Sherrian and I finally got the chance to take our new fifth wheel camping. We picked a new Georgia State Park called Don Carter on the north end of Lake Lanier. Our stay lasted thirteen days and was a little hard on me because I commuted to work. The drive everyday was eighty eight miles round trip. Sherrian stayed at the campsite (lucky girl) while I was working.

The purpose of this outing was to learn as much about our new camper before storing it for the winter. All in all, I think we accomplished that goal, but it did no go without mishaps.

We arrived safety and had a nice pull-thru site picked out, however there was a nice back-in site available with a lake view on three sides. After thirty minutes of trying, I gave up and headed back to the pull-thru site. When making a sharp turn, I hit a large rock at the end of a pine island and broke off part of my black water pipe. This park has large rocks at the corner of almost every pine island and I was not the first person to hit one. Anyway, we were lucky it was minor damage. I bought the various ABS pipe fittings, glue and a hacksaw to make the repair. It looks just like it came from the factory.

The temperature dropped below freezing two nights in a row. The first night, I was smart enough to turn the water off outside and disconnect my hose from the supply. The second night, I was dumb. Although Sherrian asked me to repeat the safety measure, I didn't listen because the weather report said it was going to just be 32 degrees. Luckily all that happend was the water froze in the hose and Sherrian was without water for the morning.

We were proud the mishaps were minor on our first outing. We learned much about our camper, did some hiking and biking and made some friends. On Saturday my brother and twin niece's visited for lunch and a little fishing. We also made a trip to Mountain Fresh Creamery and enjoyed an ice cream cone made "in house" with ingredients from their dairy farm.

We had our camper winterized at Southland RV in Buford and now have it in covered storage at H&H Storage for the winter. We just did make it before more freezing weather came to Georgia.

I know in my blogs I have not gone into much detail about the camper operation, winterizing, repairs or the campgrounds themselves, but if someone has a question, please feel free to comment. I am by no means an expert, but maybe with our experiences and research, we may be able to help. Check out the Instructions page and the Don Carter page on the website for more information.

On Saturday we picked up the camper and drove to the storage facility without a hitch. The night before, we watched You tube videos on pulling "big rigs", tractor and trailers. Watching those videos gave me the confidence I sorely needed.

Backing into our tight space wasn't so easy but we got it. Sherrian and I make a great team. Utilizing our cell phones with Sherrian running around the camper to make sure I didn't hit anything, we managed to park the camper in about one hour.

We cannot go camping right away because Sherrian has to make an unexpected trip to NYC (family business) for ten days. We hope to go as soon as she return and we can't wait to learn about our new camper.

In summary, we are pleased. Buying the dually was the right thing to do. There were times I could forget I was pulling a behemoth 40ft camper. We were right to wait until Saturday when we were well-rested and we were right to watch the tractor and trailer videos the night before. So far, so good!

I'll let you know about our camping experience.