Meet Wilder, our 13 foot, 1974 Serro Scotty. I’d been dreaming for years of getting a little camper. Every time I would see one on the side of the road my I would excitedly imagine fixing it up and setting off on an adventure. I attribute this fascination with campers to my grandparents with whom we would spend my childhood summers camping with in norther Wisconsin. Spending time with my family around the fire, getting to pick which tiny box of cereal I got for breakfast, sleeping on the dinette bed, my spot when we camped with them, chasing minnows and swimming in the lake were and are some of my favorite memories.  A couple of years ago the desire to get a camper grew substantially when we were visiting friends a couple hours away and over night our air mattress deflated, leaving us near to sleeping on the ground. I said to Trevyn “Wouldn’t having a camper to visit friends and family be so nice?” and so the search began in earnest. I didn’t, however, want just any camper, I wanted to revive one from the past and give it new life. Boy did I not know how much work that would turn in to!! Last summer, in May of 2018, I found what I thought was the one. Another Serro Scotty but an adorable little 10 footer. We called, pulled out the money for her, and were on our way when we got the call that the owner had sold it. Literally on our way to see it!! I was devastated. 

A couple months and several campers later, I found what would become our “Wilder”. When I first saw her I was instantly in love!! The inside was visually, a disaster, but I took what I had learned from researching how to pick a good camper and checked that everything seemed solid and didn’t smell moldy. On initial inspection all seemed well… but that’s a story for later. The camper was located near Green Bay where I work so I stopped by one night and sent Trevyn photos and, on hindsight not the best thing to do when you’re in a relationship, bought the camper for $1200 before Trevyn could look at it. He was not too happy with me. Looking back a year later, and despite everything that’s happened since, I still think I made the right decision. I’ll be writing about the steps we’ve taken so far, the embarrassing pie in the sky moments, and the challenges we’ve faced. 

In every single post about our camper progress going forward I want to thank my family with whom we would never have gotten this far. My love, my support, my grounding when another thing goes wrong, Trevyn, my little lovies Lulu and Baxter, my amazing little sister Allison and her fiancé Tipper, my mom’s husband Rod, construction and roofing master, and of course my parents, my patient, problem solving, woman power mama and super awesome, detail oriented, carpenter Dad who let us keep our camper on his property and work on it all summer. I can never express how much I love of these people and their support through this crazy project.