Welcome RV Friends!

Welcome to  ExploringTravelTrailers.com!

Hello all RV, travel, and camping friends out there!

We are Scott and Melissa!  We are so glad you have visited our site and truly hope you enjoy reading our articles as much as we love writing them!

Our First Picture With Our First RV- Cabbie

So Why Are We Exploring Travel Trailers?

The question should be...

Why are YOU Exploring Travel Trailers?

Our solution?

Our hope is to calm those nerves and to help friends in need!  

With our combined experience, we can answer many questions you might have concerning the aspects of the RV world. 

If this is your first time looking into an RV, congratulations! We urge you to take your time. This is NO time to rush.

We know when purchasing your first travel trailer can be very intimidating and sometimes you're just not sure which direction is best. 

We hope you will find our website a valuable source of information when selecting your new or used RV.

Our Story

We have been married for ten blessed years now as of March 2019. It's just the two of us with no children, unless you consider pets as children, we do!

We do not have your typical pet that you would consider taking on a camping trip that, mind you, would be so much EASIER, to handle! AKA a dog...

No, not us...we went from a bunny to now, a KITTY!

We're not normal, and we'll be the first to admit that!

Her name is Starshine.

She is very dependent on us and can not be left home by herself. She is a sweetheart, and we wouldn't trade her for the world and absolutely LOVES camping!

Never thought I'd say that about a cat!

We adopted her back in February 2017, along with two others, after we moved into our "new" house.

When we started this website, we lived in a very well cramped subdivision in a BIG city.  Now, we are in the middle of a corn field:-)

So as you can guess, cats are an asset to us and everyone else who lives in the country!  MEOW!

Her brother, Jimmy, and sister, Esmeralda, occupy the pole barn and protect Cabbie and all other assets of our humble home.

They are all wonderful and all have the coolest cat personalities! 

They ARE our kids, even though they have whiskers, long tails, and four paws!

As far as meals go...we've been told that if people could come back as an animal, they would choose to be one of our cats!  WOW! Now that IS a compliment! Sometimes I think they eat better than we do, and we eat healthy!

We couldn't have asked for a better Blessing than these three!

Four paws up for Starshine, Jimmy and Esmeralda!

MEOW!

Jimmy & Esmerelda

A New Home

Cabbie, our camper, was originally stored off site about a half hour from our old house.  Not convenient at all, and maintenance was non existent.

Now, she is stored directly onsite, on our own land, in our pole barn. Have we told you she just LOVES her new home?!

This was one of our dreams, to someday own land and a house in the country, far from the hustle and bustle of the "world."  AMEN!

RV Ownership

Currently we own a 2001 Keystone Cabana Hybrid.  This is our first trailer as a couple.

I can remember one of our first camping trips out in tents.  A Rock-wood Roo pulled in next to us and I fell in love with that trailer. I thought what a cool idea, pop the beds out so you have room in the camper.

I knew that was what I wanted when I saw that camper, a hybrid.

One of the main reasons we started looking into campers was for vacationing.  We went down to Florida for a week and spent so much on lodging and restaurants, came back and knew there was a better way!

We started looking around and two years later, we drove two hours to see a trailer.  It was a long drive, well worth it! It was the perfect trailer for starting out for us.  

We owned a trailblazer with higher mileage so it worked well.  We did not want anything to heavy to pull and it had to be smaller because of our residence and where we were located; in a subdivision on a corner lot...YIKES!

Knowing that we would need to store it off site also factored into our purchase. We had to find a storage  solution BEFORE we brought it home.

The first time we took it on vacation, wow, what a savings it came out to be!  I think we saved more money traveling with a camper, even if the gas was high at the time!

So it is worth it...

We were able to take basically all of our meals and anything that we could possibly need for the weeks trip and save more that way then staying in a resort or hotel and eating out all the time.  

So much more enjoyable and relaxing! Plus you have control over your own meals, even better!

Thousand Trails Orlando Florida

In time we plan to upgrade to a fifth wheel, much more room for Starshine when she has her zoomies!

Our previous house was in the suburbs so owning something larger was much more difficult for the maintenance and other necessary things that needed to be done.

For the time being, our hybrid works for us. It's all in God's timing.

Written by: Melissa

Our Experience Together

The two of us grew up in two different worlds of camping.  

Melissa grew up tent camping.  I grew up camping in tent campers and travel trailers from the time I was four years old.

As a teenage boy, I helped my father with the repair and maintenance of our campers.

Then one day out camping at 16, my dad handed me the keys and told me you're going to learn to tow this rig.  Mom was white as a ghost, but I got us home no problem.  

If I wasn't hooked before, I was after that!

Later in life, I owned a tent camper and two travel trailers of my own. Due to circumstances at that time, I was forced to sell my last camper and did not have another one for several years. 

I did continue to spend as much time as I could around the RV world, dreaming of the day I would re-enter it.

As Melissa said earlier, we have been married for over ten glorious years.  We have been camping together since day one.  The one thing we both brought into the marriage was our love for camping.

One of our first camping trips...
with tents.

The one thing Melissa did not bargain on was how much I loved travel trailers.  I would talk to her about all the benefits of owning one and discuss how nice they were when we were out tent camping.

Then one day I took her to a RV show and she was convinced. A few months later, I was cruising the internet and found our current trailer.  She said she liked it, our Trailblazer could handle it, and the price was good.

How often can a guy get a win, win?!  I got to make my beautiful wife happy and I get back into a travel trailer again!

Having owned several travel trailers over the years, I have obviously had a lot of experience in maintenance and major repairs.  I have replaced flooring, ceilings, electrical, water heaters, etc. in several units. 

I'm also a certified HVAC-R Technician.

Melissa brings the softer side of travel trailers.  She is an organizing guru and can make the smallest space seem like it has extra room. I am amazed what has been able to pack in our little hybrid!

She is the one who convinced me to take our pet rabbit, AJ, along camping one weekend.  I love our little guy, but never dreamed a rabbit would travel as well as he does. 

I was a dog guy up to this point.

And now, I'm a cat guy! I was before, but I have never taken a cat camping or on a trip before. 

Never say never!

She is a daddy's girl, and very attached. If we don't spend enough time with her, she gets very depressed, then we have a blue kitty. Which is why she loves to go with us. Strictly an inside kitty at all times.

MEOW!

Come Along for the Ride!

One thing you might notice that is different about our site is that we are not just focusing on the current trends in the travel trailer field. 

We love history! 

I love reading about the early days of the travel trailer industry. 

I am looking forward to visiting the MHRV history museum in Elkhart, Indiana one day.  Seeing the advancements of travel trailers and hearing the stories behind them is very exciting to both of us.

I will be sharing various facets of the history of the RV industry.  There are so many interesting stories that I can't wait to share with you.  

I hope you find them as interesting as I do!

We invite you to travel with us as we Explore Travel Trailers from both the past, present, and future. 

We hope the information we share with you will be both enlightening, entertaining, and fun!                                             

Written By: Scott

Thank you for reading our story!

Blessings to all our RV friends!

Scott And Melissa

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Travel Travel Friends, lets travel together!

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