Greetings from Michigan's U.P.

[Whitewolf]

Once upon a time not too many years ago, I was the happy owner of an '07 Honda Ridgeline. Great little truck with a 5,000 lb tow capacity.

Shirley and I tent camped, but not too much. If any of you remember tent camping, you remember ALL the stuff you had to pack. Some we kept here and some at the store we own. Why two places? 'Cause I couldn't store it all in one place! I got tired of getting up off the ground in the morning and bought cots.

The bed of the truck AND the back seat AND the storage trunk in the truck bed were full to the gills. It'd take over 2 hrs to pack and the same to set up at the campsite. Oh what fun.

In the early spring of '11 we decided to go to Traverse City for a long weekend staying at our favorite hotel. Another couple said they'd meet us there and spend Saturday with us in the 'big city'. We met them for breakfast and Ken says, "Hey, there's a camper show in town, wanna go?" "Sure!" we says. "Doesn't hurt to look" I says.

Ummm… Yeah, it can.

Ken and Dar used to trailer camp a lot when they lived in Ohio and they were very helpful in pointing out the good and bad points of different units to us. Too helpful.

2011 Keystone Passport 195RB. No slider. Perfect for 2 people (which we are). 3650 lbs empty weight. 300 lbs total for our weight (let me be perfectly clear, 195 for me, 105 for Shirley. Didn't want you to get any wrong ideas, and me in trouble.) So that's just under 4000 lbs and there's no way we could add 1000 lbs (and we didn't) to max out the Honda.

Went from here to a couple of parks within a couple of hours from here. Driving 55mph. Absolutely no problems (well, we did have one and that involved getting all set up and unhooked with the exception of plugging in the elec and finding I was literally 6" short from the elec box, but that's another story). Honda pulled GREAT!

Until…

We decided we wanted to go to Hastings, MI (just west of Lansing. As a side note, you want to know what town is just south east of Lansing? Hell. Yup, our state capitol is a little north of Hell) to a longbow only archery shoot. 5 1/2 hrs not counting stops. Interstate most of the way.

Like I said, Honda pulled great. Until I wanted to go 62mph. Yeah, no. Honda's don't have Tow/Haul and the transmission started searching for gears. And there's no way to lock out overdrive. So here I am going 60 on straight a ways, 65 downhill and 55 or way less up hill. In my Honda. Getting passed up by units 3 times my size and not feeling safe at all going this slow.

Trans and engine weren't going to last taking trips like this, so I started looking for something bigger. I fell into a deal I would have been absolutely stupid to refuse. An '11 Ram 1500 Big Horn with a 5.7 Hemi. 390 HP and 410 Lb Torque. 10,000 lb tow capacity. AND Tow/Haul. Woot! Woot!

We went back to Hastings in '12 and the Ram didn't even grunt. Ran 65 mph with absolutely no problems. Ram pulled GREAT!

Ahhh, life was good again. Until…

Last August on the way home from my annual 'Slash & Burn' at the Dermatologist in Petoskey (I've had melanoma) we decided to stop by a camper dealer to see what kind of doodads they had. As I was turning around we spotted a camper we thought would be the right size for our friends. The same ones that met us in Traverse City (they were looking and wanted something a little smaller than ours). You know, we were trying to repay a good deed. Shirley got out of the truck and looked in the window of the camper. Then she tried the door. It was open. So were the doors on all the other campers.

We found ourselves going into different ones and saying what we liked and what we didn't. We always found too many things we didn't like. Until we went into a Rockwood Windjammer 3025W. Unfortunately, we couldn't find too much wrong. Crap.

I'd done some things to the truck to get it to where I wanted it to be before the Windjammer. Special CAI, free flow exhaust, Bilstein 5100 series shocks, etc. Because of the 1100 lb tongue weight of the Windjammer, I added 25% over progressive rate rear springs and air bags. Even with all this, I wasn't quite happy with the way it towed and didn't feel 100% safe. The trailer was well within specs for the truck, and the truck after all did have a Hemi...

You know where this is going, don't you.

I'm was done screwing around. I ordered a '14 Ram 3500 with a Cummins Turbo Diesel. 370 hp, 800 lbs of torque and 17,000 tow capacity (insert that noise Tim the Toolman makes). Even though we didn't own nor did we plan on owning a Fiver or something with a gooseneck, I had them add the special crossmember. Just in case.

Took delivery of it in early February.

Notice in the above paragraph where I said 'didn't own nor did we plan'. After camping in the Windjammer a few times last year, there were some things that popped up that we didn't expect and didn't like. What to do, What to do.

I searched online LOTS and we stopped at several dealers. After doing LOTS of searching, LOTS of looking, kicking LOTS of tires and opening LOTS of drawers, we decided on a '14 Montana High Country 305RL. From a spring show 3 weeks ago. Don't go to shows, they're not good for your wallet.

Even though we now own a Fiver, we don't have it. And even though the dealer own's the Windjammer, we still have it. Paperwork's all done and money's exchanged. I'm supposed to take the Windjammer to the dealer next week. Here's the problem. In my infinite wisdom I put the Windjammer and Passport in inside locked storage at our county fairgrounds. They don't plow snow to the storage units and we still have around 24" of snow. It really wouldn't matter if I had kept it here at the house instead as I have more than 3 1/2' of snow where I'd park it because of clearing the drive.

One of these days……..

You do realize what started all this, don't you? Ken and Dar. I'm blaming Ken and Dar.

Wonder if I should of gotten a duelly? Crap.