Anticipation!

After weeks of anticipation, the big day finally arrived on Saturday. That's right, we are officially Cricket Trailer owners!  

As we waited for the big day to arrive, we continued to research Crickets. The Cricket Trailer Owners group on Facebook helped us learn about common issues, best practices, and tips to help us prepare. We wished we would have discovered this group months ago! If you are considering a Cricket or TigerMoth, you should join this group.

Our demo of the Cricket was scheduled for Saturday at 10am. We figured that once we completed the demo, finalized the paperwork, and took possession of our Cricket, we would find a campsite in Indy for the night. We weren’t searching too hard because Mt Comfort RV provided us with a free night at Heartland RV Resort heartlandresort.com, which is near the dealership.

As we were waiting, we had our first set back: we learned that the second kid’s berth was backordered at the manufacture. Both Mt. Comfort and Taxa were helpful in assisting us with this issue. While anxious about what we should do, we discovered that a hammock could be secured in the location where the kid's berth would go.  We decided that this solution would have to work as Mitchell's bed for now. 

Finally, Saturday arrived.  We woke up in the middle of the night excited to see our Cricket again.  The demo, paperwork, and contract signing went smoothly, but it was 30 degrees in Indy with snow flurries!  We didn't think we had the energy to camp in frigid temperatures, so Heartland RV Resort would have to wait for another time.  

The cold forced us to head home, but the good part was that we knew we could play around with the Cricket in our garage after we drove another four and 1/2 hours.

​So how do we like the Cricket so far? We believe that we are going to be happy Cricketers! We've already mastered the set up and tear down and it really does take minutes. We were concerned about the comfort of sleeping on the "master bed," but it seems quite comfortable. We fit all of our gear easily into the under bed storage and the kitchen area. It's small, but the amount if space seems extremely useable!  
As we pulled into our driveway to park the Cricket in the garage, it looked as if it were too tall to fit.  We held our breath and backed up anyways.  It fit!  We positioned the Cricket in our garage to where we can pop it up to its fullest height with the garage door closed. Being able to pack the Cricket for upcoming camping trips, while parked in the garage, is something that we are really looking forward to. 

Another note, we got over 16 miles per gallon pulling the Cricket going at least 70 mph and that is what we expected, so we were pleased.   .  

It all can't be roses, right? Aside from the delayed kid's berth, there have been a few things that are less than perfect. There was a door ding on the Cricket as the result of high winds and a careless individual during the two weeks we were waiting. Not much we could do about it; the dealership gave us some cash to spend in the parts store, so we were fine. Our 7 pin trailer hookup cord was too short - or as the dealership tech said, our TV's trailer hookup was too far back - depends on your perspective I guess. They built an extension cord in the shop while we waited that will get the job done. Another weird thing is that there are three keys for this 70 square foot camper! I will explore getting the three locks - door, rear hatch, and gear box - keyed alike. While checking out the Cricket on that first trip to Indy, we missed that there is not a single AC outlet in the Cricket.  There are multiple DC (automotive) outlets and a port to pull in an extension cord, but not any standard outlets!  

The bad isn't so bad, and the good seems like it will perform as an ideal base camp and gear hauler for weekend getaways and week long adventures. We believe that the pros strongly outweigh the cons and we are really looking forward to starting our adventures in Cricket Camping. 

Stay tuned to hear more about our initial impressions and first camping trip in the Cricket.

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