First trip of 2012: Shaking off the cobwebs

This past weekend we took a collective deep breath and set off for our first camping adventure of the 2012 season, at Hickory Run State Park. Since we hadn't been camping in five months, and the last time was somewhat of a comedy of errors, we were a little apprehensive about it. Aside from installing our new batteries, we hadn't moved the trailer from its storage facility home in months, and we had a lovely dump station situation to look forward to.

Posing with the new batteries. YAY!

The drive up the Northeast Extension was pretty harrowing. Because of the construction going on, there are only two VERY narrow lanes, and trucks and buses are alerted to stay in the left lane. Nothing about trailers, but we figured we fell into that category. Hauling a trailer in the left lane of a two-lane highway probably doesn't make a lot of sense - at least it didn't to the two million cars that passed us on the right. Eventually we settled in behind a truck that was driving at a comfortable speed, one where my heart didn't drop to my knees every time an SUV passed us.

Steve admitted he was a little rusty on the driving front, but by the time we arrived he was getting the hang of things again. Which was a good thing, considering the road that leads to Hickory Run is one of those winding, steep labyrinthine delights where any wrong move could send you right off the edge. Needless to say, we were both relieved and exhausted by the time we found our campsite and settled in. We'd brought along fishing rods and even purchased fishing licenses, but laziness and our appetites took over and we decided to eat first instead.

After checking in, I insisted that we pay a visit to the dump station, even though Steve wanted to put it off until we left. First of all, our entire reason for taking the trailer out was to dump the tanks (this was also our reason for taking it out in December, but we learned that in the winter, tanks freeze). Even before we took off, Steve had me dump a bag of ice down the toilet, hoping that would break things up. (Sorry for the imagery. Even though we may make it seem that way, trailer life isn't all glamour all the time.) So luckily we had the whole dump station to ourselves. Steve pulled up his sleeves and did his thing, while I sat back and enjoyed the fact that I don't have to deal with that stuff.

Gettin' busy

The campsite itself was fairly quiet. We'd expected to get a wooded site similar to the one we'd had last year, but this time we occupied a space that was more open and grassy. The sites were situated around a field with a small playground. Behind us, there was a smattering of trees and brush, and just beyond that the road.

Road leading to our site

So we really didn't have the feel of a state park as much as we wanted to. It felt more like a campground this time around. But as far as what we needed, it was great. The temperatures varied between 60s and low 70s, which was perfect for our campfire.

Campsite

The one thing we did have to do before fully relaxing was go to the camp store for some necessities (logs, s'more supplies, bug spray). We left Lola behind and set off for the trek on foot, not wanting to disconnect the Mountaineer if we didn't have to. However, we totally underestimated how far away we were from the store. This wouldn't have been a problem, except that Steve had to carry a bundle of logs on our way back, while I schlepped the four or five grocery bags up and down my arms. Lesson learned: Unhooking the car is worth it.

That night was the first time we let Lola out of her crate to sleep. In the past, we had to struggle to set up the crate in between the dinette and the kitchen counter, so if you ever wanted to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you'd either have to hope you remembered it was there or suffer a painful toe-stubbing injury. Now, we're just using the crate as a gate to section off the bedroom from the rest of the trailer. At our house, we've gradually phased her out of crating and she's been amazing (nothing chewed or destroyed yet, knock on wood!) but we worried that she might whine and cry in a smaller space.

Surprise! She was a real gem and didn't whimper once. I think she's so happy to be able to spend the night on a comfy couch that she doesn't even think about venturing into the bedroom.

Other highlights:
1) Kerplunk. To fill in the "down time" when it's too late to do anything, and there's nothing interesting on the non-cable TV, we splurged on a board game, which happened to be a childhood favorite, Kerplunk. Turns out it's just as entertaining as I remembered (or maybe we're easily entertained) to try to find the perfect spot to pull out one of those sticks so as not to disturb the marbles resting on top.

See all the marbles in my tray? Think this is when I lost

2) Remembering the joys of camping. Even though we didn't go on any extended hikes, it was nice to be able to take a walk around the campground with Lola and check out the other campers. Most of the people there were in tents, but we also spied an Airstream that looked pretty cozy.

I missed posing with Lola!

The area in the middle of the campsites

Steve's mostly successful campfire - the damn thing didn't want to stay lit!

So overall, the trip turned out way better than we predicted. The tanks are finally empty, so we don't have that to worry about. However, we do have to get our trailer in for inspection sometime this month or next (who knew? trailers need to be inspected too) before our trip to Savannah. It looks like all systems are a-go for now! Can't wait to get back on the road. 

Palm Trees + State Parks = Heaven

A long day of driving makes us slightly nutty, which is why we planned to make a couple of stops along the way. The first was JR's in Selma, NC, a large discount warehouse-style place with pretty much everything you could possibly want, all in a true southern atmosphere.

Outside JR's

Mixed in with all the kitchen supplies, bedding essentials and food items, you've got Nascar souvenirs, hunting and camping gear and an expansive selection of religious literature. Yep, we're in the South now. After getting Lola set up in her crate, we headed in for a very brief shopping spree. I had been hoping for more RV-related appliances, but we did manage to pick up at least one exclusively-RV item, a nice stainless steel pot. I also bought some nice-smelling soaps, which officially makes our trailer bathroom more well-stocked than our home bathroom.

