Well, as promised, here is my report on my first camping trip (as an adult anyway) and my first experience with our recently-purchased 1998 2518.
There were four of us: myself, my wife (an avid camper in her youth), our 5 yr-old daughter, and our 4 week-old newborn daughter. We pulled the 2518 with our 2005 Honda Odyssey that had the factory coolers installed for the power steering and the tranny.
We decided to try French Creek State Park here in Southcentral PA for a couple of reasons. First, it is cheap. It cost us only $42 for 4 days. Second, it is close by (about an hour drive). Third, we've been there before and know the amenities: clean bathrooms, hot showers, lots of hiking, playgrounds, a giant pool (on the lake), two large lakes, geocaching, orienteering, frisbee golf, and more! Fourth, they have electric and a dump station and water nearby each site. We took a portable 5 gallon jug to fill our holding tank.
We were not disappointed! I started hitching up around 2:00 and we were on the road by 3:00pm. Check-in was easy and the campground was only about 25% full! However, the contact station for the campground is at the top of a fairly long hill. The Honda didn't complain, but it smelled really hot. The engine temp gauge was normal so I suspect the tranny was taking a beating. (I have an appointment to get the tranny fluid swapped out with AMSOIL next week!) I spent about an hour unhitching, leveling, and hooking everything up while the girls got the van unpacked. Everything went so smoothly since I had been practicing setting up the TM and tearing it down since last October when we bought the thing! It has been in our driveway for 8 months!
The park was beautiful and we were greeted by a flock of wild turkeys in our campsite. We roasted hot dogs, marshmallows, and s'mores by the fire and had a typical camping day! We had no problems whatsoever with the camper, with the kids, or the entire 4 days. We had one breakdown (the upper hinge pulled out of the wardrobe) which was easy to fix (remove the door!). We switched beds after one night thinking the baby was better suited in the back with the curtain. And we compiled a list of the "nice-to-haves" for our next trip.
We went geocaching, hiking, bike riding, went to the playground, went to the pool, looked for constellations and planets, and of course, had a fire every night.
In case anyone is interested, I made a webpage of our trip. You will find some nice photos of the family and our TM. Here's the link:
http://www.sageadviceltd.com/sage/ba...g606/index.htm
Sorry if it is a long post but I wanted to share a wonderful experience with my new "TM family" and look forward to many more camping trips this summer!
Dean