Finished up at the dealership and couldn’t wait to test it out. Marc is a “push every button and lever” kind of guy. He wants to know how everything works first hand, not because someone told him how it should work. Knowing this about him, I booked a campground in advance for this first night.
I choose Lake O’Neil. This location was a good halfway point, it is on a military base which offers cheaper rates and it wasn’t expected to be very crowded. We know there is a store and gas station nearby.
I reserved a “Dry” camping spot for $10. Dry camping means that the space where you are parked does not have access to power, water or sewage. The campground does offer all of those things under “full hookups”, but we needed to test everything out. We needed to see how much fuel the generator would use. How much fresh water we used. How quickly the grey and black tanks would fill. (grey water is the waste from the sinks, and black water is the waste from the toilet.)
After we detached the trailer from the truck and settled in a bit we made our way to a grocery store. Picked up some perishable items that we hadn’t brought with us. I wasn’t ready to test out the kitchen yet, so we picked up a late lunch and brought it back.
The evening was very relaxing. We went on a family walk around the campground, the goal was to explore. (We never do that at home, nothing new to see) There was a whole section filled with Boy Scouts tent camping for the night. Brought back some memories for Marc. I think Rebecka enjoys hearing her dads stories. There was a playground, that made Rebecka happy. The lake had been drained a little during our visit, but we were told that fishing was still allowed. Next trip we might bring the fishing gear.
After the walk we went back to the trailer. We played cards and listened to music……… It was peaceful and perfect (in my humble opinion).
Confession…… I didn’t sleep well at all! I am considered a light sleeper and hearing the generator all night made it hard to relax. I’m sure sleeping in a new bed didn’t help either. Rebecka also complained about the generator and woke up with a stuffed nose. Fingers crossed the next time we get more sleep.
On Sunday I made breakfast. Pancakes! It was an adjustment cooking in a small kitchen with no counter space to speak of, but I managed. We brought the Keurig coffee pot from home. After a super terrible cup of coffee, i realized we need to make coffee with bottled water while we are in the trailer.
After breakfast, Marc and Rebecka played with the remote controlled cars we brought. They had fun racing around until the batteries died. We went for another walk. The Boy Scouts were in clean up mode and doing a great job. Then we played mini golf. That’s right, the campground had a mini golf course on the other side of the lake.
The plan was to pack up and head home by lunch time. However, family vote came into play and we all wanted to stay longer. Marc had run back out to the store to get creamer for the coffee earlier and he picked up a few other odds and ends we had on a short list of things the trailer needed. (trash can, broom, ect.) He also picked up a DVD. I made lunch and we relaxed to a movie.
Finally, we all came to the realization that we had to pack up and head home. I can honestly say that the first night/weekend in the trailer was a two thumbs up success.
Be sure to read Marc’s post about the first night.