The Impromptu Reunion Adventure

 We were planning a South Carolina trip next month. In preparation for that, we booked a campground 2 1/2 hours away somewhere in the vicinity of most of my families homes. This is the first big voyage of the camper on an interstate, and the first voyage since I got the suspension replaced. This is also the first trip with the 3-way fridge installed.

We invited all of our daughters and all of our relatives in the area. It turned out, they all came. Our last daughter at home tagged along with us and slept on the futon couch. Our 2 daughters from farther away got a cabin. Our youngest daughter goes to college nearby and visited often. With families included, that is 11 people more or less and we volunteered to feed them at the campground. We then had another 6 family members stop by to visit. 

The Terre Haute Campground, a former KOA with new owners, was fantastic. They accommodated all the visitors very well, allowing my disabled relatives to part at the campsite and even giving some relatives a ride from the overflow parking lot to the site in a golf cart. It was awesome. The site was a pull-through with full hookups and a concrete patio with patio furniture under mature shade trees.

Setup and teardown was old hat. Everything went well. I did delay hooking up the water and sewer until later. That turned out to probably be a mistake and I won't do it again. I cooked all weekend on my little Weber Q1200 and it did wonderful. Inside, since we haven't received out propane cooktop yet, we used an induction burner and it worked great, when we remembered to set the AC to low while using it.

It was hot, but Saturday was not sunny, so I didn't use the awning and we both got a little burnt. Fans outside are a must on hot days, especially when cooking. We couldn't keep enough water cold for the large group.

The showers at the campground were clean and hot, even though they were a bit dated. The new rec room, camp store, pool, and other kids activities (bounce mat, gem mining, pedal go-cart track) were all outstanding. 

The campground is near the interstate and ended up being a overnight sleep site for a lot of big RV rigs. A lot of folks pulled in after dark, set up, and then left first thing in the morning. It was quite the contrast in that way to the state park.

We ran out of tank water a short couple of hours on Saturday, so I hooked up the water for the first time, and we had no leaks. Infinite amounts of water with no sewer hooked up is a bad idea, and my wife let one of the family members wash dishes without explaining the finer points of conserving the gray tank. The result was an overfull gray tank and the tub starting to fill with water where my guitar was stored. It was not one of our finer moments, but I quickly hooked up and we dumped the tanks.

It was definitely still a learning trip. I checked the tires twice on the rig and all ran cool, with the hottest being on the truck at around 145 degrees fahrenheit. The camper pulled well, but I am still getting some wobble from the gooseneck to fifth wheel adapter plate. 

Besides overflowing the gray tank, we also managed to get the truck stuck in our steep grassy wet yard the night before when we were going to hook up, had a daughter with a flat tire, had at least one use of the first aid kit (the cabins had low ceilings), and had a death in the family. On the way home, 1/2 a mile down the road I realized I hadn't locked the fifth wheel hitch. We also had a couple of "trailer disconnected" warnings within a few miles of home. And for some reason, I just couldn't seem to get the camper lined up to back into the driveway when I got home. Oh, and when tearing down, the steps fell off the camper.

Preparation does help. The flat tire was quickly remedied to get us to the campground with my rechargeable air compressor / jump starter. The first aid kit was well stocked for the contusion. The flat tire was easily changed using my cordless impact gun. 

We realized multiple times we need checklists, so I'll be printing some up and laminating them for future trips. 

I'm still getting used to driving a rig instead of a vehicle. I don't know yet where to easily gas up or park. Luckily trips so far haven't required fill ups with the camper. It is a good strategy to fill up before hooking up, if possible.