February 02, 2007
How Do We Do This Again?
It didn't seem like it had been that long since the last time we went on an RV trip but it almost seems like we are going on our first trip today. To add to the confusion, we have changed our procedures for leaving town. We added a couple of extra steps which made the beginning of the trip seem different.
The old way of leaving town was to gather the items needed for the trip and load them into the back of the cab and the bed of the truck. This includes the dog which gets crammed in the back of the cab with the other items. We then leave the house, stop for gas, pick up the trailer, and take off on the trip.
The new way added a few extra steps. I have a removable fifth wheel hitch and toolbox and I used to leave in the bed of the truck. I now store them in a storage area. Of course, this is a different storage area than the trailer... So there we were this morning at 7:00 AM loading the toolbox and hitch in 37 degree weather. Once that was completed we then went to get gas and continue the normal procedure.
Luckily, I am a pretty anal guy so I have checklists written for things like hitching the trailer because I had to really rely on them this morning. You certainly don't want to make a mistake with an 18,750 pound trailer. Once we arrived at the RV park it was like my wife and I were RVing for the first time. We seemed so unorganized that we ended up laughing our way though the setup of the camp site. We finished off our camp site setup with the obligatory margaritas!
I took today off to give us a three day weekend. We drove up to Redding, CA and are staying in the Redding Premier RV Resort. (Crappy website, to get to the Redding RV Resort you have to select Redding from the frame on the left) For those that follow the Good Sam park ratings, this RV park scored 10/10/9 which puts it in the top most tier of resorts. Sadly, I think we got the worst camp site in the resort. Normally, I would have changed sites but since we are only here for two nights, and it is pretty chilly outside, I don't think the downsides of the campsite will affect the trip in any way. Here are a couple of pictures of the trailer in the camp site:
Check out that crazy water connection! That is the first time that I have ever seen a water bibb connection go almost straight up. What you can't see in the picture is that right behind the back uf the trailer is a depression in the asphalt with gravel in it. Since this would wreak havoc with the leveling of the trailer I have pulled the trailer up towards the front of the site. What this caused me to do was add an extension to the sewer hose. Oh how I love working with sewer hoses :) You can also see how close my back slide was to the utility pole. Below is a picture of the other side. This is the side that enter the trailer and BBQ on.