Links to other parts of this web site:

Arizona

Colorado

New Mexico

Northern Minnesota

Links to outside web sites:

Scamp Travel Trailers

Scamp Owners International

Dan and Dawn's Scamp

Dan's AMC Adventures

National Railway Historical Society

Northstar Chapter, NRHS

Camping, back roads and trains

Dan and Dawn's Traveling Adventures

Dan and I standing with our Scamp travel trailer in front of a friend's dining car "Union Grove" in Charles City, IA. May 14, 2005.

Or, "Sure we can make it through here without getting stuck".

My husband, Dan, and I, Dawn, met while pursuing our mutual interests in trains and photography. These interests have led to a fair amount of traveling out in the country, away from civilized amenities. This web site talks about some of our adventures while camping and photographing trains. It also shows off some of my favorite photos.

Years ago when we first started traveling, Dan and I used a cooler full of ice to store food and drinks in the back of the station wagon. We would stay at various motels along the way. Luckily, we didn't stay in any really bad motels, but eventually, we decided life would be better if we had a camper trailer. It has allowed us to travel in comfort. Since Dan likes to drive a 4-wheel-drive vehicle, we have explored back roads many times. Here are the campers, vehicles involved in some of our adventures.

Some of the places we've visited:

• Arizona
• Colorado
• New Mexico
• Northern Minnesota

Some of the vehicles we've used:

• 1982 AMC Eagle blue station wagon
• 1986 AMC Eagle bronze station wagon
• 1987 AMC Eagle white station wagon
• 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee dark green suv

Some of the campers we've used:

• 1998 PlayMor 15 foot travel trailer (we rented it)
• 2000 Scamp 16 foot travel trailer (we own it)

In the Fall of 1999 we decided to rent a camper trailer to see if we liked it enough to buy one of our own. We rented a 1998 PlayMor 15 foot travel trailer from a local business for a week, and visited several State Parks on Minnesota's north shore. We found that we liked having a toilet and shower in the camper, but that we didn't like the side bathroom configuration.
It worked so well that in July 2000 we special-ordered a new Scamp travel trailer from the factory in Backus, Mn. Based on the experiences we had with the Playmor, we decided to get a side-dinette model with a front bathroom, roof air-conditioner, furnace, large refrigerator and two propane tanks. We use it year-round. When not camping, Dan uses it as an office when he's working from home. We've even camped in 6 degrees below zero (not planned of course). A small electric heater works well when it's that cold. For more information on Scamp trailers and some of our other trips and experiences, visit the 'links to other web sites' at the left of this page.

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It's not all been a bed of roses when camping. We've had two flat tires on the Jeep when we were traveling in New Mexico, one in Las Vegas and one in Chama. We decided to buy all new tires at the end of that summer.

We've also had two flat tires on the Scamp--one in Camden State Park near Marshall, Mn. and one last summer on Highway I-694 in St. Paul, MN. The tires were about four years old by then, and had taken us to New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, St. Louis and Indiana, so we decided to buy a new set.

We store our Scamp in the backyard during the winter and when we're not traveling. We had trouble pulling it out of the snow in the spring of 2001. I think the snow was about five inches deep, and was beginning to melt. Traction was so bad that we had to use both Eagle station wagons to pull it out of the backyard. That was a strange sight.

Even with these difficulties, it's been worth having the camper. Follow the links for more of our 'Hit the Road' adventures.

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