Camping At A Cabin

This was the big day where we would actually pull out of the driveway.  This was the scariest build up of all.  Could we do it?  We have a large back yard and the position of the camper was facing away from the road.  We thought of backing out, but decided to take a chance by doing a round about on our grass.  Our yard is not very level, so it was a bumpy round about, but luckily enough, there was plenty of room to turn around, so that will be our escape route in future trips.  As we are driving down the road, I am constantly looking at the side mirrors to make sure we stay attached.  I noticed quite a bit of water gushing out under the camper as we were driving.  We decided to pull over just to check.  My husband thought it was the auto run over of full tanks.  We pulled out again and it didn't seem to gush out as much, so we thought all was okay.  We took a very narrow, declining gravel road to get to our friends cabin property.  My husband was great, even though we were all nervous inside.  At this time, we would have to back into our spot.  We were glad that no one was at the site to watch us.  He had to back up and pull forward several times to get it in the right place.  The trees were rather low so it was rubbing the roof as we backed in.  We saw something on top that we didn't know what it was, in addition to many other compartments that we had not really noticed before.....when do you ever look on top of something?  Anyway, here is a picture of the top.  Not sure what this is or if it is supposed to look like this.

Set up time was rather quick, approximately 15 minutes so we were happy with that.  I used my trusty iPhone Level App to see if we were level.  Yes, an iPhone Level App!!  I think it worked rather well. We had the water tanks full but were able to plug power into the cabin, so it was part roughing it and part luxury.  Unfortunately our first evening was rather cool and a lot of bugs!!!!  The next day, the gang arrived late in the afternoon.  We ended up keeping the fire pit going for about 10 hours, but there is a lot of work involved.  The bugs eventually went away after being bitten many, many times.

The evening went well, kids and adults had a great time and it became warmer as the day progressed.

When we ventured home after the weekend, I again noticed that water was gushing out from under the camper.  I thought strange as we would have used up quite a bit during the weekend, so it shouldn't be the overflow.  Will have to monitor that one in future.  All in all (besides being cold and the bugs) it was a successful practice weekend.  I think we can now leave our county and venture further!

Leaving the backyard......Yay!!

Well, after years of camping in the backyard, we are actually going to pull out of the driveway in a few short hours.  So far, the weather is warm, sunny and beautiful.  Packing for our first real camping trip is a part time job.  Took hours and hours of taking little trips to the back yard to pack and still have a few more things to pick up before we go.  We're not the best packers.  A weeks trip and we pack for a month.  Although we are not going to a paid campground, we are going to a friends private cabin near the water.  We will park in their yard and hopefully plug into their power ;-)  Because we had a few pre-scheduled appointments on Saturday we decided to stick fairly close to home AND this is our first true camping test.  We'll be able to time how long it takes to set up and tear down, what we brought too much of and too little of.  We are looking forward to the 'test' weekend.  The next 2 weekends are out for family camping as we have several dance recitals we are committed to, but look out, after that, watch for us (and get out of the way) on the highway.  We'll be wearing the straw hats and blowing the bubble pipes out the window!

Camping in the Backyard yet again....

So, based on the weather report, our first ever real camping trip has been postponed.  But I still couldn't go the weekend without camping, so we camped in our camper....in our backyard....yet again!  My daughter wants to have a sleep over with her friends at some point this summer.  She said she wanted the top bunk.  I said she could only if she could prove it by sleeping in the top bunk tonight and not end up crawling in the big bed with me.  Yay!  She did it, guess now I have to arrange a sleep over with her friends this summer;-)  It was quite hot during the day and early evening and I was starting to think that we should have left the driveway since it was so nice.  We went to bed fairly early after watching a movie in the camper.  Turns out that it started to pour and pour and pour some more during the night.  By morning my daughter was freezing and had to climb in with me to warm up.  I went to turn the heat on but it didn't work.  Brushing our teeth in the morning and there were only drips of water.  Hard core camping for sure.  When we went into the house (a few feet away) in the morning, I found out that the water was turned off by mistake and the propane wasn't hooked up for the heat.  Thank goodness as I thought our camper was broken!  Off to sleep in it again tonight, but with running water and heat!

Prepping the Camper - FLOOD......

My husband decided to start prepping the camper since it was such a nice day.  Not sure exactly what he did as I wasn't around, but he needed to add water to the camper or something??  Since it was his first time, he set it up and then started to work on the yard doing things.  He didn't realize how quickly it would fill because when he went back to the camper, it was flooded!!!  Not too bad, it was cleaned up by the time I returned home....good thing!!  Everything was dry and he learned his first big lesson of the season.

Planning First Camping Weekend

We've owned our RV/Truck since late last summer, so we are itching to actually leave the driveway for the first time.  On recommendation, we decided to join the Good Sam program.  So far, we are very pleased with the information and goodies that come along with membership.  Trying to book our first Good Sam campground for the long weekend.  We are sticking quite close to home as we just don't know what to expect. Will probably book at the Baddeck Cabot Trail Campground which is about an hour away.  That's a good start.  Hopefully we won't lose our trailer on the way.  Good luck to us!!!