First trip!

[marshall0000]

We will be taking the tear on its maiden voyage this Memorial Day weekend. After more than a year of working on it (I took last summer off, it is too hot here in summer) it is ready to venture forth. We are staying fairly close to home visiting Karchner Caverns and Tombstone Az. I will try to take some pics and post them (if I can figure out how). How bout some maiden voyage pics from others? And maybe a short narrative about the experience, good and bad.

[PKCSPT]

My first trip was to a state park an hour and a half from home, it ended up being a day adventure. I don't have airconditioning and did not think to bring a fan. Sun went down and it was still 90 degrees no breeze.
Thought of the husband who was smart enough to stay home in the airconditioned home, took one look at my dog packed up and was home in less than two hours.
Had a great time walking the trails and sitting in a quiet campground, it was a great trip. The next day I bought a small fan.

[Gage]

You can see my 'First Trip' pics at http://www.gages-56.com/colorado.html, 2100 mile test/break-in run. ..(*edit - This line deleted out because a poster misunderstood what was written)

[donnan]

Often you don't know what you NEED until you make a test run.

Glad you got the fan.

Paul

[GerryS]

What you are doing is wise! The first trip s always going to be a little crazy....keeping in close just maws sense.

Most people don't take too little, they take too much. Put a small piece of tape on everything you take, remove it as you use it, after a few trips eave home whatever still has tape, it's taking up too much space...

[Mary C]

For a lot of people it is not the confidence of what they have built , it is the fact they have never camped before. The confidence of the structural integrity is awesome but sometimes it is the weather or not having the adequate stuff to be comfortable. Sometimes it is ones first camping trip. so I advise in general for your first adventure, camp in a place not far from a a store and close to home. My belief if you have never camped you might want to set up in your back yard and stay for 24 or 48 hours you can then figure out what it takes for cooking breakfast, lunch and supper. What you think will be important somehow will change. my advise is if possible buy the spatula bowl and spoon you need, unless you have extra you can donate to your tear. Keep your camping gear separate from your household stuff, It is tough to realize you forgot the spatula, when you are cooking those eggs in the morning. Or a fan when it is so hot. There is a lot to remember when you go out on your first trip. I remember my first trip out with a baby, I took enough diapers for a week but forgot sunscreen and warm clothing. I had packed in the 80degree heat and forgot it is cold in the mountains in the morning. So practice close to home if you are a first time camper and don't feel so bad if things happen or you forgot something. We have all been there. I believe even forgetting the fan was a plus at least you didn't forget a wheel or tire. and the best part is that you will have memories. wishes for great camping!!!!

Mary C.

[Shadow Catcher]

Our maiden voyages were to a state park about 20 min from home. Nothing happened and all the bits and pieces played well together but with the level of complexity the number of things that can get you the Murphy experience goes up, and the member the corollary on Murphy's law is that Murphy was an optimist. We did run into problems on our trip west last year i.e. garbage end on the fresh water hose that saved a fraction of a cent of brass so that it leaked, as new end took care of the problem. And had one electrical connector that was not connecting, (found with the VOM).

[atahoekid]

Our initial trip was a planned 10 day excursion through Oregon and Nor Cal. On the way out of town, we lost a wheel on the trailer, so we got delayed in our actual departure and then it rained almost the entire time. We cut the trip down to six days and headed home, just beating the seasons first snow fall. but all in all a good trip. the Road Foamie is now proven to be water tight and we fixed the problem with the wheel. I knew there were going to be a couple issues along the way so I took plenty of tools, made some minor changes and repairs and also made a punch list of things I decided needed changing/adding or removing. I would recommend a short shake down trip before a planned 10 day excursion, but in our case, we literally got it finished (useable)the night before the trip

[marshall0000]

We have had two great trips with the new teardrop with no problems. However, although I had the ability to build the teardrop and possess an IQ significantly above the normal percentile I find I apparently do not have the ability to post a picture on this website. Having posted photos on many websites in the past with little difficulty I have decided to forgo the hoops necessary to jump through to post photos in here. One would think this was a national security website, jeez.

[webbaldo]

Have yet to camp in mine yet although ive got about 200 miles on it now, so it tows fine.

[PKCSPT]

I had to chuckle Marshall,, this is the only forum I have figured out how to post a picture too. Couple of others I belong to forget it.

Glad to hear you have enjoyed a few trips.

[Lgboro]

My first trip was 5 hours from home (Charleston, SC). Duck tapped one cargo door on and hit the road. Had to twist wires together to have lights for the week. Came home and finished up enough that 3 weeks later I left on a 6 week cross country trip (8500 miles the way the crow doesn't fly}. It doesn't have to be perfect or complete to have a good trip. Logged in over 18,000 miles last year though 2 surgeries have slowed this summer planned trips to a crawl.

[bdosborn]

First trip in the teardrop was to the first ITG in 2005:


First trip in the Boxcar was to SE Colorado in 2009:


Bruce

[marshall0000]

I had to chuckle Marshall,, this is the only forum I have figured out how to post a picture too. Couple of others I belong to forget it.

Glad to hear you have enjoyed a few trips.

Why thank you Karen.

[sabrown82]

Whenever posting photos on any forum, it's easiest if you upload them to a hosting site (like photobucket) first. From there you can grab the code for the image and simply copy/paste it into your forum post. Many forums now do not allow direct upload (though I think this one does...I could be wrong... I didn't try) because they just take up too much space. It's good to get used to using hosting sites if you participate in multiple forums. If you need any help with this just let me know.




Sorry to derail the thread! Just thought I'd try to be helpful!