The Beginning

Welcome to all who might wander across Wiebe's Wanderings.  In preparation for our first snowbird trip I have been following other people's blogs and decided I would give it a try.  This will be a good way to share our experiences with friends and family and also provide us with a record of our travels and a good resource for future trips.

A little about ourselves. My name is Bruce and I retired in 2009.  This was a few years earlier than planned, thanks to Corporate restructuring, and it prompted a discussion with my wife, Lori.  She still had a few more years on the treadmill but we needed to decide what we were going to do with this 3rd phase of our life.  School, then working for the Man, and now enjoying the fruits of our labours.  

We had both done some camping growing up and again some 30 years ago when my son Jeff was a youngster. 

 Back in the day camping in style meant a tent or tent trailer with the good old reliable Colman stove. My family on a camping trip in the '60s

 Or a weekend camping trip with my brother.  Boy were we cool.

A boys only camping trip with my son.

One thing we agreed upon was that whatever form of camping we were going to entertain it had to have facilities on board.  None of this waking up at 3:00 AM putting on damp shoes and wandering down the trail, flashlight in hand, to take care of the call of nature.  

We also have a dog, Charli, our Chocolate Lab X, who is like a shadow, going wherever we go and even at 60# considers herself a lapdog. We definitely needed to consider her in our plans. 

We decided to look for a used truck and trailer which would keep within the budget while seeing if this was the lifestyle we wanted.  We located a 2007 Springdale 29' rear kitchen travel trailer and a 2009 Ram 1500 for the tow vehicle.  Before our first trip a hail storm took care of the like new look to the aluminum exterior. The following spring our Insurance Co wrote it off.

Our trips with the Springdale that first year were enjoyable and a decision was made that this would be our retirement lifestyle with Snowbird trips to start as soon as Lori retired.  Till then we would spend 5-6 weeks in July & Aug (Lori is a teacher) traveling in our trailer.

My experience driving a truck and pulling anything bigger than a tent trailer was nil.  The first trip out we quickly realized something had to change.  Every time we were passed by anything larger than a car the draft created would push us all over the road.  It was a religious experience but not of the good kind.  An upgrade to a 2008 Ram 2500 CTD happened in Nov/10 and with the Insurance companies verdict on the hail damage a 2012 Cougar XLite 26SAB fifth wheel was in our driveway in June 2011.  

We enjoyed that combination for 3 years travelling from Minnesota to the Black Hills,SD out to Lethbridge, Ab to visit my son and his growing family and spots in between in Saskatchewan. A number of trips to local Manitoba campgrounds from the Peace Gardens, to Swan River, Clear Lake, Hecla and Falcon Lake kept us busy for 3 summers.  Perhaps some reflections on these trips in future blogs.

As Lori’s retirement date drew closer we decided that while we enjoyed a 3 week camping trip in the 26' Cougar, 5 months in Arizona might require a little more elbow room.  So I spent the winter of '13/14 researching the perfect truck and 5er combination (once you've pulled a fifth wheel you will never pull a travel trailer again).  We are now proud owners of a 2011 Ford F-350 (Diesel of course) and a 2015 Montana Mountaineer 331RLT.  Hopefully this is our last upgrade cause the budget is busted.  

This kind of provides you with a picture of what we are about.  In my next post I'll provide a brief synopsis of our 2014 activities leading up to the preparations for our first Snowbird trip.

Later