On January 15, 2017, we left Albuquerque to travel full-time in our new to us 5th Wheel Toy Hauler trailer.
We chose a 5th wheel toy hauler, because we decided we would carry our hot air balloon (Santa Fe Sunrise) with us and fly in balloon events around the country. Our first one is planned for Parump, NV, near Las Vegas in February.
As you can see above, we needed a big truck to pull this 17,000 lb. trailer. We chose a 5th wheel trailer because we needed the truck for ballooning. We installed a lift gate on the back of the truck to make it easier for our balloon crew to load and unload the balloon equipment.
Below you can see how the back has a fold down door and the interior has a 12 ft x 8 ft garage to store the balloon and all the gear we need to live full time on the road and enjoy ourselves. When the back door is down it turns into a deck for enjoying the outdoors. We got a shade umbrella to make it even more enjoyable.
Here’s a view of the living room / kitchen of our trailer. As you can see, in the back is a sliding glass door that goes out to the garage. In the front is our bathroom with shower and our king size bed (we bought another sleep number Select Comfort bed).
The trailer has three sections that slide out to give us a lot more room once we park and are set-up. Two of them in the living area and one in the bedroom. It makes for pretty comfortable living.
On our first leg we did a three day drive to Austin, TX, to see the 7 grandkids in the Jeremy and Jenny Story household. We had a great time as you would expect. They took us to San Antonio one day and we toured the San Antonio River Walk with the grandkids. As you can tell, it was a crazy time.
Next we headed for our first warm winter to Southwest Arizona in Page, AZ on the Colorado River. We stayed there for the month of February. It was a long 3 day drive across Interstate 10 the whole way, through El Paso and then Phoenix, and on to the Colorado River, at the border between Arizona and California.
We tend to travel no more than 6 to 8 ours a day before stopping and spending the night. On long trips like this we usually stop in a nice rest area on the Interstate and spend the night. We have 640 watts of solar on the roof to keep our big battery bank charged and a 7,000 watt generator, so we can live off grid pretty easily.
It is going to be a great adventure.
Wayne & Linda
