New hosses!

Today, I got the new pickup.  It's a Ford F-150 Lariat, with lots of bells and whistles, but the main thing is that it has twice as much towing capacity as the Dakota.  Here are pictures:

 I think it will do nicely for the trip to Alaska.  I'm not sure when the next "dry run" will take place.  All the Thursday-Saturday time slots are taken up for the next several weeks.  But we're planning the next trip to Natural Falls State Park here in Oklahoma.  It's just off U.S. 412 west of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, about 40 miles from here.  It should be a good test of the truck's capabilities.  And besides, it's a nice park with beautiful scenery and a chance to get out and enjoy nature without any hassles.  And Siloam Springs is just a few miles away, with

good restaurants and an Aldi supermarket.  After that trip, I'd like to get to Devil's Den State Park in Arkansas, which is supposed to be pretty spectacular.  It's about an hour and a half away.  And then there's the trip to see Mom on Mother's Day.  That will be a major trip.  

Back to the routine

Today we hiked another of the park's trails, this one a nice, smooth, paved trail that wound around the park visitors' center and close to some of the lookouts and fishing holes that are for the park visitors.  The posted distance is about a mile, but this time it seemed shorter than that.  But without fishing gear, or a boat, there was nothing more to do except relax, and after a while, we decided to pack it up and head for home.

We are using a mental checklist for closing down the trailer, remembering what we left undone on the last trip.  This time, I believe everything is shut off and properly closed down, except for the one chore we haven't done before:  visit the dump station.  Dumping the black water is a simple process, but cleaning up has to be done with care.  And it's a distasteful job, needless to say.  Anyway, job's done.

When we arrive at my house, we unload the trailer and then head for the storage unit.  Backing the trailer in is somewhat simplified by the fact that my "neighbor" has removed his boat and that gives me more room to maneuver.  We get the trailer parked, and unhitched, and take off.

I'm supposed to meet the sales person at the Ford dealer later today to talk about a pickup she's found.

  

At Greenleaf State Park

Today we did what folks do when camping.  We went hiking and explored the park.  One of the features of Greenleaf State Park is a system of hiking trails that can be as long or as short as you wish.  The main trail runs about 8.5 miles from the trailhead to the farthest point, and there are two primitive campgrounds along the route that provide a place to overnight, as long as you pack in your own amenities.  We opted for a shorter portion of that trail, which loops around the southern end of the lake, taking the highway bridge across the lake, and then through the woods out to the eastern end of the lake to a suspension bridge, which crosses a narrow inlet of the lake.  The posted distance is about a mile and a half out, but because it has many elevation changes and varied types of terrain, it seemed much longer.  It was a cool and overcast day, but the weather was warm enough to be comfortable, and the trek was enjoyable, although very tiring.  My lack of running and other exercise during the winter months is obvious to me now.

The suspension bridge

We encountered several groups of people--and some solitary individuals--hiking the trail.  Several of them were carrying large backpacks for overnight stays in the primitive campgrounds.  Surprisingly, we even met a couple of guys from  Tahlequah that we knew.  It will be interesting to hear their accounts of the hike when we next meet up with them.

Later, wandering around the campground, we were impressed with the casual friendliness of the average campers.  That's something to look forward to as we anticipate lots of camping this summer.

This time, I did not forget to load the television, and it was a very weird sensation to be able to watch the Today show while eating breakfast, and in the evening to watch a movie on the DVD player linked to the TV.  Sure beats the tent!  Of course, nothing beats sitting out at night watching the stars without the "light pollution" of the city.  The sky had cleared during the afternoon, and there were millions of stars visible from the mountaintop where we were camped.  And the Google Sky app on my phone identified all the constellations and all of the planets and largest stars.  I am reminded that they're all right where God has placed them and even those orbits are temporary!

Camping Trip #2

After a morning round of golf, we packed up the trailer again for a trip to Greenleaf State Park.  About 30 miles from Tahlequah, near Braggs, Oklahoma, we discovered that Greenleaf was named the outstanding park in the Oklahoma state park system a couple of years ago.  The trip to the park was thankfully uneventful, except that one of the new mirrors I had bought for the pickup flew off and broke on the highway.  So, once again, I was reduced to using the stock mirrors, which simply were not sufficient.  Before we went to Sequoyah State Park, I had test-driven a couple of other pickups to see whether they had the power I needed to pull the trailer.  The sales person and I had actually hitched the trailer to the new pickups, so that we got a really good idea about their towing capability.  Any of them would definitely be an improvement.

