Last Friday afternoon we finally got the maiden voyage for our new travel trailer (TT) underway. It was pretty tense as we were hitching it up for the first time by ourselves. It was excruciating getting the truck hitch lined up with the trailer hitch and then when we finally got that Larry was questioning whether it was on right. The part he was concerned with was the ball, not the rest of it. So in I run to grab the 4" thick binder I put together with all the pamplets, instructions, etc., that came with the trailer and guess what? Nothing for the Reese hitch!!! Evidently we weren't sent home with any materials on it. I will be going online and printing out whatever I can find! But in the end we decided it had to be correct and off we went. We weren't even out of the driveway when clank, clank, clank goes the hitch terrifying me and the dog. Poor Sage really didn't know what to think. It's a scary noise that sounds like something HAS to be breaking. Larry tried to calm us down saying that's the noise it makes when taking a tight turn. At this point I am clutching onto my purse for dear life and Sage is shaking like a leaf and trying to get on someone's lap, preferably the driver's, from the back seat and we haven't even hit pavement yet. I'm sure by now you are all feeling sorry for Larry and rightly so. Not counting the clanking turns we had to make, the drive was okay. We had no winds at all until we hit The Dalles and then they weren't really all that bad. We made it to our destination, Mary Hill State Park (MHSP) in Washington, in about an hour and a half. We probably could have made better time except I didn't want Larry to pass anyone!
We had scoped out MHSP the weekend before and figured we could easily get a pull through water side spot but I could see from the other side of the Columbia River as we got onto Biggs Junction bridge that wasn't gonna happen. The park is open but you can't reserve anything until May, so it's first come first served...and we were too late for the best spots. But we still got a pull through spot on the opposite side and I ended up really liking it as I felt we had a little more privacy. So now it's onto unhitching, leveling, hooking up...all that fun stuff we have never done but once in our driveway. But all the while we are trying hard to look like seasoned RV'ers! We found out later we failed miserably! We struggled though and got everything done but had the hardest time with the leveling and our cheap orange torpedo level from Harbor Freight wasn't cutting it. We finally thought we had it only to find out we were still a tad off but the fridge was working so we decided to just call it good. About that time I'm thinking maybe this will be fun afterall! All the while to MHSP I am secretly wondering if we made a mistake, a VERY expensive mistake. It did end up being a lot of fun. I was worried about being bored as it was just the 2 of us but it ended up going pretty fast. I really didn't miss TV or the internet. I was dreading the whole process of getting ready to leave but it actually all went really well. We had to re-hitch the truck as we unhitched to go over to Biggs on Saturday. We used a public dump station for the first time and Larry passed cars and semi's on the way home. My purse remained on the truck floor but Sage still shook like a leaf when she heard the clanging. I hope she gets used to it. We got home around noon today and unloaded the TT and washed it. We did have some scary moments while moving it to it's permanent parking spot however. Larry had to drive downhill and then reverse it into this spot and once he hit reverse it was all spinning gravel and going nowhere! I yelled at him to put it in 4X4 (see I have a good idea once in awhile) and after a couple tries got it in place. Scary. I hope that part gets better in time.
We met the neatest couple who had their GORGEOUS class A motor home next to us. They had a female chocolate lab which is what got us talking. Turns out they are from Spokane but originally from England. They were the ones who noticed we were having leveling issues...busted! Anyway they were on their maiden voyage with this new motor home. They were retired and I want to say well into their 70's. The wife had just had knee surgery and was a tiny bird of a woman. She said she weighed 100 pounds but I'm not so sure, maybe dripping wet. But they had such wonderful traveling stories to tell. I guess the husband is also an avid BMW motorbike rider! Talk about adventurous seniors!! I did get a tour of the motor home. All white leather interior including the ceiling, Corian countertops, TV's everywhere, absolutely gorgeous and huge! Tipouts on both sides made the inside so roomy. I believe there were 3 tipouts all together. They only stayed one night and were off to Bend, Oregon the next day
MHSP was really a nice spot. It is on the noisy side though as the train tracks are fairly close and you get a lot of semi traffic coming down the hill in back of the park. Larry and I live in The Gorge and we are used to the train noise, although not quite this close. The park has a very nice boat launch as well as a realIy nice swimming beach. The gounds are well maintained and there are lots of picnic areas. It was maybe a bit on the spendy side at $27.00 a night. The sewers were not working at the sites at this time as they are doing some construction. I put together a photo album you can click on in the right hand column. Too many to put here after this lengthy post! We are already planning where we want to go next. I'm thinking up north, maybe around Mt. St. Helens.
Tip: Larry went fishing just below the Biggs Bridge and got into some really nice Bass!!! That really capped off the trip for him!
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