As was mentioned in the last post, Leah and I have bought a new RV.

It’s at times difficult to believe that we lived in the previous trailer eight and a half years, longer than we ever lived anywhere else. Over the years, we thought about trading it in, but we really liked it. Plus, of course, it was long ago paid for. However, small problems began adding up and we decided to take a leap into a different experience.

We didn’t just trade it in for something similar, though.

What’s been a recurring theme in Dream Chasing 101? Well, maybe there have been several, but one is that we have been able to pursue our dreams partly by downsizing our lives.

It was a bit of a process, but we talked ourselves into going from a fifth-wheel trailer with abundant storage and three space-making slides to a shorter bumper-pull travel trailer with little storage and no slides.

And guess what. It’s working and we’re happy with it.

To address the issue of going from a sizable closet to two mini closets, each capable of holding maybe eight shirts, we picked out an RV with a bunk room. The extra room is approximately the size of a double bed mattress and that’s exactly what goes wall-to-wall. There’s one about two feet off the floor and another about three feet above that.

We bought each of us two large and two medium plastic storage bins. Those and other things convert each bed into a personal closet.

Elsewhere, we cut back on some of the things we carried in the old trailer. I’m keeping a few items in the back seat of the pickup, which is easy during COVID when we’re not going out with other people. In other words, we’re making it work and we’re happy with it.

Bumper-pull trailers also carry a lower price tag and take less fuel for the truck. We’ve also found it easier to heat and cool, partly because the slides couldn’t help but create some air leaks. After we get more experience with it, maybe we can offer up more insight into the question of fifth-wheel vs. bumper-pull.