American History Lessons from the Trailer

We were a young family interested in showing the kids the country. After our daughter wandered into the elevator at a hotel and disappeared, we decided camping might be a better way to travel. Our trailer took us from Maine to Arizona, as well as part of Canada. There were a few tense times, including watching the neighbor’s tent sail over our trailer in a Cape Hatteras windstorm. One night in Kansas, the lightning was so bad we closed the trailer in the rain and all 5 of us slept in the car. Of course, we had to be resourceful to ensure enough to eat.

The kids saw the size of the Mississippi up close, wooden grain elevators in Manitoba, & cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. We woke to a moose outside the door in Wyoming. History and geography classes became less abstract when they got to walk the path Lewis & Clark trod. We had a 4th of July lobster meal in Maine & cowboy dinners in Durango. The trailer was very trouble-free and we were able to focus on our time together. It all started over 25 years ago, but we still have great memories and the kids saw more that they would have any other way. Camping made it possible to get closer to the “reality” of our great country than we could have any other way.

Submitted by Ed Storey of Falcon, CO as a part of the RV Centennial Celebration “Share Your Favorite RV Memory” contest.

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