Adventure Journal — truck camper

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...

It is absolutely freeing to turn out of the driveway with all my necessities in the back of the truck and an open road in front of me. The imagination takes over as the miles roll by. I wonder where that road goes? I wonder what it would be like to live in that house? How far do they have to go for groceries? How do I get to that creek? Would anyone miss me if I didn’t show up and just kept driving? Wow, that’s a lot of fireweed! What am I gonna name this camper? Throughout the twisty...

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...