Friday, 26 April
In preparation for this camping trip, Sam got some fishing licenses and our bicycles tuned up. The weekend before, we reserved a lakeside campsite (number 78).
Lisa was home from work around 4:30, so we were able to leave the house by 5:00. We hitched up pretty quickly which we think was due to the spray lube Sam bought that week at Walmart, and because we were less concerned with getting the hitch bar all the way inserted into the hitch box before trying to attach the over-center latches.
Lisa drove the entire way to the park, and we were successful in backing the trailer into the camping spot the first time. I really think that I am getting better at giving directions. To help me I have been saying out loud “I need you to go RIGHT, therefore I need you to turn the steering wheel (hard or a little) left. The Hensley hitch does not turn sharply the trailer so I have to continue to work on predicting its behavior.
I had made some checklists so Lisa and I used and checked them line by line. It seems that everyone recommends using checklists because it is so easy to forget something that could potentially cause a dangerous situation. We only had to make a couple of minor changes. Now we have to make it a habit.
We had to do a couple things different this time. First, we had to use the fast levelers to get the lateral leveled. We were off about 2.5 inches. They worked pretty well except one of them wanted to slip.
The second thing we used was our Levelmate Pro. Unfortunately my phone kept loosing bluetooth signal and I had to stand next to the trailer. It was great though in letting me know how much and in what direction I needed to level. Now I just need to find a good location in the trailer where it will work.
Lastly, my water hose started leaking where the quick disconnect was attached. When I removed the quick disconnect, everything was fine.
Friday evening was warmer night than last weekend. We then got out our bicycles and tried them out. We bicycled about 5 miles all over the park. The wind was mild so it made for an easy ride.
Instead of the gas grill, I brought out the Coleman Stove that we used before we got our popup and set it up on the picnic table. I connected it to the 20lb propane tank that I had using an adapter which I am hoping that will be less expensive than using the small blue propane bottles while not being too cumbersome. I do still have both options though.
Lisa cooked up a hamburger helper while I started the fire. The wood I had was dry and started quickly. We enjoyed the evening drinking a few beers, eating warm comfort food, and watching the fire. We did get out the marshmallow stick and we each roasted one of the giant marshmallows that Lisa had bought.
Saturday, 27 April
On Saturday, we attempted to do some fishing. The wind was a steady 14-18 knots with gusts up to 30-40 knots. Luckily the wind was mostly at our backs when we fished, but we had to tie our chairs to the cooler after one of them got blown into the lake. We saw plenty of fish (which I think were bass), obviously “making babies” in the weeds all around us. They were all over a foot long and they were splashing friskily within a couple of feet of the shore. We tried Crappie Bait, Slugs, and Tubes that I had bought from Walmart, but except for a couple of possible nibbles, we were rather unsuccessful.
The wind started to get frustrating and the temperature seem to be getting colder despite being in the low 60’s, so we decided to call it quits around 1pm. We went inside the trailer and ate some lunch, talked, played with the stereo a little, and then decided that we should go into Paola, go shopping, and eat dinner at a cute little diner called Emery’s Steakhouse. Lisa had gone there with her mom when they went to a John Hall (Elvis impersonator) concert previously. I had a Prime Rib special, and Lisa had chicken fingers, and neither of us finished much more than half our meal. We decided to then rent a Redbox movie (Aquaman) and get a small tub of ice cream to take back with us to the trailer to finish up the evening. Before settling in, we did decide to get everything that was outside packed away so that we would have less to do outside in the cold the next morning.
Sunday, 28 July
On Sunday it was in the 30s and cold. The electric fireplace was nice in the trailer, but it took a while to get the front part of the trailer warmed up. After breakfast, coffee, and CBS This Morning show, we pulled out the checklist and followed it as we shut down. Hookup worked well, and we were on the road by 11 pm. The line at the dump station was about 7 deep so since our tanks still showed almost empty, we decided to skip the line and head home. I did add some Happy Camper to the black tank earlier in the weekend, so it will be interesting to see if we made the wrong decision.
The next trip will be over Memorial Day where we will be camping with Savannah.
LESSONS LEARNED
Some lessons learned from this trip:
— The weather does not always allow us to enjoy the outdoors, but we should discover things to do indoors that does not involve the TV.
— Fishing is fun even when you do not catch anything But I do think I need to be more educated on how to fish.
— Bicycles are wonderful when camping. I enjoyed them as a child when we camping and I still enjoy them now. They allow you to explore the park as well as get exercise.
— I had forgotten how easy and convenient video rentals were. This was the first time I had used RedBox and based on their availability, it will probably not be our last.
— I have two 25-ft water hoses and based on my research, it looks like I may need up to 100 feet at some State Park campgrounds. I researched and found some collapsible water hoses from Zero-G on Amazon that I am going to order and investigate.