Our shake down run recap

Plus an introduction to Bruce —

I am currently writing you from the road on the extra three hour leg we did not have planned for our already five hour drive today. Technically, if you want to talk on the content timeline, I am writing you from the “future”. With moving on the road we decided to delay where we are versus when we post/talk about a location for safety reasons, but since this Tuesday’s newsletter is on the later side, I thought I’d let you in to our present a little bit and tell you: today has been a doozy and this newsletter did not go out on time as planned. More details on the day that went sideways next letter, but for now all you need to know is that’s why today’s letter is late.

Now let’s rewind —

Getting ready to leave has included packing (the obvious task) and taking Bruce (our camper + truck combo) on a shake down run (the not-so-obvious task).

If you are one of the majority, you may be thinking: Meghan, what the hell is a shake down run? Don’t worry — I didn’t know either until I met my car-hobbyist partner.

Basically a shake down run is a test trip on a vehicle you did a lot of work to. The goal: see if any of the stuff you did to it broke or isn’t working properly.

With Bruce becoming our full-time home, we really want to make sure everything is working before we leave — both on the truck, and in the camper (& have a place to return to for any repairs).

So last week we went on a shake down run up the Oregon & Washington coasts to the Olympic Peninsula —

Here’s how it went (& what broke):

Our first night was at Kalaloch Campground on the Washington coast. Of course we got in after dark (as my partner likes to say: In darkness, we find camp!) and it was raining the entire trip up the Oregon coast, but set up was surprisingly easy (aside from dodging all the low hanging tree branches).

Kalaloch is home to the Tree of Life — a tree on the beach with all of it’s roots exposed (super cool if you’re tree obsessed like me).

The Tree of Life; Kalaloch, WA

After Kalaloch we visited a friend in the Port Angeles area. We hit a few branches on the way (Bruce is 13 feet tall so it’s impossible to avoid all branches in our path) which granted us to our first breakages: an MIA vent cap and a chipped refrigerator cover. Both fixable, both minor, both on the end of our to do list 🥴

A muddy Bruce, Sadie (left), Sacha (right), & me (Meghan, middle)

It continued to rain while in Port Angeles and I got a very good idea of how much I do not want to be stuck in the rain more than I have to 🙃 Mud + rain + two antsy dogs stuck in a small space is not my favorite combination, but we’re chasing 60-80 degree weather year round once we leave so I’m hoping rain will be an infrequent pain in the butt.

We did get enough breaks in the rain though for a few walks and a peek of blue sky! Despite the weather, the dogs were still super stimulated just by looking out the windows and sniffing new areas (even if just during potty and rain breaks). I cannot wait until they are able to experience that on the daily — the dog smiles and perked ears are delightful.

Port Angeles, WA

Our final leg of the trip was heading over to Seattle to say goodbye to some friends & family, and run a few errands (aka IKEA aka my favorite store). But to get there we went on our first ferry ride with Big Bruce (& the sun finally came out for us)!

Edmonds - Kingston ferry

Side bar —

As this is just the second newsletter of the Traveling Silversmith, you don’t know a whole lot about our rig — so here’s a quick introduction (let me know in the comments if you have any questions or want a deeper dive)! The combination that makes up Bruce is a Ford f550 truck, a 2019 Northern Lite 10-2 truck camper, an upgraded suspension to make the truck off-road capable, and a truck bed built for extra storage outside of the camper. It’s been a year in the making (literally since February 1st, 2022) and we could not be happier with the set up!

Bruce ❤️

Back to the shake down run —

Our time in Seattle was so needed. We moved from Seattle to the Oregon Coast in summer of 2022 to start working on the truck camper, so we left a lot of friends and family behind. It was really great to visit and show everyone Bruce before we head on the trip for good.

Seattle, WA

The drive back to the Oregon Coast was a breeze, but our final breakage of the trip didn’t present itself until a few days after our return to the coast (dun dun dun).

A flat tire.

I’m so glad this didn’t happen while we were on the shake down run, and even more grateful that it didn’t happen after we leave. The culprit? It’s a big tire — 42 inches & 210 pounds, big — which means it’s a little more prone to flukes than a typical tire would be. The shop that took a look didn’t find anything wrong with it, so hopefully it won’t be an issue again in the future (knock on wood).

All in all, the shake down was a success. No breakages to cause delays in our departure, and we learned a lot about what we need to bring to make the camper more comfortable for living as well. An example: we need a pizza stone to disperse the heat in the oven more evenly so the bottoms of our cookies don’t burn (priorities).

Next issue: We’ll be on the road! If you’re not already subscribed, sign up below to be notified (and read a fun reality-check story of living on the road)

Talk soon!

— Meghan