Howdy ya’ll, the past 48 hours have been some of the most fun, exhausting, exciting, anxious, and happiest hours of my life. I am writing this at 6:03AM (was too excited to sleep in) in a hotel room about 3 miles away from the GFC warehouse in Bellgrade, MT. To give some backstory, my camper was miraculously finished in a span of 3 weeks. I was so stoked to get each update about the camper and knowing people before mine got theirs finished quickly too. So basically around mid-November I was already planning my trip to MT. Not knowing when it would be finished or even the fact the GFC would be closed almost a whole week I aimed for the end of December, predicting it would be done by then. Furthermore, due to Covid and my strict leave days allotted by work, I predicted to be up here the week of Christmas. The good news is that my camper finished insanely quick. Bad news being that there were zero appointment slots for my allotted leave period. So, being the awesome company that GFC is, Rachel was able to communicate to their team my circumstances, and they got me an appointment at Friday 4pm in Bozeman. COOL! So here is where the chaos goes down, for unfortunate life reasons, we could not leave our beach town in San Diego until 4pm on Thursday. Meaning we would have 23 hours (time difference) to drive 1,164 miles to pick up our camper (spoiler alert - mission successful). Google Maps predicted a 17 hour and 29 minute drive. Ok cool, but what they didn’t predict was the ungodly traffic in Temecula and San Bernardino during rush hour leaving SD. Sooooooo we sat in a lot of traffic and eventually hit open road. Long story short, we made it. 4 cups of coffee, 2 redbulls, and a lot of good Spotify music we made it. My co-pilot (Justine) was amazing and I think she got some ok sleep. But nearly 21 hours later we found ourselves stoking out in Montana on a beautiful Friday evening with some cool guys and gals. Safely. And at that point, when we pulled into the complex and put the truck in Park, I could literally feel a sigh of relief. We freaking made it. We spent the next couple of hours there, touring the cool complex, meeting Taylor, Graham, Rachel, John, and the rest of the GFC Crew. Oh, and they just so happened to be having a wedding there…nbd right? Safe to say this was the most insane trip of my life, my camper is on my truck and the vibes were just nuts. We still plan on finishing our road trip to SLC, Tahoe, and then putting the camper to the test over the next few days along the good ol’ 395. But man, I cannot thank the awesome company enough and their dedication to their customers and products! Yeeewwwww
thanks for reading, k ima go drink more coffee now - Jonny
Somewhere outside of SLC Utah, after a night of snow driving, crazy semi-drivers at 3am, and the exciting fact knowing each mile we were getting closer and closer. Also this was right after first light, which if you’ve driven the graveyard shift you know it’s just as strong as a good cup of coffee.
Once we arrived, we had about an hour or so to kill while John installed another camper. I was too stoked we got the black canvas with blue outlines. This really was the cherry on top!
Once inside, we were greeted by everyone wearing extravagant suits and a couple literally about to go get married. We quickly realized that every employee at GFC is hilarious. Toured the place for a little and watched them leave in the Rover.
I guess the part we’ve all been waiting for! John was the installer and the dude is rad. Told us how he lived out of one of these for a few months and recommended no one do it unless they live outside of Montana. LOL. but seriously, he knocked it out of the park and he’s the real reason why I even got this on yesterday, volunteering to stay a little later on a Friday before the week of Christmas. My doooode.
Of course we had to shell out some of our work patches and Toyota group stickers. Can’t thank the team enough. Will be posting updates from the rest of our trip.
What color did you do for the panels? It looks much darker than their standard black panels. Also, the black tent fabric looks awesome! I am afraid it would be too hot for me during the summer, but I would be tempted to go with it just for the looks
Man what a gnarly trip report, I’m glad you guys made it safely! I just did Missoula to LA the other way and even doing it in 2 days felt rushed. HWY 395 was sweet though, and I’m excited to go back up there to do some camping.
Having made similar trips, the cannonball run north sounds less than fun, especially the Temecula traffic. Here’s to an enjoyable trip back south with a fancy new camper.
Congrats man, that’s very exciting. I’m in the same boat you were, with limited time off restricting my ride out. I am planning to do the trip the week between Christmas and New Years, but this past Thursday I was ran off the road by a plow truck and hit a mailbox. Hopefully my truck’s out of the shop in time to make the haul out.
Just black. Could be the editing that makes them appear darker, although they do look dark in person for sure! As for the fabric, I don’t see myself up top when the sun is still at full blast all too often regardless of the heat. But I see what you mean - I am so amped I got the “rare” black canvas
thanks brother. glad to have officially joined the club, looking forward to setting out even further now! and a lot of that inspiration comes from you and your woman