We arrived in Greenleaf and found a campsite in one of their campgrounds, and went about setting up camp again.  The check-off system works well, although honestly, it's less critical when setting up camp because you always recognize what's next when you realize what you need.  This campground has electricity and water, but no sewer connections.  So it's a good thing we were only going to be here a couple of days.  We'll have our first experience with a dump station when we leave.  Because we're going to be here a little longer, we unhitch the trailer and thus are able to use the pickup for exploring the area.  The weather is beautiful, there's a lake for fishing and boating, and while the park is not full, there are a good number of folks here.  Tomorrow night, I suspect there will be many more with the start of the weekend.

The next morning

I awoke on Wednesday morning knowing that the night was much more comfortable than the first night spent in the trailer.  For one thing, the temperature didn't drop to freezing levels.  For another thing, the furnace was on and working great.  We cooked breakfast and after cleaning up, decided to close up shop and head for home.

The process of closing down the campsite was routine, but there were some things we forgot.  We forgot to turn off the propane, and I forgot to turn off and drain the hot water heater.  Fortunately, there was still water in the hot water tank, so it didn't damage it.  Keeping the hot water on without water in the tank will almost certainly burn out the heating element, and replacing it is both expensive and a hassle.  Apparently, the process of closing down the campsite will work better with a check-off list!

When we got home, I parked the trailer in front of my house because we're going to leave again tomorrow for a two-night stay at another state park.  

The first camping trip

We're camping at Sequoyah State Park, on Lake Ft. Gibson.  We picked up the trailer earlier today, and loaded up with all the stuff we thought we'd need for an overnight at the campground.  It's only about 20 miles from home, so it's a good chance to do our first dry run.  I had bought some clamp-on mirrors to enable me to see behind me more readily, and the one on the left side does indeed seem to help.  The mirrors extend out about eight inches beyond the edge of the pickup's regular mirrors, and the one on the left is slightly convex, so it does seem to help.  The one on the right side is somehow different and doesn't do much.  The pickup is able to make the short trip without too much effort, but I've started looking for a replacement that will pull the load more easily.

One thing we noticed immediately upon setting up camp was that I had forgot the TV.  I took it out of the trailer when we returned from Austin, in order to make sure it was in working order, and I left it at home.  Well, I've never had a TV on a camping trip before anyway, so it looks like the old Kindle is going to be the backup.  Everything else seems to be working fine.

The park is about a third full, even though it's in the middle of spring break, and the weather is pleasant.  Three campgrounds accommodate RVs, and there's a lodge and a nature center and a golf course, which I've played previously.  Paved hiking trails crisscross the park, which is located on a peninsula in the lake.  Altogether, it's a nice place for a first trip in the trailer. 

Putting the trailer in storage

Parking the trailer turned out to be easier than I had thought.  It has to be backed in to the storage shed, of course, as does most everything else that is parked there.  There isn't a whole lot of room, so you never get to straighten out the pickup with the trailer, but you're always backing at an angle.  Anyway, the trailer went into the spot where it was supposed to go, I detached from it, and it will stay there until the next outing.

Heading for home

We headed to Tahlequah from Austin.  We had a great time with little Oliver.  He's two years old now!

This time, the wind had shifted around to the north, so that we faced that wind all the way home.  I tried to keep the truck below the speed limit (not hard), so that the engine would have an easier time making it up the hills.  We got about 9 miles to the gallon since we picked up the trailer, which is about half what I was getting previously.  I can't help thinking that a bigger truck would have an easier time pulling the trailer, and would therefore not require quite so much fuel as mine.

We were on four-lane highways all the way back to Tahlequah, and the mirrors worked well enough to be able to see the other lane, even if I couldn't see directly behind me.  But I'm definitely going to need some additional wider mirrors before we take this out on the road again.

We got home just before dark.  I pulled up in front of Jo Ann's house, and she took her things out of the trailer, and then I went home and did the same thing.  We'll go over to the storage shed tomorrow and park the trailer.

The first morning in the trailer

I woke up before daylight.  Well, that's actually overstating the case.  I hardly slept.  It was cold and I would wake up wondering what was wrong with the trailer I had just bought.  Why was there no heat or hot water?  I got up and made coffee; at least that was hot.  I figured that at least the wind wasn't blowing in the trailer, so it must be a little warmer inside than outside, but I needed to see if I could find anything wrong outside the trailer.  When I stepped outside, there was a flock of huge wild turkeys grazing close to the next campsite.  I called Jo Ann and she emerged from her sleeping bag and grabbed a coat and came outside to see them.  They were absolutely magnificent and the largest must have been close to four feet tall.  While we were watching the turkeys, the "neighbors" next door, who were the host family for the campground, came out.  I figured they might have enough experience with various trailers to be able to point out what we had done wrong.  So I introduced myself and asked for their help.

