Hello And First Long Trip!

Aloha,
We met a few of you last year as we were trying to decide on a 550 or 560. Some of you let us look at yours and then we stopped by the Summer gathering after we toured the factory. We decided on a 550 and were able to pick one up last Summer as the guys had one that was not picked up. We just got back from our first long distance trip. 14 days in the SW including Death Valley, Zion, Arches, Badlands. Starting from Minneapolis and circling back. Took a lot of photos of camper. Feel free to check out the album. So much fun! Thank you all for your help with deciding on this camper. Looking forward to many more trips!

Cheers,
Emily and Dave

20160517_swroadtrip_001 by fishbisquit posted Jul 17, 2016 at 12:06 PM

 

A 30-percenter who picked the 550 (less is more) over the 560 (more is better)! You made the right choice!

I hope I haven't offend any 560 owners (Cary told us that 70% of sales are now 560s) - we came close to going that route, but we are glad we got the 550.

 

Hey Emily and Dave.

It's Jonathan, we took the tour together last year. Glad you got your camper and are having fun!

 

Congrats on your adventure and best wishes for many more!

 

Beautiful camp shot!!!

 

Thanks for the great pictures. Would love to hear more details. We have a big trip coming up, covering similar ground (Arches, Zion, Canyonlands, Deadhorse Point).

Looks like you did a lot of pre-trip food prep. I wonder if that is typical of how folks approach long trips, or if that approach is unusual. (We don't do much pre-trip food prep.)

We loved Badlands when we visited 30+ years ago.....and we also loved Minnesota.

-Al

 

@Wild Robot Hey Jonathan! Good to hear from you, hope all is well. Sounds like you got a 560? Would love to see some pictures!

@AlCat Hey Al, Yes we went out there a little with the food prep. We like to eat well when we camp but we did't want to spend a lot of time prepping and cooking at campsite. Also didn't want to have to shop on the road. So we prepped and made most meals ahead. We froze them in foil food containers. We packed our Yeti cooler with all frozen meals and only opened it once a day to remove the next days meal. We used our coleman cooler as our daily cooler. For cooking all we really had to do was to bake the meals. We did this in our dutch oven with coals. It all worked out pretty good.

 

that sounds like a solid approach to food, fishbiscuit.

-Al

 

Hey Fishbiquit,

Yes, I got one down in TN (totally tricked out), and was planning to go to Death Valley and Sand Dunes NP but it turns I'm moving to New York in a month sort of unexpectedly and I have to sell it after only 4 trips !

 

Emily and Dave,
I'd love to get a look at your itinerary for your SW trip. From your amazing pictures, you had some wonderful campsites. Would you be willing to share campground info? Although my real love is the green and ocean blue of the PacNW, I do have a real appreciation for the SW, as well, and just returned from a non-camping trip there. I hope to spend my next trip there camping.

 

Super images! Safe travels

 

Wonderful pics. Someone has the eye.

 

GREAT photos! I love the whole album.....esp. all the shots with your pup enjoying the adventure! What's his/her name? What breed? It really makes me happy seeing these because we just got an Australian Shepherd puppy the end of June and I am really hoping he will love camping & hiking as much as your pup seems to! We named him, Ranger. Do you find (when taking your dog) that you have to plan your trips around parks that allow dogs on trails; or do most parks allow them? This will be our first pup to go camping with us, so all advice/tips will be appreciated. Thanks.

Casandra

 

What a great looking trip, and fabulous pictures. I (too) would love to hear more about your itinerary. Looks like you hit some amazing spots!!