Photo Tour of our Casita.

Since we spend so much of our vacation time in our tiny Casita trailer, and since it's been a long time since I posted much about it here, I figured I should put a brief tour of the tiny trailer on the blog.

We bought our Casita second-hand from a couple whose health no longer allowed them to use it. It's a 2002 model so we bought it when it was just a few years old. The darned things are made of two sections of molded fiberglass, so they just don't leak. As anyone who has owned a sitck-built trailer will tell you, those begin leaking in pretty short order. So when we decided to buy a travel trailer the two things foremost in our minds were gas mileage and durability. One of my pals at work had bought a Casita, and after looking over several of the molded fiberglass varieties, we opted for that one.

Carole and I visit mainly National Parks and National Forest campgrounds, so the Casita was perfect for us. Those places are sometimes hard to access for larger travel trailers and motorhomes. So the Casita--at only 17 feet--fits in just about any of the campgrounds we use. It makes a wonderful base camp for me when I go hiking, and Carole is safe and comfortable inside the solid walls of the trailer while I'm tramping through the wilderness. (Keep in mind that we decided to go for a hard-sided travel trailer after having our campsite raided by a black bear at the Standing Indian Campground in the Nantahala National Forest.)

Today we went to Carole's mom's place where we store the trailer. Once there we got about cleaning the Casita and getting it stocked and ready for our next trip. I had to wash the entire outside of the trailer from stem to stern, including climbing on top and scrubbing the roof and A/C unit. Carole scoured out the interior and stocked the pantries. After that, I got about the business of cleaning up the truck for the long trip ahead of us next week.

We had a full day getting ready for this new vacation. It's all part of the fun of heading out, I reckon.

View from the bed looking back at the rest of the Casita.

We leave the bed permanently as a bed. But it also converts into a dining table suitable for four persons. We just don't see the need to take up the bed format. This leaves plenty of room underneath for storage. That's our TV on the shelf at the foot of the bed (covered in a protective sheath).

The bathroom is akin to a marine head. Very small and compact, but it comes in handy when we're staying in places that have neither water nor electric hookups, and which don't provide bath facilities. The trailer has black water and gray water tanks and has a 24-gallon fresh water tank, with a six-gallon hot water heater. The bath is tall enough for me to stand up with some room to spare when I use it to shower.

The bath view showing the shower and sink. (We have a tub filled with towels, which we remove when we arrive at our destination.)

The sink/stove setup. We have rarely used the stove for much beyond heating water or making coffee. We do 99.9% of our cooking outside to keep cooking smells out of the trailer and to just make things more comfortable.

The refrigerator/freezer. This unit runs on both electric and gas.

People are always surprised at the size of the refrigerator and freezer.

The closet beside the door.

And the dinette where we often eat, play cards, or where I write.

The happy couple in midst of getting the Casita ready for travel. I had to open the awning and scrub it down with bleach, which I do several times a season.