Growing up in rural New Jersey, my family was extremely outdoorsy. We lived lakefront and had a canoe and rowboat at our disposal, went on tons of hikes, and went downhill skiing all winter. We fished, rode horses, went ice skating, ice fishing, river rafting down Delaware, took bicycle trips. But we never once went camping because all those activities were either right in our yard or just a day trip away, or we went to our favorite rustic resort in upstate New York and stayed in cabins.

Fast forward to adulthood, and although I still love the outdoor, I won’t pretend that my idea of camping is more glamping. And by glamping, I mean a perfectly lovely resort. I love to be outdoors by day and in a nice clean, climate-controlled room to shower and sleep. Enter the need for a camper or RV, the perfect compromise between camping and a hotel.

Shopping for the Perfect RV

My husband and I spent months searching for the perfect RV. A task made much more difficult by some misinformation about the towing capacity when we researched and bought our new pickup. We viewed hundreds of different travel trailers, lightweight trailers, and many different styles of pop-up campers. We viewed new RVs, used RVs, and even bought a 1960s pop-up as a rehab project. We kept coming up against the same issue: we needed more space than we could safely tow. Then one day, we came across a brand of RV that we had never heard of before: TrailManor.

If you have never heard of TrailManor, it is a super cool combination of a pop-up and a travel trailer. Perfect for vehicles with lower towing capacity, it folds down to be about twice the size of a traditional pop-up and then expands to a trailer with a sofa, chair, kitchen, bathroom, and a queen-sized bed. They are unique and have their own following. They also attract a lot of attention from bystanders when you drive into a campground and open them.

Preparing for Camping

To prepare the dogs for our first camping trip, we set the TrailManor up in our driveway. I was worried about Jax navigating the metal stairs, as he has always had issues with various types of steps and stairs. Even as a puppy, he was weird about certain types of staircases. I think it is some visual issue with him. Tink was not a concern, as she is usually the type of dog to leap full force into any situation.

Oddly enough, our dogs had the opposite reaction than I anticipated. Jax ran right up the metal stairs to explore the TrailManor. Tink was utterly befuddled by the steps and ended up choosing to leap over them entirely, jumping the distance from the driveway into the camper.

Once inside, both dogs explored every inch of the camper, tails wagging furiously with excitement. We practiced going in and out several times until Tink became accustomed to using the steps. The next day, we did the same thing and then spent an hour or so just hanging out inside, reading a book, and playing games on our phones while the dogs settled down and chilled.

Our First Camping Trip: Starved Rock State Park, IL

We chose nearby Starved Rock State Park in Oglesby, Illinois, for our first camping trip with the dogs. It was far enough away for a change of scenery but close enough to fit into my husband’s firefighter schedule of two days off, one day on shift. We packed up more supplies for the dogs than for the humans, it seemed, and we headed out on our maiden voyage.

The campsite was basic, with electricity but no water. We were in the woods, so the ground was just dirt and gravel, without grass or a fancy paved area like some of the luxury campgrounds that I had found online. My husband set about the task of leveling the trailer and expanding the trailer to its full height. I decided to take both dogs for a walk so that they could sniff all sorts of new smells and burn off some energy.  

We knew that we wanted to create a relaxing outdoor space outside of the camper, but we had not gotten that far, so we did not have any outdoor things to set up other than 2 expandable camp chairs. We had brought an old blanket for the dogs to chill with us outside, but the site was so dusty that we ended up grilling our hotdogs and going inside the RV.

After eating, we ended up just hanging out in the camper, watching movies. The dogs were calm and relaxed after our walk, but every time we moved, they lifted their heads as if to say, “Ok, are we going home now?” Fortunately, I had brought stuffed Kongs that I had frozen and then stashed in our cooler, making them happy and occupied.

The bed inside a TrailManor is basically a queen-sized bunk area. It was warm and cozy, but the entrance to the sleeping area was somewhat narrow. The bed was also rather high. Jax had no interest in joining us, as he is an independent sleeper at home. So he slept on the dog bed in the living area. Tink quickly figured out that to sleep with us, she had to run through the narrow hallway and leap up and into the bed, which she did with such force that I was afraid she might knock us off the stabilizing bars.

The following day, we made breakfast, then packed up and headed home. We took the TrailManor out a few more times before realizing that although it was a fun, lightweight option, we really were looking for a few more amenities and a larger unit that could accommodate our college-aged kids and the dogs. We ended up selling the TrailManor later that summer and are still looking for our next RV.

– Lynn Stacy-Smith