Hello, my name is Mick.
I'm considering buying or building a teardrop camper.
It all started when an absentee landlord tripled the rent at a local hotel.
My favourite wine, beer and food vendors were forced out by the insane rent increase.
They bought an abandoned country hotel for a song, restored it and recommenced trading without a lease hanging over their heads.
All was cool, except it's now 60 miles from my door to theirs.
(I live in the state of South Australia. It's about 40% bigger than Texas, but only has about 1.7 million people.
1.3 million of those people live in metropolitan Adelaide, the capital city.
In the country-side the population density is very low, and it's a long way between towns.)
Not much public transport out here in the scrub, so now it's find a new pub or sleep over after a night out.
No accommodation on offer in the tiny little town they are in, but there is free RV parking and camping. Toilet available, no showers or electricity.
The missus and I camped over on New Years Eve. Over coffee brewed on the tailgate next morning, we both agreed that we were "over" sleeping on an air mattress in a tent. Too old to be crawling in and out.
Trouble is, many of the places we like to go for a night out or a weekend away are in small country towns and the bush. Accommodation options are limited.
Full-sized caravan? No. Friends just paid more than $70,000 for a self-contained semi off-road unit.
It's lovely, but it's way heavier than the towing limit of my smallish 4x4 truck, and we'd have to build a shelter to store it out of the weather.
So - no more tents or swags, caravan too big.
Enter the teardrop.
Still pondering options - buy or build?
So I'll be around, reading up and hopefully adding value every now and then.
Regards,
Mick