We made it!

Well folks, it’s real now! We've finally made our grand debut at Holly Shores Campground & RV Resort in Cape May, NJ. So far, the place is lovely. Very quaint, wooded and homey, although the sites are packed a bit tighter than I would’ve liked. It only took a few minutes for us to get set up, with the help of a friendly neighbor who directed Steve as he backed in. It was quite a relief after last night’s events, which involved about an hour’s worth of failed attempts at hitching up in the dark at our bug-ridden storage facility, where mosquitoes waged a massive attack on my flesh.

Behold:

Last night we set off from home at around 11 p.m. and arrived at the Mays Landing Wal-Mart around 1 a.m. We were the only trailer in the parking lot, and I have to say I was a little creeped out. Who knows what weirdos hang around at Wal-Mart parking lots in the middle of the night? Weirdos I don’t want to have knocking on my trailer door, that’s for sure. Thankfully, aside from a few employees arriving for the graveyard shift, we were left to ourselves.

Look how tiny the trailer looks compared to that truck!

There wasn’t much to do other than settle in and go to sleep. We had some battery power so we were able to turn on the lights, but the beauty of boondocking is that your options are pretty limited. Luckily it had cooled down some, so AC would’ve been unnecessary anyway (as it is, it’s shaping up to be a colossal disappointment, which I’ll get to later).

This morning, I woke up even earlier than Steve and Lola, thanks to some very loud truckers yelling about something, possibly about how we were parked in their spot. Ah, the joys of sleeping at Wal-Mart! Those people who stay at hotels don’t know what they’re missing. We worked on our shopping list until the store opened its doors at 9. Originally we planned on doing all of our grocery shopping for the week there, but their food selection left something to be desired. We did get a few staples – bread, lunchmeat, chips and dip, hot dogs, eggs, and of course Steve’s favorite, sardines – but we’ll have to buy our chicken and other meats elsewhere.

Yum yum yum

Us: 1, Awning: 0
Us: 0, Central Air: 1

We had two crucial items on our minds upon arrival. Number one was turning on the central air (for the first time), and number two was setting up the awning (also the first time). You would think those would be simple enough to figure out, especially with an owner’s manual. As I remember, our RV salesman didn’t want to show us how to operate the awning because it was too windy on the day we bought it. And the central air, well, we were just happy the thing had heat at the time.

Good thing for YouTube, though! Steve watched an instructional video on setting up the awning and within minutes, we had it pulled into place. Voila!

Pretty neat!

Only wish we could say the same for the central air. We’ve had it on since we got here about four hours ago, and it’s still about 300 degrees hotter inside than it is outside. Our plans are on hold until we can get it cooled down, because otherwise we’re definitely not leaving Lola alone here. RV friends, does anyone have any recommendations/advice for getting the central air to actually do its job? Or does it just take forever to start working?

Look at poor Lola. The mean RV is making her pant!

And roll her eyes, too