We made it! We crossed the county, slept in Belair and arrived at the Happier Camper factory in Los Angeles on September 11 at 12:30 p.m. Five hours later, we were as oriented as we were gonna be and drove away as the owners of a Traveler, which we have named Prufrock.
We are thrilled and exhausted.
When our appointed hour for pickup came, we pulled up to the little factory along the Los Angeles river, and saw Prufrock parked outside – shiny and new.
I backed up to her, to see how the height of the adjustable hitch I bought (paying about five times as much as a simple hitch) lined up with the trailer. It looked close. We would soon adjust the ball height up for a more level tow, and I was glad for the fine-tuning.
We soon met Kyle, a sales rep and avid camper, who led us through a thorough, unhurried orientation. He had a lot of tips and tricks to share.
I’m an avid reader and participant in the Happier Camper owners Facebook group, but a lot of times owners are raising questions about things that have gone wrong with their units. So I had a lot of questions. Kyle answered them all – incredibly patiently.
We had him repeat some explanations so we could videotape them.
Almost everything worked. Some things we needed to call someone else over or readjust – like getting the propane burner started.
We readjusted the height of the adjustable hitch twice.
We played with ever electrical component (the air conditioner, the lights, the invertor) as well as the water and more. I practiced backing up.
All good.
My biggest concern at the moment is properly connecting a wireless electric brake controller, which is not staying in place really well. I think I’ll figure it out.
An hour before heading over to the factory, we were informed via email that our dry cartridge toilet had not arrived at the factory, even though it had been shipped the previous Thursday.
We were annoyed. But the Happier Camper folks agreed to hand-deliver it to us at our LA beachfront RV spot, which they did.
We wound up rushing out of the factory even after spending five hours there, because I wanted to make sure we made it to our camping site before the office closed at 7:30. Our inaugural drive with Prufrock attached to her tow vehicle was a white-knuckle hour-long drive westward through Southern California, to Dockweiler Beach RV park. As I type this now, we are getting ready for our third night there.
Backing in to the beach-front spot was an adventure. Plenty more practice is needed.
The RVers around us were super nice and helpful – we eagerly said we were brand new. This spot is beautiful – and the planes taking off from LAX are loud. We are all plugged in. Everything is working. We have run on the Strand, had drinks and meals with family (Gretchen and Bobby) and friends (Anton) and are soaking in as much as we can. Our RV neighbors invited us for enchiladas tonight, and shared their heater and their desserts. So lovely. We are off to a fine start.
We have eaten our first peach with Prufrock.
