Adventure Journal — the fleet

Our oldest attends Whitworth University in Spokane, WA. So we've had the opportunity to visit this small city several times over the last couple of years. Every time we go I end up searching Zillow looking for a house to buy. I really like this town. Spokane is being discovered. Sort of like Bend, OR 25 years ago. Wonderful 4 season climate, lots of outdoor activities and a growing foodie scene. We've visited fall, winter and spring...I guess the only time I haven't been there is summer since my kid is usually home. Here are some of my favorite spots...

As we progressed towards Camper Day, I convinced Pat that we should take the pickup. He was more in the "We'll-just-drive-over-and-take-a-look-and-then-decide" mode. His biggest concern was that the camper wouldn’t fit the truck or that we wouldn't be able to attach it to the pickup safely. I, on the other hand, was feeling a time crunch. I had just a 3 hour window between celebrating our youngest's birthday, 2 recruiting trips, OHSET practice, and drama performances. There was no need drive back and forth... After all, it was MY camper! Having always been more backpacker than RVers, we had to educate...

For years I've wanted a vintage trailer. I've got the pinterest pins to prove it! Since we never had a truck to pull that dream trailer, I decided to focus on making our VW bus more livable. We installed a Zbed and started to plan a kitchen setup. Then... my youngest set her sights to be on the high school equestrian team. We found a ugly little vintage horse trailer for $600. We thought we would learn some transferrable skills from the horse trailer makeover project on the VW in the future. We spent a good 8 months updating that trailer. (I'll show you that project...

Our newest (to us) fleet member is a 1992 GMC double cab long bed manual 4x4 pickup. We purchased this in August 2017, from Roy, a friend downsizing to a retirement home. Roy gave us a good deal on it. This is the real McRoy...a cowboy work truck originally from Boise. It's got a 30 gallon tank, tool box, bed liner, and hard earned scratches and dents. It has some quirks...like door armrests that are missing, making it hard to slam the door effectively. We bought it for Pat to be able to haul and trailer all the things that...

Sometimes called Jerry, more often referred to as simply as "The Bus," this 1979 VW Tintop has been in our family since March 2003. In the winter of 2015-16, we had the engine rebuilt. Our mechanics loved us so much that Christmas that they gave us all matching shop tshirts! It's still pretty much stock...aside from the z-bed we put in. We still have a laundry list of things we'd like to do to it when time and money allow. have working headlights UPDATE: fixed the relay switch. Headlights work 8/2018 install a sound system that allows us to still...