You might take a trip down to Windish RV in Lakewood and take a look at the Heartland Sundance XLT 245RL. It has the same floor plan as the Cougar and is 26.5' long. We've had ours since February, and just got home from a 1,200 mile trip up in the Black Hills. So far we are extremely happy with it. The majority of our camping sounds like what you do, and so far it is a perfect fit for us. We pull it down a fairly rugged road to our favorite boon docking spot around Ward. Time will tell about the durability, as with any unit, but this seems to be a quality rv. The comment from fred42 about quality being related to size is way out of line, but that seems to be a common misconception among the larger rv owners. Heavier and more expensive doesn't mean better or higher quality, it just means it costs more and weighs more.