Guntersville Trip

2016 Nissan Frontier, 2018 Ascend 12T, 2013 Salem Cruise Lite 195BH

The trip started out great, my wife who has never helped anyone back anything up before put me right on the ball hitch the very first time!  I was impressed, to say the least.  We headed out and after about 30 minutes on the road, I had cause to slow down for a stop sign at the bottom of a very steep hill...slightly touching the breaks all of a sudden the trailer brakes locked up and skidded to a stop.  Pucker factor a good 90 out of a 100, I mean we are talking almost diamond making mode here.


Thinking to myself I maybe hit the brakes harder than I had thought we continued on, the next stop opportunity I went extra slow and they still locked up.  Now I am in full troubleshooting mode, something that comes from being in IT for over 25 years.  After a short evaluation of the situation, I made an adjustment to the electronic brake controller and we were back on track with no more skidding to a stop.


We pulled into Guntersville state park after a short drive from home.  The scenery was simply amazing as we were surrounded by mountains and water...what more could anyone want?  The lady at the gate was very friendly and asked if we had been to Guntersville before, to which I replied we had not.  She proceeds to tell me with all the confidence of a preacher on Sunday that we will be back....and yes, we will!


This was the start of a very interesting weekend where we tested the limits of our new camper, a 2013 Salem Cruise Lite 195BH.  Considering it was our second trip out I felt like I had a good handle on things but boy was I not quite 100% on that thought.


The first day at the park we set up the trailer which only took me 20 minutes, a huge drop from the hour it took me the first time.  We got everything unloaded and setup and began our much-needed mini-vacation.


The little one and I hit the water and my wife went to town for some last minute supplies.

On the next day, our friends from Birmingham met us at the campground for a couple of days to enjoy some fishing, swimming and chill time.  Little did we know one of those days would be spent inside the camper all day.


In the evenings the deer would come down from the mountain to forage and were so tame and unafraid of humans that we literally saw people hand feeding the deer (despite the signs posted everywhere NOT TO FEED THE DEER).

We got in some fishing but the majority of the time was spent in fellowship with friends and with family.  It was a great weekend for sure.  If you are looking for a great place to camp I cannot recommend Guntersville enough...  The staff, the grounds, the facilities, the scenery all of it was top notch!  We are already planning our next trip to Guntersville.