Our First Camping Trip!

For our very first camping adventure in our Apache we joined our friends/coworkers at the R-Ranch in Dahlonega, Georgia. It is a camping resort complete with horse stables, pool, playgrounds, movies theatre and game room. And not to mention the AMAZING views as it is surrounded by mountains.

The view as you pull into the campground.

My traveling partners...

Of course we chose halloween weekend for our first outing. It was the first weekend our camper was ready!

It was warm during the day but got very cold at night. We borrowed my work truck (that has a hitch) to pull the camper as our car didn't have one yet. We got there after dark because we were waiting on our coworkers to arrive but they had a funeral to attend to. Michael backed into our spot after about 15 minutes of trying-his first attempt ever to back a camper up. We began to set up camp by lantern light. After we were set up I began to cook steak tacos that had been marinating in the cooler. They were yummy and we were definitely starved after all the waiting and hard work!

We settled in for the night with our pup and our heater. We tried sleeping on one side together but the beds are only 48" wide.

We were up with the sun and made some breakfast with our friends. It began to warm up and we watched some football and had a late lunch. We played some games and took a bike ride then made chili in the crockpot for dinner.

Then it was time for costumes and the hayride and halloween dance! I was pretty ambitious thinking I could get ready to camp for the first time and volunteer to make 5 costumes...but I did it!

I made Barney (my hubs), Fred & Wilma and Pebbles  (coworkers+family) the avatars are my bosses grandkids!

At night after we added some string lights.

Sorry for the lack of pictures...we were having such a good time I forgot to take too many!

The day we painted every surface....

We had a plan and supplies and all day to make a huge start in our little Mesa's tranformation...

We started with the cabinet doors. The border is brown plastic with a wood veneer insert. The hinges were brass colored with rust spots.

And after...brown plastic painted black and sheet metal added.

The metal is just sitting between the frame and the wood laminate so if we ever want to take it off we can, it's not permanent.

The kitchen before.

And after. Black rustoleum paint and sheet metal.

The table area before minus table.

The table area after. All the lower sidewalls painted with rustoleum gloss black and hubby cut a new table out of mdf and painted with chalkboard paint.

Looking right into the camper from the door. Notice the panel dangling.

and after...

Sidewalls and ceilings before...

 

After white paint. And obviously I will need to spray-paint the off-white plastic vents as well.

There are 6 of these panels all different sizes. We painted 4 white and 2 with chalkboard paint.

It works again!

Thanks to Apache Sales we have a working lift system again!

All the way popped up!

Now we have to replace some of the living hinge, install the new table husband made, put the made over cabinet doors back on and paint literally every surface...

While waiting for parts...

We take off the aluminum trim and spare tire cover.

The trim is cleaned and shined

Top: After         Bottom: Before

The spare tire cover lettering gets painted.

An ugly before.

A much better after.

IT BROKE!!!!

We tried to crank it up today and it went up a quarter of the way. Then the front half would not budge! We were very upset....

A piece even fell off of the gearbox as we tried to crank it up.

A very sad, wonky Mesa.

We discovered that the gearbox was broken the whole time but worked at the shop because it was very well compressed. When we towed it home we must have caused some pieces to come loose and therefore the gears would not turn on the front gearbox.

The contents of the guilty gearbox.

After much googling we have decided we will replace the front gearbox for the low price of $175 :(

We bought it!

The owner called me and said they would like to get $800 for the camper. My husband and I decided that the price was very reasonable and went to inspect it with cash in hand.

The owner set it up and showed us how to work everything. He gave us a lot of things he bought for the camper. Seeing as how we don't have a tow kit on our car yet, our great friends towed the camper home for us.

On the way to it's new home!

I secretly visit the Apache...

After many hours spent googling Apache campers, I decide to do a little detour during my deliveries and see the Apache up close one more time and talk to the owner about how much he wants for it.

Dirty, but not too shabby...

Missing the "A" but the body isn't banged up or anything.

The front doesn't look bad at all. Just the tongue is rusted.

Storage compartments. And a mounted level.

The owner told me he would talk to his wife that night and let me know how much they wanted for it.

The beginning....

On Thursday, October 7th my husband and I brought home our first ever camper- a 1976 Apcahe Mesa. But this story actually starts a few weeks before this...

I deliver transmissions for a living. It's fun, I get to see a lot of Atlanta and beyond and meet interesting and uh weird people. One day I was delivering a transmission to a place I had been before, but I noticed a very cute camper. A pop up. It was sitting in the parking lot, not popped up. I took a picture with my cellphone.

The first time I laid eyes upon the Mesa.

At this time, my husband and I were just in the stages of talking about buying a camper. But we had already decided that if we were to buy a camper we would buy a pop-up with king and queen sized beds, a toilet and shower, a/c and heat and a dinette that pops out also for even more room and that it would be 1998 or newer. We wanted the king size new style pop up.

Still I asked the owner of the shop about the camper, complimenting it's solid colored box. He said it was an apache and from the 70's, and it was the cream of the crop back then. He said he and his wife were thinking of selling it because they hadn't used it in 2 years. That was the end of the conversation.

Later that day, I went home and googled "Apache Camper". Oh the glorious sites I saw! But-I was afraid my husband would not be on board...as we had already discussed what we wanted in a camper.

I showed him all of my Google finds and he fell in love. The next day I called the shop to see if he was serious about selling.