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.