On the Road Again, an Original Piece.........

This camping is getting easier and easier...however there is sooooo much to learn and remember. We made a last minute decision to take a trip this 4th of July weekend. We thought we would have trouble finding a place, making a reservation at the last moment sounded impossible. However, Pat was able to book a space online and we had a great time.


We are going to be babysitting a couple of dogs for our son the next couple of weeks, so this weekend would be our only opportunity to camp in the month of July. Along with the trip, it gives us the opportunity to try out some more of our newly acquired camping skills, I USE THE TERM SKILLS LOOSELY, and other techniques. When we last blogged, we had yet to use the bathroom in the airstream. It is sad to say, we were walking a couple hundred yards to the bathrooms, instead of having to face the decision to carry around our own crap and actually have to hook up and dump it when leaving. For some reason, THAT JUST DIDN'T SEEM RIGHT !! Being a city boy, I just never took the time to even think about it, upon finishing my business in the bathroom. WELL... now you have to deal with it TWICE. That's enough about that.


The weather was rain, intermittent rain, with occasional sunshine. The really nice thing was the temp never got above 85. We were basically shut ins, leaving Pat time to sharpen her MARGARITAS skills. We rented videos and just chilled all weekend. Did I mention we have our new flat screen tv and antenna? We are really starting to bring this whole camping thing together.


To sum up our weekend quickly, we saw some fireworks in the distance, used our new toliet skills, watched television, drank margaritas, got wet and saw a lot of deer around the camp. For a holiday weekend there weren't very many people. PRETTY UNEVENTFUL, at least until we got home. Major screw up at this point.


We keep saying we are going to do a check list, but, well it hasn't happened yet. HOWEVER, I bet Pat will have one up and running in the next few days. I had to work most of the day Sunday because I shut work down early friday so we could hook up and get out of town early. We finally got into the driveway after holding traffic up both ways for several minutes. We went through all the motions to unhook the trailer, and being nearly through, Pat was in the trailer doing stuff to get off what she needed. WELL, we had put blocks underneath tires to level for the refrigerator, taken stabilizer bars off , unhocked chains and the electrical lines and I had put the front stabilizer arm down and was raising it,WHEN....the airstream rolled forward off the leveling blocks and came to a stop against the chainlink fence (thank god for that fence). I looked like Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS...holding onto the bumper, trying to prevent the car from going into the lake. No damage was done, but it really did scare Pat. She was thrown around inside the airstream like a ragdoll.

SO MUCH TO REMEMBER, so until later, HE SAID, see what SHE SAID...

WAIT ! Have I already done that?

You know the more I mess with the camper and realize I don't know how to do this, my normal response would be to back off and let Pat deal with it. I have a certain comfort zone and very rarely do I wander out of it. My comfort zone contains only things or topics that I know absolutely everything about and can not be addressed with I told you so! These topics are football, baseball and just basically sports in general. However, Soccer and Sports are generally not used in the same sentence. I welcome any response, especially with the USA having tied their first two games. TIES JUST SUCK!

Back to the Airstream. I decided to level the Airstream yesterday, a process to actually level the refrigerator so you won't ruin it. After work on Fridays ,Pat and I generally eat out, rewarding ourselves for getting through another work week, the reward being Mexican food. On the drive home I decided the leveling need to be done, NOW. This wouldn't be a bad idea normally, however it was 100 degrees out and Pat wasn't exactly dressed to be working in the heat. But Pat, the trooper that she is after announcing her displeasure said what the HELL, better than an argument.

We had to hook up and raise the support legs, drive forward, then put LEGO BLOCKS underneath the tires. Sounds silly but I think they are really Giant Lego Knockoffs. This process went well and lasted only about 30 minutes. It also gave me an opportunity to try out my new drill, bought solely for the purpose of raising the support legs. I must say it was a complete success. I started putting everything away and realized that I had put the hitch pen in backwards and made it almost impossible to remove, especially since it needed a key. Oh well, I tell myself this is all a learning cycle. Pat's response was well we need to put that on the check list. Okay.

Well I could on and on, however I don't want to lose what following I already have, so I'll stop and just say, I'll do better next time. I may try writing after a couple of Margaretta's . This is what He Said, see what She Said.