caravanserai

And now for something completely different: on Friday night, H and I went to the Utah RV Show at the South Towne Expo Center.  Everybody out here seems to have some sort of RV or camper-trailer.  There are state and national parks and private campgrounds all over the place, plus there's a ton of public land where you can pretty much just drive out and set up camp - something I can scarcely imagine, having grown up in the East where nearly every bit of land is privately owned.  We'd like to do more camping and while we certainly haven't ruled out stocking up on car camping/backpacking supplies, we're not ruling out getting a camper.  We want something small and easily towed, someplace to get out of the weather and to sleep off the ground.

They had that and much, much more at the RV show.  The outside hallway of the expo center was filled with vendors selling everything from gourmet meals in a bucket, to radio-controlled helicopters, to 1200 thread-count sheets, to solar battery chargers, to turkey jerky, to every kind of RV gadget you can imagine.  We stopped at a couple of booths to pick up information on the San Rafael Swell (south-central Utah), Colorado River and Green River rafting and the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry - we haven't even scratched the surface of exploring our new home state!

Then we hit the main floor, where literally hundreds of RVs and trailers of all shapes and sizes were fitted in like puzzle pieces.  It was completely overwhelming - and quite well attended, with couples and families strolling up and down the aisles, climbing into the trailers, sipping beers and watching the crowds.  (Yes - beer was for sale! We were pleased and surprised to see it, but didn't get any ourselves because it was all Bud/Bud Lite, etc. But still, points for having it available.)

We checked out a few of the $100,000+ behemoths, with their flat screen televisions, leather sofas and gas fireplaces.  Why people are not required to have commercial driver's licenses to pilot those things is beyond me: they're GINORMOUS and H said he couldn't even see over the steering wheel when he tried out the driver's seat.  But mostly we looked at the smaller ones.  We talked to one older couple who was there like we were, checking out the <18' trailers (bed, table, kitchen, john/shower), doing research and then planning on scouring the KSL classifieds for something used at half the price.

We adore the tiny teardrop trailers but they're awfully expensive for what you get.  We had never seen the ALiners before and thought they were pretty slick; we also liked the R-pods, the Rockwood and Flagstaff pop-ups (known as "tent-trailers, with the soft sides, and apparently not allowed in certain national parks because of the bears) and the Heartland mpg.  I'm not convinced that we're going to move on such a purchase anytime soon, but we've at least got it narrowed down to just a few models and can start there.