After finally getting the Camper finished it was time to put it on the truck. The install of the camper went well. I jacked it up using the attached jacks and with the help of my wife got it settled on the truck. It settled the truck down and the tires looked like they needed more air. I left the back driveway of my house and went out of town via a local tire shop. At the tire shop I had them pump up the tires and with more air in the tires the camper seemed to ride level and secure.

The next stop was at the local self weigh scales to see what the camper actually weighed. It turned out to weigh just over 1300 Kilograms or 2866 pounds. This seemed a bit heavy for my 2008 F150 but it looked like it was going to be okay. So off I went on my first adventure. The truck carried the camper well and had no problems going the highway speed. Once I got into the mountains it climbed the hills with no problem.

On the way I stopped at the first town I came to for coffee and at the second town for groceries. Then since I had left home late in the day I stopped at the third town for dinner. Then as it was getting late I stopped at a campground for the night.

In the middle of the night I was awakened by my propane alarm going off. Apparently I had a propane leak. I got my flashlight and started checking and sure enough I had a broken propane fitting. This was not good because I didn’t have the tools to fix it, I was in the middle of nowhere, and I couldn’t even use a campfire for cooking because the whole region was under a fire ban. So I turned off the propane tanks and left the repairs for later.

The next day I carried on my trip and travelled West through several towns and villages on the highway. I couldn’t cook the groceries that I had bought so I had to stop along the way at the little towns. That night I stopped at another campground by a lake, this campground was almost deserted , so it was nice and quiet with no pets or unruly children. I slept well and got up the next morning ready to get on my way. It was my intent to only go to the next sizeable town and then go back home. I decided to go to the city, fuel up and go back home. So I went for breakfast, go fuel and started back home.

I travelled back through all the little towns and villages stopping for lunch and dinner and arrived back home after a long day. The next day I unloaded the camper and settled it into my back yard. Later the next day it snowed and that ended the camper season for that year.

When the truck was empty without the camper it seemed to ride funny so I took it to a shop and found out that by carrying the camper I had broken both rear springs. It was not a cheap repair job.

Later that Winter I had a medical emergency that took a couple of years to recover from. So the camper sat in my backyard unused while I recovered.