like a camp inn . We had a 6 month wait for ours....a very long 6 months....


You'll love it! Our teardrop has been an awesome investment. We get all the simplicity of rent camping with RV LIKE CONVENIENCE, and still get 25 mpg.

Ours has gotten a bit of use this summer, I'm looking forwards to next spring already. Be sure to find gatherings....they are a LOT of fun...

Dogs do well...we've taken most of the trips with a mutt in tow...never a problem.

Your area of the country has some fantastic parks...Gov Dodge has set the standard by which we compare everything to...

[tearhead]

Welcome from another Wisconsinite! It's a fun group--hope our paths cross at a gathering--maybe Cooler Near the Lake in April?

[Backroads4me]

Everyone, thanks for the welcome. Gerry, you are so right about Governor Dodge----That's our favorite state park too, and we've stayed at quite a few different state parks in Wisconsin. Before I got my Border Collies, Bob and I used to go on the trail rides that started at the stables just outside the park. Having owned horses most of my life and worked at numerous stables here and there over the years, I gotta say that is one nice riding stable, with well kept horses and very friendly trail guides. And then to ride under the state highway bridge, into Governor Dodge's beautiful horse trails---pure heaven for me and Bob! Now that we bring the dogs with us, we have to forgo the stables, but there's plenty to see and do in that lovely park.

At any of the parks we've stayed at, we always take some time to drive through the camp grounds and grade the individual campsites as how they fit into what we prefer (lots of privacy providing flora and fauna, maximum space between sites, close enough to the restrooms for my weak bladder, but yet far enough so the lights and smell don't reach us, away from the large RV/generator attracting electrical sites). I bring a map of the campgrounds from the net, we make our notations and then I laminate it when we get home. Then the next time we go, we can just look at what's available at the camp office sign in's map and compare with what we've notated as desirable on our's. Save's time, guess work and someone won't be snatching up a favorite site while we're driving through the campgrounds checking out what's available. Don't have my Governor Dodge map handy, but sites 220 and 221 in the Twin Lakes campground are some of our favorites. Of course, our current map was geared toward tent camping, and we will have to make another one with the teardrop in mind.

Our teardrop is being built from this small company: http://www.tcteardrops.com/ Can't wait to take delivery of it, get the curtains, bedding and such sewn up, do some more local park early spring test runs and then hit the road bigtime! Yahoo!