Happy Anniversary

It’s been 17 wonderful years of marriage to Tia. We’ve had some downs, but mostly an amazing series of ups in our lives with kids, pets, careers, and a series of homes. I really have no regrets about my life and as I’ve said to a few people, I have no real problems.

The traditional gift for 17 years is furniture, so we went out and bought ourselves a new couch.

To carry it around, we got a living quarters horse trailer. A new Lakota Charger, 10 foot short wall, the aforementioned couch, 6cu ft fridge, separate bathroom with shower and sink, and 4 stalls. It has a generator inside, which means we will still have AC and a microwave in the middle of nowhere.

The bathroom is a touch small, but that’s OK.

We wanted a dinette in the slide, but this one worked better overall, with more space inside, so we got the couch.

This one was a breeze for Tia to park as well.

This is our second trailer, and a slightly belated present. We actually when looking last week and saw a really nice Trails West trailer. It was bit, but we thought it would work. Saturday, in the rain, with Tia feeling a bit sick, we went and picked it up.

However it was a mistake. Almost as soon as we got on the highway, we were worried. It was a heavy pull, jerking the truck a bit with the weight and hard to maneuver. Getting home, Tia struggled to back it up by the house. That worried me. Tia’s much better at driving trailers around than I am and if she has a hard time, I probably can’t drive it.

At 29’ 9” in floor length, it was really, really long.

We debated, hemmed and hawed over the holiday weekend and decided to take it back today. The salesman had told us we had about a week to decide and he was happy to make time for us today. A long, 1:45 drive back up, but he understood and when he parked the trailer, he could feel the weight.

He showed us a few more, and we talked about the differences with the one we picked out. Eventually we loaded this Lakota up on the truck and drove around the area. Almost as soon as we were on the road, Tia said it drove differently. Not a lot shorter, about 26’, but about a ton less weight. Plus a generator on it.

This one was a few hundred dollars more than the other one, but the salesman matched it and we signed new paperwork. A much smoother ride home, with me able to work a bit and type this. Something I couldn’t really do when we drove up this morning with the Trails West.

Now Tia’s ready to schedule some trips and get out camping. I’ve got work and travel, but have booked a 10 day stretch in July where we’ll head up north to Glacier National Park and let the kids seem some of the west before they’re too old and out of the house.