Taking This Show on the Road
Camping Season Begins!
We still feel like newbie, unseasoned travel trailer owners. We only got to take the camper out three times last summer after its purchase. Therefore, everything still seems shiny and new. There are many things we’re still learning how to do and how to optimize for safety and comfort.
With our eyes toward this year’s camping season, we spent the last few months working on some upgrades to the rig. Before the end of last summer, Greg added a set of three cameras to the trailer, made by Furrion - one on the back, and one on each side. These are visible to us inside the cab of the truck on a screen that suctions to the windshield just under the rear view mirror. (Note to the uninitiated: a rearview mirror is of exactly no use whatsoever when there’s a trailer hitched up behind you.) This 3-camera system now serves as our eyes to what’s happening behind and beside us while on the road. It also makes changing lanes easier, which can be an extra spicy challenge when towing.
Then, over the winter, we purchased a new stereo for the truck by Pioneer. The truck is a 2007 model year, so basically from the Paleolithic period before built-in GPS and Android Auto/Apple Car Play, which now seem like necessities. Greg installed this new stereo and now we have the above-mentioned and some hip little USB-C charging ports as well. This is another major upgrade to our safety because now we can have Google Maps up hands-free. We can also listen to Spotify! No more Stone Age radio dials or those pesky, antiquated CDs!
Also, thanks to handy Greg, we have a new back-up camera on the tailgate of the truck. Now, I don’t want to sound hyperbolic, but let’s just say that my life has truly changed in a MOST amazing way! We’ve hitched up the trailer exactly thrice since it was installed and exactly three times IT.WAS.DONE.ALONE! As in, I didn’t even need to be in the vicinity of the hitching up. (Except for the time I did it. Yay ME!) This is HUGE!! I’m shedding a tear of happiness. Anyone who owns a trailer knows that they are a springboard to marital bickering. And half of that comes from hitching up! The other half comes from backing into parking spaces and, well, that’s still a bit of a demon we haven’t yet slayed.
We went and got the travel trailer out of storage last week and brought it home to be de-winterized before our first weekend of camping. Greg watched YouTube videos and read the manual on how to do this. Then we cooled down the fridge, loaded up food and clothes, my new bike, and headed to the mountains for a 3-night stay at Golden Gate Canyon.
Having the bike along was so delightful! We hadn’t realized it ahead of time, but the campground was only partially open since it’s still early in the season. That made riding the bike around really, really fun. We’ve been camping at this park for many years, so it’s very familiar. But this time I was able to ride the bike on totally deserted loops and on roads that were gated shut. I could even test my skills trying to ride down the center of the yellow lines. Riding so freely also made me realize the actual scale of the campground - and it’s a bit smaller than I had thought. Interesting how a bike changes your sense of proportion versus by car or on foot.
We had one tiny scare in that the dump station was also gated shut. But luckily, the campground fully opened the day we were leaving and we got to Free the Pee. Drown the Brown? Well, it’s an indelicate subject, but suffice it to say that the lavatory gods provided for the jettisoning of some hearty organic matter, saving us an extra stop on the way home.
All in all, it was a flawless first trip for the season. Except for the part where I forgot to pack literally ALL of the coffee-making apparatuses (it’s not apparati, I just looked it up). This was a bit of a disaster, but we went to the mini-mart just up the highway and bought some locally fresh-roasted beans and rigged up a pour-over situation and voila, coffee was served. Still, a grave error I plan to never make again.
We enjoyed one campfire on a chilly evening and were warmed by a little cocktail. Camping really can be quite pleasant with the right accoutrements. Penny also enjoyed herself immensely in her special camp chair.
Preview to the next post: someone got their new E-bike! (And it wasn’t Penny…) We’ll be taking our first ride together today and hope to purchase some bike accessories over this holiday weekend. We need to get Penny basketed!
It’s also our anniversary weekend. Happy 24th anniversary to the hubs!! Let’s go slay some trails on our cute (yet rugged!) matchy-matchy bikes.