Inaugural trip (or stupid new camper tricks)

Lucked out while loading the camper and only had misting rain.

Not so lucky when leaving. It started raining in earnest and poured for the first hour and a half.  I tucked in behind semi’s that were taking it easy and let all the traffic fly by.

The rain had pretty much stopped when I exited 75 and got on narrow, winding roads to head northeast to Natural Bridge State Park in Kentucky.

New camper tricks outgoing

I did some good things before I left home. I added a screen so I could basically have a full screen on the door. Of course, this didn’t do me any good since it hit 90 with 70% humidity. A/C baby!

I devised a gray water drainage system that was cheap, easy to make, and easy to store.

I made check lists to try to prevent myself from doing anything stupid until I get the hang of things and put the lists in Evernote so they’re on my phone.  Good idea, right?

It was raining pretty hard as I loaded the dogs and got ready to pull out of the driveway. I did check that my trailer lights  were working (big thumbs up on that decision) — an item on my checklist. Another last item on the checklist got overlooked due to the rain — hence stupid new camper tricks. Do a walk around the camper to make sure everything is closed and stowed…

#1 Didn’t put the step in

It dawns on me as I’m driving down narrow winding roads that have no shoulder and guardrails right along the edge of the road (and I mean right along the edge) — Oh crap, I didn’t put the step in. It flitted through my mind how much damage could be caused if that steel step caught on something. I pulled over at the first opportunity and put it in.

#2 Didn’t close the back storage compartment

Drove through pouring rain and again extremely narrow roads. I park the camper and go back to get the electrical connections and water hose and find the compartment door open. I cringed and didn’t even want to think how much water and road yuck had gotten in there. Amazingly, it was dry and stuff appeared clean. The door wasn’t ripped off so I got away with that one.

#3 Took the dogs to a park that doesn’t allow dogs on their trails

Do you believe it? All the researching I did and I never saw a peep mentioned about the park being a nature preserve and no dogs allowed on the trails. Great.

Fortunately the Red River Gorge National Recreation area is near and welcomes dogs on their trails.

I’m going to make DOG FRIENDLY places my searching friend from now on.

New camper tricks incoming

I checked my lists when breaking camp to come home and missed a couple things — they weren’t on the list…

#4 Didn’t lock the refrigerator door

Open the camper to unload and the door was open, the contents spilled all over the floor of the camper, and everything was warm.

#5 Bottoming out

Maybe not a stupid thing on my part, but a bummer anyway. I did my circle through the farm field along side my drive and heard something scrape as I got up onto the drive. I later learned the scrape was the left front stabilizer jack catching on the asphalt and getting bent all out of shape and no longer usable.  Bummer. I was in the process of beating myself up pretty bad about this when I checked and I think it will be easy to replace the jack. Still sad, but not as upset.

#6 Leaving the step out AGAIN

I was approaching the garage to back the trailer in and got out to check things and saw the step was out. I slapped my own wrist and stowed it properly so it wouldn’t catch the garage door. Sigh…

But I feel I redeemed myself a little. I got the trailer lined up planning to get someone to help me back in. It was so lined up I started slowly backing it in, getting out to check, backing it in. Before I knew it, the camper was in, the truck disconnected, and I was done.

I kid you not. I walked into the house, the sky immediately turned very dark, the wind started howling, and a thunderstorm hit. Within moments of me finishing and walking in the house.  Once again, I reminded how really good my guardian angels are…