Today I Took a Tiny Shower

It’s been 24 days and…finally…today…we have on-site water!  We’ve been so busy these first few weeks that we hadn’t had the time to try out the water and sewer system.  Well today, Kayak Chris hooked it all up.  It’s wonderful to be able to wash your hands without walking to the bath house!  No more rationing water consumption for fear of the late night, flashlight led, trek to the bathroom.  Now we’re living! Continue reading

“You’re Living the Dream!” Yeah, Right!

Yeah, right!  That’s what I’ve felt like saying this week to that statement.  After camping locally at home for 2 weeks prior to this, all was going well.  Then, we got on the road for the first long term trip.  We had 2 days of travel lined up to Smith Mountain Lake and Pigeon Forge, TN.  Should have been about 8 hours over both days.  Instead we ended up being on the road, most of it stranded, for 22 hours total.  That was because of these 3 tire blowouts. Continue reading

First Trip: 22 Hours and $1900

Our first trip in the travel trailer was from Northern Virginia to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.  On a normal weekend, that’s a 498 mile, 8 h 48 min journey.  This was no normal weekend however.

We packed up and hooked up our tow vehicle on Friday night so we could get an easy start the next morning.  Early the next day we set off towards our half way stopover point, Smith Mountain Lake, where we’d also visit Gram Weenie’s grandmother.

About an hour into the trip, we stopped for breakfast.  After eating, we followed a road we assumed would take us back out to the highway only to discover a dead end.  We were stuck.  We tried to turn around but the anti-sway bars between our truck hitch and trailer don’t handle sharp angles well.  We ended up breaking off a small piece the hitch and throwing one of the anti-sway bars into the grass.  If an observer hadn’t alerted us to it, we might not have noticed the sway bar was off!  We reconnected it and instead, had to back up, all the way down the road, until we could make a less restrictive turn. Continue reading