Steve was anxious to get back on the road, so we departed after a quick lunch of soft pretzels. Our next stop was about an hour and a half away, my childhood happy place where my parents were able to get a brief respite from my brother and my constant backseat squabbling. I'm talking, of course, about South of the Border. Times have changed, and even though I know it's not quite as magical as it seemed from my five-year-old perspective, I still love to stop there for nostalgia's (and picture-taking) sake.

By the time we got close enough to start seeing the ubiquitous signs dotting the landscape, Steve's energy reserves were a bit depleted. I decided to be magnanimous and offered to take a pass on SOB this time, since we'd be stopping there on the way home anyway. I'm such a good wife. Well, really I was just worried he would get too tired to drive and I'd be forced to take over. SOB would still be there in a few days in all of its neon-lighted kitschy glory.

Tough life...

Destination Skidaway
Five Red Bulls (Steve) and a nap (me) later, we finally crossed the bridge into Georgia. Since neither of us had ever been to Skidaway, we had no idea what to expect. It was about 25 minutes from downtown Savannah, so we certainly didn't think it was going to be the swampy, palm tree-swathed paradise it turned out to be.








At the camp office, a friendly staffer handed us maps and parking passes and told us we had our pick of the land. In other words, we could choose whichever campsite we wanted. What!! So we drove through all four sections of the campground, taking in the damn near-palatial sites and discussing advantages/disadvantages. The sites closest to the wooded areas looked promising, as heavy greenery separated them from neighboring sites. Even better: we could pull right in and our trailer door would face the woods. Our own private slice of this paradise? Don't mind if I do! It didn't take too long for us to find our perfect match:

Not a soul around to bother us...yay!

Maiden Voyage: Part II

Although we didn't go into it expecting much, our first campground experience was a raging success. We only made reservations the morning we left, but since there ended up being only a few other people braving the chilly temperatures, we scored a prime spot all to ourselves.

The drive itself was rather uneventful, luckily. Driving on a highway is definitely preferable to driving anywhere else. Once we arrived in Lancaster, we saw quite a few horse-and-buggies, and made a couple of lame jokes about how we could finally sympathize with the horse "towing" the buggie, and how it gave all new meaning to the term "horsepower." (EDIT: OK, Steve just informed me that's where the term actually originated, sooo...in my face.)

Then, we arrived and it was time to check in!

Overall, we ended up learning quite a bit at our first campground stay. So I present without further ado, the six things we learned about RVing at Country Acres:

1. Hooking up is a cinch.

I anticipated it being a lot harder to hook up to electric and water. While I was walking our hyperactive canine around the campgrounds, Steve worked on getting things squared away so we could have a comfortable, warm night featuring our favorite things, lights and water. In Steve's words: "We hooked up to city water supply but then had to fill up our on-board tanks because they were going to shut off the city water when the temperature went below freezing." Yep, I totally would've known how to do that (not). We didn't have to hook up to cable because our TV hasn't been installed yet.

There was another dog in the vicinity, so getting Lola to smile for the camera was not gonna happen

2. Maybe we shouldn't buy our cooking supplies at the dollar store.

In real life, we have all sorts of fancy cooking supplies (thanks, wedding guests!). But I was hesitant to bring anything too nice into our RV kitchen. Why? I don't know. For whatever reason, we picked up a plastic-ish skillet at the dollar store. I used it to cook turkey burgers, which turned out mostly burnt. Now, turkey burgers are usually my forte, if I do say so myself, so I'm going to blame the cheap skillet. Oh, and we forgot to bring non-stick spray. And also? Our damn smoke alarm kept going off, so we eventually just removed the battery. There. So much safer.



Inching my way toward domestic divadom


3. No matter how cold it is, a fire and 'smores are a must.

We're already pretty well aware of this, actually. When we stay at Steve's family cabin in the Allegheny Mountains, campfires are a nightly activity. So the first item on our to-do list upon arrival was checking out the on-site camp store and buying out their supply of graham crackers, Hersheys bars and marshmallows. The adorable old man manning the store said, "Somebody's gonna make some 'smores!" I already can tell I'm gonna love the camp stores.



Nom nom nom...



More nom nom nom...

Once the fire got going, we didn't really worry too much about the cold. We forgot to bring lawn chairs, but each campsite had a picnic table, so we were able to move that over.

4. The radio is amazing.

It didn't bother us one bit to be without a TV. The radio that came with the trailer was pretty entertaining itself! We had it tuned to the same station all night, which happened to have basically every good song ever created. As if that wasn't awesome enough, we also have outside speakers, so we could jam out while ingesting way too many 'smores. Sweet!

5. Lola is the best RV dog.

A lot of people assume she's a complete nutcase 24/7, but she's more of a snugglebug than anything else. In fact, sometimes she snuggles so much it's annoying (she's almost 50 lbs of solid muscle!). It was her first time inside the RV, but she behaved beautifully. She had the couch to herself most of the time as Steve and I were sitting at the dinette.

Yeah, somebody settled right in

6. Our bed is hard as a rock.

OK, I understand that it's not going to come equipped with down comforters, but wow. Neither of us were able to sleep much. And even though we had been talking about buying a memory foam mattress topper for the bed, our sore backs ended up rocketing that item to the top of our priority list. Way overpriced memory foam mattress topper for an RV Queen, here we come!