With the kids growing, we knew we wanted a camper larger than the pop-up.  In July 1986, we averted disaster with the Datsun station wagon bumper incident and the next month bought the '78 Dodge conversion van from Steve and Lana to tow with.  The next spring, we went looking for a new camper.

What we bought was new to us, but hardly new.  It was an eleven year old Prowler travel trailer.  At twenty feet, it was the largest camper we had owned to that point.  It had a two-way refrigerator, a propane hot water heater and a retractable awning.  We could jump right in it with little set-up if we stopped somewhere in bad weather.  We didn't have to crank it up and we thought we had arrived!

One of the reasons for buying this unit was the lay-out.  There was a dinette in the front which, as is typical, folded down into a double bed.  In the back, there was a second dinette, a "U" shaped, wrap-around unit that also converted to a bed.  In many of the camping trips we did at this point, the kids stayed in tents.  We could leave the back unit down and not bother with converting it, but if weather was bad, we could use it as a table after the kids were put to bed.

We had this rig a little less than four years.  We probably would have kept it longer, but we had an unfortunate incident with it.  We had stopped at Paul and Gail's in Black River.  They had a loop driveway at this point.  While pulling out, the branches of one of the trees were brushing against the side of the trailer.  We didn't think anything of it because they were leafy, but hiding inside the foliage was a butt-end that had been cut off.

The branch was six or seven inches in diameter and pierced a hole in the roadside of the trailer.  David took the trailer to Wratten's Trailer Sales in Adams to get it repaired.  While he was there, he saw the 1989 Mallard Sprinter.  They made us an offer we couldn't refuse.  By then, we had the Suburban so it was no problem to haul.  We traded the damaged Prowler in and took the Mallard home, after upgrading the sway-bar system.