Spent the past 20 or so days getting to know 'Kody' the trailer while visiting the Washington coast. Off-and-on weather gave us a chance to try all systems; some more successfully than others! Very educational . . .
On this trip, we had visits from family as well as friends who were experienced RVers and who shared some very helpful hints with us. Thank you to the Thompsons and Carls for that.
Some of the things I have learned:
Day One: When filling the freezer, NEVER put too many items close to the door opening. If you do this, upon opening the freezer, all the contents of the door tray crash to the floor. This is particularly bad when one of the items is a frozen quart-sized plastic bottle, which of course breaks, spilling unfrozen vodka all over the floor. (Jerry was NOT smiling!) The good news is that the floor needed mopping anyway, and gave us relief that we had packed some extra towels on board. Through this experience, I also had a lesson in bathtub laundry - - another lesson! (No, I did not try to suck the vodka out of the towels . . . )
My next lesson was about what happens to our outside electrical cord when it is being pushed back into it's receptacle and suddenly recoils, coming out of my hand and completely disappearing into its holder. In this case, even the head of the cord was sucked into the holder, and out of sight and reach. The only solution was for Jerry (who again, was NOT smiling), to take the receptacle off the trailer and use a series of handy tools such as kitchen tongs, along with some choice words, to try to retrieve the cord so it could be used to hook us up to power.
We also learned that when we decide to do some impromptu 'dry' camping (no hookups/services), we should fill our on-board water tanks in advance so we don't run out . . . enough said about that . . .
I did a scientific, on-board test of our smoke alarm and found it to be work perfectly . . . enough said about that as well:)
All the education was not mine alone though - - Jerry is much better about remembering to install the cotter pins to secure the hitch bars now, and we found out about life with an empty propane tank in cold weather. All sooooo very helpful!
Had many successes as well - - I backed the trailer into a camp spot without hitting Jerry, or anything located in and around the site, and I even made a complete u-turn towing the trailer through a residential area. (Jerry was not smiling then either, but his eyes were very large indeed, and I heard great gasps of air coming from his side of the car).
We'll be back in Anacortes on April 17th, and will spend the next 4-5 weeks making some changes and modifications to our little home on wheels, as well as helping daughter Crista and family as they prepare to move out of state. Then - - on the road for the real trip.
This picture is taken at Lake Cushman, near Hood Canal on the east side of the Olympic National Park (assuming I can figure out how to post another picture here).
More ramblings later . . .
Lynne
