Waiting for Cricket

We did it.

After reading every article, viewing every photo, listening to every podcast, and seemingly endless conversations weighing out the pros and cons: we did it. We made the decision to purchase a Cricket Trailer! We may not be a traditional RV family. We want an RV that will be our base camp for travel. We use our RV to sleep, cook some of our meals, and relax near in the evening. Otherwise we our out exploring all day. We want an RV that is easy to store, easy to pack, easy to set up, and easy to tow. We have previously loved about 90% of the experience pop up camping, and we hope the Cricket decision will be even more enjoyable. So… we did it, we decided to purchase a 2015 Cricket Standard Trailer, and optioned two kid’s berths.

Now we wait. It will take two weeks for the second berth to be ordered and installed, and for our Cricket to be prepped for pick up. Two weeks of deciding what of our camping gear will get the nod to share the very limited space of our Cricket with us. Two weeks of hoping that this will be as perfect for our family as we imagine. Two weeks of planning that memorable – and hopefully not traumatizing – first trip. Two weeks of trying to explain to our friends and family what a Cricket Trailer is: “it’s not a pop up; well it is, but…”, “it’s not really a traditional RV”, “so it’s blue and orange”, “Crickets are a lot smaller than the pop up we had”, “it’s just cool, I’ll show you soon”.

Shopping for a Cricket isn’t easy. We live in southern Illinois, home to amazing outdoor adventures and exploration including Garden of the God’s Camel Rock, which was minted into a US quarter this year. Unfortunately, the closest Cricket for sale was 100 miles away. To see a decent selection, we had to drive 256 miles. After all of our research, we were confident – or at least we were fascinated – by the idea of owning our own Cricket. But we thought it would first be a good idea to see if the four of us would fit inside the 70 square feet of a Cricket Trailer at the same time. This meant a road trip to see our new friends Pat, who specializes in small camper sales, and Paul, the finance guy, at Mt Comfort RV in Greenfield, Indiana. If you never heard of these guys, you probably paid too much for your last RV!

​Comparing model years of a Cricket is no simple task. Okay it’s not as tough as wandering through an RV show full of Travel Trailers, Fifth Wheels, Motor Homes, and Class C’s, and trying to find the perfect model. But there were changes from 2015 to 2016 that did complicate our decision. In 2015, there was the Cricket Standard and the Cricket Sport. In 2016, the models were updated to the Cricket Gear, Cricket Camp, and Cricket Trek. The Gear is bare bones: it basically a cargo trailer. The Camp is well-equipped, but not quite as well as the prior year’s Standard. The Trek is loaded, but slightly less loaded than the Sport. We couldn’t find a Sport and the Gear lacked beds, so we were making progress toward deciding on the perfect model by ruling these two out. After comparing a Trek to the Standard and the Camp – which was locked with lost keys – we decided to go with the Standard.

A common question we asked ourselves was “why a Cricket”? It’s expensive: we could have gotten massive Travel Trailer for the same price. It’s tiny: imagine your family living in a small walk-in closet. It’s not plush: a cassette toilet resides in the kitchen. However, it seems perfect. Set up time will take a couple minutes. We can park it in our garage, although my car will get booted to the driveway. We can pack for our trip with it fully set up inside the garage. The kids get really cool berths: suspended bunks above our bed/dinette area. We can stash our paddle boards inside the Cricket when we travel… hopefully. We can strap the bikes to the Thule roof rack and our hiking gear can be hidden under the bed or bungeed about anywhere in the Cricket – except maybe my son’s shoes, those are not welcome in our limited air space.

As we shopped, researched, and discussed buying a Cricket, we struggled to find much feedback on Cricket Camping from a family of four. We want to share our feedback in our ongoing review of Cricket Camping with our family. You’ll hear from the whole family as we continue our journeys across America the Beautiful. Join us as we begin our adventure Cricket Camping.

​So here we are: full of dreams and expectations for our Cricket. So many National Parks to explorer. So many beaches, mountains, cities, and forests we want to experience. So many prior destinations that we want to re-visit in our Cricket. So much to see and do; let’s go CricketCamping.com.

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