They came over and looked closely at the hot water heater control box on the outside of the trailer and pronounced it in perfect condition, and had no idea what had caused out problem.  But the woman mentioned that sometimes these trailers have a tendency to trip breakers or blow fuses, and that can shut you down pretty effectively.  I went back inside, checked the breakers and fuses and they were all in order.  But in thinking about that eventuality, I realized that I had three GFCI outlets in the kitchen and bathroom, and the one in the bathroom also had a "reset" button on it.  So just for the heck of it, I punched the reset button.  I didn't notice anything different, but returned to the hot water heater switch and punched it, too.  Lo and behold.  The water heater began to make noises like water heaters do.  It sure sounded like it was heating water.  Too soon to tell for sure, though.  Jo Ann suggested that if that was the case, then maybe the furnace was now able to work, as well.  So she went through the exact same motions as she had done the night before, and bingo!  There was hot air coming out of the vents.  In a few minutes, we had hot water coming out of the faucets, as well.  All because of a tripped GFCI.  Let me tell you that a warm trailer with warm water surely felt luxurious that morning.

We drove on to Austin, to visit Nathan and Jenn and celebrate Oliver's birthday.  We faced a strong south wind all the way to Austin, and it became obvious that my pickup was just not going to be able to handle the combination of the trailer and hills and wind.  It will pull the trailer, but the strain on the engine will eventually wear it out and I'm thinking that the mountains in Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska will be too much for it.  I'm going to have to have a bigger pickup.

Adventures with the trailer!

We drove to Cleburne to pick up the trailer.  It was ready.  We arrived about 1:00 p.m. and found Stu.  I figured we'd go immediately to start the demonstration session with the technicians, but no.... we had to pay for the trailer first!  That took a lot longer than we anticipated.  You know how you have to go and wait at an auto dealer while someone somewhere prepares a lot of papers for you to sign?  Well, it's the same when you buy a travel trailer.  So after about an hour of watching a lame TV show in the customer lounge, we signed the papers and the check (!) and went out to the trailer.

They had hitched it to the pickup and it was exciting to see that.  We had been told that the technician would take as long as necessary to make sure that we understood everything about how to operate and care for the trailer.  Didn't happen.  The technician was a young man who was obviously in a hurry to collect his fee and he whizzed through everything.  When Jo Ann stopped him at one point and told him to slow down, because she wasn't understanding everything he was telling us, he simply said, "Just listen!"  He covered everything all right, but it was like drinking from a fire hose, because neither of us had ever had any experience with (1) living in a travel trailer, or (2) pulling such a trailer with a pickup (or any other vehicle).  So much of what he said seemed logical but was quickly forgotten.  Anything we didn't understand would be covered in the owners' manual, he said.  What he didn't say, and probably didn't know, and which we would find out later, much to our chagrin, was that there was no owner's manual in the trailer.

We pulled out of the dealership and headed down to Lake Whitney State Park, about 35 miles away.  I figured that our first trip in the trailer should be to something close by, in case there were serious problems with the trailer that we would need the dealer to address.

The truck didn't have much difficulty pulling the trailer, but we were not exceeding 55 mph, and there were no serious hills.  The only difficulty, which became obvious immediately, was that I couldn't see around the trailer with the pickup's mirrors.  So I made sure to signal turns earlier than I would have otherwise.

We found the park and our assigned space.  Okay.  Hooked up the water and electrical connections.  Much later, we figured out that we had parked too far away from the sewer connection.  We couldn't reach it with our drain hose.

We unhooked from the trailer, locked it up and went into Hillsboro for some supplies that we had been told we would need to have.  Walmart and Tractor Supply have lots of things that are useful for hitches, and I needed a large socket for removing the hot water drain.  (You learn lots of little details that are part of trailer living).  We ate dinner while there, then headed back to the park.

The temperature had dropped into the high 30s, and it was cold in the trailer.  Now, how was it that the furnace was supposed to work?  If you just turn it to "furnace," and set the thermostat, doesn't it just come on?  And why isn't there any hot water?  I pushed the button to turn it on the water heater, but it didn't seem to have any effect.  Hmmm...  this could be a problem.  No heat and no hot water.  I lit a burner on the propane range, and that took some of the edge off the cold, but obviously we couldn't sleep in a closed up trailer with a propane burner going.  Carbon monoxide and all that.  So after trying the switches again and deciding that something obviously was not working, I turned off the burner, Jo Ann climbed in her sleeping bag on her bed, and I did the same on my bed, and we prepared for a cold "camping" night.  You know, if you just stick your nose out of the top of the sleeping bag, you can almost stay warm.

Almost ready

Stu called yesterday.  The trailer is ready to be picked up.  I told him we'd be down there March 6 at 1:00.