Since I was in my mid 20s I've done a LOT of camping, owned a mini trailer for a little while but mostly it's been out of the back of a pickup truck...with a topper, of course. Sometime in my 40s I started thinking about a full on truck camper, but figured I'd wait until I got closer to retirement before taking the plunge. Besides, being a desert rat has it's advantages...it's not too often that you're socked in for days because of weather and most of the time you can just shift the location.
But back in March/April when we had the "shutdown", I packed up my truck and booked it to the desert. I got lucky that during the time I was out, it only rained on me one night...so it was all good, but there were other people bugged out around me and some of them had campers...I became envious. For years now I've been thinking I'd buy one when I hit 60 years old, but I figured "Oh hell, why wait?"...I can afford it, why not get the show on the road?
So now triggers have been pulled. First I ordered the camper...I decided on the Hallmark Flatbed "Nevada", here's a link to what it looks like. hallmark-raton
I chose the Hallmark because of all the pop up campers available, they make what is far and away the best...and I chose the flatbed unit over the typical "slide-ins" as they're called because I see absolutely no reason the keep the bed on the truck. I'm not going to be removing it...this rig has one purpose only...road trips.
So I have to wait until the end of February before it's built. In the meantime, I bought a truck suitable to carry it...no half assed cheapo shit here. Also, I just had the bed removed and the aluminum flatbed that the camper will be mounted on installed...those boxes underneath are for storage, of course. It's ready to go, all I'm waiting for now is the camper. I'll be visiting the facility where it will be manufactured (it's about 45 min. away) as they are building it so I'm totally familiar with what's "under the skin"...takes about a month to build and I'll go there maybe twice a week to take pictures, notes, etc...I'll update this thread as time goes by.
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